High-order dispersion of long-range surface-plasmon-polariton waveguides (LR-SPP-WGs) have been investigated using a two-photon interferometer. Since linear and even-ordered dispersions in two-photon interferometry are cancelled out by a nonlocal quantum correlation, odd-ordered dispersions of millimeter-long LR-SPP-WGs are revealed. Even under the highly dispersive condition, the indistinguishability between two photons emerged from LR-SPP-WGs was well preserved. In addition, we demonstrated a strong polarization-selection by the LR-SPP-WGs that leads to the polarization-stable and high-fidelity quantum interference.


One of the most crucial issues in engineering of structure and investigating ground deformation is deformation monitoring. The only thing which is strongly required is to create microgeodesy networks. An essential issue in microgeodesy networks is detecting unstable points of network. L1-Norm minimization and the global congruency can be noted as one of the classical methods for identifying network unstable points. In all previously conducted studies regarding this issue, results distinctly demonstrates that when displacement point vector is small, the number of points which have really displaced is more than that of true detection of displaced points using common deformation analysis ways. The probable reason for that can refer to spreading nature of the least squares estimation. Considering the results of recent studies in the detecting the network unstable points, to tackle the limitation the idea of subnetwork analysis is offered. In this case, some subnetworks including a subject point and the other source points appeared from dividing the deformation monitoring network. According to the unstable points, subnetworks will be there. This method will enable us to investigate the stable and unstable points. Having divided whole network to subnetworks, each network would be adjusted and unstable points of it would be detected. So, unstable points and their relations are cutoff and spreading effect of the least squares is fallen. This paper is on effort to evaluate the method in a simulated and a real network. The results prove that in a better and correct detection of unstable point can be successfully achieved by using subnetwork analysis compared to global congruency test all stimulates states proved the 35% of improvement on average. One percent of improvement in the results of subnetwork method to L1-Norm minimization cannot be acceptable. The algorithms of detecting unstable points in common methods and the method of analyzing subnetwork were conducted on a real network and the results are in line with simulated network results.


The paper contains a take on the classification problem variation featuring class noise where each object in the training set is associated with a probability distribution over the class label set instead of a particular class label. That type of task was illustrated on the complex natural language processing problem – automatic Arabic dialect classification. In the task we have a set of objects that were labeled by a heuristic rule; which could cause errors during automatic annotation process. Suggested approach allows taking into account probabilities of these errors. Described experiments show that even relatively simple accounting of that probabilities helps to significantly improve the quality of the built classifier.


purpose this study to formulate an estimation method for airborne chloride in consideration of wind conditions and surrounding topography. The relation between wind conditions from AMeDAS or MSM (Meso Scale Model) and the amount of airborne chloride was studied. As a result, it was confirmed that the amount of airborne chloride is proportional to the square of wind velocity when the wind velocity is 4 m/s or higher. Because the frequency of the square of wind velocity of 4 m/s or higher calculated by a statistical method using Box-Cox transform follows a normal distribution, the sum total value of the square of the wind velocity for one year was estimated by interval estimation. Furthermore, the estimation of the amount of airborne chloride was performed in consideration of the surrounding topography using LightGBM, which is an algorithm for machine learning. The estimation results generally agreed with the measured values. Further, the influences of the surrounding topography on the amount of airborne chloride were visualized by using SHAP values.


Active speaker detection refers to the task of inferring which (if any) of the visible people in a video is/are speaking. Existing methods based on audiovisual fusion are often confused by factors such as non-speaking facial motions, varied illumination, and low-resolution recording. To address these problems, we propose a robust active speaker detection model by incorporating the dense optical flow to strengthen the visual representation of the facial motion. These audio and visual features are processed by a two-stream embedding network, and the embeddings are fed into a prediction network for the binary speaking/non-speaking classification. To improve the learning efficiency of the entire network, we design a multi-task learning strategy to train the network. The proposed method is evaluated on the most challenging audiovisual speaker detection benchmark, the AVA-ActiveSpeaker dataset. The results demonstrate that optical flow can improve the performance of neural networks when combined with raw pixels and audio signal. It is also shown that our method consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art method [22] in terms of both the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (+4.4%) and the balanced accuracy (+5.28%).


This paper proposes a novel deployable panel structure integrated with a bistable composite structure and thick panel based on the thick origami technique. To overcome the interference effects between thick panels, the axis shift method is used in this deployable structure design. Bistable composite structures are employed as hinges for morphing characteristics. The trigger force and load-displacement curves of the structure are obtained by experiments and numerical simulations. The factors that affect the coverage area-to-package volume ratio and trigger force are discussed. The experimental and numerical results verify that the structure has two stable configurations and a large coverage area-to-package volume ratio.


2 Abstract: The functional properties and the effect of pH and NaCl concentration on protein solubility were investigated of proteins isolate of lentil cultivars. The protein content of the seeds was found to be in the range 32.2-35.6%.Lentil protein isolate had 80% protein content. The minimum protein solubility was at pH 5. Lentil protein has good functional characteristics with emulsifying activity of 75.3-62.94% and emulsion stability of 41.4-46.3% and it had low foaming capacity but high stability.The total protein had water absorption capacity of 1.9-2.2 ml H O/g protein, oil absorption capacity of 1.9-2mloil/g protein and bulk of 1.4 2 g/ml. Lentil has high protein content with acceptable functional properties, which makes it promising protein source in food application due to its high nitrogen solubility and less fat content; a characteristic generally needed for textured products like meat.


In this paper, a novel key management model and algorithm for two-tier architecture network are proposed based on elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC) combined with public key (CPK) technology, verifiable secret sharing technology, and two-tier architecture network technology. This novel key management algorithm is composed of several sub-algorithms, such as key generation, key update, nodes joining operation and nodes leaving operation.  Most of these sub-algorithms contain active malicious nodes recognizing mechanisms. Also, the updates of pair key and private-seed-key matrix shadow are able to improve the network security significantly. The experimental results and analysis indicate that our proposed algorithm not only provides better network security, but also improves the efficiency compared with the other counterparts in Ad hoc network.


Introduction: Accumulation of ammonia in the blood may result in an acute life-threatening event in children. Patients typically present with lethargy, poor feeding, and hypotonia; if not managed efficiently, patients can develop seizures, coma, and eventually die. Management of hyperammonemia is difficult in children given the non-specific symptoms, age specific etiologies, and lack of consensus in the treatment plan. We systematically reviewed published literature to provide expert consensus panel recommendations for medical management and renal replacement therapy (RRT) in pediatric patients with hyperammonemia. Methods: PubMed/Medline, Embase and Cochrane database search was performed to include studies about hyperammonemia and RRT in children <18 years old. Two independent reviewers reviewed each title, abstract, and relevant full text articles. An expert panel of international pediatric nephrologists discussed medical management and RRT for hyperammonemia in children at a consensus conference to provide recommendations. Results: The initial search returned a total of 477 citations and 25 studies met the inclusion criteria. A total of 132 patients were included in these 25 studies and were treated with different dialysis modalities. Twenty-three heperammonemia patients were treated with peritoneal dialysis with 65% success rate, five were treated with intermittent hemodialysis with 100% success rate, 92 were treated with continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) with 60% success rate and three were treated by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) combined with CRRT and had 100% success rate. Conclusions: Expert panel recommendations were provided with regards to non-RRT (medical management), hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, CRRT, high dose CRRT, and hybrid therapy. CRRT was the first line dialysis modality of choice recommended for hyperammonemia management in children. Indications for RRT were variable among studies reviewed; RRT was recommended at ammonia blood level > 400mmol/L or in hemodynamically unstable children irrespective of blood ammonia level. More studies are needed to further strengthen these expert recommendations.


In this letter, we report the electrical characteristics of current-voltage, capacitance-voltage, and deep-level transient spectroscopy on the GaN p-i-n diodes with a 5- μm i-layer, which were grown on the conventional sapphire substrates (CSSs) and patterned sapphire substrates (PSSs) by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The GaN p-i-n diodes with PSS exhibit a wider diffusion region in the forward bias, two traps at 0.43 and 0.87 eV above the valence band, and a low trap concentration of ~ 5×1016 cm-3, as compared with the GaN p-i-n diodes with CSS. These results show that the GaN p-i-n diodes grown on PSS have a better quality of epitaxial layers than those grown on CSS.


Background: The biologic mechanisms underlying neurologic post-acute-sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) are incompletely understood. Methods: We measured markers of neuronal injury (glial fibrillary acidic protein [GFAP], neurofilament light chain [NfL]) and soluble markers of inflammation among a cohort of people with prior confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection at early and late recovery following the initial illness (defined as less than and greater than 90 days, respectively). The primary clinical outcome was the presence of self-reported central nervous system (CNS) PASC symptoms during the late recovery timepoint. We compared fold-changes in marker values between those with and without CNS PASC symptoms using linear mixed effects models and examined relationships between neurologic and immunologic markers using rank linear correlations. Results: Of 121 individuals, 52 reported CNS PASC symptoms. During early recovery, those who went on to report CNS PASC symptoms had elevations in GFAP (1.3-fold higher mean ratio, 95% CI 1.04-1.63, p=0.02), but not NfL (1.06-fold higher mean ratio, 95% CI 0.89-1.26, p=0.54). During late recovery, neither GFAP nor NfL levels were elevated among those with CNS PASC symptoms. Although absolute levels of NfL did not differ, those who reported CNS PASC symptoms demonstrated a stronger downward trend over time in comparison to those who did not report CNS PASC symptoms (p=0.041). Those who went on to report CNS PASC also exhibited elevations in IL-6 (48% higher during early recovery and 38% higher during late recovery), MCP-1 (19% higher during early recovery), and TNF-alpha (19% higher during early recovery and 13% higher during late recovery). GFAP and NfL correlated with levels of several immune activation markers during early recovery; these correlations were attenuated during late recovery. Conclusions: Self-reported neurologic symptoms present >90 days following SARS-CoV-2 infection are associated with elevations in markers of neurologic injury and inflammation at early recovery timepoints, suggesting that early injury can result in long-term disease. The correlation of GFAP and NfL with markers of systemic immune activation suggests one possible mechanism that might contribute to these symptoms. Additional work is needed to better characterize these processes and to identify interventions to prevent or treat this condition.


Most forms of biomatter are ephemeral, which means they transform or deteriorate after a certain time. From this perspective, implantable healthcare devices designed for temporary treatments should exhibit the ability to degrade and either blend in with healthy tissues, or be cleared from the body with minimal disruption after accomplishing their designated tasks. This topic is currently being investigated in the field of biomedical micro‐ and nanoswimmers. These tiny devices have the ability to move through fluids by converting physical or chemical energy into motion. Several architectures of these devices have been designed to mimic the motion strategies of nature's motile microorganisms and cells. Due to their motion abilities, these devices have been proposed as minimally invasive tools for precision healthcare applications. Hence, a natural progression in this field is to produce motile structures that can adopt, or even surpass, similar transient features as biological systems. The fate of small‐scale swimmers after accomplishing their therapeutic mission is critical for the successful translation of small‐scale swimmers' technologies into clinical applications. In this review, recent research efforts are summarized on the topic of biodegradable micro‐ and nanoswimmers for biomedical applications, with a focus on targeted therapeutic delivery.


The ability of rapid range expansion is one of the key determinants of invasive species success. In order to investigate potential drivers behind the rapid spread of invasive species, we explored changes in population characteristics and structure along the invasion pathway of a successful invader in European freshwaters, the signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus). Diverse population parameters such as relative population abundance, size and sex structure, differences in morphometry and frequency of injuries were compared between signal crayfish population samples at three uniformly distributed segments (approximately 40 km apart) in the lower section of the Mura River, which differed in time since invasion. Examined signal crayfish populations exhibited notable differences, with more recently established populations toward invasion front characterized by lower abundance and male-biased sex ratios, which highlighted males as initial dispersers. We also recorded significant increase in the relative claw size, a competitively advantageous and allometric trait for males, in more recently established populations away from source population. The recorded differences in population structure and male morphometry along the invasion pathway could lead to important clues about dynamics of range expansion and population establishment, highlighting the traits that promote dispersal and better response to local conditions in new habitats. Established differences can also provide insights into the development of targeted management responses aimed at invasive species control.


This study aims to investigate the antioxidant effect of aromatic volatiles of three common aromatic plants, Lavandula dentata, Mentha spicata, and M. piperita. In this study, kunming mice subjected to low oxygen condition were treated with the volatiles emitted from these aromatic plants through inhalation administration. Then the blood cell counts, and the activities and gene expressions of antioxidant enzymes in different tissues were tested. The results showed that low oxygen increased the counts of red blood cells, white blood cells, and blood platelets of mice, and aromatic volatiles decreased their counts. Exposure to aromatic volatiles resulted in decreases in the malonaldehyde contents, and increases in the activities and gene expressions of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase in different tissues under low oxygen. In addition, as the main component of aromatic volatiles, eucalyptol was the potential source that imparted positive antioxidant effect. Graphical abstract Treatment with the volatiles emitted from aromatic plants through inhalation administration improving the antioxidative capability in mouse.


We present one of few cases of COVID-19 occurrence during the early phase of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. We observed an interesting correlation between the patient's rapid clinical deterioration and myeloid reconstitution that cannot be assigned to engraftment syndrome. Our report emphasizes the need to investigate whether timely steroid therapy upon neutrophil engraftment in the setting of COVID-19 could limit the extent of lung injury and prevent ARDS. Furthermore, we discuss a significant issue of possible prolonged incubation of the virus in heavily pretreated hematological patients.


The performance of a conceptual digital cellular radio system which employs frequency hopping CDMA has been analysed. The bit error probability and the system outage are used as performance indicators, while the system load in terms of users per cell per MHz is varied as a parameter. The results suggest that the capacity of a basic FH-CDMA system with full frequency reuse is poor, but that there is potential for dramatic improvement through the use of antenna diversity. Without diversity a capacity of between 5 and 10 users/cell/MHz is predicted. With a basic model of dual antenna diversity the capacity improved to more than 100 users/cell/MHz.


Abstract The effects of grazing on vegetative biomass and richness and various soil parameters in the tallgrass prairie were examined at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (TPNP) and the Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS). It is hypothesized that grazing will exert significant influence on vegetative biomass and native species richness, and soil depth, moisture content, pH, nutrient levels (total Kjeldahl nitrogen and total phosphorus), and organic matter content. To test this hypothesis, four sets of samples were gathered: 10 from an ungrazed portion of TPNP and 10 from a grazed portion, 10 from an ungrazed area of KPBS and 10 from a grazed area. Results indicate that grazing decreased vegetative biomass density, increased soil nutrient levels, and increased soil organic matter content. Mixed results were found on the effects of grazing on available soil moisture and soil pH. Soil moisture content was significantly higher in the ungrazed area of TPNP, but significantly higher in the grazed area at KPBS. Soil pH was significantly higher in the ungrazed area of TPNP but no significant differences were observed at KPBS. Grazing did not significantly influence soil depth or species richness, though differences in the taxa of species observed were evident as native grass species richness decreased in grazed areas and invasive species richness increased in grazed areas.


The rheology of dense Brownian suspensions of hard spheres is investigated numerically beyond the low-shear-rate Newtonian regime. We analyze an athermal analogue of these suspensions, with an effective logarithmic repulsive potential representing the vibrational entropic forces. We show that both systems present the same rheology without adjustable parameters. Moreover, all rheological responses display similar Herschel-Bulkley relations once the shear stress and the shear rate are respectively rescaled by a characteristic stress scale and by a microscopic reorganization time scale, both related to the normal confining pressure. This pressure-controlled approach, originally developed for granular flows, reveals a striking physical analogy between the colloidal glass transition and granular jamming.


Studies of the origin of the Martian sulfate and phyllosilicate deposits have led to the hypothesis that there was a marked, global‐scale change in the Mars environment from circum‐neutral pH aqueous alteration in the Noachian to an acidic evaporitic system in the late Noachian to Hesperian. However, terrestrial studies suggest that two different geochemical systems need not be invoked to explain such geochemical variation. Western Australian acidic playa lakes have large pH differences separated vertically and laterally by only a few tens of meters, demonstrating how highly variable chemistries can coexist over short distances in natural environments. We suggest diverse and variable Martian aqueous environments where the coetaneous formation of phyllosilicates and sulfates at the Australian sites are analogs for regions where phyllosilicates and sulfates coexist on Mars. In these systems, Fe and alkali earth phyllosilicates represent deep facies associated with upwelling neutral to alkaline groundwater, whereas aluminous phyllosilicates and sulfates represent near‐surface evaporitic facies formed from more acidic brines.


This manuscript [1] investigates the evolutionary history of the DAN gene family—a group of genes important for embryonic development of limbs, kidneys, and left-right axis speciation. This gene family has also been implicated in a number of diseases, including cancer and nephropathies. DAN genes have been associated with the inhibition of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway. Despite this detailed biochemical and functional knowledge and clear importance for development and disease, evolution of this gene family has remained understudied. The diversification of this gene family was investigated in all major groups of vertebrates. The monophyly of the gene members belonging to this gene family was confirmed. A total of five clades were delineated, and two novel lineages were discovered. The first lineage was only retained in cephalochordates (amphioxus), whereas the second one (GREM3) was retained by cartilaginous fish, holostean fish, and coelanth. Moreover, the patterns of chromosomal synteny in the chromosomal regions harboring DAN genes were investigated. Additionally, the authors reconstructed the ancestral gene repertoires and studied the differential retention/loss of individual gene members across the phylogeny. They concluded that the ancestor of gnathostome vertebrates possessed eight DAN genes that underwent differential retention during the evolutionary history of this group. During radiation of vertebrates, GREM1, GREM2, SOST, SOSTDC1, and NBL1 were retained in all major vertebrate groups. At the same time, GREM3, CER1, and DAND5 were differentially lost in some vertebrate lineages. At least two DAN genes were present in the common ancestor of vertebrates, and at least three DAN genes were present in the common ancestor of chordates. Therefore the patterns of retention and diversification in this gene family appear to be complex. Evolutionary slowdown for the DAN gene family was observed in mammals, suggesting selective constraints. Overall, this article puts the biomedical importance of the DAN family in the evolutionary perspective.


The uncontrolled arc plasma instabilities in suspension plasma spraying or solution precursor plasma spraying cause non-homogeneous plasma treatments of material during their flight and also on coatings during their formation. This paper shows that the arc motion in dc plasma torches mainly originates in two main modes of oscillation (Helmholtz and restrike modes). The emphasis is put on the restrike mode in which the time component is extracted after building up and applying a numerical filter to raw arc voltage signals. The dependence of re-arcing events on experimental parameters is analysed in the frame of a phenomenological restrike model. It is shown that when the restrike frequency reaches the Helmholtz one, both modes are locked together and a pulsed arc jet is generated.


AUTOMATED GUIDED VEHICLE SYSTEMS, edited by R.H. Hollier, IFS (Publications) Ltd, Bedford, U.K., February 1987 (Price £39). Not to be confused with the conference proceedings of the same name, editor and publisher; this 360 page book is the eleventh in the International Trends in Manufacturing Technology series of publications. The idea behind them is that each volume contains the distilled knowledge of a particular aspect of manufacturing technology. Their format is consistent in that they contain a series of published and unpublished papers which are updated to reflect any important changes between their original presentation and the publication date of the book. The book is in five sections: Introduction, Design, Operation, Applications, and Developments. The first section deals with the market size, economics, socio-technical considerations and safety aspects of automated guided vehicle systems. The four papers that form the second section deal thoroughly with both system and vehicle design. The operational factors with particular emphasis on simulation associated with obtaining the optimal automated guided vehicle system are contained in the third section. A third of the book (section 4) is rightly taken up with the applications of agvs in both Flexible Manufacturing & Assembly Systems, and Warehousing. The majority of the nine papers are associated with real case studies, with plenty of "what we did and why". In last section are six papers that deal with the various new, and near future development in automated guided vehicle systems. Inevitably they are associated with autonomous and free roaming "robot vehicles". IFS are to be both congratulated and criticised with the papers they have chosen for this exciting book. Criticism because the choice of papers misses an opportunity to represent the views of all the manufacturers of automated guided vehicles. There are 3 papers from Digitron, 2 from Jungheinrich, 2 from BT-Carrago, 2 from ACS, 1 from Seri but none from Wagner, CFC, Malthouse Hunter, Telelift or PHB. This said, they are to be congratulated on providing a book that covers all aspects of automated guided vehicle systems in fine and clear detail.


A risk computation model useful in environmental restoration activities was developed for the US Department of Energy (DOE). This model, the Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPAS), can be used to evaluate effects of potential exposures over a broad range of regulatory issues including radioactive carcinogenic, nonradioactive carcinogenic, and noncarcinogenic effects. MEPAS integrates risk computation components. Release, transport, dispersion, deposition, exposure, and uptake computations are linked in a single system for evaluation of air, surface water, ground water, and overland flow transport. MEPAS uses standard computation approaches. Whenever available and appropriate, US Environmental Protection Agency guidance and models were used to facilitate compatibility and acceptance. MEPAS is a computational tool that can be used at several phases of an environmental restoration effort. At a preliminary stage in problem characterization, potential problems can be prioritized. As more data become available, MEPAS can provide an estimate of baseline risks or evaluate environmental monitoring data. In the feasibility stage, MEPAS can compute risk from alternative remedies. However, MEPAS is not designed to replace a detailed risk assessment of the selected remedy. For major problems, it will be appropriate to use a more detailed, risk computation tool for a detailed, site-specific evaluation of the selected remedy. 15 refs., 2 figs.


We demonstrate second-harmonic generation (SHG) from sub-micrometer-sized AlGaAs/AlxOy artificially birefringent waveguides. The normalized conversion efficiency is the highest ever reported. We further enhanced the SHG using a waveguide-embedded cavity formed by dichroic mirrors. Resonant enhancements as high as approximately 10x were observed. Such devices could be potentially used as highly efficient, ultracompact frequency converters in integrated photonic circuits.


Most of the previous treatments of semiconductor lasers subject to optical feedback from a phase-conjugate mirror (PCM) have assumed that the PCM responds instantaneously. Furthermore, the mechanism responsible for phase conjugation does not usually enter into the analysis. In this paper, we derive the time-dependent reflectivity of a PCM created through nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a Kerr-type nonlinear medium. The resulting laser dynamics are compared with the case of the ideal PCM, as a function of the external-cavity length, the PCM reflectivity, and the PCM interaction depth. The PCM with a significant interaction depth tends to suppress otherwise chaotic output and produces pulses whose repetition rate is tunable by varying PCM reflectivity. At high feedback levels, it stabilizes the laser output. We use the circle-map formalism to explain our numerical results.


A digital library is a type of information retrieval (IR) system. The existing information retrieval methodologies generally have problems on keyword-searching. We proposed a model to solve the problem by using concept-based approach (ontology) and metadata case base. This model consists of identifying domain concepts in user's query and applying expansion to them. The system aims at contributing to an improved relevance of results retrieved from digital libraries by proposing a conceptual query expansion for intelligent concept-based retrieval. We need to import the concept of ontology, making use of its advantage of abundant semantics and standard concept. Domain specific ontology can be used to improve information retrieval from traditional level based on keyword to the lay based on knowledge (or concept) and change the process of retrieval from traditional keyword matching to semantics matching. One approach is query expansion techniques using domain ontology and the other would be introducing a case based similarity measure for metadata information retrieval using Case Based Reasoning (CBR) approach. Results show improvements over classic method, query expansion using general purpose ontology and a number of other approaches.


Response to Intervention is a regular education initiative composed of multiple tiers of service designed to deliver scientifically based instruction and intervention. The Response to Intervention Model monitors student growth over time and enables schools to provide support to students identified as at-risk through curriculum-based measurements. The reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (2004) allowed states to use Response to Intervention to identify and provide intervention to students at risk of developing a reading disability. The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to examine the tools used by teachers experienced in providing instruction and intervention to students at risk of developing a reading or learning disability. The study was conducted at two research sites and the participants included seven elementary teachers. The methodology applied semi-structured interviews and direct observations for data collection. The data were analyzed using field notes and in vivo coding, which uncovered five themes that were used to substantiate the findings. The key finding from this study indicated a need for increased professional development. The finding also revealed the participants used research based intervention programs and strategies while facing myriad of challenges when implementing RTI in the elementary classroom. The significance of this study revolves around the usefulness and applicability of the results to educators and stakeholders in schools across the country on the tools needed for effective implementation of Response to Intervention.


The concept of generalized trihedral vertex (GTV) is proposed for 3d object representation. The concept covers not only polygonal objects but also curved objects including rounded edges and rounded corners. An effective algorithm is shown for matching two GTVs, one of which is constructed from stereoscopic images and the other of which is precompiled in the G T I database. Finally, we construct an efficient algorithm for successive pose clustering based on the GTV matching. The pose space (6 DOF) is decomposed into 3d rotation space and 3d translation space. Successive algorithms are constructed to perform pose clustering in the two spaces without using any Hough-like voting or any peak detection.


Microstrip patch antenna consists of a radiating patch on one side of a dielectric substrate which has a ground plane on the other side. This paper presents the design and simulation of a compact slotted microstrip patch antenna for Multiband i.e S-band & C-band applications using HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator) version 11 Software. This antenna has been designed and fabricated using Flame Retardant 4, FR4 substrate with permittivity 4.4. Microstrip line feed technique has been used in this antenna. The performance of the designed antenna has been analysed in the term of return loss, VSWR and gain. The design has been optimized to meet the best possible results. The results show the multiband antenna is able to operate at 2.45 GHz, 5.1 GHz and 6.3 GHz. Keywords-Microstrip Patch Antenna, Blue tooth, Wi-Fi, Return loss.


Carefully controlled experimental studies have failed to support claims that the intake of large doses of vitamin C will prevent or cure the majority of colds.


In recent years there has been a trend toward more aggressive management of keratoacanthoma: surgical extirpation has been recommended as giving a superior result and resolving diagnostic problems. A selection of cases is presented suggesting that (1) surgical repair in the florid phase can be little short of mutilating, (2) the scars produced by 'the natural resolution of keratoacanthoma are usually insignificant, and (3) in those in which the residual scar must be "tidied up," the final result is more acceptable than that achieved through earlier interference. Emphasis is placed on close, personal follow-up, to preclude mistaken diagnosis.


Biofilms are the main reason for a large number deaths and high health costs. Their better protection compared to planktonic form against conventional antibiotics leads to poor treatment efficiency. Nanoagent‐targeted delivery is a promising avenue for disease therapeutic, but its application targeting biofilms has not been reported currently. The roles, if any, of aptamers acting as delivery carrier and targeting factor, the graphene oxide (GO), and GO modified with aptamers against biofilms were then systematically evaluated. Here, we successfully developed an aptamer‐targeted GO strategy against biofilms. We investigated the efficacy of aptamer–GO conjugates by UV spectrophotometer, inverted microscopy, and atomic force microscopy; 93.5 ± 3.4% Salmonella typhimurium biofilms were inhibited and 84.6 ± 5.1% of biofilms were dispersed by a ST‐3‐GO conjugate. More importantly, this conjugate represented distinctively toxicity to S. typhimurium. Thus, this strategy significantly displays excellent antibiofilm properties and may serve as a long‐term solution for biofilm control.


It is well found that the assessment of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D offers better information about vitamin D status in patients. This cross-sectional study was aimed to better understand the probable difference of 25-hydroxyvitamin D level in a group of hemodialysis (HD) patients with or without diabetes. 25-hydroxyvitamin D level (normal range of values is 25 to 125 nmol/L) was measured following an overnight fasting. The study was conducted on 36 subjects (15 female, 21 male), consisting of 25 (female=11, male=14) non-diabetic HD patients and 11 (female=4, male=7) diabetic HD patients. A significant difference of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level between diabetic and non-diabetic male HD patients with more values of 25-hydroxyvitamin D level in none-diabetic HD patients was found (r=0.014). Least studied was conducted on the influence of diabetes on 25-hydroxyvitamin D level in HD patients, lower vitamin D level in diabetes patients may aggravates their condition. Thus, further investigations need to define this aspect of hemodialysis patients.


A simple, inexpensive device is described which alerts nursing staff upon spontaneous voiding by a patient with spinal cord injury. This facilitates measurement of the post-void residual urine volume which is useful in the management of neurogenic bladder.


Bending property of Ti-Ni alloy dental castings was evaluated in comparison with that of Co-Cr alloy in a cantilever test. Heat treatment effect on the bending property was also investigated in relation to phase transformation. Ti-50.85Ni (mol%) alloy was used, and the shape of bending test specimens was half-rounded in cross section, 2.0 mm in diameter. The bending test was carried out at 310 K. Distance between the loading point and the grip edge was 5.0 or 10.0 mm. Maximum bending deflection was 0.50 mm. Thermal behavior accompanying phase transformation of Ti-Ni alloy was examined by differential scanning calorimetry. Load-deflection diagrams of Ti-Ni alloy castings in the bending test showed elastic and super-elastic deformation, while those of Co-Cr castings showed elastic and permanent deformation. Maximum bending load and residual deflection of the Ti-Ni castings were lower than those of the Co-Cr castings and were decreased by heat treatment under a high-stress condition at the 5-mm loading point. Transformation temperature was increased by heat treatment, which was thought to influence the change in bending property. Super-elasticity of the Ti-Ni alloy castings in bending was shown to be improved by heat treatment, offering the potential to improve the design and clinical performance of cast dental prostheses. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.48.428]


Understanding the mechanisms of structural organization of corneal stroma is scientifically interesting and may lead to advances in corneal tissue engineering. In the past, we used the combination of second harmonic generation and fast Fourier transform to study a number of topics including the structural alteration of human keratoconus. Recently, we applied this approach to studying changes of chick embryonic cornea during development. As numerous studies were performed with ex vivo specimens, a thorough understanding of the parameters associated with the development process cannot be achieved until experiments are performed in living chick embryos.


ABSTRACT We investigated the target structures of the epithelial cells responsible for the attachment of Porphyromonas gingivalis by immunocytofluorimetry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and confocal microscopy. Integrins (β1, β3, and αV) and E-cadherin played no significant role. Carbohydrates (such as α-d-methylglucoside, l-fucose, d- and l-mannose, N-acetylglucosamine, and N-acetylgalactosamine) had little inhibitory effect on bacterial binding. Enzymatic treatments of the epithelial membranes and sugar competition studies showed that N-acetylneuraminic acid and glucuronic acid were involved in binding.


Fine-grained classification involves dealing with datasets with larger number of classes with subtle differences between them. Guiding the model to focus on differentiating dimensions between these commonly confusable classes is key to improving performance on fine-grained tasks. In this work, we analyse the contrastive fine-tuning of pre-trained language models on two fine-grained text classification tasks, emotion classification and sentiment analysis. We adaptively embed class relationships into a contrastive objective function to help differently weigh the positives and negatives, and in particular, weighting closely confusable negatives more than less similar negative examples. We find that Label-aware Contrastive Loss outperforms previous contrastive methods, in the presence of larger number and/or more confusable classes, and helps models to produce output distributions that are more differentiated.


The occurrence of electrical discharges in planetary atmospheres produces high temperatures and pressures enabling chemical reactions that are not possible under local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions. On Earth, electrical discharges in clouds produce nitric oxide. Similar abundances of nitric oxide exist in the Venus atmosphere, but the existence of extensive electrical activity in its substantive cloud system is not as firmly established. To determine the strength and occurrence rate of lightning, the Venus Express mission included dual magnetometers sampling at 128 Hz to detect the electromagnetic signals produced by lightning. We report herein evidence of the apparent overflight of electrical storms by the Venus Express spacecraft. These observations reveal two types of signals reaching the spacecraft: one in the ELF band that exhibits dispersion and travels along the magnetic field, and one in the ULF band that appears to travel vertically across the magnetic field from below.


Today's enterprises are confronted with an ever-changing environment demanding continuous (digital) transformation. Currently enterprise architects tend to guide these changes with so called 'one size fits all' architectural approaches. However, tuning such approaches to a variety of change situations is difficult. There is a call for a more flexible instrument among practitioners that is designed to be tailored to the context of a specific situation. Such fit for purpose enterprise architecture approaches have the potential to play a key role in the current times of digital transformation. In this paper we present the first steps towards a situational enterprise architecture approach that is based on differentiating between subsystems within organizations, by defining which characteristics of subsystems are relevant to determining the correct enterprise architecture approach.


We describe a novel approach to the study of the inverse problem of the calculus of variations, which gives new insights into Douglas's solution (1941) of the two degree of freedom case.


The analysis of the modular structure of networks is a major challenge in complex networks theory. The validity of the modular structure obtained is essential to confront the problem of the topology-functionality relationship. Recently, several authors have worked on the limit of resolution that different community detection algorithms have, making impossible the detection of natural modules when very different topological scales coexist in the network. Existing multiresolution methods are not the panacea for solving the problem in extreme situations, and also fail. Here, we present a new hierarchical multiresolution scheme that works even when the network decomposition is very close to the resolution limit. The idea is to split the multiresolution method for optimal subgraphs of the network, focusing the analysis on each part independently. We also propose a new algorithm to speed up the computational cost of screening the mesoscale looking for the resolution parameter that best splits every subgraph. The hierarchical algorithm is able to solve a difficult benchmark proposed in [Lancichinetti & Fortunato, 2011], encouraging the further analysis of hierarchical methods based on the modularity quality function.


OBJECTIVE
To examine to what extent Latino/Hispanic children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are receiving treatment and to identify variables that predict treatment with stimulant medication.

METHOD
Primary caretakers of a probability household sample (N = 1,897) of Puerto Rican children aged 4-17 years were administered structured interviews (response rate: 90.1%) from 1999-2000 to ascertain psychiatric disorders and types of services received.

RESULTS
Only 7.0% of children with ADHD received stimulant medication during the last year; moreover, only 3.6% had actually continued this treatment at the time of the interview. One fourth or less of those with ADHD received school-based services or psychosocial treatment. The male-female ratio in stimulant medication use was 10 to 1. In addition, only 0.2% of those with no psychiatric diagnosis received this treatment. ADHD and ADHD-not otherwise specified, impairment, and being male significantly predicted stimulant treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Children with ADHD in this Latino/Hispanic population are not receiving the most efficacious treatments based on scientific findings and relevant clinical consensus. This population is undertreated rather than overtreated.


Recent technological advances enable the implementation of online, field and hybrid experiments using mobile devices. Mobile devices enable sampling of incentivized decisions in more representative samples, consequently increasing the generalizability of results. Generalizability might be compromised, however, if the device is a relevant behavioural confound. This paper reports on a battery of common economic games and decision-making tasks in which we systematically randomize the decision-making device (computer versus mobile phone) and the laboratory setup (physical versus online). The results offer broad support for conducting decision experiments using mobile devices. For six out of eight tasks, we find robust null results in terms of average treatment effects and variability. This should give researchers confidence to conduct studies out-of-laboratory via mobile phones. However, we find two caveats. First, with respect to decisions, subjects using a mobile phone are significantly more risk averse and offer less during bargaining. Second, decision response times and the time taken to read instructions are significantly shorter for the online-mobile treatment. These caveats suggest the importance of ensuring device consistency across treatments in the digital age of experimentation.


Numerical simulation of two-phase flow in fractured karst reservoirs is still a challenging issue. The triple-porosity model is the major approach up to now. However, the triple-continuum assumption in this model is unacceptable for many cases. In the present work, an efficient numerical model has been developed for immiscible two-phase flow in fractured karst reservoirs based on the idea of equivalent continuum representation. First, based on the discrete fracture-vug model and homogenization theory, the effective absolute permeability tensors for each grid blocks are calculated. And then an analytical procedure to obtain a pseudo relative permeability curves for a grid block containing fractures and cavities has been successfully implemented. Next, a full-tensor simulator has been designed based on a hybrid numerical method (combining mixed finite element method and finite volume method). A simple fracture system has been used to demonstrate the validity of our method. At last, we have used the fracture and cavity statistics data from TAHE outcrops in west China, effective permeability values and other parameters from our code, and an equivalent continuum simulator to calculate the water flooding profiles for more realistic systems.


The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai underwater volcano (20.57° S, 175.38° W) violently erupted on 15 January 2022. The volcanic cloud's top height and initial evolution are delineated by using the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC)-2 radio occultation (RO) measurements. The bending angle (BA) anomaly over the Tonga volcanic plume (within 200 km of the eruption center) at 5:17 UTC on 15 January showed a prominent peak at higher stratospheric heights. The top of the BA anomaly revealed that negative to positive change occurred at ~38 km, indicating the first height where the RO line-of-sight encountered the volcanic plume. The BA anomaly further revealed an increase of ~50% at ~36.1 km, and confirmed that the volcanic plume reached above ~36 km. Furthermore, the evolution of BA perturbations within 24 h after the initial explosion is also discussed herein. From collocated RO profiles with the volcanic plume, we can find a clear descent of the peak altitude of the BA perturbation from ~36.1 km to ~29 km within 24 h after the initial eruption. The results from this study will provide some insights into advancing our understanding of volcanic cloud dynamics and their implementation in volcanic plume modeling.


Objective To explore the expression of intracellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1) during hyperoxic lung injury and to investigate the pathological changes of hyperoxia related pulmonary injury.Methods A total of 102 full term neonatal sprague-dawley rats were randomized into experimental(hyperoxia) and control(room air) groups of 51 rats each.Newborn rats in the experimental group were kept in boxes that contain 95% oxygen immediately after deliveries,whereas those in the control group were raised in room air instead.Rats from both groups were further randomized,three subgroups of eight rats from each group were chosen and sacrificed on the 3,7 and the 14 days of life subsequently.Extracted lung tissue was HE stained to reveal the gross pathological changes;Masson Trichrome Stain was used to observe the severity of pulmonary fibrosis;Immunohistochemical Semi-quantitative analysis of ICAM-1 was then performed.Results(1) Rats in the control group have no pathological change of pulmonary tissue at 3,7 and 14 days of age and no increased expression of collagen on Masson stain.There was negative to weak positive pulmonary ICAM-1 expression in the control rats.(2) In contrary,the rats which were raised in the hyperoxia environment from birth have shown significant inflammatory cell infiltration.Mild thickening of alveoli septum were also found in pulmonary tissue by day 7 post partum.By day 14,inflammatory cell infiltration began to subsidize,however,more prominent alveoli structural damage and marked thickening of alveoli septum were found.On Masson stain,increased collagen deposits began to present by day seven,prominent fibrosis was found by day 14.ICAM-1 expression was widely present in all subgroups of the experimental rats at the 3rd,7th and the 14th day of life.Semi-quantitative analysis revealed that the pulmonary ICAM-expression in rats of all the experimental subgroups were marked higher than the level in the corresponding control subgroups,with the peak expression at day 7 of life(P0.05).Conclusions High concentration oxygen exposure leads to prominent injury of lung tissue in neonatal rats.Shortly after birth,ICAM-1 expression elevates with increasing length of exposure to high concentration oxygen;however,ICAM-1 level gradually decreases with persistent usage of high concentration oxygen.Although the current study didn't reveal the correlation of ICAM-1 expression to hyperoxic pulmonary fibrosis,ICAM-1 is likely playing an active role in leukocyte adhesion to endothelium cells and in activation of cytokines during the acute inflammation phase of hyperoxic lung injury.


Abstract In November, voters in the City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, New Mexico will be asked whether the two governments should get hitched. More accurately, the question on the ballot will be whether or not to accept a unification charter that will consolidate the two existing governments into a single urban county government. The voters rejected the idea in 2003, with 61.5 percent of them voting against it. Whether or not there's a different result this year depends, among other things, on whether city and county residents understand the planning, growth, and land use implications of maintaining the status quo versus consolidation.


The mammalian gut houses a complex microbial community which is believed to play a significant role in host physiology. In recent years, several microbial community analysis methods have been implemented to study the whole gut microbial environment, in contrast to classical microbiological methods focusing on bacteria which can be cultivated. One of these is automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA), an inexpensive and popular way of analyzing bacterial diversity and community fingerprinting in ecological samples. ARISA uses the natural variability in length of the DNA fragment found between the 16S and 23S genes in different bacterial lineages to infer diversity. This method is now being supplanted by affordable next-generation sequencing technologies that can also simultaneously annotate operational taxonomic units for taxonomic identification. We compared ARISA and pyrosequencing of samples from the rumen microbiome of cows, previously sampled at different stages of development and varying in microbial complexity using several ecological parameters. We revealed close agreement between ARISA and pyrosequencing outputs, especially in their ability to discriminate samples from different ecological niches. In contrast, the ARISA method seemed to underestimate sample richness. The good performance of the relatively inexpensive ARISA makes it relevant for straightforward use in bacterial fingerprinting analysis as well as for quick cross-validation of pyrosequencing data.


PVC membrane, which has been used for membrane of electrolyte sensors, shortened sensor lifetime due to poor adhesion to sensor surface and exhibited difficulty in standardization and mass-production. To overcome these problems, the membrane solution was prepared with neutral carrier, matrix(TEOS:DEDMS=1:3), solvent(ethanol), and a catalyzer(HCl). The fabricated electrolyte sensors showed typical electrical characteristics of MISFET (metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor). The K-, Ca- and Na-ISFETs showed sensitivity of 53, 25 and 50 mV/decade in wide concentration range, respectively. The response time was about 90 seconds and the drift was 0.05mV/hour. These results suggest that the sol-gel method and the lift-off technique can be applied to formation of membranes and expected to improve mass-productivity, standardzation of the sensors.


The dynamical characteristics of the vitrification process for a binary soft-sphere system are studied by means of an extensive molecular dynamics simulation. Using a Cole-Cole plot of the susceptibility, evidence is given for the first time of a fast process, which can be identified over a certain temperature range. Comparing with an ideal three-mode model in three dimensions, it is concluded that the fast process and the boson peak are related to the trapped motion.


Applying the Fairchild exception in Barker, Lord Hoffmann sought to justify apportionment of liability by reformulating the gist of the negligence action as the risk of mesothelioma rather than the mesothelioma itself. This paper examines the notion of risk to show that it cannot coherently be recognised as damage. By distinguishing risk from the related concept of probability, it is apparent that risk is a forward-looking concept that is incompatible with the role in which it is cast in the backward-looking causation inquiry when mesothelioma is an essential ingredient of liability. This paper goes on to consider whether 'pure' risk could form the gist of a negligence action and suggests that it lacks the moral significance to constitute damage. Furthermore, the damage requirement would be subsumed into the breach inquiry, effectively being lost as a distinct element of the negligence inquiry. This is incompatible with the traditional loss-based model of negligence.


A recent algorithmic family for distributed optimization, DIGing's, have been shown to have geometric convergence over time-varying undirected/directed graphs [1]. Nevertheless, an identical step-size for all agents is needed. In this paper, we study the convergence rates of the Adapt-Then-Combine (ATC) variation of the DIGing algorithm under uncoordinated step-sizes. We show that the ATC variation of DIGing algorithm converges geometrically fast even if the step-sizes are different among the agents. In addition, our analysis implies that the ATC structure can accelerate convergence compared to the distributed gradient descent (DGD) structure which has been used in the original DIGing algorithm.


A 38‐year‐old woman was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus and received immunosuppressive therapy. After 6 months of treatment, workup for low‐grade fever yielded elevated enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay titers for Aspergillus antigen in serum and ascites, leading to the diagnosis of disseminated aspergillosis. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a claviform vegetation attached to the left ventricular anterior septum. Two days after the start of antifungal Amphotericin‐B therapy, the patient suffered from several neurologic disorders. A second transthoracic echocardiography revealed that the vegetation decreased in size. Two weeks later, the vegetation increased again. Combination therapy of Amphotericin‐B and Voriconazole was initiated, and the vegetation eventually disappeared completely. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 46:231–232, 2018


Cloud services must typically be distributed across a large number of machines in order to make use of multiple compute and storage resources. This opens the programmer to several sources of complexity such as concurrency, order of message delivery, lossy network, timeouts and failures, all of which impose a high cognitive burden. This paper presents evidence that technology inspired by formal-methods, delivered as part of a programming framework, can help address these challenges. In particular, we describe the experience of several engineering teams in Microsoft Azure that used the open-source Coyote Actor programming framework to build multiple reliable cloud services. Coyote Actors impose a principled design pattern that allows writing formal specifications alongside production code that can be systematically tested, without deviating from routine engineering practices. Engineering teams that have been using Coyote have reported dramatically increased productivity (in time taken to push new features to production) as well as services that have been running live for months without any issues in features developed and tested with Coyote.


This study examined whether objects are attended in serial or in parallel during a demanding visual search task. A component of the event-related potential waveform, the N2pc wave, was used as a continuous measure of the allocation of attention to possible targets in the search arrays. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the relative allocation of attention shifts rapidly, favoring one item and then another. In Experiment 2, a paradigm was used that made it possible to track the absolute allocation of attention to individual items. This experiment showed that attention was allocated to one object for 100-150 ms before attention began to be allocated to the next object. These findings support models of attention that posit serial processing in demanding visual search tasks.


In today's supply chain, B2B integration plays an integral part to the success in enabling collaboration. Information is exchanged between partners, and business processes are integrated to enable seamless and real-time dynamic B2B interactions and communication. One of the key drivers, the World Wide Web, has fueled the growth in dynamic B2B integration. In recent years, new software design patterns and business models are observed on the Web which is commonly referred to as Web 2.0. Although Web 2.0 is being applied in social applications, it could prove valuable to B2B integration, especially B2B interactions. In this paper, Web 2.0 concepts and technologies applicable to B2B integration (rich Internet application, software-as-a-service, collective intelligence and mashups) are first introduced. The fit between dynamic B2B integration and Web 2.0 is discussed. Potential applications for Web 2.0 concepts and technologies are also proposed.


Like all professionals, healthcare professionals may be sued. In medicine it seems increasingly likely as we move away from the era of 'doctor knows best'. In this article James Badenoch QC describes what happens from the first letter telling you there is a problem to the final judgement in court.


This study aimed to characterize buffel grass accessions of the Cenchrus Germplasm Active Bank (CGAB) from Embrapa Semi-Arid in a morphoagronomic way, checking the descriptors variability and efficiency in accessions on two consecutive cuts. Twenty-five accessions and five buffel grass cultivars were used in randomized complete block design with three replications. Evaluations were conducted after two consecutive cuts, each evaluation performed 90 days after each cut. Characterization was based on 15 quantitative and qualitative morphoagronomic descriptors. Quantitative descriptors were subjected to individual and joint univariate analysis of variance, followed by the Scott-Knott's test at 5% significance. Yet qualitative descriptors were submitted to descriptive analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative descriptors were grouped based on the Gower algorithm for divergence analysis. A dendrogram and calculations of the characters relative importance for divergence were established. Genotype and cutting effects were significant for almost all descriptors in the joint analysis. This result indicates a genetic variability between genotypes and, regarding the cut, it indicates mainly differences in growth rate of each genotype in each cutting season. Genotypes were separated into three groups, which showed good genotype variation. The number of tillers per clump, followed by number of inflorescence and color of seeds, were the most relevant characters in genotype separation.


This paper presents a cost benefit analysis of applying an ensemble of parallel artificial neural networks (ANN) compared to an entirely human decision process. The comparison is based on a committee of ANN that was successfully able to diagnose the condition of bushings using IEEE C57.104 criteria taking fourteen variables of dissolved gas analysis (DGA) data for each oil impregnated paper bushing. The works compares the speed, stability and accuracy of a human to that of the collective parallel artificial neural networks (ANN) made of radial basis function (RBF), support vector machines (SVM), multiple layer perceptron (MLP) and Bayesian (BNN) networks. The analysis on 1255 bushings concludes that collective network is a more cost effective solution than the human alone, in deciding whether to remove or leave a bushing in service. The accuracy of the human was 60% in 16 hour to diagnose 1255 bushings. This was slightly less than that of the committee of ANN which produced an accuracy of 99% in 35 minutes with a 99% reliability, dependability of 99%, and availability of 80%. Giving an overall performance of 78% for the ensemble diagnosing 1255 bushings. The realisable return is when using the technology is a modified internal rate of return (MIRR) of 19.27% and a profitability index (PI) 3.1, a net present value in 2004 of R910 946 and a discounted payback period of 2.0 years


Footwear has been proposed to alter squat performance whereby flat soles may reduce footfloor proprioception and raised heels may decrease joint range of motion. This study aimed to investigate the effects of footwear on centre of pressure excursion (CPE) and sagittal plane kinematics during the back squat. Seven males performed squats during five different footwear conditions (barefoot, weightlifting shoe, running shoe, minimal shoe, flat-soled shoe) while sagittal plane kinematics and CPE were recorded. Results showed no significant difference in CPE between any footwear conditions. Peak knee flexion was significantly greater for running shoes and weightlifting shoes compared to barefoot. Peak shank angle was significantly greater when wearing weightlifting shoes compared to minimal footwear. This suggests footwear which increases heel height may increase peak joint angles to allow for a deeper squat.


: The Present study aims to study the morphological characters of the pollen grains for six Apricot cultivars Prunus armeniaca L. and six cultivars of Plum P. xdomestica L. planted in northern Iraq. Using the Light Microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). It was found that the pollen grains in all the cultivars were, isopolar tricorporate, and with one-, two-, and four-holes models were found, and their shape in the polar view was either tetra angular, spherical- triangular, or triangular, While in the equatorial view, the pollen shapes were ovoid, spherical or semi-spherical .The surface ornamentation was in several forms, including reticulate, granular, thin longitudinal striped, short transverse striped, granular and striped grains and striped. The quantitative and qualitative morphological characteristics of pollen grains showed a high taxonomic value in separating and isolating the cultivars of the two studied species .


This book describes its authors' pioneering effort to develop a curriculum for a new type of practitioner—the health associate—at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institution. The book is filled with information and observations of value to teachers in all primary care disciplines. The designers of the new two-year curriculum began with a carefully researched analysis of the job the health associate would be expected to do and then used this analysis to plan a competency-based curriculum. They eschewed any tendency to include subjects just because they had been traditionally taught to medical students. Everything finally included had survived intense scrutiny and debate. Because the new practitioners would be involved with patients who were not hospitalized, the curriculum focused on skills needed for working with ambulatory patients, their families, and community agencies. Furthermore, as the task analysis had also indicated that the health associate would need knowledge and skills in the


The adoption of machine learning in health care hinges on the transparency of the used algorithms, necessitating the need for explanation methods. However, despite a growing literature on explaining neural networks, no consensus has been reached on how to evaluate those explanation methods. We propose IROF, a new approach to evaluating explanation methods that circumvents the need for manual evaluation. Compared to other recent work, our approach requires several orders of magnitude less computational resources and no human input, making it accessible to lower resource groups and robust to human bias.


Microspheres of poly(D,L-lactide) containing progesterone were prepared by the solvent evaporation method using a simple oil water emulsion. 23 factorial design was used to determine the effect of three independent variables (amount of drug, amount of polymer and concentration of polyvinyl alcohol) over the dependent variables (drug content and particle size). The three independent variables influenced significantly over the percentage drug encapsulated. On the other hand, in the particle size case, the variables which produced a significantly influence were the polyvinyl alcohol concentration and the amount of polymer. The in vitro release studies have shown that according to the particle size, it can be obtained formulations which are able to release progesterone in a few days or a sustained release among 28 days. The physical state of drug has been examined by differential scanning calorimetric. The studies indicate that exists a physicochemical interaction between the progesterone and the polymer.


OBJECTIVE
Acute radiation erythema and other skin reactions are common adverse effects experienced by breast carcinoma patients undergoing radiotherapy treatment. Boswellic acids are pentacyclic triterpenes extracted from the resins of the tropical tree Boswellia serrata with strong anti-inflammatory properties. This study was designed to evaluate the safety and the efficacy of the application of a base cream containing boswellic acids in a proprietary formulation (Bosexil(R)) for the prevention and relief of radiation-induced adverse effects in breast cancer patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The acute skin reactions were clinically evaluated by visual intensity and computer-assisted skin color analysis, and toxicity was assessed by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) rating scale.

RESULTS
These findings indicate that the use of a boswellia-based cream is effective in reducing the use of topical corticosteroids and is able to reduce the grade of erythema and the skin superficial symptoms, being well tolerated by the patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Further studies comparing boswellia cream with other topical agents will be appropriate to confirm the effectiveness of this treatment for breast cancer patients under radiation therapy.


Abstract. Emissivity is a significant factor in determining land surface temperature (LST) retrieved from the thermal infrared (TIR) satellite images. A new simplified method (reflectance method) for emissivity correction was developed in this study while estimating emissivity values at a spatial resolution of 30 m from the radiance values of the SWIR image. This in turn enables mapping surface temperatures at a much finer spatial resolution (30 m). Temperatures so estimated are validated against surface temperatures measured in the ground by thermocouple data loggers recorded during satellite overpass time. In this study, surface emissivity values are derived directly from the AST_ L1B images. The reflectance method estimates temperature at higher spatial resolution of 30 m when compared to the 90 m spatial resolution of TES and reference channel methods. Temperature determined for the daytime image of 30th November 2007 using different emissivity techniques was compared with the temperatures measured on the field using thermocouple data loggers. It is observed that the estimates from the reflectance method are much closer to the field measurements than the TES and reference channel methods. The temperature difference values range from 0.2 to 2.3 °C, 0.15 to 5.6 °C, and 2.6 to 8.6 °C for the reflectance method, normalization method and reference channel method, respectively. The new reflectance emissivity techniques i.e. reflectance method exhibits the least deviation from the field measured temperature values. While considering the accuracy of data logger (1 °C) the reflectance method enables one to map surface temperature precisely than other two methods.


Drawing on ideas from Discourse Grammar (Heine et al. 2013), this article examines characteristics of the Japanese reduplicated mimetics, arguing that they are transcategorial, able to function across different planes of grammar, either as mimetic adverbs belonging to Sentence Grammar (SG) or mimetic "theticals" belonging to Thetical Grammar (TG) (Kaltenböck et al. 2011: 879). The former expresses a manner of an action, typically occurring in the immediately preverbal position, as in
 huwahuwa (to) uku [mim quot float] 'float
 lightly
 '. By contrast the latter is the speaker's re-enactment of the event, as in the case of "
 Huwahuwa, shita de tsubuseru toohu gurai no katasa desu." 'Fluffy-fluffy, (the baby food should) have softness like tofu that can be crushed by (your) tongue.', where the mimetic 're-enacts' the speaker's mouth feel (fluffiness) when she put the food into her mouth. The particle drop of the reduplicated mimetics is syntactically optional in SG, but obligatory in TG. The article suggests adding mimetics to the list of theticals, as the fronted zero-marked mimetics followed by a pause display three of the defining prototypical properties of theticals (Kaltenböck et al. 2011): (i) prosodic property (they display comma intonation), (ii) syntactic independence (they are not modifiers of the predicate), and (iii) semantic non-restrictiveness (they do not restrict the semantic content of the predicate).


The dynamics of a collection of resonant atoms embedded inside an inhomogeneous nondispersive and lossless dielectric is described with a dipole Hamiltonian that is based on a canonical quantization theory. The dielectric is described macroscopically by a position-dependent dielectric function and the atoms as microscopic harmonic oscillators. We identify and discuss the role of several types of Green tensors that describe the spatio-temporal propagation of field operators. After integrating out the atomic degrees of freedom, a multiple-scattering formalism emerges in which an exact Lippmann-Schwinger equation for the electric field operator plays a central role. The equation describes atoms as point sources and point scatterers for light. First, single-atom properties are calculated such as position-dependent spontaneous-emission rates as well as differential cross sections for elastic scattering and for resonance fluorescence. Secondly, multiatom processes are studied. It is shown that the medium modifies both the resonant and the static parts of the dipole-dipole interactions. These interatomic interactions may cause the atoms to scatter and emit light cooperatively. Unlike in free space, differences in position-dependent emission rates and radiative line shifts influence cooperative decay in the dielectric. As a generic example, it is shown that near a partially reflecting plane there is a sharp transition from two-atom superradiance to single-atom emission as the atomic positions are varied.


Amongst the archeological findings of Ma Wang Dui that concern the human anatomy, the first noted was a well-preserved female corpse, which demonstrated superb antiseptic techniques of the ancient Chinese. Also, 14 medical books were excavated and revealed a prototype of human visceral anatomy. The differentiation between small and large intestines was absent, and only the term of "intestine" was mentioned. The term of "triple energizers" was absent, too. However, contexts of surface anatomy were already abundant. Analyzing the terms of relative position, the anatomical position portrayed by the Ma Wang Dui medical texts is very similar to that of modern medicine.


Background: The issue of scientific measurement of somatotypes of athletes with physical disabilities and the type of physical activity undertaken by them is poorly documented in the literature. The aim of the study is to determine what type of body composition is characteristic of athletes with physical disabilities, engaging in various types of physical activity, such as swimming, sitting volleyball and weight lifting. Material and methods: Sixty men, aged 20-30, were qualified for the study. Each study participant had a motor dysfunction and was in intellectual norm. For the research protocol, Sheldon's typology in Heath and Carter modification was used. Results: The group of men with physical disabilities practicing swimming regularly had the advantage of endomorphic and mesomorphic components. A similar distribution of components in the somatotype was demonstrated by men playing sitting volleyball. Men lifting weights clearly showed the dominance of the mesomorphic component and, to a small extent, the share of the ectomorphic and endomorphic components. Conclusions: A properly calculated somatotype allows disabled athletes to learn about body composition components and to train and develop more effectively in a particular physical activity.


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that the prescription of remdesivir should be cautious for patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 30 and some studies reported risk of adverse renal events. The available information on the renal safety profile for remdesivir is limited, thus we analyzed the renal and urinary adverse reactions attributed to remdesivir reported in a large open pharmacovigilance database. We obtained reports of remdesivir and other drugs used to treat COVID-19 (tocilizumab, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir) registered by September 30 2020, from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). We analyzed the reporting odds ratios (RORs) for reports of adverse renal and urinary events for remdesivir and other drugs. We found 2,922 reports with remdesivir registered in FAERS for COVID-19. Among these, 493 renal and urinary adverse effects (16.9%) were reported. The most frequent events were acute kidney injury (338; 11.6%), renal impairment (86; 2.9%), and renal failure (53; 1.8%). Versus hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, or tocilizumab, the use of remdesivir was associated with an increased chance of reporting renal and urinary disorders regardless of gender and age of patients (2.53; 95%CI: 2.10-3.06). The ROR remained significant when we restricted the analysis to hydroxychloroquine (4.31; 95%CI: 3.25-5.71) or tocilizumab (3.92; 95%CI: 2.51-6.12). Our results reinforce this already reported signal, emphasizing that it could be extremely useful for health professionals who prescribe this new antiviral to treat COVID-19, mainly knowing its low efficacy.


Today marked your first visit to the renal failure clinic. You saw a doctor, at least 1 nurse, then someone who talked about food. A kind team coordinator wrote out your instructions, which looked like this:

Mr. Jones:

#$&^#R53$R @345s $%*bl) and @!!@##%#$%.

Begin with @###($^%$., hjj%%&dv, 334%&^!#$^ and +&**#g#4d.

It had been a very long day. You took the instructions, knowing that your wife would help sort them out. She usually has to help, since you are among the 20% of adults considered fully illiterate. Unfortunately, your wife is in the subgroup (28%) of functionally illiterate adults that comes next. This means she cannot even read the front page of a newspaper. So what do you do now?

Literacy issues like this were but one topic during the Annenberg III conference in Minneapolis in mid-May, where the almost 700 attendees were seeking ways to improve patient safety and reduce risks and harm in medical care.

We learned that effective communication with patients is a key factor in achieving this, but the task becomes daunting if a medical error occurs and a patient is harmed. The question then becomes: Should we share this information with patients? The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), a US not-for-profit organization founded in part by the American Medical Association, believes we should. Its Statement of Principle reads: "When a health care injury occurs the patient and the family . . . are entitled to a prompt explanation of how the injury occurred and its short and long-term effects. When an error contributed to the injury, [they] should receive a truthful and compassionate explanation about the error and the remedies available to the patient. They should be informed that the factors involved in the injury will be investigated so that steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood of similar injury to other patients."

The conference participants, who included physicians, nurses and risk managers, heard several moving presentations by patients who had been injured while receiving medical care and saw videotaped examples of how to discuss errors, as well as a simulated mediation case.

Presenters pointed out that a team-based collaborative approach is needed to introduce the changes required to prevent errors, but existing systems usually rely on a punitive "blame-and-shame" approach that does not lead to effective learning or change.

There was little argument about the ethical duty of health care workers to disclose errors, although there are many practical barriers to this. A Kentucky hospital that instituted a "patient bill of rights" 8 years ago found that its policy of prompt and full disclosure of errors has actually decreased the liability costs arising from them. However, a major cultural change will be required before changes like that become widespread.

The good news for physicians is that discussion of this topic has finally begun. The bad news for Canada is that only 11 of the almost 700 participants at the Minneapolis meeting were Canadian.

For further information on this subject, visit www.mederrors.org, www.annenberg.net or www.npsf.org.


Purpose: To review image-guided chest port insertion using the right internal jugular vein as the access site of choice. Material and Methods: One hundred and eighteen subcutaneous chest ports were placed via the internal jugular vein in 117 patients with malignancies using both fluoroscopic and US guidance in interventional radiology suites. Results: The technical success rate was 100% with no procedural complications. Follow-up was obtained in all patients with total access days of 40,450 days (mean, 342.8 days). Premature catheter removal was required in 8 patients (6.8%, 0.20 per 1,000 access days) due to non-treatable complications: 2 catheter occlusions/malfunctions (1.7%, 0.05 per 1,000 access days), 1 catheter-related skin erosion (0.85%, 0.024 per 1,000 access days), and 5 infections (4.2%, 0.15 per 1,000 access days). Two symptomatic right upper extremity venous thromboses also occurred (1.7%, 0.05 per 1,000 access days) that were treated successfully with anticoagulation. Conclusion: Image-guided placement of internal jugular vein chest ports has a high success rate and low complication rate compared with reported series of unguided subclavian vein port insertion. The internal jugular vein should be used as the preferred venous access site compared to the subclavian vein.


To perform automatic family audio analysis, past studies have collected recordings using phone, video, or audio-only recording devices like LENA, investigated supervised learning methods, and used or fine-tuned general-purpose embeddings learned from large pretrained models. In this study, we advance the audio component of a new infant wearable multi-modal device called LittleBeats (LB) by learning family audio representation via wav2vec 2.0 (W2V2) pertaining. We show given a limited number of labeled LB home recordings, W2V2 pretrained using 1k-hour of unlabeled home recordings outperforms oracle W2V2 pretrained on 52k-hour unlabeled audio in terms of parent/infant speaker diarization (SD) and vocalization classifications (VC) at home. Extra relevant external unlabeled and labeled data further benefit W2V2 pretraining and fine-tuning. With SpecAug and environmental speech corruptions, we obtain 12% relative gain on SD and moderate boost on VC. Code and model weights are available.


The Scheduled Relaxation Jacobi (SRJ) method is a viable candidate as a high performance linear solver for elliptic PDEs. The method greatly improves the convergence of standard Jacobi iteration by applying a sequence of $M$ overrelaxation and underrelaxation steps in each cycle of the algorithm. In previous work, the relaxation factors associated with each of the $M$ steps (which characterize an SRJ scheme) were derived to be specific to the problem of interest and its discretization. In this work we develop a class of SRJ schemes which could be applied to solve any linear system as long as the original Jacobi iterative method would converge. Furthermore, we use data to train an algorithm to select which scheme to use at each cycle of the SRJ method for rapid convergence. Specifically, the algorithm is trained using convergence data obtained from randomly applying SRJ schemes to the 1D Poisson problem. The automatic selection heuristic that is developed based on this limited data is found to provide good convergence for a wide range of problems.


By using a Taylor expansion the authors transform the non-local coupling potentials into local ones which arise within the coupled-channel formalism for heavy-ion reactions. The procedure gives a physical insight into the effects of the non-local kernels.


Insulin-dependent diabetes induced in susceptible strains of mice by multiple, low-dose streptozotocin treatment has been proposed to entail a thymus-dependent, autoimmune destruction of beta cells. In this study, thymectomized and genetically athymic mice have been tested for susceptibility to streptozotocin. Thymectomy was performed on newborn (day 1) to 3-day-old C57BL/KsJ mice. At 8 wk of age, thymectomized and sham-operated mice of both sexes were tested for susceptibility to diabetes induction by multiple, low-dose streptozotocin treatment (35 mg/kg of body weight per day for 6 consecutive days). Thymectomy failed to block susceptibility of males to induction of severe hyperglycemia. Beta cell necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltrates (insulitis) were consistent histopathological features. In general, females-both thymus-intact and thymectomized-were less susceptible than males to streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemia, and females exhibited an equally severe insulitis by experimental day 14; thus, the detection of an underlying insulitis did not predict the development of a more severe hyperglycemia because most streptozotocin-treated females at experimental day 35 continued to show only a modest hyperglycemia (about 200 mg/dl) compared to males (>400 mg/dl). That streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemia could occur in the absence of an intact thymus was further demonstrated in genetically athymic C57BL/6J NIcrOu nu/nu males and thymus-intact +/? littermate controls. C57BL/6J mice were resistant to streptozotocin-induced insulitis. This study shows that the presence of insulitis does not necessarily presage onset of severe hyperglycemia (e.g., C57BL/KsJ females), and conversely, the presence of severe hyperglycemia after low-dose streptozotocin treatment is not necessarily diagnostic of an underlying insulitis (e.g., C57BL/6J +/? and nu/nu males). These data stress the need for caution in the interpretation of studies of streptozotocin-insulitis sensitivities of nude mice.


Background The prevalence of Generalised Joint Laxity (GJL) in adolescent male athletes along with its relation to injury incidence in a sporting environment are unknown despite commonly held clinical and coaching beliefs. The degree of joint laxity is often measured using the Beighton scale which quantifies the presence of hyperlaxity in 9 clinically applied physical tests giving a score from 0–9. Two clinical categorisations are described defining GJL as a cut-off score of either 4 or 5/9. Purpose To prospectively examine the relation between joint laxity and injury in adolescent athletes participating in contact and, non-contact sports. Methods During routine pre-participation medical screening, 226 adolescent male athletes (mean age: 14.2 years SD: 1.7, Range: 10–18) at a Middle Eastern Athletic Academy had Beighton scores documented both as absolute values, and with both classifications. Athletes were considered as playing contact (Football and Combat sports) and Non-contact sports. Over the ensuing year, injuries related to sporting participation were recorded. Results The greatest relative risk for injury was found to be in participating in a contact sport (HRR: 1.58 [95% CI: 1.30–1.92]). Within the entire cohort, there was a very small, non-significant effect of Generalised Joint Laxity on injury incidence; HRR=1.004 (0.95–1.06), and no effect of injury severity according to laxity classification (P>.37). Conclusion: Generalised Joint Laxity is not related to a significantly elevated injury risk, or injury severity for these adolescent male athletes.


The main character, Helena Verbloem, goes on a journey of discovery: to find her stolen shells, and to determine what role chance and contingency plays in man's search for meaning and order. On both these journeys she is accompanied by her colleague Sof Benade and to a certain extent her employer, Theo Verwey. Sof introduces her to a world of duality, where good and evil exist but where one has a choice, in spite of  disappointments that characterize daily life. Verwey dies before she can really get to know him, but he leaves her with the knowledge of the nature of language, that it is as subject to contingency as everything else. By analysing the text from a theosophical and Kabbalistic viewpoint Helena's journeys of discovery and self-discovery are revealed. It is shown that although she still believes that one's life is not determined by a Higher Order but through small contingencies, she no longer needs to be   obsessed with the many losses she suffered, including that of her   treasured shells, or the intellectual struggle to understand the origin of life and the role of human cognition in the suffering of humankind. This helps her to heal her relationships with the living and the dead, and in the   process also herself. Keywords : esoterica, Ingrid Winterbach, Kabbalist, Theosophy, The Book of Happenstance.


The paper discusses and evaluates design of capacitive wireless power transfer (WPT) system. The capacitive WPT can replace a conventional inductive WPT for example in applications where metallic objects are placed close to receiver or transceiver. Main limitation for wider application of the capacitive WPT is due to small coupling capacitance between two surfaces in limited space. Therefore, to utilize capacitive WPT system the switching frequency should be as high as possible. Challenges associated with design of capacitive WPT system operating in MHz range are discussed in this paper. In the paper it is described WPT system that consists of two copper plates to transfer power from the primary side to the secondary side. Some calculation considerations of resonant network is given in the paper. The high switching of inverter transistors requires high performance transistors with optimized driver circuit. The design of GaN transistor based inverter and driver circuit is discussed and experimental results are shown.


Urinary tract infection is the most common infection in man. P fimbriae are virulence factors of uro-pathogenic Escherichia coli. They are expressed by 70-90 % of acute pyelonephritis isolates and up to 100% of the most virulent isolates that cause bacteremia. This thesis concerns the interaction between P fimbriae and the urinary tract mucosa, and the host receptors involved in fimbrial recognition and trans membrane signalling. 1. Recognition receptors. P fimbriae recognise receptor epitopes in cell surface glycosphingolipids. When the receptor expression was inhibited with the synthetic ceramide analogue PDMP, attachment was inhibited, as was the cellular response to infection, demonstrating that these receptors are essential for the initial tissue attack by the bacteria. Similar results were obtained using the natural iminosugar NB-DNJ, which blocks the synthesis of ceramide-linked oligosaccharides. In vivo inhibition of the UDP-glucose-glycosyltransferase was shown to cause receptor depletion on the uroepithelial cells and the P fimbriated E. coli failed to colonize the treated mice or to evoke an inflammatory response. The results confirmed the importance of glycosphingolipid receptors for fimbriae, and suggested that NB-DNJ might be explored as a therapeutic alternative in the treatment of UTI. 2. TLR4 and the innate host response. Transmembrane signalling in response to P fimbriated E. coli was shown to depend on TLR4. TLR4 KO mice became chronically infected, and were unable to clear an experimental infection. The results showed that a single host gene can determine the quality of the mucosal response and that this response determines if infection will become symptomatic or asymptomatic. 3. Adaptor protein usage. Two groups of adaptor proteins are involved in TLR4 signalling. The MyD88 /TIRAP adaptors control the CD14 dependent response to LPS/LBP, while TRIF/TRAM have other functions. This study showed that trif/tram controls the CD14 independent cell activation by P fimbriated E. coli. Mice lacking these adaptors developed acute symptoms and were unable to clear the infection. The LPS related Myd88 and TIRAP adaptors, in contrast, were not required to activate the innate defence, but they were needed for efficient clearance of infection. Defects in the TRIF/TRAM pathway may explain the tendency of certain individuals to develop asympromatic bacteriurea rather than symptomatic infection. 4. Ceramide as a signalling intermediate. Following the binding of P fimbriae, the glycosphingolipid receptors are cleaved and ceramide is released. Ceramide has previously been recognised as a signalling intermediate in the sphingomyelin pathway. The results of this study demonstrate that ceramide can act as a signalling intermediate between the recognition receptor and TLR4, thus providing a mechanism for the recruitment of TLR4 by P fimbriated bacteria. 5. Renal scarring in mIL8Rh KO mice. Experimental UTI in mIL-8Rh deficient mice identified the first genetic defect explaining the increased susceptibility to acute pyelonephritis and renal scarring in certain individuals. The IL-8 receptor deficiency caused massive neutrophil trapping in the kidney with tissue damage resembling renal scarring. The mIL-8Rh deficient mouse thus offers a highly relevant model to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the development of renal scarring. (Less)


A new high-power high-efficiency 1.3 μm surface-emitting InGaAsP/InP LED has been obtained by utilising a reverse-biased InP homojunction to achieve efficient confinement of injected current into the InGaAsP emitting area. The devices are grown by a two-step LPE process. At 20 mA, output powers >400 μW are obtained; over 1.5 mW is obtained at 100 mA. A 3 dB modulation frequency >60 MHz is obtained at 115 mA.