This study tested the hypothesis that elevating the intracellular phosphorylation potential (IPP = [ATP]/[ADP]free) within rat fast-twitch tibialis anterior muscles by creatine (Cr) loading would prevent fast-to-slow fibre transitions induced by chronic low-frequency electrical stimulation (CLFS, 10 Hz, 12 h/day). Creatine-control and creatine-CLFS groups drank a solution of 1% Cr + 5% dextrose, ad libitum, for 10 days before and during 10 days of CLFS; dextrose-control and dextrose-CLFS groups drank 5% dextrose. Cr loading increased total Cr (P < 0.025), phosphocreatine (PCr) (P < 0.003), and the IPP (P < 0.0008) by 34%, 45%, and 64%, respectively. PCr and IPP were 46% (P < 0.002) and 76% (P < 0.02) greater in creatine-CLFS than in dextrose-CLFS. Higher IPP was confirmed by a 58% reduction in phospho-AMP-activated protein kinase α (Thr172) (P < 0.006). In dextrose-CLFS, myosin heavy chain (MyHC) I and IIa transcripts increased 32- and 38-fold (P < 0.006), respectively, whereas MyHC-IIb mRNA decreased by 75% (P < 0.03); the corresponding MyHC-I and MyHC-IIa protein contents increased by 2.0- (P < 0.03) and 2.7-fold (P < 0.05), respectively, and MyHC-IIb decreased by 30% (P < 0.03). In contrast, within creatine-CLFS, MyHC-I and MyHC-IIa mRNA were unchanged and MyHC-IIb mRNA decreased by 75% (P < 0.003); the corresponding MyHC isoform contents were not altered. Oxidative reference enzymes were similarly elevated (P < 0.01) in dextrose-CLFS and creatine-CLFS, but reciprocal reductions in glycolytic reference enzymes occurred only in dextrose-CLFS (P < 0.02). Preservation of the glycolytic potential and greater SERCA2 and parvalbumin contents in creatine-CLFS coincided with prolonged time to peak tension and half-rise time (P < 0.01). These results highlight the IPP as an important physiological regulator of muscle fibre plasticity and demonstrate that training-induced changes typically associated with improvements in muscular endurance or increased power output are not mutually exclusive in Cr-loaded muscles.


Uranyl complexes with phenylalanine and the analogous ligand phenylpropionate were investigated in aqueous solution by attenuated total reflection (ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The assignment of the observed bands to vibrational modes was accomplished using spectra of the pure ligands recorded at different pH values and spectra of the 15N labeled analogous compounds of the amino acid. The results presented in this work provide a detailed description of the binding states of the uranyl complexes in solution. A bidentate binding of the carboxylate group to the actinide ion was observed by the characteristic shifts of the carboxylate modes. From the spectra the presence of the protonated amino group in the actinide complex can be derived. Due to these findings, contributions of the amino group to the binding to the uranyl ion in the amino acid complex can be ruled out.


This article examines the prudential aspects of the harmonised EU regulatory framework for banks, more specifically the CRR/ CRD4 package. The article examines whether the CRR/ CRD 4 framework has created a truly "single rulebook", and identifies possible threats to the uniformity of the rulebook. The article sheds light on certain areas which have not been adequately discussed in the relevant literature and examines the EBA's fundamental role in the harmonisation process. The article concludes with proposals for a more robust rulebook along with reinforcement of the EBA.


Photovoltaic power generation systems often suffer from voltage instability and intermittent production of electricity due to shade, dust, rain, and so forth, resulting in unstable power quality. Such problems of photovoltaic power generation systems cause the malfunction of devices connected to the system, especially in systems with brushless DC motors. To solve these problems, a hybrid energy storage module and a precise control strategy for photovoltaic power generation systems are proposed. The system comprises solar cells, a hybrid energy storage module, a power conversion module, a sensing-type pyrheliometer, and a brushless DC motor. The hybrid energy storage module is composed of a supercapacitor and a lithium-ion battery, which are connected in parallel. The power conversion module includes a maximum power point tracking converter, a boost converter, a controller, and switches. The sensing-type pyrheliometer monitors the luminous intensity during operation, which enables the controller to analyze the signals of the system and control the system through the terminal voltage of the hybrid energy storage module. A brushless DC motor is connected to the system to investigate by how much the power quality and operation time are improved. The experimental results show that the system has a sustainable power supply because the brushless DC motor operates for up to 342 s without any interruption, longer than that for a photovoltaic system with a supercapacitor only. Thus, the photovoltaic power generation system with the proposed hybrid energy storage module and the control strategy effectively reduces the voltage instability and the interruption of power generation and improves the quality of the power.


This paper describes a dialogue data collection experiment and resulting corpus for dialogues between a senior mobile journalist and a junior cub reporter back at the office. The purpose of the dialogue is for the mobile journalist to collect background information in preparation for an interview or on-the-site coverage of a breaking story. The cub reporter has access to text archives that contain such background information. A unique aspect of these dialogues is that they capture information-seeking behavior for an open-ended task against a large unstructured data source. Initial analyses of the corpus show that the experimental design leads to real-time, mixedinitiative, highly interactive dialogues with many interesting properties.


Construction of electric vehicle charging station is the
premise of the popularity of electric vehicles. In this paper, electric vehicle
charging facilities planning is divided into two stages: public demonstration
stage and commercial operation stage. In public demonstration stage, This Paper
applies maximal covering model into charging station location, and then be
solved by the branch and bound method. In commercial operation stage, the
charging station's service areas division is studied based on Voronoi diagram.
With the concerning technical restrains, an optimal planning method is
presented for newly-increased station positioning and service region division.
The method using the most greatly air circuit method and local dynamic
characteristics of Voronoi diagram guarantees the reasonable distribution of
stations. Then charging station model of optimal load allocation is established
by using M/M/c model. In the end,
the correctness and validity of the model is verified through simulation of
charging station planning.


A novel O/W (oil-in-water) emulsion cosmetic that has strong water repellency and a »water-splash feel« was prepared using the amphiphilic polymer hydrophilic-hydrophobic modified polysaccharide (INCI/Sodium Stearoxy PG-Hydroxyethylcellulose Sulfonate). This emulsion is composed of a hydrophobic–hydrophilic modified polysaccharide/water/oil system with a small amount of lipophilic non-ionic surfactant (hydrophilic–lipophilic balance<5) added to obtain finely emulsified oil particles. Hydrophilic–hydrophobic modified polysaccharide was used as a thickener and polymer surfactant, and it produced a stable O/W emulsion without the addition of a hydrophilic surfactant. Several types of oil droplets decrease in size upon addition of various kinds of lipophilic surfactant due to the lowering of tension at the water/oil interface. Rheological measurements revealed that the strong network structure of hydrophilic–hydrophobic modified polysaccharide retained oil droplets without occurrence of phase inversion. Such an emulsion is very different from those made using conventional hydrophilic surfactants, and it is water repellent. This system was characterized by the presence of hydrophilic–hydrophobic modified polysaccharide, and the state of the emulsion could be controlled by the ratio of hydrophobic/hydrophilic moieties introduced into the polysaccharide.


A survey of the pathology of 567 laboratory-bred cotton-eared marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) is presented. There were few significant pathological changes in animals used in studies up to 6 months in duration, suggesting that the marmoset can be a useful non-human primate species for routine toxicology. The most common pathological changes encountered were chronic colitis, chronic thyroiditis and interstitial mononuclear infiltration in the kidney. No internal parasites were encountered, nor were any viral or bacterial diseases identified. Fungal disease was confined to a few cases of oesophageal mycoses. In a long term study a variety of pathological changes have been observed, including a 'wasting' syndrome, not related to skeletal muscle myopathy, with atrophy of the gastrointestinal tract, salivary glands and gonads, haemosiderosis and fatty change in the liver and osteoporosis. It is suggested that these changes may be related to protein deficiency and that the nutritional requirements of the marmoset require further investigation.


Although there are infinitely many knots with superbridge index n for every even integer n>2, there are only finitely many knots with superbridge index 3.


Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK) is upregulated in a variety of human tumors, and is considered an attractive molecular target for cancer treatment. We characterized the expression of MELK in gastric cancer (GC) and measured the effects of reducing MELK mRNA levels and protein activity on GC growth. MELK was frequently overexpressed in primary GCs, and higher MELK levels correlated with worse clinical outcomes. Reducing MELK expression or inhibiting kinase activity resulted in growth inhibition, G2/M arrest, apoptosis and suppression of invasive capability of GC cells in vitro and in vivo. MELK knockdown led to alteration of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated proteins. Furthermore, targeting treatment with OTSSP167 in GC patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models had anticancer effects. Thus, MELK promotes cell growth and invasiveness by inhibiting apoptosis and promoting G2/M transition and EMT in GC. These results suggest that MELK may be a promising target for GC treatment.


In order to obtain efficiency, current practice in distributed software systems design often suffers from a lack of abstraction. An object-oriented design technique based on UML notations and a special type of high-level Petri nets is used to demonstrate how designs can be kept sufficiently abstract to be platform independent and re-usable but still support design alternatives and their evaluation WRT availability and principle system performance.


The present paper is an attempt to analyze Kamala Das' poem "A Losing Battle" from the viewpoint of stylistic analysis. This analysis is made under the aspects of phonological, morphological, lexical, semantic, and presentational patterns. The analysis is useful in understanding the content, form, and inner meaning of the poem. This article also aims to find out the stylistic devices to boost the message of the poem. It concludes the stylistic devices which play a very significant role in helping the readers seize the meanings and messages that the poem conveys.


Over the past decade, summary statistics from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been used to detect and quantify polygenic adaptation in humans. Several studies have reported signatures of natural selection at sets of SNPs associated with complex traits, like height and body mass index. However, more recent studies suggest that some of these signals may be caused by biases from uncorrected population stratification in the GWAS data with which these tests are performed. Moreover, past studies have predominantly relied on SNP effect size estimates obtained from GWAS panels of European ancestries, which are known to be poor predictors of phenotypes in non-European populations. Here, we collated GWAS data from multiple anthropometric and metabolic traits that have been measured in more than one cohort around the world, including the UK Biobank, FINRISK, Chinese NIPT, Biobank Japan, APCDR and PAGE. We then evaluated how robust signals of polygenic adaptation are to the choice of GWAS cohort used to identify associated variants and their effect size estimates, while using the same panel to obtain population allele frequencies (The 1000 Genomes Project). We observe many discrepancies across tests performed on the same phenotype and find that association studies performed using multiple different cohorts, like meta-analyses, tend to produce scores with strong overdispersion across populations. This results in apparent signatures of polygenic adaptation which are not observed when using effect size estimates from biobank-based GWAS of homogeneous ancestries. Indeed, we were able to artificially create score overdispersion when taking the UK Biobank cohort and simulating a meta-analysis on multiple subsets of the cohort. This suggests that extreme caution should be taken in the execution and interpretation of future tests of polygenic adaptation based on population differentiation, especially when using summary statistics from GWAS meta-analyses.


Backgroud/Aims: Sometimes, the endoscopic stent insertion may be done without fluoroscopic guidance. This study was performed to evaluate the difference in success rate of endoscopic stent insertion with or without fluroscopic guidance. A total of hundred and sixty three patients with upper gastrointestinal obstruction were included. Methods:The group I comprised 82 patients in which the stent insertion was done without fluoroscopy. The group II included 81 patients in which stent was inserted under the fluoroscopy. Results: The locations of obstruction are at esophagus and cardia (group I /group II, 44/40 patients), at pylorus and duodenum (15/34 patients) and at post-operative stenosis of gastro-jejunal anastomosis (23/7 patients). The statistical difference of success rate were not found between the two groups [79/82 (96.3%) in group I, 80/81 (98.2%) in group II, p=0.620]. Among group I, three patients (3.7%) were failed due to incomplete guidewire insertion. These patients were the two cases of jejunal stenosis of esophago-jejunal anastomosis and one case of duodenal obstruction with carcinomatosis peritonei. However, in these cases, the stents were successfully inserted under the fluoroscopic guidance. Conclusion: The success rate of the endoscopic stent insertion with or without the fluoroscopic guidance is not different. But in cases of inaccurate guidewire insertion, especially in patients with pyloric obstruction, the endoscopic stent insertion under the fluoroscopic guidance may be more safe and successful.


Executive coaching can focus on personal behavior change, enhancing leadership effectiveness, fostering stronger relationships, personal development, and/or work–family integration or specific performance issues on the job. K. M. Wasylyshyn (2003a) and H. Levinson (personal communication, 2003) suggested that executive coaching reaches for a deeper level of clinical and therapeutic intervention. The authors propose a health-enhancing, developmental model of coaching anchored in a process of deep interpersonal communication. This approach is neither a surface approach nor a therapeutic approach. It is an interpersonal approach focused on safe, secure communication in which difficult, complicated issues are addressed and where crucial conversations occur. In this process, the executive is approached as a person, one who stands behind the executive mask or facade.


This article examines the cultural sources of underreported suicide deaths in South Korea. It analyzes two sets of suicide data compiled by two different government agencies. Noting the considerable undercounting of suicide deaths compiled by the National Statistical Office, it explores how the underreporting is linked to the Confucian norm of familism. Despite an effort to improve the quality of official suicide data, a reform in the death system is needed in order to gather accurate data for a better understanding of the increased suicides as well as for the development of more effective suicide prevention and intervention strategies.


The Lachlan Orogen of New South Wales, Victoria and eastern Tasmania is the best understood element of the eastern Australian Tasmanides. The Tasmanides encompass continental growth in a Neoproterozoic passive margin setting and a Paleozoic-Mesozoic active margin in east Gondwana, bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean. In the Ordovician, the supra-subduction zone element in the Lachlan Orogen is the Macquarie Arc. This comprises one minor and three major belts of mafic to intermediate volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, limestones and intrusions that, with two hiatuses in magmatism, span the Ordovician and extend into the Early Silurian. The three major belts in central New South Wales are separated by Silurian-Devonian rift basins and are therefore, inferred to have been rifted apart during crustal extension. Chemical and isotopic data suggest the Macquarie Arc is intraoceanic, developed on primitive oceanic crust. Despite this, key features such as its longevity, stacked magmatic phases, little deformation and flanking coeval craton-derived turbidites and black shales with no provenance mixing indicate differences from modern intraoceanic arcs. Paleogeographic setting and magmatic evolution of the Macquarie Arc provided perfect conditions for mainly porphyry-related, rich Au-Cu deposits, in the Ordovician, and especially in the Early Silurian after amalgamation of the arc with its flanking terranes.


High frequency transformers (HFTs) suffer from high core loss because of high operating frequencies and low magnetic flux saturation of core materials. Latest soft-magnetic materials having the properties of higher flux density, low core loss at medium or high frequencies and high electrical resistivity greatly contribute to the solution of high core losses of HFTs. In this paper, a toroidal core HFT is optimized using human intervened genetic algorithm, mathematically modeled, and characterized in terms of low core loss, better load-power characteristics, and higher efficiency as well as amorphous and nanocrystalline magnetic materials are compared based on their electromagnetic properties. It is nominated that the characterization will lead significant role in the development of next generation HFTs.


Measured up against other areas of tourism research, modest effort has been made in researching tourism education generally and tourism postgraduate studies particularly (G. Afifi, 2009). The purpose of this article is to update D. Botterill, C. Haven, and T. Gale's (2002) research titled "A Survey of Doctoral Theses Accepted by Universities in the UK and Ireland for Studies Related to Tourism, 1990–1999." Accordingly, this research investigates the doctoral theses accepted by universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 2000 and 2009. The research starts by demonstrating the previous work related to tourism postgraduate studies to identify trends and disclose associated issues. Subsequently, the research illustrates the methodological approach utilized before providing an analysis of both chronological and geographical distributions of tourism PhD theses awarded in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The research also sheds light as well on the most attractive and relatively neglected areas of tourism PhDs, which might be of a special importance for universities working on setting their PhD plans.


Picosecond pump probe measurements on waveguides containing a single GaAs/GaAlAs quantum well have enabled us to determine for the first time both electron and hole escape times from biased quantum wells. Contributions from excitonic saturation and field screening by photogenerated carriers can be clearly identified in the nonlinear transition signal and are quantitatively modeled. Preliminary analysis suggests that thermally assisted escape is dominant at room temperature, but discrepancies are found with conventional thermionic emission models.


Much of the recent consolidation in the banking industry has been across state lines, and this trend will accelerate due to recent federal legislation. As interstate banking expands further, the performance and success of banks that are acquired will be the key factor determining how much consolidation will occur and which organizations will be major participants. This article therefore examines a group of banks that were acquired on an interstate basis in 1986 and 1987, and tracks their performance after acquisition. It identifies strategies and characteristics that distinguish acquisitions with strong performance from those with weak performance. While strong and weak performing acquisitions were similar in many ways at the time they were acquired, strong performers expanded on an already significant presence in loan markets and avoided a deterioration in asset quality. Strong performers grew moderately overall, and improved net interest margins. Compared to weak performing acquisitions, strong performers were better at controlling expenses, and they widened this advantage after acquisition. Overall, the strong performers achieved success by applying sound banking techniques in a challenging new market, where previous experience and detailed insights into customers and competitors were limited.


Annular components are used widely in engineering systems and include bearing bushes and races, which may be exposed to extreme operating conditions. A method to establish the localized transient thermoelastic deformation of a homogeneous two-dimensional annular component is developed. The analysis is based on solving the thermoelasticity equations using a state space formulation for the Fourier components of the radial and tangential displacements. Two boundary conditions are considered, namely, rigid and resiliently mounted outer boundaries, both associated with stress free inner boundary conditions. The thermoelastic solution is then demonstrated for a transient temperature distribution induced by inner boundary frictional heating due to rotor contact, which is derived from a dynamic Hertzian pressure distribution. The application is. to a relatively short auxiliary bearing for which a state of plane stress is appropriate. However, the thermoelastic analysis is generalized to cover cases of plane strain and plane stress.


The present invention concerns a class of compounds represented by formula (I) or the pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof to pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds of formula (I), and methods for inhibiting or antagonizing SELECIVAMENTE integrin alphaV BETA3.


We have performed an ab initio investigation for a series of boron compounds, BP, BAs, and BSb, and have compared their structural and electronic properties with those of c-BN. The calculations are performed using a plane-wave expansion within the local density approximation and the pseudopotential approximation. Results are given for lattice constants, bulk moduli, band structures, and band-gap pressure coefficients. The electronic properties of these compounds are shown to have features that differ from those of other III-V materials. We found that the direct-band-gap pressure coefficient in boron compounds is nearly independent of the anion substitutions. As a result, this trend is similar to the one resulting from cation substitutions in other zinc-blende compounds. This is another anomalous behaviour which can be characterized by reversing the standard assignments for the anion and cation in these compounds.


Low‐temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been performed on several molecular‐beam epitaxial high‐quality GaAs layers showing varied electrical characteristics (nominally undoped and intentionally doped n or p type). This work is carried out with a view to investigate the influence of the centers responsible for the defect–bound‐exciton emissions (d,x) on the electrical properties of the layers. After a systematic study of the luminescence properties of the d,x emissions as a function of the electrical nature (doped n or p type), residual p doping level, PL excitation intensity, and sample temperature, we came to the following conclusion: In addition to the prominent residual carbon acceptors, at least a part of p conduction in nominally undoped p‐type layers could come from the centers responsible for the d,x emission at 1.5109±0.0003 eV. This suggestion is tentatively ascertained by detecting an acceptor emission at ∼1.496±0.001 eV, shallower than the carbon acceptor about 3 meV. All thes...


: Image Enhancement is an important step in underwater research. The basic intent of image enhancing is to convert a blur image into a crystal-clear image for the underwater research. Paper discusses the technique for improving underwater image enhancement, these underwater images usually suffers from motion blur effect due to turbulence in the flow of water and non – uniform illumination and limited contrast. Due to the presence of distortion, captured underwater image needs to be processed in different ways. Underwater images captured in deep low light environment, are of worst quality and these images are low contrast, cause blurring effect, low contrast, scattering, absorption, noise color variation, clarity of image is reduced, quality get degrades and these underwater images cannot be directly used for various scientific research, marine biology research, underwater vehicles, submarine operations. While capturing underwater images some major obstacles are there such as minerals, salt, sand, planktons. These particles produce haziness in deep underwater captured image. To beat this, transfer learning base of Features model is taken in this paper.[1]


To foster their innovation teams' adaptability, organizations are increasingly relying on agile teams. While research on the adoption of agile methods and practices has grown tremendously in the past decade, little is currently known about the human side of agile teams and how it contributes toward the emergence of adaptability. While the Agile Manifesto states that individuals and interactions are more important for agile product development than tools and processes, research on how these interactions unfold is still in its infancy. To shed light on the human side of adaptability, 44 semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews were conducted with team members and leaders from various teams at three organizations (i.e., two German and one multinational European firm). The inductive analysis identified empowerment as a focal human factor for adaptability emergence. A model of the continuous agile team innovation process is developed and uncovers the importance of dynamic empowerment states and their temporary equilibria for team adaptability. The underlying findings demonstrate that empowerment is not a static state, but rather emerges through the interactions between various actors. Specifically, the team and its leader engage in both empowerment‐enhancing and empowerment‐reducing activities. These activities are further influenced by the agile team's immediate context: Two‐fold customer influences, that is, supporting and hindering empowerment interactions, and the organizational environment, that is, undergoing an agile transformation and supportive top management behaviors, play an important role in affecting the empowerment dynamics that result in team adaptability. As such, this study contributes to the innovation and management literatures by revealing the dynamic role of the empowerment and adaptability constructs for agile innovation processes and the importance of various actors and the organizational environment for fostering adaptability. Practical insights are offered to management, teams, and team members on how to create conditions for empowerment dynamics and consequently adaptability to unfold.


Behavioral responses to biopsy sampling of four species of northwestern Atlantic balaenopterid whales summering in the estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence, Quebec, from 1990 to 1995 were studied to determine if this technique was an important disturbance to the whales. A total of 447 biopsy samples were taken using a small punch-type biopsy tip fired from a crossbow. Biopsies were successfully taken from 91.2% of the whales approached. Whales displayed no reaction to 45.2% of the successful biopsy attempts. Whales that responded to biopsy sampling typically resumed their normal behavior immediately or within a few minutes. Most humpback whales displayed a hard tail flick, and the majority of fin and blue whales submerged following biopsy sampling. Significantly different frequencies and intensities of responses were found between whale species. Minke and humpback whales were found to be more sensitive to biopsy sampling than fin and blue whales. Response frequencies were similar between females and males for all species, with the exception of fin whales where females had a higher response frequency than males. Biopsy sample length, i. e., penetration depth, did not explain variations in response intensity but may influence response frequency to biopsy sampling. Group size, geographical region, and number of biopsies taken per whale were not factors that explained variation in behavioral responses. The biopsy technique was found to be an efficient method for obtaining high-quality whale skin and blubber samples with limited behavioral disturbance to balaenopterid whales.


Delayed ettringite formation (DEF) is a process which can lead to swelling and cracking of concrete. This paper proposes a chemical model to predict the kinetics and the amount of DEF in concretes subjected to high-temperature curing. The modelling considers several types of phenomena: the thermodynamic equilibria of hydrate crystallisation, the binding of ionic species to hydrated calcium silicates and the mass balance equations, which include the diffusion mechanisms. All the constitutive equations are provided and the thermodynamic constants found from a wide-ranging literature review are given in particular detail. The model has been implemented in a finite element code. The numerical results give the amount of ettringite and monosulphates, and ionic concentration fields in the simulated structure. They are compared with experimentation in which the early-age thermal cycle and long-term alkali release combine to cause DEF.


We are becoming increasingly aware of the possibility that watercraft capable of at least coastal travel over considerable distances — and probably also of deep-sea voyaging — have played a role of some importance in ancient American culture history. Michael Coe has postulated sea-borne contact as the most likely explanation for the striking similarities that exist between the cultural inventories of the Preclassic Ocos phase of coastal Guatemala and the Chorrera phase of south coastal Ecuador. There has been considerable speculation on the likelihood of other sea contacts between the Andean and Mesoamerican cultures, and there is a need, of course, for postulating still more extensive sea travel to account for the accumulating evidence of relationships between Asia and Oceania and the Americas. The monograph under review, providing a survey of what is known about the varied watercraft of South America's Pacific coast, is therefore exceptionally timely and valuable, although historical-distributional studies of this kind and of this high quality would undoubtedly be welcome at any time and in just about any theoretical climate. The author spent 14 months traveling the length of South America to observe what he could of the survival of native craft. This knowledge has been coupled with that gained from an intensive review of the early historical sources and of many later or intermediate accounts to provide a picture of what the situation probably was at the time of first Spanish contact and of the changes that have occurred since that time. It is impossible for this reviewer to judge fully the degree of thoroughness with which the historical records have been combed for information on watercraft and their use, but his impression is that little of significance has been missed. One could only wish that other portions of the Americas — particularly Mexico and Central America — could be surveyed in the same way before existing remnants of aboriginal watercraft use, or the memory of them, is completely lost in these rapidly changing times. In this well-organized and clearly presented survey a separate chapter is devoted to each type of watercraft known in the area covered. These are reed bundle floats, hide floats, the sewn bark canoe, and the dalca (sewn plank canoe), dugout canoes, gourd rafts, and log rafts. Two final chapters are concerned with the "Problems of Origin" and "Summary and Conclusions." Excellent photographs of surviving examples of the various watercraft types and of several early drawings are included in 20 plates. Some attempt is made to consider the possible origin and routes of dispersal in pre-Spanish times of each type of watercraft — both within South America and as possibly related to occurrences in other parts of the world. This is largely a matter of speculation and of posing problems, of course, for there is seldom any direct archaeological evidence of watercraft. It is of interest, however, that Edwards is inclined to consider the nearly world-wide distribution of bundle floats as probably the result of diffusion in early times. He is more certain of Old World relationships when it comes to the question of log rafts with lateen-like sails and centerboards that were undoubtedly used in the Peru-Ecuador border region at the time of Spanish contact. Very similar sailing rafts are known from the south China coast area, and it is thought unlikely that the whole complex of the fore-andaft rig and the related elements that made for the highly efficient sailing rafts of the South American coast could be the products of independent development.


Pseudosarcomatous proliferations of myofibroblasts. fibroblasts and inflammatory cells have been reported in a wide variety of sites and are most commonly termed idammatory pseudotumours. Despite increasing recognition, the occurrence of inflammatory pseudotumour in somatic soft tissue is poorly documented, such that these lesions are commonly mistaken for a variety of benign and malignant neoplasms. This report documents our experience of 18 cases of soft tissue inflammatory pseudotumour. All arose in adults (median age 54.5 years: range 28‐83 years) and showed no sex predilection. Anatomical location was varied but the head and neck region and abdominal cavity were most common. They displayed a spectrum of histological appearances but all were characterized, to a greater or lesser extent, by an admixture of myofibroblasts and fibroblasts, most commonly arranged in short interwoven fascicles, together with a polymorphic inflammatory cell component, consisting principally of lymphocytes and plasma cells. In some cases xanthoma cells were prominent. Simple surgical excision appeared to be curative. The importance of recognizing the presence of a wide clinicopathological spectrum is emphasized and the differential diagnosis, especially from fibrohistiocytic neoplasms or Hodgkin's disease, is discussed.


Ideas about the optimal composition of oral rehydration solutions (ORS) continue to evolve. A controlled clinical trial is the only way to determine whether a new ORS is superior to an established solution, but attempts have been made to prescreen new ORS in a variety of animal models, most of which involve intestinal perfusion. Most of the work has been performed in the healthy small intestine of rats, either in short segments or in its entirety, or in the diseased small intestine that has been infected with rotavirus or exposed to cholera toxin to induce a secretory state. Despite the marked pathophysiologic differences between these models, the qualitative findings using new and established ORS have been remarkably similar. Overall, these animal models have emphasized the potential benefit of using a hypotonic ORS (osmolality, 240 mosm/kg or less). The optimal sodium concentration has been found to be 50 to 60 mmol/L, and the optimal glucose concentration 90 to 111 mmol/L. These models have also been satisfactorily used to examine the value of glucose polymer and food-based ORS. The findings suggest that for a given substrate load initial osmolality is probably the chief determinant of water absorption, which is substantially greater from the more hypotonic solutions. Results from animal experiments must be interpreted with caution because of their physiologic limitations. Nevertheless, they have provided insight into the physiology of oral rehydration therapy and may be useful in identifying ORS for evaluation by clinical trial.


Human herpes simplex viruses (HSV types 1 and 2) constitute the primary cause of genital ulcer disease. Genital herpes is the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection and is found throughout the world. Available treatments for HSV-infected patients are not 100% effective and cannot prevent acquisition of infection. ACAM529 is an HSV-2 virus made replication-defective by deletion of the genes UL5 and UL29. ACAM529 is propagated in a complementing cell line expressing the deleted genes (Da Costa et al., J. Virol.2000). Here we present the comparison of three routes of administration of ACAM529. We measured immunogenicity as well as protective efficacy in the mouse vaginal challenge model. ELISA and neutralizing antibody titers, as well as protection against morbidity, mortality and viral shedding of the challenge virus indicate that two doses of ACAM529 delivered intramuscularly are optimal.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the surgical approaches and clinical outcomes of chronic radiation intestinal injury (CRII).

METHODS
From January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2010, at Department of Surgery, Nanjing General Hospital of Nanjing Command a consecutive series of 206 CRII patients undergoing surgical interventions was reviewed retrospectively. There were 64 males and 142 females with an age range of (50 ± 11) years old. The indications, surgical approaches, surgical complications and mortality were analyzed.

RESULTS
206 CRII patients received 229 surgical treatment, 31 patients underwent two or more operations. The course of surgical interventions included intestinal obstruction (n = 142), intestinal fistula (n = 56), proctitis (n = 12), bleeding (n = 6) and others (n = 13). They underwent 229 laparotomies including intestinal resection and primary anastomosis (n = 142), intestinal resection and enterostomy (n = 57), exclusion of radiation-related gastrointestinal diseases (n = 14) and other procedures (n = 16). The occurrence rate of postoperative intestinal complications was 25.7% (53/206). Five patients (2.4%) died within the postoperative 28 days.

CONCLUSION
Surgery is often required for patients with chronic radiation-induced intestinal obstruction, fistula, hemorrhage and perforation, etc. Resection and primary anastomosis with undamaged segments may be performed safely in selected patients. And a judicious use of stoma can reduce the rates of major surgical mortality and morbidity.


Highest growth of prawn was obtained with Feed B (743 kg/ha) with highest survival rate (60.88%) followed by Feed A where production and survival rate was 659 kg/ha and 53.50%, respectively. Feed A contained 30% dry ground cow viscera, 40% oil cake, 20% rice-bran and 10% heat bran. Feed conversion ratios were found to be 7.60:1 for Feed A and 6.46:1 for Feed B, which indicated that Feed B was more efficiently utilized by the prawn than Feed A. Statistical analysis revealed that the differences in production of prawns among the treatments were highly significant (P< 0.01).


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze addiction prevention related content shown in middle school text books. Methods: Using a combination of the terms "addiction", "drug", "medicine", "personal preference", "smoking", "drinking", "sex", "misuse" or "abuse" as key words, the researchers screened the table of contents of 23 randomly selected middle school textbooks from the 2009 curriculum. Finally 13 textbooks (physical education=10, health=3) were selected for this study, and analyzed using Krippendorff's contents analysis. Results: Through indepth discussion and investigation of the relevant textbooks, content related to addiction prevention included material addiction (77.8%) and behavioral addiction (22.2%). The construction of addiction prevention in middle school textbooks included understanding addiction, rejection of peer temptation, and empowerment of self-control. Conclusion: When developing an intervention for addiction prevention that targets middle school students, education with accurate addiction information must be considered so that the students have the correct knowledge about addiction and addiction prevention. Additionally, the ability to reject peer temptation when invited to act upon related addiction behaviors should be treated seriously. The empowerment of self-control is also important, and can be promoted through strengthening self-regulation competence.


In this article, we present a conceptual framework for studying research impact focusing on the foundations that need to be in place to accelerate an observable change of policy, practice or behaviour. The article investigates the relationship between micro-impacts and societal change, and how smaller impacts scale into larger cascades of end effects and value creation. We define micro-impacts as interactions and connections where information is exchanged between a researcher or research group and external audiences, stakeholders or co-producers. Micro-impacts are elements in highly complex causal relations between research activities and larger societal macroshifts. We argue that even though these causal relations are complex, micro-impacts are tangible and observable and should be integrated in research evaluations as constitutive elements of causal impact relations leading to larger macroshifts. We suggest a working model for studying micro-impacts and for reflecting on the causality of impacts by drawing on contributions from philosophy of causation. A proper understanding of causation is a prerequisite for eventually understanding and capturing research impact, which itself is a prerequisite for responsible research assessment and planning.


We tackle the problem of person re-identification in video setting in this paper, which has been viewed as a crucial task in many applications. Meanwhile, it is very challenging since the task requires learning effective representations from video sequences with heterogeneous spatial-temporal information. We present a novel method - Spatial-Temporal Synergic Residual Network (STSRN) for this problem. STSRN contains a spatial residual extractor, a temporal residual processor and a spatial-temporal smooth module. The smoother can alleviate sample noises along the spatial-temporal dimensions thus enable STSRN extracts more robust spatial-temporal features of consecutive frames. Extensive experiments are conducted on several challenging datasets including iLIDS-VID, PRID2011 and MARS. The results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves consistently superior performance over most of state-of-the-art methods.


The mechanical properties data of fruits are important in the design of various handling, packing, storage and transportation systems. In this research some mechanical properties of two Iranian apple varieties (Golab Kohanz and Shafi Abadi) were analyzed in moisture contents 86% and 84% (W.b) for Golab Kohanz and Shafi Abadi varieties, respectively. Mechanical properties including rupture force and energy, deformation to rupture point, failure stress and strain, Young's modulus (initial tangent modulus, secant modulus, tangent modulus and chard modulus), toughness and hardness were studied under compression loading using standard methods and so firmness was determined by puncture test. Average values of rupture force and energy, failure stress, failure strain, deformation, toughness and hardness were determined,57.81N, 285.88 mJ, 0.37 MPa, 31.2%, 7.77 mm, 0.06 J/cm, 9.14 N/mm for Shafi Abadi variety, respectively. The corresponding values for Golab Kohanz variety were obtained 51.11 N, 157.51 mJ, 0.32 MPa, 23.36%, 5.6 mm, 0.04 J/cm and 7.79 N/mm, respectively. Initial tangent modulus, secant modulus, tangent modulus and chard modulus were obtained 0.93, 1.76, 2.27 and 2.11 MPa for Shafi Abadi variety and 0.81, 1.52, 2.08 and 2.04 MPa for Golab Kohanz variety, respectively. The firmness obtained 59.26 N for Shafi Abadi variety and corresponding value was 47.69 N for Golab Kohanz variety, respectively. According to results Shafi Abadi variety had stiffer and resisterer issue to mechanical forces than Golab Kohanz variety.


The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) was conceived at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a follow on program to its long history in satellite communications projects that have reduced the risk of developing new technologies that fall outside the sponsorship capability of the private sector. To counter the foreign challenge that developed in the late 1970's to the once insuperable US lead in this field, ACTS was developed to maintain the US preeminence. Launched in September 1993 from the space shuttle, key technologies on ACTS include a multibeam antenna, a baseband processor, a 900 MHz wideband microwave switch matrix, adaptive rain fade compensation techniques, and the use of Ka-band frequencies. Since this is the United States' first effort in using Ka-band for satellite communications, beacons are incorporated on the satellite, which provide an opportunity for propagation measurements. NASA is sponsoring a network of propagation experimenters using these beacons and receive-only terminals identical in design. This paper provides some history that leads to the eventual development of ACTS. Also, a system overview of the spacecraft is provided for those less familiar with it.


This paper presents an algorithm for unification of meta-expressions of higher-order lambda calculi with recursive bindings. The meta-language uses higher-order abstract syntax. Besides usual unification variables for expressions and term variables, there are context-variables for generalized shapes of contexts, environment variables for sets of bindings, and (flexible) chain-variables as they, for instance, occur in formal descriptions of the operational semantics of lazy functional programming languages with shared environments. To exclude solutions with unintended scoping, the algorithm takes advantage of so-called non-capture constraints. The expressiveness of the meta-language comprises reduction contexts to support reasoning on program evaluation under reduction strategies. The non-deterministic unification algorithm runs in polynomial time provided certain restrictions on the number of occurrences of unification variables hold. The deterministic version of the algorithm will output a finite and concise set of representatives of all solutions. Results on an implementation of the algorithm are presented. The experiments focus on computing critical pairs of equations from program calculi modeling lazy functional languages which support the reasoning on the correctness of program transformations.


Neuronal voltage-gated potassium channels (Kv) are critical regulators of electrical activity in the central nervous system. Mutations in the KCNQ (Kv7) ion channel family are linked to epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disorders. These channels underlie the neuronal "M-current" and cluster in the axon initial segment to regulate the firing of action potentials. There is general consensus that KCNQ channel assembly and heteromerization are controlled by C-terminal helices. We identified a pediatric patient with neurodevelopmental disability, including autism traits, inattention and hyperactivity, and ataxia, who carries a de novo frameshift mutation in KCNQ3 (KCNQ3-FS534), leading to truncation of ∼300 amino acids in the C terminus. We investigated possible molecular mechanisms of channel dysfunction, including haplo-insufficiency or a dominant-negative effect caused by the assembly of truncated KCNQ3 and functional KCNQ2 subunits. We also used a recently recognized property of the KCNQ2-specific activator ICA-069673 to identify assembly of heteromeric channels. ICA-069673 exhibits a functional signature that depends on the subunit composition of KCNQ2/3 channels, allowing us to determine whether truncated KCNQ3 subunits can assemble with KCNQ2. Our findings demonstrate that although the KCNQ3-FS534 mutant does not generate functional channels on its own, large C-terminal truncations of KCNQ3 (including the KCNQ3-FS534 mutation) assemble efficiently with KCNQ2 but fail to promote or stabilize KCNQ2/KCNQ3 heteromeric channel expression. Therefore, the frequent assumption that pathologies linked to KCNQ3 truncations arise from haplo-insufficiency should be reconsidered in some cases. Subtype-specific channel activators like ICA-069673 are a reliable tool to identify heteromeric assembly of KCNQ2 and KCNQ3. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Mutations that truncate the C terminus of neuronal Kv7/KCNQ channels are linked to a spectrum of seizure disorders. One role of the multifunctional KCNQ C terminus is to mediate subtype-specific assembly of heteromeric KCNQ channels. This study describes the use of a subtype-specific Kv7 activator to assess assembly of heteromeric KCNQ2/KCNQ3 (Kv7.2/Kv7.3) channels and demonstrates that large disease-linked and experimentally generated C-terminal truncated KCNQ3 mutants retain the ability to assemble with KCNQ2.


Multiple drug resistance (MDR) is the ability of some microorganisms to resist the actions of multiple antimicrobial agents. MDR include those resistant to multiple antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-parasitic drugs. Similar activities of some microorganisms to certain chemical (drug) that would normally kill them or limit their growth is called antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Multi drug resistance can be classified as primary resistance, secondary resistance, intrinsic resistance, extensive resistance and clinical resistance. The classes of antibiotics that fall victim of resistance include betalactams, glycopeptide, aminoglycosides, sulphonamides, cephalosporins etc. The mode of action of antimicrobial drug includes cell wall synthesis inhibitors, protein synthesis inhibitor, blockage of key metabolic pathways, nucleic acid synthesis inhibitors etc. Bacteria often become resistant and this could be through one of several biochemical mechanisms such as mutation, destruction or inactivation and efflux or genetic transfer of materials between bacteria by several means such as conjugation, transformation and transduction. The mode of action of MDR protozoa occurs through decrease of drug uptake, the export of drugs from the parasite by P-glycoproteins and other traffic ATPases etc. The mode of action of MDR helminths occurs through genetic changes in the drug target, changes in drug transport, drug metabolism etc. The mode of action of antiviral drugs usually target viral DNA polymerase having the reverse transcriptase activity to inhibit the viral replication. The mode of action of MDR fungi occurs as they have learnt to modify the antifungal drug targets or most commonly increase the efflux of the incoming drugs There are various ways to reverse this resistance such as washing hands after seeing each patient, the public should wash raw fruit and vegetables thoroughly to clear off both resistant bacteria and possible antibiotic residues, avoid the misuse of antibiotics, etc.


Identification of ligands for human gamma-delta T cells remains
a major challenge. The EphA2 (Ephrin receptor A2) has been
identified as a ligand for the Vdelta1 gammadelta TCR
transductants. The EphA2 is often over-expressed in aggressive
cancers mainly of epithelial origin; however, the expression in
haematological malignancies has not been determined. Multiple
myeloma (MM) is a malignancy of plasma cells located in bone
marrow with a premalignant stage MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of
undetermined significance). Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC)
are known to promote the tumour plasma cell growth, survival
and drug resistance in myeloma. The aim was to determine the
expression of EphA2 on myeloma plasma cells (PC) and pDCs
(CD123+, CD303+, CD304+) using multicolour flow cytometry in
MGUS and newly diagnosed MM patients. We have used bone marrow
(BM) and paired peripheral blood (PB) samples from MGUS (n=6)
and MM patients (n=11). The age-matched healthy donors were
used as controls (BM n=9, PB n=16). In MGUS and MM patients, we
found prominent EphA2 expression on tumour plasma cells in BM,
while plasmablasts were mostly negative. PDC have been
identified uniformly EphA2+ in both PB and BM in healthy donors
and in MGUS and MM patients. In summary, we showed the
expression of EphA2 receptor on myeloma cells correlating with
malignant transformation. Since EphA2-positivity has been
confirmed on pDC in MGUS and MM patients, we hypothesize that
large expansions of Vdelta1 gammadelta T cells are driven by
the interactions with pDC and PC expressing the EphA2 in the
tumour microenvironment.


Introduction Mass transport in human cardiovascular system takes place mainly in microcirculation, so it is important to understand blood !low in microvessels. In such small microchannels, behaviors of red blood cells(RBCs) strongly affect the now lie! d. Recently many researcher developed various systems to visualize blood !low in microchannels. But it is very difficult to visualize the centcr plane or the blood flow when the concentration of RBCs(HCT) is over I 0%. In our study, we used confocal-micro-PIV and PTV systems to overcome this problem, and investigate blood flow through stenosis.


We propose a multiwavelength bidirectional optical crossconnect (B-OXC) structure based on fiber Bragg gratings (FBG's) and polarization beam splitters (PBS's). A 2/spl times/2 B-OXC system is implemented using four pairs of short period gratings and two PBS's, in order to experimentally evaluate the performance of the proposed B-OXC system. Loss characteristics are discussed with experimental measurements, and the bit-error rate (BER) performance, the typical channel crosstalk suppression, and the switching time are also measured.


Unquestionably a modern piped water system, delivering an ample supply of potable water and available to all homes in the community at all hours of day and night, is the most effective measure for the permanent elimination of yellow fever. It is equally effective in rendering an infectible area non-infectible, as it automatically eliminates the necessity for using receptacles for conserving the domestic water-supply.
Unfortunately, many communities are hampered by inability to secure enough potable water to meet their needs, and by financial depression. The sanitarian, therefore, must resort to the next best plan for combating the infection, namely, to reduce to a minimum the breeding of the only known vector of the causative agent of this disease, i.e., Aedes aegypti (more popularly known as the Stegomyia), by mosquito-proofing or destroying the receptacles selected by this mosquito for depositing her eggs, which are the containers used in and near human habitations for storing fresh water.


Objetives
To identify the costs of family planning care in adolescents.

Material and methods
Longitudinal study of the cost of care for family planning carried out in 2015 in a group of individuals with age limits of 10 and 19 years in a unit first level of health care in the state of Queretaro, Mexico. The profile of use of family planning (FP) was created for the teen was performed services through counseling, provision of contraception and review of intrauterine device (IUD) in a year; cost projections for the population of adolescents and different coverage scenarios between 5 and 100% were made.

Results
The average annual cost was 228.84 Mexican pesos. Ideally the identified cost was 2,708.94 pesos. The projection with 20 % coverage was 207,251,330 pesos. The average annual family planning consultations was 0.9. The most commonly used method was with medroxyprogesterone-estradiol at doses of 25 and 5 mg.

Conclusion
The cost of planning in adolescents is low, taking into account the costs that the care of high-risk pregnancies and associated comorbidities.


The objective of this paper is to use the Wheel of Consumer Analysis to identify, cultural differences between American and Chinese people in North America regarding their car buying behavior. The study is based on the consumer behavior model proposed by J. Paul Peter and Jerry C. Olson (1994), which helps to explain the reasons for buyer behavior differences between American and Chinese people living in North America.


During the second phase of the Arabian Sea Monsoon Experiment (ARMEX-II), extensive measurements of spectral aerosol optical depth, mass concentration, and mass size distribution of ambient aerosols as well as mass concentration of aerosol black carbon (BC) were made onboard a research vessel during the intermonsoon period (i.e., when the monsoon winds are in transition from northeasterlies to westerlies/ southwesterlies) over the Arabian Sea (AS) adjoining the Indian Peninsula. Simultaneous measurements of spectral aerosol optical depths (AODs) were made at different regions over the adjoining Indian landmass. Mean AODs (at 500-nm wavelength) over the ocean (similar to0.44) were comparable to those over the coastal land (similar to0.47), but were lower than the values observed over the plateau regions of central Indian Peninsula (similar to0.61). The aerosol properties were found to respond distinctly with respect to change in the trajectories, with higher optical depths and flatter AOD spectra associated with trajectories indicating advection from west Asia, and northwest and west-coastal India. On average, BC constituted only similar to2.2% to total aerosol mass compared to the climatological values of similar to6% over the coastal land during the same season.

These data are used to characterize the physical properties of aerosols and to assess the resulting short-wave direct aerosol forcing. The mean values were similar to27 W m(-2) at the surface and -12 W m(-2) at the top of the atmosphere (TOA), resulting in a net atmospheric forcing of +15 W m(-2). The forcing also depended on the region from where the advection predominates. The surface and atmospheric forcing were in the range -40 to -57 W m(-2) and +27 to +39 W m(-2), respectively, corresponding to advection from the west Asian and western coastal India where they were as low as -19 and +10 W m(-2), respectively, when the advection was mainly from the Bay of Bengal and from central/peninsular India. In all these cases, the net atmospheric forcing (heating) efficiency was lower than the values reported for northern Indian Ocean during northern winter, which is attributed to the reduced BC mass fraction.


Eighty percent of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) within the USA is diagnosed late when chemotherapy provides only 2 months increased survival. We fortuitously found that treatment with an alkylating agent, methylnitrosurea (MNU), prior to tumorigenesis reduced tumor prevalence later in life by ∼50% in C3HeB/FeJ male mice, a model of spontaneous HCC. A similar effect was observed with temozolomide (TMZ), a glioblastoma therapy that induces the same DNA damage at similar proportions to MNU. O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) repairs the highly mutagenic and cytotoxic O6-methylguanine lesions induced by TMZ, and MGMT abundance influences therapy response in glioblastoma. MGMT is reduced in 1/3 of human HCC, leading us to hypothesize that TMZ could be effective in treating HCC. We proposed to combine TMZ with suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, to maximize efficacy, reasoning that SAHA would allow TMZ greater access to DNA to induce greater levels of damage. We tested this drug combination in two human HCC cell lines, Huh7, with reduced MGMT expression, and SNU398, with higher expression. TMZ and SAHA synergistically reduced cell viability in both cell lines with multiple dose combinations. Based on this outcome, we tested the drugs in tumor-bearing C3HeB/FeJ mice. Surprisingly, DMSO treated solvent control mice showed reduced tumor burden. The DMSO treatment was repeated adding a sham control group and confirmed that DMSO significantly reduces tumor burden. The TMZ cohort also displayed a significantly lower tumor burden compared to the sham cohort, but no significant difference was found with SAHA alone or SAHA+TMZ. We previously showed that a hMGMT transgene protects from hepatocarcinogenesis in C3HeB/FeJ mice, but surprisingly, there is not additional protection when transgenic mice are treated with MNU. These results suggest that the more prevalent cytotoxic lesions induced by MNU and TMZ, e.g. N7-methylguanine, may be more important in HCC than O6-methylguanine. These lesions are recognized by methylpurine-DNA glycosylase (MPG) and repaired through base excision repair. Therefore, we directly tested the role of MPG in TMZ therapy through altered expression of MPG in Huh7 and SNU398 cell lines and showed that it does affect sensitivity to TMZ. Citation Format: Jessica A. Zavadil, Christi A. Walter. Improved therapeutics for hepatocellular carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3595.


The photoionization and photodissociation processes of C 2 Cl 4 were investigated under the supersonic molecular beam conditions by using a reflectron-time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photons from synchrotron radiation source. The photoionization mass spectrum and the photoionization efficiency (PIE) curves of the parent ion and some fragment ions were measured. The appearance potentials of these ions are obtained from their PIE curves. The formation enthalpies of some major ions and the dissociation energy of C 2 Cl 4 have been evaluated from these data. According to the experimental results and the energy calculated by G1 theory, the main possible channels of dissociative photoionization of C 2 Cl 4 have been discussed. In the future, we can detect C 2 Cl 4 with single photon ionization(SPI)-TOFMS technique using 118.0nm laser radiation. This is based on the mass spectrum obtained at the wavelenth by using synchrotron radiation source.


This study examines cultural differences and similarities in design of university Web sites using Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions. Graphical elements on a sample of university home pages from Malaysia, Austria, the United States, Ecuador, Japan, Sweden, Greece and Denmark are compared using content analysis methods. The home pages were analyzed on the basis of two criteria: organization and graphical design. Element frequency scores were correlated with Hofstede's indexes and interpreted on the basis of the existing literature. The results suggest that similarities and differences in Web site design can be brought out through Hofstede's cultural model. Computed correlations between Hofstede's scores and frequency counts of interface elements were weaker than anticipated, but in most cases occurred in the hypothesized direction.


This comprehensive tome is the result of a great deal of reading and quite some thought. The gamut covers such topics as how colours are seen (does anyone really know?), how colour is measured and specified, how colour vision deficiencies present, how they are acquired and, may be, passed on, etc. A great deal of attention is devoted to the description and practice of testing; this, like other sections, betrays the authors' keen interest in the history of their subject. The practical approach to colour defects is not often treated, and therefore doubly welcome. However, Canada is not the only country where the red traffic signal is larger than amber and green, and it is a little surprising that' authors, to whom the visual angle should mean a great deal, comment on this as little as on the (unquoted) fact that Switzerland has a different shape for each traffic colour. In spite of some solecisms ('the Stiles n4 and x5 mechanisms, the fundamental colour mechanisms for red and green . . .'), the book is to be recommended. Its illustrations are helpful, its presentation good by modem standards, and the spelling ofsurnames largely correct. ROBERT WEALE


Abstract Liposomal delivery constitutes a promising approach for i.v. administration of temoporfin (mTHPC) because lipid membranes can host these drug molecules. This study investigates the transfer and release of mTHPC to plasma proteins and stability of various liposomal formulations. To this end, we employed traces of radioactive markers and studied the effects of fatty acid chain length and the degree of saturation in the lipophilic tail, addition of cholesterol and PEGylation of the membrane surface and different drug-to-lipid ratios (DLRs). Liposomes were incubated in human plasma for various incubation times. Drawn samples were separated by asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AF4). Drug was recovered in four fractions identified as albumin, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and liposomes. Our results suggest that mTHPC fits best into fluid, unmodified bilayers when the drug-to-lipid ratio is low. Membrane rigidification as well as the presence of cholesterol and PEGyated lipids reduced the ability of the membrane to accommodate the drug but simultaneously improved the vesicle stability in plasma. Both mechanisms jointly affect the total degree of mTHPC release. We analyzed our data using a kinetic model that suggests the drug to be associated with the host membrane in two distinct states of which only one interacts directly with the plasma compartment.


The purpose of this paper is to improve allocation of the number of bits without skipping the frame by accurately estimating the target bits in H.264/AVC rate control. In our scheme, we propose an enhancement method of the target frame rate based H.264/AVC bit allocation. The enhancement uses a frame complexity estimation to improve the existing mean absolute difference (MAD) complexity measurement. Bit allocation to each frame is not just computed by target frame rate but also adjusted by a combined frame complexity measure. Using the statistical characteristic, we obtain change of occurrence bit about QP to apply the bit amount by QP from the video characteristic and applied in the estimated bit amount of the current frame. Simulation results show that the proposed rate control scheme achieves time saving of more than 99% over existing rate control algorithm. Nevertheless, PSNR and bit rate were almost same as the performances.


Growth hormone (GH) has previously been implicated in T cell development and function, and here we review its efficacy in promoting development and function of myeloid cells. Evidence obtained from both in vitro and in vivo studies suggests that, in animals as well as in man, GH augments proliferation and differentiation of erythroid, megakaryocytic and myeloid progenitor cells. Mechanisms of hemopoietic actions probably involve induction of insulin-like growth factor-1, which is under GH control. Effects are mostly, though not exclusively, seen in GH deficiency states. Like other hemopoietic factors currently undergoing clinical trials for modulation of mature phagocyte function, GH is found in vitro and in vivo to stimulate potently monocyte migration and to prime neutrophils and macrophages for enhanced activation by second stimuli. Activation of neutrophils is mediated by GH action on the neutrophil prolactin receptors. The detailed mechanism of macrophage activation is currently unknown. GH action on myeloid phagocytes may help to explain protective effects of GH observed in experimental infection as well as its promotive effect on wound healing.


We present UrbanFly: an uncertainty-aware realtime planning framework for quadrotor navigation in urban high-rise environments. A core aspect of UrbanFly is its ability to robustly plan directly on the sparse point clouds generated by a Monocular Visual Inertial SLAM (VI-SLAM) backend. It achieves this by using the sparse point clouds to build an uncertainty-integrated cuboid representation of the environment through a data-driven monocular plane segmentation network. Our chosen world model provides faster distance queries than the more common voxel-grid representation. UrbanFly leverages this capability in two different ways leading to two trajectory optimizers. The first optimizer uses gradient-free cross-entropy method to compute trajectories that minimize collision probability and smoothness cost. Our second optimizer is a simplified version of the first and uses a sequential convex programming optimizer initialized based on probabilistic safety estimates on a set of randomly drawn trajectories. Both our trajectory optimizers are made computationally tractable and independent of the nature of underlying uncertainty by embedding the distribution of collision violations in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space. Empowered by the algorithmic innovation, UrbanFly outperforms competing baselines in metrics such as collision rate, trajectory length, etc., on a high fidelity AirSim simulator augmented with synthetic and real-world dataset scenes.


Author(s): Basir-Kazeruni, Sina | Advisor(s): Markovic, Dejan | Abstract: An increased interest in the investigation of the inner workings of the brain, together with recent technological advancements have been great catalysts for the development of neural stimulation and signal recording systems. These neural interfaces have enabled a better understanding of underlying neurological diseases, and provide promising therapeutic interventions for various neurological disorders. As discoveries and technological advancements continue, new challenges and opportunities emerge. One of the major challenges is the development of small, portable, and power-efficient closed-loop neuromodulation systems. The ability to simultaneously stimulate and record is a key capability required in enabling such systems. A closed-loop neuromodulation system is comprised of mainly four elements: (a) Stimulator: an energy-efficient and flexible stimulation engine, (b) Sensing: Low-power, high dynamic-range analog front-ends, (c) Digital Signal Processing (DSP): energy-/area-efficient digital signal processing units, and (d) Wireless transfer: an energy-efficient wireless power and data transfer unit. In summary, efficient and concurrent stimulation, sensing, processing, and transfer of neural signals are required. Design efforts are in full effect to realize leading edge stimulation, sensing, and wireless transfer technologies; however, one common difficulty in realizing concurrent stimulation and recording of neural signals is the presence of stimulation artifacts observed at the sensing end. Existing solutions (e.g., blanking the recording channel during stimulation or self-cancelling stimulation electrodes) have not answered all the challenges and lack the ability of continuous signal recording during the stimulation phase, thus rendering a critical portion of the data unusable. In this work we propose an energy-efficient, implantable, real-time Adaptive Stimulation Artifact Rejection (ASAR) engine, capable of adaptively removing stimulation artifact for varying stimulation characteristics at multiple sites. Additionally, a blind artifact template detection technique is introduced, which in combination with the proposed ASAR algorithm, eliminates the need for any prior knowledge of the temporal and structural characteristics of the stimulation pulse; this technique also enables us to effectively battle the non-linear mapping of brain tissue, and non-idealities of electrode interfaces, with linear filtering. Two engines, implemented in 40nm CMOS, achieve convergence of l42μs for Spike ASAR and l167μs for LFP ASAR, and can attenuate artifacts up to 100mVp-p by 49.2dB, without any prior knowledge of the stimulation pulse. The LFP and Spike ASAR designs occupy an area of 0.197mm2 and 0.209mm2, and consume 1.73μW and 3.02μW, respectively at 0.644V. The LFP ASAR is integrated in a 64-channel sensing chip used in a state-of-the-art implantable, closed-loop neuromodulation unit (NM).


Malaria is still a major contributor to the high rate of global infectious disease-related mortality and morbidity particularly in Nigeria. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between various Hemoglobin Genotypes, Calcium, and Membrane Potential in malaria patients. Retrospective analysis of the results of the distribution of Malaria parasitemia among suspected cases of malaria, various Haemoglobin genotypes, Calcium and Membrane Potential were conducted in Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Umuahia, Abia State. Two hundred cases were examined by Giemsa staining method using thick film. Haemoglobin genotype determination was performed by Cellulose acetate electrophoresis.  Obtained data were analyzed using One-Way ANOVA. Results: One hundred and seventy (85.0%) were positive for Malaria parasite. The prevalence was 92(54.1%) and 78(46.0%) for females and males respectively and at p<0.05, the result obtained from the statistics is considered significant. There are high prevalence of parasitemia in AA, 80(40.0%), with genotype SS recording the least with 30(15%). The age group 27-35 years had the highest occurrence of parasitemia with (44.1%) while the least was obtained in the age range 45-53 years with (2.4%). It was observed that the density of Malaria parasitemia was highest in the age group 27-35 years meaning that parasite density decreases with increasing age and the Haemoglobin genotype AA had the highest Malaria density. Also, the serum Calcium and Membrane Potential were significantly reduced in Sickle cell disease (HbSS) when compared to the HbAA and HbAS individuals. This signifies a low energy level in Sickle cell patients that can result in oxidative stress. This may probably indicate that serum Calcium and Membrane Potential are significantly reduced in Sickle cell patients compared with other Haemoglobin genotypes with Malaria.


We investigated the localization of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) mRNA and of immunoreactive ANF in the vena cava and sinus node of rat and, for comparative purposes, in atria and ventricles. In situ hybridization with an ANF cRNA probe revealed that the supradiaphragmatic portion of the inferior vena cava contains almost as much mRNA as the atria, whereas the levels were less in the superior vena cava and higher than in ventricles in the sinus node. Immunoreactive ANF (high Mr form) was found to be 22 times less abundant in the supradiaphragmatic vena cava and 148 times less abundant in the superior vena cava than in atrial cardiocytes. The wall of the supradiaphragmatic portion of the vena cava and the valve (eustachian valve) that separates the atrial cavity from that of the vein are made up of atrial-like cardiocytes containing secretory granules. The subendothelial area of the superior vena cava also contains atrial-like cardiocytes with secretory granules, whereas the outer portion of the vein is made up of "transitional cells" without or with only a few secretory granules. Secretory granules in the vena cava and nodal cells, as well as transitional cells, contain immunoreactive ANF. With immunocryoultramicrotomy, virtually all cells, whether atrial-like, transitional, or nodal, and even those without secretory granules, were found to contain immunoreactive ANF in their Golgi complex and in secretory vesicles in the vena cava and in the sinus node.


Among data mining technique, clustering is one of the most important and traditional concept also an unsupervised learning paradigm. Similarity of a document pairs can be measured by matching of concepts. Finding or extracting the most relevant concept from the documents is a challengeable task. To address this issue, in this paper we introduce a concept of multi view point based similarity measure. Our proposed methods uses multiple point of reference between document pairs to extract more relevant match concept rather than extracting only ideas based on similarity measure. Using multiple view point, gathers more information about a particular topic from many different but relevant sources or concept. This strategy works well with smaller documents but is especially effective with longer documents. By gathering more relevant concepts from the documents with multiple points of reference, the document organization and retrieval can enhance the ability to make the most use of the documents held in storage and make retrieval of ideas as well as relevant task or concept much easier and faster. Experimental results shows that our proposed method efficiently extract more relevant concept.


Background: Acute respiratory diseases are part of opportunistic infections developed by patients with HIV/AIDS due to immunosuppression. The present study aims evaluating the clinical and evolutive patterns of acute respiratory infections in patients with HIV/AIDS. Methods: The authors have retrospectively analyzed 82 patients with HIV/AIDS and acute respiratory diseases admitted at Clinic of Infectious Diseases. The positive diagnosis was based on clinical elements, biological parameters (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, leukocyte count, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, sputum culture etc) and paraclinic elements (chest radiography, spirometry). Results: From the study group, 52 patients with acute respiratory diseases (p=0.04) have been registered: 10 cases (12.19%) had bacterial pneumonia, 8 (9.75%) had interstitial pneumonia, 4 (4.87%) had fungal pneumonia, 8 (9.75%) had acute bronchitis, 11 (13.41%) had influenza, 7 (8.53%) had acute anginas and 4 (4.87%) had pulmonary tuberculosis. The etiological agent has been isolated in 21 cases: 7 with Streptococcus pneumoniae , 4 with Staphilococcus aureus , 2 with Klebsiella pneumoniae , 4 with Pneumocystis jirovecii and 4 with Mycobacterium tuberculosis . In 54 cases, CD4-cell count was less than 200 cells/mm 3 and 28 cases (p=0.01) over 200 cells/mm 3 . Under specific therapy and antiviral treatment, the clinical outcome has been favourable in 50 cases, only 2 cases died with pulmonary tuberculosis. Conclusion: The detailed study of the clinical and evolutive patterns of respiratory infections in patients with HIV/AIDS allows timely implementation of specific therapy and prophylaxis in this populational group with multiple risks.


This paper presents evidence from a field experiment designed to evaluate the efficacy of anonymous application procedures. While the policy evaluation itself is of interest, more importantly the experiment provides a unique opportunity to detect race based differential treatment in a controlled market environment. Over a 6 month period we observe all applications sent in response to local public sector vacancies. We observe both the callback and the job oer decision. We compare decisions of recruiters when they can observe ethnic markers (control) with a treatment condition where ethnic markers are absent. We find a substantial differential in the callback decision. Interestingly, we do not find evidence for differential treatment in the job offer decision. A follow up experiment provides indications that recruiters respond strategically to the announcement of the results of the first experiment.


Isotope effects in an electron cyclotron resonance ion source are investigated in mixtures of 15N and 14N. The ratio of the extracted currents I(15Nq + )/I(14Nq + ) increases with increasing charge state q. This so-called `isotope anomaly' proves to be dependent on both the mixture ratio of the gases as well as the microwave power fed into the discharge. It is shown that the often-utilized `ion cooling' model cannot solely explain the observed isotope effects as long as the temperature is assumed to be equal for all ion species. Since we observed the occurrence of low-frequency noise in correlation with the isotope anomaly, we suggest that the ions are additionally heated by ion Landau damping. Due to the mass dependence of this process, the lighter ion species will be heated predominantly. This results in an enhanced transport of lighter ions out of the plasma and a better confinement for the heavier component, which, consequently, may be more effectively ionized to higher charges states.


Objective: To systematically summarize the development of global human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination guidelines. Methods: The retrieval for all the Chinese and English literature published before August 2020 was conducted in PubMed, Embase and China Biomedical Literature Database, with "papillomavirus vaccines" "wart virus vaccine" "guideline" "practice guideline" "health planning guidelines" "guidelines as topic" "practice guidelines as topic" "immunization programs" in English as well as "papillomavirus vaccines" "HPV vaccine" "guideline" "recommendation" "consensus" in Chinese as search keywords. A total of 18 guidelines were included for data extraction and analysis. Results: The 18 pieces of guidelines included 1 pieces of World Health Organization (WHO) position paper, 6 pieces of guidelines at national or provincial level and other 11 pieces of by academic institutions. In national or provincial guidelines, the recommendation for routine vaccination mainly focused on 11-13 year-old adolescents and the recommendation for catch-up vaccination extends to 17-26 years old. Recommendation of guidelines by academic institutions were similar to the WHO position paper: girls aged 9-14 as the primary target for the routine vaccination; females aged 15-26 years old as the secondary target populations when it's feasible, affordable and cost-effective; women aged over 26 could be vaccinated at an individual level. There were only three guidelines simultaneously updated with the national immunization programme and covered four aspects: the vaccinated population (girls-only to gender-neutral vaccination), the periodic catch-up immunization, the dose schedule updates and the change of vaccine types. Conclusions: It's recommended that the development of Chinese HPV vaccination guidelines refer to global guidelines and updates and take full consideration of the epidemiological evidence, resources and current status of the immunization system in China.


Eosinophilic peritonitis (EP) is a well-described complication of peritoneal dialysis that occurs because of an overreaction to constituents that are related to the catheter or tubing, peritoneal dialysate, pathogenic infection, or intraperitoneal drug use. EP caused by antibiotic use is rare. We present the case of a patient with cefoperazone and sulbactam-related EP. A 59-year-old woman who was undergoing peritoneal dialysis presented with peritonitis with abdominal pain and turbid peritoneal dialysis. Empiric intraperitoneal cefazolin in combination with cefoperazone and sulbactam was started after peritoneal dialysis effluent cultures were performed. Her peritonitis achieved remission in 2 days with the help of cephalosporin, but she developed EP 1 week later, when her dialysate eosinophil count peaked at 49% of the total dialysate white blood cells (absolute count, 110/mm3). We excluded other possible causes and speculated that cefoperazone and sulbactam was the probable cause of EP. The patient continued treatment with cefoperazone and sulbactam for 14 days. EP resolved within 48 hours after stopping cefoperazone and sulbactam. Thus, EP can be caused by cefoperazone and sulbactam use. Physicians should be able to distinguish antibiotic-related EP from refractory peritonitis to avoid technique failure.


Two-component signal-transducing systems (TCS) consist of a histidine kinase (HK) that senses a specific environmental stimulus, and a cognate response regulator (RR) that mediates the cellular response. Most HK are membrane-anchored proteins harboring two domains: An extracytoplasmic input and a cytoplasmic transmitter (or kinase) domain, separated by transmembrane helices that are crucial for the intramolecular information flow. In contrast to the cytoplasmic domain, the input domain is highly variable, reflecting the plethora of different signals sensed. Intramembrane-sensing HK (IM-HK) are characterized by their short input domain, consisting solely of two putative transmembane helices. They lack an extracytoplasmic domain, indicative for a sensing process at or from within the membrane interface. Most proteins sharing this domain architecture are found in Firmicutes bacteria. Two major groups can be differentiated based on sequence similarity and genomic context: (1) BceS-like IM-HK that are functionally and genetically linked to ABC transporters, and (2) LiaS-like IM-HK, as part of three-component systems. Most IM-HK sense cell envelope stress, and identified target genes are often involved in maintaining cell envelope integrity, mediating antibiotic resistance, or detoxification processes. Therefore, IM-HK seem to constitute an important mechanism of cell envelope stress response in low G+C Gram-positive bacteria.


Conservation and conditioning of the salts showcase of the Museu Martorell (Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona): 1921-2018
The Cardona salts showcase was built and designed in 1921 by Francesc Pardillo. Located at the Museu Martorell building (Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona) it exposes and preserves a collection of salt rocks from the Cardona Salt Mountain. These specimens were donated at the end of 19th century by Ms. Casilda de Salabert i Arteaga (Medinaceli Duchess) and Mr. Miguel De Elías Marchal and represent a collection with a significant heritage and historic value. Due to the trace of time and the lack of conditioning interventions, this showcase did not preserve the samples in optimal conditions. The specimens began an alteration process interacting with high relative humidity, also generating the general degradation of the showcase furniture. In order to stop this degradation, it has been carried out an integral conditioning of this showcase but also of the salt specimens. This process has been executed respecting the original design of the showcase and carrying out the minimum intervention into the rock samples. In addition, a new passive and sustainable system to control environmental conditions has been set up to maintain optimal humidity conditions. This action stopped the degradation of the showcase as well as the specimens and guarantees their preservation over time.


The common snook Centropomus undecimalis is an estuarine-dependent fish that relies on landward wetlands as nursery habitat. Despite its economic importance, portions of the snook's early life history are poorly understood. We compared habitat use of young-of-the-year (YOY) snook in 2 geomorphic mesohabitats (tidal pond and tidal creek) along an estuarine gradi- ent (upstream vs. downstream) within a single wetland during fall recruitment. We used abun- dance, length, condition indices, and stable isotopes to assess ontogenetic mesohabitat use and site fidelity. We found that (1) YOY snook were more abundant within the upstream creek and ponds; (2) the smallest snook were found only in ponds; (3) snook from ponds had lower condition (Fulton's K and hepatosomatic index); (4) snook began moving from ponds to the creek at ~40 mm standard length; and (5) snook from the 2 mesohabitats were isotopically distinct, indicating high site fidelity at rather small spatial scales. Collectively, these data identified sequential use of meso- habitats, wherein seaward-spawned YOY snook moved landward and recruited to pond habitats, where they dedicated energy to growth (as length) before making an ontogenetic habitat shift to the creek. Once in the creek, YOY snook condition improved as they approached maturity and started the downstream return towards seaward locations. The wetland network that was previ- ously viewed as generalized nursery habitat instead consists of mesohabitats that support differ- ent life stages in sequence. This represents ontogenetic habitat complementation, in which lower availability of a required mesohabitat type may limit the entire wetland's contribution to the adult population.


The present study performs a description of ultrasound anatomy of superficial lymph nodesusing gray scale ultrasound, Doppler techniques (color Doppler and power Doppler), compared with amorphological identification method - injection of coloring solutions (Blue Dye), with lymphatic tissuetropism. Eleven subjects were examined (nine female and two male). A total of 58 lymph nodes wereassessed belonging to the axillary, superficial inguinal, popliteus, superficial cervical and submandibularlymph centers. Ultrasonographic criteria followed were: shape, size, echogenicity, ecotexture, capsuleappearance, hiperecoic band of the hillum and angioarhitecture. For comparison, subcutaneous injectionof Blue Dye Evans, 0.5% in 4 subjects was performed. Ultrasound examination detected right and leftinguinal, and popliteus lymph nodes in all subjects, axillaries lymph nodes in 10 subjects, cervicalsuperficial lymph nodes in 9 subjects and submandibular in 7 subjects. Normal lymph nodes present oval(fusiform) shape, with a corticomedullary homogenous ecotexture, well defined capsule. The ecogenicitywas hypoecoic or isoecoic to the surrounding tissues, with a hiperecoic hilar band. The distribution ofvascular flow within the lymph node, assessed by color Doppler techniques, was hilar in 78% of subjects.Power Doppler technique detected with high accuracy the presence of vascular signal in small lymphvessels. Subcutaneous injection of Blue Dye, identified in all subjects the axillary, inguinal superficial,popliteus and cervical superficial lymph nodes. Compared with Blue Dye, ultrasound examinationrevealed with about the same accuracy the lymph nodes, with 96% specificity and 87% sensitivity.


UNLABELLED
Background The epidemiology of syphilis, and therefore the population most impacted, differs between countries. Many developed countries have reported an increase in syphilis notifications among men who have sex with men (MSM) over the past decade.

METHODS
The rates of syphilis notifications between 2000 and 2013 in the 31 countries categorised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as high income were investigated. Data was taken primarily from published national surveillance reports, and a male-to-female ratio substantially greater than two in syphilis notifications was taken as a proxy for the infection being disproportionately diagnosed in MSM.

RESULTS
Data was available for 27 high-income countries. The male-to-female ratio exceeded two in all but four countries. This ratio significantly increased across all geographical areas over time. Globally, the male-to-female ratio in these countries increased from 4.1 in 2000 to 7.9 in 2013 (P=0.001). Furthermore, the proportion of male cases reported as being among MSM increased over time from 26.8% to 55.0% between 2000 and 2013 (P<0.001).

CONCLUSION
These data show that in countries with high income, there is a near universal finding of increasing rates of syphilis in MSM. It is therefore clear that no country has identified an effective method to control syphilis in this population.


Large electrical systems or facilities can be satisfactorily shielded by using low-cost meshed metallic nets. Here the shielding efiectiveness for two such planar meshes is calculated analytically and verifled both experimentally by using cascaded reverberation chambers as well as numerically with results computed using a full wave electromagnetic solver. It is shown that all three methods agree and, in addition, that non-square shaped aperture meshes can be handled with an equivalent square area shaped aperture.


The capital intensity takes an important role in two-sector and multisector growth models. Surprisingly very few empirical studies have been conducted so far except by Kuga (1967). This fact implies that few people have ever tried to perform any empirical research to study whether the two-sector and multisector optimal growth models could explain the economic development properly based on the empirical data. Although we witnessed fairly active theoretical research on two-sector and multisector growth models in the 1990s and recent years, R. M. Solow has thrown doubt on the capital intensities [in Philippe Aghion and Steven Durlauf (eds.), Handbook of Economic Growth, Vol. 1A (2005, pp. 3–10)]. Our purpose is to measure the capital intensities of the consumption good and the investment good sectors mainly in the postwar Japanese economy, and also in other OECD countries. By so doing, we will demonstrate that the capital intensity does matter and our empirical evidence will strongly support the common assumption that the consumption goods sector is more capital-intensive than the capital goods sector.


Between the collections of applications allowed by the IoT, smart and linked health care may be mainly vital one. Networked sensors, either damaged on body or entrenched in atmospheres, alter the assembly of wealthy info symptomatic of our physical and psychological health. For example, heart patient parameter such as BP, heart rate and activities of fetal to regulate their health state. In this paper, a coordinator node has devoted on patient's body to gather all the signals from the wireless sensors and directs them to base station. The involved sensors on patient's body form a WBAN and they are talented to sense the heart rate, BP and so on. This scheme can notice the irregular conditions, problem an alarm to the patient and direct a message to the clinician, ambulance and family. The focal benefit of this scheme in assessment to earlier systems is to decrease the energy consumption to extend the network period, speed up and encompass the statement coverage to upsurge the choice for enhance patient superiority of lifetime. Here, we focus the chances and tasks for WSN in understanding this idea of longer term of health care.


The academic model of success in higher education often neglects the role of noncognitive variables, including Emotional Intelligence (EI). As higher education educators turn their attention to learning, scholars are focusing on the role of EI and other noncognitive variables in enhancing learning. Although learning takes place both inside and outside the classroom, this specific study addresses learning as it relates to academic performance. To explore the role of noncognitive factors in predicting academic performance, this study utilizes an initial sample of 864 first-year students at a large research university. The research addresses the value of EI in predicting academic performance as measured by cumulative grade point average (GPA). The role student affairs professionals play in the noncognitive development of students, specifically EI, could enhance student performance inside and outside the classroom. Implications for educators, including student affairs professionals, are addressed.


Motivation Model based methods for process control and supervision have been known for many years. In the field of process industries, these methods allow the safe operation of plants with growing complexity and higher efficiency . Nevertheless, such modelbased systems didn't find wide acceptance in industry, mainly because of the efforts and costs that are needed to find the structure of an adequate mathematical model within an usually extremely nonlinear domain . This contribution wants to show, how QR techniques, implemented in an integrated software tool, may support the process of finding adequate mathematical models especially for safety critical chemical reaction systems .


We contribute to the investigation of possible outcomes of argumentation under semantics formulated using argumentation frameworks (AFs). In particular, we study this question for the labelling-based formulation of such semantics, generalizing previous work which has focused on extensions. In this paper, we restrict attention to the preferred and semi-stable semantics, showing that as long as we have a sufficient number of fresh arguments available, we can in fact argue for anything. That is, for any set of finite labellings there is an AF that enforces exactly this set as the outcome of argumentation.


INTRODUCTION
Central venous catheters (CVC) are used in the treatment of critically ill patients. Indications for placement of CVCs include hemodynamic monitoring, administration of intravenous fluids, medications and total parenteral nutrition.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We investigated risk factors and effects of glycopeptide antibiotics on the development of central venous catheter-related injections in 300 patients treated in intensive care units. A semiquntitative culture technique was used. The investigation included: age, diagnosis on admission, catheter insertion site, catheter duration, the first or next catheter and using of glycopeptide drugs.

RESULTS
91 catheters (30.3%) were colonised, catheter-related infection was found in 50 catheters (16.7%). Infections were more frequent in catheters inserted through the internal jugular vein than in subclavian venous catheters, they were also more frequent if duration of catheterization was longer than seven days, but less frequent in patients who received glycopeptide antibiotics. The isolated microorganism was Staphylococcus aureus. Discussion According to the literature, a number of catheter-related risk factors for infections include: insertion site, type of catheter, the number of manipulations, inadequat asepsis, lumen number, type of antiseptic. The relative importance of one risk factor over another is difficult to assess, given that studies have no priority report.

CONCLUSION
The duration of catheterization and the insertion site were the most frequent risk factors for infection. The use of glycopeptide antibiotics during catheterization has protective effects.