hance new and experienced nurses' professional development, education, and clinical skills. A needs assessment for this program revealed that 50% of staff nurses had less than 2 years experience, and few had participated in professional activities. The pilot program was open to any staff nurse, but only those who could commit to meeting times were accepted. The seven participants were from various departments within the hospital. The pilot program lasted two months, and each participant identified one long-term goal and three short-term goals before the program began. Biweekly group meetings provided educational offerings based on the goals of each participant, as well as independent and group activities. The two facilitators, nurse educator program coordinators, promoted and directed independent activities, group activities, and mentorship experiences. Objectives included: 1.) increasing the knowledge base and/or skill level of staff nurses through individual goal setting, structured activities, and independent learning, 2.) developing professional skills of staff nurses, and 3.) increasing participation and support of institutional programs and/or professional organizations. Evaluation of the program consisted of pre-, mid-, and post-assessment of an individual's goal achievement, as well as evaluations of speakers, activities, mentors, and the program overall. The significance for these pediatric oncology nurses is manifested by their reported outcomes: an increase in the quality of patient care, in their knowledge base, in utilization of professional skills, in participation in institutional and professional activities, in team-building activities, in job satisfaction, and progress in personal goal attainment. Developing and mentoring nursing staff is a valuable tool used to build nursing leadership skills. It is the responsibility of today's pediatric oncology nursing leaders to develop the novice leader of the future. Unfamiliar Territory: Nursing Care of the Infant Undergoing Haplo Transplantation


The merging of Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile edge computing (MEC) enables resource-limited IoT devices to complete computation-intensive or urgent task through offloading the task to the adjacent edge server, and is becoming popular recently. Due to blockage or deep fading, one IoT device may not be able to build direct link with the edge server. On the other hand, many IoT devices can serve as relay nodes as there may exist massive ones in the neighborhood. In this article, we study an MEC system with the IoT device aided by multiple relay nodes for task offloading. Specifically, the modes of decode-and-forward (DF) with time-division-multiple-access (TDMA) and frequency-division-multiple-access (FDMA), and the mode of amplify-and-forward (AF) are investigated, which are denoted as DF-TDMA, DF-FDMA, and AF, respectively. The allocation of computation and communication resources is optimized in order to minimize the weighted sum of energy consumption of all the IoT devices. Associated optimization problems are formulated but shown to be nonconvex, which are challenging to solve. For the DF-TDMA mode, we transform the original nonconvex problem to be convex and further develop a low complexity yet optimal solution. In DF-FDMA mode, with some transformation on the original problem, we prove the mathematical equivalence between the problems in DF-FDMA and DF-TDMA mode. In AF mode, the convergent solution is found by decomposing the associated optimization problem into two levels, with monotonic optimization and successive convex approximation (SCA) utilized for upper level and lower level, respectively. The numerical results prove the effectiveness of our proposed methods.


This article expands a conceptual model proposed by Dattilo and Kleiber (1993) to a model for therapeutic recreation (TR) service delivery. The original conceptual model explained the relationship between enjoyment and self-determination. The TR service delivery model proposed in this article is comprised of a modified version of the original conceptual model with specific service delivery strategies for each stage of the TR process. It is proposed that teaching participants in TR programs to experience enjoyment and to create environments conducive to enjoyment are important goals for TR service which also contribute to participants' functional improvements.


The aim of this paper is to bring into focus the literature on the choice of the mandibular reference position in orthodontic treatment; of a particular reference to this paper is intercuspal position, centric relation position, or therapeutic position. To give a comprehensive account of the literature review on craniomandibular disorders (CMD), we have relied on books and articles using both Google Scholar and PubMed. Selection criteria included a combination of Mesh and type of article. Article classification was made by two authors, using the following structure outline: prevalence of craniomandibular disorders, its etiology and pathophysiology, occlusion and craniomandibular disorders, orthodontic treatment and CMD, and the mandibular reference position in orthodontics. An important conclusion that emerged from the present literature review is that CMD do not seem to be directly related to orthodontic treatment, and their appearance cannot be predicted or prevented by any means. Therefore, orthodontists must adopt a mandibular reference suitable to their patients and which best respects the balance existing in the stomatognathic system.


Increasing evidence has shown that many chronic diseases originate from early life, even before birth, through what are termed as fetal programming effects. Glucocorticoids are frequently used prenatally to accelerate the maturation of the lungs of premature infants. High-fat diets are associated with insulin resistance, but the effects of prenatal glucocorticoid exposure plus a postnatal high-fat diet in diabetes mellitus remain unclear. We administered pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats' intraperitoneal dexamethasone (0.1 mg/kg body weight) or vehicle at gestational days 14–20. Male offspring were administered a normal or high-fat diet starting from weaning. We assessed the effects of prenatal steroid exposure plus postnatal high-fat diet on the liver, pancreas, muscle and fat at postnatal day 120. At 15 and 30 min, sugar levels were higher in the dexamethasone plus high-fat diet (DHF) group than the vehicle plus high-fat diet (VHF) group in the intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT). Serum insulin levels at 15, 30 and 60 min were significantly higher in the VHF group than in the vehicle and normal diet group. Liver insulin receptor and adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase mRNA expressions and protein levels were lower in the DHF group. Insulin receptor and insulin receptor substrate-1 mRNA expressions were lower in the epididymal adipose tissue in the VHF and DHF groups. "Programming" of liver or epididymal adipose tissue resulted from prenatal events. Prenatal steroid exposure worsened insulin resistance in animals fed a high-fat diet.


A one-year-old neutered male Border collie presented with failure to gain weight, lethargy, intermittent leucopenia, borderline anaemia and intermittent gastrointestinal symptoms. He was diagnosed with pancreatitis based on blood results and abdominal ultrasonography and hereditary selective cobalamin malabsorption based on hypocobalaminaemia, methylmalonic aciduria and genetic testing for cubilin mutation. The dog responded to oral cobalamin supplementation with resolution of clinical signs and normalisation of serum cobalamin. There was no recurrence of signs after 27 months of follow-up. An association between organic acidaemias and pancreatitis has been reported in humans but to the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of hereditary selective cobalamin malabsorption and concurrent pancreatitis in a dog. Furthermore, this is the first report of inherited canine cobalamin deficiency responding to oral cobalamin supplementation.


Micro Transdermal Interface Platforms (MicroTIPs) will combine minimally invasive microneedle arrays with highly miniaturized sensors, actuators, control electronics, wireless communications and artificial intelligence. These patch-like devices will be capable of autonomous physiological monitoring and transdermal drug delivery, resulting in increased patient adherence and devolved healthcare. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of controlled transdermal drug delivery using a combination of 500 μm tall silicon microneedles, a commercial micropump, pressure and flow sensors, and bespoke electronics. Using ex-vivo human skin samples and a customized application/retraction system, leak-free delivery of volumes ranging from 0.7-1.1 mL has been achieved in under one hour. Clinical Relevance — This work experimentally confirms the feasibility of combining micropumps with microneedle arrays for applications in transdermal drug delivery.


A key advantage of polarizable force fields is their ability to model the atomic polarization effects that play key roles in the atomic many-body interactions. In this work, we assessed the accuracy of the recently developed polarizable Gaussian Multipole (pGM) models in reproducing quantum mechanical (QM) interaction energies, many-body interaction energies, as well as the nonadditive and additive contributions to the many-body interactions for peptide main-chain hydrogen-bonding conformers, using glycine dipeptide oligomers as the model systems. Two types of pGM models were considered, including that with (pGM-perm) and without (pGM-ind) permanent atomic dipoles. The performances of the pGM models were compared with several widely used force fields, including two polarizable (Amoeba13 and ff12pol) and three additive (ff19SB, ff15ipq, and ff03) force fields. Encouragingly, the pGM models outperform all other force fields in terms of reproducing QM interaction energies, many-body interaction energies, as well as the nonadditive and additive contributions to the many-body interactions, as measured by the root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) and mean absolute errors (MAEs). Furthermore, we tested the robustness of the pGM models against polarizability parameterization errors by employing alternative polarizabilities that are either scaled or obtained from other force fields. The results show that the pGM models with alternative polarizabilities exhibit improved accuracy in reproducing QM many-body interaction energies as well as the nonadditive and additive contributions compared with other polarizable force fields, suggesting that the pGM models are robust against the errors in polarizability parameterizations. This work shows that the pGM models are capable of accurately modeling polarization effects and have the potential to serve as templates for developing next-generation polarizable force fields for modeling various biological systems.


Abstract Since the 1960s, career success has been extensively studied from different angles. This paper aims to identify the main topics of interest covered by the literature throughout time frames defined based on the number of article citations. A Scopus database search was performed in November 2021, gathering 926 articles on career success that were analyzed in VOSviewer. The results show that several concepts were constant over the years, such as mentoring, mobility, income, education, gender, and culture, while other topics of interest were introduced more recently (e.g., career satisfaction, change, personality, networking, the link between the private and professional life, the relationship between objective and subjective career success). An understanding of historical career success research topics contributes to the development of future human resources strategies and policies.


This paper pictures the progress made during the past few years in the production of electrical porcelain. The information covers: First: The engineering and works organization. Second: The manufacture. Third: Design and test.


SUMMARY At the end of 2013, China reported a countrywide outbreak of measles. From January to May 2014, we investigated the clinical and immunological features of the cases of the outbreak admitted to our hospital. In this study, all 112 inpatients with clinically diagnosed measles were recruited from the 302 Military Hospital of China. The virus was isolated from throat swabs from these patients, and cytokine profiles were examined. By detecting the measles virus of 30 of the 112 patients, we found that this measles outbreak was of the H1 genotype, which is the major strain in China. The rates of complications, specifically pneumonia and liver injury, differed significantly in patients aged <8 months, 8 months to 18 years, and >18 years: pneumonia was more common in children, while liver injury was more common in adults. Pneumonia was a significant independent risk factor affecting measles duration. Compared to healthy subjects, measles patients had fewer CD4+IL-17+, CD4+IFN-γ +, and CD8+IFN-γ + cells in both the acute and recovery phases. In contrast, measles patients in the acute phase had more CD8+IL-22+ cells than those in recovery or healthy subjects. We recommend that future studies focus on the age-related distribution of pneumonia and liver injury as measles-related complications as well as the association between immunological markers and measles prognosis.


6S RNA was identified in Escherichia coli >30 years ago, but the physiological role of this RNA has remained elusive. Here, we demonstrate that 6S RNA-deficient cells are at a disadvantage for survival in stationary phase, a time when 6S RNA regulates transcription. Growth defects were most apparent as a decrease in the competitive fitness of cells lacking 6S RNA. To decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying the growth defects, we have expanded studies of 6S RNA effects on transcription. 6S RNA inhibition of -dependent transcription was not ubiquitous, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of -RNA polymerase is bound by 6S RNA during stationary phase. The -dependent promoters inhibited by 6S RNA contain an extended 10 promoter element, suggesting that this feature may define a class of 6S RNA-regulated genes. We also discovered a secondary effect of 6S RNA in the activation of -dependent transcription at several promoters. We conclude that 6S RNA regulation of both 70 and S activities contributes to increased cell persistence during nutrient deprivation.


This research uses comparative case methodology to examine the teacher development programs of two different organizations: a private computer company and a public school district. Both programs are considered effective when judged by participants' evaluations, gain in skills, and plans for classroom technology use. Differences in outcomes appear when we look beyond the program itself and analyze teachers' abilities to implement what they learned in their classrooms. In the article, eight common components of the two programs are identified and the differing ways in which they implemented these features are described. Then the program outcomes are compared along five dimensions: access to equipment, administrative support, technical support, collegial support, and classroom implementation. Finally, implications for teacher development programs are discussed. The capacity of teachers to use technology in classroom instruction has not kept pace with the increased access to technology in schools. Teachers and Technology: Making the Connection, a comprehensive study from the Office of Technology Assessment (1995), portrays both opportunities and obstacles of technology use in US schools. Technology offers richer, more varied, and more engaging learning opportunities for students, but these practices tend to be the exception rather than the norm. Three common barriers cited in the report relate to access, training, and support. Many schools lack the necessary access to technology in areas such as wiring, amount and power of equipment, and location of computers within the building. In addition, funding frequently goes toward purchase of equipment rather than training teachers in using technology in the classroom. Added to these barriers is a lack of support, particularly time for experimentation and opportunities to talk with other teachers about technology. The repor t concludes that helping teachers use technology effectively is the most important task. Some experts suggest that providing every teacher with a computer is more important than providing equal access to students because, until teachers are comfortable using technology, the potential of technology use in classroom instruction will go unrealized (Pool, 1997). Although the numbers of computers and Internet connections in schools has increased (Anderson & Ronnkvist, 1999; NCES, 1999a), the ability of teachers to incorporate technology into their daily practice is lagging. Only 20% of teachers report feeling well-prepared to integrate technology into their teaching (NCES, 1999b). For many schools and districts, the focus has been on acquiring hardware and software rather than preparing teachers to use technology. On the average, districts devote not more than 15% of technology budgets to teacher training (OTA, 1995). A study of teachers' Internet use reports that those who attended staff development on the Internet were more likely to use it in the classroom, yet only 30% of teachers had participated in such training within the past year (Becker, 1999). The report of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (1997) warns that the substantial investment in hardware, software, and infrastructure will be wasted if teachers are not prepared and sup ported to integrate technology to help students learn. Without classroom access to equipment, appropriate training, and ongoing support, technology is unlikely to enhance teaching or learning (Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997). In addition to a lack of training, the typical content of technology instruction for teachers is limited (Willis & Mehlinger, 1996). Preparing teachers to use technology in the classroom goes beyond "computer literacy." However, much of the training provided to teachers emphasizes fundamental computer operation rather than preparation on how to use technology as a teaching tool and how to integrate it across the curriculum. Both preservice and inservice teacher education must address the issue of preparing teachers to not only use technology but to integrate it into instruction. …


The Kimberley Region comprises over 262,000 square miles in the north of Western Australia, located more than 1,245 miles from the Western Australia's capital, Perth. Until late 2012, the area was serviced by just one prison, Broome Regional Prison, the oldest operating prison in Western Australia. Predominantly a minimum security male and female facility, the Broome Regional Prison also houses short term medium and maximum security inmates with Aboriginal people representing approximately 95% of the inmate population. A number of inspections found Broome Prison to be far below acceptable Australian standards. Given the issues with the existing prison and the high proportion of Aboriginal inmates, the Western Australian Government decided to construct a new highly innovative prison in the Kimberley region. The $122 million prison which opened late in 2012 is located on a 25 hectare green-field site outside the town of Derby (136 miles from Broome). The West Kimberley Regional Prison aims to meet the cultural and environmental needs of its 150 Indigenous inmates and reduce re-offending. It was designed under a community consultation model which recognised Indigenous inmates' cultural, kinship, family and community responsibilities and spiritual connections to land. This highly innovative project was designed by TAG Architects in association with Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects, constructed by Cooper and Oxley Builders and project managed by the Western Australian Department of Finance. This article will discuss the importance of meeting the cultural needs of this vulnerable sub-group and the features of this highly innovative project in remote Australia.


The variation in the thickness of the earth9s crust along the composite east-west profile in northern and middle California has been investigated on the basis of pendulum gravity data published by J. A. Duerksen. The earth9s crust is about 24 km thick beneath the California coast line, and the thickness increases inland until it is 50 km at a point 350 km from the coast line. It has been deduced also that the deposits in the Central Valley increase in density rapidly with depth so that at depths of a few kilometers there is no appreciable density contrast with the basement rocks.


EGFR is involved in the UV signal transduction pathway leading to skin cancer. UV radiation, mediated by EGFR, induces activation of PI3 kinase and AKT with a result of activation of a number of transcription factors. Transcription factor HIF-1alpha correlates with tumorigenicity and angiogenesis. Transcription factors DEC1 and DEC2 also play pivotal roles in multiple signaling pathways impacting various biological processes including development, cell differentiation, cell death, and oncogenesis. We investigated whether UV radiation and associated hypoxia induce expression of HIF-1alpha and its target genes such as VEGF and the signaling pathway mediating such responses. We found that UV radiation induced HIF-1alpha and VEGF protein expression in a dose- and time-dependent manner in cultured human keratinocytes. UV radiation also induced VEGF mRNA expression in a dose-dependent manner with maximum effect at 4 h post treatment, but did not affect HIF-1alpha mRNA expression. We also observed that UV radiation induced activation of EGFR in a time- and dose-dependent manner which was inhibited by EGFR inhibitor PD153035. In egfr (-/-) MEF cells, UV radiation did not induce HIF-1alpha and VEGF expression, in contrast, in egfr (+/+) MEF cells, UV radiation strongly induced HIF-1alpha and VEGF expression. EGFR kinase inhibitor, PD153035, inhibited UV-induced HIF-1alpha and VEGF protein expression in a dose-dependent manner. Further, we found that PI3K inhibitors, LY294002 and Wortmannin, inhibited HIF-1alpha and VEGF expression induced by UV radiation. In DEC1 (-/-) HaCat cells, UV radiation did not induce HIF-1alpha and VEGF expression, in contrast, in DEC1 (+/+) HaCat cells, UV radiation strongly enhanced HIF-1alpha and VEGF protein expression. We conclude that UV radiation induces HIF-1alpha and VEGF expression via the EGFR/PI3K/DEC1 signaling pathway.


— A simple transfer matrix method is proposed to cal- culate the radiation losses of a cylindrical antiresonant- reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW). It is found that the planar approx- imation underestimates the radiation losses but overestimates the design tolerance of the ARROW-type vertical-cavity sur- face-emitting lasers (VCSELs). An iteration technique, which is incorporated with the transfer matrix method, is also developed to design ARROW-type VCSELs for minimum radiation losses in a more effective manner.


Membrane filtration is commonly applied to reduce dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to control the formation of trihalomethanes (THMs); however, high levels of DOC can cause severe fouling of reverse osmosis membranes. The integrated biological and reverse osmosis membrane (IBROM) process is a combination of biological filters and reverse osmosis membranes. The IBROM process claims to remove biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC), which apparently should result in reduced membrane fouling. The goal of this research was to conduct a preliminary investigation into the claims of the IBROM system, using water collected from the Herbert water treatment plant (Saskatchewan). The plant is utilizing the IBROM for the treatment of a dugout and groundwater blend (DOC of 17.5–22.7 mg/L). The results demonstrated that BDOC concentrations did not change significantly throughout the plant. Optimized laboratory-scale coagulation with polyaluminium chlorohydrate achieved 58% removal of BDOC. Oxidation with permanganate increased the concentration of BDOC (from 5.7 to 8.8 mg/L). Overall, BDOC was effectively removed by optimized coagulation rather than the IBROM system. Moreover, the results show an inverse relationship between BDOC and THMs formation potential (THMFP) in both coagulated and oxidized water. For all concentrations, more biodegradable DOC had less tendency to form THMs based on the lower


This effort will incrementally develop two long-term goals. Develop frameworks for integrating existing components rapidly and conveniently into complete applications. These frameworks must be able to produce efficient applications from scripts within reasonable compile times. In addition, they must be able to integrate components written in different languages, particularly Fortran and object-oriented languages like C++ and Java. Finally, the frameworks must support the generation of applications that execute with reasonable and reliable efficiency in a distributed computing environment. Develop a collection of components for use in science and engineering applications. The algorithms should be general, portable, and usable in a variety of situations. Specific tasks and deliverables are described in Appendix A, Section 1.1. Provide advanced development of computer subsystems, both hardware and software, of strategic interest to present and future ASC architectures. The specific tasks and deliverables are described in Appendix A, Section 1.2. Provide research and development in the areas of numerical methods for partial differential equations, linear and nonlinear solvers, and verification and validation methodologies to address the following goals: Develop, analyze and implement numerical methods for coupled multi-physics. Particularly important is the discretization of partial differential equations by mixed and hybrid finite element type methods. Develop linear and nonlinear solvers algorithms. Develop software tools suitable for large-scale simulation codes and automation of the process of tuning those codes for efficiency on specific platforms. The specific tasks and deliverables are described in Appendix A, Section 1.3.


It is not uncommon for oscillatory electric power system modes to move close to a resonance in which eigenvalues coincide. In a weak resonance, the modes are decoupled and the eigenvalues do not interact. We analyze general perturbations of a weak resonance and find two distinct behaviors, including interactions near strong resonances in which the eigenvalues quickly change direction. The possible perturbations are illustrated with interactions between electromechanical modes in a 4-generator power system. Some of the interactions are similar to subsynchronous resonance and can lead to oscillatory instability.


We present WebGLM, a web-enhanced question-answering system based on the General Language Model (GLM). Its goal is to augment a pre-trained large language model (LLM) with web search and retrieval capabilities while being efficient for real-world deployments. To achieve this, we develop WebGLM with strategies for the LLM-augmented retriever, bootstrapped generator, and human preference-aware scorer. Specifically, we identify and address the limitations of WebGPT (OpenAI), through which WebGLM is enabled with accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness advantages. In addition, we propose systematic criteria for evaluating web-enhanced QA systems. We conduct multi-dimensional human evaluation and quantitative ablation studies, which suggest the outperformance of the proposed WebGLM designs over existing systems. WebGLM with the 10-billion-parameter GLM (10B) is shown to perform better than the similar-sized WebGPT (13B) and even comparably to WebGPT (175B) in human evaluation. The code, demo, and data are at https://github.com/THUDM/WebGLM.


Human papillomavirus infection is regulated by multiple factors including methylation, viral integration and aberrations in host and viral gene expression. In most patients, the infection is transient and cleared effectively by the host's immune system but in a minority of cases, the Human papillomavirus infection progresses to neoplasia and cancer if not detected and treated. Assays that detect the presence of Human Papillomavirus infection alone are not good prognostic markers of clinical outcome. Alternative clinical biomarkers that can measure other regulatory factors of Human Papillomavirus infection are required to more accurately predict patient outcome and help direct treatment options specifically to patients at risk of neoplasia and cancer progression.
This study aimed to examine several Human Papillomavirus regulatory factors to determine if they would be suitable as clinical biomarkers and explore further the link between molecular changes and associated pathology. This involved development of assays, application to samples obtained from different cohorts of women to ascertain prognostic validity and development of an in vitro system to model the in vivo pathology.
Initial work focused on investigating Human Papillomavirus 31, 33, 35 and 51 integration and methylation assays as prognostic biomarkers in young women attending their first routine cervical smear. Results indicated that Human Papillomavirus E2 gene disruption and methylation were not common events and the assays investigated were not suitable biomarkers for predicting clinical outcome in
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young women. The assays were then applied to clinical samples taken from patients with varying grades of cervical disease and high levels of viral methylation were present in women with high grade disease (Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia II+) and a correlation between methylation and HPV gene disruption was shown.
Novel in vitro organotypic raft cultures of cells from Vulval Intraepithelial Neoplasia and Vaginal Intraepithelial Neoplasia were employed to understand how molecular changes in viral methylation and gene expression correlated with observed pathology. The organotypic raft cultures showed diverse differentiation patterns. No correlation of pathology with viral integration status was detected. However, organotypic raft cultures with high-grade disease morphology all had a higher level of methylation and expression of regulatory genes p16, Ki-67 and Sonic Hedgehog in comparison cultures displaying a histology consistent with low-grade disease. p16 and Ki-67 are already being examined as part of cervical screening triage.
The findings presented in this thesis, highlight a need for further research into Human Papillomavirus infection and the molecular changes associated with Sonic Hedgehog gene expression and viral methylation as these show promise as prognostic biomarkers.


In order to improve immune system of Pacific white shrimp L. vannamei from any kinds of diseases, various probiotic agents were tested such as Bacillus sp. BC, Alteromonas sp. BY-9 and mixed of both. The probiotics were cultured and added directly to the larval rearing tank (106 cfu/mL equal to 0.5 liter/m3) up to PL-12. In cultured shrimp spawners, probiotic was mixed with feed coated with chitosan, and without adding probiotic as control. In the present experiment, shrimp fry and spawners were reared in tank capacity of 5 m3 and 8 m3. Immunity response was analyzed by quantitative value of the immunity related gene expression with RTqPCR. The results showed that survival rate of shrimp fry cultured with mixed probiotic was 63.16% (PL-8) and 53.46% (PL-12), while control 13.35% (PL-8) and 12.48% (PL-12) respectively. The number of shrimp hemocytes starting from 420 to 530.5 x 104 cells/mL and after challenged with WSSV (for 72 hrs exposure) between two treatments of  Alteromonas  sp. BY-9 and Bacillus cereus BC was not significantly different P>0.05 (402.5 and 432.5 x 104 cells/mL), while in mixed probiotic and control treatments were 391.75 and 229.0 x 104 cells/mL, respectively. The analysis of immunity gene expression revealed that the use of probiotic from larval stages up to spawner has been proved in increasing immunity responses quantified from ProPO activating system (prophenoloxidase/proPO) as much as 1.6-2.0 fold, clotting system (transglutaminase, clotting protein) of 1.5-2 fold, Antimicrobial Peptide System (anti-LPS factor, crustin, lysozyme, penaiedin2) of 1.5-2.8 fold, and Antioxidant defense mechanism (superoxidase dismutase/SOD, glutathione peroxidase/GPx) of 1.8-2.0 fold compared to control.


Abstract We characterized the spatial variability and temporal dynamics of the photosynthetic active radiation absorbed (APAR) by the canopy, a descriptor of ecosystem functioning, in Cabo de Gata - Níjar Natural Park (CGNNP) (Spain). Ecosystem functioning was characterized for five landscape classes using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from NOAA/AVHRR LAC (1 km × 1 km) images. We also used a 19-year time series of NDVI PAL data (8 km × 8 km) to analyse the relationship APAR-precipitation inside and outside the park. The vegetation of CGNNP absorbed less than 20% of the incoming radiation. Plains intercepted 37% and hills 14% less photosynthetic active radiation than mountains, the most productive landscape of the park. CGNNP showed a well-defined growing season with a unique peak of APAR. Plains and piedmont, covered by annual vegetation displayed an earlier development of the leaf area index than the shrublands and grasslands typical of the other landscapes. APAR had a significant relationship with the sum of the precipitation of the current and two previous growing seasons, except for the plains. We found that the APAR of the areas more modified by humans (outside the park) showed a lower sensitivity to changes in precipitation than those under protection. The differences were higher if the accumulated precipitation of the previous three growing seasons was considered. The description of such differences in the response of absorbed PAR to water availability are proposed as the base of a monitoring system for semi-arid and arid areas. Abbreviations: ANPP = Above-ground net primary production; APAR = Photosynthetic active radiation absorbed by green vegetation; CGNNP = Cabo de Gata - Níjar Natural Park; fAPAR = Fraction of incoming photosynthetic active radiation absorbed by green vegetation; NPP = Net primary production; PPT = Precipitation; PUE = Precipitation use efficiency.


A micellar catalyzed oxidation of pentaamminecobalt(III) complexes of α-amino acids by Mn(III)acetate in acidic medium yielding nearly 100% Co(II) and about 100% carbonyl compounds are ultimate products. The unbound amino acids yield about 100% of carbonyl compound in presence of micelles. The effect of variation of sulphuric acid has been carried. The decrease in UV-Visible absorbance at λ=502 nm for Co(III) complex corresponds to nearly 100% of the initial absorbance. In spite of the stoichiometry of Mn(III) to unbound ligand is 2:1, the ratio of Mn(III) to cobalt(III) complex is 1:1 accounting for about 100% reduction at the cobalt(III) centre. The kinetic and stoichiometric results have been accounted. A suitable mechanism consistent with the experimental findings has been proposed by involving a radical cation intermediate.


Water energy resource sites identified in the resource assessment study reported in Water Energy Resources of the United States with Emphasis on Low Head/Low Power Resources, DOE/ID-11111, April 2004 were evaluated to identify which could feasibly be developed using a set of feasibility criteria. The gross power potential of the sites estimated in the previous study was refined to determine the realistic hydropower potential of the sites using a set of development criteria assuming they are developed as low power (less than 1 MWa) or small hydro (between 1 and 30 MWa) projects. The methodologies for performing the feasibility assessment and estimating hydropower potential are described. The results for the country in terms of the number of feasible sites, their total gross power potential, and their total hydropower potential are presented. The spatial distribution of the feasible potential projects is presented on maps of the conterminous U.S. and Alaska and Hawaii. Results summaries for each of the 50 states are presented in Appendix B. The results of the study are also viewable using a Virtual Hydropower Prospector geographic information system application accessible on the Internet at: http://hydropower.inl.gov/prospector.


The purpose of this paper is to study the existence of fixed points for contractive-type multivalued maps in the setting of modular metric spaces. The notion of a modular metric on an arbitrary set and the corresponding modular spaces, generalizing classical modulars over linear spaces like Orlicz spaces, were recently introduced. In this paper we investigate the existence of fixed points of multivalued modular contractive mappings in modular metric spaces. Consequently, our results either generalize or improve fixed point results of Nadler (Pac. J. Math. 30:475-488, 1969) and Edelstein (Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 12:7-10, 1961). MSC: Primary 47H09; secondary 46B20; 47H10; 47E10


India fell behind during colonial rule. The absolute and relative decline of Indian GDP per capita with respect to Britain began before colonization and coincided with the rising textile trade with Europe in the 18th century. The decline of traditional industries was not the main driver Indian decline and stagnation. Inadequate investment in agriculture and consequent decline in yield per acre stalled economic growth. Modern industries emerged and grew relatively fast. The falling behind was reversed after independence. Policies of industrialization and a green revolution in agriculture increased productivity growth in agriculture and industry, but Indian growth has been led by services. A strong focus on higher education under colonial policy had created an advantage for the service sector, which today has a high concentration of human capital. However, the slow expansion in primary education was a disadvantage in comparison with the high growth East Asian economies.


Feith details how the Administration launched a global effort to attack and disrupt terrorist networks; how it decided to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime by force; how it came to impose an occupation on Iraq even though it had avoided one in Afghanistan; how some officials postponed or impeded important early steps that could have averted major problems in Iraq's post-Saddam period; and how the Administration's errors in war-related communications undermined the nation's credibility and put U.S. war efforts at risk.Even close followers of reporting on the Iraq war will be surprised at the new information Feith provides - presented here with balance and rigorous attention to detail. His book includes the first accurate account of Iraq postwar planning - a topic widely misreported to date. And it presents surprising new portraits of Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Richard Armitage, L. Paul Bremer, and others - revealing how differences among them shaped U.S. policy. With its blend of vivid narrative, frank analysis, and elegant writing, "War and Decision" is like no other book on the Iraq war. It will interest those who have been troubled by conflicting accounts of the planning of the war, frustrated by the lack of firsthand insight into the decision-making process, or skeptical of conventional wisdom about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terrorism - efforts the author continues to support.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this studywas to compare the cellular and biochemical findings in the nasal lavage fluid (NALF) and nasal resistance changes due to a challenge with laboratory animal allergens in 25 patients with occupational asthma and rhinitis, in 22 patients with atopic asthma and rhinitis sensitized to house dust mite, and in 15 healthy subjects.

METHODS
Skin prick tests with common and occupational allergens, total serum IgE level, specific anti-allergens IgE, spirometry and nasal lavages were performed.

RESULTS
In patients with occupational airway allergy, nasal symptoms of varying severity developed directly after specific nasal challenge. The total symptom score immediately and 24 h after specific challenge was significantly correlated with expiratory nasal resistance (ENR). The percentage of eosinophils and basophils in NALF increased significantly 5 and 24 h after specific challenge in patients with occupational asthma and it was correlated with ENR. The authors did not observe any significant increase in the percentage of eosinophils, basophils and in the level of albumin in NALF of patients with non-occupational allergy and healthy subjects at any time-point after specific challenge. None of the healthy subjects and patients with non-occupational allergy developed either allergic symptoms or increased ENR after the challenge with laboratory animal allergens and placebo.

CONCLUSIONS
The prolonged increase in the percentage of eosinophils, basophils and in the level of albumin seems to reflect allergic inflammation. The intensity of inflammation during the specific reaction is related to the symptom score and to ENR in occupational allergics.


The intergalactic medium—the cosmic gas that fills the great spaces between the galaxies—is affected by processes ranging from quantum fluctuations in the very early Universe to radiative emission from newly formed stars. This gives the intergalactic medium a dual role as a powerful probe both of fundamental physics and of astrophysics. The heading of fundamental physics includes conditions in the very early Universe and cosmological parameters that determine the age of the Universe and its matter content. The astrophysics refers to chapters of the long cosmic history of stars and galaxies that are being revealed through the effects of stellar feedback on the cosmic gas. This review describes the physics of the intergalactic medium, focusing on recent theoretical and observational developments in understanding early cosmic history. In particular, the earliest generation of stars is thought to have transformed the Universe from darkness to light and to have had an enormous impact on the intergalactic medium. Half a million years after the Big Bang the Universe was filled with atomic hydrogen. As gravity pulled gas clouds together, the first stars ignited and their radiation turned the surrounding atoms back into free electrons and ions. From the observed spectral absorption signatures of the gas between us and distant sources, we know that the process of reionization pervaded most of space a billion years after the Big Bang, so that only a small fraction of the primordial hydrogen atoms remained between galaxies. Knowing exactly when and how the reionization process happened is a primary goal of cosmologists, because this would tell us when the early stars and black holes formed and in what kinds of galaxies. The distribution and clustering of these galaxies is particularly interesting since it is driven by primordial density fluctuations in the dark matter. Cosmic reionization is beginning to be understood with the help of theoretical models and computer simulations. Numerical simulations of reionization are computationally challenging, as they require radiative transfer across large cosmological volumes as well as sufficiently high resolution to identify the sources of the ionizing radiation in the infant Universe. Rapid progress in our understanding is expected with additional observational input. A wide variety of instruments currently under design—including large-aperture infrared telescopes on the ground or in space (JWST), and low-frequency radio telescope arrays for the detection of redshifted 21 cm radiation—will probe the first sources of light during an epoch in cosmic history that has been largely unexplored so far. The new observations and the challenges for theoretical models and numerical simulations will motivate intense work in this field over the coming decade.


We study the exciton Mott transition in the three-dimensional electron-hole (e-h) system by means of an extension of the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). In order to apply DMFT to the e-h system with the contact e-h attraction v, we construct DMFT for the continuous-space model by introducing the short wavelength cut-off. Using the generalized formulation of DMFT, we calculate the temperature dependence of the single-particle density of states and the exciton density. We demonstrate that the system crossovers from metal to insulator as v increases, and finally determine the phase diagram.


A detailed comparison was made of the properties of the friable flours and non-friable residues of two samples of malted barley of different nitrogen contents. The friable flours were sieved and fractionated to give a range of particle sizes, and the intact malt, whole friable flour, non-friable residues and fractionated friable flours were subjected to a range of analyses. Endosperm fractionation studies showed that the pattern of enzymic degradation of proteins in the modified friable flour of low nitrogen malt was more uniform than the corresponding pattern of protein breakdown in the friable flour of high nitrogen malt. Examination of the non friable residues showed that cell wall breakdown in the high nitrogen malt was less extensive than the low nitrogen malt. It is proposed that the high protein levels in the endosperm caused starch/protein compacting which limited endosperm hydration and enzymic modification during malting. The friability scores of high nitrogen malts may given an over estimate of endosperm modification.


Kamal Hassan, fondly known as Prof. Kamal is a symbolic academician in a well-versed personality of virtue, adab (good manners), and hikmah (wisdom). He has been accredited as one of the intellectual leaders of Madarasah al-Wasatiyah or movement of moderation and ideologue of Islamization of knowledge in the contemporary Malay world. He is also one of the leading figures in the area of contemporary Islamic thought and Malay civilization. His literature is vocal on the issue of Islam and modernity, Wasatiyah or Islamic moderation, Islamicization of human knowledge, Integrated Islamic education, secularism and secular education, the relationship between East and West, human rights and civil society. His metaphysical views have been often quoted in the literature of Muslim intellectuals and activists in Southeast Asia. Moreover, his philosophical thought of a justly balanced approach of Wasatiyah is also worth mention. The noteworthy highlights in his literature and speech promote Muslim leaders and scholars to examine: what collective moral responsibility they have, as a moderate nation or Ummah Wasat, to build a better world and a better nation—Khaira Ummah. There were many reasons for the intellectual decline of Muslims and the Muslim world. One of the reasons by moving away from the moderate and comprehensive understanding of the Qur'an. There is undoubtedly an urgent need to retract the philosophy of Ummah Wasat based on divine knowledge rooted in humanistic and societal life. Hence, Kamal Hassan fetched the thoughts in his lectures, articles, and books to relevantize the philosophy of moderation in Islam.
Keywords: Wasatiyah, Moderation, Justly Balanced Path, Islamization of Knowledge, Kamal Hassan and Malay World.


High order neutron components from Ge(lll) reflection have been measured in the region of 5—22 meV using time-of-flight method at the heavy water reactor in Beijing. The measured results have been compared with theoretical calculation and a satisfactory agreement is obtained. The results show that Ge(111) reflection suffers from a serious order contaminations below 20 meV.


The aim of this study was to determine whether dietary Na-butyrate supplementation affects butyrate and glucose oxidation by ruminal epithelial preparations and whether this effect can be acutely modulated by substrate (glucose and butyrate) supply. Eighteen Suffolk wether lambs (6 lambs/treatment) were blocked by body weight and, within block, randomly assigned to the control treatment (CON) or to diets containing differing Na-butyrate inclusion rates (1.58 or 3.16%) equating to 1.25 (B1.25), and 2.50% (B2.50) butyrate on a dry matter basis, respectively. All lambs received their diet for a period of 14 d. After dietary adaptation, lambs were killed and the ruminal epithelium was harvested from the ventral sac, minced finely, and used for in vitro incubations. Incubation medium contained either a constant concentration of glucose (4 mM) with increasing butyrate concentrations (0, 5, 15, 25, or 40 mM) or a constant butyrate concentration (15 mM) with increasing glucose concentrations (0, 1, 2, 4, or 8 mM) to allow for the evaluation of whether acute changes in the concentration of metabolic substrates affect the oxidation of glucose and butyrate. We observed no interactions between the in vivo and in vitro treatments. Increasing dietary butyrate supplementation linearly decreased glucose oxidation by ruminal epithelial preparations, but had no effect on butyrate oxidation. Increasing butyrate concentration in vitro decreased (cubic effect) glucose oxidation when butyrate concentration ranged between 5 and 15 mM; however, glucose oxidation was increased with a butyrate concentration of 40 mM. Butyrate oxidation decreased (cubic effect) as glucose concentration increased from 1 to 4 mM; however, butyrate oxidation increased when glucose was included at 8mM. The results of this study demonstrate that dietary butyrate supplementation can decrease glucose oxidation by the ruminal epithelium, but the relative supply of glucose and butyrate has a pronounced effect on substrate oxidation.


The hyperpolarizing receptor potential of scallop ciliary photoreceptors is attributable to light-induced opening of K+-selective channels. Having previously demonstrated the activation of this K+ current by cGMP, we examined upstream events in the transduction cascade. GTP-γ-S produced persistent excitation after a flash, accompanied by decreased sensitivity and acceleration of the photocurrent, whereas GDP-β-S only inhibited responsiveness, consistent with the involvement of a G-protein. Because Go (but not Gt nor Gq) recently has been detected in the ciliary retinal layer of a related species, we tested the effects of activators of Go; mastoparan peptides induced an outward current suppressible by blockers of the light-sensitive conductance such asl-cis-diltiazem. In addition, intracellular dialysis with the A-protomer of pertussis toxin (PTX) depressed the photocurrent. The mechanisms that couple G-protein stimulation to changes in cGMP were investigated. Intracellular IBMX enhanced the photoresponse with little effect on the baseline current, a result that argues against regulation by light of phosphodiesterase activity. LY83583, an inhibitor of guanylate cyclase (GC), exerted a reversible, dose-dependent suppression of the photocurrent. By contrast, ODQ, an antagonist of NO-sensitive GC, and YC-1, an activator of NO-sensitive GC, failed to alter the light response or the holding current; furthermore, the NO synthase inhibitor N-methyl-l-arginine was inert, indicating that the NO signaling pathway is not implicated. Taken together, these results suggest a novel type of phototransduction cascade in which stimulation of a PTX-sensitive Go may activate a membrane GC to induce an increase in cGMP and the consequent opening of light-dependent channels.


In vertebrates, any transmission of vocal signals faces the challenge of acoustic interferences such as heavy rain, wind, animal, or urban sounds. Consequently, several mechanisms and strategies have evolved to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio. Examples to increase detectability are the Lombard effect, an involuntary rise in call amplitude in response to masking ambient noise, which is often associated with several other vocal changes such as call frequency and duration, as well as the animals' capability of limiting calling to periods where noise perturbation is absent. Previous studies revealed rapid vocal flexibility and various audio-vocal integration mechanisms in marmoset monkeys. Using acoustic perturbation triggered by vocal behavior, we investigated whether marmoset monkeys are capable of exhibiting changes in call structure when perturbing noise starts after call onset or whether such effects only occur if noise perturbation starts prior to call onset. We show that marmoset monkeys are capable of rapidly modulating call amplitude and frequency in response to such perturbing noise bursts. Vocalizations swiftly increased call frequency after noise onset indicating a rapid effect of perturbing noise on vocal motor pattern production. Call amplitudes were also affected. Interestingly, however, the marmosets did not exhibit the Lombard effect as previously reported but decreased their call intensity in response to perturbing noise. Our findings indicate that marmosets possess a general avoidance strategy to call in the presences of ambient noise and suggest that these animals are capable of counteracting a previously thought involuntary audio-vocal mechanism, the Lombard effect, presumably via cognitive control processes.


The 5′ and the 3′ untranslated regions (UTR) of the insulin genes are very well conserved across species. Although microRNAs (miRNAs) are known to regulate insulin secretion process, direct regulation of insulin biosynthesis by miRNA has not been reported. Here, we show that mouse microRNA miR-196b can specifically target the 5′UTR of the long insulin2 splice isoform. Using reporter assays we show that miR-196b specifically increases the translation of the reporter protein luciferase. We further show that this translation activation is abolished when Argonaute 2 levels are knocked down after transfection with an Argonaute 2-directed siRNA. Binding of miR-196b to the target sequence in insulin 5′UTR causes the removal of HuD (a 5′UTR-associated translation inhibitor), suggesting that both miR-196b and HuD bind to the same RNA element. We present data suggesting that the RNA-binding protein HuD, which represses insulin translation, is displaced by miR-196b. Together, our findings identify a mechanism of post-transcriptional regulation of insulin biosynthesis.


Postflight orthostatic intolerance has been identified as a serious biomedical problem associated with long duration exposure to microgravity in space. High priority has been given to the development of countermeasures for this disorder which are both effective and practical. A considerable body of clinical research has demonstrated that people can be taught to increase their own blood pressure voluntarily and that this is an effective treatment for chronic Orthostatic intolerance in paralyzed patients. The present pilot study was designed to examine the feasibility of adding training in control of blood pressure to an existing preflight training program designed to facilitate astronaut adaptation to microgravity. Using in operant conditioning procedure, Autogenic-Feedback Training (AFT), three men and two women participated in four to nine (15-30 training sessions). At the end of training ranged between 20 and 50 mm Hg under both supine and 450 head-up tilt conditions. These findings suggest that AFT may be a useful alternative treatment or supplement to existing approaches for preventing postflight Orthostatic intolerance. Further, the use of operant conditioning methods for training cardiovascular responses may contribute to the general understanding of the mechanisms of orthostatic intolerance.


Abstract: In this paper, a behavioral construct of suitability is used to develop a comprehensive three-stage multi-criteria decision making framework for portfolio selection. To achieve this purpose, we rely on multiple methodologies. Analytical hierarchy process technique is used to model the suitability considerations with a view to obtaining the suitability performance score in respect of each asset. A fuzzy multiple criteria decision making method is used to obtain the financial quality score of each asset based upon investor's rating on the financial criteria. Two optimization models are developed for optimal asset allocation considering simultaneously financial and suitability criteria. The models differ in the way the suitability goal is assumed to be pursued by investors. An empirical study is conducted on randomly selected assets from National Stock Exchange, Mumbai, India to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. Keyword: Portfolio selection; Behavioral optimization model; Fuzzy multiple criteria decision making; Analytical hierarchy process. MSC: 90C29: 91G10; 03E72.


Unhealthy lifestyle habits are a major contributor to coronary artery disease. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the associations of smoking, weight maintenance, physical activity, and diet with coronary calcium, cardiovascular events, and mortality. US participants who were 44-84 years of age (n = 6,229) were followed in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis from 2000 to 2010. A lifestyle score ranging from 0 to 4 was created using diet, exercise, body mass index, and smoking status. Coronary calcium was measured at baseline and a mean of 3.1 (standard deviation, 1.3) years later to assess calcium progression. Participants who experienced coronary events or died were followed for a median of 7.6 (standard deviation, 1.5) years. Participants with lifestyle scores of 1, 2, 3, and 4 were found to have mean adjusted annual calcium progressions that were 3.5 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.0, 7.0), 4.2 (95% CI: 0.6, 7.9), 6.8 (95% CI: 2.0, 11.5), and 11.1 (95% CI: 2.2, 20.1) points per year slower, respectively, relative to the reference group (P = 0.003). Unadjusted hazard ratios for death by lifestyle score were as follows: for a score of 1, the hazard ratio was 0.79 (95% CI: 0.61, 1.03); for a score of 2, the hazard ratio was 0.61 (95% CI: 0.46, 0.81); for a score of 3, the hazard ratio was 0.49 (95% CI: 0.32, 0.75); and for a score of 4, the hazard ratio was 0.19 (95% CI: 0.05, 0.75) (P < 0.001 by log-rank test). In conclusion, a combination of regular exercise, healthy diet, smoking avoidance, and weight maintenance was associated with lower coronary calcium incidence, slower calcium progression, and lower all-cause mortality over 7.6 years.


The bronchial response and haemolytic complement were monitored for 8 hours after challenge in 24 asthmatics giving positive oral provocation tests (OPT) to various food. Double-blind oral provocation tests were carried out in 16 asthmatics and open food challenge in 8. The food in question was milk (10 patients), flour (5 patients), eggs (4 patients), potatoes (2 patients), beans (1 patient), tomatoes (1 patient) and beer (1 patient). Five patients gave an immediate type bronchial response, the reduction in PEFR being greatest in the first hour. Eighteen patients showed a non-immediate type response, the maximum decrease in PEFR being observed in the second hour in 8 patients, in the third hour in 7 patients and in the fourth hour in 3 patients. In 4 of the asthmatic patients a dual type of bronchial reaction was observed. The onset of bronchial response and the time to maximum change in PEFR did not depend on the food ingested. An open study with Ketotifen was carried out in 14 asthmatics. The mean reduction in PEFR in response to repeated OPT was smaller than the reduction induced by the initial OPT (p less than 0.001). The results indicated that Ketotifen afforded effective protection against the bronchial response to food challenge in asthmatics. The study confirmed that ingested food, i.e. flour, milk and eggs, may provoke asthmatic dyspnoea in chronic adult asthmatic patients.


The objective of this paper is to study the dynamical behavior of an aquatic food chain system. A mathematical model that includes nutrients and harmful phytoplankton and zooplankton is proposed and analyzed. The phytoplankton produces a toxic substance as a strategy of defense against predation by zooplankton. Its assumed that all the feeding processes in this food chain are depending on the Holling type-II functional response. Further a portion of dead phytoplankton and zooplankton are return to the nutrient due to the decomposition process. This model is represented mathematically by the set of nonlinear differential equations. The existence, uniqueness and boundedness of the solution of this model are investigated. The local and global stability conditions of all possible equilibrium points are established. The occurrence of local bifurcation (such as saddle-node, transcritical and pitchfork) a long with Hopf bifurcation near each of the equilibrium points are discussed. Finally, numerical simulation is used to study the global dynamics of this model. Keywords: nutrient , phytoplankton, zooplankton, stability analysis, stability bifurcation.


The goal of this work is to investigate the microphysical structure of clouds formed in extreme precipitation events in south and southeast of Brazil. Seven cases were studied with data from CloudSat satellite, through its 94-GHZ profiling radar, complemented by precipitation estimates from Aqua satellite. The analyzed parameters were: effective radius, water content and particle concentration, all for liquid water and ice, creating a set of six variables. In general aspects, the results revealed events containing mainly Nimbostratus (Ns), with high values of liquid parameters, and events with Cumulonimbus (Cb) predominance, where the presence of ice plays a more important role in correlating with precipitation extremes. The profiles at the location of most intense precipitation were individually analyzed for each case, which leads to a clear distinction between two groups, one with the highest precipitation-rate cases (Group A) and the other gathering the lowest-rate cases (Group B). Group A presented notably lower values of liquid water parameters in the lower portion of the cloud. For example, at an altitude of 2 km, effective radius was around 5 μm, compared to 10 μm for Group B. As for ice parameters analysis, Group A presented relatively higher values in the upper portion of the cloud. Ice water content reached peaks between 1 and 1.5 gm -3 , while only one case in Group B exceeded 0.5 gm -3 . Cloud tops in Group A went up to around 14 km and between 10 and 11 km in Group B. The results found are validated by observations obtained from previous methodologies, which allowed only for local measurements. CloudSat fills the gaps and unveils the entire picture. It will be necessary to expand the number of case studies in order to find actual microphysical signature of extreme events, and this paper contributes as a starting point for future works and even operational tools.


Decision formation recruits many brain regions, but the procedure they jointly execute is unknown. To characterize it, we introduce a recursive Bayesian algorithm that makes decisions based on spike trains. Using it to simulate the random-dot-motion task, based on area MT activity, we demonstrate it quantitatively replicates the choice behaviour of monkeys, whilst predicting losses of usable sensory information. Its architecture maps to the recurrent cortico-basal-ganglia-thalamo-cortical loops, whose components are all implicated in decision-making. We show that the dynamics of its mapped computations match those of neural activity in the sensory-motor cortex and striatum during decisions, and forecast those of basal ganglia output and thalamus. This also predicts which aspects of neural dynamics are and are not part of inference. Our single-equation algorithm is probabilistic, distributed, recursive and parallel. Its success at capturing anatomy, behaviour and electrophysiology suggests that the mechanism implemented by the brain has these same characteristics.


We describe our efforts at developing a one-step quantitative reverse-transcription (qRT)-PCR protocol to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA directly from saliva samples, without RNA purification. We find that both heat and the presence of saliva impairs the ability to detect synthetic SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Buffer composition (for saliva dilution) was also crucial to effective PCR detection. Using the SG2 primer pair, designed by Sigma-Aldrich, we were able to detect the equivalent of 1.7×106 viral copies per mL of saliva after heat inactivation; approximately equivalent to the median viral load in symptomatic patients. This would make our assay potentially useful for rapid detection of high-shedding infected individuals. We also provide a comparison of the PCR efficiency and specificity, which varied considerably, across 9 reported primer pairs for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Primer pairs SG2 and CCDC-N showed highest specificity and PCR efficiency. Finally, we provide an alternate primer pair to use as a positive control for human RNA detection in SARS-CoV-2 assays, as we found that the widely used US CDC primers (targeting human RPP30) do not span an exon-exon junction and therefore does not provide an adequate control for the reverse transcription reaction.


YC-1 is a direct activator of soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) and sensitizes the enzyme for activation by nitric oxide (NO) and CO. Because the potentiating effect of YC-1 on NO-induced cGMP formation in platelets and smooth muscle cells has been shown to be substantially higher than observed with the purified enzyme, the synergism between heme ligands and YC-1 is apparently more pronounced in intact cells than in cell-free systems. Here, we investigated the mechanisms underlying the synergistic activation of sGC by YC-1 and NO in endothelial cells. Stimulation of the cells with YC-1 enhanced cGMP accumulation up to approximately 100-fold. The maximal effect of YC-1 was more pronounced than that of the NO donor DEA/NO (approximately 20-fold increase in cGMP accumulation) and markedly diminished in the presence of L-N(G)-nitroarginine, EGTA, or oxyhemoglobin. Because YC-1 did not activate endothelial NO synthase, the pronounced effect of YC-1 on cGMP accumulation was apparently caused by a synergistic activation of sGC by YC-1 and basal NO. The effect of YC-1 was further enhanced by addition of DEA/NO, resulting in a approximately 160-fold stimulation of cGMP accumulation. Thus, YC-1 increased the NO-induced accumulation of cGMP in intact cells by approximately 8-fold. Addition of endothelial cell homogenate increased the stimulatory effect of YC-1 on NO-activated purified sGC from 1.2- to 3.7-fold. This effect was not observed with heat-denatured homogenates, suggesting that a heat-labile factor present in endothelial cells potentiates the effect of YC-1 on NO-activated sGC.


Deploying Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in safety- and business-critical operations requires demonstrating compliance with applicable regulations and a comprehensive understanding of the residual risk associated with the UAS operation. To support these activities and enable the safe deployment of UAS into civil airspace, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has established a UAS regulatory framework that mandates the execution of safety risk assessment for UAS operations in order to gain authorization to carry out certain types of operations. Driven by this framework, the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS) released the Specific Operation Risk Assessment (SORA) methodology that guides the systematic risk assessment for UAS operations. However, existing work on SORA and its applications focuses mainly on single UAS operations, offering limited support for assuring operations conducted with multiple UAS and with autonomous features. Therefore, the work presented in this paper analyzes the application of SORA for a Multi-UAS airframe inspection (AFI) operation, that involves deploying multiple UAS with autonomous features inside an airport. We present the decision-making process of each SORA step and its application to a multiple UAS scenario. The results shows that the procedures and safety features included in the Multi-AFI operation such as workspace segmentation, the independent multi-UAS AFI crew proposed, and the mitigation actions provide confidence that the operation can be conducted safely and can receive a positive evaluation from the competent authorities. We also present our key findings from the application of SORA and discuss how it can be extended to better support multi-UAS operations.


Bone formation and bone homeostasis are energy‐expensive processes. How they are being regulated by energy needs is not completely understood. This is of high clinical importance because diabetic‐induced bone loss is common whereas the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, we show that Mst1/2 are important regulators for glucose uptake during osteoblast differentiation. Genetically removal of both Mst1/2 kinases simultaneously in mice in early and mature osteoblasts inhibits bone formation and bone remodeling, respectively. We found that the activity of Mst1/2 kinases is sensitive to glucose levels, and in turn, regulates glucose uptake by stabilizing key glucose transporter Glut1. In the absence of Mst1/2 kinases, Glut1 expression is loss and results in AMP‐dependent protein kinase (AMPK) activation and subsequent proteasomal degradation of Runx2. The streptozotocin (STZ)‐induced diabetic mouse model also recapitulates similar changes in the bone tissues. In addition, Glut1 expression regulated by Mst1/2 kinases is independent of Yap/Taz expression. Our results unravel new mechanistic insights into the orchestration of glucose level and bone homeostasis. © 2018 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


Background: Cholellthiasis is one of the registered causes within maternal deaths in an indirect way, with a reported up to 20% prevalence, it is considered within the main reasons for surgery in the postnatal period.
Objective: To determine the frequency of asymptomatic cholellthiasis in pregnant successors of the Family Medicine Unit no. 53 (FMU 53).
Material and methods: Observational, perspective, and descriptive study was conducted in the FMU 53 pregnant women who attended the service of ultrasound, size of sample was estimated taking 10% of anticipated ratio, significance of 95% and 3% of Alfa error corresponding to 348 patients. Excluding patients with diagnosis of biliary ducts pathology, biliary tract surgery patient carrier, and the ones who did not want to participate, ultrasound of biliary tract exploration took place; descriptive statistics was used for analysis and the results were presented in figures.
Results: 348 Ultrasonographic studies were performed to pregnant patients, 16% (54) with presence of sonographic data of asymptomatic cholellthiasis, 66% (36) with age of 20 to 29 years, 26.5 as middle age, predominating the primigravid 41% (22) and the third trimester with 66% (33), in 74% multiple gallstones, polyps 7%, 39% thin complexion, 31% overweight and obesity and 33% with work activity.
Conclusion: The incidence of asymptomatic Cholellthiasis in pregnant women of the FMU 53 is high, it predominates in primigravid patients of thin complexion , between 20 to 29 years of age, with multiple gallstones, size>5 mm and they are economically active women.


Software product line engineering is a paradigm for developing a family of software products from a repository of reusable assets rather than developing each individual product from scratch. In featureoriented software product line engineering, the common and the variable characteristics of the products are expressed in terms of features. Using software product line engineering approach, software products are produced en masse by means of two engineering phases: (i) Domain Engineering and, (ii) Application Engineering. At the domain engineering phase, reusable assets are developed with variation points where variant features may be bound for each of the diverse products. At the application engineering phase, individual and customized products are developed from the reusable assets. Ideally, the reusable assets should be adaptable with less effort to support additional variations (features) that were not planned beforehand in order to increase the usage context of SPL as a result of expanding markets or when a new usage context of software product line emerges. This paper presents an exploration research to investigate the properties of features, in the code-asset implemented using Object-Oriented Programming Style. In the exploration, we observed that program elements of disparate features formed unions as well as intersections that may affect modifiability of the code-assets. The implication of this research to practice is that an unstable product line and with the tendency of emerging variations should aim for techniques that limit the number of intersections between program elements of different features. Similarly, the implication of the observation to research is that there should be subsequent investigations using multiple case studies in different software domains and programming styles to improve the understanding of the findings.


Program code compression is an emerging research activity that is having an impact in several production areas such as networking and embedded systems. This is because the reduced-sized code can have a positive impact on network traffic and embedded system costs such as memory requirements and power consumption. Although code-size reduction is a relatively new research area, numerous publications already exist on it. The methods published usually have different motivations and a variety of application contexts. They may use different principles and their publications often use diverse notations. To our knowledge, there are no publications that present a good overview of this broad range of methods and give a useful assessment. This article surveys twelve methods and several related works appearing in some 50 papers published up to now. We provide extensive assessment criteria for evaluating the methods and offer a basis for comparison. We conclude that it is fairly hard to make any fair comparisons of the methods or draw conclusions about their applicability.


The two major storage proteins identified in Brassica napus (canola) were isolated and studied for their molecular composition, structural characteristics and the responses of structural features to the changes in pH and temperature. Cruciferin, a complex of six monomers, has a predominantly β-sheet-containing secondary structure. This protein showed low pH unstable tertiary structure, and distinctly different solubility behaviour with pH when intact in the seed cellular matrix. Cruciferin structure unfolds at pH 3 even at ambient temperature. Temperature-induced structure unfolding was observed above the maximum denaturation temperature of cruciferin. Napin was soluble in a wider pH range than cruciferin and has α-helices dominating secondary structure. Structural features of napin showed less sensitivity to the changes in medium pH and temperature. The surface hydrophobicity (S0) and intrinsic fluorescence of tryptophan residue appear to be good indicators of cruciferin unfolding, however they were not the best to demonstrate structural changes of napin. These two storage proteins of B. napus have distinct molecular characteristics, therefore properties and functionalities they provide are contrasting rather than complementary.


Using spatial modulation (SM) jointly with adaptive modulation (AM), we propose a low-complexity and spectrally-efficient transmission scheme in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. While in the conventional SM technique a fixed data rate is achieved, the proposed adaptive spatial modulation (ASM) technique is throughput-optimized by taking advantage of the wireless channel variations in order to increase the spectral efficiency of SM. ASM has been previously studied in [1] in order to improve the average bit error rate (ABER) performance of SM while only providing a fixed data rate. On the other hand, the ASM technique is introduced in this paper in order to achieve high data rates while keeping the ABER below a certain threshold. We propose two variations of ASM compromising between the spectral efficiency and the error performance. The ABER and the average spectral performance results of both variations are presented via Monte-Carlo simulations and confirmed with analytical results including asymptotic performance bounds on the ABER. These results show that the proposed ASM techniques come with a considerable spectral efficiency gain compared to SM while only requiring a limited feedback from the receiver.


The question of how active transposons are in tumors is a salient one because tumors are hypermethylated and stem-cell-like, two conditions under which transposons are active, and because there are many known cases of germline retrotransposon insertion polymorphisms leading to cancer [1]. While studies have shown that some retroelements are transcribed at higher levels in certain types of tumors [2], there are currently very few studies that have looked at somatic retrotransposon insertions in tumor genomes. Reactivation of transposable elements could be an alternate pathway to genomic instability, one of the defining properties of cancer, by increasing the rate of mutation via retrotransposon insertions. Indeed, Collier et. al. have proven this principle in mice using the Sleeping Beauty transposon, a reactivated ancient DNA transposon [3]. The characterization of somatic as well as germline polymorphic insertions will be important in the study of cancer, as it will provide insight into how active transposable elements are in tumors and what role they play in tumor formation. The Cancer Genome Atlas project has generated paired-end whole-genome sequencing data of tumors and normal tissue from hundreds of cancer patients in order to detect mutations and, ultimately, develop personalized treatment for patients. We have applied a pipeline to detect insertion polymorphisms of LINE-1 and Alu elements in both patients9 samples. The first step in the detection method is to filter out all discordant reads and map them to a library of consensus sequences for a specific retrotransposon family. Next, read pairs of reads that match a repeat element are mapped back to the reference genome. Lastly, the mapped reads are clustered based on their location in the reference genome, and insertion calls are made. Using this method we have found over four hundred new candidates for polymorphic insertions in seven patients, including some found only in the tumor samples. While this study is in the preliminary stages, it will address the question of whether or to what degree retrotransposons are active in tumors by being able to detect an increase in the number of retrotransposons found in the tumor sample as compared to the normal tissue of the same patient. Furthermore, heritable polymorphic insertions can be linked to cancer if there are certain ones that are over-represented in cancer cohorts as compared to a normal population, such as those found in the 1000 Genomes project data. Including insertion mutations in the characterization of cancer genomes will contribute to better individualized treatment for patients. 1. Belancio et al. Genome Res. 2008;18(3):343–58. 2. Schulz. J Biomed Biotechnol. 2006;(1):836–72. 3. Collier et al. Nature. 2005;436(7048):272–76. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Basic Cancer Research; 2011 Sep 14-18; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(18 Suppl):Abstract nr A29.


The aim of this study was to determine the immue function of human leukocyte antigens and some vital indicators in Covid 19 patients. This study was conducted at Ibn Al-Khatib hospital, Baghdad. Sixty four blood sample of Covid 19 patients (32male and 32female patients), while healthy volunteers group 15 male and 15 female with age between 10 to 60. Level of IL-1b, CD4, WBC, ESR, Urea, sugar test, were measured,results showed a significant increase (P<0.01) in each measured of IL-1b, CD4, WBC, ESR, Urea, Sugar. The more infection of Covid 19 with some factors such as, smoking, chronic diseases. The measurement of the level of IL-1b, CD4 by means of the enzyme - linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and WBC, PLT, measurement method using ABX micros 60 hematology analyzer, Urea, Sugar semi-automated chemistry analyzer using Mindray BC-5000. The data was analyzed with Graph pad prism software. © 2023 Author(s).


Introduction: Early treatment of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) yields better postoperative outcomes. Our current tests often fail to detect significant changes at early stages. We developed a new scoring system (LP log score) to determine if this tool is more sensitive in detecting clinical differences than current tests. Material and Methods: Sixty-two consecutive new patients with suspected idiopathic NPH were studied. Secondary, previously treated and obstructive cases were not included. We collected age, pre- and post-lumbar puncture (LP) Tinetti, Timed Up and Go (TUG) Test, European NPH scale, and LP log scores. The LP log score is recorded at baseline and for seven consecutive days after removing 40 cc of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) via LP. We studied the diagnostic accuracy of the tests for surgical indication. Results: The post-LP log showed improvement in 90% of people with good baseline gait tests and in 93% of people who did not show any pre-LP and post-LP change in gait tests. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy to detect intention to treat when positive post-LP improvements were 4%, 100%, and 24%, respectively, for TUG, 21%, 86%, and 34%, respectively, for the Tinetti Mobility Test, 66%, 29%, and 58%, respectively, for Medical College of Virginia (MCV) grade, and 98%, 33%, and 85%, respectively, for LP log score. Pre-LP and post-LP TUG improvement and pre-LP and post-LP Tinetti improvement were not associated with a surgical indication (p > 0.05). LP log improvement was associated with surgical indication odds ratio (OR): 24.5 95% CI (2.4-248.12) (p = 0.007). Conclusions: LP log showed better sensitivity, diagnostic accuracy, and association with surgical indication than the current diagnostic approach. An LP log may be useful detecting NPH patients at earlier stages and, therefore, yield better surgical outcomes.


Structural and crack parameters in a continuous mass model are identified using Observer Kalman filter Identification (OKID) and Eigen Realization Algorithm (ERA). Markov parameters are extracted from the input and out responses from which the state space model of the structural system is determined using Hankel matrix and singular value decomposition by Eigen Realization algorithm. The structural parameters are identified from the state space model. This method is applied to a lumped mass system and a cantilever which are excited with a harmonic excitation at its free end and the acceleration responses at all nodes are measured. The stiffness and damping parameters are identified from the extracted matrices using Newton-Raphson method on the structure. Later, cracks are introduced in the cantilever and all structural parameters are assumed as known priori, the unknown crack parameters such as normalized crack depth and its location are identified using OKID/ERA. The parameters extracted by using this algorithm are compared with other structural identification methods available in the literature. The main advantage of this algorithm is good accuracy of identified structural parameters.


In June of 1995, the first conference on Fluorescent Microscopy and Fluorescent Probes was held in the beautiful city of Prague in the Czech Republic and the proceedings of that meeting were published by Plenum Press in 1996 (Fluorescence Microscopy and Fluorescent Probes, Vol. 1, edited by Jan Slavík). Based on the success of the first conference, a second conference was held two years later again in Prague, and this book is the proceedings of that meeting.


Mental Models of Illness in Indonesia Florencia Anggoro College of the Holy Cross Benjamin Jee Rhode Island College Abstract: Avoiding and treating illness is vital to a person's wellbeing. Yet, people vary in their conceptions of the causes, transmission, prevention, and treatment of everyday illnesses such as colds and the flu. In semi-structured interviews, we ex- amined U.S. and Indonesian adults' beliefs about these illnesses, and explored an illness concept that is pervasive in Indonesian culture, "masuk angin" (literally "trapped wind"). The results revealed some interesting findings. First, Indonesians' concep- tions of colds and flu were less differentiated than U.S. participants'. Second, Indonesians often described illness transmission in terms of environmental factors (e.g., the weather), whereas U.S. participants described interpersonal factors (e.g., touching sick people). Third, while most participants focused on medical treatments for colds and flu, Indonesian novices described be- havioral treatments for masuk angin (e.g., scraping). Finally, Indonesian medical experts were reluctant to provide explanations for masuk angin, either dismissing it as illusory or integrating it into the colds/flu category.


In the last few years, the issue of reproducibility has gained increased attention in many scientific fields, including Artificial Intelligence (AI). Reproducibility of published results is a key concept of the scientific method, yet recent studies in AI and other computational sciences have shown that many experiments cannot be reproduced, and that current documentation practices are insufficient. In this project, reproductions are attempted of experiments from 30 highly cited papers in AI from recent years. The goal is to provide a better understanding of the state of reproducibility in the field, and identify issues limiting reproductions. Three hypotheses are investigated in the project. First, it is hypothesized that most studies are difficult to reproduce. Secondly, the issues that make reproductions difficult are hypothesized to be similar across different studies. Thirdly, the level of documentation measured for an article is hypothesized to be related to how easily it can be reproduced. From the 30 papers investigated, 22 reproduction attempts were performed, where 10 were partially successful. The results achieved corroborate the first and second hypothesis, and the third hypothesis can neither be rejected nor corroborated. Lastly, this project presents three contributions. The first contribution is the overview of the current state of reproducibility in AI provided by the results of the reproduction attempts. The second is a model for interpreting research articles in AI and estimating the level of documentation provided. The last is a set of categories of issues intended to cover most issues encountered during reproductions.


Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a well-recognized complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Musculoskeletal manifestations include joint contractures, polymyositis, polyserositis, and fasciitis. We present 14 patients with orthopaedic complications of chronic GVHD. Long-term conservative management of joint contractures with physical therapy and orthotics was generally successful in restoring patients' premorbid functional status. Surgical release of joint contractures yielded poor results and rendered the affected joints unresponsive to further conservative treatment. Surgical intervention in the treatment of joint contractures resulting from chronic GVHD does not appear qualitatively to improve functional status in patients affected with this disease process.


Suicide and suicide attempts are considered global health problems. With regard to the main causes of unnatural deaths, Brazil ranks as the eighth country with the highest absolute number of suicides. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors associated with the risk of suicide in a metropolitan city in Brazil. This was a cross-sectional study carried out in Recife, in the northeast region of Brazil. Epidemiological surveillance was conducted on the information systems regarding attempted suicide, suicide, and undetermined deaths in the period from 2007 to 2017. A record linkage between the information systems was performed. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and logistic regression were performed with an adopted a significance level of 5%. In the city of Recife, there were 4495 suicide attempts in the period, and the most frequent suicide attempts were by single females, aged between 20 and 39 years old, and who used either medication or poison to die by suicide. A total of 141 individuals died by suicide, and exogenous intoxication was the most common method. Knowing the common characteristics and associated factors of those who attempt and die by suicide is key for the development of prevention policies and intervention strategies for suicide.


Both cardiovascular abnormalities and metabolic acidosis can be prominent in heat stroke and may contribute to morbidity and mortality in heat stroke victims. Thus the effects of heat stress and/or low pH on the responses of rat mesenteric arteries (approximately 300 microns) to norepinephrine (NE; 10(-8)-10(-5) M) and acetylcholine (ACh; 10(-5) M) were examined. Arteries (5-7/group) were isolated, cannulated with micro-pippettes, placed under constant intraluminal pressure (50 mmHg), and then examined during 60-min exposures to either 1) 37, 42, or 43 degrees C or 2) 37 or 42 degrees C under conditions of low pH (pH = 7.0 by addition of 1 N HCl). Contractile responses to NE remained unaltered during exposure to 42 and 43 degrees C. When arteries were returned from that elevated temperature back to 37 degrees C for 30 min, enhanced (P < 0.05) contractile responses to NE were observed. Exposure to low pH depressed contractile responses to NE to a similar extent in arteries tested at 37 or 42 degrees C. Dilations to ACh were not altered by exposure to 42 degrees C, regardless of pH conditions, but were progressively reduced during the 43 degrees C (P = 0.09) exposure. Arteries exposed to NE demonstrated vasomotion. The NE-induced vasomotion, while maintained at 37 degrees C, was reduced (P < 0.05) by exposure to 43 degrees C. In conclusion, the contractile response to NE in mesenteric arteries was not altered by heat stress per se (up to 43 degrees C) but was depressed by low pH. The latter response was not potentiated by heat stress.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Abstract According to the World Health Organization, at least 2.2 billion people worldwide are blind or have some degree of near or distance vision impairment. Guide Dogs and other existing mobility aids are valuable tools to support travel and independence for these individuals. Nevertheless, the process of training dogs to be effective mobility aids is expensive, time-consuming, and requires highly specialised expertise. With technology making significant inroads into modern society, intelligent robots that are powered by smart sensing and advanced artificial intelligence present an opportunity to improve the mobility of those with blindness or low vision where access to a Guide Dog is not available. However, developing robust and effective robotic mobility aids with static and dynamic settings for use in both indoor and outdoor environments has remained a difficult task to accomplish. This article compares the capabilities of both existing robotic mobility aids, and existing cutting-edge robotic technologies, against a set of fundamental functional mobility aid characteristics with the aim of proposing a minimum viable product to support people who are blind or have low vision in everyday mobility and navigation tasks. The functional qualities identified and examined were sensing and interpretation, obstacle avoidance and object targeting, fluid and adaptable movement and navigation, interlink of device interface and sensing-interpretation unit, device interface to user, form factor and design. The outcomes of our study indicate that while existing robotic aids are limited in scope and focused on a narrow range of functions, existing cutting-edge robotic technologies have the potential to combine to create a fully-functioning robot guide. We propose a minimum viable product using these technologies as the next step towards a fully-functioning robot guide supporting the mobility and navigation of people who are blind or have low vision.


An online program for pharmacy preceptors to improve their clinical teaching using continuing professional development (CPD) was launched in 2017. While 491 preceptors participated in the CPD program, only 35% of potential participants completed this voluntary program. A secondary data analysis was undertaken to determine the characteristics of preceptors who completed the program and identify ways to target program advertising for those who did not complete it. Residency-trained preceptors were more likely to complete the CPD program compared with those without residency training (45% and 37%, respectively; p = 0.011). This may be due to the inclusion of CPD in residency accreditation standards. To improve completion of the CPD program by preceptors without residencies, a brief introduction to CPD, a statement of benefits, and use of a personalized plan should be included in advertisements. Preceptors teaching more experiential students were more likely to complete the CPD program (p < 0.001 for introductory and advanced experiences). To encourage preceptors with less students to participate, the CPD program should be advertised year-round to allow preceptors to complete the training when it is most relevant to their precepting schedule. Future directions include the monitoring of changes in CPD program participation rates following changes in advertisements and exploring other motivations for program completion such as collaborations with employers.


A time-synchronization strategy for packetized transmission of target position about large-aperture telescope observation control system has been proposed in this study. Compared with the existing telescope tracking strategy, the target position packing and sending strategy based on the time synchronization method proposed in this paper has the advantages of high stability and reliability. Firstly, the telescope tracking observation control method was elaborated in this paper, including the motion pattern during telescope tracking. Then, the strategy for packetizes transmission of target positions based on time-synchronization is established and lists the detailed steps. Finally, the performance of the tracking strategy is verified using the 2.5m telescope for the simulated uniform speed star and the blind-tracking fixed star HIP31216, respectively. The test results show that the accuracy RMS of the tracking strategy proposed in this paper is less than 0.02" at 30 minutes, and the performance is much better than the design requirement of 0.3". The most important advantage of this tracking strategy is that the telescope can guarantee normal tracking for a certain period of time even if the hardware or software of the host computer is abnormal.


: On the basis of the study of electrocardiograms by nonlinear dynamics methods, we consider the possibility to reveal pathologies of patients with different heart failures. Two parameters were analyzed: the correlation dimension and embedding dimension of RR-intervals of electrocardiorgams. Some restrictions of this method and the ways of their solutions are discussed. It was found that the proposed methods are suitable for the initial diagnosis.


Despite it being recognised as a problem worthy of consideration over a century ago, we have little mechanistic understanding of how the size of a cell's nucleus is determined. The simply shaped fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is genetically tractable and undergoes a closed mitosis, making it a useful system in which to probe mechanisms of nuclear size control. In S. pombe cells, nuclear volume scales with cell volume, and not DNA content, across a wide range of cell volumes and throughout the cell cycle, maintaining a constant nuclear volume to cell volume (N/C) ratio. This thesis explores the mechanisms by which this scaling is achieved, using physiological, genetic and biochemical approaches. N/C ratio is perturbed and resultant nuclear and cellular growth rates of individual cells are assessed. N/C ratio homeostasis is observed. Both high and low aberrant N/C ratios correct rapidly in individual cells. Analysis of the kinetics of N/C ratio recovery is carried out and mathematical models of nuclear size control are proposed. To identify molecular components and biological processes with roles in nuclear size control mechanisms, a genetic screen for deletion mutants with aberrant nuclear size and biochemical analysis of a nuclear size mutant are carried out. Ribosome biogenesis, RNA processing and nucleocytoplasmic transport are all implicated in nuclear size control.


This paper focuses on the crucial task of addressing the evacuation of hazardous places, which holds great importance for coordinators, event hosts, and authorities. To facilitate the development of effective solutions, the paper employs Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, specifically Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), to construct a simulation model for evacuation. NetLogo is selected as the simulation tool of choice due to its ability to provide a comprehensive understanding of human behaviour in distressing situations within hazardous environments. The primary objective of this paper is to enhance our comprehension of how individuals react and respond during such distressing situations. By leveraging AI and MAS, the simulation model aims to capture the complex dynamics of evacuation scenarios, enabling policymakers and emergency planners to make informed decisions and implement more efficient and effective evacuation strategies. This paper endeavours to contribute to the advancement of evacuation planning and ultimately improve the safety and well-being of individuals in hazardous places