Blogs and wikis are examples of Web 2.0 technology that facilitate collaboration in the online world. In the health sciences, the emergence of these social tools potentially increases the risk of generating harmful or biased information. Therefore, it is the health professional's responsibility to have the skills to critically appraise Web content that has not undergone traditional peer review. This was the focus in a three-credit graduate Urban Public Health course taught by a librarian and was addressed with assignments using blog and wiki technology within the course management tool Blackboard. The assignments fostered comprehension of the issues surrounding blogs and wikis as they relate to public health.


E-portfolio in recording professional development is a modern way of tracking and recording creativity and competencies of employees in education. E-portfolio has great potential in promoting the results of employees' work in education and represents a good way of presenting the results of the individual and the complete institution. This is much more than just a set of documents - it is a complete record of the development and promotion of an employee. Archived data can be easily accessed and perceived by the teacher's development path and can be made available to colleagues, school management, parents and other stakeholders. In addition to the traditional portfolios of employees in education, the electronic portfolio represents, appropriate to the time in which we live, the way of collecting and archiving various forms of professional development and as a testimony of individual development and promotion.E-portfolio is one of the tools that relates to the continuous development of knowledge, skills and capabilities and contributes to improving the quality of work, strengthening motivation and developing a system of evaluation and self-evaluation. At the same time, it helps the professional development of employees in education as an open, dynamic and durable process, which involves transferring new knowledge from different professional areas and scientific disciplines to the world of practice, as well as following European trends in improving the quality of education. E-portfolio is also an e-learning tool that has been recognized as important in the process of improving the quality of teaching and learning and moving towards a "student-centered" education model. The use of e-portfolios in teaching provides the teacher an opportunity for additional and new way of evaluating students, continuous monitoring of his work and additional evaluation of learning outcomes. Teaching activity related to e-portfolio serves to raise students' awareness of their own work and progress.The paper presents an e-portfolio solution for the directors of preschool institutions, elementary and high schools in the education system of the Republic of Serbia. The heads of educational institutions provide the possibility of materializing work activities, as concrete evidence of commitment to work and progress. The presented solution enables keeping the most important results of work and presenting the best examples from practice, and also informing others about the results of their work. E-portfolio belongs to the category of the most authentic forms of evaluation, which integrates a qualitative and quantitative assessment (from reflection to physical evidence). In practical terms, e-portfolio represents an essential part of the licensing process, from a continuous commitment in the professional development of a director to a licensing exam segment.


Abstract. High resolution electron density profiles (Ne) measured with the Arecibo (18.4 N, 66.7 W), Incoherent Scatter radar (I. S.) are used to obtain the bottomside shape parameters B0, B1 for a solar maximum period (1989–90). Median values of these parameters are compared with those obtained from the IRI-2001 model. It is observed that during summer, the IRI values agree fairly well with the Arecibo values, though the numbers are somewhat larger during the daytime. Discrepancies occur during winter and equinox, when the IRI underestimates B0 for the local times from about 12:00 LT to about 20:00 LT. Furthermore, the IRI model tends to generally overestimate B1 at all local times. At Arecibo, B0 increases by about 50%, and B1 decreases by about 30% from solar minimum to solar maximum. Key words. Ionosphere (equational ionosphere; modeling and forecasting)


ABSTRACT Introduction: Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-KP) infections are associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. A therapeutic approach based on the patient risk stratification could improve outcome and avoid antibiotic misuse. Areas covered: English literature search, from 2008 to 2018, was done using PubMed database. Risk factors for developing CR-KP infection in several settings were reviewed. Since, rectal carriage was a main risk factor for developing infection, we revised in deep clinical score to predict infection among colonized patients. Furthermore, we investigated overall and treatment-related risk factors for poor outcome in patients with CR-KP infection, in particular the carbapenem producing Enterobacteriacieae (CPE)-INCREMENT score. Finally, an algorithm, based on such scores, for the therapeutic management of patients with CR-KP colonization was commented. Expert opinion: The therapeutic approach analyzed in this review could help physicians to avoid antibiotic overuse as well as to start promptly with the most appropriate antibiotic regimen. However, it has to be validated in further studies, mainly among special population such as immunocompromised patients. The availability of new drugs, fast microbiology, and analysis of gut microbiome could significantly improve the management of CR-KP colonized and/or infected patients.


Objective: Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a common neurological disorder that affects patients' sleep, emotional state and daily life negatively. In this study it was aimed to determine the sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and depression frequency in patients with RLS and their relation with duration and severity of illness. Materials and Methods: In our center, 41 patients with primary RLS diagnosis were included in the study. Patients were divided into groups as mild, moderate, severe and very severe, according to the RLS severity scale of the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and Beck Depression Inventory were filled in by all the patients, including identity and sociodemographic data with illness information. Statistical analysis was performed among groups divided according to disease severity. Depressive symptoms of the disease duration and its relation with sleep problems were investigated. Results: In this study 41 patients, 30 (73.2%) female, 11 (26.8%) male, were included. Of the patients participating in the study, 2 patients (4.9%) had mild RLS while 7 (17.1%) were very severely ill. Fourteen patients (34.1%) had moderate disease and 18 (43.9%) had severe disease. Bad sleep quality was found in 68.3% (n=28) of patients with RLS, excessive daytime sleepiness in 14.6% (n=6) severe depression in 7.3% (n=3) and totally 29.3% of patients (n=12) depressive symptoms were observed. As the severity of illness increased, sleep quality deteriorated and depressive symptoms increased (p<0.01). Conclusion: Most of the RLS patients had poor sleep quality, a significant amount of daytime excessive sleepiness, and about one third of them had depression. As the duration and severity of the disease increases, the intensity of depressive symptoms increases. Remembering that RLS may have serious consequences and effective treatment of depression when accompanied should be planned without losing time.


The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of parenting efficacy
measured at 6 months of infancy, and on parenting stress at 9-months of
infancy through a short-term longitudinal approach. Participants were 116
couples living in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, whose first born children were in
infancy. The results of the 116 couples were analyzed through the APIM
analysis method. The results of the APIM showed that mothers'and fathers'
actor effect was significant, which meant that parenting efficacy at 6 months of
infancy could predict the existence of parenting stress at 9 months of infancy.
However, the partner effect of both mothers and fathers was insignificant. This
research demonstrates the significance of parenting efficacy at early infancy,
which in turn affects parenting stress as well as factors that need to be
considered in pre-parental education.


Nearly 30 years ago, emerged the concept of deterministic chaos. With it came sensitivity to initial conditions, nonlinearities, and strange attractors. This constituted a paradigm shift that profoundly altered how numerical modellers approached dynamic systems. It also provided an opportunity to resolve a situation of mutual misunderstanding between scientists and non-scientists about uncertainties and predictability in natural systems. Our proposition is that this issue can be addressed in an original way which involves modelling based on the principles of chance and necessity (CaN). We outline the conceptual and mathematical principles of CaN models and present an application of the model to the Barents Sea food-web. Because CaN models rely on concepts easily grasped by all actors, because they are explicit about knowns and unknowns and because the interpretation of their results is simple without being prescriptive, they can be used in a context of participatory management. We propose that, three decades after the emergence of chaos theories, CaN can be a practical step to reconcile scientists and non-scientists around the modelling of structurally and dynamically complex natural systems, and significantly contribute to ecosystem-based fisheries management.


The stereochemistry of the lipophilic side chain of (+)-rakicidin F had not been determined until recently. Using our lithiation–borylation methodology ("assembly line synthesis") we were able to efficiently prepare the all-syn isomer as well as the C-21 epimer of the side chain, and comparison with the natural product suggested that the natural product had all-syn stereochemistry. Completion of the total synthesis using a macrolactamization of the northern amide enabled us to confirm Wang and Chen's stereochemical findings for the structure of (+)-rakicidin F.


: A case is reported in which gastrointestinal bleeding was caused by ruptured ileal varices in a patient without previous intraabdominal surgery. Shunting took place via veins in adhesions which were the results of a previous periappendicular abscess. This implies that the clinical entity has to be extended to bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract, cirrhosis of the liver, and previous intraabdominal surgery or previous intraabdominal inflammatory disease.


The traffic patterns observed in a multimedia Web environment are quite different from the traffic variations experienced in communicating a single media stream. In particular, traffic variations within a single multimedia object are mainly due to inter frame compression. However, traffic generated by a multimedia server has varying capacity requirement at browsing, document and object levels.
The browsing level variations in the network capacity usage are caused by the user's interactions. In this dissertation, neuro-fuzzy logic is used to model the workload generated in the Web browsing environment. A set of parameters that are used to characterize the work-load generated by the multimedia server is proposed. Consequently, a Neuro-Fuzzy Scheduler (NFS) that makes an intelligent compromise among multi-criteria by properly combining some elementary scheduling heuristics, is presented. Performance of the NFS is compared with several known heuristics and a branch and bound algorithm. The results show that the proposed neuro-fuzzy scheduler can dynamically adjust to the varying work-load quite well.
The document level variations in the network capacity usage are due to the changing level of concurrency and the characteristics of the component objects within a multimedia document (MMD). A scheme to quantify the amortized capacity and destination buffering requirement of an MMD is presented. Trade-offs between network resources and user's quality of acceptance are also studied.
The characterization of MMDs is based on the assumption that the object level variation for the MMD can be modeled using the effective capacity approximation. An algorithm for modeling traffic generated by a single multimedia object, based on the effective capacity approximation, is proposed. The scalability aspects of the proposed algorithm are compared with some of the previously known schemes for effective capacity computation. The performance of the proposed CAC scheme is evaluated using known performance bounds and simulation results. The results show that the scheme scales well with increasing amount of resources (link capacity and buffer size) and accommodates intelligently the mix of traffic offered by sources of diversed burstiness characteristics.


Prophylactic amnioinfusion was assessed in term and postdates pregnancies with decreased amniotic fluid volume. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: amnioinfusion with warmed saline solution, roomtemperature saline, or control. Patients receiving prophylactic amnioinfusion had a significant decrease in both the frequency and severity of variable decelerations in the first stage of labor (P=.006) and in the average total number of variable decelerations in the first and second stages of labor (P=.01) compared with controls. There was no observed effect on newborn serum electrolyte levels with amnioinfusion, nor was there any apparent benefit of infusion of warmed saline compared with room-temperature saline. In contrast to premature gestations with oligohydramnios, prophylactic amnioinfusion was not associated with a significant improvement in mean umbilical arterial and venous pH or a significant decrease in cesarean delivery for fetal distress (P=.09). This is perhaps because the term fetus has an enhanced ability to tolerate recurrent episodes of heart rate decelerations without demonstrating the rapid metabolic changes seen in the premature fetus.


There is a growing need for increased civic engagement in developing countries. We argue that civic education has not met this need in Nigeria because it is uncritical, but it can be reformed through critical consciousness theory emphasizing knowledge and critical thinking. However, for civic education reforms, we need to understand the relationship between sociodemographic factors and civic engagement. Therefore, we investigated the influence of six sociodemographic factors (gender, location, age, income, education, and ethnicity) on two civic engagement constructs—environmental civility and community volunteering—using the responses of 372 respondents on the Civic Engagement Scale. Results revealed that community volunteerism is mainly influenced by age, gender, and location, while environmental civility is mainly influenced by location and education, and there is a generally low level of civic engagement. The implications of these findings for a critical civic education aimed at increasing critical consciousness and civic action are discussed.


Vaccines are among the greatest achievements of modern medicine, leading to the eradication of naturally occurring smallpox, the near elimination of polio and the control of diseases such as rotavirus and hepatitis A and B in industrialized countries. Conventional vaccines, however, protect against a limited number of infectious diseases and, in some cases, provide incomplete protection. Effective vaccines against common infections such as HIV, hepatitis C and malaria remain an unmet medical need. These gaps, together with the threat of resurgence of eradicated diseases, contribute to the growing need for the development of new vaccines and the improvement of existing ones. Approximately 250 scientists and vaccine experts from around the world gathered at Cambridge Healthtech Institute's 3rd Annual Immunotherapeutics and Vaccine Summit (ImVacS 2008) to present the latest developments in this field and to discuss, in 64 presentations, the challenges and current approaches to development and production of novel vaccines.


This thesis is based on five studies. It includes the characterization of lipid micro emboli in shed mediastinal blood during cardiac surgery. The reuse of blood directly by cardiotomy suction is a common practice in order to reduce the need of blood transfusions. In shed mediastinal blood we showed that there is an abundance of lipid particles in the size range of 10-60μm. These lipid particles are also recirculated by the cardiotomy suction, through filters and the plastic tubing in the cardiopulmonary
bypass (CPB) circuit. The lipid particles are quite probably in an
emulsified state which renders them hydrophilic and less prone to stick to the plastic surfaces of tubing and filters. With a series of samples from the mediastinal blood and from the arterial circulation we found that the lipid particles are formed during the operation. Probable sites of origin are the bone marrow after sternotomy and the mediastinal fat tissue manipulated during the surgery in order to
expose the heart for cannulation. When the blood was collected in a
separate transfusion bag and transfused over a short period of time the increase of lipid micro emboli could be detected in the arterial circulation of the CPB circuit. This was measured by using a Coulter counter to analyze and count emboli in a series of blood samples. The Coulter counter was shown in the first study to be a valuable technique to evaluate embolic loads of lipid micro emboli in blood.
The lungs act as physiological filters for the circulation. Embolic material is filtered effectively by the lungs. Using this filtering property of the lungs could therefore be an option in retransfusing the lipid laden mediastinal blood gathered during cardiac surgery. Using a pig model and a shed blood phantom laden with radioactive triolein as embolic material, we registered the hemodynamic results of this during CPB. Furthermore we registered the embolic load in the circulation by measuring beta radioactivity in a series of blood samples. We found that the lungs do act to trap a great deal of these lipid particles but these are then to a certain extent recirculated
again. This was especially evident when the cardiac output and pressure were increased by a bolus of volume and vasoconstrictors
Lipid emboli find their way into the circulation during cardiac surgery, where they can be detected and counted by the Coulter counter. When simultaneously registering micro embolic signals from a transcranial Doppler and counting lipid micro emboli in blood samples taken from the arterial line, we found a strong correlation between the two phenomena. Lipid material was also tagged by beta radioactivity and found to end up in different organs. By comparing two shed blood phantoms, one with nonemulsified lipids and the other with emulsified lipids we found that the lipid embolic matter increases in the circulation and is more easily deposited in the tissue. The overall purpose was to show that lipid micro emboli are released into the shed mediastinal blood during cardiac surgery. When this blood is retransfused, it is the source of a bombardment of lipid micro emboli in the circulation. These emboli are lodged in various organs. Lipid emboli in the emulsified state are more likely to pass into the circulation during retransfusion of shed mediastinal blood. These emboli can be detected by a transcranial Doppler in the arterial circulation of patients undergoing
cardiac surgery.


The ocean is being jeopardized because of the adverse effects of climate change and human activities, such as marine plastic pollution, extreme weather events, sea level rises, and others. In addressing these ocean risks, ensuring sufficient finance to sustain the ocean economy is an ever-present challenge, particularly for those vulnerable regions, coastal communities, and small island developing states. Blue Finance, as a concept, is thus critical to ensure sustainability and conservation of the marine ecosystem and resources aligned with economic growth. Ocean sustainability has attracted global finance initiated by multilateral development banks and international institutions. This paper explores the interconnection between stakeholders among agents in the Blue Finance mechanism to illustrate incentives to increase private investment in addition to public donations in financing ocean health protection and boosting the blue economy. We then attempt to propose potential regulatory and institutional arrangements incorporating the concept of the blue financing principles in the context of the relevant legal regimes concerning marine governance both at the international and domestic levels. We further elaborate on the potentials of these legal and institutional arrangements to provide incentives for increasing private investment in marine development programs seeking economic growth and sustainability.


ABSTRACT Introduction Vibegron is a very selective new β3-adrenergic receptor agonist introduced recently to clinical practice for OAB patients, which offers an alternative option for to antimuscarinic drugs. Areas covered This review presents the current knowledge concerning the mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of vibegron. Moreover, it presents an overview of preclinical and phase II and phase III clinical studies on the efficacy, tolerability, and safety of this agent in patients suffering from OAB. Expert opinion Clinical studies confirmed efficacy and safety of vibegron in OAB patients. Vibegron differ from well-known mirabegron with regards to its pharmacological profile because it is metabolized independently from CYP3A4, 2D6, or 2C9 and therefore is less likely to cause a drug–drug interaction. Moreover, since this drug does not penetrate the blood-brain barrier, it could become the drug of choice in OAB patients with cognitive impairment. These properties have paved the way in near future for better-tailored treatments for OAB patients.


The Public Health Service (PHS) is publishing notice of a new routine use, responding to comments, changing the system name, providing the contractor's address, and making editorial clarifications for system of records: 09-15-0054, "Health Care Practitioner Adverse Credentialing Data Bank, HHS/HRSA/BHPr", now titled "National Practitioner Data Bank for Adverse Information on Physicians and Other Health Care Practitioners, HHS/HRSA/BHPr."


The purpose of present study was to determine whether the regulation of urea synthesis is mediated through changes in supply of amino acids by protein synthesis and whether the concentration of ammonia, or activities of amino acid catabolizing enzymes, regulate urea synthesis when the dietary protein quality is manipulated. Experiments were done on three groups of rats given diets containing 10 g gluten, 10 g casein or 10 g whole egg protein/100 g for 10 d. The urinary excretion of urea, and the liver concentrations of glutamate, serine and alanine increased with a decrease in quality of dietary protein. The fractional and absolute rates of protein synthesis in tissues declined with the decrease in quality of dietary protein quality. The ammonia concentration in plasma and liver, and activities of hepatic amino acid catabolizing enzymes was not related to urea excretion under these conditions. These results suggest that the lower protein synthesis seen in tissues of rats given the lower quality of protein is likely to be one of the factors to increasing the supply of amino acids and stimulating urea synthesis.


Abstract We used a novel mouse model to study the effects of selective breeding for high locomotor activity (14 generations) on relative organ sizes, hematocrit (Hct), and blood hemoglobin (Hb) concentration. We also examined effects of exercise training and genotype-by-environment interactions by housing animals for 8 weeks with wheels that were either free to rotate or locked. Mice from the four replicate High-Runner (HR) lines were smaller in total body mass but had larger body mass-adjusted kidneys relative to the four Control lines (P < 0.05). Control and HR lines did not differ significantly for mass-adjusted tail length or masses of the "triceps surae" hindlimb muscle group, heart (ventricle), spleen, liver, adrenal glands or gonads. Wheel access caused a reduction in body mass and an increase in relative heart mass. In females only, wheel access caused a reduction in relative spleen mass. Wheel access did not affect relative tail length or relative mass of the triceps surae, liver, adrenal gland or gonads. Significant interactions between selection history and wheel access were observed in females for spleen, liver, and gonad mass as well as Hct and Hb. Wheel access caused increases in both Hct and Hb, mainly in the HR lines. The mini-muscle phenotype, caused by a Mendelian recessive allele that halves hindlimb muscle mass, was significantly associated with several other body composition traits, including reduced body mass, increased tail length, increased heart mass, increased liver mass (females only), increased mean adrenal gland mass (females only), increased mean kidney mass (males only), and reduced Hct (wheel-access females only). Results are discussed in context of the beneficial acclimation hypothesis, genotype-by-environment interactions, and the potential for "nurture" to be self-reinforcing of "nature" in some complex behavioral-physiological phenotypes.


Interneuronal activity was recorded from the spinal cord of paralysed spinal dogfish ( Scyliorhinus canicula ) showing Active swimming as indicated by rhythmic activity in the motor nerves. The interneurons from which spike activity was recorded during unstimulated fictive swimming ( n = 282) were divided into three groups, according to their firing patterns. Group I units (29% ) discharged steadily (mean interspike interval 25-100 ms); their firing patterns were not or only weakly modulated in phase with the spinal cord motor output; when fish with different swimming rhythms were compared, no correlation was found between the average frequency of firing of these units and the mean cycle period of the motor rhythm ; when spinal motor output stopped, these neurons remained active. Group II units (19%) discharged throughout the entire cycle of the motor rhythm although a few became phasically active at short cycles; their firing was clearly modulated in line with the motor rhythm and during shorter cycles increased in frequency; when motor output stopped, their spike activity was strongly reduced or absent. Group III units (52 %) discharged bursts of action potentials in time with the motor rhythm, each unit firing during its own characteristic phase within the motor output cycle; their firing frequencies increased linearly with locomotor frequency; these units were silent when motor output stopped.


Design of a square microstrip antenna for obtaining circular polarization (CP) radiation using a coplanar waveguide (CPW) feed is presented. This CP design is achieved by insetting a slit to the boundary of the square microstrip patch, which makes possible the splitting of the dominant resonant mode into two near-degenerate orthogonal modes for CP radiation and introducing an inclined slot in the CPW feed line for coupling the electromagnetic (EM) energy of the CPW to the square patch. Good impedance matching for CP operation can be obtained by adjusting the inclined slot length and the tuning-stub length of the CPW feed line. Typical experimental results are presented and discussed.


The need to measure the efficiency of scientific research raises a myriad of questions. There are many different measurement methods and indicators, but none give answers to the general questions like which journal is "better" or which researcher is more effective. It is always necessary to state what we want to measure, for what reason and choose the corresponding measurement process. Whatever measurement method we choose, we need a database to perform measurements and comparisons and generate rankings. This database must be complete in terms of indexed content and validated in terms of metadata because if we draw conclusions by analyzing a too small set or not correct information, the result will not be accurate and some will be disadvantaged, others unduly favored. The Hungarian Scientific Bibliographic Database (MTMT) is an excellent tool for evaluating the results of Hungarian research. Peter Sasvari, a researcher at the National University of Public Service, created a journal ranking of Hungarian journals that are on the accepted journals' list of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences IX. Section of Economics and Law using the data of this system. The manuscript was published on 31 December 2020 on ResearchGate. We are very pleased with the initiative and hope that MTMT will be increasingly used in research evaluation in the future. However, we illustrate the dangers of incorrect use of MTMT, using the published manuscript as an example. The cause of this is that MTMT is a community product according to the current operating model, therefore it has rather mixed quality records. It should be used with due care in the evaluation. If we organize the workflows around it to ensure the completeness and validation of the incoming records, if we take care of continuous data correction and if we make sure that the statistics used for ratings are based only on validated records, we will see that we have an excellent tool in our hands that can be utilized in many ways and areas.


This research is driven by the notion that companies will not be able to develop in difficult situations. The telecommunications construction companies are facing great pressure after their golden era. Government regulation and tight business competition force these companies to create new strategies to survive and if possible, to develop the business. The objective of this research is to analyze how the telecommunication construction companies survived in the difficult business era. This research also aims to reveal the comparison of the effectiveness of the availability of the working capital with the project value to be conducted within a year. In addition, this research also tries to reveal how the strategies used to provide the working capital needed could benefit and increase the company value. This is an explanatory research with qualitative approach. This research was conducted in Surabaya with the sample consisted of three telecommunication construction services companies. The results show that increasing the effectiveness of all business sectors is the main key to increase the company value. In terms of working capital, the effective working capital availability which is 18.3% of the project value in a year will guarantee the successful project implementation. The use of working capital is a determinant factor in increasing company value in the difficult situations.


Immunisation against infectious diseases has been more effective in preventing disease and death than any other medical intervention. The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) supports the immunisation policies and programs of the Australian and New Zealand governments for both routine immunisation and specific immunisation of at-risk groups. This policy statement has the following objectives: • To outline the responsibilities of paediatricians and other consultant physicians in regard to immunisation • To identify the current status and emerging challenges of immunisation • To suggest practical approaches for optimising immunisation • To provide links to especially useful information resources, both for health professionals and for the community at large


Superthermal ion cyclotron emission (ICE) is observed in both fusion and space plasmas. Typical spectra display strong peaks at sequential multiple ion cyclotron harmonics, and distinct energetic ion populations are present in the emitting regions. In JET and TFTR, for example, ICE appears to be driven by fusion products or by injected beam ions in the outer mid plane; and in the Earth's ring current, radiation belts, and bow shock, ICE has been observed by the spacecraft OGO 3, GEOS 1 and 2 and AMPTE/IRM, often in conjunction with highly non-Maxwellian proton populations. Common emission mechanisms, arising from collective relaxation of energetic ion populations, appear to operate in both the fusion and space plasma environments. These are reviewed, and the potential role of ICE as a diagnostic of energetic ion populations is also examined.


This study was performed to observe the effects of the feeding physiological activity substance in Cordyceps militaris hot-water extract intake on the improvement of lipid components and metabolic enzyme activities in the serum of dietary hyperlipidemic rats (SD strain, male) fed the experimental diets for 5 weeks. The concentrations of cholesterol (total cholesterol, β-lipoprotein, LDL-cholesterol, free cholesterol and cholesteryl ester), atherosclerotic index, triglyceride (TG), phospholipid (PL) and blood glucose in sera were remarkably lower in the Cordyceps militaris extract intake group than in the hyperlipidemic rats. In the ratio of HDL-cholesterol concentration was higher percentage in the Cordyceps militaris extract intake group than in the hyperlipidemic rats. The activities aminotransferase (AST, ALT) in sera were rather lower in the Cordyceps militaris extract administration than in the hyperlipidemic rats. From the above research, Cordyceps militaris extract were effective on the improvement of the lipid compositions in sera of dietary hyperlipidemic rats.


We report the results on a Ni-based superalloy with two
different types of NiCoCrAlY coatings. The phase structure
dependence on temperature and composition in the coatings was
investigated after heat treatment at temperatures between 770C
and 990C and the results were compared with thermodynamic
modelling of phase equilibria using ThermoCalc software package
and commercial database of thermodynamic data for Ni-base
superalloys.


In the manufacturing grid's architecture, Resources Management System (RMS) is the central component responsible for disseminating resource information across the grid, accepting requests for resources, discovering and scheduling the suitable resources that match the requests for the global grid resource, and executing the requests on scheduled resources. In order to resolve the problem of resources publication and discovery in Manufacturing Grid (MGrid), the classification of manufacturing resources is first researched after which the resources encapsulation class modes are put forward. Then, a scalable two-level resource management architecture is constructed on the model, which includes root nodes, domain nodes and leaf nodes. And then an RMS is proposed, and the resources publication and discovery mechanism are detailedly described. At last, an application prototype is developed to show the validity and the practicability of the proved theory and method.


A decision tree is a graphical representation of a procedure for classifying or evaluating an item of interest. It represents a function that maps each element of a domain to a value from a set of values; this value is typically a symbolic class label or a numerical value. Decision trees are excellent tools for supporting decisions, when a lot of complex information must be taken into account and the reasoning must be supplied for alternative paths (Mitchell, 1997). Decision trees have two key merits when compared to other concept learners. First, they abstRact


While studies have been done to rate the validity and reliability of the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and Oral Proficiency Interview–Computer (OPIc) independently, a limited amount of research has analyzed the interexam reliability of these tests, and studies have yet to be conducted comparing the results of Spanish language learners who take both exams. For this study, 154 Spanish language learners of various proficiency levels were divided into two groups and administered both the OPI and OPIc within a 2-week period using a counterbalanced design. In addition, study participants took both a pre- and postsurvey that gathered data about their language learning background, familiarity with the OPI and OPIc, preparation and test-taking strategies, and evaluations of each exam. The researchers found that 54.5% of the participants received the same rating on the OPI and OPIc, with 13.6% of examinees scoring higher on the OPI and 31.8% scoring higher on the OPIc. While the results found that students scored significantly better on the OPIc, the overall effect size was quite small. The authors also found that the overwhelming majority of the participants preferred the OPI to the OPIc. This research begins to fill important gaps and provides empirical data to examine the comparability of the Spanish OPI and OPIc.


Multiple methods of grafting graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets to natural clinoptilolite-rich zeolite particles were developed in our laboratory. In this study, we have systematically characterized the GO coated particles prepared by various methods to select the most promising method for further research efforts. This study revealed that the most promising coating method was the clean-acid-treated zeolite particles followed by deposition of GO nanosheets onto the zeolite surface and mild thermal treatment of the particles. GO and its synergistic interaction in zeolite was attributed to electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds. Hydrophobic interactions are enhanced both due to dealumination of zeolite caused by the cleaning method followed by acid treatment and due to partial thermal deoxygenation of GO. This method provided a ten times larger surface area (from 10.55 m2 g−1 to 117.96 m2 g−1) and three times smaller pore diameter (from 81.91 Å to 30.68 Å), providing great particles for a variety of applications as adsorbents or catalysts.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:
Aim of this study is to evaluate the functional outcome of the distal femur
locking Compression plates in the treatment of fractures of distal femur.
OBJECTIVES:
1.Whether fractures reduction and fixation with locking compression plate will
give acceptable results in the distal femur fractures treated in our setup.
2. To study the clinical outcome associated with this treatment modality
3. what are the potential complication associated with the procedure
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
This is a prospective, nonrandomised observational study of 14 Patients, with
distal femur fractures (Muller A classification type 33 A,C) who were treated
with DFLCP at Department of Orthopaedics, Coimbatore medical college
hospital, Coimbatore from May 2013 to September 2014. The study sample
was 14 patients and all these patients were included with predefined inclusion
& exclusion criteria in this study. Minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 16
months follow up was done. The functional and radiographic results were
recorded according to Neer's criteria
RESULTS:
In this study, Most of the patients in this study were old patients in the age
group 50-85 yrs. In this study 53% of the cases were Muller type A and
47% were type C and for three patients MIPPO technique was followed
In our study in most of cases long working length was followed but in four
patients short working length was used but we had no implant failure among
these cases and Bone grafting was done for three patients
The shortest follow up period was 3 months and longest period was 12
months , average union time was 4 months and most common Complications
is knee stiffness which was almost 84 % of the patients with average knee
motion was 25 degree of flexion,15% of the cases got infected. Shortening
seen in 21% and no cases of implant failure in our study .
In this study by the analysis of the results two cases with excellent results, 7
cases with good results and one cases with failure result.
CONCLUSION:
We conclude that DF-LCP, the "internal fixator" is a safe and reliable implant
although careful preoperative planning and case selection and taking up cases
for surgery as soon as possible are important factors which determine the final
outcome. It may substitute a conventional plate and screw
system(compression method) in treatment of complex distal femoral fractures
especially in osteoporotic bone. As our study was limited by its small sample
size and time duration so further randomised controlled studies are required
in different situations to know the usefulness of this implant.


The performance of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to reproduce the surface wind circulations over complex terrain is examined. The atmospheric evolution is simulated using two versions of the WRF model during an over 13 year period (1992 to 2005) over a complex terrain region located in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. A high horizontal resolution of 2km is used to provide an accurate representation of the terrain features. The multiyear evaluation focuses on the analysis of the accuracy displayed by the WRF simulations to reproduce the wind field of the six typical wind patterns (WPs) identified over the area in a previous observational work. Each pattern contains a high number of days which allows one to reach solid conclusions regarding the model performance. The accuracy of the simulations to reproduce the wind field under representative synoptic situations, or pressure patterns (PPs), of the Iberian Peninsula is also inspected in order to diagnose errors as a function of the large‐scale situation. The evaluation is accomplished using daily averages in order to inspect the ability of WRF to reproduce the surface flow as a result of the interaction between the synoptic scale and the regional topography. Results indicate that model errors can originate from problems in the initial and lateral boundary conditions, misrepresentations at the synoptic scale, or the realism of the topographic features.


"Ecobehavioral analysis," the merging of social ecological studies and J.R. Kantor's theory of interbehavioral psychology, was termed just over a decade ago. Since then, innovative trends emerging in the field of developmental disabilities warrant a comprehensive update. Ecobehavioral Analysis and Developmental Disabilities The Twenty-First Century offers such an update of current research, as Dr. Stephen Schroeder compiles the work of twenty-one noted authorities in this volume. Each contributor discusses his/her research on a personal level, providing fresh insights into various aspects of the field. Experiential research ranging from the naturalistic observations of behavior-environment interactions in the classroom to ecobehavioral studies in pharmacotherapy is also presented.


ABSTRACT Purpose: To identify the bacterial and fungal pathogens in ocular samples of clinically suspected endophthalmitis patients by conventional culture methods and 16S and 28S rDNA gene sequencing respectively. Methods: A total of 88 patients with clinically suspected endophthalmitis were included in this study. Under sterile operating conditions, a vitreous fluid (0.1–0.2 ml) was obtained by pars plana vitrectomy procedure. The samples were processed for conventional microbiology methods and PCR. PCR targeting 16S rDNA gene for bacteria and 28S rDNA gene for fungus were performed individually using the MightyAmp DNA Polymerase Ver. 2 (TaKaRa China) kit. The PCR amplified samples were sequenced and aligned using CLUSTAL-W tool. The phylogenetic tree was constructed by Neighborhood joining along with the reference sequences downloaded from NCBI database using MEGA X software. Results: 67 Post-operative, 12 Endogenous and 9 traumatic endophthalmitis patients were included as study subjects. By the direct culturing bacterial growth was observed in 17 samples and fungal growth in three samples. PCR was positive for all the culture positive samples, in addition 14 were positive in culture negative samples. The predominant species identified in gram-positive bacteria were Staphylococcus spp., and Pseudomonas spp. in the gram-negative group. Both PCR and culture identified only three samples positive for fungal pathogens which were identified as Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans, and Exerohilum rostratum. Conclusions: PCR based molecular diagnosis is more sensitive than the conventional gold standard culture methods in endophthalmitis. Bacterial pathogens were found to be the predominant in causing endophthalmitis than fungal pathogens.


Due to access of malicious data in internet, Intrusion detection system becomes an important element in system security that controls real time data and leads to huge dimensional problem, so a data pre-processing is necessary to reduce haziness and to clean network data. To reduce false positive rate and to increase efficiency of detection, the paper proposed a new swarm intelligence technique to solve complex optimization problem. The paper work based on hybrid Simplified Swarm Optimization (SSO) algorithm to pre-process the data. SSO is a simplified Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) that has a self-organizing ability to emerge in highly distributed control problem area, and is versatile, strong and cost effective to resolve complex computing environments. It recognize not only known attacks but also filters noisy and irrelevant data that may result on knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDDCup 1999) dataset and compared to a new hybrid Partial Swarm Optimization with Random Forest (PSO-RF) and with other benchmark classifiers. The testing result shows that the proposed method provides competitively high detection rates and produce a near optimal solution.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze complications after reverse total shoulder arthroplasty and report the clinical outcomes with review of previously reported studies. Materials and Methods: Complications after reverse total shoulder arthroplasty were analyzed for 98 patients who underwent reverse total shoulder arthroplasty and were followed-up for at least 6 months. Of 98 patients, 22 were men and 76 were women. The mean age was 75.0±6.5 years (range, 59-92 years) with a mean follow-up period of 22±19 months (range, 6-74 months). The types and time of occurrence of complications, methods of treatment, and clinical outcomes at the final follow-up were analyzed. Results: Complications occurred in 18 of 98 patients (18.4%). Seven of them received operative treatment and 11 were treated conservatively. Two cases had postoperative dislocations and were addressed with open reduction. In 2 cases, periprosthetic fractures occurred and were treated with open reduction and plate fixation. Two acromial stress fractures and 8 cases of heterotopic ossification were managed conservatively. Infection and humeral component loosening occurred in one case, respectively, and were treated with revision arthroplasty. Glenoid component loosening occurred in 2 cases, one of which was treated with revision arthroplasty and the other was managed conservatively. At the final follow-up, clinical outcomes showed a statistically significant improvement. Compared to groups with no complications, there were no significant differences in final clinical outcomes. Scapular notching occurred in 43.9% (43/98 cases). No statistically significant differences of clinical outcomes were observed between the scapular notching group and the no notching group (p>0.05). Conclusion: In our study, 18% of complications occurred after reverse total shoulder arthroplasty and final clinical outcomes of these complications showed significant improvement. Scapular notching developed in 44% and did not provide a significant clinical effect at short term follow-up.


Over the past few years, fuel prices have increased dramatically, and emissions regulations have become stricter in maritime applications. In order to take these factors into consideration, improvements in fuel consumption have become a mandatory factor and a main task of research and development departments in this area. Internal combustion engines (ICEs) can exploit only about 15–40% of chemical energy to produce work effectively, while most of the fuel energy is wasted through exhaust gases and coolant. Although there is a significant amount of wasted energy in thermal processes, the quality of that energy is low owing to its low temperature and provides limited potential for power generation consequently. Waste heat recovery (WHR) systems take advantage of the available waste heat for producing power by utilizing heat energy lost to the surroundings at no additional fuel costs. Among all available waste heat sources in the engine, exhaust gas is the most potent candidate for WHR due to its high level of exergy. Regarding WHR technologies, the well-known Rankine cycles are considered the most promising candidate for improving ICE thermal efficiency. This study is carried out for a six-cylinder marine diesel engine model operating with a WHR organic Rankine cycle (ORC) model that utilizes engine exhaust energy as input. Using expander inlet conditions in the ORC model, preliminary turbine design characteristics are calculated. For this mean-line model, a MATLAB code has been developed. In off-design expander analysis, performance maps are created for different speed and pressure ratios. Results are produced by integrating the polynomial correlations between all of these parameters into the ORC model. ORC efficiency varies in design and off-design conditions which are due to changes in expander input conditions and, consequently, net power output. In this study, ORC efficiency varies from a minimum of 6% to a maximum of 12.7%. ORC efficiency performance is also affected by certain variables such as the coolant flow rate, heat exchanger's performance etc. It is calculated that with the increase of coolant flow rate, ORC efficiency increases due to the higher turbine work output that is made possible, and the condensing pressure decreases. It is calculated that ORC can improve engine Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) from a minimum of 2.9% to a maximum of 5.1%, corresponding to different engine operating points. Thus, decreasing overall fuel consumption shows a positive effect on engine performance. It can also increase engine power output by up to 5.42% if so required for applications where this may be deemed necessary and where an appropriate mechanical connection is made between the engine shaft and the expander shaft. The ORC analysis uses a bespoke expander design methodology and couples it to an ORC design architecture method to provide an important methodology for high-efficiency marine diesel engine systems that can extend well beyond the marine sector and into the broader ORC WHR field and are applicable to many industries (as detailed in the Introduction section of this paper).


Background. The presence of intraneuronal aggregates of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein (pAS), the histological hallmark of Parkinson disease (PD), has been already demonstrated to be present in the autonomic nerve fibres that innervate the submandibular gland in approximately 75% of living PD patients. The presence of pAS in the peripheral autonomic nervous system in carriers of LRRK2 mutations has not been studied so far. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the presence of abnormal pAS aggregates in the submandibular gland tissue of LRRK2 p.G2019S mutations carriers.Methods. This is a prospective observational study conducted between 2014 and 2015 at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Spain. A random sample of nine asymptomatic LRRK2 (aLRRK2) and 11 LRRK2 associated PD (LRRK2-PD) patients were recruited among a cohort of LRRK2-PD patients and their relatives already identified at our centre. All the participants underwent transcutaneous needle core biopsy of the submandibular gland under ultrasound guidance. The presence of pAS was assessed in all the participants by immunohistochemistry using anti-Serine 129-phosphorylated AS antibody.Results. Submandibular biopsy material containing glandular parenchyma was obtained in 4 (44.44%) aLRRK2 and in 6 (54.55%) LRRK2-PD patients. Aggregates of pAS were detected in the glandular parenchyma in one of the four (25%) aLRRK2 subjects and in none (0%) of the LRRK2-PD patients. Conclusions. Our study shows that pAS aggregates obtained by needle core biopsy of the submandibular gland are infrequent in LRRK2 mutation carriers but may be detected in asymptomatic mutation carriers. The low rate of pAS positive biopsies suggests either a different physiopathology between LRRK2-related and idiopathic PD or that a one-time unilateral submandibular gland biopsy is not the optimal procedure for the study of synuclein aggregation in LRRK2 mutation carriers.


Picotamide is the most interesting compound of 4-OH isophthalic acid. It is effective in vitro and in vivo. Picotamide induces inhibition of platelet aggregation: it is a thromboxane synthetase inhibitor and a thromboxane receptor antagonist. Picotamide causes cyclic endoperoxide accumulation and diverts their metabolism toward PgI2 synthesis in endothelial cells. PGI2 stimulates the adenylate cyclase with cAMP synthesis which makes platelets less sensitive to aggregatory stimulation. Picotamide induces enhancement of fibrinolytic activity, with significant reduction in the level of circulating plasminogen but in the same time it does not affect antithrombin III and FDP levels. In the present study picotamide or placebo were administered in a double blind trial at 600 mg daily for six months to 51 patients effected by diabetic macro and/or microangiopathy. The patients were 38 men and 13 women, the age was between 20 and 80 years (mean age 62.34). Twenty-seven patients were affected by type I diabetes and 24 by type II diabetes. Twenty-three of these patients presented macro-angiopathic lesions, 9 only microangiopathic lesions and 13 both. Twenty-five patients received picotamide and the other 25 an identical placebo for six months. One patient manifested myocardial infarction during the wash-out period and failed to enter the study. The following determinations were carried out: at T0 clinical examination, Doppler ultrasonography, Winsor Index, laboratory parameters; after 90 days (T90) clinical examination and Winsor Index and after 180 days (T180) were repeated photoplethysmography and clinical parameters too. Patients were not only evaluated for the vascular disease of lower extremities, but also for the other complications of diabetes, as retinopathy, nephropathy, cardiac and cerebrovascular disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Abstract Purpose: Retinal ganglion cell death occurs during the glaucoma pathological process, and it is significant because of the poor regeneration capacity of retinal ganglion cells. With a constantly increasing understanding of retinal cell death mechanisms, we now know that simply blocking a specific mechanism of cell death might not prevent retinal ganglion cell death. This review aimed to summarize the mechanisms of retinal cell death in glaucoma models and discuss the caveats in restoring visual function in these studies. Methods: A literature search was done on PubMed using key words including glaucoma, ocular hypertension, retinal ganglion cell, cell death, apoptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis, ferroptosis, autophagic cell death, and parthanatos. The literature was reviewed to summarize the information about the lethal pathways of retinal ganglion cell in the glaucoma-like animal models. Results: Based on the purpose, 100 studies were selected and discussed in this review. Conclusions: The damage to ganglion cells in glaucoma-like animals can occur via multiple lethal pathways and the molecular mechanisms are still incompletely understood. Further investigations on the crosstalk between different cell death pathways and the common upstream regulators could augment the development of novel targeting agents for the curative treatment of glaucoma.


The appellate stage of the proceedings before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) has received more limited attention than its pre-trial and trial process. In order to partially remedy this gap, this article highlights the unique features of the ECCC appellate system and how the Supreme Court Chamber (SCC) has given them effect in practice. Firstly, I consider the SCC's restricted jurisdiction over immediate appeals and failed attempts by its judges to extend such appeals to jurisdictional questions. Secondly, I discuss the scope and powers of appellate review by the SCC in respect of alleged errors of law and fact, focusing on its innovative formulation of the standard of review of factual errors. This qualified deference standard has proven to be of broader import as it has informed the International Criminal Court Appeals Chamber's majority approach in the Bemba case. Thirdly, I focus on the SCC's intervention in one area, namely the ECCC's personal jurisdiction, and its reading of the 'most responsible' parameter as a non-jurisdictional and judicially unreviewable criterion. Taking cues from these landmark decisions, I appraise the SCC's role in delivering fair and expeditious justice and securing the viability of the ECCC's mission while acknowledging the more contentious aspects of its track record without which no account of its emerging legacy would be complete or balanced.


On the basis of first-principles and cluster expansion calculations, we propose an effective approach to realize monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides with sizable band gaps and improved optoelectronic performance. We show that monolayer Mo(S1–xSex)2 and Mo1–yWyS2 with x = 1/3, 2/3 and y = 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 are stable according to phonon calculations and realize 1T′ or 1T″ phases. The transition barriers from the 2H phase are lower than for monolayer MoS2, implying that the 1T′ or 1T″ phases can be achieved experimentally. Furthermore, it turns out that the 1T″ monolayer alloys with x = 1/3, 2/3 and y = 1/3, 2/3 are semiconductors with band gaps larger than 1 eV, due to trimerization. The visible light absorption and carrier mobility are strongly improved as compared to 2H monolayer MoS2, MoSe2, and WS2. Thus, the 1T″ monolayer alloys have the potential to expand the applications of transition metal dichalcogenides, for example, in solar cells.


Objectives: Different treatment approaches have been introduced for children with Speech Sound Disorders (SSD). Minimal pair intervention, Metaphon therapy, and parents and children together approach as linguistically-based approaches are routinely utilized in this population and both of them shared minimal pairs as a common component. The purpose of the current study was to develop and investigate the validity of the material for this treatment approach for Persian-speaking children. Methods: To develop the minimal pairs' package, 10 phonological processes were selected based on the literature. Several minimal pairs were generated for each phonological process and their content validity was determined by the content validity ratio. In the next step, the appropriate pictures were selected. In the final step, the package was administrated to 45 monolingual Persian-speaking children. Results: Based on the experts' opinions, 293 minimal pairs out of 303 pairs, obtained appropriate content validity values (content validity ratio >0.62) and 10 minimal pairs were excluded at this step. Finally, 256 minimal pairs remained after the administration of the package on the subjects. Discussion: Based on the results of the current project, it seems that the Persian photo minimal pairs' package is a valid material for use in related speech treatment in children with SSD.


Context. Solar flares with a fan-spine magnetic topology are able to form circular ribbons. A previous study based on Hα line observations of the solar flares on 5 March 2014 revealed a uniform and continuous rotation of the magnetic fan-spine. A preliminary analysis of the flare time profiles revealed quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) with similar properties in hard X-rays, Hα, and microwaves.
Aims. In this work, we address the question of whether the observed periodicities are related to periodic acceleration of electrons or plasma heating.
Methods. We analysed QPPs in the Hα emission from the centre of the fan (inner ribbon R1), a circular ribbon (R2), a remote source (R3), and an elongated ribbon (R4) located between R2 and R3. We used methods of correlation, Fourier, wavelet, and empirical mode decomposition. We compared the QPPs in Hα emission with those in microwave and X-ray emission.
Results. We found multi-wavelength QPPs with periods around 150 s, 125 s, and 190 s. The 150 s period is seen to co-exist in Hα, hard X-rays, and microwave emissions, which allowed us to connect it with flare kernels R1 and R2. These kernels spatially coincide with the site of the primary flare energy release. The 125 s period is found in the Hα emission of the elongated ribbon R4 and the microwave emission at 5.7 GHz during the decay phase. The 190 s period is present in the emission during all flare phases in the Hα emission of both the remote source, R3, and the elongated ribbon, R4, in soft X-rays and in microwaves at 4–8 GHz.
Conclusions. We connected the dominant 150 s QPPs with the slipping reconnection mechanism occurring in the fan. We suggested that the period of 125 s in the elongated ribbon can be caused by a kink oscillation of the outer spine, connecting the primary reconnection site with the remote footpoint. The period of 190 s is associated with the three-minute sunspot oscillations.


Our study revisits and challenges two core conventional meta‐regression estimators: the prevalent use of 'mixed‐effects' or random‐effects meta‐regression analysis and the correction of standard errors that defines fixed‐effects meta‐regression analysis (FE‐MRA). We show how and explain why an unrestricted weighted least squares MRA (WLS‐MRA) estimator is superior to conventional random‐effects (or mixed‐effects) meta‐regression when there is publication (or small‐sample) bias that is as good as FE‐MRA in all cases and better than fixed effects in most practical applications. Simulations and statistical theory show that WLS‐MRA provides satisfactory estimates of meta‐regression coefficients that are practically equivalent to mixed effects or random effects when there is no publication bias. When there is publication selection bias, WLS‐MRA always has smaller bias than mixed effects or random effects. In practical applications, an unrestricted WLS meta‐regression is likely to give practically equivalent or superior estimates to fixed‐effects, random‐effects, and mixed‐effects meta‐regression approaches. However, random‐effects meta‐regression remains viable and perhaps somewhat preferable if selection for statistical significance (publication bias) can be ruled out and when random, additive normal heterogeneity is known to directly affect the 'true' regression coefficient. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Over the last two decades, the redevelopment of the Wellington waterfront has become one of the most contested urban development projects in New Zealand, with the involvement of many varied interests. There have been a number of changes in planning, development concepts, rules, and regulations in order to manage its ongoing redevelopment. However, many development projects on the waterfront have been delayed and cancelled. It might be argued that regulatory and plan changes may be influencing the progress of this redevelopment. However, to date, no one has explored this relationship. Therefore, this study is aimed at filling this gap by using the Wellington waterfront as a case study and focusing on tourism development, the planning process, and the legislative framework surrounding this redevelopment. Its objectives were: (1) to explore the role of tourism in the redevelopment of the Wellington waterfront; (2) to identify the key players involved in the waterfront redevelopment, and specify their involvement and influence on planning and decision-making processes; and (3) to define the existing legislative framework for this redevelopment and examine the way in which it impacts tourism development in this area. This study adopted a qualitative research method. Data in this study was collected from a wide range of documents relevant to the Wellington waterfront and through face-to-face and semi-structured in-depth interviews. 18 representatives from local authorities, waterfront organisations, tourism entities, as well as urban planners, developers, community groups, and property owners were interviewed. Data triangulation was used in data analysis to validate and deepen the findings. The study found that tourism was not recognised as one of the key driving forces of the redevelopment of Wellington waterfront as a whole, although within specific development proposals tourism has been used as a rationale to support these developments. This suggested that to a certain extent tourism was considered in this redevelopment. In this research, while Wellington City Council (WCC) and its controlled entities were identified as the key players influencing the planning and decision making process, the involvement of the public may also play an important role in slowing down this redevelopment. There was firm agreement among participants about the impact of legislative framework on this redevelopment. This study found that there is a legislative framework within which the waterfront redevelopment works. However, the legislative framework tends to impact specific developments rather the waterfront redevelopment as a whole. Several implications and recommendations arise from this study, including the need of continuing research on impact of legislative framework on tourism from a legal perspective. Additionally, it is recommended that the extent to which legislative framework accommodates tourism should be emphasised in understanding its impact.


Rapidly rising incomes are driving demand for animal protein and livestock globally. The move toward more intensive production systems to support this increased demand is projected to increase the dependence on antibiotic growth promoters. The volume of antibiotics used for growth promotion in livestock outstrips that used for disease treatment in humans and creates significant selection pressure for the evolution of antibiotic resistance—a challenge for global health and resource conservation. This review describes the benefits and costs of antibiotic growth promoters in livestock and considers the prospects for more fully accounting for the externality costs.


In the last few decades expatriation to East Asia and China in particular has become an important phenomenon investigated by research studies. Undoubtedly, expatriates face multiple emotional challenges during their stay in China, such as adjustment, cultural adaptation, work related difficulties, language barriers and family separation. The present study aimed to explore in depth the specific psychological needs of expatriates based on their personal subjective opinion from a Counselling Psychology perspective. A narratively informed Thematic Analysis design was used and conversational interviews conducted to generate accounts of the phenomenon of expatriation and the emotional challenges people faced due to a change of country and culture. Five main themes were identified and special emphasis was given to the subthemes which consisted the new and unique findings of the current thesis: I) Emotional Challenges: a) emotional difficulties, b) positive challenges, c) the challenge of the unknown and d) repatriation. As coping strategies, emphasis was given to a) social network, b) the importance of the family, and c) professional support. The issue of adjustment, which included three subthemes a) adjustment to daily life b) living conditions and c) work satisfaction was also discussed. The fourth theme, Personality, included two subthemes: a) Traits and b) Personal Development. The final theme was cultural differences, which included three subthemes: a) communication and interaction with locals, b) cultural differences at work and c) culture shock. The study found that emotional challenges have both positive and negative impacts on the life and well-being of expatriates. Common emotional difficulties identified were anxiety, distress, depression, loss, cultural isolation and loneliness, while positive aspects included working towards better professional and personal development. The study also identified social interaction as the main expatriate coping strategy and community counselling work was suggested as a form of support. Personality traits were identified as an important variable which can have a significant influence on emotional challenges as a form of coping strategy. A detailed account of the issues concerning adjustment to daily life was also discussed. Emphasis was also given to work adjustment as a coping strategy and cultural differences was discussed as a form of emotional difficulties. The contribution of the current qualitative research is discussed and further clinical interventions are suggested.


When the temperature of the inner surface of the enclosing structures falls below the dew point, moisture from the indoor air may condense on it. Thermal characteristics of building materials, outdoor and indoor air temperatures and dew points are random variables or processes. This necessitates a probabilistic assessment of the possibility of thermal failures by the criterion of condensate formation in areas of increased heat transfer of enclosing structures. This work is performed in order to analyze the probabilistic thermal reliability of the characteristic units of brick walls of residential buildings erected in the second half of the 20th century, in the design condition and after thermal modernization by installing additional facade insulation. To analyze the level of thermal reliability, six characteristic units of brick walls were selected. The nodes were analyzed in the initial state, taking into account the uniform facade insulation, as well as with additional local insulation of areas of increased heat transfer. The calculations were performed according to the previously developed author's method, which is based on estimating the probability of falling of the random temperature of the inner surface of the wall below the random temperature of the dew point. The initial data take into account the statistical characteristics of the following random variables: conditional heat transfer resistance of the wall in the zone of heat conduction, dew point temperature, indoor air temperature, outside air temperature for each month of the heating period. The result of the calculation is the probable annual duration of the state of thermal failure according to the criterion of condensate formation on the inner surface of the walls in the critical areas of the nodes. It is established that the units of brick walls with a thickness of 51 cm in the design condition have an insufficient level of thermal reliability. Uniform facade insulation allows to reduce the duration of thermal failures of three nodes from the six considered to values not exceeding 10 minutes during the year. In some areas of the other three nodes (adjacency of the side and top faces of the window, adjacency of reinforced concrete balcony slab) the duration of thermal failures remains unacceptably long even when performing additional local insulation of these areas.


In this paper, we propose a novel multi-symbol unitary constellation structure for non-coherent single-input multiple-output (SIMO) communications over block Rayleigh fading channels. To facilitate the design and the detection of large unitary constellations at reduced complexity, the proposed constellations are constructed as the Cartesian product of independent amplitude and phase-shift-keying (PSK) vectors, and hence, can be iteratively detected. The amplitude vector can be detected by exhaustive search, whose complexity is still sufficiently low in short packet transmissions. For detection of the PSK vector, we adopt a maximum-A-posteriori (MAP) criterion to improve the reliability of the sorted decision-feedback differential detection (sort-DFDD), which results in near-optimal error performance in the case of the same modulation order of the transmit PSK symbols at different time slots. This detector is called MAP-based-reliability-sort-DFDD (MAP-R-sort-DFDD) and has polynomial complexity. For the case of different modulation orders at different time slots, we observe that undetected symbols with lower modulation orders have a significant impact on the detection of PSK symbols with higher modulation orders. We exploit this observation and propose an improved detector called improved-MAP-R-sort-DFDD, which approaches the optimal error performance with polynomial time complexity. Simulation results show the merits of our proposed multi-symbol unitary constellation when compared to competing low-complexity unitary constellations.


Objectives The influential factors for anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 spike protein antibody (S-ab) levels were assessed after the administration of BNT162b2 mRNA coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccine at short and medium terms. Methods A total of 470 healthcare workers (118 males, mean age 41.0±11.9 years) underwent serum S-ab level measurement at 3 and 8 months after two inoculations of BNT162b2 vaccine given 3 weeks apart, who had no history of COVID-19 were enrolled in this study. The changes and differences after vaccination due to gender and adverse reactions of S-ab were analyzed. Results Systemic adverse reactions incidence (48%) was significantly higher after the second dose than after the first dose (8%). S-ab levels decreased as the age increased (from the 20s to 60s) in both measurements. S-ab level 8 months after the second inoculation [median 476.3 (interquartile range (IQR) 322.4-750.6) U/mL] was significantly lower than that after 3 months [977.5 (637.2-1,409.0) U/mL; p< 0.001]. The median decrease rate of S-ab levels in 5 months was 50.3% (IQR 40.3-62.6) and those differences were not observed among all generations. Gender-associated differences in S-ab levels were not observed; however, a significant relationship between higher S-ab levels and the systemic adverse reactions was observed at both measurements. Conclusions The systemic adverse reaction is an independent factor for higher S-ab levels at short and medium terms after BNT162b2 vaccination as demonstrated in our data.


Economic globalization and free trade are signified by hard competition that pushing the industries to increase their product quality result and added value of their product. The purposes of this study are (1) To analyze the added value and (2) to identify the internal and external factors influencing the Gayo coffee Products development strategiest. This research proof that processing can increse the value added of product coffee. Based on the industry, coffee can be divided into three categories, namely premium green bean, specialty green bean coffee and coffee powder as processed coffee. This research showed that cluster products of coffee powder contributed for the largest added value when compared to other cluster products, which is Rp102 469 per Kg. The results of SWOT analysis for coffee products showed that all cluster product was located in quadrant I which means that all cluster products have high good possibilities to be developed by S-O strategy.


It is the 37 birthday of the Nutricion Hospitalaria journal and it has been a great publication since its begining.
This year the journal changes the Editorial Committee, the editorial (Aran Ediciones) and the design.


Nepal has become a federal country after the promulgation of a new constitution in 2015. In this context, this study concerns a very new issue in the federal Nepalese education system. The purpose of this study is to find out the curricular issues in the federal system of Nepal. In this study, I explored power allocation issues, quality ensuring issues, standard maintenance issues ICT related issues, and employment issues in the area of the curriculum. Curriculum experts should consider these issues while developing the federal system of the curriculum in Nepal.


1. The membrane properties of the longitudinal muscle fibre of the earthworm Pheretima communissima were investigated by intra- and extracellular stimulating methods. 2. The membrane potential was -35.4 mV., and spontaneous discharges with overshoot (mean +18 mV.) and after-hyperpolarization (-60 mV.) were recorded. 3. Tetrodotoxin (10 -7 g./ml.) blocked nervous activity but did not influence the spontaneous discharges or the spikes elicited in the muscle fibre by intracellular stimulation. 4. The critical membrane potential required to elicit a spike was not constant, and the falling phase of the spikes was markedly dependent on the level of the membrane potential. 5. The chronaxie, measured from the intensity-duration relation to elicit a spike by intracellular stimulation, was 55 msec. 6. When nervous activity was excluded the propagation of excitation in longitudinal muscles was decremental.


Deciphering the mechanisms controlling normal development sheds light onto the etiopathogenesis of congenital malformations and diseases, and knowledge of the expression patterns of proteins and/or their encoding genes is necessary to understand developmental pocesses. Good models to study developmental processes, such as morphogenesis, tissue patterning, cell fate specification and cell differentiation include developing teeth and tongue. Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) are involved in several physiological processes and diseases, yet which of these enzymes are produced, and which cells express them during odontogenesis is unknown. To fill in this knowledge gap, we used biochemical and molecular analyses in developing mouse teeth. We revealed dynamic expression patterns of eight CAs during tooth formation, and showed that CAs are not produced solely by cells involved in enamel and dentine secretion and biomineralization. Furthermore, we showed that CAXIII protein was enriched in LAMP1/2-expressing vesicles, suggesting lysosomal localization, and that CAIII expression was confined to root odontoblasts. Our data suggest developmental regulation of CA expression, and that CAs participate in several biological events inherent to tooth-forming cells (study I). The Hedgehog (Hh) and retinoic acid (RA) pathways play key roles during embryogenesis and tissue homeostasis. Both pathways are active in same or adjacent tissues. However, whether these pathways interact is largely unexplored. Furthermore, whether Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling triggered by SHH, a Hh ligand, controls tongue development in vivo is unknown. To address these issues, we generated and studied mice genetically lacking SHH signaling (studies II and III). We revealed that in the developing tongue SHH abates RA activity through the RA-degrading enzymes CYP26s, and that epithelial cell fate specification is regulated by antagonistic SHH and RA activities, wherein SHH inhibits, whereas RA promotes taste placode and minor salivary gland formation. Furthermore, we showed that SHH signaling is required to prevent ectopic Merkel cell specification in the lingual epithelium (study II). We also revealed interactions between the Hedgehog and RA pathways in other embryonic structures (study III). Our findings (studies II and III) show that properly calibrated SHH and RA activities are crucial for adequate development, and are expected to be of interest, as deregulation of Hh/SHH signaling leads to congenital malformations and neoplasia.


Abstract The paper tries to demonstrate that in his Commentary on Aristotle's de Anima Philoponus develops a comprehensive Neoplatonic approach to Aristotle's psychology. This means that he makes Aristotle a supporter of a coherent set of Neoplatonic positions in the area of psychology. First of all, Philoponus attributes Plato's definition of soul as the self-moving principle to Aristotle as well. He further ascribes to Aristotle the conviction that the human rational soul is both ungenerated and immortal, and even the belief in an astral body as the vehicle of the rational soul. According to Philoponus, Aristotle also accepts Plato's theory of innate Ideas and the Neoplatonic doctrine of the presence of the Ideas as creative logoi in the divine Intellect. This last element shows that Philoponus' interpretation of Aristotle's psychology and his master Ammonius' Neoplatonic, emanationist interpretation of Aristotle's theology are complementary. Both interpretations or rather distortions of Aristotle's philosophy are part of an Alexandrian exegetical policy which consistently tries to harmonize Aristotle with Plato as much as possible, and to interpret Aristotle's criticism of Plato as directed not against the real but only the apparent meaning of Plato's words. This policy served the purpose of giving the pagan Neoplatonism of Ammonius and the early Philoponus a broader basis of authority in its opposition to Christianity.


To cope with climate change and achieve sustainable development, low-carbon city pilot policies have been implemented. An objective assessment of the performance of these policies facilitates not only the implementation of relevant work in pilot areas, but also the further promotion of these policies. This study uses A-share listed enterprises from 2005 to 2019 and creates a multi-period difference-in-differences model to explore the impact of low-carbon city pilot policies on corporate green technology innovation from multiple dimensions. Results show that (1) low-carbon city pilot policies stimulates the green technological innovation of enterprises as manifested in their application of green invention patents; (2) the introduction of pilot policies is highly conducive to green technological innovation in eastern cities and enterprises in high-carbon emission industries; and (3) tax incentives and government subsidies are important fiscal and taxation tools that play the role of pilot policies in low-carbon cities. By alleviating corporate financing constraints, these policies effectively promote the green technological innovation of enterprises. This study expands the research on the performance of low-carbon city pilot policies and provides data support for a follow-up implementation and promotion of policies from the micro perspective at the enterprise level.


The recording of volume changes in health and disease has from old been designated as "Plethysmography." This was supposed to be a correct term for the recording (graphein) of an increase in volume (plethysmos). The present paper shows that the choice of this term was not felicitous, and suggests an alternative. The first "plethysmographic" recordings are ascribed to Glisson (1622) and Swammerdam (1737).1 Since Glisson and Swammerdam did, in fact, record the volume of muscle to be constant on contraction, their measurements should probably have been referred to as "isography." This, however, is merely a historical matter. Presently venous outflow measurement is a common proce dure to establish the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis. Venous outflow is deter mined by recording the decrease in volume of a limb which occurs after release of a congestion cuff. As this is quite the opposite of what is meant by "Plethys mography," another indication is needed for this examination. It appears that a suitable alternative can be taken from ancient Greek medical literature.


Large Nd1+xBa2-xCu3Oy (Nd123ss) single crystal cubes of side 3 mm were fabricated isothermally by the flux method. The crystals exhibited a Tc of 95 K with a sharp superconducting transition. One crystal was cut into small pieces, and its magnetic properties were measured to study the spatial distribution of the superconducting properties. It was found that although Tc values were almost constant, a small but significant intrinsic difference in the Jc-B properties and irreversibility field was observed depending on the sample position. This suggests that the distribution of Nd-rich Nd123ss clusters are spatially different even within the same single crystal. Such differences may be caused by the time variation of Nd concentration in the liquid during crystal growth.


Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies (London and New York: Mansell, an imprint of Continuum International Publishing Group) owes its origin to meetings of the Commission on the History of Geographical Thought of the International Geographical Union. The commission, appointed in New Delhi in 1968, met in Paris in 1969 and 1970 under the chairmanship of Philippe Pinchemel. An extended list of geographers then interested in the history of geography was drawn up. Many of these were invited to become corresponding members of the commission. This activity in the history of geography had not been paralleled since the interest shown by the establishment of the "Joachim Lelewel Society" at the Fourteenth International Geographical Congress, held in Warsaw in 1934. The society was named after the Polish scientist Joachim Lelewel (1786-1861), who had a keen interest in the history of geography and of cartography. In fact, it was Boleslaw Olszewicz who presented a paper (published in summary form in Copmtes rendus du Congres International de Geographie, Varsovie [1935], p.135) proposing that Lucien Gallois assume the chairmanship of the group. The initiative ceased with the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The Commission on the History of Geographical Thought first proposed the biobibliographical inquiry in 1969. These studies were to be much more than the traditional obituary or memorial, and they were to be written whenever possible by someone with a special knowledge of the work of the deceased and who had access to archival deposits. It was agreed that the main body of the essay should proceed by way of three subheadings: "Education, Life and Work," "Scientific Ideas and Geographical Thought," and "Influence and Spread of Ideas." End matter was to include the subject's bibliography, writings about the subject, "archival holdings" of relevance, and "chronology," a chart of major events during the life under review. The section on "Education, Life, and Work" has usually been the most thoroughly accomplished; fewer pages are accorded the other two sections. This rather specific form, though perhaps confining, has made possible comparisons and linkages over many generations and across international boundaries (geographers from more than forty countries have been the subject of study). Not all countries have reached the same level of disciplinary evolution, and emphases have varied. Nevertheless, in the main, the quest of the geographer is a universal, and it can be so understood. Editors for this series were T. W. Freeman and Philippe Pinchemel, for volumes 1-4, and then Freeman, for volumes 5-12. Geoffrey J. Martin served as editor for volumes 13-16, and Martin and Patrick H. Armstrong functioned as coeditors for volumes 17-20. A biobibliography is neither a biography nor a bibliography, but a meshing of the life of the individual with his or her scientific contribution (usually in the form of publications). It is brief (maximum length 9,000 words) but permits, indeed invites, further investigation of a larger undertaking. It mediates the confluence of science and philosophy, provides historical perspective, helps to eradicate insularity and provincialism, weakens the stranglehold of the present upon the mind, and attempts to reveal how things came to be: the accomplishment forms a partly unwritten chapter in the history of ideas. The achievements of today are the cumulative results of unknown numbers of workers providing an unbroken chain of thought through time. No person in geographical science starts afresh; each builds knowingly or perhaps intuitively on the work of those who have gone before. For the most part, therefore, ideas are laid down in temporal sequence. One is inclined to the belief that the history of geography cannot readily be taught (except in a most fundamental way) but can be learned. The discipline, like an organism, is ever changing and ever growing. The emphasis of the biobibliographical series is not on American geography or geographers. …


Usability considerations should be of prime importance in the design of an electronic commerce (e-commerce) web site. While the number of e-commerce web sites has increased rapidly over the last three years, the satisfaction of e-commerce users has generally decreased. This gap results from too little attention being paid to human factors that affect whether a web site can be used easily, accurately, and without losing user interest. This paper discusses the role of user interface design in developing e-commerce web sites and provides some guidelines for user interfaces.


Chemically derived graphene holds great promise to boost the performance of photocatalysts because of its fascinating physical and chemical properties. Recently, tremendous efforts have been devoted to the design and synthesis of graphene-based composites for heterogeneous photocatalysis, with which remarkable progress has been achieved. This chapter presents a review of the latest developments of chemically derived graphene-based composites with improved photocatalytic properties. Beginning with a brief description of the challenges in photocatalysis research, we discuss the fundamental roles of chemically derived graphene in addressing these issues, followed by a discussion on the preparation of graphene-based composites for photocatalytic applications. Emphasis is then focused on enhancing the performance in terms of the degradation of pollutants, photocatalytic water splitting, and CO2 reduction. Future directions toward the development of advanced graphene-based photocatalysts, perspectives, and challenges are outlined.


A certain amount of vacant houses is indispensable for the well-functioning of the housing market. On the other hand, excessive vacant houses including surplus houses from rental or sale market, abandoned houses, etc., would gradually accumulate in amount and degrade in quality to impose significant externalities to form a vicious cycle to deteriorate the neighborhood. Until now, literatures for vacant houses are focus on the negative influences of the excessive vacant houses or some individual reutilization cases. However there is lacking a pre-condition for those literatures, which is what the proper amount of vacancies is and what extra is. The paper provides a brand new angle to view the issue of vacant houses to support the management of the housing market and vacant houses by producing an ideal vacancy rate. The optimal vacancy rate in the housing rental market means the vacancy rate that required for the landlords to search for the tenants, and in the search process the landlord will maximize the present value of return with the optimal list rent strategy. In Tokyo (23 wards), the optimal vacancy rate for the housing rental market is found to be 1.96%. Comparing to the actual vacancy rate in the housing rental market, large part of the vacant houses are structural vacancies which can barely be rented out. There is large social cost caused by the excessive vacancies in the housing rental market in Tokyo, which is against the sustainable development, and responding management policies are in need as well.


Human activity recognition (HAR) has been regarded as an indispensable part of many smart home systems and smart healthcare applications. Specifically, HAR is of great importance in the Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT), owing to the rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies embedded in various smart appliances and wearable devices (such as smartphones and smartwatches) that have a pervasive impact on an individual's life. The inertial sensors of smartphones generate massive amounts of multidimensional time-series data, which can be exploited effectively for HAR purposes. Unlike traditional approaches, deep learning techniques are the most suitable choice for such multivariate streams. In this study, we introduce a supervised dual-channel model that comprises long short-term memory (LSTM), followed by an attention mechanism for the temporal fusion of inertial sensor data concurrent with a convolutional residual network for the spatial fusion of sensor data. We also introduce an adaptive channel-squeezing operation to fine-tune convolutional a neural network feature extraction capability by exploiting multichannel dependency. Finally, two widely available and public HAR data sets are used in experiments to evaluate the performance of our model. The results demonstrate that our proposed approach can overcome state-of-the-art methods.


6 PG Student Department of Public Health Dentistry Peoples College of Dental Sciences, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (India) ABSTRACT Saliva, a multi constituent oral fluid has high potential for the surveillance of general health and disease. To reach the above goal through saliva based diagnostics, two requisites must be fulfilled as discovering biomarker for different diseases among the complicated components of saliva and advancing sensitivity and specificity of biomarkers through persistent development of technologies with collective efforts over several years. Saliva has been demonstrated to be a promising bodily fluid for early diagnosis of disease and salivary diagnostics has exhibited tremendous potential in clinical applications. This review presents an impression of the value of saliva as a credible diagnostic tool, the innovation of salivary biomarkers and development of salivary diagnostics in the future.


Summary The records of the Port Chicago explosion alone suggest the conclusion that an averaged layering for California is 3 km. of rock of speed 5.0 km/sec. for longitudinal waves overlying a layer 11 km. thick of speed 5.6 km/sec., which in turn overlies a medium of speed 7.7 km/sec. No waves which traversed the mantle were observed. The root of the southern Sierra Nevada blocks the 7.7 km/sec. were even as it blocks the 8.0 km/sec. P normal waves. The air wave seems definitely recorded at Berkeley and Santa Clara as wave of period 3 or 4 seconds. The differential speed between the stations was normal, 342 m/sec. There is a suggestion of a short-period (0.5 sec.) air wave at Stanford with over-all speed of 333 m/sec. From study of the seismograms it is concluded that the energy in the earth waves was about 10 16 ergs, or roughly of the order of one-thousandth of the probable energy released in the explosion.


CONTEXT
Data regarding gender-specific efficacy of GH on critical endpoints are lacking. There are no randomized, placebo-controlled studies of physiological GH therapy solely in women.

OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to determine the effects of physiological GH replacement on cardiovascular risk markers and body composition in women with GH deficiency (GHD).

DESIGN
This was a 6-month, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study.

SETTING
The study was conducted at the General Clinical Research Center.

STUDY PARTICIPANTS
43 women with GHD due to hypopituitarism were included in the study.

INTERVENTION
Study participants were randomized to receive GH (goal mid-normal serum IGF-1) or placebo.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Cardiovascular risk markers, including high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, tissue plasminogen activator, and body composition, including visceral adipose tissue by cross-sectional computed tomography, were measured.

RESULTS
Mean daily GH dose was 0.67 mg. The mean IGF-1 sd score increased from -2.5 +/- 0.3 to -1.4 +/- 0.9 (GH) (P < 0.0001 vs. placebo). High-sensitivity C-reactive protein decreased by 38.2 +/- 9.6% (GH) vs.18.2 +/- 6.0% (placebo) (P = 0.03). Tissue plasminogen activator and total cholesterol decreased, and high-density lipoprotein increased. Homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance and other markers were unchanged. Body fat decreased [-5.1 +/- 2.0 (GH) vs. 1.9 +/- 1.0% (placebo); P = 0.002] as did visceral adipose tissue [-9.0 +/- 5.9 (GH) vs. 4.3 +/- 2.7% (placebo); P = 0.03]. Change in IGF-1 level was inversely associated with percent change in visceral adipose tissue (r = -0.61; P = 0.002), total body fat (r = -0.69; P < 0.0001), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (r = -0.51; P = 0.003).

CONCLUSIONS
Low-dose GH replacement in women with GHD decreased total and visceral adipose tissue and improved cardiovascular markers, with a relatively modest increase in IGF-1 levels and without worsening insulin resistance.


Inflammatory diseases result from the body's response to tissue damage, and if the resolution is not adequate or the stimulus persists, there will be progression from acute inflammation to chronic inflammation, leading to the development of cancer and neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases. Due to the complexity of events that occur in inflammation associated with the adverse effects of drugs used in clinical practice, it is necessary to search for new biologically active compounds with anti-inflammatory activity. Among natural products, essential oils (EOs) present promising results in preclinical studies, with action in the main mechanisms involved in the pathology of inflammation. The present systematic review summarizes the pharmacological effects of EOs and their compounds in in vitro and in vivo models for inflammation. The research was conducted in the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, BIREME, Scielo, Open Grey, and Science Direct. Based on the inclusion criteria, 30 articles were selected and discussed in this review. The studies listed revealed a potential activity of EOs and their compounds for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, especially in chronic inflammatory conditions, with the main mechanism involving reduction of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species associated with an elevation of antioxidant enzymes as well as the reduction of the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), reducing the expression of proinflammatory cytokines. Thus, this review suggests that EOs and their major compounds are promising tools for the treatment of chronic inflammation.