A three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model of a molded plastic ball grid array (PBGA) has been developed using the ANSYS/sup TM/ finite element simulation code. The model has been used to optimize the package for robust design and to determine design rules to keep package warpage within acceptable limits. An L/sub 18/ Taguchi matrix has been developed to investigate the effect of die attach and mold compound properties along with the substrate, mold compound and die attach thicknesses on the potential defects that would possibly occur during temperature cycling. For package failures, simulations performed represent temperature cycling 165/spl deg/C to -65/spl deg/C. This condition is approximated by cooling the package mounted on a multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) from 165/spl deg/C to -65/spl deg/C. For coplanarity analysis, simulations have been performed without the PCB and the lowest temperature of the cycle is changed to 20/spl deg/C. Predicted results indicate that for an optimum design (low stress in the package and low package warpage) mold compound as well as die attach material should have low Young's modulus and low coefficient of thermal expansion. Furthermore, it is found that the overmold should be kept as thin as possible. In addition to the optimization analysis, plastic strain distribution on each solder ball has been determined to predict the location of the probable first solder ball failure. The results indicate that higher strain levels are obtained in solder balls located one pitch inwards from the edge of the die. >


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

There is a strong association between chronic inflammatory conditions in a particular organ and the incidence of cancer specific to that organ. The longer the inflammation persists, the higher is the risk of associated carcinogenesis. Our interest is to synthesis new, potent and safer anticancer agents. The functionalized tetrahydropyridine (THP) ring systems are widely found in biologically active natural products and pharmaceuticals. The pharmacological activities of the THP derivatives depended greatly on the position and nature of the substitutions on the THP ring structure. 2-Substituted benzimidazole derivatives have been found to possess anti-inflammatory, antihistaminic, antimicrobial, anticancer, and cycloxygenase inhibiting activities. It is believed that synthesizing new compounds that contain both the pharmacophores of THP and benzimidazole could have the potential of becoming effective anticancer agents.

6-Methyl-2-(pyridin-4-yl)-1H-benzo[d]imidazole was obtained by the reaction of isonicotinc acid, 4-methyl benzene-1,2-diamine and polyphosphoric acid, which were stirred in an oil bath at 180oC for 2h. Mesitylene sulfonyl chloride was added with stirring to a solution of ethylacetohydroxymate and triethylamine in dimethylformamide at 0o C. Hydrolysis of this compound with the mixture of p-dioxane and 70% perchloric acid for 45 min gave a white solid of MSH. The MSH reacted with 6-methyl-2-(pyridin-4-yl)-1H-benzo[d]imidazole to give 1-amino-4-(6-methyl-1H-benzo[d]- imidazol-2-yl) pyridinium mesitylenesulfonate, which further reacted with different substituted benzoyl chlorides/benzenesulfonyl chlorides in 10% NaOH solution to gave stable benzoyl/benzenesulfonyl imino ylides. These ylides were reduced using sodium borohydride in absolute ethanol and gave the target compounds, substituted N-(4-(6-methyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-5,6-dihydropyridin-1(2H)-yl)benzamide/benzenesulfonamides. The cytotoxic effects of these substituted THP derivatives were determined using the MCF-7 estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cells, MDA-MB-231 estrogen receptor negative breast cancer cells, and Ishikawa cells, using the CellTiter-Glo (CTG) luminescent cell viability assay. Two target molecules exhibited strong cytotoxicity activities with significant IC50 values on MCF-7, Ishikawa and MDA-MB-231 cell lines.

This research was supported by the NIH/RCMI Grant G12RR03020 and Pharmaceutical Research Center NIH/NCRR Grant 1 C06 RR12512-01.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3263. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3263


Crystals of the complexes of 18-crown-6 with a number of ammonium salts (bromide, chloride, two forms of iodide, nitrate) and with amminetrifluoroboron have been prepared, analyzed with X-ray diffraction, and then investigated by infrared hole burning. The complexes all have similar hydrogen-bonding arrangements between the crown ether ring and the ammonium nitrogen. Hole burning of the infrared bands at low temperature identifies the N-D hydrogen bonds of the compounds that have been doped with a small amount of deuterium. The patterns of N-D bands from different complexes are often quite overlapped, with a few notable exceptions. The hole burning reveals a wide variety of phenomena, including monotonic decay and kinetic interchange among the holes and antiholes, a variety similar to that observed in previous hole-burning experiments.


OBJECTIVE To determine the ability of basic calcium phosphate (BCP) crystals to induce (a) mitogenesis, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1, and MMP-13 in human osteoarthritic synovial fibroblasts (HOAS) and (b) MMP-13 in cultured porcine articular chondrocytes. METHODS Mitogenesis of HOAS was measured by [3H]thymidine incorporation assay and counts of cells in monolayer culture. MMP messenger RNA (mRNA) accumulation was determined either by northern blot analysis or reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of RNA from chondrocytes or HOAS treated with BCP crystals. MMP-13 secretion was identified by immunoprecipitation and MMP-1 secretion by western blot of conditioned media. RESULTS BCP crystals caused a 4.5-fold increase in [3H]thymidine incorporation by HOAS within 20 hours compared with untreated control cultures (p⩽0.05). BCP crystals induced MMP-13 mRNA accumulation and MMP-13 protein secretion by articular chondrocytes. In contrast, in HOAS, MMP-13 mRNA induced by BCP crystals was detectable only by RT-PCR, and MMP-13 protein was undetectable. BCP crystals induced MMP-1 mRNA accumulation and MMP-1 protein secretion by HOAS. MMP-1 expression was further augmented when HOAS were co-incubated with either BCP and tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα; threefold) or BCP and interleukin 1α (IL1α; twofold). CONCLUSION These data confirm the ability of BCP crystals to activate HOAS, leading to the induction of mitogenesis and MMP-1 production. MMP-13 production in response to BCP crystals is substantially more detectable in porcine articular chondrocytes than in HOAS. These data support the active role of BCP crystals in osteoarthritis and suggest that BCP crystals act synergistically with IL1α and TNFα to promote MMP production and subsequent joint degeneration.


Shrinkage-compensating concretes have been extensively used in the last forty years to minimize cracking caused by drying shrinkage in reinforced concrete structures. The first and most diffused system to produce shrinkage-compensating concretes involves the use of expansive cements, according to ACI 223-98, instead of ordinary portland cement. All these special binders are based on a controlled production of ettringite. Another effective method to produce shrinkage-compensating concretes, not covered by ACI 223-98 but commonly used in some countries, like Italy or Japan, lies in the use of a CaO and/or MgO based expansive agent. This technology seems to be more advantageous with respect to that based on the ettringite formation from an economical as well as from a practical point of view. Recently, the addition of a shrinkage-reducing admixture (SRA) has been found to improve the behavior of CaO based shrinkage-compensating concretes especially in the absence of an adequate wet curing. Although the actual cause of this synergistic effect has not been completely explained, the use of this technology in construction industry has been increased, in the last five years, particularly in Italy, with very interesting results. In this work three remarkable examples of special reinforced concrete structures are presented in which the use of CaO-SRA based shrinkage-compensating concretes was successfully carried out in order to prevent shrinkage related cracks and/or joints excessive opening in the presence of adverse curing conditions which are normally not suitable for the use of this technique. 1 Shrinkage and Shrinkage related cracks Drying shrinkage is a volume contraction which occurs in the concrete during hardening, caused by moisture loss. If drying shrinkage could take place freely, without any restraint, it wouldn't represent any problem for most structural and non-structural concrete elements. Unfortunately, because of the presence of internal and external restraints (steel reinforcement, linkage with other portions of the structure, subgrade friction in slab on grade, etc.) drying contraction is partially, or totally, hindered and transformed in tensile stresses. While concrete is a brittle material, drying shrinkage stresses are often large enough to exceed the tensile strength of the concrete, resulting in cracks formation. Drying shrinkage cracks represent one of the main problems affecting reinforced concrete structures and elements since they are often cause of early deterioration, loss of serviceability or, simply, aesthetic defects formation. Actually, the formation of cracks nullifies the adoption of a potentially impermeable, low w/c concrete in assuring the required durability of reinforced concrete structures which are exposed to environmental aggressive agents such as carbonation and chlorides since steel rebars are immediately subjected to corrosion. Cracks due to drying shrinkage may compromise the serviceability of concrete pavements subjected to heavy traffic loads or special marine or hydraulic constructions which must assure watertightness. Finally, cracks may represent a concern even if they compromise the aesthetic aspect of not exposed architectural concrete structures. 2 Shrinkage-Compensating Concretes Probably the use of shrinkage-compensating concretes is the most effective method to eliminate or, at least, minimize, the formation of drying shrinkage related cracks in reinforced concrete structures. This technique is based on a volume expansion which is induced in the concrete by a specific chemical reaction whose effects can be adequately designed and controlled by the correct proportioning of the concrete. Normally the induced chemical expansion occurs during the first 2-7 days being so much faster than the contractions caused by moisture loss. For this reason, in order to be advantageously used to compensate drying shrinkage, the early expansion must be adequately restrained by a proper design and location of the steel deformed bars and/or by other means of restraint. In this way, an early compressive stress is induced in the concrete which will compensate for tensile stresses caused by the subsequent restrained drying shrinkage. According to the ASTM C 878 test method [1], the expansive behavior of a shrinkagecompensating concrete is determined by measuring the length change of a steel rebar embedded in concrete prismatic specimens, demoulded at the setting time (about 6-8 hours after mixing) and kept under lime-saturated water for 7 days. To provide satisfactory shrinkage compensation, the required expansion in the reinforced structural member is recommended to be greater than, or at least equal to, the predicted shrinkage in the member. According to ACI 223-98 [2], the design of a shrinkage compensated reinforced concrete member must include the four following steps. a) Estimation of member shrinkage. First of all, a sufficiently reliable prediction of the member final drying shrinkage must be carried out. In this estimation, the effects of member thickness, reinforced amount, relative humidity, concrete composition and type of aggregate must be taken into account. b) Selection of the required member expansion. According to ACI 223R, to provide satisfactory shrinkage compensation, the required expansion in the reinforced structural member is recommended to be greater than, or at least equal to, the anticipated shrinkage. This required expansion may be greater than that strictly necessary to offset drying shrinkage if remarkable thermal contractions during service life are expected and need to be compensated. c) Estimation of specimen expansion: The ASTM C 878 specimen expansion which is necessary to provide the required member expansion can be easily obtained by using the graph shown in Figure 1, taken from ACI 223-98 and based on data published by Russell in 1973). The graph gives the relation between member expansion and specimen expansion as a function of actual percentage of reinforcement in the designed member; d) Proportioning of shrinkage-compensating concrete in order to assure the calculated specimen expansion. The early chemical expansion induces tensile stresses in steel reinforcement. These stresses are generally lower than that allowed for the material if the requirements of ACI 318 (or those of equivalent codes in force in other countries, such as the eurocodes in the European Community) are satisfied. Furthermore, these stresses are normally destined to disappear with time as shrinkage goes on. Sometimes, in the case of early heavy loaded structures, the tensile stresses caused by expansion must be considered, in addition to those induced by external loads, in order to verify structural safety. For the same reason, the initial compressive stresses induced in the concrete by the restrained expansion must be added to those caused by eventual early external loads in order to provide proper safety factors in the first period of the service life of the structure. These additional compressive stresses in concrete can be easily determined, as a function of reinforcement percentage and member expansion, by using the graph of Figure 2 (ACI 223-98). Figure 1 – Member expansion as a function of ASTM C 878 specimen expansion (ACI 223-98) Figure 2 – Concrete compressive stress induced by member restrained expansion (ACI 223R-98) 3 Expansive Cementis Shrinkage-compensating concretes can be manufactured by using special expansive cements instead of normal portland cement. The first examples of expansive cements were developed in Russia and in France. In particular, in the early 40 of the previous century Lossier [3] realized an expansive cement by mixing an ordinary portland cement with an expansive agent, based on calcium sulphate and calcium aluminates, and a stabilizer consisting in blast furnace slag. The expansion was given by the reaction between calcium sulphate, calcium aluminates and water to form ettringite. The control of the expansion was delegated to the blast furnace slag which gradually substituted calcium aluminates in the reaction with calcium sulphate bringing it to an end. In the following years several expansive cements were ideated most of all based on a controlled production of ettringite. ASTM C845-90 and ACI 223-98 classify the following three different types of expansive cements: 1) type K (Klein cement), containing C4A3S, calcium sulphate (CaSO4) and free CaO; 2) type M, produced by blending portland cement with calcium aluminates CA and C7A12; 3) type S, which contains excess of C3A and CS with respect to that usually found in portland cements. Among the above listed expansive cements, the most diffused is the type K which can be alternately produced by intergrinding portland cement with a separately burned expansive component or simultaneously burning all components to obtain an expansive clinker. The expansive reaction which takes place in both cases can be represented as follows: C4A3S + 6C + 8 CS + 96 H → 3(C3A⋅3CS⋅32H) (1) 1 Cement chemistry contracted symbology: C = CaO, A = Al2O3, S = SiO2, H = H2O and S= SO3 This reaction begins immediately as soon as water has been added to the mix but it takes at least 3 to 7 days to be completed. This assures that the greatest part of the expansion occurs when the concrete is strong enough to interact with steel and generate a restrained expansion. On the other hand, since the formation of ettringite requires a large amount of water, continuous wet curing for about one week is required to achieve the potential planned expansion. Any deficiencies in the method of curing may reduce the amount of initial expansion that is needed to offset later drying shrinkage. Figure 3 shows the effect of various curing method on expansion. Pounding, continuous sprinkling or wet coverings are preferred since adequate water for ettringite formation and expansion is ensured. Other curing methods such as those involving the


Abstract The article aims to present the research results on the possibility of using alternative energy sources and pro-ecological solutions as a tool supporting the protection of the cultural and natural landscape of the suburbs of Warsaw. Near Warsaw, there are individual objects or complexes that constitute this area's cultural identity. The difficulty is to adapt them to current energy standards without interfering with their original material, especially concerning wooden buildings. Instead of subjecting them to thermal modernization, it is worth considering alternative solutions, such as photovoltaics. A wooden manor house in Warsaw-Białołęka was selected for detailed research. The study has shown that the optimal use of 26 photovoltaic modules that were adopted with a total installation capacity of 7.54 kWp will be optimal for this type of edifice. The simple payback time of the investment will be about ten years. To eliminate the negative aesthetic effect of the installation, panels in the appropriate color should be used, or the use of photovoltaic tiles should be considered, although the investment costs will increase. The study has shown indisputable benefits, including economic ones, resulting from the solutions used.


A well given design's attention to Learnability, Contextuality and Operationability as Usability characteristics issues of software, and information systems generally is an evolving and challenging area in the field of Information systems, and Human Computer Interaction as an area of expertise. The procedure of testing and evaluating usability as quality characteristics in information systems has equally attracted researchers and professionals more in the recent times due to the developers' attempt to meet the diverse users' needs in the development of usable information systems. Hence, the paper aims to bring to the limelight; these current issues of usability and usability testing, the trend of the challenges inherent in the usability testing and evaluation process, then suggest the necessary attention that must be provided by subsequent researches in the bid to solve these lingering design research problems.


Virus-like particles resembling those seen in baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cell cultures, CK-bovine cells, pig kidney cell lines PK-13 and IB-RS-2 have been found in the clones C-13 and C-26-3 of the cell line IB-RS-2. The particle's average outer diameter is c.85nm and the core is c.53nm


Unveiling face images of a subject given his/her high-level representations extracted from a blackbox Face Recognition engine is extremely challenging. It is because the limitations of accessible information from that engine including its structure and uninterpretable extracted features. This paper presents a novel generative structure with Bijective Metric Learning, namely Bijective Generative Adversarial Networks in a Distillation framework (DiBiGAN), for synthesizing faces of an identity given that person's features. In order to effectively address this problem, this work firstly introduces a bijective metric so that the distance measurement and metric learning process can be directly adopted in image domain for an image reconstruction task. Secondly, a distillation process is introduced to maximize the information exploited from the blackbox face recognition engine. Then a Feature-Conditional Generator Structure with Exponential Weighting Strategy is presented for a more robust generator that can synthesize realistic faces with ID preservation. Results on several benchmarking datasets including CelebA, LFW, AgeDB, CFP-FP against matching engines have demonstrated the effectiveness of DiBiGAN on both image realism and ID preservation properties.


Results of observations of 191 patients with pathology of the knee joint meniscus are described. Rupture of the normally developed meniscus was characterized by the clinical picture of subacute insufficiency of the knee joint in 131 patients. The clinical syndrome of the discoid meniscus has features of chronic instability of the knee joint. The diagnostics is based on a comparison of clinical macro- and microsymptoms, arthropneumographic picture and findings of arthroscopy.


Background Mucositis is one of the most frequent complications in patients receiving chemotherapy. Currently there is no standard treatment, and its management is essentially based on adequate oral hygiene and mouthwashes. In our hospital, the pharmacy department compounds an oral suspension of 250 ml of sodium bicarbonate 3.5 g, gentamycin 47 mg, hydrocortisone 58 mg, nystatin 3 000 000 UI and mepivacaine 50 mg. Purpose The objective was to evaluate the profile of use of the mucositis compounded suspension (MCS) in patients with mucositis induced by chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy during their hospital stay. Material and methods Observational, descriptive, retrospective cohort study. Patients that developed mucositis during their hospital stay between September 2014 and June 2015 were included. The electronic prescriptions and medical records were reviewed and the following data were collected: patient characteristics (age, gender), clinical variables (presence of mucositis and grade, neutropenia and opportunistic infections), suspected treatment causing mucositis, drugs involved and treatment of the mucositis (use of MCS, dosage regimen, use of other drugs, date of resolution). The severity of mucositis was assessed using the World Health Organisation toxicity scale (grade I, II, III, IV). Results 70 patients were included (80% women). Median age was 69 years (SD 1.85). Mucositis severity: grade I (65%), II (24%), III and IV (11%). At admission, 32% of patients presented with neutropenia and 57% also opportunistic infections. Suspected causes of mucositis were chemotherapy (73%) and radiotherapy (27%). The drugs that were most associated with mucositis were: cisplatin (14%), etoposide (13%), oxaliplatino (11%) and 5-fluorouracil (9%). All patients received MCS for the treatment of mucositis. The dosage regimens were: every 8 h (87%), every 6 h (5%), every 12 h (3%) and every 4 h (1%). Median duration of treatment was 6 days (IQR 3–12). No adverse reaction to MCS was recorded. In 35% of patients, other drugs were used: bicarbonate (47%), lidocaine (50%), nystatin (41%) and chlorhexidine (7%). In 50% of patients mucositis was resolved by day 8. Conclusion Patients treated with platinum salts, etoposide and fluorouracil presented with mucositis more frequently. The use of MCS was effective and well tolerated. It is necessary to carry out comparative studies. No conflict of interest.


Abstract Early diagnosis, better imaging, and advanced treatment of cancer patients extend survival and increase the incidence of symptomatic spine metastases. The treatment algorithm for spine metastases has shifted to a more aggressive approach in recent years. Spine stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a relatively new tool utilizing advanced imaging systems, planning software, image-guided localization, and intensity-modulated dose delivery. Radiosurgery of spine metastases yields high rates of pain- and tumor control, and offers both the patients and the treating physicians an effective noninvasive alternative. This review presents the indications and outcomes for SRS and describes current techniques.


Traffic number recognition is the important and essential content on license plate recognition and traffic sign recognition. A method of traffic number recognition based on the neural network and the invariant moments was proposed in this paper. Firstly, the area of the traffic number was located from the complicated image background and each number was taken by the image segmentation. Secondly, the features of each number were obtained by Hu invariant moments, which are the invariability of the translation, the ratio and the rotation, and have lower computational complexity. Finally, the traffic number was recognized by the BP neural network. Experimental results proved that the proposed method can be used for fast and efficient recognition of the traffic number with high accuracy.


ABSTRACT: Community‐acquired bacterial pneumonia in the elderly has for years been attributed almost exclusively to Streptococcus pneumonias. Recent technical advances have provided bacteriologic and epidemiologic data demonstrating that other pathogens are important causes of pulmonary infection in older patients. This report reviews these data and reappraises the conventional therapy of community‐acquired bacterial pneumonia in geriatric patients. Some properties of a new antibiotic, cefamandole nafate, are described.


Brief and elegant sets of postulates for Boolean algebra in terms of the inclusion relation, designed so as to show the connection between the classical Boolean algebra and M. H. Stone's generalizations. Economy in the sets is attained through the introduction of the notion of separateness, defined: This paper is an exposition of some sections of Hilbert-Ackermann (365i). The author explains Hilbert's calculus of predicates, and shows how Hilbert represents (or translates) the Aristotelian syllogisms in this calculus.


The role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) cannot be ignored in today's era of working. Its effects are studied in several sectors by various researchers. This study covers the impact of ICT on the profitability of banks. Thirty-three banks are operating in India. A sample period of 10 years (2010 to 2019) was studied. The study also provides insight into how ICT helps the banks' profitability during and post-COVID-19. A panel data analysis is performed to estimate the results. This study found that ICT adversely impacts banks' profitability (NIM) in India in a linear association. However, the quadratic association indicates a positive U-curved relationship between ICT and profitability. In addition, the Net of Non-Performing Assets significantly but negatively impacts the connectivity of ICT and profitability. The findings imply that banks should invest in ICT to maximize the long run. The findings have no significant implication on all stakeholders, including policymakers, shareholders, and managers, to consider implementing ICT tools as an essential factor in enhancing a bank's profitability in the long run. In addition, the level of otherwise lowered investments in ICT cannot be a fruitful step. The current study augments the existing literature on banking by providing novel evidence on the association of ICT with profitability under the influence of NPA. This study argues for the application of ICT in banks in order to increase their profitability. ICT helps the bank maintain transparency, accountability, and even the reach of financial services increases. This situation again leads to the enhancement of the country's economy.


This report is aimed at professionals who provide specialist substance misuse treatment services for young people under 18 years old. The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) defines young people's treatment as, "care planned medical, psychosocial or specialist harm reduction
interventions aimed at alleviating current harm
caused by a young person's substance misuse."

This report brings together evidence for effective treatment of substance misuse among young people aged 18 and under. It was developed from literature reviews and primary research published in peer review journals, which focus on substance misuse among this age range (see Methodology for details).
The report has been produced as part of the Youth Alcohol Action Plan's commitment to improve alcohol treatment for young people (Department for Children, Schools and Families, Home Office and Department for Health, 2008).


&NA; Skeletal dysplasias are the result of aberration in the growth and development of the skeleton. While they are individually rare, they are important in that they provide an insight into the mechanism of skeletal development. This article offers an approach to the diagnosis of skeletal dysplasias, rather than an exhaustive account of all the possible diagnoses. Dysplastic conditions are suspected on the basis of abnormal stature, disproportion, dysmorphism, or deformity. Diagnosis requires simple measurement of height and calculation of proportionality, combined with a complete physical examination, appropriate radiographs, an investigation of the family pedigree, and occasionally laboratory studies. An accurate diagnosis can usually be made on the basis of these data and a review of descriptive sources. A definitive diagnosis allows the treating physician to project the patient's ultimate height and to prognosticate about likely deformities and the risk of the recurrence of the condition in the family.


When parents face a potentially life-limiting fetal diagnosis in pregnancy, they then have a series of decisions to make. These include confirmatory testing, termination, and additional choices if they choose to continue the pregnancy. A perinatal palliative team provides a safe, compassionate, and caring space for parents to process their emotions and discuss their values. In a shared decision-making model, the team explores how a family's faith, experiences, values, and perspectives shape the goals for care. For some families, terminating a pregnancy for any reason conflicts with their faith or values and pursuing life prolonging treatments in order to give their baby the best chances for survival is the most important. For others, having a postnatal confirmatory diagnosis of a life limiting or serious medical condition gives them the assurance they need to allow their child a natural death. Others want care to be comfort-focused in order to maximize the time they have to be together as a family. Through this journey, a perinatal palliative team can provide the support and encouragement for families to express their goals and wishes, as well as find meaning and hope.


The
present study was designed to evaluate the effects of hippotherapy on standing
balance in patients with incomplete cervical spinal cord injuries. Ten patients
(8 men and 2 women) who were diagnosed with cervical levels of injury between 3 and 6, and D according to the ASIA Impairment
Scale. All patients were tested by the physiotherapists prior to and after
hippotherapy treatment. Standing balance was measured using the Interactive
Balance System (IBS). The weight distribution index was significantly increased
in application of hippotherapy compared with control groups in patients with a
neurologic level of cervical 3 and 4, and with Brown-Sequard syndrome,
respectively. However, most of the patients exhibited no significant changes in
the standing balance index, such as F1, F2-4, F5-6, F7-8, and SI scores, after
hippotherapy. These results suggest that hippotherapy did not have a
significant effect on the standing balance of patients with incomplete cervical
spinal cord injuries.


We describe an alternative fragment-based method, the localized molecular-orbital assembler method, for Hartree-Fock (HF) calculations of macromolecules. In this approach, a large molecule is divided into many small-size fragments, each of which is capped by its local surroundings. Then the conventional HF calculations are preformed on these capped fragments (or subsystems) and the canonical molecular orbitals of these systems are transferred into localized molecular orbitals (LMOs). By assembling the LMOs of these subsystems into a set of LMOs of the target molecule, the total density matrix of the target molecule is constructed and correspondingly the HF energy or other molecular properties can be approximately computed. This approach computationally achieves linear scaling even for medium-sized systems. Our test calculations with double-zeta and polarized double-zeta basis sets demonstrate that the present approach is able to reproduce the conventional HF energies within a few millihartrees for a broad range of molecules.


Healthcare cost is one of the major obstacles for healthcare providers. One of the major components of this increased cost of healthcare related expenses is cost of Medicines. Medicines consume major chunk of total money spent on healthcare. Penetration of health insurance is very negligible in our country. Majority of patients have to bear cost of healthcare services on their own. News report published in times of India states that in India 78 % patients spent money on health services out of pocket and among these 72 % is for medicines. It further states that residents of smaller states have to spend out of pocket money up to 87 % for health care services. While in larger states this proportion goes up to 74 %.


RF on-wafer device measurements require the provision of probe contact pads and transmission line structures to feed the device ports. A lumped equivalent circuit of the feed structure as determined through the measurement of on-wafer dummy structures and electromagnetic simulation enables three-step device de-embedding to be performed by matrix conversion of the measured S-parameters. The technique is applied to measurements of a Filtronic 6/spl times/50 /spl mu/m GaAs PHEMT to obtain pure device data for large-signal modelling. The drawbacks of using a lumped element technique for large device structures at high frequencies are highlighted.


In this work, a consumable anode composed of a solid solution of titanium carbide and titanium monoxide was prepared via carbothermic reduction of TiO_2. Upon electrolysis, the anode fed Ti^2+ into solution and carbon monoxide was generated; no excess carbon remained to contaminate the melt. On the cathode, high-purity titanium (>99.9%) was produced. Our results suggest anode and cathode current efficiencies of 93.5% and 89% respectively, indicating that the method is viable and extremely cost-effective, potentially dropping the cost of titanium to near that of aluminum.


Abstract Purpose: Alcohol use during pregnancy is a significant public health concern. Nearly all U.S. states have enacted policies targeting alcohol use during pregnancy, but there has been little research examining their impact, particularly across racial/ethnic groups. Methods: Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and about eight state-level, pregnancy-specific alcohol policies from 1985 to 2016, the aim of this study was to examine the differential effects of these policies on drinking among pregnant women by race/ethnicity. Results: We found evidence of differential effects for priority treatment, prohibitions on criminal prosecution, and civil commitment policies. In relation to priority treatment policies, effects benefited versus harmed different racial/ethnic groups depending on whether the priority treatment policies were for pregnant women only or if they gave priority to both pregnant women and pregnant women with children. Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that benefits and harms from these policies do not appear to be equitably distributed across different racial/ethnic groups. Research considering the impact of alcohol/pregnancy policies should consider differential effects by race/ethnicity.


With embedded devices becoming more pervasive and entrenched in society, it is paramount to keep these systems secure. A threat plaguing these systems consists of software vulnerabilities that cause memory corruption, potentially allowing an attacker to breach the device. Software-based countermeasures exist, but suffer from high overhead. In this survey, we investigate whether this could be mitigated using dedicated hardware. Driven by the advancements of open hardware, we focus on implementations for RISC-V, a novel and open architecture tailored for customization. We distinguish between methods validating memory accesses beforehand, obfuscating information necessary for an attack, and detecting memory values corrupted earlier. We compare on qualitative metrics, such as the security coverage and level of transparency, and performance in both software and hardware. Although current implementations do not easily allow for a fair comparison as their evaluation methodologies vary widely, we show that current implementations are suitable to minimize the runtime overhead with a relatively small area overhead. Nevertheless, we identified that further research is still required to mitigate more fine-grained attacks such as intra-object overflows, to integrate into more sophisticated protected execution environments towards resilient systems that are automatically recoverable, and to move towards more harmonized evaluation.


Citizenship is more than a status associated with a bundle of rights; it is also the formal contract by which the sovereignty of a nation is extended to the individual in exchange for being governed. Who can and who cannot contract into this status and what rights are able to be exercised is also shaped by who possesses the nation. In this article it is argued that citizenship operates discursively to contain Indigenous people's engagement with the economy through social rights. This containment precludes consideration of Indigenous sovereign rights to our lands and resources, to enable Indigenous economic development within a capitalist market economy.


This article adds to research on retirement communities, which has primarily looked at them at one stage in their development and assumed that a homogeneous population as a background variable contributes to high levels of social integration and a strong sense of community. It presents the situation of three groups who live in a 10-year-old Florida retirement community—snowbirds, newcomers, and widows and widowers. Members of these three groups live on the social margins of the community. The article examines both the structures within the community and the social processes that create an invisible boundary that puts marginal residents on the outside. It concludes that increasing diversity is inevitable and that homogeneity or lack thereof is in the eye of the beholder. Findings are based on participant observation and in-depth interviews.


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Mutual relationships between employees are the central content of the study of firm's organisation. There are different types of (organizational) relationships; nevertheless, this thesis focuses on coordinative relationships and the aspects related to the five types of such relationship, the basic one and four composed. The level of quality of individual aspects of organizational relationships is defined in detail by the Methodology of assessing the quality of organization in a firm (MUKOZ).

The task of the organiser in regulating such coordinative relationships is to combine and efficiently align separately conducted tasks and individual parts of jobs when assuring the entire task to be efficiently performed by a firm. This also involves the issue of the required power of coordinators – managers, which is why the aspects of coordination relationships have been analytically assessed in terms of the inclusion of the notions of authority, power and influence. This served as the basis for the completion of the presented task: improve the usefulness of the MUKOZ methodology from the same point of view by including new aspects of coordinative relationships. The findings of the analysis have been combined with the theoretical basis of the mentioned notions and personal practical experience, so as to formulate and present new aspects of coordinative relationships. By classifying and ranging the aspects in terms of their relevance, the sensibility of the inclusion of new ones was assessed and, based on substantial comparisons, some proposals have been made for replacing certain aspects in the applied methodology.

The MUKOZ methodology is merely one of the methodologies for gathering data on the quality of organisation in a firm (as a formal social unit). Therefore, other domestic and foreign models for analysing the quality of organization in a firm have been presented and compared, which are currently used in Slovenia.

All models used for measuring or establishing the quality of organization in firms are rather lengthy and the outcomes can sometimes only be applied in a specific period. The questionnaire pursuant to the MUKOZ methodology contains 150 organisational aspects – 10 aspects for each of 15 relationships given in the methodology. Therefore, the questionnaire was created also in such a way that it consisted of 18 new questions – 2 for each coordinative and communicational relationship. Due to the impact on reduced time of data gathering,, the abbreviated version of questionnaire can be used more frequently to define state of specific organisational relationships in firms in terms of coordination and communication.


I: FORMS OF COMMUNICATION. 1. Instructions and Process: Explaining a Procedure. 2. Description of a Mechanism: Explaining How Something Works. 3. Definition: Explaining What Something Is. 4. Analysis Through Classification and Partition: Putting Things in Order. 5. Analysis Through Effect-Cause and Comparison-Contrast: Looking at Details. 6. The Summary: Getting to the Heart of the Matter. 7. Memorandums and Letters: Sending Messages. 8. Reports: Conveying Needed Information. 9. The Research Report: Becoming Acquainted with Resource Materials. 10. Oral Communication: Saying It Clearly. 11. Visuals: Seeing Is Convincing. II: SELECTED READINGS. Clear Only If Known, Edgar Dale. Battle for the Soul of the Internet, Philip Elmer-Dewitt. The Powershift Era, Alvin Toffler. Hardest Lessons for First-Time Managers, Linda A. Hill. Quality, John Galsworthy. Excerpt from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig. The Science of Deduction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Are You Alive?, Stuart Chase. Clear Writing Means Clear Thinking Means..., Marvin H. Swift. A Technical Writer Considers His Latest Love Object, Chick Wallace. Blue Heron, Chick Wallace. The Effects of Perceived Justice on Complainants Negative Word-of-Mouth Behavior and Repatronage Intentions, Jeffrey G. Blodgett, Donald H. Granbois, and Rockney G. Walters. Excerpt from Non-Medical Lasers: Everyday Life in a New Light, Rebecca D. Williams. 'Journeying Through the Cosmos' from The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean, Carl Sagan. 'Work' from The Book of Virtues, William J. Bennett. The Active Document: Making Pages Smarter, David J. Weinberger. The Power of Mistakes, Stephen Nachmanovitch. Self-Motivation: Ten Techniques for Activating or Freeing the Spirit, Richard L. Weaver. III: REVISING AND EDITING.


We present sharp bounds on the value of perfect information for static and dynamic simple recourse stochastic programming problems. The bounds are sharper than the available bounds based on Jensen's inequality. The new bounds use some recent extensions of Jensen's upper bound and the Edmundson-Madansky lower bound on the expectation of a concave function of several random variables. Bounds are obtained for nonlinear return functions and linear and strictly increasing concave utility functions for static and dynamic problems. When the random variables are jointly dependent, the Edmundson-Madansky type bound must be replaced by a less sharp "feasible point" bound. Bounds that use constructs from mean-variance analysis are also presented. With independent random variables the calculation of the bounds generally involves several simple univariate numerical integrations and the solution of several similar nonlinear programs. These bounds may be made as sharp as desired with increasing computational effort. The bounds are illustrated on a well-known problem in the literature and on a portfolio selection problem.


Whereas the Convention on the Rights of the Child ('the CRC') provides a progressive framework capable of normative transformation, the challenge for children's rights advocates is how to translate the treaty's prescriptions into robust protection for children everywhere. A key indicator of success in this endeavour is the level and sustainability of appropriation of the CRC's principles in the local polities that have subscribed to its normative framework. In this article, I adopt culture and rights as tools for analysing the contexts, contests, processes and prospects that define such transformation.


Hydrothermal gasification also known as supercritical water gasification (SWG) has been considered a promising approach for converting wet biomass such as sugarcane bagasse into high-quality syngas. This study presents the thermodynamic modeling of the hydrothermal gasification of sugarcane bagasse using Aspen Plus. The effects of process parameters on the composition and yield of product gases were also investigated. It was found that the effect of temperature and biomass concentration were significant in the production of hydrogen-rich gas, while less impact was observed with pressure. The hydrogen gas (H2) produced with the highest mole fraction (56.70 mol%) and yield (103.26 kmol/kg) was obtained at 750°C and low biomass concentration of 10 wt%, while the lowest yield (1.52 kmol/kg) and mole fraction (2.45 mol%) of H2 were obtained at 450°C and high biomass concentration of 50 wt%. Findings from this study also showed that the highest net calorific value (17.55MJ/kg) was reached at 450˚C and 50 wt% of biomass concentration. This study would help to consolidate research on hydrothermal gasification of sugarcane bagasse and optimization of experimental processes and also serve as an important benchmark in the utilization of biomass as a clean energy source for future projects.


The purpose of this study is to assess actual and potential environmental aspects related to the impact of local tree areas on local climate control and to assess external thermal comfort. This has allowed us to assess its sustainability in the light of achievable environmental benefits. Sustainability can be defined as the property of a material or product that indicates how well it meets current requirements for a particular application. These demands affect the well-being and health of city dwellers. We approach this study with an ecological approach, focusing on the effects of native trees (palms and olive trees) and exotic trees (Ficus letesa). Adjust the microclimate of the city. The study highlights the positive effects of plants on urban outdoor spaces in the city of Biskra during July and August, the hottest months of the year when temperatures can reach values above 50 degrees Celsius. I made it A green strategy is an essential element in improving the external local climate, especially in dry climates. The main criteria we relied on in this study included vegetation density, tree placement and orientation, and country albedo. Based on these three criteria, we have achieved very important results in terms of improving and adjusting the urban microclimate.- Selection of the components of the regional urban forest model that have the greatest impact on regional climate and cooling effects. In addition to these factors, the impact of urban forests on local climate also emphasizes permeability, tree abundance, sky visibility, leaf area index, and distance between trees.-Urban green spaces, especially olive and palm trees, have a positive impact on the outdoor microclimate, reduce the urban heat island effect in the summer in the shade of tall trees and shrubs, attenuate solar radiation, Being able to block the flow of heat from the sky, thereby increasing the comfort of the microclimate and change. In addition, evaporation and transpiration from plants reduce temperature and increase humidity.


Immunosequencing is emerging as a new technology with substantial scientific and clinical relevance in immunology, hematology and oncology. Thanks to the highly-randomized somatic rearrangement of antigen receptor genes in lymphocytes, each clonal population of lymphocytes bears a receptor rearrangement that is essentially unique. Thus, sequencing of rearranged antigen receptors in B and T cells can provide a thorough characterization of the diversity and clonal structure of the adaptive immune system. Despite the significant promise of immunosequencing, accurate and consistent methods for data generation and cleaning have proven elusive in practice. Outstanding issues include biased amplification of rearranged antigen receptor genes; computational correction of PCR and sequencing errors in raw sequencing data; alignment of receptor sequences to germline gene receptor loci for accurate reconstruction of rearrangement events; and methods for extrapolation from sequencing reads attributed to each unique rearrangement to absolute input cell numbers. Using a set of robust experiments in which carefully-controlled conditions and synthetic molecules are utilized to precisely determine correct output, we have developed an experimental paradigm and data analysis pipeline that address these concerns and set a new standard for accuracy and data quality in the field of immunosequencing.


The synthesis of the core unit of cycloaraneosene and ophiobolin M has been investigated, following a general strategy applicable to both 5-8 bicyclic systems. The synthetic strategy includes a ring-closing metathesis reaction to generate the central eight-membered ring as well as a palladium-mediated coupling of a Grignard reagent to introduce the exocyclic side-chain. The stereochemistry of the ring junction is also discussed and moderate diastereoselectivity has been achieved. (C) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2002.


Although uncontrolled inflammatory response plays a central role in the pathogenesis of acute lung injury (ALI), the precise molecular mechanisms underlying the development of this disorder remain poorly understood. SOCS3 is an important negative regulator of IL‐6‐type cytokine signaling. SOCS3 is induced in lung during LPS‐induced lung injury, suggesting that generation of SOCS3 may represent a regulatory product during ALI. In the current study, we created mice lacking SOCS3 expression in macrophages and neutrophils (LysM‐cre SOCS3fl/fl). We evaluated the lung inflammatory response to LPS in both LysM‐cre SOCS3fl/fl mice and the wild‐type (WT) mice (SOCS3fl/fl). LysM‐cre SOCS3fl/fl mice displayed significant increase of the lung permeability index (lung vascular leak of albumin), neutrophils, lung neutrophil accumulation (myeloperoxidase activity), and proinflammatory cytokines/chemokines in bronchial alveolar lavage fluids compared to WT mice. These phenotypes were consistent with morphological evaluation of lung, which showed enhanced inflammatory cell influx and intra‐alveolar hemorrhage. We further identify the transcription factor, CCAAT/enhancer‐binding protein (C/EBP) δ as a critical downstream target of SOCS3 in LPS‐induced ALI. These results indicate that SOCS3 has a protective role in LPS‐induced ALI by suppressing C/EBPδ activity in the lung. Elucidating the function of SOCS3 would represent prospective targets for a new generation of drugs needed to treat ALI.—Yan, C., Ward, P. A., Wang, X., Gao, H., Myeloid depletion of SOCS3 enhances LPS‐induced acute lung injury through CCAAT/enhancer binding protein δ pathway. FASEB J. 27, 2967–2976 (2013). www.fasebj.org


Abstract The current coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents a huge challenge for health-care systems worldwide. Many different risk factors are associated with disease severity, such as older age, diabetes, hypertension, and most recently obesity. The incidence of obesity has been on the rise for the past 25 years, reaching over 2 billion people throughout the world, and obesity itself could be considered a pandemic. In this review, we summarize aspects involved with obesity, such as changes in the immune response, nutritional factors, physiological factors, and the gut-lung axis, that impact the viral response and the COVID-19 prognosis.


Today, there is little debate that a paradigm shift is occurring in the field of international conflict resolution; where experts laud the effectiveness of peaceful means ending disputes compared with the use of force or violence. This paradigm shift is reflected in the increasing number of peacebuilding academic and applied programs in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, South and East Asia, and the Middle East, including conflict resolution workshops, projects for building civil societies, and nonviolent resistance mobilization. In peacebuilding contexts, scholars and practitioners are seeking to integrate authentic, indigenous and local cultural methods of conflict analysis and intervention, which are replacing the generic conflict resolution applications developed by western practitioners in United States and Europe.


Let R denote real iV-dimensional Euclidean space. Then it is a well-known fact that the imbedding of the Sobolev space Wi,2(R) in LP(R ) is bounded for 2g>pS2N/(N-2), but is definitely not compact. Consequently the theory of critical points for general isoperimetric variational problems defined over arbitrary unbounded domains in R has been little investigated despite its importance. Indeed the usual proofs for the existence of even one critical point for such problems requires the verification of some compactness criterion (such as Condition C of Palais-Smale). For quadratic functional, such as arise in the study of the spectrum of a linear elliptic partial differential operator L of order 2m defined on R, many compact imbedding theorems have been obtained in recent years [ l ] , [2], [3]. These results yield, in turn, interesting facts concerning the discrete spectrum of L. In this note we extend these compactness results to insure the existence of critical points for certain isoperimetric variational problems arising in the study of eigenvalue problems for nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations. The existence of stationary states for nonlinear wave equations [4] provides a natural example for which our results are useful.


Study Design Cross-sectional study. Objectives This study aimed to investigate whether measures of balance correlate with measures of ankle proprioception — ankle joint position sense and movement detection sense. Background It is suggested that balance impairments following ankle sprains are the result of damage to the joint mechanoreceptors, which in turn, disrupts ankle proprioception. Evidence regarding the presence of balance and proprioceptive deficits in various groups of participants with a history of ankle sprain has been inconsistent; proprioception has been regarded as a significant factor in balance outcomes and the two are often used interchangeably in the literature. No study has investigated the correlation between the commonly used measures of balance and proprioception at the ankle joint. Methods and Measures The study was a secondary analysis of existing data from two cross-sectional studies (n=80, female=54%, age (average ±standard deviation (SD)=31±10.4). Three measures of balance (star excursion balance test (%reach), response to perturbation (sec), and foot lifts during single-leg stance (no)) were correlated with two measures of proprioception (inversion/eversion movement detection sense and joint position sense (deg)). Correlations between each balance and proprioception test were calculated. The normal distribution of data was tested using Kolmogorove-Smirnova. For the normally distributed data, Pearson's correlation coefficient was used and for the data without normal distribution, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used. Results There was no significant positive correlation (p>0.05) between any of the balance and proprioceptive measures. There was only a weak negative correlation between the movement detection sense test and number of foot lifts during single-leg stance (r=−0.30, p=0.008). Conclusion This study found only one weak correlation between common measures of balance and ankle joint proprioception. This suggests that there is a need to re-evaluate our current understanding of the relationship between ankle sensorimotor assessments and rehabilitation.


Single-crystal permalloy films were grown epitaxially on (001) GaAs substrates by sputtering. The relationship between the crystal orientations of the permalloy and GaAs were (001) NiFe // (001) GaAs, ≪100≫ NiFe // ≪110≫ GaAs. The crystal structures of permalloy films were deformed from cubic to tetragonal; films with positive and negative tetragonal strain have small and large respective unit cell volumes. Films with a small lattice constant in the film plane have a large strain distribution. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy of films with a large strain distribution is small, and that of films with a negative tetragonal strain is large.


Introduction:Six-Transmembrane Epithelial Antigene of the Prostate 1 (STEAP1) is associated with the occurrence and development of cancer. This study aimed to clarify the role of STEAP1 in gastric cancer tumor growth and metastasis, as well as its molecular mechanism of action. Methods:Statistical methods were used for clinical data analysis. Protein expression was detected using immunohistochemistry(IHC). The mRNA and protein expression in the cell cultures were detected using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) and western blot analysis. Overexpression and silencing models were constructed using plasmid and lentivirus transfection. To detect cell proliferation in vitro, Cell Counting Kit-8(CCK-8), flow cytometry, and colony formation assays were used; transwell and wound healing assays were used to detect cell migration and invasion; For in vivo experiments, nude BALB/c mice were used for detecting subcutaneous tumorigenesis and intraperitoneal implantation. Results:We found STEAP1 was overexpressed in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines. Single factor and Cox analyses showed that STEAP1 gene expression level correlated with poor prognosis. Upregulation of STEAP1 increased cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, which decreased after STEAP1 was knocked down. These changes were achieved via the activation of the AKT/FoxO1 pathway and epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT). The in vivo animal experiments showed that STEAP1 knock down, resulted in a decrease in the subcutaneous tumor and peritoneal tumor formation.Conclusions:STEAP1 was overexpressed in gastric cancer and closely connected with OS. STEAP1 can regulate the cell cycle via the Akt/FoxO1 pathway to influence cell proliferation. STEAP1 may affect cell migration and invasion via EMT induction.


Arriving at the end of a three‐year "semester," it's exam time at the trailing edge. Didn't the author mention that there would be a test? Sixty‐six "true or false" statements test your knowledge and understanding of the personal computer field at the beginning of 1992, and the extent to which your view of personal computing is congruent with the author's. The latter is significant because, if most of you see things entirely different, then Library Hi Tech is wasting its paper printing this column and the author is wasting his time writing it. Some of the material on this quiz comes from the last eleven Trailing Edge columns. Some does not. The quiz, and the commentary accompanying answers, are the author's way of summing up three years of personal computing before moving on to another cycle. The author also provides notes from PC literature received during October‐December 1991. It's "printer quarter," otherwise covering a wide range of topics. As usual, all the year‐end "awards" and predictions are ignored.


Angiogenesis and cell proliferation are fundamental biological processes whose pathologic states represent two hallmarks of cancer. Central to controlling both processes is the TGF-β/BMP signaling pathway, for which the SMAD proteins serve as major downstream effector molecules. Upon ligand-binding, TGF-β or BMP type I/II receptor heterotetramers phosphorylate receptor-regulated SMADs (R-SMADs). TGF-β-receptor binding leads to SMAD2/3 phosphorylation, whereas BMP-receptor binding induces phosphorylation of SMADs 1/5/8. Phosphorylated SMADs (pSMADs) then form a complex with the co-SMAD SMAD4 at which point they undergo nuclear translocation, where they function as transcriptional modulators of target genes. The magnitude of SMAD phosphorylation and functional output (e.g., stimulated angiogenesis or attenuated cell proliferation) depends on both the ligand concentration, as well as the duration of exposure. In this study, we quantitatively evaluate the phosphorylation states of R-SMADs, as well as their downstream biological effects at three different biological scales: 1) biochemical, 2) cellular, and 3) tissue/3D models. At the biochemical level, the temporal and dose-dependent phosphorylation of R-SMADs in response to growth factor stimulation can be quantified using a quantitative ELISA approach. Growth factor stimulation can be quantified at the cellular level by high content imaging of SMAD phosphorylation and nuclear translocation, while simultaneously monitoring cell proliferation rates. Lastly, high-resolution confocal imaging can be employed to observe developmental consequences of phospho-SMAD signaling using a HUVEC-based 3D angiogenesis model system.
 For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
 Citation Format: Ernest Heimsath, Lisa Arvidson, Reginaldo Prioli, Antony Wood. A multi-scale approach to quantitatively evaluate the SMAD signaling pathway. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 3656.


This paper describes a method for the determination of in situ horizontal stresses of heavily overconsolidated sands using a stress-path triaxial apparatus. This method was proposed by Garga and Khan (1991), who applied it to overconsolidated clays. The proposed method is based on the concept that if the radial stress exceeds the in situ horizontal stress while maintaining the axial stress constant and equal to the in situ vertical effective stress, only then will the specimen experience significant axial strain. In this investigation, the above method was applied to specimens of known stress histories of overconsolidated sand. Simulation of complex stress histories was carried out by subjecting the soil specimens to one and two cycles of loading in drained conditions (rate of loading or unloading: 0.05 kPa/min). It was found that the proposed method replicated the simulated in situ horizontal stress exactly. The technique is capable of estimating K0 irrespective of the previously imposed stress history.


Although using a multi-stage rotor of Savonius vertical-axis wind turbine enhances the self-starting ability, it reduces the power coefficient. To improve power coefficient, the influence of varying the stage aspect ratio is investigated. Therefore, two-, three-, and four-stage Savonius rotors at stage aspect ratios ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 with increments of 0.25 are considered. To determine performance parameters such as coefficients of torque, power, and thrust, a comprehensive three-dimensional unsteady incompressible turbulent flow model using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations along with a k–ω shear stress transport turbulence model is developed. The developed numerical model is validated utilizing the available experimental results. Moreover, a novel assessment technique relying on flow field characteristics such as pressure distribution in conjunction with streamlines around the proposed multi-stage Savonius rotor with various stage aspect ratios is carried out. The contribution of each stage on the performance of the whole rotor is computed and presented. The findings of the current study illustrate that utilizing a multi-stage rotor with stage aspect ratio equal to or greater than 1.0 significantly enhances the output power. By rising the stage aspect ratio within the range of 0.5–1.5, the peak coefficient of power boosts from 0.163 to 0.213 for a two-stage rotor and from 0.183 to 0.23 for a four-stage rotor. In addition, three-stage rotors with stage aspect ratio ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 show increased average static coefficient of torque from 0.196 to 0.272 with positive values at whole rotation angles. This improves the self-starting abilities of the multi-stage rotor and makes it suitable in areas where the wind is intermittent and very low. Furthermore, raising the stage aspect ratio from 0.5 to 1.5 significantly mitigates the oscillations of both torque and thrust coefficients throughout the entire cycle for all multi-stages. This lowers the mechanical vibrations and noise emission during operation conditions. Accordingly, multi-stage Savonius rotors with stage aspect ratio equal to or greater than 1.0 are highly recommended for practical applications.


Empirical studies on minimum wages are primarily concerned with employment while their effects on income inequality receive less attention. Yet, a popular argument for a federal minimum wage in Germany is that it will prevent in-work poverty and reduce income inequality. We examine this assertion for different minimum wage levels on the basis of a microsimulation model that accounts for the interactions between wages, the tax-benefit system and net incomes at the household level. The methodological approach of an earlier study is extended by incorporating behavioral adjustments at different margins (labor supply and demand, consumption) for the first time into a microsimulation framework at the household level. We use data from the SOEP, the IABS, and the Continuous Household Budget Survey. We show that even a high federal minimum wage will only have a minor impact on inequality among households with at least one minimum-wage worker. Low wage earners are not not concentrated in the lower parts but rather scattered over the income distribution. Wage increases often substitute welfare transfers and are subject to high marginal tax rates. A decline in labor demand could diminish the gains in net incomes up to 50% and higher product prices further reduce these gains even after consumption adjusts. Although it might decrease wage inequality substantially, the distributive impact of a minimum wage on disposable incomes is thus very limited.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it investigates whether and to what extent "linguistic hedging", an impression management form of linguistic expression that conveys an ambiguous level of commitment, is used in corporate social responsibility (CSR) employment narratives; and second, it explores whether there is any difference in the use of linguistic hedging between written and spoken corporate forms of language. It mobilises these objectives by examining employee-related narratives made by electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers domiciled in Taiwan, in the context of labour malpractice incidents.

Design/methodology/approach
Two groups of data are examined: corporate responsibility reports (written language) and interviews and speeches of corporate founders and senior executives (spoken language). The research sample is ten Taiwanese EMS firms, all of which attracted public criticism and scrutiny due to a series of employee-related incidents. The sample period is between 2009 and 2013. Linguistic hedging is measured quantitatively by the relative word frequency of hedges, using the concordance software ANTCONC, with findings interpreted through the lens of legitimacy theory and impression management.

Findings
The study found that hedging was evident in CSR narratives. The EMS providers in Taiwan appeared to use hedging in employee-related disclosures to manage legitimacy challenges due to employee-related incidents that had happened in their assembly plants. The adjustments in employee-related disclosures made by the EMS firms as a legitimation strategy can be seen as a rhetoric device of impression management or a form of symbolic legitimation to persuade society to restore their legitimacy status. Further, overall hedging was more frequently used in spoken than written language, which suggests that rhetorical hedging in written narratives is more likely to be a deliberate choice of tactics to influence stakeholder perceptions and thereby manage corporate legitimacy.

Originality/value
The study introduces a new analytical technique, linguistic hedging, into the CSR literature. This enriches research methods used in this field, providing more compelling insights into the relationship between the use of language and CSR narratives in the process of corporate legitimation of employee-related practices. This study thus provides a platform for future computational-linguistics studies in the field of CSR.


Eighteen red‐bellied tamarins (Saguinus labiatus), experimentally infected with hepatitis A virus (HAV), were followed for up to 1.5 years after initial challenge. Half of these animals developed protracted alanine aminotransferase (ALT) abnormalities, which lasted for between 23 and 55 weeks post‐challenge. IgM anti‐HAV was detected intermittently during the early phase of their relapsing hepatitis and never after return of ALT levels to normal. The possibility that these findings may be related to continued HAV replication, coinfection with another agent, or the result of an autoimmune phenomenon triggered by HAV are discussed.


It is noted that the past three decades have seen significant changes in the types of materials used for electrical insulation. These changes were brought about by the realization that some of the previously used materials were detrimental to the environment and to the people who came in contact with them. The use of polychlorinated biphenyls was prohibited, and replacement materials had to be developed. Paper was replaced to a large extent by polymer film, and paraffinic oils were finally used as replacement for oils derived from naphthene. At the same time progress was made in the understanding of the nature of electrical charges and how they move through dielectric fluids under the influence of externally applied electrical fields. The impact of these developments on the field of liquid insulating materials is discussed. Attention is also given to the information obtained with the latest ultra-high-speed electrooptical equipment. The generation and propagation of charge carriers are examined in detail, and their relation to electrical breakdown is analyzed. A brief survey of the special instruments used in these studies is presented, and the advantages and disadvantages of the various measuring techniques are discussed. >


Within both the South African and Belgian contexts whiteness manifests as one aspect of national identity and remains (to differing degrees) a normative construction. This article presents the findings of a controlled case comparison of a sample from two community soap operas, 7de Laan and Thuis , broadcast by the South African (SABC) and Flemish (VRT) Public Service Broadcasters respectively, from the perspective of critical whiteness studies. I contend that whiteness functions as an organising principle in the narratives of both soap operas. The goal of this comparative analysis was an investigation into the ways in which whiteness is constructed and positioned in these texts and the implications this has for the politics of belonging. Despite several similarities between the two contexts, they differ significantly, and this created an opportunity to highlight both the consistencies and particularities in the ideological patterning of representations of whiteness, across seemingly unrelated domains, to illustrate its pervasiveness. Notwithstanding their disparate origins, the analysis revealed three rhetorical devices which function to maintain whiteness as hegemonic ideology in both texts. Keywords:  7de Laan , critical whiteness studies, community soap opera. controlled case comparison, politics of belonging, Thuis , whiteness


In this paper, we address the problem of active query selection for clustering with constraints. The objective is to determine automatically a set of queries and their associated must-link and can-not link constraints to help constraints based clustering algorithms to converge. Some works on active constraints learning have already been proposed but they are only applied to K-Means like clustering algorithms which are known to be limited to spherical clusters while we are interested in constraints-based clustering algorithms that deals with clusters of arbitrary shapes and sizes (like Constrained-DBSCAN, Constrained-Hierarchical Clustering. . . ). Our novel approach relies on a k-nearest neighbors graph to estimate the dense regions of the data space and generates queries at the frontier between clusters where the cluster membership is most uncertain. Experiments show that our framework improves the performance of constraints based clustering algorithms.


The percentage of women engineering graduates in Israel has increased fourfold during the last two decades, but only a small percentage of Israeli women opt for these fields. We account for the current trend by a general theory of patterned deviance, viewing the recent increase of women's studying for engineering degrees as a case of nonconformity with a traditional norm. A simulation model of that theory reproduced 85.8% of the variance in the data on women engineering graduates between 1966 and 1987, indicating that the theory applies also in this case. The simulations show that it is becoming increasingly legitimate for women to study engineering and informal social control keeping women from enrolling in engineering has almost disappeared, but the internalized sex- stereotype still deters many women from taking such courses.


In this paper we propose a novel neural approach for automatic decipherment of lost languages. To compensate for the lack of strong supervision signal, our model design is informed by patterns in language change documented in historical linguistics. The model utilizes an expressive sequence-to-sequence model to capture character-level correspondences between cognates. To effectively train the model in unsupervised manner, we innovate the training procedure by formalizing it as a minimum-cost flow problem. When applied to decipherment of Ugaritic, we achieve 5% absolute improvement over state-of-the-art results. We also report first automatic results in deciphering Linear B, a syllabic language related to ancient Greek, where our model correctly translates 67.3% of cognates.


Data from aerial surveys primarily designed to estimate the numbers of red kangaroos, Megaleia rufa (Desmarest), on about 4000 square miles of central Australia have been used to define the animals' distribution about sources of persistent food and water, both during severe drought and 6 months later after good rains had fallen. During the drought, 67.4% of kangaroos were sheltering in woodlands within 1/3 mile of open plains and water-courses (where food persisted), and only 17.4% were further than 1 mile away. After the rains, only 29.5% were within 1/3 mile of these drought refuges; 51.8 % were further than 1 mile away, but only 6% were beyond 6 miles out, i.e. beyond the mulga woodlands. Kangaroos were densest (seven-eight per square mile) during drought on land 2-4 miles out from bores and dams and within 2/3 mile of open plains because at that distance grasses on the plains respond to the grazing of cattle by sprouting green shoots which kangaroos prefer. Kangaroos drank at the bores and dams only during severe drought and may, therefore, get sufficient water from their food at most times. It is concluded that the kangaroos' distribution and changes in it are controlled primarily by their search for green herbage and shady trees.


Background: Oropharyngeal candidiasis is the most frequent fungal infection in HIV patients. The aims of this study were to appraise prevalence of oropharyngeal candidiasis and to determine factors associated with oropharyngeal candidiasis and oral yeast colonization among Iranian HIV patients. Methods: The patients were composed 150 Iranian HIV positive individuals referred to Iranian Research Center for HIV & Aids (IRCHA) Imam Khomeini Hospital complex in Tehran Iran. Oral samples were obtained and cultured on mycological media. TCD(4) lymphocyte count/percentage was measured and patients were categorized. Patients evaluated for some risk factors for oropharyngeal candidiasis and oral candida colonization. Results: Fifty nine percent of patients were presented with oropharyngeal candidiasis and the carriage rate of yeasts was 116 (77.2%). The most frequent isolated candida species were Candida albicans (102) 50.2% and Candida glabrata (45) 22%. Thrush in 57(38%) perleche in 30(20%) and erythematous lesions in 7(4.7%) of patients were observed. Significant differences in TCD(4) count (p=0.01) gender (p=0.02) antifungal therapy (p=0.001) smoking (p=0.02) and intravenous drug use (p=0.03) between asymptomatic and symptomatic patients were observed. Conclusion: Oral candidiasis is a frequent complication among Iranian HIV individuals. C. albicans and C. glabrata are most important etiologic agents of oral candidiasis. In Iranian HIV individuals; TCD(4) count antifungal therapy gender smoking and intravenous drug use are important risk factors for oropharyngeal candidiasis. Denture wearing and age are predisposing factors for oral colonization.


This study used ex-post facto and correlation survey to investigate the influence of home environment on academic performance of senior secondary students in Adamawa State. The population of the study consisted of 8,548 students in class 2 in 2012/13 to 2013/14 academic sessions. A total sample of 900 students was drawn from the population using multi-stage random sampling technique to respond to the instrument for data collection for the study. The instrument was a 40 item researcher designed questionnaire titled Home Environment Factors and Students' Academic Achievement Test in Agricultural Science (HEFSAATAS) consisting of two sections A and B. Inferential statistics z-test and Correlation analysis were used to analyse and interpret the data. The results showed that parental educational qualification (r = 0.73), occupation (r = 0.71) and home location (r = 0.73) were highly correlated with students' academic performance while parental economic status (income and affluence) have moderate correlation (r – 0.60) but all the independent variables have significant influence on students' performances in Agricultural Science at the secondary school. It was recommended that parents and other significant persons should make students' homes conducive and stimulatory to learning not only the school subjects but education in general.


Path planning is innately viewed as a multi-objective optimization problem (MOOP) of the shortest path and the smallest distance to collision-free obstacles. The position of the mobile robot is definitively identified based on data derived from constructing maps with SLAM or extracting data from camera frames. Due to the complexity of the surroundings, obstacle avoidance still requires a complex sensor system with a high processing efficiency demand. The study provides an improved RRT* algorithm for mobile robot path planning in a given environment. RRT* will optimize the number of grid nodes based on the optimal cost functions of nodes in the searching environment. The improved RRT* algorithm with a safety cost increases the efficacy of obstacle avoidance. Hence, an improved RRT* algorithm based on the traditional RRT algorithm will remove redundant path nodes. Furthermore, the third-degree B-spline curve will smooth the path while ensuring MOOPs. Last but not least, simulations and experiments are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested strategy.


In addition to their LDL-cholesterol-lowering effect, statins have pleiotropic beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system. However, long-term treatment with statins may be associated with serious side effects. With the aim to make statin therapy more effective, we studied the effects of simvastatin- and coenzyme-Q10-loaded polymeric nanoparticles on the lipid profile and nitric oxide (NO)/reactive oxygen species (ROS) balance in the heart and aorta of adult male obese Zucker rats. The rats were divided into an untreated group, a group treated with empty nanoparticles, and groups treated with simvastatin-, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)-, or a combination of simvastatin- and CoQ10-loaded nanoparticles (SIMV+CoQ10). After 6 weeks, the lipid profile in the plasma and the concentration of conjugated dienes in the liver were determined. Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity, Akt, endothelial NOS (eNOS), phosphorylated eNOS (p-eNOS), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase, and nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) protein expressions were measured in the heart and aorta. All simvastatin, CoQ10, and SIMV+CoQ10 treatments decreased plasma LDL levels, but only the combined SIMV+CoQ10 treatment increased NOS activity and the expression of Akt, eNOS, and p-eNOS in both the heart and the aorta. Interestingly, NADPH oxidase in the heart and NF-kappaB protein expression in the aorta were decreased by all treatments, including nanoparticles alone. In conclusion, only combined therapy with SIMV- and CoQ10-loaded nanoparticles increased NOS activity and upregulated the Akt-eNOS pathway in obese Zucker rats, which may represent a promising tool for the treatment of cardiometabolic diseases.


The question posed in the title of this article is: "Congenital Heart Surgery Databases Around the World: Do We Need a Global Database?" The answer to this question is "Yes and No"! Yes--we need to create a global database to track the outcomes of patients with pediatric and congenital heart disease. No--we do not need to create a new "global database." Instead, we need to create a platform that allows for the linkage of currently existing continental subspecialty databases (and continental subspecialty databases that might be created in the future) that will allow for the seamless sharing of multi-institutional longitudinal data across temporal, geographical, and subspecialty boundaries. This review article will achieve the following objectives: (A) Consider the current state of analysis of outcomes of treatments for patients with congenitally malformed hearts. (B) Present some principles that might make it possible to achieve life-long longitudinal monitoring and follow-up. (C) Describe the rationale for the creation of a Global Federated Multispecialty Congenital Heart Disease Database. (D) Propose a methodology for the creation of a Global Federated Multispecialty Congenital Heart Disease Database that is based on linking together currently existing databases without creating a new database. To perform meaningful multi-institutional analyses, any database must incorporate the following six essential elements: (1) Use of a common language and nomenclature. (2) Use of a database with an established uniform core dataset for collection of information. (3) Incorporation of a mechanism to evaluate the complexity of cases. (4) Implementation of a mechanism to assure and verify the completeness and accuracy of the data collected. (5) Collaboration between medical and surgical subspecialties. (6) Standardization of protocols for life-long longitudinal follow-up. Analysis of outcomes must move beyond recording 30-day or hospital mortality, and encompass longer-term follow-up, including cardiac and non-cardiac morbidities, and importantly, those morbidities impacting health-related quality of life. Methodologies must be implemented in our databases to allow uniform, protocol-driven, and meaningful long-term follow-up. We need to create a platform that allows for the linkage of currently existing continental subspecialty databases (and continental subspecialty databases that might be created in the future) that will allow for the seamless sharing of multi-institutional longitudinal data across temporal, geographical, and subspecialty boundaries. This "Global Federated Multispecialty Congenital Heart Disease Database" will not be a new database, but will be a platform that effortlessly links multiple databases and maintains the integrity of these extant databases. Description of outcomes requires true multi-disciplinary involvement, and should include surgeons, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, intensivists, perfusionists, neurologists, educators, primary care physicians, nurses, and physical therapists. Outcomes should determine primary therapy, and as such must be monitored life-long. The relatively small numbers of patients with congenitally malformed hearts requires multi-institutional cooperation to accomplish these goals. The creation of a Global Federated Multispecialty Congenital Heart Disease Database that links extant databases from pediatric cardiology, pediatric cardiac surgery, pediatric cardiac anesthesia, and pediatric critical care will create a platform for improving patient care, research, and teaching related to patients with congenital and pediatric cardiac disease.


Acute lower respiratory tract infection is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children under five years of age in developing countries. Although several investigations have been carried out in Africa and countries bordering Southern Sudan on risk factors for acute lower respiratory tract infections, no such studies have been carried out in Southern Sudan. This study sought to identify modifiable risk factors for ALRTI among children less than five years in Sabbah Children's Hospital in Juba, Southern Sudan.A case-control study was conducted between June 2008 and January 2009. Fifty four (54) cases of ALRTI fulfilling WHO criteria for bronchiolitis and pneumonia aged one month to five years and admitted in paediatrics wards in Sabbah Children's Hospital in Juba were identified. Another fifty four (54) children in the same age group admitted in the same wards with different conditions other than respiratory conditions were also identified as controls. A structured questionnaire was administered to the parent or caregiver. Data was collected on sociodemographic, nutritional and household environmental risk factors and was entered in the computer using Epi Info version 3.3.2.The mean age for cases was 19.8 months and 20.5 months for the controls. The sex distribution of the children was 57.4% (31/54) males and 42.6% (23/54) females among the cases and 53.7% (29/54) males and 46.3% (25/54) females among the controls. The mean age for mothers and caregivers was 25.5 years for the cases and 24.8 years for the controls. Majority of caregivers of cases and controls were 88.9% (48/54) and 94.4% (51/54) females and the remainder were 11.1% (6/54) and 5.6% (3/54) males respectively.Both parents and caregivers for cases and controls had similar levels of illiteracy (51.9% vs 46.3. %); p-value> 0.05. Overcrowding was associated with incidence of ALRTI but theassociation was marginal (79.6% vs 90.7%); p-value> 0.05. Income of the parents was not significantly associated with ALRTI. Most parents in both cases and controls had income lower than 200 Sudanese Pounds (100 USD) (88.9% vs 85.2%); p-value> 0.05. Among the nutritional variables compared between cases and controls, early weaning before six months of age was not significantly associated with ALRTI (11.1% vs 22.2%); p-value> 0.05. Malnutrition was present in 40.7% of cases as compared to 46.3% of controls and was not significantly associated with ALRTI, p-value> 0.05. Anaemia was present in 90.7% of cases as compared to 72.2% of controls and was significantly associated with ALRTI, p-value 0.05. Only 5.6% households for cases did not have windows as compared to 9.3% for controls. House ventilation and ALRTI were not statistically significant, p-value> 0.05. In lighting the houses, 85.2% of cases used wood or kerosene lamps as the source of lighting compared to 79.6% controls which was not significantly associated with ALRTI, p-value> 0.05. Majority of houses, 82.4% (89/108) for both cases and controls used firewood or kerosene lamps for lighting and cooking. Cooking fuel other than liquid petroleum gas was not associated with ALRTI, 85.2% (46/54) of cases used wood compared to 72.2% (39/54) for the controls, p-value> 0.05.Family history of smoking was noted in 68.5% of cases as compared to 66.7% for controls, however, this was not statistically significant, p-value> 0.05.The results of data on socio-demographic, other nutritional and household environmental factors were not statistically significant association with ALRTI for children under five years of age. Only severe anaemia had a significant association with ALRTI. Further studies arenecessary to confirm the relationships of these variables with acute lower respiratory infections. However, efforts to improve living conditions, decrease poverty and promote community health may still have important health benefits for the children of Southern Sudan.


In terms of size of territory and population, Poland and Romania are the largest former socialist countries, now, members of the European Union. In the last 25 years of transition to a market economy, Poland has excellent managed its natural potential and is, now, an economic model for other former socialist countries, including Romania. Poland has not experienced economic recession; its positive economic evolution was completely different from the evolution of the largest European economies, many of them facing distressful situations for long periods of time. The question to be addressed in this paper is: "How could we explain the present success of Polish agriculture? Could the present economic realities be partially influenced by the historical evolution of a country? " In an attempt to provide an answer to this question, the present paper will highlight the economic developments in Romania and Poland in relation to developed countries for the last about 100 years in terms of "path dependency theory" and will conduct a comparative analysis between the two countries.


The diagnosis of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children with a high intellectual quotient (IQ) and/or giftedness is controversial with many opinions existing on both sides of the debate. Relationships between IQ and cognitive vulnerabilities frequently described in the ADHD population vary in strength. Data asserting the validity of ADHD in the high IQ/giftedness population are discussed with comparisons made to average IQ ADHD. Educational implications of having ADHD in thecontext of a high IQ/giftedness are presented.


We have studied the early stages of annealing in boron implanted silicon. In a grazing incidence diffuse scattering investigation of implantation-induced defects, we have observed narrow diffuse rods of intensity along 〈111〉 directions. These diffuse streaks arise from stacking faults formed during annealing in the 1000 °C range. From the width of the diffuse streak the average size of the stacking fault is 71 nm in diameter. These intensity rods are distinct from the point defect or point defect cluster scattering in the tails of the Bragg peak (Huang scattering). From the q dependence of the scattered intensity in the Huang scattering region we find clear evidence for defect clusters with an average effective size of 4 nm, remarkably independent of the annealing temperature. These observations are discussed in the context of the enhanced diffusion of implanted boron over its bulk value referred to as transient enhanced diffusion.


ABSTRACT
 The financial crisis that hit the Eurozone in 2010 drove a number of its members request assistance from their EU partners. The reaction to these requests at the European level came in coordination with the IMF, but not necessarily in a uniform manner. This article compares the adjustment programmes of Ireland and Cyprus. Despite their similarity on the independent variable (local economic conditions), the design of the Irish and Cypriot programmes (the dependent variable) differed fundamentally, not least because of the introduction of the bail-in clause in Cyprus, involving direct loses for depositors. This article seeks to explain how this key policy departure came to be and what were the conditions that made its introduction possible by examining the temporal evolution of the crisis response and focusing in particular on four explanatory themes: (i) time as a negotiating (dis)advantage; (ii) time as a platform for policy learning; (iii) time as a justifier of past policy choices (path dependency) and (iv) time as a signifier of future policy choices (path setting).


Throughout our research we have made potassium-humate from brown coal of Dudar. With potassiumhumate and copper(II)-sulfate we made test sheets of linter cellulose fibers. The surface energy, surface wettability, CIE Lab color-coordinates changing, bending resistance and tensile strength of the produced test sheets has been examined. There was no big difference in the different samples during surface energy and wettability testing. Examination of mechanical properties suggests that potassium-humate content increases bending resistance of the test sheets. The bending resistance of samples increased by 32%, 100% and 336% compared to the control test sheets while adding potassium-humate.


Resistin is a recently discovered hormone that is exclusively expressed in adipose tissue. Its expression in rodents was reported to be elevated or suppressed in genetic and diet-induced obesity, respectively. Resistin treatment impaired glucose tolerance and insulin action. Immunoneutralization of resistin improved insulin sensitivity, while thiazolidinedione treatment reduced resistin expression. Therefore, resistin could play a critical role in the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes. In this study were determined resistin plasma levels in humans suffering from type 1 and type 2 diabetes and in healthy controls. Plasma levels of resistin in healthy controls were 38.78 ng/ml. They were not statistically different in individuals with a broad BMI range. Resistin plasma levels in type 2 diabetes were 38.7 ng/ml, and 39.4 ng/ml in type 1 diabetes. Thiazolidinedione treatment did not influence resistin plasma levels. We conclude from our data: 1. resistin can be detected in human plasma, 2. plasma resistin levels are not different in type 1 and type 2 diabetes.


The constant migratory phenomena and the displacement of part of the world's population from the countryside to the city are bringing great part of the agricultural workforce in the big cities, changing their work sector from agriculture to industry. In this context, theorists and promoters of urban farming have seen in this industry a powerful tool to find spaces suitable for cultivation within the urban fabric, while promoting a new green development of the city. Resuming the fascination of mega-structures proposed in the second half of the twentieth century, in the gap between utopia and dystopia, this essay investigates models and solutions for the integration of agricultural production systems within above-ground architectures, designed to meet the demand for new living spaces in future ultra-populated cities, as a possible response to the soil impoverishment that made it difficult to implement traditional farming systems in and around urban areas.


The noncommutative dipole QED is studied in detail for the matter fields in the adjoint representation. The axial anomaly of this theory is calculated in two and four dimensions using various regularization methods. The Ward–Takahashi identity is proved by making use of a nonperturbative path integral method. The one-loop β-function of the theory is calculated explicitly. It turns out that the value of the β-function depends on the direction of the dipole length L, which defines the noncommutativity. Finally using a semiclassical approximation a nonperturbative definition of the form factors is presented and the anomalous magnetic moment of this theory at one-loop order is computed.