OBJECTIVE
To detect the expression of heparanase (HPA) in cervical cancer cells and investigate the impact of quercetin on the expression of HPA, and the molecular mechanism that quercetin inhibits the growth of cervical cancer cells.

METHODS
The experimental groups included cervical cancer cell lines (HeLa and Caski) exposed to different concentrations of quercetin (20, 40 and 80 µmol/L) in the culture medium. The control groups included a negative control group, which was cultured with RPMI 1640 only, and a positive control group, in which cervical cancer cells were transfected with HPA small interference RNA (siRNA) to silence HPA expression. The cellular expression levels of HPA were detected with fluorescence quantitative real-time PCR and western blot analysis at 24, 48 and 72 hours after treatment.

RESULTS
(1) HPA was significantly expressed in both cervical cancer cell lines (HeLa and Caski), and it exists both nucleus and cytoplasm. (2) The real-time PCR shows as follows: as the quercetin concentration increased (20, 40 and 80 µmol/L), the mRNA expression level of HPA decreased (P < 0.01), in which the inhibition of HPA expression was concentration dependent. In addition, the inhibition of HPA expression was also time dependent. As time growth, the expression level of HPA mRNA (24, 48 and 72 hours) in HeLa and Caski cells decreased (P < 0.01). Compared with negative control group, the expression level of HPA mRNA decreased in different concentrations of quercetin (40 and 80 µmol/L) in both HeLa and Caski cells (all P < 0.05); Compared with positive control group, the expression level of HPA mRNA expressed no obvious difference in quercetin (80 µmol/L) group (P > 0.05) in HeLa cells, while it was opposite in Caski cells (P < 0.01). (3) The result of western blot shown that, as the quercetin concentration increased (20, 40 and 80 µmol/L) and time growth (24, 48 and 72 hours), the expression level of HPA protein decreased (P < 0.01), and the inhibition of HPA protein expression was concentration and time dependent. Compared with negative control group, the expression level of HPA protein decreased in different concentrations of quercetin (40 and 80 µmol/L) in both HeLa and Caski cells (all P < 0.05); Compared with positive control group, the expression level of HPA protein expressed no obvious difference in quercetin (80 µmol/L) group (all P > 0.05) in both HeLa cells and Caski cells (all P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Quercetin could inhibits the expression of HPA in cervical carcinoma cell lines, which inhibition is concentration and time dependent.


This paper focuses on privacy preservation in classification rule mining. The subject at hand is approached through the proposition of a data perturbation approach for hiding sensitive classification rules in categorical datasets. Such a methodology is absolutely necessary in case the data needs to be published on the web so that it is amply available for public use as opposed to other approaches like output perturbation or cryptographic techniques that restrict the usability of the data in different ways. This methodology is based upon the unique characteristics of sequential covering classification algorithms. It modifies the tuples of sensitive rules of a dataset D in such a way that these are distributed to the "more important" non-sensitive rules. In addition it assures that the tuples belonging to the sensitive rules are assigned to the non-sensitive rules in proportion to their rank in the ruleset. In that way, it is ensured that not only the sensitive rules are hidden but also that the current structure of the ruleset, thus the information value of the dataset, is preserved. Moreover a modification of the basic method which exhibits an alternative distribution procedure is also presented. Finally, a series of experiments are executed in order to evaluate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed approaches against existing similar ones.


Multicarrier communication signals possess distinct characteristics different from narrowband signals often targeted by localization algorithms. Each source occupies a unique set of subcarriers and is practically absent from other subcarriers. Moreover, subcarrier allocation for a source may change over time. In noncooperative geolocation applications, knowledge of the set of subcarriers occupied by a source may not be available. This paper proposes iterative localization algorithms which jointly estimate the locations of the sources in both the spatial and spectral domains. It is assumed that the transmitted signals are intercepted by spatially dispersed subarrays which are asynchronous. This eliminates the need for accurate clock synchronization across the geographically distributed subarrays. The proposed method is based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, and the subcarrier occupancy detection is achieved via the likelihood ratio test within each the EM iteration. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated through simulation for a multi-source localization problem. It is shown that for signal-to-noise ratios of interest, the proposed method achieves a performance close to the algorithm, which is aware of all the subcarrier allocations.


This article addresses the problem of controlling a continuous linear system subject to a continuous perturbation by a series of impulses. The approach follows a H∞ setting based on state feedback. A second observation of the state is further considered to designate state variables for which the system is sensitive to peak values. A constraint is introduced in the form of a maximum admissible initial state to peak value gain. The problem is address using semidefinite programming.


Supplementing a fishmeal-free diet with yeast extract improves rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) growth performance and modulates the hepatic and intestinal transcriptomic response. These effects are often observed in the long term, but are not well documented after short periods of fasting. Fasting for a few days is a common practice in fish farming, especially before handling the fish, such as for short sorting, tank transfers and vaccinations. In the present study, rainbow trout were subjected to a four-day fast and then refed, for eight days, a conventional diet containing fishmeal (control diet) or alternative diets composed of terrestrial animal by-products supplemented or not with a yeast extract. During the refeeding period alone, most of the parameters considered did not differ significantly in response to the different feeds. Only the expression of claudin-15 was upregulated in fish fed the yeast-supplemented diet compared to the control diet. Conversely, fasting followed by refeeding significantly influenced most of the parameters analyzed. In the proximal intestine, the surface area of villi significantly increased and the density of goblet cell tended to decrease during refeeding. Although no distinct plasma immune response or major signs of gut inflammation were observed, some genes involved in the structure, complement pathway, antiviral functions, coagulation and endoplasmic reticulum stress response of the liver and intestine were significantly regulated by refeeding after fasting. These results indicate that short-term fasting, as commonly practiced in fish farming, significantly alters the physiology of the liver and intestine regardless of the composition of the diet.


The authors have analyzed the existing approaches to solve a problem of determining the moment of slag outcome beginning during steel casting from a ladle to a tundish. The solution of this problem is considered in two aspects: the first is the choice of best way to generate a diagnostic signal from the position of the price/quality ratio of its handling, and the second is the development of a method to process this signal in order to obtain useful information. A scheme is proposed to receive a signal of vibration acceleration from a sensor installed on a manipulator of the ladle protective tube. A product sample is developed to arrange that. It provides protection from the influence of industrial disturbances on the sensor. In order to analyze the vibration acceleration signal, the criteria to determine the moment of the slag outcome beginning were determined based on entropy energy calculation. This method and a system developed on its basis are tested under industrial conditions for a real object. The only condition for effective operation of the developed criteria is selection of the subsystem of steel level maintenance at final casting step to the manual mode to eliminate the disturbances from the movement of the slide shutter used to control the flow of liquid steel. According to the results of experiments under real conditions, it was found that the slide shutter control shutdown is to be performed if weight of the ladle content is from 18 to 19 tons approximately. In this mode of operation, the operator has always been able to found such a rate of steel discharge that the level of steel in the tundish is within the technological requirements. As a result, it is possible to ensure the proposed algorithm triggering for each casting earlier than the operator stops the process manually. At the same time, the amount of steel with slag left in ladle does not exceed 3.8 tons comparing to the moment of the slag cut-off made by the operator.


We describe the organization of the complex, interspersed 724 family of DNA sequences that is distributed in multiple copies about the pericentromeric region of human acrocentric chromosomes. 724 family members were isolated using an efficient recombination-based assay for nucleotide sequence homology to screen a human genomic library. Eight related but distinct 724 family members were isolated that hybridized to a total of 20 different human-genomic EcoRI DNA fragments spanning 100,000 base pairs. In contrast with tandemly clustered satellite and ribosomal DNA sequences also located on the short arms of human acrocentric chromosomes, 724 family members are interspersed. No evidence for local interspersion or homology between 724 family members and ribosomal or satellite DNA sequences was found. Juxtaposition of the complex 724 family to the nucleolus organizer region was a recent event in primate evolution. The unique organization of 724 family members on each of the five human acrocentric chromosomes indicates that the 724 family continues to evolve within the human karyotype.


OBJECTIVE
To know the chronic complications affecting a type-2 diabetic population in a health center, and to analyze the relationship between these complications and risk factors.

DESIGN
Transversal study.

SETTING
Puerto de Santa Maria-Norte Health Center, Cadiz, Spain.

PATIENTS
Type-2 diabetic population (n = 504) included in the diabetes program of the center, aged over 12 years old, of both sexes.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
The prevalence of type 2 diabetes recorded was 2.3%. Average age of the population was 63.9 years (SD 10.6), women representing 57.9% of total. Average length of evolution of the disease was 8.6 years (SD 11.4). 17.1% of patients were receiving insulin therapy, 65.4% were receiving oral antidiabetics, and 17.5% were on special diet. The most important risk factors found were: family history of diabetes (54.6%), obesity (51.2%), sedentary life style (41.1%), and hypertension (47.2%). Chronic complications affected 67.8% of the diabetic patients attending the center; predominant complications were peripheral vascular disease (31.7%), retinopathy (30.6%), ischemic heart disease (21.2%), cerebrovascular accident (10.7%), neuropathy (8.9%) and nephropathy (6.2%). The risk factors most associated with macrovascular complications were: length of evolution, smoking and age of diagnostic and hypertriglyceridemia. For the microvascular complications were: HbA1c, length of evolution and age.

CONCLUSIONS
We found a significative prevalence of complications in spite of the average length of disease evolution time in the population not being very high. However the risk factors strongest associated with the existence of chronic complications are susceptible to be modified with a better metabolic control of the patients.


The paper presents an evolutionary approach for 3D superresolution (SR) imagery combining the CLEAN method and an optimization procedure based on genetic algorithms (GA). Actually, this is an extension of some previously published research works on evolutionary programming (EP) based CLEAN method in 1D and 2D cases. Measured data results obtained using GA-based CLEAN-1D and CLEAN-2D are first provided in the paper. A gap is thus filled since previous works use only synthetic generated ISAR data. For the 3D case, the main idea is still to consider the reconstruction process as an optimization problem related to the residual energy of the acquired data after each scattering center (SC) extraction and cancellation. However, a new spatial dimension is added. The proposed solution takes advantage of some powerful convergence properties of GA and provides good performance in terms of both accuracy and robustness.


Shell model calculations are done to study the structure of neutron-rich carbon isotopes. For both even-A and odd-A neutron-rich carbon isotopes, the energy levels are strongly affected by the configuration mixing of valence neutrons. The calculated energy levels in the nucleus 17C are significantly improved compared with experimental values when the model space of the three valence neutrons is enlarged from pure v(0d5/2)3 configuration to full sd space. We also investigate the configuration mixing effect on the B(E2) values in even-even nuclei 16-20C.


Continuous scaling of CMOS technology makes it possible to integrate a large number of heterogeneous devices that need to communicate efficiently on a single chip. For this efficient routers are needed to takes place communication between these devices. This paper gives the design of on-chip routers based on optimizing power consumption and chip area. Proposed architecture of on-chip router in this paper give the results in which power consumption is reduced and silicon area is also minimize.


We investigate the long-time behavior of the Glauber dynamics for the random energy model below the critical temperature. We give very precise estimates on the motion of the process to and between the states of extremal energies. We show that when disregarding time, the consecutive steps of the process on these states are governed by a Markov chain that jumps uniformly on all possible states. The mean times of these jumps are also computed very precisely and are seen to be asymptotically independent of the terminal point. A first indicator of aging is the observation that the mean time of arrival in the set of states that have waiting times of order T is itself of order T . The estimates proven in this paper will furnish crucial input for a follow-up paper where aging is analysed in full detail.


The integral analysis of the available information concerning the role of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) in the differentiation, development, and functioning of the reproductive system allows to make the following conclusion. The germ cells predetermine AMH biosynthesis from beginning to end of functioning of the reproductive system. The onset of germ cell meiosis restricts biosyhthesis of anti-Mullerian hormone that is maintained at a constant level throughout the rest of the period of reproductive maturity. AMH biosynthesis becomes arrested with the decrease of gametogenesis.


Abstract. The stationarity of a texture can be considered a fundamental property of images, although the property of stationarity is difficult to define precisely. We propose a stationarity test based on multiscale, locally stationary, 2D wavelets. Three separate experiments were performed to evaluate the capabilities and the limitations of this test. The experiments comprised a chessboard stationarity analysis, two classification tasks, and a psychophysical experiment. The classification tasks were performed on 110 texture images from a texture database. In one subtask, five texture feature vectors were extracted from each image and the classification accuracy of two classical methods compared, whereas in the second subtask, the classification accuracy of several methods was compared to the descriptors defined for each image within the database. In the psychophysical experiment, the correlation between the classification results and observer judgements of texture similarity were determined. It was found that a combination of wavelet shrinkage and rotation-invariant local binary pattern best predicted the observer response. The results show that the proposed stationarity test is able to provide relevant information for texture analysis.


The effects of mercury exposure are determined by: (a) chemical form, (b) route of exposure, (c) dose, and (d) patient factors. Patient factors include age, genetics, environmental aspects, and nutritional status, and are responsible for different individual responses to similar doses. When blood and urine are collected to evaluate exposure, the results are influenced by (a) specimen collection, (b) analysis, and (c) the time elapsed from exposure. Interpretation is influenced by the patient's symptoms and is facilitated by comparison to published reports. The ranges reported in the literature are broad, with elevations as high as 16,000 microg/L in blood and 11,000 microg/L in urine. Interpretation is relatively straightforward when the results are massively elevated, but becomes increasingly difficult as concentrations approach the population norms (blood and urine mercury < 10-20 microg/L). Interpretation can be aided by biological markers (eg, urine porphyrins, beta2-microglobulin, and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase).


An optimal control problem for the linear wave equation with control cost chosen as the BV semi-norm in time is analyzed. This formulation enhances piecewise constant optimal controls and penalizes the number of jumps. Existence of optimal solutions and necessary optimality conditions are derived. With numerical realisation in mind, the regularization by \begin{document}$ H^1 $\end{document} functionals is investigated, and the asymptotic behavior as this regularization tends to zero is analyzed. For the \begin{document}$ H^1- $\end{document} regularized problems the semi-smooth Newton algorithm can be used to solve the first order optimality conditions with super-linear convergence rate. Examples are constructed which show that the distributional derivative of an optimal control can be a mix of absolutely continuous measures with respect to the Lebesgue measure, a countable linear combination of Dirac measures, and Cantor measures. Numerical results illustrate and support the analytical results.


To reduce the incidence of thermal fault in oil filled equipment, this paper developed a thermal fault simulator device of oil filled equipment, such as transformer. The simulator is mainly consist of heating element-fault source, airtight enclosure, temperature control module, temperature measurement module, gas measurement module, and power measuring module. It can ensure the precision of temperature control through voltage regulation power, realize the all-round real-time measurement of temperature through temperature sensor with many roads, and achieve energy measurement through the power of control. The fault simulation experiments were also done by using the experimental device. The results show that the thermal fault simulation device simulates the development of thermal faults in oil-filled equipment correctly. It provides a basic experimental platform for further research on the pyrolysis phenomena and pyrolysis mechanism of mineral insulating oils under transformer thermal faults.


Crystals of the 1 : 1 adduct of silver nitrate with the novel sesquiterpene germacratriene, C15H24AgNO3, are monoclinic, space group P21/c, with a= 7·530, b= 10·010, c= 20·905 A, β= 102·1°, and Z= 4. The crystal structure has been elucidated by a three-dimensional X-ray study, based on 1198 independent reflection intensities visually estimated from Weissenberg photographs, with the silver ion as the phase-determining heavy-atom. Positional and isotropic thermal parameters have been refined by full-matrix least-squares methods to a final R of 0·097. The all-trans stereochemistry has been confirmed for germacratriene. Each silver ion complexes to two double bonds in different molecules forming chains parallel to a, and these are cross-linked by chains of Ag+ and NO3–ions parallel to b. The differences in reactivity of the ethylenic bonds are explicable in terms of their torsional strain. The interaction between germacratriene and the ionic layers, and the co-ordination of the Ag+ ion, are also discussed.


The authors reviewed the problems of vascular injuries with fractures in the nearness of joints. They have pointed out the period from injuries to the operations. Particularly they accentuated importance of team work between bone and vascular surgeons. The paper emphasied the evaluation of the possibility and develop to the good and complete functional restitution of the extremity.


The recently discovered social parasite Acromyrmex insinuator ( Schultz, Bekkevold & Boomsma 1998 ) exploits colonies of the leafcutter ant A. echinatior. We document that A. insinuator represents a rare early stage in the evolution of social parasitism, because a worker caste is still partially present and mating phenology has remained at least partially similar to that of the host. A. insinuator is tolerant of host queens, and sexual offspring produced in parasitized colonies can be either exclusively A. insinuator or a mix of A. insinuator and A. echinatior. The remarkably high abundance of A. insinuator in nests of the investigated Panamanian host population and the fact that A. insinuator colonies readily reproduce under laboratory conditions allowed us to test evolutionary predictions on reproductive life history evolution that are not possible in most other socially parasitic ants. We show that (1) A. insinuator has a semelparous 'big bang' reproductive life history which exploits host colonies without leaving reserves for survival; (2) social parasite sexuals are significantly smaller than A. echinatior host sexuals, but still large compared to host workers, confirming an evolutionary scenario of gradual size reduction and loss of the worker caste after transition towards a socially parasitic life history; (3) major changes in the life history of ants can evolve relatively quickly compared to adaptations in morphology, caste differentiation and mating phenology.


Background The Donation Improvement Program(DIP) of KODA has been done to increase organ donation at each hospital. Increasing numbers of reporting potential donor between 2015 and 2016 were 2.57/per DIP hospital and 0.15/per non DIP hospital. We want to review the changes in the program each step of donation program and implement them for future development of DIP. Methods In order to evaluate the effectiveness of DIP in each hospital, we analyzed the results of medical record review(MRR) which were conducted at 6 months before agreement of DIP, 6 months and 1-year interval after agreement. MRR were done in total 34,814 cases between 1st Jan 2012 to 30th June 2017 about detect recognition, approach and donation rate of each center. Hospital Attitude Survey was performed also. The degree of recognition, attitude and knowledge related to brain death and organ donation have been analyzed from HAS data. Responders were 948 hospital staffs from 23 DIP hospitals in 2012 and 1,959 hospital staffs from 44 DIP hospitals in 2017. Results MRR reviewed the identification rate of potential brain death were 24.3%, 61.4% respectively, 6 months before agreement, 6 months and 1 year interval after agreement. And Approach rate of each period were 13.3%, 33.2% respectively. Donation rate of each period were 7.4%, 12% respectively. Hospital staffs who had the necessary competence or necessary knowledge to refer a potential donor was 40.4% in 2012, while it increased up to 61.5% in 2017. Those who answered 'Have education experience about brain death' increased markedly from 20.1% to 30.2%. In 2017, when explaining donation, 86.4% of the respondents said that the separation of the medical staff and the coordinator had a positive effect on the donation consent. Conclusions DIP has a positive effect in increasing the identification rate as medical staff' educational experience increases. And the necessary competence or necessary knowledge to refer a potentail donor also increased. It was confirmed that there was a positive effect on consent for separating the interviews between the medical staff and the coordinator. As a result, the longer the duration of application for strengthening each stage of donation in the DIP, the higher the identification and donation rate.


This study is aimed at identifying and analyzing users' demands to emergency services of a Health Center, as well as examining the organization of work in that service, identifying how users' access to, acceptance by and bond to the Health system takes place. It is a case study of qualitative approach. Data collection was carried out as free observation by time sampling. Observation focus was on the organization of the work process and on care given to users that obtained some kind of attention at the Emergency Service. Data analysis was based on a dialectic approach. Data obtained were classified in relevance structures and later grouped in two sets: Demands to the emergency services; work organization and use of light technologies. Work process in emergency services is organized in order to meet some of the population's health needs, responding as much as possible to the aim of treating the main complaint, refering the user, when necessary, to references of distinct complexity levels regulated in the Heath System's hierarchy. Acceptance is present in the actions of professionals, but it is still little explored as a strategy to widen access and bond to the System. The main reasons for users to seek the service were: serious situations and risk situations, acute complaints that involved physical and emotional discomfort, specific needs characterized as non-urgent, complementary care regarding that received in other health services and the bond to the service itself. It has been demonstrated that users see the search for a good service differently from what workers see. The former seeks emergency services to solve problems that bring them difficulty and discomfort; to the latter, users' needs are defined based on the biological model and the System's organization.


The purpose of this study was to characterize the interrelationship between free calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) in the Ca2+ ATPase enzyme cycle of kidney membranes. Experiments were performed with basolateral membranes from rat renal cortex and microdissected proximal and distal tubules from mice. Results were similar in the three types of preparations. We first investigated the effect of ATP concentration on Ca2(+)- and Mg2(+)-dependent ATP hydrolysis. With 0.2 microM Ca2+, the enzyme activity, as a function of ATP concentration, showed two saturable components: a high affinity component with a Km of 33 microM ATP and a low affinity component with a Km of 0.63 mM ATP. These components may represent either two distinct sites of ATP binding or two forms of the same site. For the sake of simplicity, it was assumed that the two components correspond to a high affinity and a low affinity substrate site. At the high affinity site (ATP = 50 microM), the Ca2+ dependence of ATP hydrolysis followed a single Michaelis-Menten kinetics with Km for Ca2+ of 0.08 microM. The addition of 1 mM Mg2+ resulted in a relatively constant increase in ATP hydrolysis at all Ca2+ concentrations, indicating that the effects of the two cations were additive. With high ATP concentration (ATP = 3 mM), Ca2+ also induced an ATP hydrolysis according to a saturable process, with a Km for Ca2+ of 0.2 microM. In contrast with what occurred with low concentrations of ATP, addition of millimolar Mg2+ completely curtailed the sensitivity of the enzyme to Ca2+.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


In this paper, a high bandwidth, low power consumption, and high gain-flatness distributed amplifier (DA) is presented. It is fabricated using a standard 0.13-µm CMOS process with six metal layers. The DA has a unity-gain cutoff frequency of 40GHz. The DA chip achieves measured results of 8dB gain, with a gain flatness of ±1-dB over the bandwidth of 10–30-GHz. And, the noise figure is between 4.2 and 5.7dB. Power consumption and current of the distributed amplifier are 25.2mW and 21mA at 1.2V supply voltage, respectively. Compared with traditional distributed amplifiers, using the cascade distributed amplifier can obtain more gain and better flatness.


A bellows-based breath-hold monitoring and feedback system was developed and evaluated for use in intermittent-mode computed tomographic (CT) fluoroscopy-guided biopsy procedures in the lung or upper abdomen. The bellows system is described, and its feasibility is demonstrated in studies with a respiratory phantom and human volunteers. Results are reported for seven patients who underwent bellows-assisted biopsy. Breath-hold monitoring and feedback with the bellows system allow the patient to perform reliable breath holding at a preselected level. This optimizes intermittent-mode CT fluoroscopy-guided biopsies by allowing consistent visualization of the target lesion throughout the procedure.


This study aims to illuminate the architectural character
 and the change of the character in the Korean Architecture
 from 1945 to 1961, based on Architect and Architectural
Institute's activities. The defining of characteristics of
Korean architecture produced after the 8.15 emanciopation
and the Korean War is one of fundamental subjects, with which
 Korean history of modern architecture is concerned, because
the period between 1945 and 1961 provides a fundamental
historic link to explain the historical continuity and
break with contemporary Korean society.


Increased cost involved in serving electric power to customers, and the aim to lower rates, have accelerated the need for most efficient utilization of existing generating and distribution equipment. The paper describes a method for loading power circuit breakers on a temperature basis for the purpose of taking advantage of their inherent current carrying ability. Several years of practical application of the basic theory has proved entirely satisfactory on various types of electric equipment and has, in many cases, established considerable savings on new investments. While these savings apply to a lesser degree to circuit breakers than to other major power equipment, their application in accordance with temperature, rather than name plate rating, has put the use of new and existing facilities on an equally sound engineering basis.


Abstract Surgical correction for scoliosis is undertaken to avoid progression to cardiopulmonary compromise as well as improve the patient's overall quality of life. In this case report, we presented a case of a 14-year-old girl with epidermolysis bullosa simplex and Gitelman's syndrome who underwent posterior spinal fusion for scoliosis. The perioperative planning and intraoperative management of a patient with this unique combination of comorbidities undergoing a complex, high-risk surgical procedure were not previously chronicled in the literature. We detailed the steps undertaken to optimize the patient prior to surgery and the unique intraoperative surgical and anesthetic considerations that led to a successful completion of the surgery and recovery.


The effect of three different release rates (1x [label rate], 10x, and 20x the recommended rate of 10,120 /acre) of the parasitoid Eretmocerus eremicus on sweet potato whitefly populations found in open fields of cantaloupe was evaluated against populations in untreated control plots. Parasitoids were released from a point source in the center of each of nine treatment plots. Whitefly population growth, encompassing all developmental stages, and rates of parasitism were monitored within a 33 ft radius surrounding the center point in all 12 plots over a 52-d period. The rates of sweet potato whitefly population increase during this time were equivalent regardless of the parasitoid release rate. Whitefly densities were not limited in any of our treatment plots when compared to those found in the control plots. Moreover, mean rates of parasitism did not increase with time nor did they differ among the three treatments or control plots (7.9 ± 6.5%). Finally, estimated rates of parasitism were density dependent responding positively to increasing host numbers. The ineffectiveness of this parasitoid in controlling whitefly populations in the field may be due to its high propensity to disperse at low host densities or to influxes of immigrating whiteflies. Hence, the use of E. eremicus alone is not an efficient means to reduce whitefly populations in melon crops in the southwestern United States.


As in many sub-Saharan African countries, language policy in Nigeria is essentially a continuation of the legacy that was bequeathed to it from colonization, highly favouring the use of English in official domains, including in education. In practice, English remains the main language of instruction in Nigeria at all levels of formal education and is considered the 'language of success' because of the socio-economic opportunities it procures. This policy has however proved ineffective because it continues to marginalize a great number of the Nigerian population rather than equipping it to contribute to development. Since good and effective education remains the best means by which people are empowered to participate in their personal and national development and that this is better achieved through an efficient use of mother tongues, we argue in this paper for the adoption of translanguaging approach in formal education in Nigeria and offer country-specific implementation strategies.


We propose a general class of sample based explanations of machine learning models, which we term generalized representers. To measure the effect of a training sample on a model's test prediction, generalized representers use two components: a global sample importance that quantifies the importance of the training point to the model and is invariant to test samples, and a local sample importance that measures similarity between the training sample and the test point with a kernel. A key contribution of the paper is to show that generalized representers are the only class of sample based explanations satisfying a natural set of axiomatic properties. We discuss approaches to extract global importances given a kernel, and also natural choices of kernels given modern non-linear models. As we show, many popular existing sample based explanations could be cast as generalized representers with particular choices of kernels and approaches to extract global importances. Additionally, we conduct empirical comparisons of different generalized representers on two image and two text classification datasets.


While much has been written about the distinctions between biologics and small molecules in terms of their scientific, manufacturing and regulatory experiences, relatively little has been published comparing their clinical and commercial experiences. Employing a data base encompassing all 96 biologics and 212 small molecules newly launched in the U.S. between 1998Q1 and 2008Q4, we compare their downstream clinical and commercial characteristics. Substantial heterogeneity occurs across therapeutic classes. Biologics are more concentrated than small molecules in their therapeutic class composition, but have obtained FDA indication approvals in 13 of 15 classes. While average delays between FDA approval and first observed sales revenues are similar, biologics are twice as likely as small molecules to be Orphan Drugs, are slightly more likely to be designated FDA priority rather than standard review status, and gain slightly more supplemental indication approvals. Although 9.4% of new small molecules permanently exited the market for a variety of reasons, 7.3% of new biologics exited, but 26% of biologics had black box warnings compared to 20% of small molecules. Both biologics and small molecules take 21-22 quarters from launch to reach $100 million in real revenues. Small molecules have an initially more rapid uptake, but thereafter biologics' mean revenues tend to be slightly greater than for small molecules. While launch prices for biologics are commonly perceived as being greater than for small molecules, price growth per standard unit is generally greater for small molecules than biologics, with rates of price growth increasing for small molecules in the first five years since launch, and decreasing thereafter. We conclude that the market dynamics of biologics differ substantially from those of small molecules, although therapeutic class composition plays a major role.


Textile effluents characteristically contain colored compounds resulting from dyes unfixed to fibers during the dyeing process that cause serious environmental problems. An alternative process to prevent environmental contamination by these dyes is to oxidize them through photocatalysis in the presence of semiconducting oxides such as TiO 2 . In this sense, commercial TiO 2 has been used as a catalyst in the photocatalytic study of discoloration of textile dye C.I. reactive orange-122 aqueous solutions. The photocatalytic reactions were carried in a thermostatized glass reactor and irradiated with a 15-W lamp. It was attained 100% dye discoloration in 120 min of reaction. This result indicates the efficiency of the TiO 2 photocatalysis method in the discoloration of the studied dye


The UN Charter, signed in 1945, created two distinct things: a set of basic rules of conduct for governments and a formal organization with its own powers. Both the organization and the rules are legally binding and are therefore a kind of constraint on the sovereignty of member states, and they also make possible new kinds of international politics that can be very useful to states. They are therefore empowering as well as constraining. The formal organization of the United Nations is composed of separate organs including the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Secretariat. Each has a specific area of competence and they vary in how much authority they exercise over member states. The basic rules include commitments to refrain from the use of force to solve international disputes, to respect the decisions of the International Court of Justice, and to pay the required dues to the United Nations itself. The two aspects of the UN Charter amount to something like a constitution for the international system. The United Nations Charter defines the UN as a formal institution of limited powers as well as a generalized system of constitutional principles to govern all of inter-state politics. The institutional parts of the UN, such as the General Assembly and the Security Council, are required to operate within these principles, but the principles themselves are refined and brought to life through the daily practices and actions of the states and others who make use of them. The principles and the practices need to be understood together, as neither is really dominant. When, for instance, the Charter says that the Security Council has "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security" (Art. 24(1)), the only way to know what is meant by the key terms "primary" and "international peace and security" is to look at how the Council and others have used these terms through the years in debates, justifications, and argument. This chapter therefore looks at the UN with one eye on the legal language of the Charter and the other eye on the artful applications of that language in the practical diplomacy and manipulations of states.


With the advent of evidence-based medicine and the Calman-Hine Report, more and more surgical trainees are undertaking a period of research, either before entering or during their Specialist Registrar training. Many will encounter concepts in science uncommon in daily clinical settings. This paper will elucidate the techniques of genetic amplification available today with their potential for usage in clinical research.


The authors address the autofocusing problem in synthetic aperture radar imagery by introducing techniques that achieve robust image formation in the presence of severe heavy-tailed clutter and noise. Current state-of-the-art methods are extended, which are based on second-order moment theory, by employing fractional lower-order statistics (FLOS) of the phase-history data. The introduced FLOS-based methods perform a nonlinear transformation of the radar measurements, can mitigate the effects of impulsive additive clutter, and include the conventional algorithms as special cases. The benefits of the proposed approach are quantified by means of simulations, and the new FLOS-based methods are compared to current state-of-the-art processing with real synthetic aperture radar imagery data.


Existing theories of occupational segregation appeal to family-related responsibilities, employer discrimination, and socialization to explain why women and men occupy such different jobs. We suggest that occupational segregation is perpetuated because women (and men) may be penalized in the marriage market for making nontraditional occupational choices. As an empirical test, we asked students to rate personal ad-like vignettes. Holding all else equal, having a gender-nonconforming occupation reduced the attractiveness of both men and women.


This paper applies a methodology utilized in economics to study citation patterns in two International Studies Association journals. The paper analyzes articles published in International Studies Quarterly (ISQ) and International Studies Perspectives (ISP) in 2005. Comparisons are made based on the sex of the authors of articles and the sex of the cited authors in each paper's bibliography. Empirical analyses suggest that male authors of ISQ and ISP articles are less likely to cite work by female scholars in comparison with female authors. Mixed-gender author teams are also significantly less likely to cite research by female scholars relative to female article authors.


Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technology based on spectrum sharing where the secondary unlicensed users can access the licensed frequency bands in the primary system without any modification to the devices, services and networks in the primary system. A Markov chain approach is used to analyze the spectrum sharing policies between primary users (PUs) and secondary users (SUs). The ergodic capacity of the SU is derived taking into account the blocking probability and forced termination probability. Numerical examples are presented to explore the impact of PU and SU' arrival rates on the blocking probability, forced termination and ergodic capacity.


In recent years, people from diverse backgrounds have realized that consumption patterns need to undergo a radical transformation to avoid a socio-ecological crisis. Academics have also synthesized an equally diverse literature to illuminate the multi-stage, multi-level process required to transition to more sustainable consumption patterns. At the risk of oversimplification, work on 'sustainability transitions' suggests that the critical first step in this transition involves creating a 'niche' or space where new technologies emerge, paving the way for broader landscape and regime changes. Work on sustainability transitions have nonetheless focused chiefly on cases in Europe at the national level. Furthermore, most featured transitions have a decidedly technological bent with less attention to social dimensions that are critical to the formation and expansion of niche. This article will integrate core insights of 'governance', 'networking', and 'social learning' from sustainability transitions research to understand the drivers and enablers of the social space in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Current Seoul Metropolitan Governance and Soil and the City Forum trace the creation of niches not to technological innovation but the progressive idea aimed at changing social practices and mind-set for human prospering, for organic relations between consumption and production, human and nature. The case further illustrates how governance works to augment the impacts of innovative ideas through active citizen engagement and collective participation strategically facilitated to create communities of practice where actionreflection approach and user-driven innovation enable experiential learning as a precursor to transformative social change. It demonstrates a platform where diverse discussion and negotiations take place implementing practical governance composed of bottom-up multi-stage multi-level with actors' full participation from citizens of various backgrounds. In sum, it suggests that governance, networking, and social learning are critical drivers of sustainability transitions, especially in rapidly urbanizing contexts. It also raises questions about the possible refinements to work on sustainability transitions at the city level.


Although now sometimes called "America's classical music," jazz has not always been accorde favorable appellations. Accurate though these encomiums may be, they obscure the complex and fractious history of jazz's reception in the U. S. Developing out of the African American cultural tradition, jazz has always been variously understood by black and white audiences. This penetrating study of America's attitudes toward jazz focuses on a momentous period in postwar history -- from the end of World War II to the beginning of the Black Power Movement. Exploring the diverse representations of jazz and jazz musicians in literature and popular culture, it connects this uneven reception, and skewed use of jazz with the era's debates about race and racial difference. Its close scrutiny of literature, music criticism, film, and television reveals fundamental contrasts between black and white cultures as they regard jazz. To the detriment of concepts of community and history, white writers focus on the individualism that they perceive in jazz. Black writers emphasize the aspects of musicianship, performance, and improvisation. White approaches to jazz tend to be individualistic and ahistorical, and their depictions of musicians accent the artist's suffering and victimization. Black texts treating similar subject matter stress history, communitarianism, and socio-personal experience. This study shows as well how black and white dissenters such as the Beats and various African-American writers have challenged the mainstreams's definition of this African-American resource. It explores such topics as racial politics in bohemian Greenwich Village, the struggle of the image of Charlie Parker, the cultural construction of jazz performance, and literature imitation of jazz improvisation. As a cultural history with relevance for contemporary discussions of race and representation, The Color of Jazz offers an innovative and compelling perspective on diverse, well-known cultural materials. Jon Panish is a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine.


Load balancing traffic of a multihomed stub network among its various egress links can significantly improve performance by allowing the network to route its traffic around congested paths. In [3], several centralized route control schemes to load balance traffic were proposed. It was shown that employing these route control schemes resulted in significant improvement in round-trip times. We carry this exploration further by developing distributed algorithms to load balance traffic. We show theoretically that the expected performance of the distributed version is the same as the centralized routing scheme. We further validate the schemes using both synthetic as well as actual traffic traces.


Topological states are currently gathering intensive investigation in condensed matter physics due to their potential as configurable electronic devices for the future era coined "topotronics." Beyond numerous breakthroughs in magnetism over the past decade, a new paradigm is emerging with the proposal of topologically protected objects in ferroelectric materials. Recently, ferroelectric skyrmions and vortices are observed in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices, opening the path toward ultra‐small topological objects with low‐power electric‐field control. Here, the observation of chiral polar windings in a single epitaxial thin film, triggered by its self‐organized stripe domain pattern arrangement, is reported. Combining resonant elastic X‐ray scattering and scanning transmission electron microscopy, signatures of polar chirality in epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films corroborated with a complex ferroelectric domain wall structure are shown. The net chirality suggests that domain walls induce a polar rotation through a small path alternating with an unexpected long path at every second domain wall. In addition, scanning probe microscopy reveals singularities associated to this peculiar domain wall structure. These results bring new insights into the unexpected complexity of standard striped‐domain BiFeO3 thin films and open questions as for the driving force of this polar chirality.


Abstract This study investigated the role that a public land grazing permit buyout would have on ranching operations and conserving private land open space in the Rocky Mountain region of the western United States. Loss of grazing permits could serve as a pivotal factor in expediting private land fragmentation if ranching operations are enticed to sell their land due to loss of economic viability. This type of program inadvertently could be detrimental to overall ecosystem health and have unintended economic, ecological, and cultural consequences for the administering agencies and grazing permittees. The goal of this study was to provide sociodemographic profiles of landowners to better understand social motivations for ranching, implications of permit removal, ongoing conservation activities, and possible policy solutions. We assessed likely participation levels, demographic attitudes, and reasons for participation in a proposed grazing permit buyout program. This paper is based on data collected from a mail survey of 2 000 permittees in the Rocky Mountain States (39% response rate), and data collected from qualitative personal interviews. These interviews assessed motivations for participation, potential costs, and search for unforeseen consequences related to a proposed buyout program. We interviewed 49 individuals (33 ranchers, 16 agency personnel), which enabled us to describe likely outcomes and previously unmentioned items for consideration related to a proposed buyout program. Interview data were analyzed and broken into two major themes: motivation for participation in a buyout and potential consequences. Our study indicated that overall participation in potential buyout would be relatively low (17%); however, the associated financial, ecological, and administrative costs could be substantial. We note several unanticipated motivations for possible participation in this type of program, as well as possibly unrecognized impacts for administering agencies and permittees.


A case of a de novo aneurysm leading to subdural hemorrhage after right extracranial-intracranial bypass surgery is described. After an uneventful 2-month postoperative course, the patient experienced sudden onset of occipital headache with vomiting. Radiological study disclosed an acute subdural hematoma in the right temporo-occipital region and a newly formed aneurysm at the site of patent superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery anastomosis. The anastomotic portion with the ruptured aneurysm was resected en bloc after alternative occipital artery-middle cerebral artery bypass, and the cut end of the superficial temporal artery was successfully used for end-to-side reanastomosis to the other middle cerebral artery branch. The histological examination of the ruptured aneurysm revealed the features of a true aneurysm.


ABSTRACT This research examined the efficacy of inoculation as a strategy to mitigate psychological reactance based on the level of threat communicated in the forewarning and subsequent persuasive health appeal. Two 2 (inoculation) × 2 (freedom-threatening language) experiments were conducted. The first (N = 181) used elaborated inoculation designed to enhance the threat of impending reactance to a message advocating for responsible alcohol consumption. The second (N = 159) used limited inoculation designed to minimize the threat of impending reactance to a message advocating for responsible soft drink consumption. Results showed that elaborated inoculation increased reactance, whereas limited inoculation decreased reactance but only when the subsequent appeal used less freedom-threatening language. These findings suggest that inoculation has the potential to facilitate or buffer reactance depending on the level of threat communicated in inoculation forewarnings and in subsequent persuasive health appeals.


The authors describe a case of coronary artery fistula seen as a mediastinal mass on a chest radiograph. Such a diagnosis should be considered when a bulge is seen along the left cardiac border on the plain film.


Skeletal muscle samples from 38 draft horse–related animals 1–23 years of age were evaluated for evidence of aggregates of glycogen and complex polysaccharide characteristic of equine polysaccharide storage myopathy (EPSSM). Cardiac muscle from 12 of these horses was also examined. Antemortem serum levels of creatine kinase (CK) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) from 9 horses with EPSSM and 5 horses without EPSSM were compared. Skeletal muscle from 17 horses contained inclusions of periodic acid–Schiff (PAS)-positive, amylase-resistant complex polysaccharide. Similar inclusions were also present in the cardiac muscle of 1 horse. A vacuolar myopathy with aggregates of PAS-positive, amylase-sensitive glycogen was seen in 8 other horses, and these findings are also considered diagnostic for EPSSM. Antemortem serum activities of CK and AST were often higher in EPSSM horses than in horses without EPSSM. Using the presence of amylase-resistant complex polysaccharide as the criterion for diagnosis of EPSSM, the incidence in this population was 45%. Inclusion of horses with aggregates of glycogen but no amylase-resistant complex polysaccharide as representative of the range of pathologic findings in horses with EPSSM resulted in a 66% incidence in this population.


Factors affecting logistics outsourcing in large manufacturing firms in globalized and highly competitive markets, has led to organizations striving to be innovative and agile to meet customer demands. Competitiveness, based on organizational capabilities and production strategies, may lead to quality, efficiency and flexibility. The objective of the study was to analyze the effects of cash flow management on logistics out sourcing in large manufacturing firms; and to determine the effects of distribution management on logistics outsourcing in large manufacturing firms.   The study applied a descriptive research design. The target population consisted of 512 employees whereas the sample size was166 employees. The study used primary data which was collected through self-administered questionnaires that consists of both open and closed ended questions. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.  The results revealed that established a positive weak correlation between cash flow management and logistics outsourcing (p = 0.247). The study concluded Cash flow management was an aspect which was investigated in the study; the findings concluded that with proper flow of cash the company is able to outsource the logistics required. The study recommended that; manufacturing firms should put more focus on core business functions and ensure reduction of overhead costs. They should take advantage of expertise and experience and put measures to improve internal capabilities and expertise. The firms should reduce the total overall costs and where third party logistics providers provide a better service contract them. Keywords: Cash flow management, Logistics out sourcing


[see reaction]. A novel procedure for the synthesis of an indole skeleton was developed. Treatment of a cyclohexenol derivative having a silyloxymethyl group at the 2-position with N-tosyl-o-bromoaniline in the presence of Pd2dba3*CHCl3 and (S)-BINAPO gave compound 6a with 84% ee in 75% yield. Compound 6a was converted into 11, which was treated with Pd(OAc)2 and Me(2)PPh in the presence of Ag2CO3 to give indoline derivative 12. From 12, we succeeded in the total syntheses of (-)-dehydrotubifoline and (-)-tubifoline.


Automotive collision avoidance systems help the driver to avoid or mitigate a collision. The main objective of this project is to find a methodology to improve the performance of Volvo's automotive collision avoidance system by optimizing its configurable parameters. It is important that the parameter setting is chosen in such a way that the automotive collision avoidance system is not too sensitive to uncertainties. However, finding an optimal parameter setting is an overwhelmingly complex problem. Therefore, our approach is to make the problem tractable, by choosing specific and realistic uncertainties, defining performance, and choosing a fundamental algorithm that describes and mimics Volvo's automotive collision avoidance system. This approach preserves the foundation of the problem. The idea behind the methodology that solves this tractable problem is to find, and exclude, all the parameter values that can cause undesired assistance intervention and, out of the remaining parameter values, find the ones that prevent collision in the best way. This is done under the condition that the chosen realistic uncertainties can occur. To evaluate a parameter setting, data simulation is used. Due to the complexity of the simulation, efficient optimization tools are not available. Therefore, we have created a surrogate model that mimics the behaviour of the simulation as closely as possible by using a response surface, in this case accomplished by a radial basis function interpolation. Through this surrogate model we have found a satisfying parameter setting to the tractable problem. The methodology has laid a promising foundation of finding the optimal parameter setting to Volvo's automotive collision avoidance system.


It is a privilege to introduce this collection of articles in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on the global threat of falsified medicines. Substandard and falsified medical products pose significant risks to global health with potentially devastating and far-reaching consequences. The articles contained in this issue address this threat by exploring new technology for identifying falsified medicines, field innovations for defining their prevalence, and the broader policy implications that demand our attention. It is my hope that this collection contributes to the goal of addressing falsified medicines by identifying not only the nature and scope of a pressing global health problem but also ways to solve it.

Safe, effective, high-quality, and affordable medical products are essential to positive, equitable health outcomes. They are required to prevent, diagnose, and treat our most serious public health threats, and they are necessary for the achievement of the global health goals toward which we have been diligently working for many years—such as accelerated progress toward the Millennium Development Goals and implementation of Universal Health Coverage as envisioned for the post-2015 development agenda.

Globalization, however, has redefined the field of medical product regulation by adding layers of complexity to the supply chain and creating opportunities for the potential contamination and/or intentional adulteration of the ingredients and finished products that pass through its links. Today's medical-product landscape blurs the line between domestic and foreign production, drawing attention to the need for global quality and safety oversight to prevent patient exposure to falsified products.

Regulators have risen to this challenge by pursuing global, evidence-driven strategies and a number of diverse initiatives in the thematic areas addressed by this issue of AJTMH. In the area of technology, for example, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has worked to develop the battery-operated, hand-held Counterfeit Detection Device, which uses ultraviolet light to identify counterfeit drugs.

With respect to understanding the scope and reach of substandard and falsified medicines, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a monitoring and surveillance system dedicated to improving global intelligence and data collection to assess the scope, scale, and harm caused by such products. It can provide real-time information on safety trends, enabling the evidenced-based decision making needed to respond quickly and effectively to time-sensitive health risks. Concerted efforts must be made, however, to ensure that this is a robust and sustainable system.

In the policy arena, regulators have also advocated for increased awareness of the problem of substandard and falsified medicines through their work with multilateral organizations. Last year, Member States at the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution aimed at strengthening regulatory systems for medical products, which are fundamental in providing the oversight and enforcement needed to improve supply chain integrity. This resolution is a global health milestone, providing a framework for collective action and representing a comprehensive systems approach that draws attention to emerging priorities and the core components required for effective medicines regulation—including a strong legal foundation, the use of data and technology, human resources, international cooperation, leadership, governance, and sustainable financing.

In all of these endeavors, the development of strong and sustainable partnerships is critical in fostering a targeted and coordinated response to the global threat of falsified medicines. Partnerships are also essential for enhancing regulatory intelligence as well as the coordination and enforcement of regulatory standards. For example, initiatives such as WHO's Member State Mechanism to combat substandard, falsified, and counterfeit products and PAHO's National Regulatory Authorities of Regional Reference provide opportunities to leverage global, regional, and national efforts. And while in its development phase, the International Coalition of Medical Regulatory Authorities is providing leadership, advocacy, and strategic guidance for a range of issues common to medical product regulators worldwide.

As we begin 2015, medical product safety faces new and continuing challenges. Although much hard work remains, this collection of articles underscores the insight, ingenuity, and perseverance of the scholars and practitioners dedicated to making the improvements and changes needed to achieve our collective global health goals and provides critical direction for success going forward.†


Ovarian pregnancy is a rare form of extrauterine pregnancy contributing < 3% of ectopic pregnancies. We report an ovarian pregnancy in a 23-year female.


: Namibia has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. Older relatives in Namibia are taking the lead role in caring for children living with HIV, or orphaned as their parents had HIV. There has been a growing attention to the well-being and mental health of these older adult caregivers in sub-Saharan Africa; however, there is a lack of information on the intertwined factors such as loneliness and depression to their life satisfaction. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the relationship between loneliness and depression on life satisfaction among older caregivers of children living with HIV or AIDS in rural Namibia. This cross-sectional study recruited 100 Oshiwambo speaking caregivers over age 60 in the Omusati region to complete a study instrument measuring their levels of loneliness, depression and perceived life satisfaction. Using hierarchical regression method, this study found that both loneliness and depression were significantly associated with lower levels of perceived life satisfaction among our sample. Medical care or insurance and awareness of social services were both associated with higher levels of perceived life satisfaction. Social service professionals and policy makers in Namibia should consider designing culturally appropriate interventions aimed at addressing these important mental health related concerns of older rural caregivers.


Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the role of activin A and follistatin (FS) in the differentiation between viable intrauterine pregnancy from missed miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy (EP).
Study Design: This was a case–control study.
Setting: This study was conducted at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, from February 2017 to October 2017.
Patients and Methods: The study included 90 pregnant women, aged from 21 to 40 years old in their the first trimester attending the outpatient and inpatient clinic with single fetal pregnancy with a gestational age range between 6th and 8th weeks, they were divided into three groups; Group A: Includes 30 cases with uncomplicated pregnancies in their first trimester, Group B: Includes 30 cases diagnosed as missed miscarriages, and Group C: Includes 30 cases diagnosed as EPs.
Results: There was no significant difference in the maternal age and body mass index between the three groups, β-human chorionic gonadotropin, activin A, FS, and their ratio were significantly higher in the healthy intrauterine pregnancy compared to missed miscarriage and EP. Activin A and activin A/FS ratio had an excellent ability to discriminate EP from healthy intrauterine pregnancy, while FS alone had good ability to discriminate between EP and intrauterine pregnancy. Activin A had fair ability to discriminate missed miscarriage from intra healthy uterine pregnancy, while both FS and activin A/FS ratio had poor ability to differentiate missed miscarriage and intrauterine pregnancy.
Conclusion: Activin A can be used with high accuracy as a biomarker for EP and missed miscarriage, FS alone, and activin A/FS ratio is a possible biomarker, but it offers lower accuracy compared to activin A alone.


Feminism has not received unanimous acceptance in Africa and women that associate themselves with this movement are regarded as radicals and going against African norms and traditions. The study has closely examined the exploitation and suppression of women, revealing the subjugating conditions that sometimes reduce women to mental wrecks. The research has also created awareness on the need for the entrenchment of societal reforms in order to improve the lot of women in patriarchal societies. The outcome of this study implicitly encourages the necessity of cooperation between men and women in contemporary social and political transformations on the continent. Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus can be regarded as radical, considering the method used by the protagonist to liberate herself. A reformist feminist analysis has been adopted as a theoretical framework for this academic quest. While it is true that women are oppressed, dehumanized and face various forms of cruelty in the hands of men, this feminist frame of reference equally recognizes certain positive aspects of patriarchal societies which foster peaceful coexistence between men and women. Thus, reformist feminism uses positive male characters to challenge men with oppressive tendencies towards women to change and regard women as complementary partners in progress. The study concludes that oppression of women by the men-folk is to the detriment of the family and the society at large.


Visual perception is a skill that involves a series of related sub-skills, which interact with each other in order to efficiently analyze, integrate, and synthesize visual information. General objective: To determine the status of visual perceptual skills in school children aged 7 to 12 years with refractive amblyopia, residents of Bogota. Materials and methods: A descriptive observational study was developed; the sample was obtained by visual screening of the students of the selected age group—complete examination, including cycloplegia, of the students with possible positive amblyopia in screening—and by applying TVPS-3 to the children with confirmed diagnosis of amblyopia. Results: The visual perceptual skills of visual closure, figure-ground, form constancy, and spatial relationships were more frequently below normal values. Conclusions: The study found that some of the visual perceptual skills in the amblyopic patients of the sample were below the values considered normal.


Some years ago M. Renault described some specimens of petioles of Ferns, which he identified with Corda's genus Zygopteris , identical, in part, with Cotta's genus Tubicaulis . In my memoir, Part VI., I described, from the lower Carboniferous rocks of Lancashire, two of M. Renault's species, viz., Zygopteris Lacattii and Z. bibractensis ; but, from an unwillingness to multiply genera based only upon the ill understood fragments of imperfectly known plants, I proposed ( loc. cit ., p. 677) the provisional adoption of the neutral generic term Rachiopteris for a considerable number of these objects, which appeared to be either rhizomes or petioles of Ferns. Subsequent researches have, I think, shown the wisdom of doing so; at all events, further discoveries, which I now propose to put on record, unmistakably confirm my opinion. In the same memoir ( loc. cit ., p. 173) M. Renault described a rhizome, with petioles, the latter of which closely resembled those of Corda's genus Anachoropteris , and to which the French palaeontologist gave the name of Anachoropteris Decaisnii . But the structure of the rachis of this plant, especially of the transverse section of its vascular bundle, was wholly different from that of any plant previously observed. Having obtained a stem identical with this Anachoropteris , but without any petioles connected with it, I figured my specimen in my memoir, Part VI., Plate 58, fig. 51, where I described it as closely resembling M. Renault's Anachoropteris Decaisnii .


This work considers the two way wiretap channel in which two legitimate users, Alice and Bob, wish to exchange messages securely in the presence of a passive eavesdropper Eve. In the full duplex scenario, where each node can transmit and receive simultaneously, we obtain new achievable secrecy rate regions based on the idea of allowing the two users to jointly optimize their channel prefixing distributions and binning codebooks; in addition to key sharing. The new regions are shown to be strictly larger than the known ones for a wide class of discrete memoryless and Gaussian channels. In the half duplex case, where a user can only transmit or receive on any given degree of freedom, we introduce the idea of randomized scheduling and establish the significant gain it offers in terms of the achievable secrecy sum-rate. We further develop an experimental setup based on a IEEE 802.15.4-enabled sensor boards to validate our theoretical analysis. Using this testbed, it is shown that one can exploit the two way nature of the communication, via appropriately randomizing the transmit power levels and transmission schedule, to introduce significant ambiguity at a noiseless Eve. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first attempts aiming towards building practical secrecy protocols inspired by information theoretic principles.


Background: Palpitations are one of most common reasons why a patient visits a general practitioner (GP) and is referred to a cardiologist. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been associated with new-onset arrhythmias, which are difficult to diagnose at the primary healthcare level during pandemic-related lockdown periods. Methods: A total of 151 patients with a complaint of heart rhythm disorder were included from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as after the start of vaccination, in this cohort retrospective study. We used a telemedical device—namely, a personal electrocardiographic (ECG) sensor called Savvy—to investigate heart rhythm in patients. The primary outcome of the study was to evaluate the number of actual heart rhythm disorder patients and any differences that infection with or vaccination for COVID-19 had on patients handled in a primary healthcare setting. Results: We found a heart rhythm disorder in 8.6% of patients before the COVID-19 pandemic and in 15.2–17.9% of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.002). During the COVID-19 pandemic, we found a heart rhythm disorder in almost 50% of patients that had tested positive for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 virus) more than one month ago. After the vaccinations started, we also found a heart rhythm disorder in almost 50% of non-vaccinated patients. Conclusions: Using a telemedical approach or remote consultation is a useful method, at the primary healthcare level, for diagnosing and treating patients with palpitations during times of lockdown.


Every minute a mother died because of the cause related to pregnancy and childbirth. From each death, it is estimated that there are 100 women who survived delivery time, but experienced physical disability and pain due to pregnancy and childbirth. The results showed, if a baby is less than 3 months of age to die of his mother, then the probability of survival of the baby is only about 30%. This means that if a mother died when her baby was less than 3 months then the risk of death by 70%. The research in this study is a case of control with a retrospective approach, namely data retrieval starting from the outcome. In this study we compared the possible factors causing maternal deaths among mothers who died with mothers who did not die of pregnancy, childbirth or childbirth. Data analysis in this research is done by using SPSS program. Data analysis is done in two stages. The first step is to conduct descriptive analysis of Age variable, education level, Parity, Number of Visits of Antenatal Care, Birth Attenden based on Maternal Death. In addition to the description of maternal deaths based on causes, time of death, place of incidence and duration of care in hospitals. The second stage analyzes the relationship between Age, education level, Parity, Number of Antenatal Care Visits,, Birth helpers using Chi-Square. The results showed that most of the incidence of maternal mortality in Kabupaten Cilacap occurred at low risk age (60%), in terms of education with low education status (80%), in terms of parity in low risk category (70%), the number of visits of ANC at the frequency of 4X (100%), in the case of birth attendant is entirely assisted by health personnel (100%), based on the most causes in other causes category (52%), 64%), in terms of place of death in the hospital (92%), and in terms of duration in the hospital within 0,05). Keywords: Maternal Mortality factor


This paper assesses the current world economic crisis in terms of crucial transformations in global capitalism throughout the neoliberal period. It argues that intense social and spatial restructuring after the crises of 1973–82 produced a new wave of capitalist expansion (centred on East Asia) that began to exhaust itself in the late-1990s. Since that time, new problems of overaccumulation and declining profitability have plagued global capitalism. Interconnected with these problems are contradictions related to a mutation in the form of world-money, as a result of its complete de-linking from gold after 1971, which stimulated a fantastic growth in financial instruments and transactions, and generated a proliferation of esoteric 'fictitious capitals' whose collapse is wreaking havoc across world financial markets. The intersection between general conditions of overaccumulation and a crisis in financial structures specific to neoliberalism has now produced a deep world-slump. Inherent in this crisis is a breakdown in forms of value-measurement that is throwing up intense struggles between the capitalist value-form and popular life-values, the latter of which comprise the grounds for any real renewal of the socialist Left.


This report discusses a category of congressionally chartered nonprofit organizations that have as their purpose the promotion of patriotic, charitable, educational, and other eleemosynary activities. Title 36 of the United States Code, where such corporate organizations are listed with their charters, was recodified by law in 1998 (P.L. 105-225).


Objective . Tuberculosis and HIV coinfection poses unique clinical and psychosocial complexities that can impact nonadherence to highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART). Methods. This was a prospective case series to identify risk factors for HAART nonadherence among 43 patients with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in Lima, Peru. Nonadherence was defined by patient self-report. Results. The median initial CD4 and HIV viral load were 63 and 159,000, respectively. Patients had received a median of 6.1 months of ART. Univariable analysis found low social support, substance use, and depression to be associated with nonadherence. In multivariable analysis, low social support was associated with nonadherence. Conclusions. In the authors' urban cohort of HIV-TB coinfected individuals in Lima, Peru, substance use, depression, and lack of social support were key barriers to adherence. These findings suggest that adherence interventions may be unsuccessful unless they target the underlying psychosocial challenges faced by patients living with TB and AIDS.


The Lower Jurassic East Berlin Formation exposed in the centre of the Hartford Basin can be divided into six facies: (1) laminated black mudstone is composed of very finely-laminated, organic-bearing clay-stone with common millimetre-scale lenses of dolomitic siltstone; (2) planar laminated mudstone is commonly mudcracked and composed of thickly-laminated, red, green or grey mudstone with common centimetre-scale lenses of sandstones; (3) disrupted mudstone has a complex, desiccation-cracked fabric; (4) planar- and large-scale trough cross-stratified sandstones are composed of moderately well-sorted medium- to coarse-grained arkoses; (5) small-scale, cross-stratified silty sandstones with common climbing-ripple structure; and (6) interbedded sandstones and mudstones which commonly carry desiccation cracks.

Mudstone facies are organized into repetitive, metre-scale facies sequences which change gradationally upwards from laminated black mudstones to planar-laminated mudstones to disrupted mudstones. Facies sequences have sharp tops and bottoms and record increasing desiccation upwards. There are 15 such cycles in the upper 100 m of the formation in central Connecticut. They record long periods of dry playa mudflat aggradation punctuated by the rapid expansion and contraction of perennial lakes.

The sandy facies occur as single, decimetre-scale sedimentation units or as two or more stacked sedimentation units up to 1 m thick. These record sheet floods across ephemeral floodplains.


An estimated 5 to 10% of all breast and ovarian cancer is attributable to inherited mutations in two highly penetrant autosomal dominant susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2. BRCA1 confers higher risk of ovarian cancer and BRCA2 much higher risk of male breast cancer. With the exception of missense mutations in the RING finger near the amino terminus of BRCA1, virtually all germline mutations in the gene cause the novel BRCA1 protein to be prematurely truncated. Approximately 90% of breast tumors in BRCA1 families, 50% of unselected breast tumors and 65-80% of unselected ovarian tumors have lost one allele of BRCA1 by somatic deletion. Very few tumors have detectable somatic point mutations in BRCA1. Inhibition of BRCA1 expression in mammary epithelial cell lines also suggests that BRCA1 may act as a tumor suppressor. The biological function of BRCA1 is still unknown, although identification of a patient homozygous for an inherited BRCA1 mutation suggests that the gene's function may be essential only to specific tissues. At least two other genes, P53 and the androgen receptor, are responsible for inherited predisposition to breast cancer in rare families. Several epidemiologic studies suggest that individuals carrying rare alleles at a minisatellite flanking the HRAS locus are at increased risk of cancer, including breast cancer. Finally, preliminary epidemiologic studies also suggest that individuals heterozygous for mutations in the ataxia telangiectasia gene may be at increased risk of breast cancer.


Even in countries with high rates of legal induced abortion, contraceptive use and marital patterns nearly always have a greater impact on fertility levels than does abortion. As a rule, extremely high rates of abortion--three or more abortions per woman of childbearing age during the reproductive years--are required for the fertility-inhibiting effect of abortion to rival that of contraceptive use. Nevertheless, the absolute effect of abortion on fertility (defined as the amount by which the current total fertility rate, or TFR, would increase if no abortions were performed) is often substantial. In most of the countries examined, the TFR would have been from about 20 percent to nearly 90 percent higher than it actually was (other things being equal) had no induced abortions been performed. Among developed countries, the Soviet Union, Japan, Eastern European countries, Israel and the United States have the highest total legal abortion rates, ranging from one abortion to more than five abortions per woman of childbearing age during the reproductive years. Among the developing countries for which reliable data are available, South Korea, China, Cuba and Singapore have rates of about 1-2 abortions per woman of fertile age. However, a number of other countries in Latin America and Asia, for which the data are deficient, probably have equally high rates.


Apolipoprotein E allele 4 (apo E ϵ4) is known to be in genetic disequilibrium with Alzheimer's disease and is associated with an earlier age at onset of dementia. Whether apo E ϵ4 is a specific risk factor for Alzheimer's disease or is a more general susceptibility factor that shifts the age at onset of neurodegenerative diseases to earlier ages is unknown. To test these possibilities, we determined the apolipoprotein E genotypes of subjects with familial or sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ApoE allele frequencies of the the apoE gene of the ALS subjects (n = 170, ϵ2 = 0.071, ϵ3 = 0.771, ϵ4 = 0.159) were found to be comparable to the allele frequencies of the general population. Furthermore, no significant association was observed between the age at onset or the duration of ALS and the inheritance of apoE ϵ4: subjects with at least one copy of ϵ4 (sporadic ALS: n = 15, onset at 57.7 ± 13.9 years; familial ALS: n = 23, onset at 53.6 ± 9.5 years, duration [n = 14] of 2.6 ± 1.6 years) had comparable ages at onset and durations to subjects without ϵ4 (sporadic ALS: n = 28, onset at 53.1 ± 17.0 years; familial ALS: n = 56, onset at 50.8 ± 12.1 years, duration [n = 30] of 1.9 ± 0.8 years). The lack of association of apoE ϵ4 with the age at onset and the duration of ALS suggests that apoE ϵ4 does not have a global effect on the pathogenesis of other neurodegenerative diseases.


Few studies have been carried out on nesting of sea turtles in the southern coast of Bahia, an area that is experiencing a fast process of tourist occupation what can increase levels of threat to these species. Thus, this study aimed to identify sea turtle species that nest in the area and to describe the main characteristics of their clutches. During four reproductive seasons, from 2004 to 2008, we identified and monitored nests found at beaches located between the municipalities of Urucuca and Itacare, in the southern coast of Bahia. The collected variables were: clutch size, incubation duration, hatching success and stages of embryonic mortality. We registered an average of 37 ± 6.2 nests per season, with nests of Caretta caretta and Eretmochelys imbricata being more frequent, along with sporadic nests of Chelonia mydas. Nesting season of C. caretta extends from October to January and that of E. imbricata from December to March. This temporary displacement of reproductive seasons might be related to a selective adjustment to minimize competition among species. Besides the time of nesting, the two species differed also in clutch size, but they did not differ in incubation duration and in hatching success. According to our results, we believe that areas with low concentration of nests should also be a target of conservation programs, due to their relevance to the increase of genotypic, and specially fenotypic, variation of sea turtle species, so that Brazilian populations can adapt and survive to the constant threats. Those conservation programs can be established by partnerships between non-governmental organizations and private institutions and the Brazilian government institution for the conservation of sea turtles (Centro TAMAR/ICMBio).


OBJECTIVE
To determine demographic data, clinical presentations, investigations, treatment regimens, and clinical outcomes in pediatric ocular myasthenia gravis patients, and to find predictive factors for clinical outcomes such as resolution of disease, development of generalized symptoms, or final amblyopia.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
This retrospective descriptive study of the medical records of 14 patients (male 6,female 8) less than 15 years that had ocular myasthenia gravis at Chiang Mai University Hospital between January 2006 and December 2012 was done. Univariate analysis was used to evaluate the predictive factors for clinical outcomes.

RESULTS
Mean age of onset was 6.96±4.65 years (range 0.58-14 years). All patients presented with ptosis (100%) and 67% with strabismus. The mean oftotalfollow-up time is 6.30±3.84 years (range 1.25-14.25 years). None ofthe patients developed generalize myasthenia gravis. Only one patient had amblyopia at final presentation. Presenting age, gender strabismus at initial presentation, and positive neostigmine or edrophonium test did not affect resolution of disease nor final amblyopia.

CONCLUSION
The most common clinical presentation in pediatric OMG was ptosis. Most patients could control the disease only by medications. There were no predictive factors affecting resolution of disease nor final amblyopia.


Custody, the holding of records and objects in archives and museums for security and preservation reasons, has been a fundamental principle of collections management in those institutions. Having an unbroken chain of custody, that is, being able to accurately identify all the individuals and organizations that have owned these items since they were created, has been considered as an essential evidence of the authenticity of the object and supports the legality of its transfer from one owner to the next. However, legal custody does not necessarily imply legal ownership. In the late twentieth century, the usefulness of custody as a management principle has been challenged in museums by repatriation claims and in archival collections by replevin and the need to both preserve the authenticity and integrity of electronic records and to guarantee access to both paper and electronic records over time


In vivo growth of alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) was achieved using subcutaneous xenografts in sex-matched nonobese diabetic severe combined immunodeficiency mice. One tumor, currently at passage 6, has been maintained in vivo for 32 months and has maintained characteristics consistent with those of the original ASPS tumor including (1) tumor histology and staining with periodic acid Schiff/diastase, (2) the presence of the ASPL-TFE3 type 1 fusion transcript, (3) nuclear staining with antibodies to the ASPL-TFE3 type 1 fusion protein, (4) maintenance of the t(X;17)(p11;q25) translocation characteristic of ASPS, (5) stable expression of signature ASPS gene transcripts and finally, the development and maintenance of a functional vascular network, a hallmark of ASPS. The ASPS xenograft tumor vasculature encompassing nests of ASPS cells is highly reactive to antibodies against the endothelial antigen CD34 and is readily accessible to intravenously administered fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran. The therapeutic vulnerability of this tumor model to antiangiogenic therapy, targeting vascular endothelial growth factor and hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha, was examined using bevacizumab and topotecan alone and in combination. Together, the 2 drugs produced a 70% growth delay accompanied by a 0.7 net log cell kill that was superior to the antitumor effect produced by either drug alone. In summary, this study describes a preclinical in vivo model for ASPS which will facilitate investigation into the biology of this slow growing soft tissue sarcoma and demonstrates the feasibility of using an antiangiogenic approach in the treatment of ASPS.


Sundarban is world famous for its mangrove vegetation and is approximately of 10,000 sq km in area in the northern Bay of Bengal, which is also designated as world heritage site by UNESCO in the year 1987. It is the home of several animals and plant species, specially the mangrove trees (Sundari) and Royal Bengal tiger of this forest is world famous. Mangroves functions as a buffer against frequently occurring cyclones and helps to protect South Bengal specially Kolkata and southern part of Bangladesh. But now a day due to the climate change and repetitive cyclone occurring every year, Sundarban faces lots of challenges, with rising sea levelisland are disappearing, salinity of water increasing day by day in addition of that there have been a major disturbances to hydrological parameters, changing fishing patterns are resulting disastrous consequences for the fisher man. Frequent cyclones and erratic monsoon damaging ecology, humidity, livelihood as well as ecotourism. The objective of this research is to focus the area of Sundarban and its potentials, challenges and probable solution to overcome the situation as well as the impact of mangrove degradation on local people and tourism. Here we use some data and statistics to understand the situation better. In this process researcher collected data from 130 respondents in the study area and further analysis has been taken through percentage method, statistical tools like t test with the help of software like SPSS, MS excel etc to conclude. Study findings suggest that significance difference exists on profile base of residents due to environmental degradation and minimize the negative impacts on same could bring a prosperous livelihood for residents. Keywords— Ecology, Environmental Degradation, Sustainability, Mangrove.


This paper presents a new control strategy for DC-based offshore wind farm connected to onshore AC grid through high-voltage DC (HVDC) system. The offshore wind farm is composed of variable speed wind turbines driving permanent magnet synchronous generators. Each PMSG is connected to the DC bus through a generator side converter unit. The DC voltage of the DC-bus is stepped up using a full-bridge DC-DC converter at the offshore HVDC station. The onshore HVDC station converts the DC voltage to the suitable AC grid voltage. Detailed modeling and control strategy of the overall system are presented. Real wind speed date is used in the simulation study to obtain realistic response. The effectiveness of the control strategy is verified by simulation analyses using laboratory standard power system software package, PSCAD/EMTDC.


Objectives: Intoxication with pesticides is a well-known public health problem. We aimed to describe the demographic and toxico-clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with pesticide poisoning. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was performed in Khorshid Hospital affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. All patients with pesticide poisoning (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, and acaricides) were evaluated. The patients' demographic, toxicological, clinical, and laboratory findings from March 2016 until March 2021 were collected and analyzed. Results: During the study period, 25,659 patients with acute poisoning were admitted, of which, 1567 (6.1% of the total poisoning) with pesticide poisoning were included. The mean ± SD age of the patients was 31.34 ± 13.7 years and 55.3% were men (male/female ratio = 1.23). In approximately 75% of the patients, poisoning occurred by suicidal attempts, while in 14.3% (n = 224), it was accidental. Insecticides caused about 51.30% of the poisonings. However, rodenticides were most commonly used in completed suicide attempts (79.9%). The frequency of previously attempted suicide, and self-harming was different among the patients with respect to the type of pesticide poisoning (p < 0.05). Previous suicidal attempts (35.3%) and self-harming (17.3%) were reported more in patients poisoned with the combination of pesticides. Half of the patients were employed. Nausea and vomiting (56.7%, n = 889) were the most common clinical manifestations; 8.3% (n = 130) of the patients died, 64 of whom had rodenticide poisoning. Conclusion: The prevalence of pesticide poisoning was relatively low; most were insecticide poisoning. Poisoning occurred most through attempted suicide. Rodenticides and herbicides had higher mortality rates than other pesticides. Patients with previously attempted suicide and self-harming behavior may use a combination of pesticides.


The objective of this paper is to explore nominal word formations in Toba Batak language. The theory applied in this study is generative morphology proposed by Halle (1973). The basic principle in generative morphology is that the process of word formations can generate actual words and potential words. According to generative morphology the mechanism of word formations will be postulated in list of morphemes, word formation rules, filter, and dictionary. The method of this study is qualitative descriptive; it is a method of study which describes language phenomena naturally without any exception. The results show that nominal word formations in Toba Batak language are distinguished in 3 main ways, they are: [1] by attaching affixations, [2] by inserting premodifier ni between adjectival bases and nominal bases, and [3] by moving the stress of free adjectival bases from the first syllable to the second syllable. There are 14 affixations that can form nouns in Toba Batak language, they are: (i) six prefixes (par-, na-, sa-, sanha-, hina-, ha-), (ii) two infixes (-ar-, -al-), (iii) one suffix (-na), (iv) four multiple affixations (ha-…-on, pa-…-an, pa-…-on, par-…-an), and (v) double affixations (par-in-). Nominal word formations derive from various free word bases, such as, free adjectival bases, free verbal bases, free nominal bases, free numeric bases, and free adverbial bases. The results of these affixations can be inflectional or derivational. Some complex words have to be put into filter to be processed morphophonologically before they are put into dictionary.


A series of 6-fluoro-3-(2-chlorophenyl)quinazolin-4-ones has been prepared, which contains a 2-fluorophenyl ring attached to C-2 by a variety of two-atom tethers. These compounds were used to probe the structure-activity relationship (SAR) for AMPA receptor inhibition. The relative potencies of the new compounds ranged from 11 nM to greater than 10 microM. The differential activity of the compounds was rationalized on the basis of alterations of the 2-fluorophenyl positioning (planar and radial) relative to the quinazolin-4-one ring based on computational methods. From this effort, new AMPA receptor antagonists, containing the methylamino tether group, have been identified.


Excavation beside Sruth a' Mhuilinn recorded a man-made, sub-rectangular pool cut into the gravels of the stream course, as well as a group of large post-pits. The pool was deliberately backfilled in the course of a recent reorganization of the site. There is no salient archaeological interpretation, but discussion considers whether this is the site of a modern horizontal water mill, and weighs this possibility in the light of the well-attested tradition for the use of Sruth a' Mhuilinn as a mill stream. The excavation was funded by Historic Scotland.


This paper compares the integration of measurement data with the data-fusion of the same set of data, and shows the superiority of the data-fusion by applying certain information functions and additional transformations to the covariance matrices. The algorithm to be used is the linear Kalman-Filter where the covariances can be computed without any measurement data. The improvement of the data-fusion algorithm will be demonstrated by partitioning the system into a canonical form (independent subsystems), which allows the processing of every set of data on its own (integration of data). In a further algorithm we evaluate the same sets of data, but this time the system models consists of the real physical relationships of the variables and therefore combines the different measurements to the desired estimates (data-fusion). In a first step we compare the estimates of both algorithms and their variances to understand that data fusion leads to more exact estimates. This is because the different measurement variables do not only contain information of the value of 'their own' state variable, but also of the values of other state variables. So this information leads to more exact estimates. To demonstrate the information gain we use Shannon's entropy, which provides a scalar measure of the whole additional information contained in the measurement variables. To obtain the gained information of every single state variable an additional transformation is necessary. This transformation (Karhunen-Loeve) and the fact that Shannon's entropy depends on the coordinate system, finally demonstrates the improvement of the data-fusion algorithm for every single state variable.