This paper presents a novel situation retrieval (SR) model for supporting cognition-driven decision processes in digital business ecosystems. Cognitive decision support in digital ecosystems is concerned with decision makers' cognitive processes. This study aims to facilitate cognitive decision support to decision makers on the basis of current business intelligence (BI) platform. Underlying foundations of the SR model are two types of mental constructs: situation awareness (SA) and mental models of decision makers and the model of naturalistic decision making (NDM). These mental constructs and NDM are integrated into the BI application framework. Our experiments showed that the SR model was playing a nontrivial role to help decision makers develop enhanced SA and reuse their past experience to make better decisions.


We analyze a canonical principal-agent problem with both moral hazard and adverse selection. We derive sufficient conditions for a menu of contracts to be feasible. We then provide a method of solution, which we call decoupling. It consists of first minimizing the cost of implementing any given action at any given surplus for any given type in a pure moral hazard problem, and then use the resulting cost function as an input to a pure adverse-selection problem. We show broad classes of primitives under which the solution to this radically simplified program is indeed optimal in the full problem. Decoupling has powerful implications for the structure of optimal menus. We illustrate our results in the context of an insurance market.


Breeding adults and larvae of Macropetasma africanus were sampled over a two-year period in Algoa Bay, South Africa. Gonadal macro- and microscopic examination enabled classification of breeding females into four stages of development. Breeding females were present throughout the study with a summer peak of late maturing and mature females. Larvae were present in the plankton throughout the study with peak abundance in summer. Protozoea, mysis and post-larval stages were recorded with the mysis stage most abundant. Significantly higher numbers of the mysis and post-larval stages were taken at shallow stations (5 m) off sandy beaches than at the deeper stations (18 m). The presence of breeding females in the mature stage of ovarian development and the increase in larval abundance in summer indicates spawning throughout the year with peak intensity in summer.


In the oxidation of alcohols with TEMPO as catalyst, the substrate has alternatively been postulated to be oxidized but uncoordinated TEMPO(+) (Semmelhack) or Cu-coordinated TEMPO(•) radical (Sheldon). The reaction with the Cu(bipy)(2+)/TEMPO cocatalyst system has recently been claimed, on the basis of DFT calculations, to not be a radical reaction but to be best viewed as electrophilic attack on the alcohol C-H(α) bond by coordinated TEMPO(+). This mechanism combines elements of the Semmelhack mechanism (oxidation of TEMPO to TEMPO(+)) and the Sheldon proposal ("in the coordination sphere of Cu"). The recent proposal has been challenged on the basis of DFT calculations with a different functional, which were reported to lead to a radical mechanism. We carefully examine the results for the two functionals and conclude from both the calculated energetics and from an electronic structure analysis that the results of the two DFT functionals are consistent and that both lead to the proposed mechanism with TEMPO not acting as radical but as (coordinated) positive ion.


New coding standard H.264 supports motion compensation block sizes ranging from 16times16 to 4times4, therefore the original corrupted macroblock (MB) may be split into MB partitions or MB sub-partitions depending on MB mode, and each of the partitions or sub-partitions has its own motion vector (MV). For nature video, in two successive frames, the two motion compensated areas are correlative both in MB mode and theirs MVs. We propose a new temporal error concealment algorithm based on variable MB mode. It estimates corrupted MB mode using backward motion tracking (BMT) firstly and recover MVs of the corrupted MB mode adaptively. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the existing MV recovery methods for error concealment at different block loss rates (BLRs)


The successful genetic selection for higher milk production caused a dramatic decline in the reproductive performance of dairy cows all over the world during the last decades. Achievement of optimum herd reproductive performance (calving interval of 12 or 13 months with the first calf born at 24 months of age) requires concentrated management activities especially during the first 100 days following calving. The following management activities are needed to pursue during the early postpartum period to reach or approach the optimal reproductive performance such as careful surveillance and assistance at calving, prevention of post parturient diseases, early diagnosis and treatment of postpartum uterine abnormalities, accurate detection of oestrus, correct timing of insemination, reducing the effect of heat stress and early pregnancy diagnosis. Among these main activities only early diagnosis and treatment of post partum uterine abnormalities and their effects on milk production and reproductive performance are discussed.


This study was carried out to investigate a new quarter-individual milking system called MultiLactor® (Siliconform GmbH, Turkheim, Germany). The MultiLactor enables milking on quarter level basis with low vacuum (37 kPa), sequential pulsation and periodic air inlet. Within the same dairy farm, the influence of this quarter-individual milking system (MULTI) on milkability traits was compared with a conventional milking system (CON). CON was equipped with a conventional milking cluster and used alternating pulsation. Vacuum level was adjusted to 40 kPa. For the study, 84 Holstein Friesian cows were randomly selected and uniformly divided into two herds. During the 30-week survey, the milk flow curves were recorded every other week by using a LactoCorder (WMB, Balgach, Switzerland). Significant differences (P<0.05) between both milking systems were found for all milk flow traits, except for milk yield and decline phase. Concerning the incline (tAN) and plateau (tPL) phase, large differences existed between MULTI and CON. The estimated value of tAN calculated for MULTI (29.4 s) took only half of the time when calculated for CON (56.4 s). The estimated value of tPL at CON was reduced by 1.43 min (35 %) compared to MULTI. Milking process at MULTI (8.49 min) took longer time than for CON (7.43 min). From the study, it was concluded that the effect of shorter tAN in the quarter-individual milked cows may be related to additional prestimulation by an actuator. In contrast, the longer milking time in MULTI is possibly caused by lower vacuum level and periodic air inlet.


In the context of Islamic law, the Jakarta Charter was seen as one of the result of the trial BPUPKI, a persuasive source. New Islamic Law becomes authoritative sources (sources of law has been legally binding) in the state administration, when the July 5 Presidential Decree 1959 which recognizes that animates the Jakarta Charter 1945. Islamic law as a legal order that guided and adhered to by the majority of the population and the people of Indonesia is both the law that has been living within the community. It has also become the part of the teachings and beliefs of Islam that exists in the national law as well as the source of guidance and development.


With the advent of communication technology, access to interaction and communication data has increased dramatically. We can now trace communication events such as sending and receiving emails, text messages, and other forms of interaction via ICT. But how can we use this data to understand the structure of social networks and their development?


Objective:  To  determine the nursing diagnoses in adults with cancer treated in the Oncology Unity of the Teaching Hospital of Bucaramanga, since January to July of 2006.  Methodology: cross sectional study. Ninety adults with cancer were tested.  A format test for screening of nursing diagnoses was used.  This format contained defining characteristics for nursing diagnoses proposal for NANDA.  Then, specific tests were applied for to confirm the nursing diagnoses. A person was considered with nursing diagnosis when at least 2 defining characteristics were present or one risk characteristic for risk diagnoses. The dates were filled and we calculated prevalence of nursing diagnoses with their confidential intervals of 95%. Results: one hundred and forty two nursing diagnosis were identified.  There were high prevalences of Risk for injury 94% (IC95% 88-98), knowledge deficit 92% (IC95% 85-97), risk for infection 91% (IC95% 84-96), sexuality patterns altered 84% (IC95% 77-92), disposition for improve therapeutics regimen 84% (IC95% 76-91), health seeking behaviors, disposition for improved communication and amusement activity deficit, each one with 78% (IC95% 68-85). Conclusions: oncology nurse account with nursing process: important tool to standardize care and improve quality for attention oncology patients. Nurses must test their patients to determine nursing diagnoses, realized care account diagnoses and tested results.  The high prevalence link with risk  deficit and disposal to improve. The nursing interventions helpful to decrease risk, to supply deficit and make good use of disposition of patient for improve their quality of life, with participation of nurse.


Background: Phospholipases A2 (PLA2s) are found in abundance in many North American snake species. They are responsible for a wide array of pharmacological effects on tissues both locally and systemically. In A.p.piscivorus (A.p.p.), these toxins make up a significant portion of venom constituents. A basic PLA2 was recently isolated through reverse phase HPLC and identified as a D-49 PLA2 (A.p.p PLA2). After testing activities on an in vivo model, the release of pro-inflammatory mediators, systemic myotoxicity, and hemolytic effects were observed. This study aims to explore the hematological, myotoxic and pro-inflammatory activities of this toxin using in vitro models.
Methods: Whole blood was used to test hemolytic activity of A.p.p PLA2 in vitro and, through the SONOCLOT analyzer, the effects on the hemostatic system. Moreover, we tested cell viability, expression of cell activation molecules, and cell damage markers on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) representing the vascular system and a myoblast cell line (C2C12) as a muscle model. Cells were incubated with A.p.p PLA2 over different times. Cell viability was tested using MTT assay, the expression and release of pro-inflammatory and hemostatic mediators were done using flow cytometry and ELISA. Muscle damage was detected evaluating creatine kinase (CK) release.
Discussion/ Conclusion: It was observed that A.p.p PLA2 caused significant hemolytic activity and substantial changes in the coagulation system and mild changes in platelet function in whole human blood. Likewise, this toxin altered cell viability in C2C12 but not in HUVEC. Endothelial cells were also activated when incubated both at 3 h and 24 h. Additionally, C2C12 released IL-6 and CK, which are markers of cell damage. This data can be used for further experimentation to characterize enzymes belonging to this family to produce specialized antivenoms that target PLA2s and their biological activities.


Changes in dietary acid and blood pH lead to adaptations in key enzymes and transport proteins of the renal proximal tubule that tend to return blood pH to normal. The mechanisms responsible, as well as acid-regulated signaling pathways that may effect these responses, are reviewed.


Atmospheric delay has a profound impact on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry, inducing a spatial signal that significantly devaluates interferometric products. While the wide-scale variability of the atmosphere can be adequately modeled with global or regional weather models, it is especially the turbulent and convective part of the atmosphere at smaller spatial and temporal scales that is typically poorly captured. Due to the high resolution and precision of InSAR, there is a need for a realistic modeling of the 3-D distribution of turbulent refractivity in the boundary layer. This would enable assessment of the impact of a temporal or spatial model misalignment on the interferometric products, and contribute to studying the impact for future SAR missions. Here we test the feasibility of an advanced large Eddy simulation (LES) model to simulate a time-series refractivity distribution with a high spatio-temporal resolution to show the spatio-temporal variability of the troposphere on short time scales. We found for a fair-weather situation that the LES model produces realistic atmospheric simulations that match stochastically with results found in interferometric studies and that tropospheric delay variation leads to significant phase gradients within several minutes. This implies that even when using an (unrealistic) perfect weather model with resolutions similar to the SAR image, realizations that are several minutes apart from the time of the SAR acquisition will lead to significant phase errors. We propose the use of LES models as a realistic instrument to perform InSAR quality-assessments and for the development and simulation for future missions.


"Peace Action: Past, Present, and Future" is a collection of short, lively essays written by prominent leaders and supporters of Peace Action and its two important predecessors the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. Just in time for its 50th anniversary, Peace Action brings together reflections on the largest and most influential peace organization in history. At the same time, this book provides a unique resource for understanding popular protest against nuclear weapons and war in the modern era. It illuminates the local, national, and international role of Peace Action today and outlines Peace Action s strategies for the future, including ongoing protest against the war in Iraq and a negotiated resolution of nuclear issues in Iran and North Korea.Read Katrina vanden Heuvel's blog on "Peace Action" at http: //www.thenation.com"


E-Government makes public and private sector interact with government easily via electronic media. The problem that arises is Semarang entered the lower categories of e-government votes in 2014 by Ranking E-Government of Indonesia (PEGI) Ministry of Communication and Information of the Republic of Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to assess the implementation of e-government in Semarang city and the factors that hinder the implementation of e-government in the Semarang city. The method used is qualitative descriptive. The results showed that the lack of regulations implementing e-government, the workload of human resources in some SKPD is too large, the difficulty of the installation of network infrastructure in the city, the financial resources of e-government Semarang financed by the budget; there are many benefits and no rejection from the public. Factors that hinder the implementation of e-government are the government support in terms of policy, human resource, and infrastructure resources. Overcoming limiting factor is the government of Semarang can formulate rules on the implementation of e-government so that Semarang has a reference in the implementation of e-government, SKPD provides a reliable employee in managing websites, installation and reparation of network done at night.


The TRIPS treaty requires that WTO members offer patent or sui generis protections for plant life. Yet, many developing countries oppose intellectual property for plant life because, for those nations, plant IP has proven to be financially, environmentally, and socially detrimental. The farmers' rights movement has grown out of such opposition and is an effort on the part of interest groups and developing countries to afford subsistence farmers control over farming methods and compensation for their contribution to the world's biodiversity. Developing nations and farmers' rights groups have spearheaded multiple treaties aiming to curtail plant monopoly rights; however, the treaties have been ineffective and the growing strength of plant monopolies in developed countries is unlikely to wane. Meanwhile, farmers need a solution that allows them to maintain control over their farming practices, preserve traditional cross-breeding methods, and receive compensation for their contribution to the state of the art of crop varieties. Open source provides such a solution. An open-source regime protecting farmer-developed plant varieties would utilize intellectual property and copyleft-inspired seed wrap licenses to generate a pool of plant species that farmers could freely grow, improve, and market. Open source programs would further farmers' rights by protecting farmer-developed resources from predatory monopolization and by providing an entity through which farmers can share information and have a voice in agriculture-related policy-making. Additionally, open source pools would act to conserve biodiversity and promote environmentally-friendly farming by encouraging farmers to cultivate plant varieties adapted to local climates and disease instead of using mass-produced seed and treating heavily with pesticides.


It is generally accepted that protein complexes play an active role in avoiding the protein degradation of the thermophiles. Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis was cultured at three different temperatures (55, 75 and 80°C) and the extracts of protein complexes were prepared. Through blue native PAGE, the changes of the relative band volumes in response to different temperatures were semi‐quantitatively compared and six temperature‐dependent bands were obtained. These bands were excised, digested with trypsin and then analyzed with MS for the identification of protein components. With the combination of the proteins identified by LC MS/MS and MALDI TOF/TOF MS, a total of 92 unique proteins were ascertained in these complexes. Besides, some protein components were examined with Western blot, which gave us insights into the survival mechanism of thermophiles. These included (i) the composition of complex at 80°C was significantly different from that at the other two temperatures; (ii) HSPs presented in all temperature‐dependent complexes; (iii) several proteins associated with the functional pathways existed in the same complexes, indicating that the complex structure provided facility for the functional efficiency.


Asymmetric hydrosilylation of simple ketones with diphenylsilane proceeded at -40 °C in the presence of a rhodium complex (0.001—0.01 molar amount) coordinated with a trans-chelating chiral bisphosphine ligand bearing linear alkyl substituents on the phosphorus atoms, (R,R)-(S,S)-Et-, Pr-, or BuTRAP, giving the corresponding optically active (S)-secondary alcohols with up to 97% ee. The asymmetric hydrosilylation using TRAP ligands with bulkier P-substituents resulted in much lower enantioselectivities. The EtTRAP-rhodium catalyst was also effective for asymmetric hydrosilylation of keto esters with a coordination site for a rhodium atom (up to 98% ee). Optically active symmetrical diols were obtained with up to 99% ee from the corresponding diketones via the asymmetric reduction using 2.5 molar amounts of diphenylsilane.


A variety of activity happens around the sidewalk in the city. Particularly, a large variety of activity happens in shopping area, but it causes an obstruction of economical revitalization since the pedestrians require time and cost to find what they want. So, this study will develop the path searching method to minimize the economical loss of shoppers by providing the significant path and supporting the walking movement. Firstly, consider existing network expression techniques and approach three points which are physical and environmental factor, the recognition of the pedestrians' space when changing the direction, and the recognition of restriction of vision and accessibility. Try to design the network DB and simulate the algorithm. As a result, it is now possible to do the path searching that considers variety of recognition factors and show the method how to make the path-searching algorithm for pedestrian.


Isotachophoresis is an electrophoretic method of separation of charged substances. The method is characterized by a discontinuous buffer system, constant velocity of separated molecules, and the distribution of separated components in the form of narrow concentrated bands located one right after another. As a rule, isotachophoresis is not used for the separation of nucleic acids because the mobility of polynucleotides in this system does not depend on their size. However, this circumstance proved to be very useful for the quantitative isolation of heterogeneous DNA fragments from biological fluids, for gene diagnostics of cancer in particular. The proposed method of agarose gel isotachophoresis of DNA has been used for the isolation of blood DNA and its successful PCR analysis.


Tibetan Buddhist nuns are making history in numerous ways. They now meet in classrooms instead of tents, earn the title "Khenmo" after many years of dedicated study, and take exams that are standardized, frequent, and both written and oral. Additionally, the new educational system encourages Tibetan Jomos to take on more responsibility, increase their scholarship and practice, and obtain superior monastery/nunnery status. This article chronicles over two and a half decades of extensive fieldwork, covering the advances in monastic education and the rising standing of women in Larung Gar and contemporary China. These advances are in stark contrast to the limited opportunities for women in the past.


The interaction of water molecule and a ceria (111) surface was investigated using DFT+U (density functional theory with the inclusion of on-site Coulomb interaction by introducing Hubbard U parameter) method. The results show that water molecules adsorb on the oxidized ceria (111) surface through a single H-bond configuration and they do not decompose. On a reduced ceria (111) surface, the water molecules adsorb through a non-H-bond configuration. Furthermore, water molecules prefer to dissociate and form a hydroxyl surface. The hydroxyl surface is much more stable than the physisorption state of H2 on the oxidized ceria (111) surface. In other words, reoxidation of the reduced ceria (111) surface through the dissociation of the hydroxyl surface and the generation of H2 molecules is an endothermic process. Therefore, there are mainly two adsorption states for water molecules on the reduced ceria (111) surface: i) chemisorption through a non-H-bond configuration and ii) dissociative adsorption with a hydroxyl surface. The hydroxyl surface may dissociate under certain conditions and reoxidize the reduced ceria (111) surface.


Photons can undergo spin-orbit coupling, by which the polarization (spin) and spatial profile (orbit) of the electromagnetic field interact and mix. Strong photonic spin-orbit coupling may reportedly arise from light propagation confined in a small cross-section, where the optical modes feature spin-orbit entanglement. However, while photonic Hamiltonians generally exhibit nonlinearity, the role and implication of spin-orbit entanglement in nonlinear optics have received little attention and are still elusive. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of nonlinear optical frequency conversion, where spin-orbit entanglement facilitates spin-to-orbit transfer among different optical frequencies. By pumping a multimode optical nanofiber with a spin-polarized Gaussian pump beam, we produce an optical vortex at the third harmonic, which has long been regarded as a forbidden process in isotropic media. Our findings offer a unique and powerful means for efficient optical vortex generation that only incorporates a single Gaussian pump beam, in sharp contrast to any other approaches employing structured pump fields or sophisticatedly designed media. Our work opens up new possibilities of spin-orbit-coupling subwavelength waveguides, inspiring fundamental studies of nonlinear optics involving various types of structured light, as well as paving the way for the realization of hybrid quantum systems comprised of telecom photonic networks and long-lived quantum memories.


Barite sag is a serious problem encountered while drilling high-pressure/high-temperature (HPHT) wells. It occurs when barite particles separate from the base fluid leading to variations in drilling fluid density that may cause a serious well control issue. However, it occurs in vertical and inclined wells under both static and dynamic conditions. This study introduces a combined barite–ilmenite weighting material to prevent the barite sag problem in water-based drilling fluid. Different drilling fluid samples were prepared by adding different percentages of ilmenite (25, 50, and 75 wt.% from the total weight of the weighting agent) to the base drilling fluid (barite-weighted). Sag tendency of the drilling fluid samples was evaluated under static and dynamic conditions to determine the optimum concentration of ilmenite which was required to prevent the sag issue. A static sag test was conducted under both vertical and inclined conditions. The effect of adding ilmenite to the drilling fluid was evaluated by measuring fluid density and pH at room temperature, and rheological properties at 120 °F and 250 °F. Moreover, a filtration test was performed at 250 °F to study the impact of adding ilmenite on the drilling fluid filtration performance and sealing properties of the formed filter cake. The results of this study showed that adding ilmenite to barite-weighted drilling fluid increased fluid density and slightly reduced the pH within the acceptable pH range (9–11). Ilmenite maintained the rheology of the drilling fluid with a minimal drop in rheological properties due to the HPHT conditions, while a significant drop was observed for the base fluid (without ilmenite). Adding ilmenite to the base drilling fluid significantly reduced sag factor and 50 wt.% ilmenite was adequate to prevent solids sag in both dynamic and static conditions with sag factors of 0.33 and 0.51, respectively. Moreover, HPHT filtration results showed that adding ilmenite had no impact on filtration performance of the drilling fluid. The findings of this study show that the combined barite–ilmenite weighting material can be a good solution to prevent solids sag issues in water-based fluids; thus, drilling HPHT wells with such fluids would be safe and effective.


We document that a firm's inflexibility to adjust its productive scale reduces its financial leverage, based on a theory-grounded inflexibility measure. Higher default risk and lower value of tax shields associated with inflexibility are two potential channels. Further evidence shows that contraction inflexibility plays a more critical role in determining financial leverage than expansion inflexibility. Moreover, the substitution effect between financial and operating leverage is weaker among flexible firms. In addition, inflexible firms increase financial leverage more than flexible firms following a positive credit supply shock. Our results suggest that inflexibility shapes corporate financial policies.


The MENA countries face a multitude of challenges, in particular relating to the efficiency, size and reform of the public sector. Large public sectors, highly centralised government administrations, complex regulatory structures, limited development of institutions and limited attention to promoting voice, transparency and accountability in government are characteristic of the situation in many MENA countries. The application of modern technologies and ICT in the form of e-Government could yield great benefits in the reform and modernization of the public sector. The experience of e-Government in a number of developed as well as in developing countries has proven to be a tool for economic development, institutional and civil service reform, for greater efficiency and transparency and has led to higher productivity growth in government provided goods and services. The institution of e-Government can also be instrumental in achieving ?good governance?, direct representation and voice, providing support for increased democracy. The paper discusses and assesses the extent of e-readiness of the MENA countries documenting the limited network readiness of countries and governments. We present a number of policy recommendations, outlining the components for a national and regional strategy to achieve the benefits of e-Government in the MENA region. Strong leadership is required to implement institutional reform both within government and at the national level to capture and internalise the benefits of e-Government. The paper reviews and provides references to some on-going projects and highlights new applications with high potential returns for the MENA countries. We call for increased investment in broadband technology, the institution of a General Digital Certificate to build e-Human Capital and the incorporation and imbedding of e-Government within national e-Strategies. Countries in the MENA region need to act quickly to reduce the digital divide and use e-Government as a tool for good governance, economic development and democracy.


Progress in diagnosing, treating, and preventing medical conditions that impair decision-making abilities depends on clinical research involving individuals who may be either unable to or have diminished ability to give informed consent. Such research, however, raises ethical concern and controversy about the potential exploitation of these vulnerable individuals. This article addresses a range of ethical and practical issues concerning the enrollment of adults who are decisionally impaired, and those at risk of becoming so, in clinical research. These include (1) the relationship of decision-making capacity to competence, and the framework for determining competence in adults receiving clinical care and making treatment decisions for those who lack competence; (2) the differences between clinical practice and clinical research that influence the criteria for permissible research involving incompetent adults and the applicability of the framework guiding treatment decisions to clinical research decisions; and (3) the regulatory framework developed to guide the ethical participation of children in research and its applicability to determining the scope and limits of research with incompetent adults.


The deployment of robot swarms is influenced by real-world factors, such as motor issues, sensor failure, and wind disturbances. These factors cause the appearance of faulty robots. In a decentralized swarm, sharing incorrect information from faulty robots will lead to undesired swarm behaviors, such as swarm disconnection and incorrect heading directions. We envision a system where a human operator is exerting supervisory control over a remote swarm by indicating changes in trust to the swarm via a "trust-signal". By correcting faulty behaviors, trust between the human and the swarm is maintained to facilitate human-swarm cooperation. In this research, a trust-aware behavior reflection method --Trust-R -- is designed based on a weighted mean subsequence reduced algorithm (WMSR). By using Trust-R, detected faulty behaviors are automatically corrected by the swarm in a decentralized fashion by referring to the motion status of their trusted neighbors and isolating failed robots from the others. Based on real-world scenarios, three types of robot faults -- degraded performance caused by motor wear, abnormal motion caused by system uncertainty and motion deviation caused by an external disturbance such as wind -- were simulated to test the effectiveness of Trust-R. Results show that Trust-R is effective in correcting swarm behaviors for swarm self-healing.


Coupling of radiation to /spl Gamma/ point photonic crystal resonances is explored through photoluminescence measurements. Photoluminescence from a quantum well embedded in a two-dimensional photonic crystal is enhanced by resonant fields. Experiments and simulations are compared.


Pulp and Paper from Radiata Pine is the definitive guide on the subject, written by Dr J Mervyn Uprichard. This comprehensive study describes and evaluates research data on radiata pine obtained over five decades, and describes some aspects of its industrial processing. Radiata Pine is the principal softwood of plantation forests in Australia, Chile and New Zealand and has the advantage of fast growth rate. It is widely used for sawn timber, panelboard, pulp and paper and other products. There has been extensive investigation of its wood properties and how the wide variation in wood quality within the tree influences the properties of pulp and paper products obtained from different levels in the stem. Optimal processing strategies for the species are also outlined. Pulp and Paper from Radiata Pine shows that radiata pine containing tracheids, with suitable dimensions for production of chemical and mechanical pulps with specific papermaking properties, can be selected for use from the existing forest crop, and may be grown in future forests.


This article aims to describe the concept of nature from Buya Hamka's perspective and its relationship to the family environment, so that we can find out what is inside of humans related to doing something, especially things that deviate from the norm. In this study using library research methods with the object of research is the Tafsir Al-Azhar by Buya Hamka and books that discuss the concept of fitrah. The findings in this study are that the role of the environment in the formation of the concept of nature in Buya Hamka's perspective is very important for digging, cleaning and beautifying nature, al-qalb, al-aql and al-jism.


The 3rd Generation Partnership Project is specifying solutions for IP flow mobility, which enable IP data flows being routed between a mobile terminal and the infrastructure via a 3GPP and non-3GPP access systems, e.g. over LTE and WLAN. Connectivity via the different access systems is provided based on the concept of a shared single Packet Data Network connection. In order to enable IP flow mobility, the mobile terminal must be able to identify individual data flows and take routing decisions in the uplink. The mobile terminal's mobility anchor, the PDN Gateway, in the Evolved Packet Core requires the equivalent functionality for the downlink. Synchronization and dynamic changes in these flow routing policies, either initiated by the mobile terminal or the mobile operator, entail technical challenges in particular for network-based mobility management according to the Proxy Mobile IPv6 protocol, which does not consider mobility-related signaling between a mobile terminal and the network infrastructure. This paper proposes a solution for IP flow mobility, which re-uses the Policy and Charging Control system of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project's packet core. The flexibility and efficiency of the proposed Routing Policy Configuration Application Function, which represents an integral part of the Policy and Charging Control system, is analyzed and discussed based on existing and new use cases.


The aim of this study was to investigate microencapsulation of palm oil fractions (palm olein (POL) and 90% palm olein+10% palm stearin (POS)) using skim milk powder (SMP) and maltodextrin (MD) by spray drying. Twenty-seven emulsions with POL were prepared to determine appropriate solid content (SC) and oil/coating material ratio (O/CM) of the emulsions to be fed into the spray dryer. Emulsion properties, such as viscosity and stability, were affected by SC and coating materials. The effects of coating materials used in microencapsulation of POL and POS were also tested by using different ratios of SMP and MD. The microencapsulation efficiency (69.28–84.97%), the microencapsulation yield (14.50–31.79%), and the peroxide value (4.12–7.07 meq O2/kg oil) of the powders were affected by the coating materials (P < 0.05).


This study purpose is to analyze esthetic characters on Durga illustration with simple discharge screen printing technique. As many people know, Durga visualization is more identically spooky impression. Durga illustration used as reference or as an object on simple discharge screen printing technique, which is a type of screen print that removes the basic color of the fabric with chlorine material as a mixture of ink, produce a distinctive color effect and different from the usual screen printing techniques. This study will focus on the form balance and aesthetic characteristics or properties such as complexity, it becomes interesting to study. Furthermore in this writing using qualitative descriptive method in order to get a systematic, factual, and accurate overview of aesthetics through the balance form of Durga illustration with a simple discharge screening technique.


We describe a heterogeneous simulation framework in which conventional simulation models and the DEVS (Discrete Event Systems Specification) models can be interoperable. The framework conceptually consists of three layers: the model layer, the DEVS layer, and the HLA (High Level Architecture) layer. The model layer has a collection of heterogeneous simulation models, such as DEVS, CSIM, SLAM, and so on, to represent various aspects of a complex system. The DEVS layer provides a common framework, called the DEVS BUS, so that such simulation models can communicate with each other. Finally, the HLA layer is employed as a communication infrastructure, which supports several good features for distributed simulation. The DEVS BUS has been implemented on the HLA and a simple example of communicating two heterogeneous models has been developed to validate the DEVS BUS.


ABSTRACT: Traditionally, abdominoperineal resection has been the accepted surgical therapy for anorectal carcinoma. A review is presented of the experience with this procedure at the University of Iowa Hospitals, involving 52 patients (33 men, 19 women) over the age of 80 (median, 81 years). The most common symptoms were: rectal bleeding in 35 patients, change in character of stool in 35, weight loss in 13, and abdominal pain in 7. A rectal mass was palpable in 45 patients and visible by sigmoidoscopy in 3 others. Of the 52 patients, 23 percent (12/52) died before postoperative discharge from the hospital, and 32 percent of the survivors had significant postoperative complications. The most lethal complications were related to problems of surgical technique. The median survival time for patients discharged from the hospital was 22 months, with causes of death being equally distributed between recurrent carcinoma and other disorders. Abdominoperineal resection remains an acceptable method for treatment of anorectal carcinoma in the aged (80 or older) provided it is carried out with meticulous technique and careful selection of the patients.


A procedure for the estimation of field errors in finite element analysis based on a local approach is presented. The error estimate is numerically computed over each element solving a problem formulated in terms of field according to Helmholtz's theorem. For the numerical solution of the problem an edge elements approach was used. The proposed method and the numerical techniques used are described and some comparisons with other methods are reported. The proposed method has been implemented in the 2-D environment CEDEF, in the interactive module developed for the comparison of adaptive meshing and error estimation techniques. The new method has shown better, or at least equivalent, performances in the correct overestimate of the behavior of the numerical errors. >


Presented are new features of the boosted system, which is a BI-STCM-ID-like space-time diversity scheme, designed for 2×2 MIMO wireless channels. A simple method, involving power control of the signals transmitted by two antennas, is delivered to diminish bit error rate and match the system behaviour to varying SNR. Its usefulness is proven by analytic tools (EXIT chart, EF bound calculation), and simulation results.


The GCOM-C (SHIKISAI) satellite was developed to understand the mechanisms of global climate change. The Second-generation Global Imager (SGLI) onboard GCOM-C is an optical sensor observing wavelengths from 380 nm to 12.0 µm in 19 bands. One of the notable features is that the resolution of the 1.63-, 10.8-, and 12.0-µm bands is 250 m, with an observation frequency of 2–3 days. To investigate the effective use and potential of the 250-m resolution of these SGLI bands in the study of eruptive activities, we analyzed four practical cases. As an example of large-scale effusive activity, we studied the 2018 Kilauea eruption. By analyzing the series of 10.8-µm band images using cumulative thermal anomaly maps, we could observe that the lava effused on the lower East Rift Zone, initially flowed down the southern slope to the sea, and then moved eastward. As an example of lava dome growth and generation of associated pyroclastic flows, the activity at Sheveluch between December 2018 and December 2019 was analyzed. The 1.63- and 10.8-µm bands were shown to be suitable for observing growth of the lava dome and occurrence of pyroclastic flows, respectively. We found that the pyroclastic flows occurred during periods of rapid lava dome expansion. For the study of an active crater lake, the activity of Ijen during 2019 was analyzed. The lake temperature was found to rise rapidly in mid-May and reach 38 °C in mid-June. We also analyzed the intermittent activities of small-scale Vulcanian eruptions at Sakurajima in 2019. The 1.63-µm band was useful for detecting activities that are associated with Vulcanian eruptions. Analytical results for these case studies demonstrated that the GCOM-C SGLI images are beneficial for observing various aspects of volcanic activity, and their real-time use may contribute to reducing eruption-related disasters.


A possibility for amplification of image brightness in a strontium vapor has been pointed out for the first time. A regime for image intensification in the violet spectral region has been realized experimentally. An increase in image sharpness was investigated theoretically for a multipass self-conjugate optical system with an active medium.


Genetic algorithm (GA) was widely used to engineering and optimization fields. The performance of GA and extension of its application fields were affected by the limitation of its code. Floating point representation (FPR) is super to other codes in function and constraint optimization fields. Noise was brought by the FPR in selection and crossover operation,its influence to the performance of GA was not noticed by re searchers. In this paper, the property of the noise in FPR is mostly analyzed in inherit operation. The mechanism of denoising in FPR is researched with wavelet threshold coefficient. Denoising is implemented by mutation. That wavelet theory used in floating point representation genetic algorithm (FPRGA) is credible for reducing noise level, the method is feasible, is indicated by its results of research and experiment.


OBJECTIVE Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and chronic kidney disease have an increased risk of micro- and macrovascular disease, but limited options for antihyperglycemic therapy. We compared the efficacy and safety of sitagliptin with glipizide in patients with T2DM and moderate-to-severe chronic renal insufficiency and inadequate glycemic control. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Patients (n = 426) were randomized 1:1 to sitagliptin (50 mg every day [q.d.] for moderate renal insufficiency and 25 mg q.d. for severe renal insufficiency) or glipizide (2.5 mg q.d., adjusted based on glycemic control to a 10-mg twice a day maximum dose). Randomization was stratified by: 1) renal status (moderate or severe renal insufficiency); 2) history of cardiovascular disease; and 3) history of heart failure. RESULTS At week 54, treatment with sitagliptin was noninferior to treatment with glipizide in A1C change from baseline (−0.8 vs. −0.6%; between-group difference −0.11%; 95% CI −0.29 to 0.06) because the upper bound of the 95% CI was less than the prespecified noninferiority margin of 0.4%. There was a lower incidence of symptomatic hypoglycemia adverse events (AEs) with sitagliptin versus glipizide (6.2 and 17.0%, respectively; P = 0.001) and a decrease in body weight with sitagliptin (−0.6 kg) versus an increase (1.2 kg) with glipizide (difference, −1.8 kg; P < 0.001). The incidence of gastrointestinal AEs was low with both treatments. CONCLUSIONS In patients with T2DM and chronic renal insufficiency, sitagliptin and glipizide provided similar A1C-lowering efficacy. Sitagliptin was generally well-tolerated, with a lower risk of hypoglycemia and weight loss versus weight gain, relative to glipizide.


The Swedish naturalist Carl von Linne (1707-1778) wrote his entire scientific œuvre in Latin. Because of both the rarity and costliness of his books and the decline of Latin as the language of science in France, Linnaeus' partisans tried from 1780 onwards to translate his major works into French. Quesne's integral translation of the Philosophia botanica of 1788 is characteristic of this attempt. But this enterprise encountered major difficulties, as some translators proposed a wholesale 'Frenchisation' of the Latin terminology, while others preferred to explicate Linnaeus' terse style by means of paraphrases and commentaries. The origin of the problem resides in the fact that Linnaeus had created a new language at once to describe and to name living beings. The translators' dilemma was also one of readership : were their translations to be used by experts or rather as pedagogical tools by learners?


We study Anderson localization of massless Dirac electrons in two dimensions in one-dimensional random scalar and vector potentials theoretically for two different cases, in which the scalar and vector potentials are either uncorrelated or correlated. From the Dirac equation, we deduce the effective wave impedance, using which we derive the condition for total transmission and those for delocalization in our random models analytically. Based on the invariant imbedding theory, we also develop a numerical method to calculate the localization length exactly for arbitrary strengths of disorder. In addition, we derive analytical expressions for the localization length, which are extremely accurate in the weak and strong disorder limits. In the presence of both scalar and vector potentials, the conditions for total transmission and complete delocalization are generalized from the usual Klein tunneling case. We find that the incident angles at which electron waves are either completely transmitted or delocalized can be tuned to arbitrary values. When the strength of scalar potential disorder increases to infinity, the localization length also increases to infinity, both in uncorrelated and correlated cases. The detailed dependencies of the localization length on incident angle, disorder strength and energy are elucidated and the discrepancies with previous studies and some new results are discussed. All the results are explained intuitively using the concept of wave impedance.


Cost and competitive pressures are forcing business organizations to reuse assets from repositories, rather than develop them from scratch. But this has been hampered by some issues that have not been addressed so far. First, there is a lack of a mechanism for the representation of business process assets as variants and versions in repositories. Second, there is no formal means to compare between different variants and versions of an asset and determine which is the best to select for reuse. Third, there is a lack of a technique to determine the extent to which a business process asset could be customized for reuse. In this paper, we address the above research issues by presenting an integrated approach for modeling, analyzing, and searching business process assets in a repository for enhancing reuse. We demonstrate our approach on a large repository of business process assets in the insurance domain.


The nature of compositional fields in aikinite and krupkaite has been investigated by electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Variation from ideal composition in these minerals results from the disordered inter$owth of krupkaite units in aikinite and of aikinite units in krupkaite. Disordered intergrowths of the wellordered superstructure phases such as friedrichite with aikinite and krupkaite were also observed. Contrary to earlier findings, solid solution does not appear to be a mechanism for compositional variation in natural members of the bismuthinite-aikinite series.


Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India and has undergone change management under successive change leaders in the form of its Chief Executive Officers. Their different approaches have brought the bank to the forefront of Indian banking. The bank is a leader in technology adoption and has been successful against other large private sector banks. Therefore, study of its change management profile and changing approaches based on published literature becomes imperative for a researcher and student of change management in banking. As they say in an amusing way, almost everything appears to be changing at Axis, except for the food menu. Different CEOs have contributed substantially for growth of the bank with their unique combination of change management initiatives.Comparison of styles of change leaders throws light on the consistency of change efforts and survival instinct of the bank and all the three leaders faced their challenges through external and internal change agents and involved communication as the main strategy. When a large bank transforms itself while staying within the constraints of being a public sector bank vis a vis a private sector bank in India, the story of such change management is indeed unique. It challenges conventional wisdom in many ways countering stereotypes of leadership, motivation, and change management. The transformation exercise attempted consciously to reinvent itself by Axis Bank under the successive leadership is unique and was key to change. These transformational initiatives have helped the bank cement its leading position and hence proves the research hypothesis deductively. It is a people story, achieved through well planned communication strategy, breaking hierarchies and reviving sense of team play and employee participation. The bank succeeded in its efforts to improve performance and became customer oriented. The bank has adopted digitisation of services in a big way and succeeded in digitising customer journeys. Therefore, change management is an enabler for greater performance and survival of the bank and hence proves the research hypothesis deductively. The bank has established change management as its core capability through the efforts of the three successive change leaders in the form of its Chairmen and managing Directors under changing economic scenarios.


About half of all cancer patients show a syndrome of cachexia, characterized by loss of adipose tissue and skeletal muscle mass. Such patients have a decreased survival time, compared with the survival time among patients without weight loss, and loss of total body protein leads to substantial impairment of respiratory muscle function. These changes cannot be fully explained by the accompanying anorexia, and nutritional supplementation alone is unable to reverse the wasting process. Despite a falling caloric intake, patients with cachexia frequently show an elevated resting energy expenditure as a result of increases in Cori cycle (i.e., catalytic conversion of lactic acid to glucose) activity, glucose and triglyceride-fatty acid cycling, and gluconeogenesis. A number of cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-apha, interleukins 1 and 6, interferon gamma, and leukemia-inhibitory factor, have been proposed as mediators of the cachectic process. However, the results of a number of clinical and laboratory studies suggest that the action of the cytokines alone is unable to explain the complex mechanism of wasting in cancer cachexia. In addition, cachexia has been observed in some xenograft models even without a cytokine involvement, suggesting that other factors may be involved. These probably include catabolic factors, which act directly on skeletal muscle and adipose tissue and the presence of which has been associated with the clinical development of cachexia. A polyunsaturated fatty acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, attenuates the action of such catabolic factors and has been shown to stabilize the process of wasting and resting energy expenditure in patients with pancreatic cancer. Such a pharmacologic approach may provide new insights into the treatment of cachexia.


Conference interpreting (CI) plays an important role around the world today, both at an international level and on a regional level. Conference interpreting, as a communicative process, which requires interpreters to take various factors into consideration, that is, initiators, target listeners, original speakers and their respective purposes as well as the characteristics of CI. Based on Loyalty Principle which is widely used in the research on the coordination among the interpersonal relationships in the parties concerned with the conference, the current study intends to probe into Loyalty Principle applied to CI quality assessment and come up with a multidimensional dynamic quality assessment mode to evaluate CI quality parameters.


This article contextualizes feminist activism within Northern Ghana, highlighting the complexities of activism in this society. I argue that although social media provides space for the articulation of marginalized voices, it is imperative to examine how cultural capital and an intimate knowledge of power dynamics within a socio-cultural context shapes successful activist work. Therefore, online activism when complemented by activist work offline, can be used to address injustices towards marginalized people. I contextualize the case within a religiously conservative society, emphasizing the role that an activist's positionality can play in facilitating activist work. Throughout the article, I deconstruct activism, shedding light on the evolution and malleability of activism depending on whether or not activist work leads to concrete results. Therefore, I draw on critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) to contextualize activist work that I engaged in, together with non-activist identifying people and feminist allies to seek justice for a woman who was front and center in our quest to address sexism publicly directed at her.


New fast track construction projects worth more than $100 billion are being implemented in Makkah to improve services being rendered to millions of pilgrims who come for Hajj and Umrah. The new development projects in Makkah, including largest expansion of the Grand Mosque. The time factor has become increasingly as an outstanding requirement on this construction projects. In the present work, the question "acceleration of construction projects" is moved in the center. Consequently, innovative structures, procedures and techniques are required for a time-oriented project management; consistently and purposefully focus on the reduction of process time and not to shrink back from entirely new, unfamiliar processes. so recommendations for the efficient management of construction projects always need to be developed taking into account the specific objectives and framework. This article discusses also the deterministic method, the simplified stochastic method and the application of the Monte-Carlo simulation as a stochastic method. With increasing of level of detail of the information content of the project and increases the calculation effort with the result that the range of the construction time decreases, thus the accuracy increases. Based on this range, finally the construction time of the building as well as the part times for the individual construction phases are determined.


Conclusion: The current data imply that the performance index as defined herein is a valid measure of the performance of a trainee using the virtual reality phacoemulsification simulator. Further, the performance index increase linearly with measurement cycles for less than five measurement cycles. To fully use the learning potential of the simulator more than four measurement cycles are required. Materials and methods: Altogether, 10 trainees were introduced to the simulator by an instructor and then performed a training program including four measurement cycles with three iterated measurements of the simulation at the end of each cycle. The simulation characteristics was standardized and defined in 14 parameters. The simulation was measured separately for the sculpting phase in 21 variables, and for the evacuation phase in 22 variables. A performance index based on all measured variables was estimated for the sculpting phase and the evacuation phase, respectively, for each measurement and the three measurements for each cycle were averaged. Finally, the performance as a function of measurement cycle was estimated for each trainee with regression, assuming a straight line. The estimated intercept and inclination coefficients, respectively, were finally averaged for all trainees. Results: The performance increased linearly with the number of measurement cycles both for the sculpting and for the evacuation phase.


The nitrite reductase (NIR) gene was cloned from Ochrobactrum anthropi 49187 and found to contain an open reading frame of 1131 nucleotides, encoding a polypeptide of 376 amino acids. The O. anthropi NIR gene encodes a copper‐type dissimilatory reductase based on sequence homology with other genes. The polypeptide product is predicted to form a trimeric holoenzyme of 37 kDa subunits based on molecular weight estimates of extracts in activity gels. Expression of the enzyme is up‐regulated by nitrate, presumably through the intermediate nitrite, and its activity is influenced by inhibitors. Salinity enhances the activity of existing NIR enzyme, but appears to decrease the expression of new enzyme. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Several academic studies have confirmed that young university students are using social media to get information about what is happening with their communities. This article explores what are the levels of consumption of traditional media, as well as digital media of young Mexican students from different regions of this country. The research was carried out in the context of the presidential elections of 2018. More than 1200 questionnaires were applied on line. The main objective of the research is to understand both traditional and digital media consumption and how these factors affect the political participation of this group of the population, inside and outside the internet. Among the main results expected to find a growing trend in the use of digital media to the detriment of the traditional, as well as a close relationship between political participation and media consumption.


The livers of the wistar strain male rats which had been mentioned in our study were analyzed by the micro-bioassay method for comparison of the levels of free branch-amino acids(valine, leucine, isoleucine) and phenylalanine, methionine, tyrosine. Rats which were fed on diet of higher protein score contained correspondingly higher level of free branch-amino acid in their liver while the levels of phenylalanine, methionine, tyrosine showed unrecognizable relationship with the protein score of the diet used.


To determine whether insurance status (payer class) affects the amount and type of pain medication prescribed, and whether patients in those groups without prescription drug coverage received lower-cost medications, a case-control study with retrospective chart review was initiated in a university-based hematology/oncology practice in northwest Louisiana. Charts of 710 active patients among all insurance groups (private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, State Hospital System) were analyzed to determine insurance status, pain medication (amount and type), and diagnosis. The proportion of Medicaid patients receiving pain medications was significantly increased in relation to their representation in the practice when compared with Medicare patients, patients with private insurance, uninsured patients whose health care costs were provided by the State Hospital System, and the overall patient population. Medicaid patients, especially those with solid tumor malignancies, received the most expensive class of pain medications at a significantly higher rate than other patients. In the studied population of hematology and oncology patients, there is a significant difference in the amount and type of pain medications prescribed between patients with prescription drug coverage (Medicaid) and those without (all other groups including those covered by the statewide system). We propose that consideration be given to alternative methods of financing prescription medications for medically indigent patients.


Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitive switches discussed in this paper employ electrostatic actuation to perform switching. Capacitive switches employ inductive tuning for excellent switching characteristics in X and Ku bands. Employing inductive tuning is found to increase the switch beam inductance by a few tens of pico-henry. This enhances the Q factor and enables tuning of isolation over a narrow band of frequencies. Beam inductance can be extracted from the simulated isolation characteristics of the switch by curve fitting. This paper presents design, fabrication and characterisation of inductive tuned MEMS capacitive switches tuned for X and Ku bands. The devices are fabricated on high resistive (10 KΩ) silicon substrate by a five mask process. The characterisation of the fabricated devices are conducted using Cascade probe station and high frequency Power network analyser. Characterisation results show an actuation voltage of 18.5 volts. The insertion - loss and isolation are better than 0.5 dB and -40 dB respectively in the 8-18 GHz band.


OBJECTIVE: To characterize the clinical and epidemiological behavior of the computer vision syndrome in 10grade students from «Rafael Maria de Mendive» high school in the period of September 2007 to June 2008 METHODS: A cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted in which the universe of study was made up of all students of this educational level, who presented with clinical features derived from the computer use (183 patients).The final sample comprised 45 students selected on the basis of simple randomized sampling (1 out of 4). There were taken into consideration some variables: age groups, sex, clinical features, use of glasses, length of time spent in computer work, visual rest period per working hour and visual evolution after 3 months of treatment. RESULTS: Females predominated (68,9%) aged 16.5 years as average and the most relevant symptoms were headache (82,2%) and eyestrain (75.5%). Patients who wore glasses and worked over 4 hours at computer showed the above-mentioned visual symptoms; additionally, myopia within the ametropies (70%) and the visual resting lasting 15-20 minutes improved this set of symptoms (51,2%). CONCLUSIONS: Computer vision syndrome is a real health problem in our environment; therefore, it is important to making an early diagnosis of this entity due to its negative effects in teenagers, the school and the family.


Background: The study aims to assess the relationship between FoxM1 expression and clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC) by summarizing the studies included. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library and other sources were searched for relative studies. Odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI) were used to assess association between FoxM1 expression and clinical parameters and prognosis of CRC patients. Results: Eight studies were included in the final analysis, with 1149 CRC patients. The outcome revealed that expression of FoxM1 was associated with lymph node metastasis (OR = 0.33, 95%CI = 0.19–0.62, P < .001), distant metastasis (OR = 0.35, 95%CI = 0.24–0.46, P < .001) and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage (OR = 0.45, 95%CI = 0.29–0.72, P < .001). Meanwhile, reduced FoxM1 expression indicated higher 5-year survival rate (OR = 0.38, 95%CI = 0.18–0.78, P = .01). Expression of FoxM1 was also increased obviously in CRC tissues (OR = 13.04, 95%CI = 4.07–41.71, P < .001). Conclusion: This pooled analysis indicated that FoxM1 expression related to lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM stage and poor prognosis of the CRC patients.


The epidemiology of clavulanic acid-inhibited extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) was investigated among infection-associated enterobacterial isolates at the University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, from January 2004 to June 2005. Out of 57 nonrepetitive ESBL producers (prevalence rate of 0.7%), 45 produced CTX-M-like ESBLs. CTX-M enzymes were mostly from clonally nonrelated Escherichia coli isolates, from urinary infections and community-acquired infections. Pediatric patients (20 out of 57) accounted for a large number of CTX-M producers. CTX-M-15 was the most frequent CTX-M-type enzyme. The plasmid-located bla(CTX-M) genes were associated with either ISEcp1 or ISCR1 insertion sequences. This study is the first published report of CTX-M-type beta-lactamases in Switzerland.


The high-speed response properties of resonant cavity enhanced (RCE) photodetectors have been investigated. The limitations on the high-speed performance of photodiodes and the advantages of RCE-detection are discussed. Transient response of heterojunction photodiodes under pulsed optical illumination has been simulated using the method described in Part I. Results on conventional AlGaAs/GaAs and RCE GaAs/InGaAs heterojunction p-i-n photodiodes are presented. For small area detectors, almost 50% bandwidth improvement along with a two-fold increase in efficiency is predicted for RCE devices over optimized conventional photodiodes. A nearly three-fold enhancement in the bandwidth-efficiency product was shown. >


Summary Data collected on fertility and family planning between November 1979 and March 1980 in eight provinces of Papua New Guinea (PNG) are presented in this report. Interviews with 2923 rural and 3360 urban male and female respondents found attitudes favouring large families. There was a relatively high level of contraceptive awareness, but the overall practice of modern contraception in both rural and urban areas is low. Despite the rural–urban differences in socioeconomic levels, awareness of family planning is only slightly higher among the urban respondents. The level of usage for the urban respondents is slightly higher than for the rural respondents.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Olaratumab, a human monoclonal antibody against platelet derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFR- α), is the first drug that in combination with doxorubicin for the treatment of patients with advanced/metastatic soft tissue sarcoma (STS) that has showed an improved overall survival compared to doxorubicin alone. These initial results are exciting and have the potential to change the landscape of treatment for patients with STS. Areas covered: This article reviews the development of olaratumab for oncology use by reviewing articles in PubMed for 'platelet derived growth factor' and 'receptor' and 'soft tissue sarcoma'. We provide an overview of the published studies to date for olaratumab and specifically the use in soft tissue sarcoma. Expert commentary: Olaratumab is a well-tolerated drug that, when combined with doxorubicin, has shown an improved overall survival compared to doxorubicin alone and the phase III confirmatory study is eagerly awaited.


Language identification an important task
for web information retrieval. This paper
presents the implementation of a tool for
language identification in mono- and multilingual
documents. The tool implements
four algorithms for language identification.
Furthermore, we present a n-gram
approach for the identification of
languages in multi-lingual documents. An
evaluation for monolingual texts of varied
length is presented. Results for eight
languages including Ukrainian and
Russian are shown. It could be shown that
n-gram-based approaches outperform
word-based algorithms for short texts. For
longer texts, the performance is
comparable. The evaluation for multilingual
documents is based on both short
synthetic documents and real world web
documents. Our tool is able to recognize
the languages present as well as the
location of the language change with
reasonable accuracy.


Background Pre-hospital clinicians are involved in examining, treating and diagnosing patients. The accuracy of pre-hospital diagnoses is evaluated using diagnostic accuracy studies. We undertook a systematic review of published literature to provide an overview of how accurately pre-hospital clinicians diagnose patients compared to hospital doctors. A bivariate meta-analysis was incorporated to examine the range of diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. Methods We searched MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, AMED and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from 1946 to 7th May 2016 for studies where patients had been given a diagnosis by pre-hospital clinicians and hospital doctors. Key words focused on study type ('diagnostic accuracy'), outcomes (sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio?, predictive value?) and setting (paramedic*, pre-hospital, ambulance, 'emergency service?', 'emergency medical service?', 'emergency technician?'). The sole researcher screened titles and abstracts to ensure eligibility criteria were met, as well as assessing methodological quality using QUADAS-2. Results 2941 references were screened by title and/or abstract. Eleven studies encompassing 3 84 985 patients were included after full-text review. The types of diagnoses in one of the studies encompassed all possible diagnoses and in the other studies focused on sepsis, stroke and myocardial infarction. Sensitivity estimates ranged from 32%–100% and specificity estimates from 14%–100%. Eight of the studies were deemed to have a low risk of bias and were incorporated into a meta-analysis, which showed a pooled sensitivity of 0.74 (0.62, 0.82) and a pooled specificity of 0.94 (0.87, 0.97). Conclusions Current published research suggests that diagnoses made by pre-hospital clinicians have high sensitivity and even higher specificity. However, the paucity and varying quality of eligible studies indicates that further pre-hospital diagnostic accuracy studies are warranted especially in the field of non-life-threatening conditions and trauma.


In recent years, there has been an increasing need for all university students to receive help with learning to write. Consequently, there has been a shift away from a pure study skills approach towards embedding the teaching of writing into the mainstream curriculum. Embedded writing courses can be designed and delivered by various combinations of learning developer and subject specialist. Students view delivery by subject lecturers as more valuable, but subject specialist delivery may be challenging for those lecturers who feel it is outside their zone of expertise and consider writing as the province of learning developers. However, it is difficult for learning developers to contextualise such teaching in terms of subject values and expectations, and the shared knowledge of coursework assignments. By working through the different stages of teaching partnership, from cooperation to team teaching, both learning developer and subject specialist become empowered, facilitating the transition from teaching writing as a study skill to a fully embedded model.


This research is focused on comparing the compositions of juice produced from old and commercially grown apple cultivars. We examined factors such as pH, total acids, soluble dry matter, polyphenol profile, and antioxidant activity, which impact the attributes, safety, shelf life, and nutritional value of the juice. Our analysis revealed differences between these two groups of cultivars. For instance, pH values ranged from 3.04 (in 'Bobovec') to 3.69 (in 'Fuji'). The proportions of acids varied from 0.07 g/100 mL (in 'Fuji') to 0.19 g/100 mL (in 'Wagener'). Soluble dry matter content ranged from 14.10% (in 'Fuji') to 18.50% (in 'Kraljevčica'). We also observed variations in sugar content and composition among cultivars; for example, sucrose levels varied from 16.11 g/L ('Fuji') to 39.36 g/L ('Golden Delicious). Glucose levels ranged from 4.95 g/L ('Jonagold') to 19.18 g/L ('Fuji'), while fructose levels spanned from 50.78 g/L ('Austrougarka') to 427.97 g/L ('Ilzer Rosenapfel'). Furthermore, old apple cultivars exhibited higher concentrations of phenols and flavonoids compared to commercial ones; we also noted significant variations in flavonol levels among different cultivars. The 'Wagener' and 'Božićnica' apple varieties had levels of myricetin measuring 0.53 and 0.52 µg/mL, respectively. On the other hand, 'Bobovec' stood out for its content of procyanidin B2 with a concentration of 422.61 µg/mL. When examining non-flavonoid compounds, it was found that old apple cultivars had higher concentrations of gallic acid, trans-ferulic acid, and chlorogenic acid. However, commercial cultivars showed dominance in caffeic and p-coumaric. Comparisons of antioxidant capacity using DPPH and ABTS assays clearly demonstrated the superiority of old apple cultivars. Overall, this study highlights the importance of utilizing apple cultivars for juice production. Their distinct compositions and higher antioxidant capacities contribute to potential health benefits. Preserving these cultivars for enhanced juice quality and nutritional value is encouraged. Further research could explore cultivation practices' impact on composition and health benefits.


This paper aims the studying, modeling and testing of models of linear motors which use ultrasonic waves to achieve the movement. The studied motors are characterized by the positioning accuracy, small inertia, wide speed control (does not require gears and gearboxes), easy control, high torque per unit weight, miniaturization, simple structure, low noise, decreasing time-speed characteristic. Theme is nature trans-disciplinary work, addressing elements of the electrical machines and electronics, electrical materials, mechanics, waves, computer and numerical methods, modeling of electromechanical systems.


This paper addresses issues of analysis of DAPI-stained microscopy images of cell samples, particularly classification of objects as single nuclei, nuclei clusters or nonnuclear material. First, segmentation is significantly improved compared to Otsu's method[5] by choosing a more appropriate threshold, using a cost-function that explicitly relates to the quality of resulting boundary, rather than image histogram. This method applies ideas from active contour models to threshold-based segmentation, combining the local image sensitivity of the former with the simplicity and lower computational complexity of the latter. Secondly, we evaluate some novel measurements that are useful in classification of resulting shapes. Particularly, analysis of central distance profiles provides a method for improved detection of notches in nuclei clusters. Error rates are reduced to less than half compared to those of the base system, which used Fourier shape descriptors alone.


The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) is characterized by the presence of the T-E-Y, T-D-Y, and T-G-Y motifs in its activation loop region and plays a significant role in regulating diverse cellular responses in eukaryotic organisms. Availability of large-scale genome data in the fungal kingdom encouraged us to identify and analyse the fungal MAPK gene family consisting of 173 fungal species. The analysis of the MAPK gene family resulted in the discovery of several novel activation loop motifs (T-T-Y, T-I-Y, T-N-Y, T-H-Y, T-S-Y, K-G-Y, T-Q-Y, S-E-Y and S-D-Y) in fungal MAPKs. The phylogenetic analysis suggests that fungal MAPKs are non-polymorphic, had evolved from their common ancestors around 1500 million years ago, and are distantly related to plant MAPKs. We are the first to report the presence of nine novel activation loop motifs in fungal MAPKs. The specificity of the activation loop motif plays a significant role in controlling different growth and stress related pathways in fungi. Hence, the presences of these nine novel activation loop motifs in fungi are of special interest.


There is an urgent need to develop odor reduction technologies for animal production facilities, and this requires a reliable measurement technique for estimating the removal of odorants. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the application of proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) for continuous measurements at a biofilter from SKOV A/S installed at a pig production facility. PTR-MS was able to handle the harsh conditions with high humidity and dust load in a biofilter and provide reliable data for the removal of odorants, including the highly odorous sulfur compounds. The biofilter removed 80-99% of carboxylic acids, aldehydes, ketones, phenols, and indoles and ca. 75% of hydrogen sulfide. However, only ~0-15% of methanethiol and dimethyl sulfide was removed. In conclusion, PTR-MS is a promising tool that can be used to improve the development of biological air cleaning and other odor reduction technologies toward significant odorants.


In the presented paper, properties of Al-Cr-Fe-Ti alloy produced by powder metallurgy (PM) are described. Rapidly solidified powder alloy was prepared by the pressure nitrogen melt atomization. The granulometric powder fraction of less than 45 μm was then hot-extruded. Microstructure of the as-extruded material comprised recrystallized α-Al grains and spheroids of intermetallic phases. Tensile strength of the investigated material was similar to that of a conventional casting Al-Si alloy commonly used in elevated temperature applications. Excellent thermal stability of the PM Al-Cr based material, which much exceeded the elevated temperature casting alloy, was proved by room temperature tensile tests after long-term annealing at elevated temperature. Reasons for the observed thermal stability of the investigated PM alloy are discussed.


The main objective of this paper is to control the speed of Nonlinear Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) by controlling the throttle position. Various control techniques such as well known Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller in conjunction with state feedback controller (SFC) such as Pole Placement Technique (PPT), Observer Based Controller (OBC) and Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) Controller are designed. Some Intelligent control techniques e.g. fuzzy logic PD, Fuzzy logic PI along with Adaptive Controller such as Self Organizing Controller (SOC) is also designed. The design objective in this research paper is to provide smooth throttle movement, zero steady-state speed error, and to maintain a Selected Vehicle (SV) speed. A comparative study is carried out in order to identify the superiority of optimal control technique so as to get improved fuel economy, reduced pollution, improved driving safety and reduced manufacturing costs.


Abstract The need for sustainable energy management at the municipal level is growing, in order to meet EU climate goals. Multiple initiatives have been launched to support municipalities in energy planning and strategy development process. Despite available support, research shows mixed results about implementation of plans and strategies. This research paper analyses what targets municipalities set, how they monitor implementation of their sustainable energy action plans (SEAPs) and searches for the most important factors that have enabled or hindered the implementation of local SEAPs at Latvia. The article shows that, in some cases, there is evidence that SEAP development is a project-based activity, supported by external experts. From municipal personnel point of view, it is a project that ends with approved SEAP, but not a part of their future daily routine. Eventually implementation of the plan is difficult, because municipalities lack experience in daily management of energy data, distribution of responsibilities and implementation of procedures. Municipalities also tend to exclude important stakeholders in their SEAPs, like, private sector, household sector and transport sector, which lead to lower targets and lower achievements in GHG reduction.


Objective: to describe the process of collecting and analyzing data based on the use of the Delphi method, and the process of articulating qualitative and quantitative procedures for constructing a proposal for curricular innovation in the area of infection control in undergraduate courses in nursing. Method: the Delphi method was used with 39 participants, of whom 31 were nurses and eight were physicians, all experts in the area of infection control. Data collection took place over a period of seven months, being undertaken in four rounds. Content analysis was used for analyzing the qualitative data, and descriptive analysis for the quantitative data. Results: a total of four interactive and sequential rounds was undertaken. The first was an instrument with open questions. The instrument for the second round was elaborated based on the responses to these (39 respondents), and was made up of items to be evaluated by the participants. After the second round (35 respondents), the items for which consensus was not obtained were re-presented to the participants in the instrument of the third round (30 respondents), which contained the problematization of the item so that each participant could reevaluate it and provide their rationale. In the fourth round, all the data gathered was returned to all the participants. The undertaking of rounds, promoting controlled feedback so that all participants can review their opinions is a striking characteristic of this method. Conclusion: the Delphi method evidenced its strength as a possibility for articulating qualitative and quantitative approaches, bringing these characteristics together to respond to a complex research issue in the area of nursing and health. DESCRIPTORS: Nursing. Curriculum. Education. Infection control. Mixed methods. Qualitative research. Quantitative research. MÉTODO DELPHI COMO REFERENCIAL METODOLÓGICO PARA A PESQUISA EM ENFERMAGEM


Photoperiod or the duration of daylight has been implicated as a risk factor in the development of mood disorders. The dopamine and serotonin systems are impacted by photoperiod and are consistently associated with affective disorders. Hence, we evaluated, at multiple stages of postnatal development, the expression of key dopaminergic (TH) and serotonergic (Tph2, SERT, and Pet-1) genes, and midbrain monoamine content in mice raised under control Equinox (LD 12:12), Short winter-like (LD 8:16), or Long summerlike (LD 16:8) photoperiods. Focusing in early adulthood, we evaluated the midbrain levels of these serotonergic genes, and also assayed these gene levels in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) with RNAScope. Mice that developed under Short photoperiods demonstrated elevated midbrain TH expression levels, specifically during perinatal development compared to mice raised under Long photoperiods, and significantly decreased serotonin and dopamine content throughout the course of development. In adulthood, Long photoperiod mice demonstrated decreased midbrain Tph2 and SERT expression levels and reduced Tph2 levels in the DRN compared Short photoperiod mice. Thus, evaluating gene x environment interactions in the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems during multiple stages of development may lead to novel insights into the underlying mechanisms in the development of affective disorders.


This study aimed to examine the effect of obstacles and age on walking time within a course (10 cm width) and on a balance beam in 158 preschool boys, aged 4 (47), 5 (50), and 6 (61) years. An obstacle 5 or 10 cm in height (depth, 11.5 cm and width, 23.5 cm) was placed at the halfway point of the course drawn on the floor and on the balance beam (200 cm in length, 10 cm in width and 30 cm in height). Children walked to the end and returned to the original position as fast as possible within the above course and on the balance beam under three conditions: low, and high, and no obstacle. Walking time was measured for each condition. Subjects in all age groups were able to walk within a course significantly faster than on the balance beam; in the former test, boys aged 4 to 4.5 years were slower than boys aged 5.5 to 6 years as well as the 6-year-olds, and boys aged 4.5 to 5 years were slower than 6-year-olds; in the latter test, the boys aged 4 to 4.5 years were slower than boys aged 4.5 to 5 years, 5 years and 6 years, the boys aged 4.5 to 5 years were slower than 5-year-olds and 6-year-old boys, and the 5-year-old boys were slower than the 6-year-olds. Walking times under all obstacle conditions were longer in 4-year-old boys than in the 5 and 6-year-old boys, longer in boys aged 5 to 5.5 years than in the 6-year-olds, and longer in boys aged 5.5 to 6 years than in the 6-year-olds. Walking times within the course was shorter than those on the balance beam under all obstacle conditions. In addition, walking times both in the course and on the balance beam were shorter in the following order: no obstacle (shortest); low obstacle; high obstacle (longest). In conclusion, in-course walking is faster than balance beam walking regardless of age or the presence of an obstacle. Furthermore, improvements in the ability to complete both of these walking tasks may differ with age.


Consider the problem of training robustly capable agents. One approach is to generate a diverse collection of agent polices. Training can then be viewed as a quality diversity (QD) optimization problem, where we search for a collection of performant policies that are diverse with respect to quantified behavior. Recent work shows that differentiable quality diversity (DQD) algorithms greatly accelerate QD optimization when exact gradients are available. However, agent policies typically assume that the environment is not differentiable. To apply DQD algorithms to training agent policies, we must approximate gradients for performance and behavior. We propose two variants of the current state-of-the-art DQD algorithm that compute gradients via approximation methods common in reinforcement learning (RL). We evaluate our approach on four simulated locomotion tasks. One variant achieves results comparable to the current state-of-the-art in combining QD and RL, while the other performs comparably in two locomotion tasks. These results provide insight into the limitations of current DQD algorithms in domains where gradients must be approximated. Source code is available at https://github.com/icaros-usc/dqd-rl


Preeclampsia is a systemic disease caused by abnormal placentation that affects both mother and fetus. It was reported that Laeverin (LVRN, also known as Aminopeptidase Q) was up-regulated in the placenta of preeclamptic patients. However, physiological and pathological functions of LVRN remained to be unknown. Here we characterized Lvrn function during placentation in mice. RT-PCR showed that Lvrn is expressed in both fetus and placenta during embryogenesis, and several adult tissues. When we overexpressed Lvrn in a placenta-specific manner using lentiviral vectors, we did not see any defects in both placentae and fetuses. The mice carrying Lvrn overexpressing placentas did not show any preeclampsia-like symptoms such as maternal high blood pressure and fetal growth restriction. We next ablated Lvrn by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing to see physiological function. In Lvrn ablated mice, maternal blood pressure during pregnancy was not affected, and both placentas and fetuses grew normally. Collectively, these results suggest that, LVRN is irrelevant to preeclampsia and dispensable for normal placentation and embryonic development in mice.


This paper analyzes the relationship between aggregate wages and individual wages when there is time series variation in employment and in the dispersion of wages. A new and easily implementable framework for the empirical analysis of aggregation biases is developed. Aggregate real wages
are shown to contain three important bias terms: one associated with the dispersion of individual wages, a second reflecting the distribution of working hours, and a third deriving from compositional changes in the (selected)
sample of workers. Noting the importance of these issues for recent experience in Britain, data on real wages and participation for British male workers over the period 1978-1996 are studied. A close correspondence between the estimated biases and the patterns of differences shown by aggregate wages is established. This is shown to have important implications for the interpretation of real wage growth over this period.


Food-grade colloidal particles or complexes made from natural polymers via noncovalent interactions can be good candidates for applications in food and non-food industries. In this work, insoluble chitosan/gelatin-B (CH/GB) complex particles were used for the first time as effective Pickering emulsifiers to make long-term stable oil-in-water emulsions and emulsion gels by one-step homogenization. The CH/GB complexes were only formed in the oppositely charged pH region via electrostatic complexation of CH and GB, and the pH showed a remarkable effect on the surface activity of CH/GB mixed systems. The presence of CH/GB insoluble complexes significantly decreased the surface tension of the oil/water interface, therefore benefitting the formation of smaller emulsion droplet sizes and effectively hindering droplet coalescence, as supported by the increase of emulsion long-term stability. Increasing the oil volume fraction considerably accelerated the formation of a droplet network structure, resulting in a solid-like thermoreversible emulsion gel with tunable viscoelastic properties. Our results suggest that CH/GB insoluble complex particles are promising particulate emulsifiers for the preparation of surfactant-free Pickering emulsions as well as emulsion gels.


Postprandial (after standard breakfast 590.1 kcal) hemodynamic response (PHR), vegetative reaction and cimetidine effect were registered in 120 coronary patients with duodenal ulcer, 126 patients with duodenal ulcer and 30 healthy controls. It was found that PHR is determined primarily by duodenal mucosa condition and is independent of baseline type of circulation and antral mucosa structure. In normal or slightly changed duodenal mucosa test meal induced positive inotropic reaction, a fall in total peripheral vascular resistance, cardiac performance index. In marked duodenitis cardiac output is reduced, total peripheral resistance and cardiac efficacy grows. Coronary patients with duodenal ulcer had duodenitis and more frequent associated severe angina pectoris, circulatory insufficiency and gastric acid hypersecretion. Cimetidine in a dose 400 mg in patients with normal or slightly damaged duodenal mucosa had minimal effect on the PHR, whereas in duodenitis patients it prevented negative inotropic reaction and rise of the total resistance. Minor sympathetic effect on the sinus rhythm entails no increase in double product and cardiac performance efficacy.


In a previous humorous note, I outlined 12 ways in which performance figures for scientific supercomputers can be distorted. In this paper, the problem of potentially misleading performance reporting is discussed in detail. Included are some examples that have appeared in recent published scientific papers. This paper also includes some proposed guidelines for reporting performance, the adoption of which would raise the level of professionalism and reduce the level of confusion in the field of supercomputing.


Summary Milk with 1·5% fat was treated to increase its viscosity to that of whole milk on the assumption that the sensation produced in the mouth, its mouthfeel, would be improved. Selected treated 1·5% fat milks were assessed for similarity to whole milk in taste panel trials. Panelists were chosen because of their ability to distinguish between whole milk and that containing 1·5 % fat by taste in at least one of two tests. Only 34% of the persons screened were suitable. Throughout the trials, the proportion of panelists able to distinguish between the two milks served alone and in tea remained at about 50%, but rose to 80–90% for the milks in coffee. In general, addition of KOH to 1·5% fat milk to pH 7·4 and of 6 mM-citrate overcame about 75 and 50%, respectively, of the difference in mouthfeel between whole and 1·5% fat milk. Whole and 1·5% fat milks were easily distinguishable visually, but the appearance of the latter was improved by adjustment to pH 7·4.


BACKGROUND
Inactive aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 (ALDH2) is a well-known deterrent to the development of alcohol use disorder (AUD), however, some individuals with inactive ALDH2 do go on to develop AUD. These alcoholics are likely to have strong risk factors for the development of this disorder. Using a model of alcoholics with inactive ALDH2 (the AIA model), we investigated the unique characteristics of alcoholics with inactive ALDH2 in an attempt to identify the risk factors for AUD. In this study, we focused on comorbid psychiatric and personality disorders as potential risk factors for AUD.

METHODS
The subjects were 103 male alcoholics with inactive ALDH2 (AIAs), 87 age- and ADH1B genotype-matched alcoholics with active ALDH2 (AAAs) and 200 age-matched healthy men. The alcoholics were divided into 4 subgroups according to their ALDH2 and ADH1B genotypes (inactive ALDH2 vs. active ALDH2, usual ADH1B vs. superactive ADH1B). To assess the participants' comorbid psychiatric disorders, we conducted semi-structured interviews using the Japanese translation of SSAGA version 2. We compared the prevalence of comorbid psychiatric and personality disorders among groups with different combinations of the ALDH2 and ADH1B genotypes.

RESULTS
The prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was significantly higher in the AIAs with usual ADH1B than in the other 3 subgroups of alcoholics. In contrast, the prevalence rates of agoraphobia and panic disorder were significantly lower in the AIAs with superactive ADH1B than in the other 3 subgroups of alcoholics.

CONCLUSIONS
This study suggested that (1) ADHD is a risk factor for AUD, consistent with previous reports; (2) agoraphobia and panic disorder may have deterrent effects against the development of AUD in individuals with inactive ALDH2, probably attributable to the similarity between the symptoms of agoraphobia and panic disorder and the adverse reactions to consumption of alcohol in subjects with inactive ALDH2.


The objective of this study is to characterize the contribution to sustainable entrepreneurship as a field of knowledge from developing countries, also called the Global South, through the analysis of the literature that has been produced in the last two decades. This research starts from the premise of the dominance of the Global North over academic production on this topic and analyzes the consequences for the Global South. Through VOSViewer software, and Biblioshiny, a web interface of bibliometrix R-package, 1964 articles that were retrieved from the WoS database were analyzed. According to the results, the dominance of the Global North is confirmed, not only by the number of articles (63% vs. 22% of the Global South), but also by the impact on the publications, the publishing systems, and the thematic addressed, among other indicators. Likewise, the low North–South collaboration (15%), and the scarce collaboration networks between Southern countries, were also confirmed. This situation may have affected the formation of a critical mass of Southern researchers to develop their own concepts and address subjects related to sustainable entrepreneurship that are more adjusted to their reality. We did not find significant differences between the Southern and the Northern research themes or the emergence of new concepts from the Global South, despite their different conditions. Finally, a closer look at the thematic trajectory in terms of scholarly production shows a lesser emphasis on sustainability in the Global South than that in the Global North. These findings are discussed herein.


This said, it becomes clear why the term "knowledge transfer" was chosen – the ultimate objective is not to just cite journal articles since we all know that this qualifies as citation stacking [1] and both journals would run the risk of being suppressed from the Journal Citation Report [2] . This initiative is about connecting, discussing, and "translating" research for a readership that is related to the topic and has considerable overlap with it. Thus, a number of references will be found in the Editorials that do not include volumes relevant to Impact Factor, but will be cited for the purely scientific sake of "knowledge transfer." The intention is to be stimulating and thought-provoking for the reader, and we hope to achieve our declared objectives – readers' feedback is certainly welcome! Gregor B.E. Jemec , Roskilde, Editor-in-Chief Dermatology Jürgen Lademann , Berlin, Editor-in-Chief Skin Pharmacology and Physiology Sandra Braun , Basel, Karger Publishers Karger is very happy to announce a new initiative. It is based on the Editors' idea of collaboration between Dermatology and Skin Pharmacology and Physiology by synergizing the two journals. The idea was discussed and shaped during a recent meeting of both Editors and Karger in Berlin. Essentially, the idea can be summarized under the heading "knowledge transfer" and for the time being focuses on these two journals but could potentially expand and include all Karger journals in the field of dermatology. So what is the concrete understanding of "knowledge transfer" and what are the objectives?