Increased genetic potential for milk production has been associated with a decline in fertility of lactating cows. Following parturition the nutritional requirements increase rapidly with milk production and result in negative energy balance (NEBAL). NEBAL delays the time of first ovulation thereby affecting ovarian cycles before and during the subsequent breeding period The effects of NEBAL on reinitiation of ovulation are manifested through inhibition of LH pulse frequency and low levels of glucose, insulin and IGF-I in blood that collectively restrain oestrogen production by dominant follicles. Upregulation of LH pulses and peripheral IGF-I in association with the NEBAL nadir increases the likelihood that emerging dominant follicles will ovulate. The legacy of NEBAL is reduced fertility after insemination in conjunction with reduced serum progesterone concentrations. Diets high in crude protein support high milk yield, but may be detrimental to reproductive performance. Depending upon protein quantity and composition, serum concentrations of progesterone may be lower and the uterine luminal environment is altered. High protein intake is correlated with plasma urea concentrations that are inversely related to uterine pH and fertility. The direct effects of high dietary protein and plasma urea on embryo quality and development in cattle are inconsistent. In conclusion, the poor fertility of high producing dairy cows reflects the combined effects of a uterine environment that is dependent on progesterone, but has been rendered suboptimal for embryo development by antecedent effects of negative energy balance and may be further compromised by the effects of urea resultingfrom intake of high dietary protein.


The analytical modeling and experimental investigation of a nonlinear electromagnetic rotational energy harvester, which can harvest power from rotary and translational excitations, are presented. Some application of energy harvesting such as energy harvesting for tire pressure sensing require an energy harvester which is efficient in generating power from rotational ambient vibrations. The majority of literature on vibration energy harvesting assumes that the ambient excitations are along a single axis. The vibrations from human motion or rotary machines have two components of translational motion as well as a strong rotary motion. The energy harvesting device studied in this paper is a pendulum like device. The base excitations result in rotations of a pendulum. The pendulum is connected to a direct current micro generator. The rotational vibrations of the pendulum generates electricity through the DC generator. Since the energy harvester is responsive to both translational and rotational base excitations, it is called Hybrid Rotary-Translational (HRT) generator.In this paper a small size HRT harvester is introduced and modeled. The model is used to investigate the relation between the frequency and the amplitude of base vibrations on the vibrations and power generation characteristics of the HRT system. For each frequency and amplitude of vibrations the coexistence of multiple solutions and their basin of attractions are investigated. Three types of ambient excitations are studied: rotational, translational along the direction of gravity, and translational normal to the direction of the gravity.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Synchronization of two cells differing in sodium permeability has been studied. More frequent contractions of myocardial cells under synchronization described in [3], when the frequency of simultaneous excitation of cells is higher than that of each of them before the contact, can be explained by the electrical properties of the membranes of myocardial cells.


This study investigated the digital-learning problems and solutions that are experienced by learners in transforming Zimbabwe Open University into a digitallearning institution. Fifty learners in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education doing Masters Degrees in Counseling and Special Education participated in the study. The survey design which was mainly qualitative in nature was used. An online questionnaire was used to collect in-depth information on perceptions and experiences of respondents on transforming Zimbabwe Open University into a digital learning institution. The participants indicated problems with: accessibility of websites and course/learning material; accessibility of digital audio and video; inflexible time limits in accessing computers and lack of needed adaptive technologies. Students also mentioned technical difficulties using digital-learning and connecting to websites, problems downloading and opening files for their assignments, web pages that would not load, video clips taking too long to download, poor use of digital-learning by lecturers and professors. They also indicated their own lack of knowledge working with digital-learning technological tools as a major problem in transforming Zimbabwe Open University into a digitallearning institution. The study concluded that Zimbabwe Open University is in the positive direction in transforming itself into a digital learning institution. Recommendations were made in improving the accessibility of technological tools for digital learning and this included improving the availability of resources to the institution by the government.


Abstract
 Undergraduate introductory biology students at the university level often struggle to trace movement of matter and energy through catabolic and anabolic processes in biological systems. A sequential guided simulation of cellular respiration and photosynthesis provides students an opportunity to actively model and visualize matter transformation and energy accumulation and degradation through the movement of molecular and energy "game pieces." The activity was designed to help students generate a simplified outline of these two highly complex processes, while reinforcing the principles of conservation of matter and energy. My students participated in this activity during peer-led review sessions in an undergraduate, introductory, majors biology course (ca.150 students in 18 SI sessions over two semesters), but instructors could also easily adapt it for use in small lecture or laboratory classrooms, introductory cell biology, physiology, and ecology courses, or with high school students.


We address the problem of linear parameter estimation in discrete time state space models in the presence of serially correlated error in variables. The common way to solve parameter estimation problem is least squares (LS) methods. LS method is not considered to be effective when both dependent and independent variables are contaminated by noise. Total Least Squares (TLS) has been introduced as the method for parameter estimation in the case of noisy response and predictor variables. However, TLS solution is not optimal when number of data is limited and noise is correlated. Constrained TLS is a variant of TLS that considers correlation of noise in the data as additional constraints. We introduced a novel method based on a stochastic sampling method to solve estimation problem from correlated noisy measurements, and we compared it with the existing methods through in silico examples. Our method demonstrates significant improvement over other common estimation algorithms, LS, TLS and Constrained TLS under the different amount of correlated noise and data points. It has the potential to be the valuable tool for the difficult real life problems, such as, biological systems where data is limited and noisy.


Humus layer has an important effect on the diversity and spatial distribution of microbes. However, the role of partitioning of humus layer microhabitats for soil microbial diversity has been poorly documented. In this study, 120 soil samples were collected from a 5- ha forest dynamic monitoring sample plot in a deciduous broad-leaved forest. Clustering analysis was used to delineate microhabitats by humus layer. We explored diversity and community composition of soil fungi and bacteria using Illumina sequencing of the ITS rRNA gene and 16S rRNA gene region on the MiSeq platform. We investigated the diversity, species composition, and the microhabitat preferences of fungi and bacteria and then analyzed the effects of environmental factors on soil fungi and bacteria. Our results showed that the diversity, species composition, and the indicator species of the fungal and bacterial community varied among different humus layer microhabitats. In network analysis, the specialization indexes showed that 16.20%/22.30% of the fungal/bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) had the characteristics of distribution specialization for humus layer microhabitats. Mantel test showed that the main environmental drivers of fungi and bacteria were not consistent among the four microhabitats. Our findings indicated that the distribution of soil microbes among humus layer microhabitats is not random, but specialized. We furthermore found that there were differences in the relationship between soil microbes and environment among microhabitats defined by humus layer. Together, these findings suggest the importance of partitioning of humus layer microhabitats in maintaining local diversity in a soil microbial community.


BACKGROUND
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) defines metabolic syndrome among children. In addition to the abdominal obesity (waist circumference ≥90 percentile of locally representative sample), the risk criteria for metabolic syndrome includes elevated blood pressure, hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, and elevated fasting glucose. In this study, we compared the association of anthropometric indices with metabolic syndrome risk criteria in 9-year-old children.

METHODS
A cross-sectional study of 9-year-old children (n=1,194) was performed in 2007-2008. Using the international cutoff points and percentiles, we determined subjects with elevated blood pressure, hypertriglyceridemia (≥90 percentile), low HDL-C (≤ 10 percentile), and elevated fasting glucose (≥100 mg/dL). We compared several anthropometric indices [triceps skin-fold thickness (SFT), waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-height ratio] and their association with metabolic syndrome risk criteria other than waist circumference among 9-year-old children.

RESULTS
Metabolic syndrome risk criteria were commonly observed among 9-year-old children: 244 students (20.4%) had hypertriglyceridemia and/or low HDL-C, 362 students (30.3%) had elevated blood pressure, and 254 (21.3%) students were overweight or obese. Among covariates of SFT, BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-hip, or waist-to-height ratio categories, the BMI category was the only significant predictor of having two or more metabolic syndrome risk variables [odds ratio (OR)=3.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.69-7.41, P=0.001 for boys and OR=4.7, 95% CI 1.61-13.55, P=0.005 for girls].

CONCLUSIONS
Assessing anthropometric indices is crucial for early detection and prevention of metabolic syndrome among children and adolescents. Age- and sex-specific cutoff points of BMI can be used to screen for the metabolic syndrome and related risk criteria among 9-year-old children.


Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are able to generate high resolution photo-realistic images of objects that "do not exist." These synthetic images are rather difficult to detect as fake. However, the manner in which these generative models are trained hints at a potential for information leakage from the supplied training data, especially in the context of synthetic faces. This paper presents experiments suggesting that identity information in face images can flow from the training corpus into synthetic samples without any adversarial actions when building or using the existing model. This raises privacy-related questions, but also stimulates discussions of (a) the face manifold's characteristics in the feature space and (b) how to create generative models that do not inadvertently reveal identity information of real subjects whose images were used for training. We used five different face matchers (face_recognition, FaceNet, ArcFace, SphereFace and Neurotechnology MegaMatcher) and the StyleGAN2 synthesis model, and show that this identity leakage does exist for some, but not all methods. So, can we say that these synthetically generated faces truly do not exist? Databases of real and synthetically generated faces are made available with this paper to allow full replicability of the results discussed in this work.


Fipronil is a broad-spectrum insecticide used for plants and poultry. Owing to its widespread use, fipronil and its metabolites (fipronil sulfone, fipronil desulfinyl, and fipronil sulfide), termed FPM, can be frequently detected in drinking water and food. Fipronil can affect the thyroid function of animals, but the effects of FPM on the human thyroid remain unclear. We employed human thyroid follicular epithelial Nthy-ori 3-1 cells to examine combined cytotoxic responses, thyroid-related functional proteins including the sodium-iodide symporter (NIS), thyroid peroxidase (TPO), deiodinases I-III (DIO I-III), and the nuclear factor erythroid-derived factor 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) pathway induced by FPM of 1-1000-fold concentrations detected in school drinking water collected from a heavily contaminated area of the Huai River Basin. Thyroid-disrupting effects of FPM were evaluated by examining biomarkers of oxidative stress and thyroid function and tetraiodothyronine (T4) levels secreted by Nthy-ori 3-1 cells after FPM treatment. FPM activated the expression of NRF2, HO-1 (heme oxygenase 1), TPO, DIO I, and DIO II but inhibited NIS expression and increased the T4 level of thyrocytes, indicating that FPM can disrupt the function of human thyrocytes through oxidative pathways. Given the adverse impact of low FPM concentrations on human thyrocytes, supportive evidence from rodent studies, and the critical importance of thyroid hormones on development, the effects of FPM on the neurodevelopment and growth of children warrant priority attention.


This paper addresses the measurement of structural loads on the Unison U50 wind turbine. The load measurement are carried out to determine the actual loads acting on a wind turbine. This is needed not only the certification process but also improving the technical development for prototype wind turbine. The measurement system is consists of measuring load, operating quantities and meteorological signal. All data that occur during the operating of a WT are stored the data acquisition system automatically. With using the measured data, load spectrum and equivalent load are evaluated according to IEC61400-13 "Measurement of mechanical loads".


Abstract : In light of the broad congressional interest in Iraq, we have undertaken this engagement under the authority of the Comptroller General to conduct evaluations at his own initiative to provide information on the status and challenges of developing ISF support capabilities. Specifically, our objectives were to determine (1) the current state of the logistical, command and control, and intelligence capabilities of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense; and (2) the current state of the logistical, command and control, and intelligence capabilities of the Ministry of Interior. Additionally, during the course of our work Coalition officials provided us with information on the status of coordination and communication between and within the ministries. On March 7, 2007, we issued a classified report to you containing our preliminary observations. This report is the unclassified version of that classified report. On March 9, 2007, we testified before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, on the development of the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior's logistical capabilities for the Iraqi army and police. We expect to provide a follow-up report later that will examine in more detail the progress in the development of these capabilities, the level of U.S. support being provided to the ISF, and the linkage between the development of the ISF's support capabilities and the drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq. This report is one of a series of products that GAO has produced since June 2004 addressing the security situation in Iraq and Iraqi security forces.


The duality between controllability and observability enables methods developed for full-state control to be applied to full-state estimation, and vice versa. In applications in which control or estimation of all state variables is unfeasible, the generalized notions of output controllability and functional observability establish the minimal conditions for the control and estimation of a target subset of state variables, respectively. Given the seemly unrelated nature of these properties, thus far methods for target control and target estimation have been developed independently in the literature. Here, we characterize the graph-theoretic conditions for target controllability and target observability (which are, respectively, special cases of output controllability and functional observability for structured systems). This allows us to rigorously establish a weak and strong duality between these generalized properties. When both properties are equivalent (strongly dual), we show that efficient algorithms developed for target controllability can be used for target observability, and vice versa, for the optimal placement of sensors and drivers. These results are applicable to large-scale networks, in which control and monitoring are often sought for small subsets of nodes.


This chapter presents an approach using the virtualization advancements, and the knowledge obtained by tests results to verify the use of hybrid virtual environments, that is, composed of two types of hypervisors/virtual machine management (VMM), to support scientific applications. These hybrid models are created based on characteristics of the running applications, combining the use of different types of hypervisors, at the same time, using the best features of each one, to improve the execution performance. The evaluation of the use of these hybrid models and their analysis were motivated by a real demand, to provide access to a Cloud Appliance with a graphical interface (GUI) for distributed image-processing applications. The basic idea is to offer users remote access to virtualized platforms dedicated to their needs and hosted in a Cloud environment.


The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of various botanical products on population of sucking complex on cotton crop. The study was conducted at the experimental area of Entomology section, Agriculture Research Institute, Tando Jam during the Kharif Season-2004. Five bio-pesticides i.e. neem oil (500ml/acre), cooking oil (750 ml/acre), linseed oil (750ml/acre), hing (290gm/acre) and cotton oil (750ml/acre) were applied twice against sucking complex (jassid, thrip and whitefly) and compared with an untreated control. It was observed that the efficacy of different bio-pesticides against sucking complex (jassid, whitefly and thrips) varied significantly. All products reduced pest population during both sprays. On an average, neem oil (63.27%) and cotton oil (62.01%) were found to be superior in reducing sucking pest, followed by hing (58.25%), cooking oil (57.18%) and linseed oil (55.24%) respectively.


1. Species and sex differences in testosterone hydroxylation and nifedipine oxidation in liver microsomes from rat, dog and monkey have been investigated. 2. The formation of 2 alpha-, 2 beta-, 6 beta-, and 16 alpha-hydroxytestosterone and androstenedione in the male rat was higher than that in the female rat. Microsomes prepared from the male rat oxidized nifedipine about eight times faster than did those from the female rat. In contrast, marked sex-related differences were not seen in the dog and monkey. 3. Nifedipine oxidase activity in rat, dog and monkey correlated significantly with the activities for both testosterone 2 beta-hydroxylation and 6 beta-hydroxylation, suggesting the involvement of P4503A isozymes in these reactions. The ratios of formation of the 2 beta- to 6 beta-hydroxytestosterone in male rat and monkey were 0.17 and 0.18 respectively, whereas that in dog was 0.46. The corresponding activity ratios catalysed by P450DPB-1, a P4503A isoform purified from dog liver microsomes, was 0.36. 4. The formation of 16 beta-hydroxytestosterone was higher than that of the 16 alpha-hydrolated metabolite in liver microsomes from monkey, whereas 16 alpha-hydroxytestosterone was the predominant metabolite in the rat and dog, indicating species differences in stereoselectivity at the 16-position.


This paper describes a new system for storing and reading data on moving items in disturbed environments. Basically this new process uses the magnatic switching of different semi-remanent thin wires. As semi-remanant wires switch their magnetization when the driving magnetic field reaches their coercive force, the coercive forces and the induced signals are used to encode the data. A simplified theory of the physics of the system and examples of use are given.


Professor and Academician Sheng Jinzhang (J. C. Sheng) passed away on the morning of January 7, 2007, after a brief respiratory illness. His long time student and colleague, Zuren Zhou, wrote to say that he died peacefully in hospital in Nanjing without too much suffering. About 200 relatives, friends, colleagues and students attended his funeral, a brief and gracious ceremony. Professor Sheng was 86.

Professor Sheng was a 1996 Joseph A. Cushman Awardee and was recognized the world over for his work in foraminiferal studies, for directing and mentoring many students in their studies, and for his efforts in helping to establish international cooperation among all scientific workers of all countries, regardless of past events and political persuasions. Professor and Academician Sheng Jinzhang (J. C. Sheng) was a member of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Academia Sinica, People's Republic of China and was an outstanding, world-renowned micropaleontologist and biostratigrapher, who contributed extensively to …


Abstract— The present study reports the effects of 2‐amino‐6‐allyl‐5,6,7,8‐tetrahydro‐4H‐thiazolo‐[4,5‐d]azepin dihydrochloride (B‐HT 920) and 2‐(2,6‐diethylphenylimino)‐2‐imidazolidine hydrochloride (St 91) in autoperfused cat hindquarters since we have previously shown that clonidine lowered blood pressure, heart rate and vena cava blood flow (VCBF) but not hindquarters perfusion pressure, indicating a selective venodilator action of this drug (Bentley et al 1986). It was found that intravenous (i.v.) and intracisternal (i.c.m.) administration of B‐HT 920 caused essentially identical effects to those of Clonidine. St 91, given i.c.m. lowered blood pressure and VCBF but not perfusion pressure, while i.v. St 91 had little effect on these variables. Thus, parallel changes in blood pressure and VCBF occurred using both drugs, suggesting that these centrally‐acting clonidine‐like drugs also caused selective venodilatation.


Media spaces and videoconference systems are beneficial for connecting separated co-workers and providing rich contextual information. However, image sharing communication tools may also touch on sensitive spots of the human psyche related to personal, perceived image issues (e.g., appearance, self-image, self-presentation and vanity). We conducted two user studies to examine the impact of self-image concerns on the use of media spaces and videoconference systems. Our results suggest that personal, perceived image concerns have a considerable impact on the comfort level of users and may hinder effective communication [8]. We also found that image filtering techniques can help users feel more comfortable. Our results revealed that distortion filters, which are frequently cited to help preserve privacy, do not tend to be the ones preferred by users. Instead, users seemed to favor filters that make subtle changes to their appearance, or, in some instances, they preferred to use a surrogate instead.


The purpose of this study was to determine the implementation of compliance audit at The 101 Suryakancana Bogor Hotel, knowing the achievement of Bogor 101 The Hotel Suryakancana through a predetermined procedural policy, and knowing whether compliance audit is influential in achieving the 101 The Suryakancana Bogor Hotel goal.
The method used in this study is a qualitative descriptive method. This method aims to understand the phenomena that occur based on existing theories compared to practice when conducting research in the field. The author explains the implementation of compliance audit, achievement of organizational objectives, and compliance audit as a tool to achieve organizational goals.
The results showed that the implementation of compliance audit at The 1O1 Suryakencana Hotel Bogor was conducted through five stages: audit planning, audit testing and evaluation, reporting of audit findings, recommendations and monitoring and follow-up. Audit Compliance at The 1O1 Suryakencana Bogor Hotel can be said to be "Good" because it has an average value of 5 in period I and period II auditing and does not experience a change in criteria. In its achievement and service goals, The 1O1 Suryakencana Bogor Hotel has provisions and standards or SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) and rules regarding grooming for employees to provide a good image to guests staying at the hotel. The implementation of grooming and SOP regarding the arrival of guests has been carried out well, but there are several stages and rules that are not obeyed by the relevant department staff, so the stages and rules cannot be fully achieved. The implementation of compliance audit at The 1O1 Suryakencana Hotel Bogor has been running well, especially in hotel services, evidenced by reduced audit findings in period I and period II and findings between period I and period II are not the same and not repeated. Additionally, hotel revenue receipts after the first audit period experienced an increase in the following month Achievement of the objectives of the hotel is increasingly achieved. Satisfaction and comfort of guests or customers are also fulfilled supported by the image provided by the hotel through its employees and compliance with applicable procedures.


Rapeseed is a major oil crop in the world, which is easily affected by low-temperature stress. Low-temperature delays seed germination and increases seedling mortality that adversely affects rapeseed growth and production. To understand the genetic mechanisms of seed germination under low-temperature in rapeseed, we crossed a tolerant cultivar with a susceptible genotype to develop a mapping population of 574 F2 progenies. Two quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for low-temperature germination (LTG) were detected on chromosome A09 (named qLTGA9-1) and C01 (named qLTGC1-1) using QTL-seq method, and confirmed via linkage analysis in the mapping population. qLTGA9-1 was mapped to a 341.86-kb interval between SSR markers Nys9A212 and Nys9A215. In this region, 69 genes including six specific genes with moderate or high effect function variant were identified based on Ningyou7 genome sequence. qLTGC1-1 was mapped a 1.31-Mb interval between SSR markers Nys1C96 and Nys1C117. In this region, 133 genes including five specific genes with moderate effect function variant were identified based on Ningyou7 genome sequence. These specific genes within the two QTLs could be targets in rapeseed breeding programs and further studies for cold tolerance.


The research covers general characteristics of the biological factor of soil formation on Zmiiny island including its distinguishing features and natural conditions for the existence of vegetation. Except this, the research contains results of the first assessment of steppe herbal phytocoenosis biomass, describes soil and hydrological conditions which contributed to emergence of that biomass, and defines its role in soil formation.


Objective: To check the status of traditional Korean medical doctors' medical services amid the continual increase in the number of traditional Korean medicine clinics. Methods: A survey of traditional Korean medicine clinics based on questionnaire sheets mailed to 4,200 out of 10,895 clinics, of which 465, or 11.0%, responded, in the June 1, 2008 to December 9, 2008 period. Results: 1. 65.6% of the traditional Korean responding clinics are doing business in a rented space; 92.1%of them are one-person institutions; 24.4% of them, i.e., the largest group of those surveyed, operate in a space sized 41 (123 m2)~50 pyeong (150m2). The number of sick beds installed in their facilities comes to 7.9 on average. 2. Concerning support staff, 190 of them (or 40.9%), i.e., the largest group of those surveyed, employ two people in this capacity. They generally comprise assistant nurses (48.7%) and others (47.6%). 3. The size of the space used by the clinics is showing a tendency to increase. The number of sick beds and support staff, including assistant nurses, reached a peak in 2006, and has been on the decrease since then. 4. The average number of on-days comes to six days a week among 92.6% of those surveyed. Their average daily service hours come to 9 hours and 33 minutes (from 9:17 am to 6:50 pm). 5. Per-patient service time: 14 minutes on average; per-patient acupuncture time: 18.8 minutes; per-patient moxa cautery time: 10.1 minutes per-patient; boil-cupping time: 5.7 minutes; per-patient physical treatment: 28 minutes. Conclusion: Periodical studies should be carried out concerning desirable ways of developing traditional Korean medicine clinics with the focus on the facilities, doctors' service hours, and types of service.


Poverty may be inherited from poor parents it may be temporarily caused by natural disasters or war or it may be absolute. People living in absolute poverty lack basic necessities are most likely to return to poverty despite improvements in society are the poorest of the poor and are the most vulnerable. The recent increase in the number of women heading poor households has led to an increasing feminization of poverty. Against this backdrop women also have reproductive health needs exacerbated by early marriage lack of access to family planning malnutrition a lack of clean water during delivery female genital mutilation a lack of prenatal care failure to recognize obstetric emergencies and inaccessible health care. Pregnancy-related morbidity can remain untreated or undiagnosed and cause untold misery and women have less power than men to avoid acquiring HIV/AIDS or a sexually transmitted disease. Some women suffer from infertility or reproductive tract cancer. In fact reproductive and sexual health problems account for more than 30% of the disease burden for women compared with about 10% for men. Realistic strategies to alleviate this situation include 1) developing profiles of poverty and womens reproductive health; 2) training individuals to conduct participatory research to identify and prioritize womens health needs and problems; 3) discovering the correct entry points for discussions on reproductive health priorities; 4) focusing on the household and work place; 5) using community-based monitoring tools; and 6) promoting provision of adequate health services. Employment of people-centered strategies will help the poor improve their reproductive health.


The paper presents the economic views and political activities of one of the most influential Bulgarian political economists – Alexander Tsankov. They were strongly influenced by his socialist worldview. The socialism of professor Tsankov is alternative only if one accepts the self-definition of Marxism as the sole scientific socialism. Then any deviation from orthodoxy should be considered as alternatives to scientifically based ideas. In the context of what is seen as socialism during the nineteenth and almost up to the end of the twentieth century, the views of professor Tsankov are not a departure from, but a variant of the socialism. He combined the elements which are characteristic of social democracy and conservative statist (and hence nationalistic) socialism


.. Diabetes is associated with oxidative stress and has a significant role in the pathophysiology of the disease and its complications. Exercise training is a powerful therapeutic approach in diabetes and has protective effects against the progress of its complications. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an endurance exercise program on the oxidative stress marker malondialdehyde (MDA) in high fat diet-low dose streptozotocin induced type 2 diabetic mouse model. Study Design: Randomized Control trial. Setting: Department of Physiology, Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental College, Lahore. Period: August 2017 to August 2018. Material & Methods: 60 male albino mice were fed a high fat diet containing 60% kCal as fat for 4 weeks. This was followed by intra peritoneal injection of 40mg/kg body weight streptozotocin, given on three consecutive days. Mice with fasting blood glucose more than 250mg/dl after a week were considered diabetic. Half the mice underwent an exercise program which comprised of a 20 minute swimming session per day, with a 6% body weight load attached to the tail of mice, 3 days a week, for 4 weeks. The level of MDA was estimated in both groups using TBARs method. Results: Mean malondialdehyde level was significantly (p<0.05) reduced in diabetic mice that underwent endurance exercise training. Conclusion: This study highlights the important role of endurance exercise in reducing oxidative stress in diabetes.


THE TOPICS ADDRESSED at a Conference on Contingency Planning for Health Facilities, held in Washington, D.C., September 20-21, 1979, ranged from inadequate Federal and State leadership for the hospitals faced with possible evacuation during the Three Mile Island incident to the breakdown of health services in boomtowns in the Southwest where populations are tripling as industry searches for new energy sources. Sponsored by the Division of Energy Policy and Programs of the Bureau of Health Facilities, Health Resources Administration, the conference drew more than 100 participants from Federal, State, and local governments. The conferees were addressed by Dr. Florence B. Fiori, Director, Bureau of Health Facilities, who charged them to use the conference as a forum to discuss the impact of energy changes on our health care system and to begin planning for those changes.


The luminous efficiency, obtained with white light readout of phase grating light valves, is practically equivalent to the diffraction efficiency. However, due to the spectrally selective nature of the grating, the resulting image has been found to suffer from strong chromatic shifts. A method of correcting this is described in which chromatic filters are used in the spatial frequency plane in order to produce black-and-white images at maximum efficiency. The results presented include the luminous efficiency, and the chromaticity coordinates as a function of deformation amplitude for CIE illuminant A, a tungsten source at 2854 K, and CIE illuminant C, average daylight, and a useful approximation to a Xenon arc lamp.


Cyber threats pose fresh challenges to sovereignty and to international law on state responsibility. In addressing kinetic attacks, international law defines state responsibility narrowly. A party asserting that a state is responsible for a kinetic attack must comply with the "effective control" test adopted by the International Court of Justice in its Nicaragua decision, or at the very least with the "overall control" test adopted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in Prosecutor v. Tadic. Driven by concerns about the risks of escalation, the International Law Commission's Draft Articles on State Responsibility hardened this narrow approach. The recently published Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare tracks the ILC's analysis. While the Tallinn Manual is an exceptionally valuable effort to apply lex lata to the fluid cyber realm, caution may not serve international law in this context. Cyber reflects what I call attribution asymmetry: cyber threats from private groups assisted by states are both more difficult to trace than kinetic attacks for victims, and easier to control for the state providing the assistance. Because of this asymmetry, the international law on state responsibility for kinetic attacks is inadequate for cyber attacks. A test of virtual control would be more effective, imposing responsibility on a state that has provided financial or other assistance to private groups. The virtual control test will deter states from using private groups to engineer plausible deniability. This heightened deterrence provides a more useful template for the development of international law in the cyber domain.


Genetic alterations have been reported in most human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) for decades. 'Survival advantage,' a typical trait acquired during long-term in vitro culture, results from induction of BCL2L1 upon frequent copy number variation (CNV) at locus 20q11.21 and is one of the strongest candidates associated with genetic alteration via escape from mitotic stress. However, the underlying mechanisms for BCL2L1 induction remain undefined. Furthermore, abnormal mitosis and 'survival advantage' frequently occurring in the late passage are respectively associated with the expression of TPX2 and BCL2L1, which are located in locus 20q11.21. In this study, we observed that 20q11.21 CNV was not sufficient for BCL2L1 induction and consequent survival traits in pairs of hESCs and human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with normal and 20q11.21 CNVs. Inducible expression of TPX2 and basal TPX2 expression due to leakage of the inducible system in hESCs with normal copy number was sufficient to promote BCL2L1 expression and promoted high tolerance to mitotic stress. High Aurora A kinase activity by TPX2 stabilized YAP1 protein to promote YAP1 dependent BCL2L1 expression. Thus, a chemical inhibitor of Aurora A kinase and knockdown of YAP/TAZ significantly abrogated the aforementioned high tolerance to mitotic stress through BCL2L1 suppression. These results suggest that the collective expression of TPX2 and BCL2L1 from CNV at loci 20q11.21 and a consequent increase in YAP1 signaling would promote genome instability during long-term in vitro hESC culture.


High-frequency action potentials (APs) allow rapid information acquisition and processing in neural systems, but create biophysical and metabolic challenges for excitable cells. The electric fish Eigenmannia virescens images its world and communicates with high-frequency (200-600 Hz) electric organ discharges (EODs) produced by synchronized APs generated at the same frequency in the electric organ cells (electrocytes). We cloned three previously unidentified Na+-activated K+ channel isoforms from electroctyes (eSlack1, eSlack2, and eSlick1). In electrocytes, mRNA transcript levels of the rapidly-activating eSlick, but not the slower eSlack1 or eSlack2, correlated with EOD frequency across individuals. In addition, transcript levels of an inward-rectifier K+ channel, a voltage-gated Na+ channel, and Na+,K+-ATPases also correlated with EOD frequency while a second Na+ channel isoform did not. Computational simulations showed that maintaining electrocyte AP waveform integrity as firing rates increase requires scaling conductances in accordance with these mRNA expression correlations, causing AP metabolic costs to increase exponentially.


Gas therapy as a burgeoning and promising research field has attracted considerable attention in biomedicine due to its high therapeutic efficacy, biocompatibility, and biosafety. However, the lack of tumor site accumulation and controlled release of therapeutic gas molecules limited the therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, the development of gas-releasing nanoplatforms to realize tumor targeting and controllable release is highly desired. The structural diversity and tailorability and ultrahigh surface area make metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) find potential applications in the delivery and release of gas or gas releasing molecules (GRMs). In this Frontier article, we provide an overview of the recent developments achieved in gas-involving cancer therapy using MOFs or MOF-based materials. The main emphasis is focused on the design of multifunctional MOF-based nanoplatforms for the delivery and release of therapeutic gas molecules, and emphasizing their synergistic mechanism against tumor. Moreover, the challenges, future trends, and prospects of gas-related cancer therapy are also discussed.


ABSTRACT Reflective practice is an inherently personal and relational process, occurring privately within people, and publicly, between people. Consequently, given it positively impacts on professional practice, it has become a personal and professional requirement for professional bodies accrediting practitioners. This literature synthesis aims to consolidate understanding around the factors facilitating reflection by generating insights from a variety of publications across professional contexts. The analytical process involved initial coding and focussed coding wherein article text was fragmented, sorted, and integrated to develop a thematic structure. Analysis resulted in two higher order themes: Factors facilitating reflection; and Facilitator tasks. Results highlighted the value of supportive environments to facilitate open enquiry alongside focussed formal dialogues between peers, more experienced colleagues, and formal facilitators to enrich knowledge, perspectives, insights, and relationships. Further, to begin the reflective process, practitioners and novice learners benefit from support in deconstructing the concept of reflection. Ideally, this would be facilitated by an experienced reflective facilitator who values an open enquiry towards complexity, difference, and emotive responses. This requires safe, supportive, and blame-free environments where facilitators encourage dialogue while modelling qualities such as congruence, acceptance, and empathy.


Investigated personality variables related to compulsive eating (episodic bouts of uncontrolled, excessive eating) in college women. Based on scores on the Compulsive Eating Scale, two groups were selected from a large sample of college women (mean age = 19) and classified high (N = 23) or low (N = 24) with regard to compulsive eating. Participants were administered the Sixteen Personality Factor Test, Social Desirability Scale. Locus of Control Scale, and Bem Sex Role Inventory. Results showed a number of significant differences between high and low groups. On the 16PF, high Ss showed higher inner tension, greater suspiciousness, and less emotional stability (ps less than .001). High Ss were more external in locus of control (p less than .02) and showed a greater need for approval (p less than .025). Sex role data showed a higher Masculine self-ideal (p less than .001) for the high group. There appear to be meaningful differences in personality variables that are related to compulsive eating. Results are discussed in terms of current theories of compulsive eating.


This study aims at quantifying the effects of off-design operation on the aerodynamic performance of a high deflection steam turbine blade linear cascade. The flow incidence on the leading edge of the blades was varied from −15.3° to +21.0° while comprehensive measurements of the resulting flow-fields upstream and downstream of the test section were conducted. This allowed calculating the profile loss coefficient which proved to be insensitive to flow incidence. The experimental results were found to be in good agreement with the output from an in-house numerical investigation using a commercial CFD package.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


Print journalism has long been seen as a key institution of democratic politics, serving to enhance transparency, provide a forum for debate, and facilitate public participation. Instead, television journalism, particularly in its commercial form, has often been seen more negatively, as a form of infotainment that contributes little to the functions of journalism as an institution of democratic citizenship. Some scholars have questioned the dichotomy between infotainment and democratic roles, however, and the existing research comparing journalistic roles in print and television has produced mixed results. Focusing on the case of Chile and making use of a standardized news content-based index of journalistic roles, this study compares the prevalence of three professional roles by medium—newspapers and television—and also by audience orientation—popular and elite media across both print and television news. Our results show that commercial television in Chile is higher than print media in the performance of the watchdog and civic roles, and the infotainment role is positively, not negatively, correlated with these. We discuss the implication of these findings in light of the literature on infotainment and citizenship, as well as the emerging body of research on journalistic role performance.


Human recombinant interleukin 6 (IL-6) was found to stimulate the growth of immature mouse megakaryocytes maximally at 2 ng/ml, leading to significant increases in the number of large megakaryocytes readily detectable by light microscopy. IL-6 did not stimulate megakaryocyte progenitor cells to form colonies of megakaryocytes, but potentiated megakaryocyte colony formation when added in the presence of interleukin 3. The stimulation could be neutralized by an anti-IL-6 serum. The data indicate that IL-6 is a potent differentiation stimulus of megakaryocyte development in cell culture.


Research Into Use (RIU), is a DFID funded project (2006-2011), aiming at strengthening capacities for uptake of agricultural innovations by end-users through Innovation Platforms (IPs). In Rwanda, RIU IPs are focusing on maize, cassava, potato and farmers associations respectively in Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Gicumbi and Karongi districts. The funding is coming to an end whereas capacity building is vital to sustain these platforms beyond the project duration. This study was designed to establish the contextual factors, institutional arrangements, incentives and competences required for effective functioning and sustainability of agricultural IPs in Rwanda. Based on relevant literature review, the methodology used included focus group discussions, individual interviews, observations and capacity needs scoring. Results indicate the success of RIU in establishing the four agricultural innovation platforms and strengthening social networks between various actors (farmers, cooperatives, local leaders, NGOs, etc.). Contextual factors conducive to agricultural IPs development include local resources, local actors and hard work. Recommendations will be used by DFID and its partners.


Background: Glioblastoma poses an inevitable threat to patients despite aggressive therapy regimes. It displays a great level of molecular heterogeneity and numerous substitutions in several genes have been documented. Next-generation sequencing techniques have identified various molecular signatures that have led to a better understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of glioblastoma. In this limited study, we sought to identify genetic variants in a small number of rare patients with aggressive glioblastoma. Methods: Five tumor tissue samples were isolated from four patients with rapidly growing glioblastoma. Genomic DNA was isolated and whole exome sequencing was used to study protein-coding regions. Generated FASTQ files were analyzed and variants were called for each sample. Variants were prioritized with different approaches and functional annotation was applied for the detrimental variants. Results: A total of 49,780 somatic variants were identified in the five glioblastoma samples studied, with the majority as missense substitutions. The top ten genes with the highest number of substitutions were MUC3A, MUC4, MUC6, OR4C5, PDE4DIP, AHNAK2, OR4C3, ZNF806, TTN, and RP1L1. Notably, variant prioritization after annotation indicated that the MTCH2 (Chr11: 47647265 A>G) gene sequence change was putative deleterious in all of the aggressive tumor samples. Conclusion: The MTCH2 (Chr11: 47647265 A>G) gene substitution was identified as putative deleterious in highly aggressive glioblastomas, which merits further investigation. Moreover, a high tumor mutation burden was observed, with a signature of the highest substitutions in MUC3A, MUC4, MUC6, OR4C5, PDE4DIP, AHNAK2, OR4C3, ZNF806, TTN, and RP1L1 genes. The findings provide critical, initial data for the further rational design of genetic screening and diagnostic approaches against aggressive glioblastoma.


The electrochemical behaviour of L-cysteic acid was studied at the surface of 1-[4-(ferrocenylethynyl)phenyl]-1-ethanone modified carbon paste electrode (4FEPEMCPE) in aqueous media using cyclic voltammetry and double step potential chronoamperometry. It has been found, that under optimum condition (pH 7.00) in cyclic voltammetry, the oxidation of L-cysteic acid at the surface of 4FEPEMCPE is occurred at a potential about 220 mV less positive than that an unmodified carbon paste electrode. The kinetic parameters such as electron transfer coefficient, α, and catalytic reaction rate constant, Kh, were also determined using electrochemical approaches. The electrocatalytic oxidation peak current of L-cysteic acid showed a linear dependent on the L-cysteic acid concentration and linear calibration curves were obtained in the ranges of 9 × 10 6.2 × 10 M and 2.0 × 10 1.17 × 10 M of L-cysteic acid concentration with cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) methods, respectively. The detection limits (3σ) were determined equal to 2.3 × 10 M and 8.7 × 10 M by CV and DPV methods. This method was also examined as a selective, simple and precise new method for voltammetric determination of L-cysteic acid in serum of patient's blood with migraine disease.


There has been interest in rapid rehydration for gastroenteritis to reduce hospital stay. A Canadian randomised controlled trial (RCT) compared intravenous (IV) rehydration with normal saline over 1 h given rapidly (60 mL/kg) or at the standard rate (20 mL/kg). They found no difference in the proportion of children rehydrated at 2 h, nor in the proportion needing prolonged treatment, while the median time to discharge was actually significantly longer (6.3 vs. 5 h) for the rapid group. A Melbourne RCT of 254 infants with at least moderate dehydration (2.7% of the 9331 children seen with gastroenteritis) compared rapid nasogastric (NG) rehydration (100 mL/kg over 4 h) with standard NG rehydration over 24 h. The primary failure rates were similar (11.8% rapid, 9.2% standard), and although rapid rehydration avoided hospitalisation for just over half the infants, 22.7% failed discharge from the emergency department 4 h after rapid rehydration and another 7.6% were readmitted within 24 h. The vast majority of children with gastroenteritis will drink and can be rehydrated orally (over 97% in the Melbourne study). For the small number of children who require IV or NG rehydration, there is little to recommend rapid rehydration compared with a more sedate approach.


Introduction: A workplace orientation program is a core requirement of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards in Australia. This is particularly important within healthcare as patient safety and the patient experience are at risk if the healthcare workforce is not supported with an effective orientation and induction program. Aim: This study aimed to review the literature and map the requirements of the NSQHS Standards in relation to orientation and induction. Method: This study utilised online databases to search for literature pertaining to orientation and induction within healthcare. Inclusion criteria included relevance to research questions, and originating in a country with a comparative health system to Australia. Results: The search identified a total of 202 articles of potential relevance with 42 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. Articles were ranked according to hierarchy of evidence criteria for both qualitative and quantitative studies. The importance of using orientation to detail safety and quality roles, the organisations' risk management system, governance structure, operational processes and procedures was highlighted. Patient-centred care, antimicrobial stewardship, clinical handover and mechanisms for escalation of care and emergency assistance should also be covered within the orientation process. Conclusion: There is a dearth of studies in relation to orientation and induction in the healthcare literature. Orientation content is now clearly prescribed, what is lacking within healthcare is a standardised framework. Concept mapping, educational theory and adult learning methods have been shown to enhance workforce problem solving and engagement with orientation, however further research is needed to enhance practice.


Protein solubility is an important thermodynamic parameter critical for the characterization of a protein's function, and a key determinant for the production yield of a protein in both the research setting and within industrial (e.g. pharmaceutical) applications. Thus, a highly accurate in silico bioinformatics tool for predicting protein solubility from protein sequence is sought. In this study, we developed a deep learning sequence-based solubility predictor, DSResSol, that takes advantage of the integration of squeeze excitation residual networks with dilated convolutional neural networks. The model captures the frequently occurring amino acid k-mers and their local and global interactions, and highlights the importance of identifying long-range interaction information between amino acid k-mers to achieve higher performance in comparison to existing deep learning-based models. DSResSol uses protein sequence as input, outperforming all available sequence-based solubility predictors by at least 5% in accuracy when the performance is evaluated by two different independent test sets. Compared to existing predictors, DSResSol not only reduces prediction bias for insoluble proteins, but also predicts soluble proteins within the test sets with an accuracy that is at least 13% higher. We derive the key amino acids, dipeptides, and tripeptides contributing to protein solubility, identifying glutamic acid and serine as critical amino acids for protein solubility prediction. Overall, DSResSol can be used for fast, reliable, and inexpensive prediction of a protein's solubility to guide experimental design. Availability The source code, datasets, and web server for this model are available at https://github.com/mahan-fcb/DSResSol


This study aims to investigate the effect of the capital structure of corporations on the systematic risks of their stocks. Its aim was achieved by applying this capital structure on a sample of industrial corporations listed at Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), during the period 1/1/1996-31/12/2003. After analyzing and examining the data from this sample, the researcher found that there was a significant effect of corporation's capital structure, as measured by the corporation's average debt ratio, on the corporation's systematic risks, as measured by beta coefficient of its stock. So, the study suggests a model that relates corporation's capital structures to beta coefficient of its stock. Beta coefficient can be used to determine the required rate of return by investor according to Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). The required rate of return by investor can then be used to discount the expected cash flows of the corporation's stock; that is, to discount the expected Earning Per Share (EPS) of corporation, so as to estimate the fair value of its stock. The corporation management, then, can differentiate between the alternative capital structures and choose the one that leads to the highest fair value of the stock.


Characterizing the impact of HIV transmission routes on viral genetic diversity can improve the understanding of the mechanisms of virus evolution and adaptation. HIV vertical transmission can occur in utero, during delivery, or while breastfeeding. The present study investigated the phylodynamics of the HIV-1 env gene in mother-to-child transmission by analyzing one chronically infected pair from Brazil and three acutely infected pairs from Zambia, with three to five time points. Sequences from 25 clones from each sample were obtained and aligned using Clustal X. ML trees were constructed in PhyML using the best evolutionary model. Bayesian analyses testing the relaxed and strict molecular clock were performed using BEAST and a Bayesian Skyline Plot (BSP) was construed. The genetic variability of previously described epitopes was investigated and compared between each individual time point and between mother and child sequences. The relaxed molecular clock was the best-fitted model for all datasets. The tree topologies did not show differentiation in the evolutionary dynamics of the virus circulating in the mother from the viral population in the child. In the BSP, the effective population size was more constant in time in the chronically infected patients while in the acute patients it was possible to detect bottlenecks. The genetic variability within viral epitopes recognized by the human immune system was considerably higher among the chronically infected pair in comparison with acutely infected pairs. These results contribute to a better understanding of HIV-1 evolutionary dynamics in mother-to-child transmission.


This is Part I of a two-part paper that considers anti-jamming system design in wireless networks based on message-driven frequency hopping (MDFH), a highly efficient spread spectrum technique. In this paper, we first analyze the performance of MDFH under hostile jamming. It is observed that while MDFH is robust under strong jamming, it experiences considerable performance losses under disguised jamming from sources that mimic the true signal. To overcome this limitation, we propose an anti-jamming MDFH (AJ-MDFH) system. The main idea is to transmit a secure ID sequence along with the information stream. The ID sequence is generated through a cryptographic algorithm using the shared secret between the transmitter and the receiver, it is then exploited by the receiver for effective signal extraction. It is shown that AJ-MDFH can effectively reduce the performance degradation caused by disguised jamming, and is also robust under strong jamming. In addition, we extend AJ-MDFH to the multi-carrier case, which can increase the system efficiency and jamming resistance significantly through jamming randomization and frequency diversity, and can readily be used as a collision-free multiple access system. Part II of the paper focuses on the capacity analysis of MDFH and AJ-MDFH under disguised jamming.


Adhesion is defined as the molecular force of attraction in the area of contact between unlike bodies of adhesive materials and substrates that acts to hold the bodies together. In the context of asphalt mixtures, adhesion is used to refer to the amount of energy required to break the adhesive bond between bitumen (bitumen-filler mastic) and aggregates. Thus, adhesive failure can be considered as displacement of bitumen (bitumen-filler) mastic from aggregates surface, which might indicates low magnitude of adhesive bond strength. Adhesion is considered as one of the main fundamental properties of asphalt mixtures, which can be correlated with quality, performance and serviceability. However, despite its significance, research on adhesion of asphalt mixtures is limited and yet there is no established testing technique and procedure that can be used to quantify the adhesive bond strength between bitumen (bitumen-filler mastic) and aggregates. Only in the past few years, some efforts have been conducted in developing testing techniques and procedures for measuring the adhesive bond strength of bitumen and aggregates. However, the developed testing techniques and procedures have not enjoyed universal success and acceptance, and not yet established. Hence, emphasis of this study is focused on the development of laboratory adhesion test method that can be used to directly measure the adhesive bond strength between bitumen (bitumen-filler mastic) and aggregates. Also, adhesive bond strength and failure characteristics of various combinations of asphalt mixture materials over wide ranges of testing conditions were evaluated in order to validate the reliability and efficiency of the developed laboratory adhesion test method.

This study was divided into three parts. In Part 1, a detailed review of literature on various testing techniques and procedures used to measure the adhesive bond strength in numerous areas of scientific literature and international standards was performed, in order to assess and thus to propose the most suitable and realistic approach for development of laboratory adhesion test method for asphalt mixtures. In Part 2, the proposed adhesion test method was subjected to evaluation, mainly based on trial and error experimental approach, in order to adapt and thus to develop the criteria and procedures for test setup and apparatus, specimen preparation, testing and data analysis. The established criteria and procedures were then used for detailed evaluation in Part 3, in order to quantify the test results of various combinations of asphalt mixture materials (i.e. bitumen (bitumen-filler mastic) and aggregates) over wide ranges of thicknesses of adhesive layer of bitumen, aspect ratio of specimens, testing conditions (i.e. deformation rates and test temperatures) and conditioning procedures (dry and wet conditionings). Results of the study were subjected to comparative analysis in order to determine the effect of various variables and parameters on the test results, to propose suitable testing conditions and to validate the reliability and efficiency of the laboratory adhesion test method. Upon completion of the study, a draft protocol was developed as guiding principles in conducting the laboratory adhesion test method.


Corn Husk contains cellulose which has potential to become a biosorbent of anionic surfactant. This research aimed to know the optimum mass of corn husk biosorbent to reduce the amount of anionic surfactant in detergent waste and knew the characteristic of the biosorbent pores by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). This research used activation method by using NaOH 5 % for 90 minutes, and used mass variation 28 gr, 32 gr, 36 gr. The amount of anionic surfactant was determined with MBAS method. The result of SEM showed that the diameter of the biosorbent pores got larger after being activated from 2.12 nm to 3.41 nm. This experiment showed that activation had removed lignin which was bound to cellulose. The optimum mass of biosorbent was 32 gr which had reduced the amount of anionic surfactant from 92.8 mg/l to 77.9 mg/l with maximum adsorption capacity 0.1862 mg/g.


This letter presents a domain decomposition method to predict the acoustic characteristics of an arbitrary enclosure made up of any number of sub-spaces. While the Lagrange multiplier technique usually has good performance for conditional extremum problems, the present method avoids involving extra coupling parameters and theoretically ensures the continuity conditions of both sound pressure and particle velocity at the coupling interface. Comparisons with the finite element results illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the present predictions and the effect of coupling parameters between sub-spaces on the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the overall enclosure is revealed.


In this paper, we design a novel Bregman gradient policy optimization framework for reinforcement learning based on Bregman divergences and momentum techniques. Specifically, we propose a Bregman gradient policy optimization (BGPO) algorithm based on the basic momentum technique and mirror descent iteration. At the same time, we present an accelerated Bregman gradient policy optimization (VR-BGPO) algorithm based on a momentum variance-reduced technique. Moreover, we introduce a convergence analysis framework for our Bregman gradient policy optimization under the nonconvex setting. Specifically, we prove that BGPO achieves the sample complexity of Õ( −4) for finding -stationary point only requiring one trajectory at each iteration, and VR-BGPO reaches the best known sample complexity of Õ( −3) for finding an -stationary point, which also only requires one trajectory at each iteration. In particular, by using different Bregman divergences, our methods unify many existing policy optimization algorithms and their new variants such as the existing (variance-reduced) policy gradient algorithms and (variance-reduced) natural policy gradient algorithms. Extensive experimental results on multiple reinforcement learning tasks demonstrate the efficiency of our new algorithms.


Steroids such as corticotropin, cortisone, hydrocortisone, predisone, and prednisolone have become useful therapeutic drugs in a number of conditions. In a small percentage of patients an unfortunate sequela of steroidal therapy has been the development of peptic ulcers, both gastric and duodenal. No matter which cortisone or cortisone-like drug is used, the incidence of ulcer does not seem to vary. In general, peptic ulcer develops more frequently in those patients who have been given large doses of steroids for relatively long periods of time. It has been our experience that the majority of patients in whom "steroid ulcers" develop previously have had peptic ulcers or have some other contributing condition such as duodenal stasis associated with mesenteric root compression. We, and others, by combining simple ulcer treatment with steroid therapy, have been able to give steroids safely to patients who previously have had peptic ulcers, and those


Here, we report the application of an entropy-enhanced frequency-domain analysis method to examine large-scale genomic data. This ensures superior coherency for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Different statistical methods are used to analyze large-scale data produced and attempts have been made to perform data mining. These efforts have been partially successful due to sequence gaps, noncoding and low complexity regions, inaccuracy, etc. In contrast, we report a novel robust method that is based on frequency-domain analysis. Our paradigm complements a number of far-reaching perceptions that new concepts emerge to comprehend complex large-scale genomic data under uncertainties.


Corynosoma bullosum is a parasite of pinnipeds while Corynosoma cetaceum is considered a parasite of cetaceans. Until now, there were no records of parasitism by C. cetaceum in phocids. This study reports C. bullosum and the first record of C. cetaceum in Mirounga leonina from Antarctica.


: To gain continuous access to the services, users of cloud computing makes benefit from a technique called replication. Replication technique is used to maintain multiple copies of same data at different sites. Based on ever growing user's needs, high demand data will be replicated to various sites to provide better performance, high availability and to improve fault tolerance. This paper provides a better insight into data replication strategies provided for data availability by considering different parameters like energy consumption, bandwidth optimization and reducing access latency involved during the execution of tasks in cloud data centers for data intensive applications.


OBJECTIVE
To detect the expression levels of telomere binding factor 2 (TRF2) mRNA in tumor tissue of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients using quantitative real-time RT-PCR.

METHODS
The target gene mRNA was amplified with RT-PCR, then was sequentially electrophoresed and purified as standards, and the standard curves of gene expression were established. The expression levels of TRF2 mRNA of lymphoid tissue from NHL and reactive lymphoadenopathy were detected with real-time RT-PCR.

RESULTS
The correlation coefficient was 0.996 between the amount of template cDNA and the intensity of fluorescence signal when gene expression standard curves were established. The correlation coefficient of template cDNA amount and grey density of bands derived from gel electrophoresis of real-time RT-PCR final products was 0.779 (P<0.05). Of all NHL patients, expression levels of TRF2 mRNA of follicular lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma and diffuse large B cell lymphoma were(22.943 +/-9.424) amol, (23.181 +/-5.983) amol and (18.339 +/-7.910) amol, respectively, which had no significant difference compared with reactive lymphoadenopathy [(21.796 +/-4.800) amol, P>0.05]. The expression level of TRF2 mRNA of Burkitt lymphoma was (33.170 +/-12.841) amol, which was significantly higher than that of reactive lymphoadenopathy and other types of NHL (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION
Alcohol drinking isn't one of the risk factors of colorectal cancer among Jiashan County population.


Daylight vision begins when light activates cone photoreceptors in the retina, creating spatial patterns of neural activity. These cone signals are then combined and processed in downstream neural circuits, ultimately producing visual perception. Recent technical advances have made it possible to deliver visual stimuli to the retina that probe this processing by the visual system at its elementary resolution of individual cones. Physiological recordings from nonhuman primate retinas reveal the spatial organization of cone signals in retinal ganglion cells, including how signals from cones of different types are combined to support both spatial and color vision. Psychophysical experiments with human subjects characterize the visual sensations evoked by stimulating a single cone, including the perception of color. Future combined physiological and psychophysical experiments focusing on probing the elementary visual inputs are likely to clarify how neural processing generates our perception of the visual world. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Neuroscience Volume 42 is July 8, 2019. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Beet webworm Loxostege sticticalis is a notorious pest widely distributed on the territory of Eurasia. Its outbreaks cause severe damage to crops in Russia and China. Here Wolbachia infection is reported for the first time in L. sticticalis. Larvae were sampled in Rostov, Saratov, Irkutsk Regions and Republic of Buryatia in 2005–2013. Primers targeting the wsp gene were used for the PCR screening of Wolbachia. Among 148 larvae, 35 were Wolbachia positive. Wolbachia prevalence rate ranged from 21 to 40 % in the Asian and from 0 to 47 % in the European part of Russia. The combined sample subsets were compared for European versus Asian part of Russia and 2005–2009 versus 2010–2013 timeframes. The prevalence rates of Wolbachia were not significantly different between two parts of Russia, but the endosymbiont presence (estimated for the total dataset) increased with time within the observation period.


THE USE of sodium heparin in adults is a wellknown aspect of modern therapy. The recent availability of highly concentrated aqueous heparin preparations has made subcutaneous administration both effective and reliable. This route of administration often has replaced the more cumbersome intravenous method. Heparin has restricted use in infancy, in contrast to the adult patient. It has been used as an anticoagulant in laboratory blood specimens, in the syringe rinse during exchange transfusions,1and occasionally in transfusion blood itself.1Because of the infrequent use of heparin in the nursery and because of the increasing use of the highly concentrated solutions elsewhere in the hospital, an awareness of these potent solutions is in order. An infant with a coagulation disorder resulting from inadvertently administered concentrated heparin is described. Report of a Case The mother was a 19-year-old, married, white primiparous woman. Her blood group was 0, Rh positive. Following


Acquisition and enhancement of social capital is a continuous process of negotiation and interaction between self and social context. While the concept of social capital has been dealt with extensively in international research, relatively few studies have explored social capital among young people, particularly in the school context. This paper considers access of first-year students (age twelve to thirteen years) to school-based social capital in secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on several theories dealing with social capital, the paper describes factors that are likely to have an impact on the acquisition process. It is argued in the paper that access to teacher- and peer-based social capital may provide valuable resources that ease the transition process for students as they move from primary schools to secondary level.


Periodically poled lithium niobate crystals are expected to have ferroelectric domain boundaries parallel to the direction of the spontaneous polarization. The authors report, however, that this is not the case for periodic structures grown by the off-center Czochralski technique. By exploiting the high resolution x-ray diffraction technique in reciprocal space mapping mode, the authors demonstrate that the angle between the domain border and the spontaneous polarization directions is different from zero, reaching a value as high as 5°.


Pulping digester including the channelling phenomenon and chemical reactions in the channel is modelled using the CFD, finite volume method, FLUENT. The objective of this paper is to predict the chemical and hydraulic behaviour of the digester under the hazardous situations.A 2D geometry of the digester is built and symmetric planes are defined in the Gambit. The mesh is then exported to the FLUENT and then the created half geometry was treated by axisymmetric function to establish a complete model of the digester. The Eulerian scheme is applied which represent the multiphase flows in the digester. A heterogeneous porous media is defined for the compressible bed. Species transport is applied to define a mixture template of the wood chips components. The kappa number is predicted in the channel and around it to characterize the cooking development under hazardous conditions.


The determination of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a useful tool in the diagnosis and follow-up of prostate cancer in males, but its diagnostic validity is uncertain in hemodialysis patients. We prospectively evaluated PSA in male hemodialysis patients as well as the influence of a single dialytic session on its levels. We measured pre- and postdialysis total PSA (tPSA) in 63 hemodialysis patients (mean age 68.44 ± 11.16 years, range 33–86 years) who had received dialysis with low flux membranes as well as in 729 normal subjects (mean age 63.22 ± 16.85 years, range 28–92 years). We also measured pre- and postdialysis hematocrit (Hct) in patients in order to estimate the degree of hemoconcentration after the dialysis session. If any of the examined patients or subjects had abnormal tPSA levels then free PSA (fPSA) and the f/tPSA ratio were additionally measured. Patients had lower levels of tPSA compared with those of the subjects (2.41 ± 4.06 vs. 3.76 ± 7.16 ng/ml, p < 0.05) while both of the two groups had near equal prevalence of individuals with abnormal values of tPSA or f/tPSA ratio (patients 12.69 and 7.93%, subjects 11.01 and 7.11%, respectively; nonsignificant. Dialysis resulted in a 9.48% increase in mean tPSA levels (2.41 ± 4.06 vs. 2.69 ± 4.06 ng/ml, nonsignificant) and in a 10.09% increase in mean Hct; the correlation between these increases was significant (r = 0.79, p < 0.001). In conclusion, our male hemodialysis patients had lower PSA levels compared with the general population, while both groups of individuals had a similar prevalence of abnormal values of tPSA and f/tPSA ratio. Dialysis with low flux membranes does not eliminate PSA and its postdialysis increase is due to hemoconcentration.


Fuel Cells based in polymeric membranes are an alternative for the conventional energetic matrices based on fossil fuel and generation of energy with minimum environmental impact. However, polymeric membranes available nowadays for this specific use have some disadvantages, like low efficiency and cell durability. The aim of this work was to prepare and to characterize hybrid polymeric membranes for application as hydrogen fuel cell electrolytes. Membranes based in poly(ether imide) were chemically modified with sulfur groups to increase their ionic conductivity. The incorporation of mineral clay in nanometric scale aims to increase their mechanical and thermal properties. The membranes were evaluated by FTIR, DSC, TGA, DMA, density, hot water uptake, water vapor transmission and ionic migration resistance. The results leaded to a better structure versus properties balance, aiming the high performance of the obtained membranes.


The first part of the work gives a survey of the andarz books extant in Pahlavi. The texts are arranged according to whether they are attributed to a likely or legendary author or are anonymous. The sixth book of the Denkart, the largest collection of andarz, is dealt with separately. The discussion contains in each case, besides details of bibliographical interest, remarks on the character and structure of the text and notes on its relationship to other andarz compositions. Philological notes are included on difficult passages. The last sections of the first part deal with some general problems of the andarz literature; and an attempt is made to distinguish types of books and to comment on various stylistic devices used in these books. The question of the midrashic technique is discussed in some detail. The second part is devoted to analyzing the religious system of thought reflected in the andarz books, and particularly in Dk vi. This is done partly by examining the use of terms in different contexts. The main subjects discussed are: the various associations connected with the notion of wisdom; some techniques of instruction; the concepts of faith and religion; the complex of ideas centred round the term 'spirit'; the various ways of righteousness and the ideas connected with sin; the attitude to this world the concept of poverty and the poor; the idea of the measure; the reward in afterlife, the notion of xwarr, the problem of fate and free will. The probable existence of esoteric doctrines in Sasanian Iran is also considered.


In recent years there has been considerable interest in analyzing relative trust level of the web pages. As the web contains the facts, deceit, opposition and assumptions on the grand scale resulting on which web page do one trust? In this paper an algorithm is proposed which assigns a rank to every document on the web that specify the quality of that document or the relative level of trust one can made on a document. This algorithm is basically using the concept of Page Rank and implemented using C++. The Page Rank algorithm is used in the Google search engine for ranking search results. In this paper we have analyzed the behavior of the proposed algorithm for the different values of moister factor.


Acute acalculous cholecystitis in trauma patients is an elusive diagnosis, more so if the patient sustained blunt abdominal trauma. It can arise as a post-traumatic or postsurgical complication, occurring more in critically ill patients. A high index of suspicion for acalculous cholecystitis must be maintained for critically ill patients with newly developing symptoms or septicaemia.
We describe a case of a 27-year-old male patient who sustained blunt abdominal trauma in a road traffic accident. He had at least grade III liver injury and later developed gangrenous acalculous cholecystitis, which was confirmed histopathologically after open cholecystectomy.
https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ecajs.v22i3.9

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Good decisions on which health interventions to invest can be facilitated by high quality evaluations of the cost-effectiveness of interventions. Although there are several reviews of evaluations of the cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation programs, the reviews have had little to say about the quality of the studies. The present study tries to fill this gap by thoroughly evaluating the quality of economic evaluations of interventions to reduce tobacco consumption. First, the general characteristics of all the studies reviewed are described, and then the quality of epidemiological characteristics and of the economic evaluation is analyzed, using a criteria list proposed by Drummond et al. (1997). The analysis finds that the quality of many aspects of many of the studies leaves much to be desired, judged against the guidelines offered by Drummond et al. However, the studies do consistently conclude that stop-smoking interventions are cost-effective, and this conclusion is robust when sensitivity analyses are performed. The cost-effectiveness ratios estimated by the studies for smoking cessation interventions are much lower than most other health care treatments. The study this concludes that the broad conclusion that treatments to reduce the number of smokers are cost-effective at least in relative terms, is likely to be true, despite the concerns expressed about the quality of the economic evaluations. The implication for policymakers is that smoking cessation interventions are worthwhile.


up the burdens and obligations of perpetrators. Of particular philosophical interest here is how Card extends Bernard Williams's concept of moral remainders, pointing out that these can be positive as well as negative, and that they can consist in emotional and attitudinal responses as well as wrongs. "When we ought to support the punishment of forgiven evildoers," she writes, "just as when we are wise not to reconcile with those we forgive, we may at the same time rightly regret the fact. Such regret is a 'moral remainder'" (302). With acute sensitivity to the many moral remainders, both positive and negative, that can be present when the perpetrator of an atrocity seeks forgiveness from a victim, Card re* ects on Simon Wiesenthal's encounter with a dying young Nazi soldier who confesses to having taken part in a mass slaughter of Jews and begs Wiesenthal, because he is a Jew, to absolve him of this crime. Crowning the work is a nal chapter, both case study and response, in which Card considers victims who live with atrocity by perpetrating it, culpably in* icting on others the very evils that they themselves must suffer. Borrowing Primo Levi's term "gray zone" for the special hell in which such victims live, Card calls the deliberate creation of such zones a diabolical evil—one that "knowingly and culpably seeks others' moral corruption by putting them in situations where in order to survive they must, by their own choices, risk their own moral deterioration or moral death" (357–58). It is in the gray zones that Card's atrocity paradigm most fully comes into its own, laying bare both elements of evil as they exist in their most devastating forms. The harm, at once foreseeable and intended, is not merely physical but moral, and the culpability encompasses the victim as well as the perpetrator. When concentration camp prisoners are rewarded, by temporary reductions in their own torture, for in* icting the evils of the camps on other prisoners; when sexual slaves are encouraged, by equally temporary stays of punishment, to participate in the degradation of other young girls, the evil is diabolical indeed. But as Card shows us again and again in this fascinating and thought-provoking book, the devil's work is our work, and it is up to us to stop it.


Feature selection is a very important step in text classification, which affects the accuracy and validity in text classification. Base on four classic feature selection algorithms of text mining, this paper has established a kind of integrated learning algorithm which applies with feature selection in text classification, in order to improve the accuracy of text classification. Test results show that the algorithm improves the accuracy of text classification.


This article aims to examine the leverage choice in a corporate spin-off with those of counterparts. The factors that determine the choice of leverage in a spin-off differ from those that influence leverage ratios in firms those were not subject of spin-off. The sample used in this study consists of completed spin-offs announced between 1992 and 2016 in USA. The two competing capital structure theories-trade-off and pecking order are tested for the above-mentioned sample in this study. The results in this article are consistent with the predictions of the trade-off theory and indicate that firms weigh the costs and benefits of debt when they make capital structure decisions. Empirical studies using year-end debt ratios of firms therefore distort the impact of the factors influencing leverage choice. This study avoids the problem faced by researchers when firms deviate from target leverage ratio by investigating the capital structure of a divested subsidiary in a spin-off. Keywords: Spin-off, capital structure theories DOI : 10.7176/RJFA/10-13-02 Publication date :July 31 st 2019


One major goal of vision is to infer physical models of objects, surfaces, and their layout from sensors. In this paper, we aim to interpret indoor scenes from one RGBD image. Our representation encodes the layout of walls, which must conform to a Manhattan structure but is otherwise flexible, and the layout and extent of objects, modeled with CAD-like 3D shapes. We represent both the visible and occluded portions of the scene, producing a complete 3D parse. Such a scene interpretation is useful for robotics and visual reasoning, but difficult to produce due to the well-known challenge of segmentation, the high degree of occlusion, and the diversity of objects in indoor scene. We take a data-driven approach, generating sets of potential object regions, matching to regions in training images, and transferring and aligning associated 3D models while encouraging fit to observations and overall consistency. We demonstrate encouraging results on the NYU v2 dataset and highlight a variety of interesting directions for future work.


While ordinary options are wholly exercised at a chosen time to maximize holders' benefits, empirical evidence favors the intertemporal exercise of corporate securities such as convertible bonds and executive/employee stock options. This is because the exercises of these securities can dilute the issuers' equity, inject capital into the issuers' assets, and change the capital structures, which influences the exercise payoffs and the remaining security values. However, the literature simplifies these impacts on exercise policies, leading to biased and even irrational pricing results. We address this via a state-transition forest that partitions the securities into k units and the time span of the forest into n steps. A representative holder can exercise an integral multiple of units at different steps to maximize her benefit, given that the lump sum of the exercise units does not exceed k. It can be further extended to model intertemporal exercises conducted by competitive investors who hold too-small amounts of securities to influence prices. The forest is then composed of k + 1 trees to capture transitions among capital structures due to different lump sums of option exercise units. The intertemporal exercise decision at each forest node is optimally determined by recursively solving the Bellman equation. This carefully designed forest structure reduces the running time complexity from to . We show that ignoring or simplifying intertemporal exercises and corresponding dilutions/injections significantly influences pricing results.


Purpose: Immunoglobulin G–switched chronic lymphocytic leukemia (G-CLL) is a rare variant of CLL, whose origin and ontogenetic relationship to the common IgM/IgD (MD-CLL) variant remains undefined. Here, we sought for clues about the ontogeny of G-CLL versus MD-CLL by profiling the relevant IG gene repertoires. Experimental Design: Using purpose-built bioinformatics methods, we performed detailed immunogenetic profiling of a multinational CLL cohort comprising 1,256 cases, of which 1,087 and 169 expressed IG mu/delta and gamma heavy chains, respectively. Results: G-CLL has a highly skewed IG gene repertoire that is distinct from MD-CLL, especially in terms of (i) overuse of the IGHV4-34 and IGHV4-39 genes and (ii) differential somatic hypermutation (SHM) load. Repertoire differences were also found when comparing subgroups with similar SHM status and were mainly attributed to the exclusive representation in G-CLL of two major subsets with quasi-identical (stereotyped) B-cell receptors. These subsets, namely #4 (IGHV4-34/IGKV2-30) and #8 (IGHV4-39/IGKV1(D)-39), were found to display sharply contrasting SHM and clinical behavior. Conclusions: G-CLL exhibits an overall distinct immunogenetic signature from MD-CLL, prompting speculations about distinct ontogenetic derivation and/or immune triggering. The reasons underlying the differential regulation of SHM among G-CLL cases remain to be elucidated. Clin Cancer Res; 20(2); 323–30. ©2013 AACR.


The problems of politics in the postmodern were never made more clear to me than during a visit to Cambodia and Vietnam in 1990. The following is an autoethnographic tale of my struggles as a white, middle-class, female, political sociologist encountering these remains of the Vietnam War. I write about my problem of locating a stable place for political action in the antifoundationalist epistemology of postmodern thought and within the hyperreality of postmodern media culture. I juxtapose a journal I kept while in Cambodia with my subsequent reflections on this journal to explore the ironies of lines between the "reality" of war and the "unreality" of U.S. postmodern culture. Bringing the materiality of body, place, and time and the fictions and fantasies of desire into sociological writing may be a way of writing the political in a way that pursues social justice.


As part of the Federal Aviation Administration's National Airspace System modernization plan, digital datalink communications will be introduced as a means of air/ground information exchange. Care must be taken, however, to continue to provide pilots with the 'Party Line' Information (PLI) that pilots currently overhear on the shared voice frequencies. Several studies have examined the importance of PLI through surveys and simulator studies. Pilots have consistently rated PLI as 'Important', with several specific information elements identified as 'Critical'. However, PLI is not a reliable source of information during high workload conditions, and it is not always compelling enough for pilots to commit to a required action for safety. Therefore, several recommendations can be made for datalink communications.


In today's world, designer of a watermarking system had to constantly faced with
determined attacks to remove copyright information from a watermarked cover image.
Due to these attacks, a watermark could be seriously corrupted and not detectable
anymore or the watermark could be so noisy that it's proof of ownership is
questionable. Many redundant watermarking systems have been proposed to address
these problem. However, they are not designed with adequate redundancies to protect
the watermark, and existing metrics merely disregard noisy watermarks for proof of
ownership. In this thesis, a new watermark redundancy using Sudoku watermarking is
proposed. In Sudoku watermarking, an 81-digit Sudoku "serial" numbers are
embedded into a cover image. These numbers are represented in the form of series of
small image tiles, constructed from a given watermark. The 81 tiles were divided into
halves or more and hidden into the cover image using multiple schemes (composite
schemes) that would complementarily protect the watermark from different attacks.
During retrieval process, the image tiles are converted back to its Sudoku number.
Due to attacks, some numbers may be missing. However, as other numbers will likely
remain protected due to the composite schemes, these missing numbers can be
regenerated back to its full Sudoku key by using a Sudoku solver. As a result, the
image tile usage, the composite schemes and the Sudoku solver collaboratively enable
verification of watermark for noisy and missing watermark. Using the classic 9 × 9
Sudoku puzzle, the proposed approach has been implemented and tested with Salt and
Pepper, Cropping, Gaussian, compression, Poisson, speckle, low pass filter, high pass
filter and contrast attacks on standard test images. The approach is found to be able to
improve detection by 19% as compared to existing methods when attacked by random
cropping and by 10% improvement with Salt and Pepper attack. For the rest of the
attacks, the average correct number of tiles recovered (NoT) and correct Sudoku key
(CoK) are 75% and 100%, respectively. The result indicates that the new layers of redundancy improve detection of watermark. Furthermore, the binary metric (CoK)
can be used to standardize evaluation of watermarking systems.


Dirges play an important role in the cultural life of Africans and many Africans feel man cannot approach God directly but through mediation. Dirges are songs, poems or dances performed on the death or dances performed on the death or during the funeral of someone with societal recognition. In form the Urhobo dirge may be eulogic, satiric, lamentative, condemnatory or incantatory. The Urhobo are a major ethnic group with a rich tradition in the Delta area of Southern Nigeria. Our consideration in this study is to highlight how the people respond to their spiritual world through the form of worship that is eternalised in different acts and sayings during a funeral. These acts may be formal or informal, regular or extempore, communal or individual, ritual or unceremonial through word or deed. The literary aspects of the recitations have also been examined.


An autonomic detection coordinator is developed in this paper, which constructs a multi-layered boundary to defend against host-based intrusive anomalies by correlating several observation-specific anomaly detectors. Two key observations facilitate the model formulation: first, different anomaly detectors have different detection coverage and blind spots; second, diverse operating environments provide different kinds of information to reveal anomalies. After formulating the cooperation between basic detectors as a partially observable Markov decision process, a policy-gradient reinforcement learning algorithm is applied to search in an optimal cooperation manner, with the objective to achieve broader detection coverage and fewer false alerts. Furthermore, the coordinator's behavior can be adjusted easily by setting a reward signal to meet the diverse demands of changing system situations. A preliminary experiment is implemented, together with some comparative studies, to demonstrate the coordinator's performance in terms of admitted criteria.


To the Editor.— With reference to the article by Shewmake and Anderson1on hydrofluoric acid burns, I have seen a case that corroborates the apparent predilection for subungual tissues. Report of a Case.— A 70-year-old cleaning woman, wearing rubber gloves, had been washing a tiled floor with a mixture of detergents and rust-removing agents containing hydrofluoric acid. After an hour on the job, she became aware of a pricking sensation in the tip of her right forefinger, where a hole had appeared in the glove. This was succeeded by a burning sensation so intense that she sought relief by holding the finger under cold running water. The burning worsened and the painful throbbing was so excruciating as to necessitate administration of various analgesics, but these gave no relief. I saw her the following day and observed slight bluish-green discoloration through the distal half of the nail plate (Fig 1).


Objective: Dementia with Lewy bodies is the second most common form of neurodegenerative dementia in older age yet is often under-recognised and misdiagnosed. This review aims to provide an overview of the clinical features of dementia with Lewy bodies, discussing the frequent challenges clinicians experience in diagnosing dementia with Lewy bodies, and outlines a practical approach to the clinical management, particularly in the Australian setting. Methods: This paper is a narrative review and a semi-structured database (PubMed and MEDLINE) search strategy was implemented. Articles were screened and clinically relevant studies were selected for inclusion. Results: Dementia with Lewy bodies is clinically characterised by complex visual hallucinations, spontaneous motor parkinsonism, prominent cognitive fluctuations and rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder. Neuropsychiatric features and autonomic dysfunction are also common. The new diagnostic criteria and specific diagnostic biomarkers help to improve detection rates and diagnostic accuracy, as well as guide appropriate management. Clinical management of dementia with Lewy bodies is challenging and requires an individualised multidisciplinary approach with specialist input. Conclusion: Dementia with Lewy bodies is a common form of dementia. It often presents as a diagnostic challenge to clinicians, particularly at early stages of disease, and in patients with mixed neuropathological changes, which occur in over 50% of people with dementia with Lewy bodies. Prompt diagnosis and comprehensive treatment strategies are important in improving patients' care.