Summary Grand multiparity has been described as an independent risk factor for a variety of obstetric complications, especially in developing countries with inadequate health facilities. This case control study compares the pregnancy outcomes of grand multiparas with that of multiparas at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital over a period of 1 year. The labour ward records and patients' case notes were used to extract information. Multivariate analysis created a model of the adverse factors that were independently associated with grand multiparity after control for confounding effects of age and other variables. During the period of study, there were 1,865 deliveries, out of which 350 were grandmultiparas, a rate of 18.8%. Out of the 350 grandmultiparas, 91 were excluded, leaving 259 (74%) patients which were used for the study. The multivariate analysis shows that compared with the multiparas, the grand multiparas were more likely to be uneducated, have abruptio placentae, precipitate labour and stillbirth but were less likely to have prolonged labour, episiotomy, placenta praevia, require operative deliveries or be anaemic at booking. Grandmultiparity was found to be associated with adverse pregnancy outcome. This finding has implications for practitioners caring for these women in our environment.


In many advanced countries, most outside directors are executives, active or retired, at other firms; in other words, executives from other companies make executive compensation decisions. This situation may hinder the board of directors (BOD) in their efforts to optimize executive compensation levels objectively. Using a panel data analysis of the S&P 1500 companies, we provide supplemental evidence of whether, and to what extent, the concurrent executive employment of outside directors distorts the executive pay decisions at a given company. An unbiased fixed-effect estimation confirms that a $1.00 increase in CEO pay at outside directors' primary companies results in an approximate increase of $0.22 in CEO pay at the given company. From a policy perspective, this added agency problem — caused by the BOD and not by management — is noted as difficult to control; although a firm may establish board independence, the inherent concurrent employment of directors on a board continues to exist.


Since the cloning of the estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and subsequent identification of a second distinct form of ER, termed ERbeta, a large volume of research has begun to define the molecular mechanisms of ER action. However, although great progress has been made, ER action is still poorly understood. It is expected that a better understanding of ER action may lead to novel strategies and targets for breast cancer prevention and treatment. One of the early-realized functions of the ER was regulation of growth factor signaling, but the degree of interaction between these two mitogenic signaling pathways could not have been anticipated. Recent evidence suggests that the ER and the growth-factor-signaling pathways intersect and directly interact at every level of signal transduction. The resulting synergism between ER and growth factors has been documented both in normal breast development and, importantly, in breast cancer progression and antiestrogen resistance. In this review, we will highlight our current understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cross-talk between ER and growth-factor-signaling pathways.


Although much is known concerning brain-language relations in adults, little is known about how these functions might be represented during the developmental period. We report results from 17 normal children, ages 7-18 years, who have successfully completed a word fluency paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 Tesla. Regions of activation replicate those reported for adult subjects. However, a statistically significant association between hemispheric lateralization of activation and age was found in the children. Specifically, although most subjects at all ages showed left hemisphere dominance for this task, the degree of lateralization increased with age. This study demonstrates that fMRI can reveal developmental shifts in the pattern of brain activation associated with semantic language function.


This document analyzes the security implications of IPv6 Extension
Headers and associated IPv6 options. Additionally, it discusses the
operational and interoperability implications of discarding packets
based on the IPv6 Extension Headers and IPv6 options they contain.
Finally, it provides advice on the filtering of such IPv6 packets at
transit routers for traffic *not* directed to them, for those cases
where such filtering is deemed as necessary.


PU.1 is a member of the Ets family of transcription factors required for the development of various lymphoid and myeloid cell lineages, but its role in natural killer (NK) cell development is not known. The study shows that PU.1 is expressed in NK cells and that, on cell transfer into alymphoid Rag2/gammac(-/-) mice, hematopoietic progenitors of PU.1(-/-) fetal liver cells could generate functional NK cells but not B or T cells. Nevertheless, the numbers of bone marrow NK cell precursors and splenic mature NK cells were reduced compared to controls. Moreover, PU.1(-/-) NK cells displayed reduced expression of the receptors for stem cell factor and interleukin (IL)-7, suggesting a nonredundant role for PU.1 in regulating the expression of these cytokine receptor genes during NK cell development. PU.1(-/-) NK cells also showed defective expression of inhibitory and activating members of the Ly49 family and failed to proliferate in response to IL-2 and IL-12. Thus, despite the less stringent requirement for PU.1 in NK cell development compared to B and T cells, PU.1 regulates NK cell differentiation and homeostasis.


We study theoretically the cooling of an ensemble of nuclear spins coupled to the spin of a localized electron in a quantum dot. We obtain a master equation for the state of the nuclear spins interacting with a sequence of polarized electrons that allows us to study quantitatively the cooling process including the effect of nuclear spin coherences, which can lead to "dark states" of the nuclear system in which further cooling is inhibited. We show that the inhomogeneous Knight field mitigates this effect strongly and that the remaining dark state limitations can be overcome by very few shifts of the electron wave function, allowing for cooling far beyond the dark state limit. Numerical integration of the master equation indicates, that polarizations larger than 90% can be achieved within a millisecond timescale.


The deadly nature of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has severe consequences on human health and the global economy. There are rising numbers of COVID-19 cases despite containment measures. Organizations differ in their strategic responses to institutional forces. This study investigates the role of organizational characteristics in shaping COVID-19 safety practices among small and medium construction enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria.,A quantitative research approach was employed through exploratory and descriptive designs. The study questionnaires were administered to 362 active construction SMEs which were randomly sampled from the list of 6,364 SMEs registered with the corporate affairs commission in Lagos, 296 were used for analysis; corresponding to an 82% response rate. Factor analysis was used to reduce 9 COVID-19 safety practices to 3 core practices used for further analysis. Multiple regression was employed to determine the relationship between organizational characteristics and COVID-19 safety practices.,Results show that SMEs workforce, annual turnover and total asset have a positive and significant relationship with COVID-19 safety practices, while SMEs' area of specialization is a poor predictor. It was concluded that organizational characteristics play a significant role in shaping COVID-19 safety practices among SMEs,The study is limited to only five organizational characteristics; new variables could be examined in the future.,This study shows that organizational characteristics can shape COVID-19 safety practices among SMEs. Findings will assist procuring entities in their decision to award construction contracts during the pandemic.


Real time tests, simulation and network emulation are applied to test uniformity, accuracy, reproducibility and dynamicity. Network Emulation is performed over experimental network to test real time application, protocol and traffic parameters. DummyNet is a network emulator and traffic shaper which allows nondeterministic placement of packet losses, delays and bandwidth changes. KauNet shaper is a network emulator which creates traffic patterns and applies these patterns for exact deterministic placement of bit-errors, packet losses, delay changes and bandwidth changes. An evaluation of KauNet with different patterns for packet losses, delay changes and bandwidth changes on emulated environment is part of this work. The main motivation for this work is to check the possibility to delay and drop the packets of a transfer/session in the same way as it has happened before (during the observation period). This goal is achieved to some extent using KauNet but some issues with pattern repetitions are still needed to be solved to get better results. The idea of history and trace-based traffic shaping using KauNet is given to make this possibility a reality.


The Oscillating Water Column (OWC) is one of the most promising Wave Energy Converter (WEC) concepts in terms of practicality, survivability, and efficiency. One of the potential OWC types is the Backward Bent Duct Buoy (BBDB). The objective of this research is to investigate the performance of different BBDB shapes in low heave wave conditions. Three different bottom corner shapes were chosen for the experiments in a 3D wave basin. Wave height of 0.15m with period of 1s to 5s were used in regular wave conditions. Results show that different BBDB bottom corner shapes produce different pneumatic output characteristics. It was found that the highest primary conversion efficiency of the BBDB was produced by the BBDB with a round bottom corner shape with an efficiency of 1.47 follow by BBDB with a square bottom corner shape with an efficiency of 1.24 and BBDB with 45 o bottom corner shape with the efficiency of 0.86. Thus, the round bottom corner shape is proposed to be the most efficient shape in low wave heave wave conditions.


Chronic inflammation takes part in the pathogenesis of some malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract including colorectal (CRC), gastric, and esophageal cancers. The use of ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (ω3-PUFA) supplements for chemoprevention or adjuvant therapy of gastrointestinal cancers is being investigated in recent years. Most evidence has been reported in CRC, although their protective role has also been reported for Helicobacter pylori-induced gastric cancer or Barrett's esophagus-derived adenocarcinoma. Studies based on ω3-PUFA supplementation in animal models of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and CRC revealed positive effects on cancer prevention, reducing the number and size of tumors, down-regulating arachidonic acid-derived eicosanoids, upregulating anti-oxidant enzymes, and reducing lipid peroxidation, whereas contradictory results have been found in induced colitis and colitis-associated cancer. Beneficial effects have also been found in FAP and ulcerative colitis patients. Of special interest is their positive effect as adjuvants on radio- and chemo-sensitivity, specificity, and prevention of treatment complications. Some controversial results obtained in CRC might be justified by different dietary sources, extraction and preparation procedures of ω3-PUFAs, difficulties on filling out food questionnaires, daily dose and type of PUFAs, adenoma subtype, location of CRC, sex differences, and genetic factors. Studies using animal models of inflammatory bowel disease have confirmed that exogenous administration of active metabolites derived from PUFAs called pro-resolving mediators like lipoxin A4, arachidonic acid-derived, resolvins derived from eicosapentaenoic (EPA), docosahexaenoic (DHA), and docosapentaenoic (DPA) acids as well as maresin 1 and protectins DHA- and DPA-derived improve disease and inflammatory outcomes without causing immunosuppression or other side effects.


With the rise of attacks using PowerShell in the recent months, there has not been a comprehensive solution for monitoring or prevention. Microsoft recently released the AMSI solution for PowerShell v5, however this can also be bypassed. This paper focuses on repurposing various stealthy runtime .NET hijacking techniques implemented for PowerShell attacks for defensive monitoring of PowerShell. It begins with a brief introduction to .NET and PowerShell, followed by a deeper explanation of various attacker techniques, which is explained from the perspective of the defender, including assembly modification, class and method injection, compiler profiling, and C based function hooking. Of the four attacker techniques that are repurposed for defensive real-time monitoring of PowerShell execution, intermediate language binary modification, JIT hooking, and machine code manipulation provide the best results for stealthy run-time interfaces for PowerShell scripting analysis.


BACKGROUND
The Perceived Stress Scale 10 (PSS-10) is a validated and reliable instrument to measure global levels of perceived stress. This study aims to assess the internal consistency, reliability, and factor structure of the Malay version of the PSS-10 for use among medical students.

METHODS
The original English version of the PSS-10 was translated and back-translated into Malay language. The Malay version was distributed to 242 Bachelor of Medical Science students in a private university in Malaysia. Test-retest reliability was assessed in 70 students. An exploratory principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed. Reliability was tested using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

RESULTS
All 242 students participated in the initial questionnaire study (validity and factor structure), and 70 students participated in the test-retest reliability of the study. Exploratory factor analysis yielded 2 factors that accounted for 57.8% of the variance. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the 2 factors were 0.85 and 0.70, respectively. The reliability test showed an ICC of 0.82 (95% CI: 0.70, 0.89).

CONCLUSION
The Malay version of the PSS-10 showed adequate psychometric properties. It is a useful instrument for measuring stress among medical students in Malaysia.


We propose a new method, named isolation Mondrian forest (iMondrian forest), for batch and online anomaly detection. The proposed method is a novel hybrid of isolation forest and Mondrian forest which are existing methods for batch anomaly detection and online random forest, respectively. iMondrian forest takes the idea of isolation, using the depth of a node in a tree, and implements it in the Mondrian forest structure. The result is a new data structure which can accept streaming data in an online manner while being used for anomaly detection. Our experiments show that iMondrian forest mostly performs better than isolation forest in batch settings and has better or comparable performance against other batch and online anomaly detection methods.


Assuming balanced computation, the scalability of an iterative reconstruction algorithm on a cluster computer will be determined by the tradeoff between shorter computation times on larger clusters versus longer communication times. To investigate the impact of improving communication performance, we assembled a cluster equipped with dual communication networks: Gigabit Ethernet and PCI-X Infiniband. The cluster consisted of 8 compute nodes and one fileserver node; each node had dual 3.6 GHz Intel Xeon processors and the two dual-ported communication networks. For image synchronization alone, PCI-X Infiniband was 3.8 times faster than Gigabit Ethernet. We benchmarked two parallel OSEM-3D reconstruction algorithms representing a range of image and sinogram sizes, for both a brain-only scanner (HRRT) and a whole-body scanner (HIREZ). In every case PCI-X Infiniband provided significantly superior reconstruction performance at all cluster sizes, and in all cases but one extended the range of cluster sizes over which we observed performance improvements.


This paper reviews the current research on the speciation and determination of mercury by various analytical instruments such as, atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS), voltammeter, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES), ICP-atomic emission spectrometer (AES), ICP-mass spectrometer (MS), atomic fluorescence spectrometer (AFS), spectrophotometer, spectrofluorometer, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Approximately 126 research papers on the speciation and determination of mercury by various analytical instruments published in international journals since 2015 are reviewed. All the analytical parameters, such as limit of detection, linearity range, quality assurance and quality control studies, applicability, and interfering ions studies evaluated in the reviewed articles are tabulated. This review find outs the lack of information on speciation studies of mercury in recent years. Another important prediction from this review is authors are not much studied about the concentrations of mercury in the atmosphere.


Abstract. We study soliton collisions in the Dyachenko–Zakharov equation for the envelope of gravity waves in deep water. The numerical simulations of the soliton interactions revealed several fundamentally different effects when compared to analytical two-soliton solutions of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The relative phase of the solitons is shown to be the key parameter determining the dynamics of the interaction. We find that the maximum of the wave field can significantly exceed the sum of the soliton amplitudes. The solitons lose up to a few percent of their energy during the collisions due to radiation of incoherent waves and in addition exchange energy with each other. The level of the energy loss increases with certain synchronization of soliton phases. Each of the solitons can gain or lose the energy after collision, resulting in increase or decrease in the amplitude. The magnitude of the space shifts that solitons acquire after collisions depends on the relative phase and can be either positive or negative.


Objective To examine the adverse events and time to diagnosis of in-office laryngeal biopsy (IOB) procedures. Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Outpatient clinic–tertiary referral medical center. Subjects and Methods A total of 390 IOBs were included in this study. Data on demographic characteristics, outcomes, and complications were collected. Complications were classified as severe—necessitating further intervention or admission—or mild and self-limited. Delay in diagnosis, assessed as a complication of IOB, was calculated as the time from initial examination to final diagnosis. Results Of 390 IOBs, 4 (1%) had complications: epistaxis (n = 2), vocal fold hematoma (n = 1), and aspiration event (n = 1). There were no reports of complications at follow-up. The sensitivity of IOB versus direct laryngoscopy biopsies was 77.8%, and the specificity was 95.1%. When the IOB showed malignancy as a final diagnosis, time to diagnosis was 10.7 days (95% CI, 8.6-12.8). When IOB pathology results changed from benign or carcinoma in situ to malignant (squamous cell carcinoma) by direct laryngoscopy, time to diagnosis was longer: 49.1 days (95% CI, 38.1-60.1) and 36.1 days (95% CI, 15.1-57.1; P < .05), respectively. Conclusions In this cohort, IOBs appear to be free of significant adverse events. IOBs for suspicious laryngeal lesions shorten the time to diagnosis and treatment for the majority of patients; the minority showed a small and insignificant delay.


Determination of geometric design parameters of a second~throat type annual supersonic ejector is described Tested geometric parameters were primary nozzle area ratio, cross-sectional area of second-throat, L/D ratio of second-throat and primary flow Injection angle Varying these four geometric parameters, we build a test matrix made of 81 test conditions, and experimental apparatus was fabricated to accommodate them For each test condition, the stagnation pressure of primary flow and the static pressure of the secondary flow were measured simultaneously along with their transition to steady operation and finally to unstarting condition Comparing the performance curve of every case focused on starting pressure, the unstarting pressure and the minimum secondary pressure, we could derive correlations that the parameters have on the performance of the ejector and presented the optimal design method of the ejector Additional experiments were carried out to find effects of temperature and mass flow rate of the secondary flow.


In this paper we study retail price promotions and manufacturer trade deals in markets with multiproduct retailers. We find that in situations where retailers carry more than one competing brand, the promotions across brands can be positively or negatively correlated depending on the structure of the market: the relative sizes of the various market segments (in terms of loyalty to manufacturer, retailer, or the pair manufacturer-retailer). We show that sometimes retailers offer the same discount on different products, but at other times they offer a smaller discount on a brand supported by a bigger trade deal. We also present results on the effects of changes in the sizes of the different market segments on the depth of price promotions and trade deals and on pass through.


Background: Knowledge of the common causes of death in a particular locality is important. This would help in planning interventions aimed at preventing and adequately managing such diseases to reduce mortality. Aims: To document the common disease conditions which cause mortality in adult surgical in-patients and to ascertain any differences between males and females. Methods: A retrospective study of all adult surgical in- patient deaths at the Niger Delta University Teaching hospital, Okolobiri between January, 2008 and December, 2012.  All deaths during the period were noted and their case notes were retrieved and necessary information obtained. Results: A total of 1,681 patients were admitted into both the male and female surgical wards during the period. There were 1,101 (65.5%) males and 580 (34.5%) females. There were a total of 76 deaths.  Of these, 51 (67%) were males and 25 (32.9%) were females. The mean age at death was 49.9± 20.1 years. In males, the mean age at death was 54.4±20.3 years and in the females it was 40.7± 16.7 years. The leading cause of death in males and females was malignancy. Conclusion: Malignancies were the commonest cause of death in both men and women. In men, death from prostate cancer and breast cancer in women were the single leading causes of death. The mean age at death in women was significantly lower as compared with men (P=0.002). Keywords: Adult, Mortality, In-patient, Surgical, Niger Delta


Background: The CanRisk Tool (https://canrisk.org) is the next-generation web interface for the latest version of the BOADICEA (Breast and Ovarian Analysis of Disease Incidence and Carrier Estimation Algorithm) state-of-the-art risk model and a forthcoming ovarian cancer risk model. Methods: The tool captures information on family history, rare pathogenic variants in cancer susceptibility genes, polygenic risk scores, lifestyle/hormonal/clinical features, and imaging risk factors to predict breast and ovarian cancer risks and estimate the probabilities of carrying pathogenic variants in certain genes. It was implemented using modern web frameworks, technologies, and web services to make it extensible and increase accessibility to researchers and third-party applications. The design of the graphical user interface was informed by feedback from health care professionals and a formal evaluation. Results: This freely accessible tool was designed to be user friendly for clinicians and to boost acceptability in clinical settings. The tool incorporates a novel graphical pedigree builder to facilitate collection of the family history data required by risk calculations. Conclusions: The CanRisk Tool provides health care professionals and researchers with a user-friendly interface to carry out multifactorial breast and ovarian cancer risk predictions. It is the first freely accessible cancer risk prediction program to carry the CE marking. Impact: There have been over 3,100 account registrations, and 98,000 breast and ovarian cancer risk calculations have been run within the first 9 months of the CanRisk Tool launch.


ABSTRACT We have characterized 95% (4,404 nucleotides) of the genome of adeno-associated virus type 5 (AAV5), including part of the terminal repeats and the terminal resolution site. Our results show that AAV5 is different from all other described AAV serotypes at the nucleotide level and at the amino acid level. The sequence homology to AAV2, AAV3B, AAV4, and AAV6 at the nucleotide level is only between 54 and 56%. The positive strand contains two large open reading frames (ORFs). The left ORF encodes the nonstructural (Rep) proteins, and the right ORF encodes the structural (Cap) proteins. At the amino acid level the identities with the capsid proteins of other AAVs range between 51 and 59%, with a high degree of heterogeneity in regions which are considered to be on the exterior surface of the viral capsid. The overall identity for the nonstructural Rep proteins at the amino acid level is 54.4%. It is lowest at the C-terminal 128 amino acids (10%). There are only two instead of the common three putative Zn fingers in the Rep proteins. The Cap protein data suggest differences in capsid surfaces and raise the possibility of a host range distinct from those of other parvoviruses. This may have important implications for AAV vectors used in gene therapy.


Nucleosides are indicators of the whole-body turnover of transfer RNA. Based on the activity of cancer cells these molecules could potentially be used as cancer biomarkers, and several studies have determined that the metabolic levels of nucleosides are significantly altered in cancer patients compared to control groups. Here we report a targeted metabolite investigation of serum nucleosides in esophageal adenocarcinoma specimens. We quantified eight nucleosides using high-performance liquid chromatography/triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC/TQMS) and determined that the metabolic levels of 1-methyladenosine (p <2.14 × 10(-7)), N(2),N(2)-dimethylguanosine (p <2.78 × 10(-7)), N(2)-methylguanosine (p <2.48 × 10(-6)) and cytidine (p <6.98 × 10(-4)) were significantly elevated while the concentration of uridine (p <3.74 × 10(-3)) was significantly lowered in serum samples from cancer patients compared to those of control group. Our results suggest that nucleosides could potentially serve as useful biomarkers to identify esophageal adenocarcinoma.


To the Editor.— The current accepted theory of the pathogenesis of herpes zoster is that the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is first introduced into the body during an attack of varicella. The VZV then stays quiescent in a sensory ganglion, and during a time of stress, replicates and travels along the nerve to produce the characteristic herpes zoster lesions, clusters of vesicles on an erythematous base, usually distributed along one or two dermatomes. Invariably, there is a past history of varicella. We present here a case of herpes zoster in a 4-month-old infant who had never had varicella, but whose mother had varicella during the sixth month of gestation. Report of a Case.— A 4-month-old infant was brought to the emergency room of Kings County Hospital Center, New York, because of a cough and a runny nose of two weeks' duration and a rash along the right side of the trunk


In the title compound, C23H25NO5, the lactam ring adopts an envelope conformation and both ethoxycarbonyl side chains show an s-cis conformation: one is nearly planar, the dihedral angle between CO2 and OCH2CH3 groups being 7.95 (14)° and the other is almost orthogonal, the C—O—C—C torsion angle being 85.33 (9)°. Dimers related by inversion symmetry are stabilized by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The crystal structure is consolidated by weak intermolecular C—H⋯O interactions. Weak intramolecular interactions of the same kind also occur.


Objectives A relationship between elevated serum uric acid (SUA) and hypertension, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease has been established. In this study, the relationship of SUA levels and anthropometric measures, serum lipid profile and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) was examined.Methods Anthropometric parameters including body-mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist to height ratio(WHtR), waist to hip ratio(W/H), waist to pelvic ratio(W/P), neck circumference(NC), body fat mass(BFM) were obtained, and serum lipid profile containing, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), total cholesterol, triglycerides(TG), also, NLP, PLR, basal metabolic rate (BMR), visceral fat level (VFL) and percent body fat (PBF) were measured among 2921 healthy subjects of young and middle-aged Iranian people. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 21 software. To assess the normality of data, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used. Logarithmic transformation was performed for some variables with non-normal distribution. The association between 2 quantitative variables was measured using bivariate correlation (Pearson or Spearman). Pearson correlations and multiple regression analysis were performed to assess the correlation between variables. Simple and multiple regression analyses were performed to predict some variables. P- value <0.05 was considered significant.Results There were 1113 males (mean age, 41.49 ± 8.62 years) and 1808 females (mean age, 42.36 ± 9.07 years) in this study. the male group had a mean SUA level of 4.81± 1.2 mg/dl and the female group had a mean of 4.76 ± 1.1 mg/dl. The results of data analysis showed all studied factors were correlated with SUA level except VFL, BFM, and PLR. The highest correlation was related to skinfold fat thickness, BMR and HDL.Conclusion According to the finding of this study, SUA level measurement might be advisable in healthy population to identify those at increased risk of health problems who might benefit from further evaluation.


A one-pot cascade reaction has been developed leading to the concurrent construction of six and five membered fused N-heterocyclic rings of indazolo[3,2-b]quinazolinones. The methodology involved the reaction of isatoic anhydride, a hydrazine and o-iodo benzaldehyde in the presence of Pd(PPh(3))(4) and BINAP in MeCN. The mechanism of this cascade reaction is discussed. A variety of indazolo[3,2-b]quinazolinone derivatives were prepared by using this methodology in good yields, some of which were tested for their PDE4 inhibitory properties in vitro. The dose response and docking study performed using a representative compound is presented.


Background Vasopressin (AVP) and terlipressin (TP) have been used as last line therapy in refractory shock in children. However, the efficacy and safety of AVP and TP were not determined these populations. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of AVP/TP in paediatric re-fractory shock. Methods We conducted a systematic review, meta-analysis, and trial sequential analysis (TSA). AVP and TP, were compared with conventional therapy. MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched up to February 2016. Reports of clinical trials were pooled using random-effects models and TSA. Main outcomes were mortality and tissue ischemia. Results Three randomised control trials and five 'be-fore-and-after clinical' trials met the inclusion criteria. Among 224 neonates and children, with refractory shock, 152 received therapy with AVP or TP. Pooled analyses, showed no association between AVP/TP treatment and mortality (relative risk (RR),1.19; 95% CI, 0.71–2.00), length of stay in the paediatric intensive care department (PICU) (mean difference (MD), −3.58 days; 95% CI, (−9.05) −1.83) and events of tissue ischemia (RR, 1.48; 95% CI, 0.47–4.62). In TSA, no significant effect on mortality and developing tissue ischemia was observed with AVP/TP therapy. Conclusion AVP/TP therapy was not associated with a decreased risk for mortality and for length of stay in PICU. Furthermore, in TSA, a trend for an association with an increased risk for ischaemic events was observed. Our study suggests that further large studies are necessary to demonstrate and establish benefits of AVP/TP in children. PROSPERO registry-CRD42016035872


Samples containing ZnMgSSe alloy were grown by using molecular beam epitaxy at 240 ◦C and were analyzed by using X-ray interference. The alloy composition was found to be Zn0.20Mg0.80S0.64Se0.36. The surfaces of these layers were found to be extremely flat, unlike MgS layers of similar thickness grown under identical conditions, which show pronounced ridges. Structures with Zn0.20Mg0.80S0.64Se0.36 barriers were grown with ZnSe quantum wells and showed good quantum confinement with a sharp PL peak. Calculations of the phase stability of ZnMgSSe alloys suggest that an alloy of this composition should phase separate. However, samples with this composition are demonstrably single phase, and the discrepancy with the calculation can be removed if the enthalpy of formation of zinc-blende MgS is reduced by less than 2 % to −231 kJ mol−1.


I would like to congratulate Drs. van Meerbeck and Sirens on a well-presented argument and an excellent review of the literature. I strongly support their conclusion that surveillance with low dose computed tomography (LDCT) is mandated within 5 years of resection of early-stage lung cancer. However, I have reservations against their argument that surveillance is not indicated after 5 years.


Biofilm is one of parameters for determining pathogenic pathways of a bacterium. Bacterial virulence activities can be attenuated by antibiotics with inhibiting biofilm. The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics and activities of antibiotics against the biofilm of Stapylococcus aureus isolate which taken from Aceh cattle prepuce. The study was exploratory and experimental, using a Completely Randomized Design (RAL) factorial pattern using three types of antibiotics, three concentrations and replications. Antibiotics were tetracycline, oxytetracycline and phosphomycin with concentrations of 10%, 20% and 30% (mg/mL), respectively. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the characteristics and activities of antibiotics to the biofilm of Stapylococcus aureus from Aceh cattle prepuce isolate. U-bottom polystyrene 96 wells microplate and Nutrient Broth (NB) medium was used to biofilm bacterial while biofilm was stained on crystals violet 1%. Optical Density (OD) of biofilm were λ 595 nm. Data were analyzed by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results showed that the activity of Staphylococcus aureus was moderately positive, i.e 2,667cell/μL. It showed that antibiotics and concetrations have significant effect (P<0.05) to inhibit biofilm staphylococcus aureus. In additioon, tetracycline 30% (mg / mL) has the best ability to inhibit biofilms from 52,18% to 1,262 cell/μL. Based on that fact, it can be concluded that the virulence of Staphylococcus aureus was moderate positive to be false


The destruction of natural resources is a recurring feature of warfare. Indeed, throughout recorded history, environmental destruction has been used as a deliberate military strategy, and wartime actions affecting the environment constitute some of the most serious discrete instances of humanity's impact on the world's ecosystems. In this commentary, we consider the environmental consequences of warfare, with particular attention to the recent ecological disasters in Kuwait and in the former Yugoslavia. Armed conflicts are still raging worldwide, creating both immediate human tragedy and long-term ecological consequences. The authors argue that legitimizing the concept of environmental crime is an important part of establishing accountability and of providing appropriate recompense for acts of war. We propose that the principle of sustainability, and the right to environmental justice are the most pertinent basis for defining environmental crime. On this basis, we offer a core definition of the features of an environmental crime, and we call upon international leaders to assist in the establishment of legal frameworks that are adequate to address such crimes.


N=4 SU(2) conformal invariance is studied in harmonic superspace. The superconformal structure is solved by harmonic analyticity. Conformal tensors are primary analytic superfields Phi q completely specified by the Cartan-Weyl charge q. The conformal weight h is equal to q/2. The super-Schwarzian derivative is calculated and the infinitesimal anomaly-free transformations are discussed. It is shown that all conformal degrees of freedom are carried by variation of the harmonics.


The aim of this work is to identify the effect of the CaO phase as a CO2 sorbent and mayenite (Ca12Al14O33) as a stabilizing phase in a bi-functional material for CO2 capture in biomass syngas conditioning and cleaning at high temperature. The effect of different CaO weight contents is studied (0, 56, 85, 100 wt%) in sorbents synthesized by the wet mixing method. These high temperature solid sorbents are upgraded to bi-functional compounds by the addition of 3 or 6 wt% of nickel chosen as the metal active phase. N2 adsorption, X-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy, temperature-programmed reduction analyses and CO2 sorption study were performed to characterize structural, textural, reducibility and sorption properties of bi-functional materials. Finally, sorption-enhanced reforming of toluene (chosen as tar model), of methane then of methane and toluene with bi-functional compounds were performed to study the best material to improve H2 content in a syngas, provided by steam biomass gasification. If the catalytic activity on the sorption enhanced reforming of methane exhibits a fast fall-down after 10–15 min of experimental test, the reforming of toluene reaches a constant conversion of 99.9% by using bi-functional materials.


The article is devoted to the issues of numerical calculation of the characteristics of the electromagnetic field of radiating apertures. Тhe radiating aperture is a universal electrodynamic model used in the analysis of a special class of antennas, in particular, mirror and horn antennas, in the study of diffraction phenomena, in the planning of radio wave propagation paths, and when solving problems of wireless transmission of electric energy at a distance. The structure of the electromagnetic field of a radiating aperture in the intermediate and far zones is of the greatest interest according to the needs of practice. However, the theoretical solutions of these problems are usually difficult to obtain, except for some special cases related to the far zone. This leads to the development of appropriate computational models. This paper is aimed at generalization and systematization of experience in developing software for the simulation of electromagnetic field characteristics of radiating apertures in the intermediate and far zones. This paper considers an approach to developing a computational model of a radiating aperture that may be used to calculate the characteristics of electromagnetic field in the intermediate and far zones. Examples of results obtained for circular and ring apertures describing the structure of their electromagnetic field are given. Examples of flight diagrams of a circular aperture are given. The effect of "searchlight" localization of the electromagnetic field in the intermediate zone of a circular emitting aperture is demonstrated. The effect of mutual compensation of neighbouring Fresnel zones using the circular emitting aperture model is demonstrated. A program was developed for calculating the characteristics of the electromagnetic field of radiating holes in the intermediate and far zones. The results can also be used as illustration material for teaching the academic disciplines "Electrodynamics and radio wave propagation" and "Microwave devices and antennas".


The aggregation of beta(2)-microglobulin (beta(2)m) into amyloid fibrils occurs in the condition known as dialysis-related amyloidosis (DRA). The protein has a beta-sandwich fold typical of the immunoglobulin family, which is stabilized by a highly conserved disulphide bond linking Cys25 and Cys80. Oxidized beta(2)m forms amyloid fibrils rapidly in vitro at acidic pH and high ionic strength. Here we investigate the role of the single disulphide bond of beta(2)m in amyloidosis in vitro. We show that reduction of the disulphide bond destabilizes the native protein such that non-native molecules are populated at neutral pH. These species are prone to oligomerization but do not form amyloid fibrils when incubated for up to 8 mo at pH 7.0 in 0.4 M NaCl. Over the pH range 4.0-1.5 in the presence of 0.4 M NaCl, however, amyloid fibrils of reduced beta(2)m are formed. These fibrils are approximately 10 nm wide, but are shorter and assemble more rapidly than those produced from the oxidized protein. These data show that population of non-native conformers of beta(2)m at neutral pH by reduction of its single disulphide bond is not sufficient for amyloid formation. Instead, association of one or more specific partially unfolded molecules formed at acid pH are necessary for the formation of beta(2)m amyloid in vitro. Further experiments will now be needed to determine the role of different oligomeric species of beta(2)m in the toxicity of the protein in vivo.


Directions are given concerning the medical procedure in cases of rape. Besides emergency treatment for serious injury the patient should have her legal rights explained as well as the procedure for the forthcoming examination. A case history with special attention to the present case of rape is obtained. During the examination special attention is paid to the obtaining of evidence which wll stand up in a court of law. The taking of suitable samples is explained. The available methods for tracing sperm sources are described. Finally the treatment of after effects of rape is discussed.


Genes expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins have been incorporated into genetically modified (GM) plants to render these resistant to certain insect pests. Of particular interest have been the genes encoding Cry (Crystal) proteins, but also the gene encoding the vegetative insecticidal protein Vip3Aa has been incorporated into crop plants. Over the last decennium, GM events have been crossed through traditional breeding, resulting in stacked GM events expressing several Bt insect resistance genes. Experiments demonstrate that interactions between two or more toxins can either enhance or decrease their activity. It is thus possible that interactions between Bt proteins produced by GM plants occur and thereby influence their effect on non-target invertebrates compared to GM plants expressing just a single Bt gene. This report has been drafted as a response to a call of the Netherlands Commission of Genetic Modification (COGEM) to address two main questions: (1) can interactions between Bt proteins be predicted and (2) to what extent are studies on interactions relevant for risk/safety assessment of GM crops. The questions were tackled from an eco-toxicological angle, in particular taking into account those types of information that are relevant for risk/safety assessment of GM crops. Answering the questions was done by reviewing and considering the current knowledge on the specificity of Bt proteins, on known interactions between Bt proteins and the methods to assess these interactions, and available guidance for risk/safety assessment of GM crops combining multiple Bt proteins. Also the information reviewed in a parallel project addressing the same questions, but from a biochemical and toxicological perspective (Eco?tat, 2014), was taken into account when formulating conclusions.


The two-dimensional (2D) ordering of zeolite  L crystals on polydimethylsiloxane is reported in the Full Paper by Yunus et al. on p. 2213. The highly fluorescent dye-loaded zeolite L crystals are organized into a 2D hexagonal network by surface-tension-driven autoassembly. The resulting film displays a hexagonal pattern of polarized fluorescence, reflecting the properties of the dye molecules in the parallel nanochannels of the zeolite crystals.

Highly fluorescent dye-loaded zeolite L crystals, approximately 1.4 μm long and 650 nm in diameter, are organized in a hexagonal network by a surface-tension-driven autoassembly process. A polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film presenting a trigonal ordering of spherical protuberances, including a polystyrene (PS) hexagonal network occupying their interstices, is chosen as the platform for the assembly. The overall wettability and the difference in surface tension between PDMS and PS surfaces are found to offer good conditions for ordering micrometric dye-loaded zeolite L crystals in a 2D hexagonal network. The resulting film displays a regular hexagonal pattern of polarized fluorescence, reflecting the polarization properties of the dye molecules inserted in the parallel nanochannels of the zeolites.


The dietary and movement history of individual animals can be studied using stable isotope records in animal tissues, providing insight into long-term ecological dynamics and a species niche. We provide a 6-year history of elephant diet by examining tail hair collected from 4 elephants in the same social family unit in northern Kenya. Sequential measurements of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen isotope rations in hair provide a weekly record of diet and water resources. Carbon isotope ratios were well correlated with satellite-based measurements of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of the region occupied by the elephants as recorded by the global positioning system (GPS) movement record; the absolute amount of C4 grass consumption is well correlated with the maximum value of NDVI during individual wet seasons. Changes in hydrogen isotope ratios coincided very closely in time with seasonal fluctuations in rainfall and NDVI whereas diet shifts to relatively high proportions of grass lagged seasonal increases in NDVI by ≈2 weeks. The peak probability of conception in the population occurred ≈3 weeks after peak grazing. Spatial and temporal patterns of resource use show that the only period of pure browsing by the focal elephants was located in an over-grazed, communally managed region outside the protected area. The ability to extract time-specific longitudinal records on animal diets, and therefore the ecological history of an organism and its environment, provides an avenue for understanding the impact of climate dynamics and land-use change on animal foraging behavior and habitat relations.


Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common paediatric brain tumor and is a major cause of cancer death in children. MYCN expression is critical to cerebellar development, regulates the fate of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and drives the expansion of tumor propagating cells (TPCs) thought to represent the cell-of-origin for this disease. To examine the role of MYCN in MB tumorigenesis, we established neurosphere cell lines enriched for putative TPCs from the cerebella of GTML mice (transgenic for doxycycline-regulable overexpression of MYCN and luciferase). These mice are predisposed to anaplastic/large-cell MB (AACR abstract LB-79). Neurospheres derived from GTML cerebella with positive luciferase imaging signals but no visible tumor tissue exhibited several characteristics consistent with enrichment for TPCs and/or NPCs. Spheroids proliferated efficiently in the absence of exogenous growth factor, exhibited self-renewal in clonal dilution assays, expressed high levels of Mycn protein and the NPC markers nestin and SOX2, and in response to serum, differentiated along neuronal and glial lineages (increased GFAP and III tubulin expression by immunofluorescence). Finally, orthotopic reimplantation at low titer ( Suppression of MYCN with doxycycline (confirmed by loss of luciferase imaging) caused growth arrest via a G1 blockade of neurospheres in vitro. Pretreatment of implanted spheres significantly reduced tumor penetrance ( Taken together, these data suggest that MYCN expression drives MB tumor formation by maintenance or expansion of a population of relatively undifferentiatedTPCs present in normal cerebella. This model represents a significant tool for further investigation of the role of MYCN in MB initiation and progression. Note: This abstract was not presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 because the presenter was unable to attend. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-387.


Background and aims: To inform the first Welsh OS Managed Clinical Network (MCN), a mixed-methods study investigated existing patterns, quality, suitability and reasons for referral to secondary care at the University Dental Hospital in Wales. Materials and methods: A random sample of 298 OS referrals were studied over a six-month period. Data recording proforma included details on referral practitioner, patient and referral diagnosis. Referrals were categorised by Levels of complexity (Levels 1, 2 and 3) and face-to-face, semi-structured and audio-recorded interviews were conducted with five frequent referrers. Results: The age range of patients was between 1 and 92 years, with over 58% (n=174) female. Majority of referrals (80%) were from GDPs. Top six practices accounted for a fifth (21%) of referrals, with three of these practices were corporate dental chains. Approximately, a third of referrals were categorised as Level 1 (37%), Level 2 (33%) and Level 3 (30%) complexity. 16% provided no medical history, and only 13% included supporting radiographs. Five themes emerged as reasons for oral surgery referrals: contract limitations, perception that new graduates lack OS practical skills, communication, practice resources and risk. Conclusions: Priorities for the Wales OS MCN are to reduce inappropriate referrals to secondary care and to ensure quality referrals. Introduction of the pan-Wales electronic Referral Management System in May 2019 is welcome in this context. The newly formed Health Education and Improvement Wales, with lead roles in education, training and shaping the healthcare workforce, will form a vital part in tackling barriers for safe OS in primary care.


Introduction:
 Vessel tortuosity is a major factor in successful first pass outcomes for mechanical thrombectomy (MT), but prior methods to quantify tortuosity are not accurate enough to predict outcome. We investigated a new method for vessel characterization and outcome prediction based on geometric morphometrics (GMM).

 Hypothesis:
 Our hypothesis was that morphometric analysis of engineered centerline landmarks would identify vessel characteristics that can better predict first pass MT outcome.

 Methods:
 Vessels and clots were manually segmented and reconstructed from pre-treatment CTA and nCCT images (
 n
 =5 cases) (Fig. 1A). The vasculature corresponding to the ICA and MCA from the affected hemisphere was isolated, and centerlines were engineered as curved landmarks. MorphoJ, a GMM software, was used to complete generalized Procrustes and principal component (PC) Analysis that included registration of patient geometries, calculation of average morphology and landmark variation, and identification of anatomical landmarks differentiating MT outcomes (Fig. 1B). Morphometrics were compared against local and overall tortuosity by measuring the separability of and cohesion within outcome classes.

 Results:
 GMM produced two PCs, which described local variation in M1 (PC1) and the ICA (PC2) (Fig. 1B). When compared against vessel tortuosity features, GMM PCs increased the distance between outcome classes (first pass effect vs. no first pass effect), improving separability by 23.6%. Further, GMM PCs increased the compactness/cohesion of outcome classes, reducing cumulative distance between failures by 50% and successes by 9.4% (Fig. 1C).

 Conclusions:
 GMM analysis of pre-treatment vessel characteristic highlights regional variation in M1 as a strong indicator of MT failure and suggests that GMM has the potential to better predict MT outcome than ICA tortuosity alone. Investigation of more complex vessel morphometry through feature engineering is needed.


The optimal boundaries for class-based Automated Storage and Retrieval systems (AS/RSs) are derived while the acceleration/deceleration of the storage and retrieval(S/R) machine are considered. A solution procedure is developed which required only two mutually independent one-dimensional search procedures. The results show that the effect of dividing region I near to I/O point by partitioning the rack into two parts based its shape factor, has a better performs to reduce the expected travel time than the effect of dividing region II far from I/O point. Moreover, it is also shown that most of the potential improvement can be realized only by dividing the region I of warehouse into a small number of sub-regions.


The theoretical performance of a pulsed HF/DF optical resonance transfer laser (ORTL) is presented. The key reaction of HF/DF is the HF-DF V-V energy transfer reaction, but its rate constant has not been accurately determined so far. Therefore, in order to precisely predict the CW HF/DF ORTL experiment, the rate constant of the HF-DF V-V energy transfer reaction is determined to be dependent on V2. The relationship between gas concentration (HF, DF, and He) and pumping condition (pumping intensity and pulse width) is determined to maximize the DF small-signal gain. As a result, it is found that the pumping HF laser lines of 2.7-3.0\mu m are shifted to the ORTL lines of 3.9-4.3\mu m at a low total pulse efficiency of about 0.1 percent.


Background: Several reviews are available on the effects of specific nursing tasks in oncology care. However, a synthesis across cancer entities and stages is lacking. Aim: To synthesise the results of reviews assessing the scope and effectiveness of tasks of nurses specifically qualified in cancer care. Methods: We conducted an Umbrella Review based on systematic searches in six databases and a search for grey literature following a priori-defined inclusion criteria. Further steps: standardised data extraction and quality assessment, determination of the degree of overlap, and structured narrative summary on outcome measures of health-related quality of life, symptom burden, utilisation of care services/resources, and patient satisfaction. All reviews were categorised according to the EONS Cancer Nursing Education Framework and the Omaha System Intervention Scheme. Results: After screening 2,657 references, 11 reviews (10 high quality) for a total of 148 studies were included. Specially qualified nurses and advanced practice nurses take on a variety of tasks in the disease process, especially related to education, counselling, and case management. Effects on outcome measures are mixed, with increased indications of reduced symptom burden. Conclusion: Specially qualified nurses with expanded roles have the potential to contribute to improved oncology care. This emphasises the importance of appropriate task profiles and qualification programs. More well-reported studies based on theoretical framework models are needed.


We demonstrate the self-pulsing behavior in a nonlinear all-pass plasmonic microring resonator (MRR). The structure consists of a nonlinear metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) plasmonic waveguide and supports antisymmetric, backward propagating slow-modes. The slow modes are coupled to a feedback loop realized from a MDM waveguide, which supports symmetric, forward propagating fast modes. We calculate the temporal response of the system with a finite difference time domain method and show a SP behavior for input fields higher than a critical value. We perform a semi-quantitative description of the self-pulsation by solving iteratively, in time domain, the Ikeda equation of an all-pass MRR presenting a nonlinear phase shift. For this system, the pulses have a period of 300 fs with a modulation factor of 0.3. This configuration could be applied as a source of continuous wave terahertz radiation or as an optical clock in highly integrated plasmonic circuits.


This paper addresses the MASQUE multi-agent framework for generating alternative plans in local land-use planning, In this framework agents represent land-use experts and initiate the development of plan proposals and request each other to express their claims in order to incrementally draw up these proposals. Presented is a probabilistic approach to the implementation of those agents to enable them to make decisions under uncertainty. It is described what personal and collective beliefs they construct and use in order to strategically choose their actions. Negotiation takes place between the initiating agent and the others in order to reach agreement on the incorporation of the claims. The negotiation is organized as an iterative process in which both parties consider conciliatory adjustments of their strategies, and thus their decisions, in order to try to find mutually accepted solutions.


IN RECENT years we have had the opportunity to study a large family, many of whose members develop an acute, intermittent cerebellar ataxia. The disorder is so common in this kinskip, particularly in childhood, that it is easily recognized by the family and often no medical attention is sought, experience having taught that full recovery will follow without specific treatment. However, 11 patients have been hospitalized and studied at the Charity Hospital of Louisiana at New Orleans. Affected members have more frequent, more prolonged, and more severe attacks in childhood. The youngest patient was 17 months old at the onset of his first attack. We do not have hospital or clinic records to document any attacks after 15 years of age, but family members give consistent and graphic reports of milder forms of the disorder occurring from the ages of 15 to 60 years. The clinical picture in the


Experimentally monitoring the dynamics of a physical system, one cannot possibly resolve all the microstates or all the transitions between them. Theoretically, these partially observed systems are modeled by considering only the observed states and transitions while the rest are hidden, by merging microstates into a single mesostate, or by decimating unobserved states. The deviation of a system from thermal equilibrium can be characterized by a non-zero value of the entropy production rate (EPR). Based on the partially observed information of the states or transitions, one can only infer a lower bound on the total EPR. Previous studies focused on several approaches to optimize the lower bounds on the EPR, fluctuation theorems associated with the apparent EPR, information regarding the network topology inferred from partial information, etc. Here, we calculate partial EPR values of Markov chains driven by external forces from different notions of partial information. We calculate partial EPR from state-based coarse-graining, namely decimation and two lumping protocols with different constraints, either preserving transition flux, or the occupancy number correlation function. Finally, we compare these partial EPR values with the EPR inferred from the observed cycle affinity. Our results can further be extended to other networks and various external driving forces.


The FPGA's inherent flexibility has proven indispensable for the creation of external I/O interfaces. However, unless I/O is implemented on a daughter card (mezzanine module), replacing the physical I/O components and connectors requires changing the FPGA board design. To avoid these costs, designers have historically relied on the PCI™ Mezzanine Card (PMC) and Switched Mezzanine Card (XMC) standards. The problem is that these were developed years ago for general purpose solutions such as single-board computers— not FPGAs.


Factor VIII is an important cofactor in the intrinsic activation of factor X. To function effectively as a cofactor, factor VIII must be activated. In plasma, factor VIII circulates in a complex with von Willebrand factor, and although thrombin can activate complexed factor VIII, the activation by activated factor X is inhibited by von Willebrand factor. In this study, the effect of von Willebrand factor on the generation of factor Xa by the factor IXa-VIII complex was investigated. Purified human factors VIII, IXa, and X were incubated on human umbilical vein endothelial cells or phospholipid vesicles in the presence of calcium ions, and the generation of factor Xa was followed. In the presence of von Willebrand factor, a prolonged lag-phase and a dose-dependent inhibition of factor X activation was observed. These effects were not observed when von Willebrand factor was preincubated with a monoclonal antibody directed against von Willebrand factor that blocks factor VIII binding. When factor VIII was activated with thrombin before the incubation, neither the monoclonal antibody nor von Willebrand factor had an effect on the rate of factor X activation. Preincubation of endothelial cells with the monoclonal antibody resulted in a somewhat higher rate of factor X activation. When endothelial cells from a patient with von Willebrand's disease type I were used, preincubation of the monoclonal antibody had no effect on the rate of factor X activation. We conclude that von Willebrand factor on the surface of endothelial cells can modulate the intrinsic factor X activation. This effect is greatly enhanced, however, by the addition of exogenous von Willebrand factor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The Digital Bibliography and Library Project (DBLP) is a popular computer science bibliography website hosted at the University of Trier in Germany. It currently contains 2,722,212 computer science publications with additional information about the authors and conferences, journals, or books in which these are published. Although the database covers the majority of papers published in this field of research, it is still hard to browse the vast amount of textual data manually to find insights and correlations in it, in particular time-varying ones. This is also problematic if someone is merely interested in all papers of a specific topic and possible correlated scientific words which may hint at related papers. To close this gap, we propose an interactive tool which consists of two separate components, namely data analysis and data visualization. We show the benefits of our tool and explain how it might be used in a scenario where someone is confronted with the task of writing a state-of-the art report on a specific topic. We illustrate how data analysis, data visualization, and the human user supported by interaction features can work together to find insights which makes typical literature search tasks faster.


The study presents the status of fish diversity, abundance and habitat structure of Surha Lake, which is a perennial and natural lake fed by the river Ganga. The study was conducted between 2011 to 2013 covering pre and post-monsoon seasons. In total, 4,852 individual fish specimens were collected representing 66 fish species belonging to 23 families. The species diversity comprised 65 species in pre-monsoon and 60 species in post-monsoon season (p<0.05). The highest species diversity was recorded for the family Cyprinidae (22), followed by Bagridae (7). An assessment of conservation status of 66 fish species as per IUCN Red List 2019 criteria listed 6 species under near threatened (NT), 54 under least concern (LC) and two species under vulnerable (VU) category. The study reports several commercially important species under near threatened (Chitala chitala, Labeo pangusia, Ompok bimaculatus, Ompok pabda, , Ailia coila and Bagarius bagarius), which makes Surha Taal an important natural lake from fishery management point of view. The study also prioritised different habitat types important for different species. The slow water in the mid-channel areas of the lake were categorised as important habitats for near threatened and vulnerable fish species like C. chitala, B. bagarius and Wallago attu, which can be prioritised for population level management.


Katarinka (St. Catherine) is the ruin of an abandoned Franciscan monastery from the early 17th
century located in the western Small Carpathians in Slovakia. Historical sources and paintings suggest
that, beside the remains of the monastery that are still visible, a circle of eight chapels, a pilgrim's
hospice, a cemetery, and garden terraces originally surrounded the main building of the
monastery. From 2009 to 2012, geophysical campaigns were performed to find evidences and positions
of remains of these buildings of the monastery campus. An initial magnetic overview survey
revealed multiple local accumulations of disordered dipole anomalies. Since these accumulations
did not allow a structural interpretation, ground penetrating radar measurements were conducted.
The ground penetrating radar results clearly showed wall structures beneath almost all magnetic
anomaly accumulations. In between the remains of the monastery main building, ground penetrating
radar and electrical resistivity tomography were performed at different areas that were difficult
to access because of a strong cover of vegetation and steep topography.


Toleration, adaptation, migration or extinction are the options for species making up Southern Ocean (SO) shelf biodiversity, in response to accelerating change (e.g. warming). Physio- logical evidence suggests few organisms may tolerate, and slow generational turn-over means fewer will adapt to, unprecedented change. To avoid extinction many organisms must migrate along linear coast, go deeper or both. There is strong evidence that such range shifts are happening, and occurred in the past, along N-S (linear) coastlines (e.g. USA), but there are no continuous shelf/slope connec- tions to Antarctica from elsewhere. There are only 3 major linear shelves in Antarctica: Victoria Land, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Kerguelen Plateau. Scientific effort has focused on the former two but their temperature gradient is negligible or bi-directional, so most potential for thermally-driven range shifts lies along the Kerguelen Plateau. We investigated ranges of several SO taxa (bivalve and gastropod molluscs, amphipods, ophiuroids and hexacorals), and looked for hotspots of where the geographical range limits of different species coincided. Southern Patagonia, South Georgia and Ker- guelen had amongst the greatest range-limit hotspots. Shifts of SO endemics will be mainly range contractions (of northernmost limits), whilst species with ranges crossing the Polar Front (PF; the strongest jet of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current) may become 'new' SO endemics. Species with southernmost limits north of the PF should penetrate the SO, either as returning natives (expelled during glaciations) or invasive non-indigenous species. Monitoring range shifts in only a few sug- gested key places and taxa should give powerful insights into biodiversity responses and gauge tolerance vs. migration.


A new vee dipole antenna is proposed as a modification to the conventional vee dipole for improving the gain and reducing the back radiation level without increasing its size. The new vee dipole contains two additional smaller pieces of wire on the arms of the conventional vee dipole that act primarily as directors. The director elements are isolated from the main arms of the vee dipole. The parameters defining the position and the length of the director elements are optimized such that maximum directivity is achieved and lower minor lobes are maintained. The radiation properties of the vee dipole with director elements are investigated both numerically and experimentally. In an example design, a gain improvement of 1.4 dB and a reduction of more than 12 dB in back radiation are predicted. The computed radiation pattern is in good agreement with the measured pattern.


The exchange capacity of sediments can have a significant effect on the chemistry of stream water, and a better understanding of the rate and magnitude of this exchange for sedi ment particles of different sizes is needed. Techniques have been devel oped for the simultaneous measure ment of exchange rate and cation exchange capacity (CEC) of clay minerals using specific-ion electrode techniques (1) (2) (3). Because the sandand gravel-size fractions can rep resent an important part of the total sediment transported by streams, it is necessary to evaluate the contribution of these size fractions to the total ex change and transport properties of the stream. The purpose of this paper is to report the variation in cation exchange capacity and cation-exchange rate with particle size of stream sedi ments from the Mattole River of north ern California.


Erythema after carbon dioxide laser resurfacing is one among other known side effects of the treatment. Postoperative erythema is considered to be an obligatory complication after resurfacing of facial rhytides or senile lentigines. Duration and intensity of the erythema is dependent on various factors, as shown in the following case report on a 77-year-old female patient. Detailed preoperative information is important in ensuring realistic expectations in regard to the postoperative results and averting liability claims.


The electrical properties of n-doped Si tips have been characterized in conducting atomic force microscopy under various conditions. Si tips with SiO2 layer on them present complex electric properties: which include a larger positive threshold bias, which is different from that of its doped semiconductor material. Silicon tips after removing their SiO2 layer had smaller positive threshold bias; such bias varied with the loading force: smaller loading forces corresponding to larger positive threshold biases, and it remained constant at lower levels for larger loading forces. Humidity of experiments influenced the threshold bias: lower relative humidities (<25%) and larger loading forces were in favor of getting stable threshold bias. The conductance increased remarkably in high relative humidity although it was kept in a narrow range when relative humidity was lower than 40%. Loading force didn't affect the conductance in the examined relative humidity conditions. One advantage of bare silicon tips over commercial conducting ones is that they smaller radius than gold-coated tips; this is in more favor of reaching single molecular electronics.


This article examines the problem of identifying individuals within and between medieval historical sources, especially medieval Irish chronicles and genealogies. A content analysis of these two groups of document provides the basis for a numerical methodology for nominal record linkage. Comparisons and contrasts are made with the methods and techniques open to modern historians, and the characteristic nature of different types of primary source is emphasized.


The fundamental research and technology development for supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power cycles is gaining worldwide popularity. This is due to their promise of high efficiency, compactness, wide-range-applicability and eco-friendliness. One of the active research areas in the sCO2 power cycle field is to increase cycle efficiency by utilizing a higher turbine inlet temperature. At high temperatures within turbines, radiation may contribute a significant portion of overall heat transfer. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and quantify the effects of radiation heat transfer within a first stage sCO2 turbine linear cascade. This particular topic has not been explored by researchers yet. The correct estimation of radiation heat transfer can prove to be critical for the design of turbine blade cooling system. The aerodynamic and heat transfer analysis of a turbine cascade is carried out using a commercial computational code, STAR-CCM+. Spectral absorption coefficient for CO2 is derived using HITRAN database at required temperature and pressure. Broadening and shifting of intensity lines due to high pressure and temperature are taken into consideration. A second approach utilizes Planck mean absorption coefficient as a function of temperature. Although the data can be extrapolated for the required higher pressure, accuracy of that extrapolated data cannot be verified. Hence the secondary purpose of this study is to encourage researchers to fill the fundamental gaps in the knowledge of CO2 radiation. Findings presented here suggest that radiation can be neglected for cooling system design of the sCO2 turbine stage 1 vane for both inlet temperatures of 1350K and 1775K.


In this paper, we investigate the problem of including relevant information as context in open-domain dialogue systems. Most models struggle to identify and incorporate important knowledge from dialogues and simply use the entire turns as context, which increases the size of the input fed to the model with unnecessary information. Additionally, due to the input size limitation of a few hundred tokens of large pre-trained models, regions of the history are not included and informative parts from the dialogue may be omitted. In order to surpass this problem, we introduce a simple method that substitutes part of the context with a summary instead of the whole history, which increases the ability of models to keep track of all the previous relevant information. We show that the inclusion of a summary may improve the answer generation task and discuss some examples to further understand the system's weaknesses.


OBJECTIVES
1) to analyse the prevalence of selected candidate genes for type 2 diabetes mellitus polymorphisms (IRS1 G972R; ENPP1 K121Q; ADRB3 W64R) among women with gestational diabetes; and 2) to investigate any association between variants of these genes and risk of neonatal macrosomia.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We conducted a prospective observational study of a group of women (N = 140) in singleton pregnancies who delivered at term. Characteristics of the study group at enrolment: age: 32.0 ± 4.9 years; GA: 26.6 ± 7.5 weeks; HbA1c: 5.6 ± 0.6%; fasting blood glucose: 102.3 ± 16.3 mg/dL; insulin treatment (G2DM): 65.7%; chronic hypertension: 11.4%; gestational hypertension: 17.9%; preeclampsia: 1.4%; birth weight: 3590 ± 540 g; birth weight ≥ 4000 g (macrosomia): 18.6%; caesarean section: 44.3%; and female newborns: 57.1%.

RESULTS
The maternal metabolic characteristics at the time of booking did not differ between polymorphisms. Macrosomia was insignificantly more frequent in females (22.5%) than in males (13.3%) (p = 0.193). Only maternal height and body weight at the time of booking significantly predicted birth weight (R = 0.27, p = 0.007; R = 0.25, p = 0.005, respectively). IRS1 G972R GR and ENPP1 K121Q KQ polymorphisms were associated with an insignificantly increased risk for macrosomia. Carriers of the heterozygotic variant of the IRS 1 gene were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with GDM/DiP in the first trimester: OR 5.2, 95% CI: 1.4; 19.2; p = 0.014.

CONCLUSIONS
1) having similar metabolic characteristics, carriers of specific variants of T2DM candidate genes might be at increased risk of delivery of macrosomic newborns; 2) any association between genetic variants and macrosomia in this population might be gender-specific; and 3) allelic variation in the IRS1 gene is associated with early GDM/DiP.


Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) with its unique material properties is suitable for the application of adhesive bonding as a joining technique. The results presented in this paper were generated as part of a research project aimed at investigating the properties of UHPC adhesive joints in terms of reliability, safety, and load bearing capacity. Fourteen adhesives were tested for strength and durability considering varying conditions of substrate surface pretreatment and different UHPC compositions. Tests under hygrothermal, freezing, and salt-spraying exposures were performed to investigate the long-term durability under different climatic conditions.


Using Distributed Ledger Technologies in VANETs To Achieve a Trusted Intelligent Transportation System Fares Nabil El-Amine With the recent advancements in the networking realm of computers as well as achieving real-time communication between devices over the Internet, IoT (Internet of Things) devices have been on the rise; collecting, sharing, and exchanging data with other connected devices or databases online, enabling all sorts of communications and operations without the need for human intervention, oversight, or control. This has caused more computer-based systems to get integrated into the physical world, inching us closer towards developing smart cities. The automotive industry, alongside other software developers and technology companies have been at the forefront of this advancement towards achieving smart cities. Currently, transportation networks need to be revamped to utilize the massive amounts of data being generated by the public's vehicle's on-board devices, as well as other integrated sensors on public transit systems, local roads, and highways. This will create an interconnected ecosystem that can be leveraged to improve traffic efficiency and reliability. Currently, Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) communications, all play a major role in supporting road safety, traffic efficiency, and energy savings. To protect these devices and the networks they form from being targets of cyberrelated attacks, this paper presents ideas on how to leverage distributed ledger technologies (DLT) to establish secure communication between vehicles that is decentralized, trustless, and immutable. Incorporating IOTA's protocols, as well as utilizing Ethereum's smart contracts functionality and application concepts with VANETs, all interoperating with Hyperledger's Fabric framework, several novel ideas can be implemented to improve traffic safety and efficiency. Such a modular design also opens the possibility to further investigate use cases of the blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in creating a decentralized intelligent transportation system (ITS).


The {\em insertion-deletion channel} takes as input a binary string $x \in\{0, 1\}^n$, and outputs a string $\widetilde{x}$ where some of the bits have been deleted and others inserted independently at random. In the {\em trace reconstruction problem}, one is given many outputs (called {\em traces}) of the insertion-deletion channel on the same input message $x$, and asked to recover the input message. Nazarov and Peres (STOC 2017), and De, O'Donnell and Servedio (STOC 2017) showed that any string $x$ can be reconstructed from $\exp(O(n^{1/3}))$ traces. Holden, Pemantle, Peres and Zhai (COLT 2018) adapt the techniques used to prove this upper bound, to an algorithm for the average-case trace reconstruction with a sample complexity of $\exp(O(\log^{1/3} n))$. However, it is not clear how to apply their techniques more generally and in particular for the recent worst-case upper bound of $\exp(\widetilde{O}(n^{1/5}))$ shown by Chase (STOC 2021) for the deletion-channel. We prove a general reduction from the average-case to smaller instances of a problem similar to worst-case. Using this reduction and a generalization of Chase's bound, we construct an improved average-case algorithm with a sample complexity of $\exp(\widetilde{O}(\log^{1/5} n))$. Additionally, we show that Chase's upper-bound holds for the insertion-deletion channel as well.


Aberrant histone methylation contributes to tumor development and progression by histone methyltransferase. SETDB1 is an H3K9 methyltransferase that contributes to the epigenetic silencing of target genes in cancer cells, but the role of SETDB1 in the progression of tumorigenesis remains largely unknown. We show here that H3K9Me2 and SETDB1 are down-regulated in metastatic lung cancer cell lines. Immunohistochemistry examination of the lung carcinoma tissue microarray revealed that expression of SETDB1 is significant decreased in metastasis status. Ectopic expression of SETDB1 in highly invasive lung cancer cells suppressed cancer cell migration, invasion and filopodia formation. In contrast, knockdown of endogenous SETDB1 in non-invasive lung cancer cells by RNA interference increases cell migration and invasion in vitro. Mechanistic investigations suggested that SETDB1 is specifically down-regulated by miR-29b in metastatic lung cancer cells. Ectopic miR-29b expression in non-invasive lung cancer cells increases cell invasion ability. Furthermore, we also establish a causal role for the SETDB1/SMAD3 complex in driving metastasis and identify ANXA2 as a critical target in this process among numerous target genes. These findings suggest a novel pathway regulated by SETDB1/SMAD3 complex in lung cancer metastasis. Citation Format: Tsai-Yu Tzeng, Ming-Ta Hsu. A Novel pathway for regulation of ANXA2 expression in lung cancer cell metastasis by SETDB1/SMAD3 repressor complex. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2969. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2969


In this study, a novel multiplex- polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for rapid detection of various staphylococci strains, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, (MSSA) methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCNS), methicillin-sensitive coagulase-negative staphylococci (MSCNS) and non-staphylococci strains, had been developed and applied. Six primers were specially designed on three target genes, which were mecA, 16S Ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) and femA. The specific amplification generated 3 bands on agarose gel, with sizes 374 bp for mecA, 542 bp for 16S rRNA and 823 bp for femA, respectively. The PCR product showed highest levels of resolution of DNA when 250 �M of dNTP, primer concentration of mecA, 16S rRNA and femA reaching 1, 1 and 3 �M respectively. No false positive amplification was observed, indicating the high specificity of the established multiplex PCR assay. Application of this multiplex-PCR had been further performed on detection for 262 MRSA and MRCNS strains with primers pairs M1 with M2 and F1 and F2. According to the results, multiplex-PCR results showed expected products for either MRSA or MRCNS strains, demonstrating the multiplex-PCR assays established in this study to be useful and powerful methods for differentiation of MRSA, MSSA, MRCNS, MSCNS and non-staphylococci strains.


New Religious Movements (NRMs) have now become a tamiliar part of the religious landscape and incorporated into the comparative study of religion in most Departments of Religion at university level A substantial amount has been written on NRMstram general accounts of what they are, theories about their emergence, their membership, conversion processes, their strengths and weaknesses, to specific, detailed ethnographies of particular religious groups. There is also a rapidly burgeoning literature on New Age, Nature Religions and Neopaganism as categories in themselves. Research on NRMS covers as diverse a range of approaches as the beliefS and practices of the groups themselves. This paper will discuss theoretical approaches to NRMs in general, and then outline current research on NRMs by Australian academics. 27


On the fundamental importance of tonality to the baroque oboe, a case in point is described by Nikolaus Harnoncourt in his commentary on recording the complete Bach cantatas with original instruments.' It has long been known that, because in certain churches for which he composed the organ was pitched a tone or minor third higher than the woodwinds, Bach notated the parts for a few of his cantatas in two different keys: the organ and strings in one, the woodwinds (in order to compensate for their lower pitch) a tone or tone-and-a-half higher.2 When the cantatas came to be published by the Bach Gesellschaft at the end of the 19th century, the editors solved this discrepancy (quite logically from their point of view) by transposing the wind parts down to the key of the majority of the parts. This has unintentionally caused many headaches to players using modern instruments, and made the parts into true feats of virtuosity for players of the baroque oboe. Harnoncourt's more practical solution was to play the oboe parts in their original keys, and transpose the other parts, as transposition causes relatively fewer problems for string and keyboard instruments. With non-keyed woodwinds (as the baroque instruments essentially are), the tonality in which one plays is of prime importance, as it has a fundamental influence on both the technical fluency and tone quality of the performance. Not having a separate finger-hole for each semitone (as on modern woodwinds, which accounts for their complex mechanisms), these must be obtained by using 'crossfingerings', i.e. lowering an open-fingered note by closing holes further down the bore. These cross(or forked-) fingered notes always have a matted, veiled tone quality, noticeably different from the open-fingered ones. Apparently, this tonal chiaroscuro was prized in the 18th century; it can be compared to the different qualities the human voice produces when singing different vowels. It follows, of course, that woodwind performance in a tonality with many sharps or flats contains more of these darker sounds. In addition to the normal fingerings, the player also uses special fingerings for trills and other ornaments which affect the tone-colour he produces. The tessitura of the piece-its basic range-also influences the tone quality; the high register is somewhat sharper in quality than the lower, and involves generally more tension in breathing and embouchure as this is the only way to obtain overblown notes without an octave key. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that composers such as Mozart had very definite concepts of the physical qualities of various tonalities, as does every player of early woodwinds. Now when we consider solo music for instruments in the 18th century, much of the best of it was written for the extremely popular flauto traverso, or the versatile jack-of-alltrades-the violin. While oboists also did considerable solo playing, most of it was in the context of the orchestra, where the instrument was originally intended to support the violins, a role which it never outgrew. Then, as now, there were probably fewer amateur oboists, and thus a smaller music-buying public for oboe solos. Much oboe music was proba ly borrowed and adapted from other instruments. Consequently it is not surprising that the vast majority of solo music which does specify the oboe does so as an alternative to e flute, violin, or the then-fashionable musette. Thus, of the existing original solo music for the oboe in the baroque and classical periods (outside Germany, where composers were usually quite specific about instrumentation), only a small fraction was written principally with the oboe in mind.3


Impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance are the primary characteristics of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the mechanisms underlying insulin secretion failure have yet to be elucidated. The present study demonstrated that sirtuin 5 (SIRT5) is upregulated in patients with T2D and in pancreatic β-cell lines. It was also revealed that elevated SIRT5 expression is positively associated with age and blood glucose levels, and negatively associated with pancreatic and duodenal homeobox 1 (PDX1) expression. Colony formation and Cell Counting Kit-8 assays demonstrated that SIRT5 suppressed the proliferation of pancreatic β-cells in vitro. In addition, downregulation of SIRT5 promoted the secretion of insulin. Additionally, SIRT5 ectopic expression downregulated the expression of PDX1 and the inhibition of SIRT5 upregulated PDX1 expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay analysis demonstrated that SIRT5 may regulate the transcription of PDX1 via H4K16 deacetylation. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that SIRT5 may serve an important role in the pathogenesis of T2D, and may present a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of patients with T2D.


Accurate phase stability measurement of Transmitting and Receiving channels in space-borne SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) system is important to evaluate imaging quality. Based on fewer instruments, matched filtering and interpolation algorithm, two kinds of measure methods which makes the measurement value more accurate are presented and compared in this paper. The test result of one space-borne SAR prototyping system indicates that the methods are feasible and effective.


Biorefineries constitute an attractive future development option for the pulp and paper industry, allowing mills to produce not only pulp or paper but also other value-added products. Black liquor gasification (BLG) is currently being developed as an alternative technology for energy and chemical recovery in kraft pulp and paper mills. The technology enables the mill to increase the internal electricity generation or produce chemicals such as motor fuels. This thesis investigates the influence of different factors, including choice of product, type of mill, alternative investments, opportunities for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and future energy market conditions, on the economic performance and CO2 emission balances for BLG-based biorefinery concepts.

Implementation of biorefinery concepts such as BLG with electricity production in future market pulp mills can be achieved without making the mill dependent on external wood fuel. However, implementation in integrated pulp and paper mills requires external wood fuel and reduces the amount of wood fuel available for other applications, thereby increasing the CO2 emissions from those applications.

The results show that BLG with motor fuel production could be profitable for both market and integrated mills, whereas BLG with electricity generation is primarily an attractive option for market mills. For mills that operate with conventional recovery boiler technology, potentially profitable biorefinery concepts include lignin extraction or motor fuel production from gasified wood fuel. Few of the biorefinery concepts investigated in this work achieve a significant reduction of CO2 emissions, especially for integrated mills. However, if commercially available, CCS could contribute to significant CO2 emissions reduction and enhanced profitability for future energy market conditions characterized by a high CO2 emissions charge, for both combustion- and gasification-based biorefinery concepts. Steam-saving measures could also significantly improve the economic performance as well as the CO2 emission balances, especially for biorefinery concepts that use external wood fuel. The results also show that even if the recovery boiler has not reached the end of its technical lifetime, it could nevertheless be attractive for mills to consider investment in a smaller BLG plant.


Perfluoropolyether ammonium carboxylate stabilized water-in-CO2 microemulsion was used to dissolve silver nitrate salt for the RESOLV (Rapid Expansion of a Supercritical Solution into a Liquid SOLVent) process. The solution of reverse micelles with an aqueous silver nitrate core in CO2 was rapidly expanded into a room-temperature solution of sodium borohydride to form silver nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were characterized using optical, X-ray diffraction, and microscopy techniques. The nanoparticle properties were found to be dependent on the pre-expansion microemulsion conditions in CO2.


The authors introduce a one-dimensional model allowing evaluation of the surface electric field of planar resurf diodes or variation in lateral doping structures with an n/sup +/-channel stop ring. Based on this model the surface electric field of a resurf diode including a passivation layer with finite sheet resistance (e.g., thermal oxide) is calculated. In a series of self-consistent calculations, where the surface charge density depends on the surface electric field, it is shown that the gradient of the surface electric field causes charge buildup on top of the passivation layer due to its finite sheet resistance. It is shown that these induced surface charges can lead to surface breakdown of the underlying p-n junction. The calculations were confirmed by transient reverse current measurements, performed at a resurf diode with an n/sup +/-channel stop ring. >


Systems for browsing and finding information in the vast amount of data available on the web keep growing in complexity. To alleviate this complexity for queries, various visualization techniques have been developed in the past. We have examined the filter/flow concept. This paper presents a transformation schema for filter/flow graphs to make them even more intuitively usable and to support distributed collaborative use. For that schema, several possibilities for transformating the visualization and various factors that may influence that transformation are discussed. Finally, the schema is further explained based on a trip planning example scenario.


Summary

Kauri Agathis australis, an iconic tree of New Zealand, is under threat from an introduced disease-causing pathogen provisionally named Phytophthora 'taxon Agathis' (referred to as PTA). This soilborne, Pythiaceous species belongs to the Chromista and causes a collar rot resulting in yellowing of the foliage and thinning of the canopy, which eventually causes death of the infected tree. The management and containment of this pathogen requires rapid and reliable detection in the soil. The current method for soil detection utilizes a soil bioassay involving lupin baits and soil flooding in a process that takes between ten and twenty days. We describe a real-time PCR assay based on TaqMan chemistry for the specific detection of PTA, which targets the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA. This TaqMan real-time PCR assay could be used with DNA extracted directly from bulk soil samples to enable rapid quantification of PTA within soil. The detection limit was 2 fg of PTA DNA from pure culture, or 20 fg in the presence of DNA extracted from soil. The assay was validated using soil samples taken from a PTA-infested site and soil spiked with a known concentration of oospores. We conclude that the TaqMan real-time PCR assay offers a more time-efficient method for detection of PTA in soil than existing methods.


Health education is a major tool in the implementation of any dynamic health promotion policy. In the author's view, its conventional role, the improvement of health by bringing about behavioural changes is today subject to controversy. He identifies five key approaches in health education: the traditional approach, characterized by three features: the didactic provision of information, the use of fear as an educational technique, and the appeal to the individual's sense of responsibility for his own health. the media approach, which uses marketing methods to promote health, with a tendency to resort to positive humorous messages. the socio-political approach, which questions the very purpose of health education. According to those who hold this view, wide-scale educational campaigns would only increase social and health inequalities and would be quite ineffective in fighting the powerful economic interests that control most of our habits. The health educator's real role would be to raise the people's political awareness. the epidemiological approach, which aims at great soundness through precise planning by objectives. It is based on the so-called exact sciences such as epidemiology and its aim is to study needs and assess actions. It incorporates the classical concept according to which a change in knowledge leads to a change in behaviour and habits and thus induces health improvement. Its very elaborate character accounts for both its strength and its weakness. In fact, it takes little account of the complexity of the educational process. the community approach fills some of these gaps by stressing the participation of individuals and institutions at all programming levels. For this purpose, it uses techniques designed to ensure consensus. In conclusion, the author recommends that active research in health education be undertaken in order to clarify more adequately these approaches with a view to improving the effectiveness of preventive work.