In this paper we present a Service Oriented Architecture for executing engineering simulations and visualizing results in a Virtual Environment. The architecture composes a Collaborative Problem Solving Environment that enables engineers to setup computations in an integrated environment. The work is motivated by the necessity of finding effective solutions for collaboration of team workers during the execution of complex Petroleum Engineering projects.


To overcome the tradeoff between NO x and particulate emissions for future diesel vehicles and engines it is necessary to seek methods to lower pollutant emissions. The desired simultaneous improvement in fuel efficiency for future DI diesels is also a difficult challenge due to the combustion modifications that will be required to meet the exhaust emission mandates. This study demonstrates the emission reduction capability of EGR and other parameters on a high-speed direct-injection (HSDI) diesel engine equipped with a common rail injection system using an RSM optimization method. Engine testing was done at 1757 rev/min, 45% load. The variables used in the optimization process included injection pressure, boost pressure, injection timing, and EGR rate. RSM optimization led engine operating parameters to reach a low-temperature and premixed combustion regime called the MK combustion region, and resulted in simultaneous reductions in NO x and particulate emissions without sacrificing fuel efficiency. It was shown that RSM optimization is an effective and powerful tool for realizing the full advantages of the combined effects of combustion control techniques by optimizing their parameters. It was also shown that through a close observation of optimization processes, a more thorough understanding of HSDI diesel combustion can be provided.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is associated with an increased risk of cancer of the upper gastrointestinal tract. This study aimed to assess whether and to what extent a negative upper endoscopy in patients with GERD is associated with a decreased incidence and mortality in upper gastrointestinal cancer (esophageal, gastric, or duodenal cancer).

METHODS
Population-based cohort study of all patients with newly diagnosed GERD between July 1, 1979 and December 31, 2018 in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The exposure, negative upper endoscopy, was examined as a time-varying exposure, where participants contributed unexposed person-time from GERD diagnosis until screened and exposed person-time from the negative upper endoscopy. The incidence and mortality in upper gastrointestinal cancer were assessed using parametric flexible models, providing adjusted hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

RESULTS
Among 1,062,740 patients with GERD (median age 58 years; 52% women) followed for mean 7.0 person-years, 5,324 (0.5%) developed upper gastrointestinal cancer and 4,465 (0.4%) died from such cancer. Patients who had undergone a negative upper endoscopy had 55% decreased risk of upper gastrointestinal cancer compared to those who did not undergo endoscopy (HR=0.45, 95% CI 0.43-0.48), a decrease which was more pronounced during more recent years (HR 0.34, 95% CI 0.30-0.38 from 2008 onwards), and was otherwise stable over sex and age groups. The corresponding reduction in upper gastrointestinal mortality among patients with upper endoscopy was 61% (adjusted HR=0.39, 95% CI 0.37-0.42). The risk reduction after a negative upper endoscopy in incidence and mortality lasted for five and at least ten years, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Negative upper endoscopy is associated with strong and long-lasting decreases in incidence and mortality in upper gastrointestinal cancer in patients with GERD.


Concrete box culverts are usually installed under roadways to allow water drainage without affecting the motoring public. Culvert openings can represent a hazard on the roadside when they do not extend outside of the clear zone, and often require safety treatments in the form of roadside barriers. In this study, a modified design of Midwest Guardrail System (MGS) was evaluated for installation on a low-fill culvert with the strong-post attachment using through-bolts and epoxy anchorage through full-scale crash testing. The test installation consisted of MGS with a 31 in. top rail height, supported by W6 × 9 posts, spaced at 37½ in., attached to a low-fill culvert's top slab with a 12 in. offset from the back of the post to the culvert headwall. Two crash tests were conducted according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' (AASHTO) Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) 2016 Test Level 3 impact safety criteria. In test number CMGS-1, a 2,428-lb car impacted the MGS attached to the culvert at a speed of 61.3 mph and at an angle of 25.1°. In test number CMGS-2, a 5,013-lb pickup truck impacted the MGS attached to the culvert at a speed of 62.8 mph and an angle of 25.7°. In both tests, the vehicle was safely redirected and captured. Both tests were deemed acceptable according to TL-3 safety criteria in MASH. Recommendations were made for the safe installation of MGS atop low-fill culverts as well as transitions from the standard MGS to the culvert-mounted MGS.


Abstract - Bothriochloa ischaemum (Old World Bluestem) is a problematic invasive grass throughout the southern United States. We measured the long-term effects (12 years) of a single growing-season fire (September 2006) in a grassland dominated by Old World Bluestem. Prescribed fire drastically reduced Old World Bluestem cover (prefire: 76 ± 4% [mean ± standard error], 2007: 8 ± 2%) and cover remained low (21 ± 6%) in 2018 with no additional management. Surprisingly, Old World Bluestem cover in unburned plots decreased 12% during the same time. After the burn, native graminoid cover peaked after 3 years (29 ± 7%) but decreased to 18 ± 5% by 2018, and native annual forb cover, almost absent before the fire, increased dramatically to 39 ± 7% in 2007, then quickly decreased to pre-burn levels. Native perennial forb cover more than doubled in 2007 and continued to increase to 58 ± 5% in 2018. A single growing-season fire greatly reduced the cover of Old World Bluestem, likely due to high fuel loads, low rainfall, and phenological timing; the fire also allowed perennial forbs to establish. Restoring dominance of native grasses after removal of this invasive species will require additional active restoration such as seeding or planting.


The inelastic scattering of 18.6-MeV polarized protons has been studied for the following nuclei: $^{48}\mathrm{Ti}$, $^{50}\mathrm{Ti}$, $^{52}\mathrm{Cr}$, $^{54}\mathrm{Fe}$, $^{56}\mathrm{Fe}$, $^{58}\mathrm{Ni}$, $^{62}\mathrm{Ni}$, $^{64}\mathrm{Ni}$, and $^{63}\mathrm{Cu}$. The targets $^{52}\mathrm{Cr}$, $^{60}\mathrm{Ni}$, and $^{62}\mathrm{Ni}$ have been investigated at 16.5 MeV. The measured asymmetries for strong $l=2$ transitions tend to fall into two categories, distinguished by the magnitude of the asymmetries at 30\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} and 90\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}. Of those $l=2$ transitions studied, only those to the first ${2}^{+}$ state of the 28-neutron nuclei seem to show large asymmetries at these angles. Strong $l=3$ and $l=4$ transitions also reveal several interesting variation. When the entire optical potential is deformed, coupled-channels and distorted-wave Born-approximation calculations predict the "small" $l=2$ asymmetries reasonably well, but the fits to the large asymmetries are unsatisfactory. Phenomenological calculations in the spirit of the microscopic model indicate that the predicted asymmetry is sensitive to the form factor. No important differences between $S=0$ and $S=1$ predictions were found. Simple calculations with form factors arising from single-particle transitions predict asymmetries which closely resemble those predicted with a real collective-model form factor.


Introduction: To evaluate the relationship between various biochemical, nutritional and demographic factors with immune response to hepatitis B vaccine in maintenance hemodialysis (HD) patients. Material and Methods: A retro-prospective study was carried out on 68 patients undergoing maintenance  hemodialysis. Patients were vaccinated against hepatitis B virus with an intramuscular hepatitis B vaccination schedule, 40 micrograms at 0, 1, and 6 months. We also selected 32 age matched normal healthy persons who had vaccinated against hepatitis B previously to compare the antibody production with HD patients. Results: The value of serum antibody level against hepatitis B surface antigen ( HBs) in hemodialisis patients and healthy persons were 35±55(median=5.5) and 135±71 (median=175) mIU/ml respectively. There was a significant deference between mean serum antibody level against HBs antigen of hemodialysis patients and normal subjects (p<0.001), there were not any significant differences of antibody production against HBs antigen between males and females or diabetic and non diabetics. There were no correlation between serum antibody level against HBs-Ag and serum albumin and also with body mass index. There were not significant correlation between anti-HBs antibody level and age, amounts of hemodialysis, duration of dialysis, dialysis adequacy, serum ferritin level and serum lipids. There were not also significant correlation between anti-HBs antibody level and serum parathormone, calcium, phosphorus, serum hemoglobin and hematocrit level. Conclusion: In this study, there was not significant correlation between serum antibody level against hepatitis B surface antigen and various nutritional and demographic factors of patients under regular hemodialysis.


This case reviews the presentation and management of anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is a clinical diagnosis defined as the involvement of two or more body systems (skin, respiratory, gastrointestinal, or cardiovascular) with or without the presence of hypotension or respiratory compromise. Epinephrine administered intramuscularly is life-saving and may be followed by the administration of antihistamines, steroids, and intravenous fluids. The recognition and management of anaphylaxis is discussed along with both prehospital and emergency department treatment considerations. The chapter focuses on the case of a pediatric patient who presents to emergency medical services with trouble breathing. The diagnosis is allergic reaction with anaphylaxis.


An experimental setting is presented to evaluate the endothelial protection offered by various viscoelastic materials applied in cataract surgery. The substances used were: hydroxypropylmethylcellulosis, a hyaluronic acid preparation (molecular weight 5.10(6), concentration 10 mg/ml), a hyaluronic acid preparation (molecular weight 800 000, concentration: 35 mg/ml), and balanced salt solution as control. The endothelial surface of pig corneas were covered by test substances and spread with a loop of prolene 4.0 suture material in a mechanically standard way. A total of 40 corneas were examined and the amount of endothelial damage evaluated by photometry using Janus-green wash-out, a substance, which selectively binds to damaged endothelial cells or descement membrane. The damaged surfaces differed significantly in all groups of viscoelastic substances and in the control group. Examination showed that the least damage was in group 3, followed by group 1 and the most damage in group 2. Endothelial protection during cataract surgery can be improved by modifications of the substances presently applied.


Seismic tomography of the asthenosphere beneath mid‐ocean ridges has produced images of wave speed and anisotropy that are asymmetric across the ridge axis. These features have been interpreted as resulting from an asymmetric distribution of upwelling and melting. Using computational models of coupled magma/mantle dynamics beneath mid‐ocean ridges, I show that such asymmetry should be expected if buoyancy forces contribute to mantle upwelling beneath ridges. The sole source of buoyancy considered here is the dynamic retention of less dense magma within the pores of the mantle matrix. Through a scaling analysis and comparison with a suite of simulations, I derive a quantitative prediction of the contribution of such buoyancy to upwelling; this prediction of convective vigor is based on parameters that, for the Earth, can be constrained through natural observations and experiments. I show how the width of the melting region and the crustal thickness, as well as the susceptibility to asymmetric upwelling, are related to convective vigor. I consider three causes of symmetry breaking: gradients in mantle potential temperature and composition and ridge migration. I also report that in numerical experiments performed for this study, the fluid dynamical instability associated with porosity/shear band formation is not observed to occur.


We investigate resonant edge magnetoplasmons (EMPs) and their decay in graphene by high-frequency electronic measurements. From EMP resonances in disk shaped graphene, we show that the dispersion relation of EMPs is nonlinear due to interactions, giving rise to the intrinsic decay of EMP wave packets. We also identify extrinsic dissipation mechanisms due to interaction with localized states in bulk graphene from the decay time of EMP wave packets. We indicate that, owing to the linear band structure and the sharp edge potential, EMP dissipation in graphene can be lower than that in GaAs systems.


A retrospective study was conducted on 495 women who underwent sexual sterilization procedures at the Delaware Hospital and the Wilmington General Hospital during the January 1963-December 1967 period. The types of operations performed timing of the operations details of the accompanying procedures and duration of hospitalization stays and subsequent operative procedures are charted. 12.7% underwent a later operation 8.3% being a major procedure. Vaginal tubal ligation and postpartum tubal ligation required the shortest hospital stays. Laparoscopic sterilization which was unavailable during the study period is increasingly popular and requires even less time in the hospital. Complications for those undergoing postpartum tubal ligations were lower than for other types of procedures. Patients with abnormal menses prior to sterilization had significantly higher rates of subsequent operations. Vaginal hysterectomy or vaginal repair was performed in 48% of all patients who required subsequent surgery. The choice of sterilization method should be carefully considered.


Bruce Dawe's reputation as a vernacular poet can be a disadvantage. I once heard an eminent Australian critic remark that once you'd read his poems there wasn't much more you could say. The implication was that his work had an immediate appeal but no depth and that to exercise one's critical faculties on work so colloquial in pitch and perspective would be a waste of a well-trained mind. At the same time I encountered the poetry of Philip Martin. Martin is a writer Dawe acknowledges as his friend and mentor, yet Martin's poetry seems at first very different: the accent is more cultivated and the focus more personal. There is, however, at least one important similarity: both practise 'the art that conceals art', exercising great control of rhythm and speech stress to create an apparently uncomplicated voice. It is only when you do read their poems — that is, read within rather than over their poems — that you find there is much more you could say.


The current study examined how the emotional labor strategies of deep acting and surface acting directly influence emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions, and indirectly impact actual turnover among a sample of bank tellers. Turnover data were collected from organizational records 6 months after participants responded to a survey that measured emotional labor strategies, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intentions. Results showed that turnover intentions mediated the relationship between deep acting and actual turnover. Additionally, surface acting had indirect effects on turnover through emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The antitumor activity of RA-700, a cyclic hexapeptide isolated from Rubia Cordifolia, was evaluated in comparison with deoxy-bouvardin and vincristine (VCR). As regards the proliferation of L1210 cultured cells, the cytotoxicity of RA-700 was similar to that of VCR but superior to that of deoxy-bouvardin. The IC50 value of RA-700 was 0.05 mcg/ml under our experimental conditions. RA-700 inhibited the incorporation of 14C-leucine at a concentration at which no effects were observed on the incorporation of 3H-thymidine and 3H-uridine in L1210 culture cells in vitro. The antitumor activity of RA-700 was similar to that of deoxy-bouvardin and VCR against P388 leukemia. Daily treatment with RA-700 at an optimal dose resulted in 118% ILS. As with deoxy-bouvardin and VCR, the therapeutic efficacy of RA-700 depends on the time schedule. RA-700 showed marginal activity against L1210 leukemia (50% ILS), similar to that of deoxy-bouvardin but inferior to that of VCR. RA-700 inhibited Lewis tumor growth in the early stage after tumor implantation, whereas deoxy-bouvardin and VCR did not. As regards toxicity, a slight reduction of peripheral WBC counts was observed with the drug, but no reduction of RBC and platelet counts. BUN, creatinine, GPT and GOT levels in plasma did not change with the administration of the drug.


This paper presents an application of a choice experiment measuring public preferences for a farmland retirement project (FRP) in the Gansu environmental degraded region of China. The project helps improve China's long-term food security, and information on public preferences can be used to cost-effectively design such policies. FRP is conceptualized with four attributes relating to public preferences: Areas enrolled in the program, duration of the contract, priority zone for conservation, and vegetation type for planting. The analysis employs a mixed logit model, allowing for preference heterogeneity, and explores the differences between the willingness to pay of urban and rural residents. Results identify substantial benefits for FRP, and these benefits are closely linked to the program design. Results also show that the willingness to pay for a longer period of the program of urban residents is significantly higher than that of rural residents. Finally, this study proposes policy recommendations that the number of areas and years of the current FRP in the study area can be increased moderately, but not excessively, to further benefit local residents.


We present an approach for integrating interactive design and simulation for customizing parameterized 3D models. Instead of manipulating the mesh directly, a simplified interface for casual users allows for adapting intuitive parameters, such as handle diameter or height of our example object – a cup holder. The transition between modeling and simulation is performed with a volumetric subdivision representation, allowing direct adaption of the simulation mesh without re-meshing. Our GPU-based FEM solver calculates deformation and stresses for the current parameter configuration within seconds with a pre-defined load case. If the physical constraints are met, our system allows the user to 3D print the object. Otherwise, it provides guidance which parameters to change to optimize stability while adding as little material as possible based on a finite differences optimization approach. The speed of our GPU-solver and the fluent transition between design and simulation renders the system interactive, requiring no pre-computation. 2289 Solid Freeform Fabrication 2017: Proceedings of the 28th Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium – An Additive Manufacturing Conference Reviewed Paper


In this study, cognitive effects relating to concealable stigma of adolescents with learning disabilities (Learning Disabilities, LD) were examined under the condition in which learning-related information was concealed. A total of 158 adolescents (78 LD adolescents, 80 NLD adolescents) participated in the present study. Results showed that: (1) the LD group in the concealed condition exhibited a higher level of suppressing learning-relevant thoughts than did those in the disclosed condition; (2) LD children in both conditions showed increasing accessibility of learning-relevant thoughts than did the NLD (Non-Learning Disabilities) group during the interview.


This dissertation examines the history of aided self-help housing through the case study of Peru, which was the site of significant experiments in this field, and pioneering in its efforts to enact a large-scale policy of land tenure regularization in unplanned settlements. As the sheer scale of the housing deficit tested the limits of conventional modernist housing reform, aided self-help presented itself as a response to the constraints and apparent opportunities of this situation; its essential premise was to bring together the benefits of "formal" architecture (an expertise in design and construction) with those of "informal" building (substantial cost savings, because residents themselves furnished the labour). The analysis focuses on three key spheres: the circumstances which made Peru a fertile site for innovation in low-cost housing under a succession of very different political regimes; the influences on, and movements within, architectural culture which prompted architects to consider aided self-help housing as an alternative mode of practice; and the context in which international development agencies came to embrace these projects as part of their larger goals during the Cold War and beyond. Aided self-help housing in Peru took a variety of forms, ranging from highly co-ordinated projects constructed using communal labour, with on-site technical assistance from architects, to sites-and-services developments, which included the provision of basic services (water, sewerage, electricity, roadways), on the expectation that residents would eventually consolidate their neighbourhoods into more-or-less conventional urban areas. These projects generally offered a very basic core house, which residents were expected to expand and complete over time following standard plans set out by an architect. Housing on this progressive-development model (also called the "growing house") could be built incrementally as the family's needs demanded and its budget allowed. At the other end of the spectrum was the UN-sponsored Proyecto Experimental de Vivienda (PREVI), an international design competition which endeavoured to draw upon the experience of prominent avant-garde architects to devise new approaches to low-cost housing; foregrounding innovations in building technologies, construction systems, and urban design theories, this experiment ultimately brought the latent conflicts between high architecture and affordable housing into high-relief. This research reveals that although aided self-help housing promised a means of resolving a housing crisis that conventional architectural techniques had failed to meet, it quickly encountered the seeds of its own failure--at the political level, the organizational level, the implementation level, and perhaps most crucially, the funding level. Despite the promises of technical assistance to self-builders, in practice the needed resources and trained staff often failed to appear, suggesting that the rhetoric of self-help could simply become a mask to validate the state's disengagement from housing provision. While this withdrawal of the state (and as a result, of the architects it employs) from the provision of low-cost housing has seemed inevitable, the dissertation aims to reexamine the effectiveness of these experiments in aided self-help, in order to open the way to reassessing their potential and reframing their strategies for contemporary practice.


The African Rural-City Connections (RurbanAfrica) project explores the connections between rural transformations, mobility, and urbanization processes and analyzes how these contribute to an understanding of the scale, nature and location of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The RurbanAfrica project is advancing the research agenda on rural-city connections in sub-Saharan Africa by addres- sing a range of crucial components: agricultural transformations, rural livelihoods, city dynamics, and access to services in cities. Our aim is to generate new insights into the relationship between rural-city connections and poverty dynamics.


This work describe an algorithm for the automatic analysis of the waggle dance of honeybees. The algorithm analyses a video of a beehive with 13,624 frames, acquired at 25 frames/second. The algorithm employs the following traditional image processing steps: conversion to grayscale, low pass filtering, background subtraction, thresholding, tracking and clustering to detect run of bees that perform waggle dances. The algorithm detected 44,530 waggle events, i.e. one bee waggling in one time frame, which were then clustered into 511 waggle runs. Most of these were concentrated in one section of the hive. The accuracy of the tracking was 90% and a series of metrics like intra-dance variation in angle and duration were found to be consistent with literature. Whilst this algorithm was tested on a single video, the ideas and steps, which are simple as compared with Machine and Deep Learning techniques, should be attractive for researchers in this field who are not specialists in more complex techniques.


Background: Health care providers are considered as a group of primary health service workers increasing their scientific and practical ability. Providing an effective and desirable teaching is one of the main ways to improve the quality of services; however, this will be possible by selecting an appropriate training method. Therefore, the goal of this study was to determine the effect of teaching the principles of caring for pregnant mothers on knowledge and health care providers' performance with on-site and non-attendance methods. Methods: This study was conducted as an interventional and semi-experimental study in 2017-2018. Sixty four health care providers were enrolled in Mashhad's health center. They were randomly divided into two groups of 32. For the non-attendance group, the educational package contents were prepared in the form of PowerPoint slides consisting texts and images. For the on-site teaching group, the participants were taught in lecture for six hours. The amount of knowledge of health care providers was assessed before and after training by using a written test questionnaire and their performance at work was controlled by a checklist Results: By comparing the scores before and after the educational intervention, the difference in mean scores in the on-site group was 4.50 ± 0.334 and in the non-attending group was 3.77 ± 0.332. This difference in the values in each group was significant. The difference between the mean post-test scores in the two groups was 0.70 ± 0. 463. The difference in the mean of functional scores with two types of training was determined 17.1 ± 0.246, and no significant difference was found for the groups (p = 0.496). Conclusion: In this study, the increase in the level of health care information was acceptable. Both methods had the same effect in the cognitive and functional domain. Therefore, the method of using the educational package can be a good alternative to the lecture method.


This PhD thesis is a qualitative comparative case study of industrial policy, skill formation, and job quality in the offshore wind turbine manufacturing industry in Denmark, Germany and England. It engages with the comparative industrial relations, skill formation, and job quality literature and proposes an alternative analytical and theoretical framework to the widely-used Varieties of Capitalisms approach (Hall and Soskice, 2001). This alternative framework is based on Marxist regulation school (Aglietta, 2015 [1979], Boyer, 2005), the marketisation framework (Doellgast and Greer, 2013), and previous studies of the offshore wind industry. This thesis makes another theoretical contribution by extending the concept investor capitalism (Useem, 1996) to describe the underlying logic identified in the design and implementation of offshore wind turbine industrial policy.

This thesis also presents a number of important empirical findings, which suggest that theories that solely focus on supply side factors, miss half of the equation of what makes the "institutional foundations of the comparative advantage" of political economies and companies (Hall and Soskice, 2001). The way demand side policies incentivise investment decisions also plays an important part (cf. Aglietta, 2015 [1979]). This thesis shows how supply and demand side policies impact on skill formation and job quality in the offshore wind turbine industry.

In more detail, this thesis identifies specific characteristics of funding for skill formation by industrial policy: 'permanent' in Denmark, 'ad hoc' in Germany, and 'post-hoc' in England. The nature of skill formation providers and public funding provisions impact on the character of participants in training programmes, favouring disadvantaged applicants in Germany in contrast to favouring high performing ones in England. The way skill formation was funded impacted on employer engagement in the institutionalisation of vocational education and training (VET) programmes - employers in Denmark supported the institutionalisation of emerging occupational profiles and corresponding VET, whereas in Germany they argued against it, presumably because they would incur the costs of dual vocational training once it was established.

Short-term skills funding as part of 'ad hoc' and 'post hoc' industry policy had destabilising knock-on effects on skill formation providers in England as well as in Germany. This is a surprising finding, as both countries are usually characterised as examples of institutional complementarity and hence stability. This thesis shows that varying demand side policy impacts on work-based training and strengthens agencies. The combination of supply and demand side policies leads to a dynamic relationship between skills and job quality. Vocational skills may lead to stronger employment security, but not necessarily job security, and they are not a panacea against bad jobs. Active labour market policy (ALMP) training, when provided to directly employed unskilled workers during short-time work, and the lack of equivalent provisions for agency workers reinforced dualisation of the labour market.


Adsorptive endocytosis of five different lysosomal enzymes from various human and non-human sources was susceptible to inhibition by mannose and l-fucose, methyl alpha-d-mannoside, alpha-anomeric p-nitrophenyl glycosides of mannose and l-fucose, mannose 6-phosphate and fructose 1-phosphate. A few exceptions from this general scheme were observed for particular enzymes, particularly for beta-glucuronidase from human urine. The inhibition of alpha-N-acetylglucosaminidase endocytosis by mannose, p-nitrophenyl alpha-d-mannoside and mannose 6-phosphate was shown to be competitive. The loss of endocytosis after alkaline phosphatase treatment of lysosomal enzymes supports the hypothesis that the phosphorylated sugars compete with a phosphorylated carbohydrate on the enzymes for binding to the cell-surface receptors [Kaplan, Achord & Sly (1977) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.74, 2026-2030]. Endocytosis of ;low-uptake' forms of alpha-N-acetylglucosaminidase and alpha-mannosidase was likewise susceptible to inhibition by sugar phosphates and by alkaline phosphatase treatment, suggesting that ;low-uptake' forms are either contaminated with ;high-uptake' forms or are internalized via the same route as ;high-uptake' forms. The existence of an alternative route for adsorptive endocytosis of lysosomal enzymes is indicated by the unaffected adsorptive endocytosis of rat liver beta-glucuronidase in the presence of phosphorylated sugars and after treatment with alkaline phosphatase.


Using governmentality as a theoretical framework, we examine two Australian policy areas where young people are disciplined into becoming good, active citizens. These policies-mutual obligation through the work for the dole programme, and school-based active citizenship programmes similar to American service learning programmes-both mirror volunteer-ope activities, in a social context where volunteers are viewed as good citizens. In this study, we present findings from a qualitative study that addresses the question of whether young people will develop active citizenship through compulsory volunteer-type programmes. The findings show that first, young people are very conscious of the lack of choice involved in these programmes and that this weakened their sense of agency. Second, the programmes failed to develop positive community attitudes and active social behaviours. These results suggest that policies that compel individuals to contribute to society may actually weaken their citizenship identities.


Background: Medical doctors in Canada have a lack of education and understanding on how to safely prescribe opioids. Rural areas and Aboriginal populations have been identified as being at greater risk for opioid misuse. The purpose of this pilot project is to investigate barriers to rural physicians deprescribing opioids for noncancer pain in rural NL to better understand this under-researched topic. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted over the phone and audio recorded. The audio recordings were transcribed using Microsoft Word then thematically analysed. The themes were discussed with another team member to reach a consensus. Results: Three broad themes were identified including system related, provider related and patient related barriers with sub-themes under each. Interpretation: These preliminary results identified many barriers including lack of resources in rural areas, lack of provider education and lack of patient understanding of the mechanisms of opioid prescriptions that fit into three broad categories. Barriers not previously identified in the literature were acknowledged including lack of pain management resources in rural communities as well as patient misunderstanding opioid medication pharmacology. These results are preliminary and further research is required.


Abstract The article describes a string recognition approach, engraved in the parsers generated by Tunnel Grammar Studio that use the tunnel parsing algorithm, of how a lexer and a parser can operate on the input during its recognition. Proposed is an addition of the augmented Backus-Naur form syntax that enables the formal language to be expressed with a parser grammar and optionally with an additional lexer grammar. The tokens outputted from the lexer are matched to the phrases in the parser grammar by their name and optionally by their lexeme, case sensitively or insensitively.


Background: Psoriasis is a multifactorial, recurring, and chronic in�ammatory skin disease. This study was designed to explore the potential role of microRNA-106a-5p (miR-106a-5p) in psoriasis. Methods: The expression levels of miR-106a-5p in the serum of psoriasis patients and healthy individuals were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The diagnostic value of miR-106a-5p in serum was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC). The levels of interleukin-22 (IL-22), interleukin-17A (IL-17A), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: The serum expression of miR-106a-5p was found to be up-regulated in psoriasis patients. ROC curve showed that miR-106a-5p had high speci�city and sensitivity in the diagnosis of psoriasis. The correlation between the serum expression level of miR-106a-5p and PASI was positive. The relative expression levels of IL-17A, IL-22 and TNF-alpha in serum of psoriasis patients were signi�cantly upregulated compared with that in healthy control, and showed positive association with serum miR-106a-5p levels. Cell experiments demonstrated that upregulation of miR-106a-5p could promote cell proliferation, and the levels of IL-22, IL-17A and TNF-alpha were upregulated signi�cantly in M5-induced HaCaT cells. Conclusion: Considering the novel and vital role in psoriasis progression, miR-106a-5p is expected to be a new potent target for treatment of psoriasis. MiR-106-5p was expected to use for more immunity diseases research and therapy.


Epidemics and pandemics are difficult periods for the affected community, specifically in the proliferation of mental health issues. In such adverse times, factors of psychological vulnerability such as propensity to worry and low emotional stability might have a detrimental effect on the mental health of the individuals. To investigate the impact of such factors on mental health, this study examined the impacts of propensity to worry and fear of COVID-19 on anxiety depending on the individuals' levels of emotional stability. As a means of such investigation, this study was conducted based on quantitative data, and the research sample was selected using a convenient sampling method. Participants included 304 university students (71.6% were women and 28.4% were men; MAge = 22.37 ± 3.04) and responded to the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Symptom Checklist-90 Revised, and 10-Item Personality Inventory. The moderated mediation analysis using PROCESS macro (Model 14) was performed to examine the study hypotheses. Results revealed that propensity to worry was associated with anxiety symptoms. Fear of COVID-19 mediated this link and emotional stability moderated the relationship between propensity to worry and anxiety. The findings showed that trait worry, trait emotional stability, and fear of COVID-19 are determinants of anxiety symptoms, suggesting that such factors are important in understanding these issues.


This paper examines the role of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature China as policy entrepreneur in China. It illustrates the ways in which the World Wildlife Fund for Nature is active in promoting integrated river basin management in the Yangtze River basin and how the efforts at basin level are matched with the advice of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development task force on integrated river basin management to the national government of China. This article demonstrates that the World Wildlife Fund for Nature uses various strategies of different types to support a transition process towards integrated river basin management. Successful deployment of these strategies for change in environmental policy requires special skills, actions, and attitudes on the part of the policy entrepreneur, especially in China, where the government has a dominant role regarding water management and the position of policy entrepeneurs is delicate.


As the mobile internet service market is rapidly growing, measuring and managing the service quality become a more critical issue to the service providers. Thus the purpose of this study is to compare SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, and non-difference score measures and to determine which one is superior to measure the service quality of the mobile internet service. This study also aims to analyze the structural relationship between the service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions (repurchase intention and word-of-mouth). For the purpose, survey data were gathered from the respondents who have used the mobile internet services and an empirical test was conducted. As the first research result, it was revealed that the non-difference score measure showed a much better model than other service measuring models (SERVQUAL, SERVPERF). And the second result was that two service quality factors (tangibles and empathy) among the mobile internet service quality factors significantly influenced the customer satisfaction and also the customer satisfaction had a significant effect on the repurchase and word-of-mouth.


Glucocorticoids regulate GH synthesis and secretion by influencing both hypothalamic and pituitary function. With respect to GH-releasing hormone (GHRH), an important GH secretagogue, glucocorticoids are reported not only to suppress hypothalamic GHRH expression but also to augment pituitary responsiveness to GHRH. To investigate further this latter observation, we have determined the effects of this steroid on expression of the GHRH receptor (GHRH-R) gene in the rat pituitary in vivo and in pituitary cells in vitro. Adult male rats were adrenalectomized or sham operated and treated with s.c. implants of cholesterol or corticosterone. Adrenalectomized animals showed substantially reduced pituitary GHRH-R mRNA levels, when compared with untreated sham-operated animals. Conversely, administration of corticosterone increased pituitary GHRH-R mRNA levels in intact, as well as adrenalectomized rats. We also analyzed the effects of the synthetic glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, on GHRH-R mRNA expression in cultured rat anterior pituitary cells. GHRH-R mRNA was significantly increased by dexamethasone, with a maximal response observed in the presence of 100 nM hormone. This dose of dexamethasone substantially elevated GHRH-R mRNA after 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h of treatment. Dexamethasone did not increase GHRH-R mRNA in the presence of the transcriptional inhibitor actinomycin D, indicating that the predominant effect of the hormone is to increase transcription of the GHRH-R gene. These data demonstrate that GHRH-R mRNA levels are directly stimulated by glucocorticoids, both in the presence and absence of hypothalamic influences, providing a probable explanation for the ability of this steroid to alter pituitary responsiveness to GHRH.


The biotinylation of goat anti-alpha-chains of chicken immunoglobulin A (IgA), suitable for use in an avidin-biotin enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, is described. The optimum conditions for the use of the developed conjugate in determining local and systemic IgA specific to Mycoplasma gallisepticum in chickens were established.


Thirty-seven patients with chronic neck and shoulder pain were treated with a series of electro-acupuncture treatments. All patients had been unresponsive to previous conventional and placebo treatments for their pain. A double blind evaluation of acupuncture results and hypnotic profiles failed to demonstrate any correlation between the two. Twenty-four or 64.9% of our patients obtained significant long term improvement. An increase in regional microcirculation by peripheral sympathetic blockade from electro-acupuncture is thought to be responsible for the tissue healing and subsequent pain relief.


Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a global pandemic causes a massive disruption to social stability that threatens human life and the economy. An effective forecasting system is arguably important to provide an early signal of the risk of COVID-19 infection so that the authorities are ready to protect the people from the worst. However, making a good forecasting model for infection risks in different cities or regions is not an easy task, because it has a lot of influential factors that are difficult to be identified manually. To address the current limitations, we propose a deep graph learning model, called PANDORA, to predict the infection risks of COVID-19, by considering all essential factors and integrating them into a geographical network. The framework uses geographical position relationships and transportation frequency as higher order structural properties formulated by higher order network structures (i.e., network motifs). Moreover, four significant node attributes (i.e., multiple features of a particular area, including climate, medical condition, economy, and human mobility) are also considered. We propose three different aggregators to better aggregate node attributes and structural features, namely, Hadamard, Summation, and Connection. Experimental results over real data show that PANDORA outperforms the baseline methods with higher accuracy and faster convergence speed, no matter which aggregator is chosen. IEEE


"TT" Lewis, a white working class Barbadian hero, emerges from this biography as a curious, irreverent and ultimately unique product of a colonial society then notorious for its stifling distinctions of colour and class. As a white man championing progressive ideas, Lewis' views and his proclamations rocked official Barbados and cost him dearly. For a decade and half he represented the city of Bridgetown in the colonial House of Assembly first as an independent, then as a member of the Congress Party, the Barbados Labour Party, and finally the Democratic Labour Party. He is remembered as the tragic victor of the 1949 "Lewis Demonstration" and as the father of free secondary education in a country now bettered by few in the quest for empowering its citizens through learning.


The steady-state solution of electromagnetic-field problems in ferromagnetic materials is given. The effects of magnetic saturation and hysteresis are included. The solution is based on the differential diffusion equation assuming variable complex magnetic permeability. A precise formula is given to calculate the total power losses due to eddy currents and hysteresis. Computed curves, together with measured curves, are given for active and reactive losses in mild steel. Good agreement is obtained between measured and computed values.


A microwave scattering model is a powerful tool for determining relationships between vegetation parameters and backscattering characteristics. The crown shape of the vegetation canopy is an important parameter in forestry and affects the microwave scattering modeling results. However, there are few numerical models or methods to describe the relationships between crown shapes and backscattering features. Using the Modified Tor Vergata Model (MTVM), a microwave scattering model based on the Matrix Doubling Algorithm (MDA), we quantitatively characterized the effects of crown shape on the microwave backscattering coefficients of the vegetation canopy. FEKO was also used as a computational electromagnetic method to make a complement and comparison with MTVM. In a preliminary experiment, the backscattering coefficients of two ideal vegetation canopies with four representative crown shapes (cylinder, cone, inverted cone and ellipsoid) were simulated: MTVM simulations were performed for the L (1.2 GHz), C (5.3 GHz) and X (9.6 GHz) bands in fully polarimetric mode, and FEKO simulations were carried out for the C (5.3 GHz) band at VV and VH polarization. The simulation results show that, for specific input parameters, the mean relative differences in backscattering coefficients due to variations in crown shape are as high as 127%, which demonstrates that the crown shape has a non-negligible influence on microwave backscattering coefficients of the vegetation canopy. In turn, this also suggests that investigation on effects of plant crown shape on microwave backscattering coefficients may have the potential to improve the accuracy of vegetation microwave scattering models, especially in canopies where volume scattering is the predominant mechanism.


This paper presents a practical approach for detecting non-stationarity in time series prediction. This method is called SAFE and works by monitoring the evolution of the spectral contents of time series through a distance function. This method is designed to work in combination with state-of-the-art machine learning methods in real time by informing the online predictors to perform necessary adaptation when a non-stationarity presents. We also propose an algorithm to proportionally include some past data in the adaption process to overcome the Catastrophic Forgetting problem. To validate our hypothesis and test the effectiveness of our approach, we present comprehensive experiments in different elements of the approach involving artificial and real-world datasets. The experiments show that the proposed method is able to significantly save computational resources in term of processor or GPU cycles while maintaining high prediction performances.


Spine density change in the hippocampal dentate gyrus accompanies memory consolidation and coincides with the increased expression of ribosome-rich, hyperchromatic granule cells. Although this suggests increased protein synthesis to be required for synaptic growth in the 5 to 7 h post-training period, little temporal mapping of the associated molecular mechanisms has been done. Here, we demonstrate a similar frequency of hyperchromatic cells in naïve animals and in those sacrificed 6 h post-training, suggesting a transient repression of protein synthesis in the early post-training period. Immunoblot analysis of CREB phosphorylation in the dentate gyrus supported this view, with downregulation from basal levels observed at 2 to 3 h and at 12 h posttraining. Protein synthesis reactivation appears to be specific for de novo spine production as no change in spine frequency accompanies the immediate post-training period of depressed protein synthesis. These findings support the view that CREB-mediated gene transcription is a requirement for long-term memory consolidation and may be directly implicated in the process of synaptic growth.


The literature has conflicting reports regarding the impact of group decision making on performance. We first observe that in mutual fund studies this results from large discrepancies in reported managerial structures between CRSP and Morningstar databases reaching on average 20% per year. Then we show that with more superior Morningstar data team-managed funds exhibit higher risk-adjusted returns than single-managed funds. The performance spread is present across all fund categories, except aggressive funds, and is robust to the inclusion of fund- and manager-level controls. Across various managerial structures, the largest team-induced gains are reached among funds managed by three individuals. Furthermore, teams significantly improve fund performance when funds are located in financial centers, reflecting larger networking potential and/or better skills of people who reside in larger cities. This improvement is achieved in teams more homogeneous in age and education. In spite of higher returns however, team-managed funds are not riskier than single-managed funds in terms of market exposure or idiosyncratic volatility. Finally, team-managed funds trade less aggressively and are able to generate extra inflows for their funds. Thus, collective decision making is beneficial, but its scale depends on team size and diversity as well as its geographic location.


Abstract The aim of this preliminary research was to establish if there are intersex occurrences in wild freshwater fish in Slovenian rivers and streams. In the first study we evaluated all fish species of both sexes obtained from the river Ljubljanica from its source to mouth. In the second study we focused on the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brown trout (Salmo trutta m. fario) males from 30 rivers and streams in different parts of Slovenia. The male gonads were histologically assessed for the presence of oocytes to determine the frequency and degree of intersex. Oocytes were found in the testicular tissue of a single grayling (Thymallus thymallus) and in the adipose tissue adjacent to the testis of a single common barbel (Barbus barbus), both from the Ljubljanica. Several cyst-like structures that resemble degenerated presumptive oocytes were also present in several trout testes. This preliminary report is the first of its kind in Slovenia. To gain a better insight into the intersex issue in Slovenia, we plan to regularly biomonitor freshwater pollution by histologically examining fish gonads and, if possible, by determining vitellogenin plasma levels in fish.


BACKGROUND
This study examines the relationship between sleep duration, depression, and engagement in a novel cyber behavior, digital self-harm, among adolescents.

METHOD
Logistic regression analyses were conducted using cross-sectional data from the 2019 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (N = 9,819; 48% male; avg. grade level = 9th grade [SD = 1.9]) to analyze the association between sleep duration and digital self-harm. A Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) analysis was used to assess whether depressive symptoms attenuate this association.

RESULTS
Bivariate results indicated that longer sleep duration was associated with lower incidence of digital self-harm. Multivariate results showed that sleep duration was inversely associated with engaging in digital self-harm, net of all covariates. Depressive symptoms attenuated the influence of sleep duration on digital self-harm by 50.72%.

CONCLUSIONS
Both insufficient sleep and depressive symptoms were associated with engagement in digital self-harm among adolescents. Prospective research is needed, however, to confirm this pathway. Practitioners and clinicians should consider discussing digital self-harm with adolescents and parents, especially if adolescents are experiencing poor sleep and depressive symptoms.


Unconventional nonlinear models such as nonlinear ARMAX, Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models, global linearizations, and linear hybrid systems are, at the highest level of abstraction, a sort of quasi-linear models, namely, Polytopic Linear Differential Inclusions (PLDIs). At present, quadratic stability has enabled, mainly via linear matrix inequalities, the analysis and design of a nonlinear system from the vertex matrices of its PLDI model. Proving stability by a globally quadratic Lyapunov function, however, entails conservatism. This paper proposes a less conservative framework by using piecewise-quadratic generalized Lyapunov functions. Further manipulation of the problem within such framework yields a set of bilinear rather than linear matrix inequalities.


Stephen Collins Foster (1826-1864) is a crucial figure in the history of popular music, and in American history at large: the author of globally known songs such as, among many others, Susanna or Old Folks at Home, in 1951 a Congress resolution described him as «the father of American popular music». Despite this, for several decades his work and his own figure have been at the center of a heated debate that is leading to removal from both the musical and civil world. This contribution proposes a didactic unit aimed at providing knowledge about what is ultimately a fundamental author, filling, among other things, a substantial gap in Italian musicological literature. It is addressed primarily to Secondary Schools. However, its basic concepts can also be useful for Upper Secondary Schools and for Italian Popular music history courses at university or conservatory level.


The field experiments related to the study were conducted at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bahowal. There were 20 treatment combinations comprising of four levels of sunlight intensity [control (full sunlight), 50% reduction in sunlight light intensity during 15-45(R15-45), 46-75(R46-75) and 76-105(R76-105) DAT] and five levels of foliar nitrogen application [control (only recommended nitrogen, no foliar spray), spray of 3% urea before (NB), midway(NM), afterwards(NA) and midway-afterwards(NMA) the reduction in sunlight intensity in addition to the recommended nitrogen application]. Radiation level of R15-45 significantly preponed (2-5 days) the occurrence of phenological stages from maximum tillering to physiological maturity. Similarly, R46-75 significantly preponed (3-9 days) the occurrences of flag leaf initiation to physiological maturity. The nitrogen level of NB, significantly delayed the occurrence of flag leaf initiation to physiological maturity stages (2-5 days), NM delayed flag leaf initiation to physiological maturity (2-4 days), NA delayed anthesis to physiological maturity (1-4 days) and NMA delayed panicle emergence to physiological maturity (2-5 days). Plant height of rice was significantly increased due to R15-45 (5.21-5.26%) and R46-75 (6.95-7.61%) and also with foliar nitrogen application levels of NB, NM, NA and NMA by 9.95-9.89, 9.65-10.06, 8.06-7.57 and 9.65-9.29 per cent, respectively. Number of tillers m-2 was significantly reduced (4.71-15.99%) under low light conditions and was increased (5.59-23.34%) with foliar nitrogen application. Yield attributes were affected by the reduced sunlight intensity and foliar nitrogen application. Grain yield was significantly reduced as a result of R15-45 (9.19-11.41%), R46-75 (14.29-16.35%) and R76-105 (8.15-10.67%) and foliar nitrogen application levels of NB, NM and NMA resulted in significant increase the grain yield by 9.32-10.19, 5.74-6.38 and 4.59-5.74 per cent respectively, as compared to control.


Approximately one-fourth of Latino families in the United States live in poverty. Women in the Latino community have carried a great burden associated with such pervasive poverty and inequality, a burden that has placed them in economic margins compared to their other female counterparts. Yet, the lives and economic marginality of Latinas are generally unknown and unfamiliar to the populace and to legislators. This Article challenges the politics of invisibility grown from a lack of information and intentional distribution of misinformation. It sets forth goals of progressive policy and legislation with an anti-violence agenda, challenging policy makers to focus on women as autonomous human beings, respond to and reflect upon the experiences of Latinas and other women of color, address abuse by law enforcement officers, reevaluate our conceptualization of the domestic violence shelter system, and carefully craft legislative language to ensure that funds for legislative and policy initiatives reach the Latina community.


The zeta potential of a particle characterizes its motion in an electric field and is often thought to be negligible at high ionic strength (several moles per liter) due to thinning of the electrical double layer (EDL). Here, we describe zeta potential measurements on polystyrene latex (PSL) particles at monovalent salt concentrations up to saturation (∼5 M NaCl) using electrophoresis in sinusoidal electric fields and high-speed video microscopy. Our measurements reveal that the zeta potential remains finite at even the highest concentrations. Moreover, we find that the zeta potentials of sulfated PSL particles continue to obey the classical Gouy-Chapman model up to saturation despite significant violations in the model's underlying assumptions. By contrast, amidine-functionalized PSL particles exhibit qualitatively different behaviors such as zero zeta potentials at high concentrations of NaCl and KCl and even charge inversion in KBr solutions. The experimental results are reproduced and explained by Monte Carlo simulations of a simple lattice model of the EDL that accounts for effects due to ion size and ion-ion correlations. At high salt conditions, the model suggests that quantitative changes in the magnitude of surface charge can result in qualitative changes in the zeta potential-most notably, charge inversion of highly charged surfaces. These findings have important implications for electrokinetic phenomena such as diffusiophoresis within salty environments such as oceans, geological reservoirs, and living organisms.


This review describes that due to rapid globalization, vulnerability in different areas affects human life. With rapid population growth, securing the inherent vulnerability of this relationship, whether social, economic, or environmental, has to be central to efforts to achieving sustainable development. The vulnerability of agricultural systems varies with geographic location, time, socioeconomic conditions, and environmental resources. The capacity to mitigate and to adapt to climate-change impacts is strongly related to the future development paths. The socioeconomic and, even more so, the technological characteristics of different futures strongly affect emissions, hence the extent and pace of the impacts of climate change, as well as the capability of societies to adapt to and mitigate climate change. The presented review gives a brief idea about empirical analysis of climate change and agricultural vulnerability and how it affects human life.


The article examines the paintings by Eduard Steinberg, a Soviet non-conformist painter from the 1950s to the 1980s from the standpoint of the plastics of his language. The author focuses on Steinberg's polemical dialogues with the greatest names in Russian and European avant-garde art, including both common points and disagreements. By analyzing the painter's texts through the prism of poetics of the invisible and the ontology of traces, the author observes Steinberg's early art of the 1960s and 1970s as an attempt to create a symbolic language and attach an ideographic status to art. Through simultaneous use of two artistic strategies—mystical and religious symbolism, coupled with metageometry Steinberg arrives at optical formalism and spectator dialectics, vying to see the invisible and record the polysemantic nature of the symbolic sign. The article analyzes the influence Vladimir Veisberg and his "invisible painting" had on Steinberg, including the "white on white" style, as well as Giorgio Morandi's still-life vision of metaphysical painting. The author believes that by relying on analogies and reminiscences, Steinberg refers his audience to his predecessors and joins them in an intertextual dialogue. A special place here belongs to Kazimir Malevich with his radicalism, his trend towards metasymbolism and the language of the basic forms—the circle, square and cross. All of these are close to Steinberg's geometric plastics of the 1970s and 1980s. Staying true to the pure forms of Suprematism, Steinberg builds up an aesthetics of the geometric forms of his own, where abstract art comes together with the ontological progress towards God. The Countryside series (1985–1987) shows influence of Кazimir Malevich's Peasant Cycle, some principles of icon painting and Neo-Primitivist art.


In the last decade we have witnessed a dramatic increase in bandwidth, which led to expand of services and allow providers to begin to offer other services such as video-based contents or IPTV, which operates on multicast technology. Almost everybody know packet offers of Internet providers, such as the so-called TRIO packets (Internet, telephony, and television). These services are usually offered to majority of users, called a private or residential customers.

The majority of earnings of the ISPs bring business customers, which have significantly higher requirements than residential customers. Big business systems coordinate their dispersed locations together, through a network of Internet service provider. For example, a large trading company based in Ljubljana have in almost every major place of their own offices, and those offices communicate with the central place of business, through virtual private network (VPN below). This VPN is running through ISP network on the provider's edge (PE) routers, which communicate with the customer's edge (CE) routers. Service provider provides connectivity as well as routing which is running by routing protocol such as MPLS and BGP. From the user's perspective, VPN is visible as a large local area network(LAN). On the Cisco platform this allows implementation of VRF, which represents the routing and forwarding table of a specific VPN. The customers desire and demand is that the provider should provide all necessary conditions and technologies for running their business. One of these technologies is multicast, which client wishes to send within locations in its VPN. For example, the need for video conferencing or to transfer data of critical business applications. All bigger stock exchanges run multicast through their VPNs. This service is called multicast VPN or mVPN. To allow for this type of service transfer, provider must make some changes on their PE routers, and add some parameters within a VRF. MVPN service is like any other VPN services, running through providers network, the routing and management is taking care by the provider.
We will get to know why the implementation of mVPN on service provider network is adequate if we want to offer multicast VPN to the enterprises, which would run their multicast VPN over service provider backbone.


Under the catalysis of a variety of metabolic enzymes in vivo, such as UDP-glucuronyl transferases, cytochrome P450, carboxylesterase, sulfotransferase, butyrylcholinesterase, catechol-O-methyl transferase and 6-morphine dehydrogenase, the drugs perform glucuronidation, hydrolysis, oxidation, sulfonation and other reactions, then translate into active or inactive metabolites, which are excreted through urination, bile or the other pathways at last. Different drugs own their different metabolic pathways. This paper introduces the studies about the metabolism of drugs in human and animal in recent years, such as morphine-like drugs, amphetamine, ketamine, cannabis and cocaine, and reviews the research progress about the sites of metabolism, metabolic enzymes, metabolites and physiological activity of those drugs metabolic in vivo.


Diarrheal disorders are the result of excessive fluid and electrolyte loss through the gastrointestinal tract. Many different underlying mechanisms are known to cause diarrhea. Fordtran suggested that in secretory diarrhea the osmolality of stool water should be accounted for by its electrolyte contents. Therefore, the osmotic gap between the measured osmolality and that estimated from electrolyte contents should be small. In osmotic diarrhea, due to the presence of the osmotic agent, there should be a greater gap between the measured and the estimated osmolalities. Osmotic gaps varying from 100 to 40 mOsm have been used arbitrarily in literatures to define the underlying pathogenesis. Because of the uncertainty, the usefulness of these measurements remains in question. In this article, methods used to measure stool osmolality and electrolyte contents are reviewed. Limitations of these measurements are discussed. Measurements derived from various diarrheal disorders revealed that the basic concepts put forward by Fordtran are corrected. However, we found that the osmotic gaps (measured osmolality - 2 [Na + K] in secretory diarrheal disorders are frequently negative numbers. In osmotic diarrhea, the osmotic gap (greater than 160 mOsm) is substantially greater than the figures used in the literature. In many diarrheal disorders the osmotic gap falls between the two extremes and the pathogenesis is multifactorial in origin. Under these circumstances, stool osmolality and electrolyte measurements provide little insight into the underlying mechanism causing the diarrhea. Furthermore, stool contains many biologically active organisms which can alter the stool osmolality. Unless these effects are appreciated, an inaccurate interpretation of these measurements may result.


A new technique to measure local planar strain in left ventricular myocardium using two-dimensional tagged MR images is presented. This new technique is computationally fast, is fully automated, and generates dense motion estimates. It is based on using a 1-1 SPAMM tag pattern which comprise several one-dimensional sinusoidal tag patterns at diierent frequencies. A local deformation of the myocardium produces a variation in the local frequencies of these patterns, which can be used to compute strain components in the image plane. Local frequency is measured by scanning certain spectral peaks to create complex images, for which the local frequency is the gradient of the angle associated with their complex data points. The method is demonstrated using both simulations and real tagged MR images, and a discussion of these results and of directions for future research is provided.


Objectives The aim of this study was to characterize the treatment patterns of patients with RA treated with biologics and evaluate the direct biologics cost and medical cost using Japanese claims data provided by Japan Medical Data Center Co Ltd. Methods Patients with RA (defined by ICD10 code: M058, M059, M060, M068, M069), aged ≥16 to <75 treated with etanercept (ETN), infliximab (IFX), adalimumab (ADA), and toclizumab (TCZ) as first biologic, between Jan 2005 and Mar 2013 were included. One-, two- and three-year cumulative total medical cost following initial prescription was compared between each treatment group. Discontinuation event rates in each group were estimated using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Dose of each first biologic treatment until discontinuation was analyzed to calculate relative dose intensity (RDI) which shows (Actual cumulative dose)/(Expected dose when initial dose was continued until discontinuation). Results A total of 603 patients were identified for longitudinal analysis, with 41% (n=246) initiating ETN, 36% (n=217) initiating IFX, 11% (n=69) initiating ADA and 12% (n=71) initiating TCZ. The total medical costs from the initial prescription in ETN, IFX, ADA and TCZ groups were approximately $19,000, $26,000, $23,000 and $24,000 in one year, and $50,000, $65,000, $52,000 and $71,000 in three years, respectively (ETN: IFX p=0.004, ETN: ADA p=0.988, ETN: TCZ p=0.027, ADA: IFX p=0.417, ADA: TCZ p=0.845, IFX: TCZ p=0.198) (Fig 1). The discontinuation event rate at 36th month was 46.4%, 58.0%, 75.8% and 59.3% in ETN, IFX, ADA and TCZ groups, respectively (ETN: IFX p=0.007, ETN: ADA p<0.001, ETN: TCZ p=0.037, ADA: IFX p=0.147, ADA: TCZ p=0.767, IFX: TCZ p=0.385) (Fig 2). The mean RDIs of ETN25mg, ETN50mg, IFX, ADA and TCZ groups were 1.08 (95%CI: 1.00-1.15), 0.89 (95%CI: 0.85-0.93), 1.21 (95%CI: 1.16-1.27), 0.99 (95%CI: 0.92-1.06), and 0.96 (95%CI: 0.84-1.08), respectively (Fig 3). Conclusions The discontinuation rate was lowest in the ETN group, which indicates sustained treatment and good adherence to the therapy. RDI analysis of IFX showed a 1.21 times higher than expected dose. This high RDI value was due to the dose escalation from initial phase of treatment and may be one of the reasons for the higher cost of IFX observed in our study. These results support the relation between adherence and medical cost reduction in RA patients previously reported.1 References Clark et al. The Relationship Between Adherence and Health Care Cost among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Retrospective Case Comparison Study. International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. 19th Annual International Meeting 2014 Disclosure of Interest N. Sugiyama Employee of: Pfizer, T. Murata Consultant for: Employee of CRECON who performed the analyses and were funded by Pfizer, Employee of: Employee of CRECON who performed the analyses and were funded by Pfizer, Y. Morishima Employee of: Pfizer, Y. Fukuma Employee of: Pfizer, Y. Shibasaki Employee of: Pfizer, L. Marshall Employee of: Pfizer


A series of 354 consecutive rhegmatogenous retinal detachments, operated on by means of microsurgery, is evaluated to determine the clinical factors that may predispose to the development of postoperative massive proliferative vitreoretinopathy (MPVR). Three statistically significant parameters in the development of postoperative MPVR are demonstrated: failure of previous surgery, preoperative fixed retinal folds, and horseshoe retinal tear(s) exposing a total surface of 3 disc diameters or more of pigment epithelium. For further study, it is suggested that in retinal detachments with such horseshoe tears, early destruction of the exposed pigment epithelium by argon laser photocoagulation may be a valuable means of decreasing the incidence of MPVR after retinal detachment repair.


In a previous paper we described a number of Escherichia coli mutants resistant to the antibiotic kirromycin. These mutants are altered in both tufA and tufB, the genes coding for elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu). We have now isolated EF-Tu in a homogeneous form from the mutant strains and have studied its function in polypeptide synthesis. These EF-Tu preparations were examined in renaturation studies of Qbeta RNA replicase, described in another paper. In order to characterize the factor we have inactivated the tufB gene by insertion of bacteriophage Mu or by an amber mutation. This enabled us to isolate EF-Tu as a single gene product derived from tufA (designated EF-TuA in contrast to the tufB product, which is called EF-TuB). Kirromycin-resistant EF-TuA did not respond to addition of the antibiotic in three assays: [(3)H]GDP exchange with EF-Tu-GDP at 0 degrees C, in vitro translation of poly(U), and kirromycin-induced GTPase activity of EF-Tu. In contrast, wild-type EF-TuA responded normally to the antibiotic in these assays. One of our mutants (LBE 2012) harbors the kirromycin-resistant EF-TuA and an EF-TuB that is able to bind kirromycin. This binding does not cause inhibition of protein synthesis, indicating that EF-TuB from LBE 2012 is unable to reach the ribosome under these conditions. The two types of EF-Tu from this mutant are equal in size but differ by 0.1 pH unit in isoelectric point. In the soluble fractions of LBE 2012 cells they are present in approximately equal amounts. Our results also show that the tufB gene is not necessary for bacterial growth.


Network security system using snort with SMS notification is used to increase the security by monitoring all incoming traffic into the local network, is applied in the field of network security technology. Use of this system aims to detect attacks from intruders who disturb the local network, so it can accommodate the needs of network administrators manage computer network and its security. The report generated from this system can be used as a basis for decision-making by administrators in order to improve network security. Methods in the design of this system, among others, by examining the object of study, methods of data collection and system development methods. In the data collection methods used methods of literature study, observation, documentation methods. System development method using the method PPDIOO (Prepare, Plan, Design, Implement, Operate and Optimize) that was developed by Cisco Systems. The result obtained is a computer network security system integrated with database and SMS. The system is designed to provide early notification to administrators when an attack from an intruder. A case study conducted in PT. Asia Pacific Fibers Tbk Kaliwungu Kendal.


The host response of 25 rice genotypes belonging to Oryza glaberrima and Oryza sativa to Meloidogyne graminicola infection was examined in a hydroponic system. The M. graminicola can build up high population densities in a hydroponic system. Resistance to this nematode species was found in O. glaberrima genotypes which supported significantly lower nematode numbers per plant and per unit root than O. sativa genotypes. The M. graminicola-infected O. sativa genotypes showed a higher root galling index than the O. glaberrima genotypes. The hydroponic system is efficient and reliable method to examine the host response of rice genotypes to M. graminicola infection, and can be useful for the fast screening of high numbers of rice genotypes for the selection of M. graminicola-resistant rice germplasm for breeding purposes.


This work brings the story of a psychodiagnosis held at a psychology clinic of a private university in Belo Horizonte. The focus in this article was given the returned interview with the child, considered an intrinsic part of the psychodiagnostic. The participants in this evaluation were a child of seven years old and his parents. After the integration of collected data through testing and psychological techniques as well as interviews with the patient's parents, an returned interview was prepared in a fun and interactive way for the child. At this stage, the child was asked to count the end of a story created especially to contextualize his experience in the psychodiagnostic. It was noted, with patient's reports that this step is very important in the process of psychodiagnostic because it can provide the development of conflicts and finding possibilities to meet the challenges. Key-words : Psychodiagnostic; returned interview; psychological assessment.


The intermolecular metallophilic interaction has been exploited to orderly aggregate nanocluster compounds into multidimensional assemblies, while the intramolecular metallophilic interaction was rarely reported. Herein, based on an Au13Cu2 nanocluster template, the presence of the intracluster Au-Cu metallophilic interaction was beneficial to achieving enhanced near-infrared emission intensity and thermal stability.


This paper studies the effects of static eccentricity on axial flux permanent-magnet machines (AFPMMs) using three-dimensional finite-element analysis (3-D FEA). Use of numerical modeling makes it possible to precisely study the eccentricity in these types of machines. The accuracy of the FEM model is validated using experimental measurement. To the best awareness of the authors, effects of static eccentricity in AFPMMs have not been studied before. Hence, a new definition for the static eccentricity factor (SEF) is presented and it is shown that the occurrence of static eccentricity is very high in these types of machines. A motor with different degrees of rotor eccentricity is simulated and the flux density distribution in the air gap and the total axial force between rotor and stator is obtained. In addition, unbalanced magnetic force (UMF) is calculated and it is mentioned that a steady torque is created by the forces. This study indicates that static eccentricity has noticeable effects on motor characteristics and can deteriorate the motor performances.


Multi-functional two-dimensional (2D) materials are being researched due to their attractive properties and novel applications in nano-electronic, nano-optoelectronic, topological insulator, and energy-storage devices. In the present contribution, with the aid of first-principles calculations, the mechanical and nonlinear optical properties of a newly designed Be2BO3F2 (BBF) monolayer were investigated. Our results illustrate that the BBF monolayer possesses unexpectedly higher flexibility than the typical and well-known flexible optoelectronic material MoS2 in terms of Young's modulus. Moreover, the BBF monolayer also exhibits a strong second harmonic generation (SHG) response of 5.65 × 104 pm2 V−1 which is 2.5 times that of a MoS2 monolayer. The honeycomb structure of the BBF monolayer appears to have a good mechanical stability, as revealed by the positive phonon modes and elastic constants. The highlighted electronic structure and properties, such as the large band gap (7.95 eV) and the large SHG response, make the BBF monolayer suitable for potential applications in flexible deep ultra-violet (DUV) nonlinear optical devices. We believe that the present research will provide useful guidance for the design of a new generation of nano-electronic devices.


The ability to distribute quantum entanglement over long distances is a vital ingredient for quantum technologies. Single atoms and atom-like defects in solids are ideal quantum light sources and quantum memories to store entanglement. However, a major obstacle to developing long-range quantum networks is the mismatch between typical atomic transition energies in the ultraviolet and visible spectrum, and the low-loss propagation band of optical fibers in the infrared, around 1.5 μm. A notable exception is the Er ion, whose 1.5 μm transition is exploited in fiber amplifiers that drive modern communications networks. However, an optical interface to single Er ions has not yet been achieved because of the low photon emission rate, less than 100 Hz, that results from the electric dipole-forbidden nature of this transition. Here, we demonstrate that the emission rate of single Er ions in a solidstate host can be enhanced by a factor of more than 300 using a small mode-volume, low-loss silicon nanophotonic cavity. This enhancement enables the fluorescence from single Er ions to be clearly observed for the first time. Tuning the excitation laser over a small frequency range allows dozens of distinct ions to be addressed, and the splitting of the lines in a magnetic field confirms that the optical transitions are coupled to the Er ions' spins. These results are a significant step towards long-distance quantum networks and deterministic quantum logic for photons, based on a scalable silicon nanophotonics architecture.


Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis offers a promising tool for rapid and early detection of aquatic plant invasive species, but currently suffers from substantial unknowns that limit its widespread use in monitoring programs. We conducted the first study to test the factors related to eDNA-based detectability of 2 invasive aquatic plants, Egeria densa and Myriophyllum spicatum, over extended periods of time. Specifically, we examined how plant growth stage and abundance relate to detection in semi-natural and natural conditions. We conducted a mesocosm experiment over a 10-wk period to assess changes in eDNA detection as a function of plant growth and changing biomass. We also sampled lakes with varying species abundances and resampled a subset of lakes to test temporal variability in detection. We used multilevel occupancy modeling to determine factors associated with detection and generalized linear mixed effects modeling to assess important predictors of eDNA concentration. In mesocosm experiments, we found that detection was less reliable while plants were actively growing but improved as a function of increasing senescence. Plant abundance in tanks was a poor predictor of detection in water samples. These findings were supported by field sampling, which resulted in higher detections for E. densa during senescence periods and only weak or ambiguous relationships between eDNA and total plant abundance in lakes for both species. Within lakes, proximity to shallow photic zones and discrete plant patches were associated with increased detections and concentrations of eDNA. However, detection at the lake scale (based on 4 sampling stations) was typically successful only at the highest levels of plant abundance. Detection and concentrations of eDNA were consistently lower for M. spicatum than for E. densa in the mesocosm experiment and field sampling, suggesting that overall detectability of aquatic invasive plants varies by species. Our results support sampling during senescence periods to improve detection, but generally low levels of detection and weak relationships with plant abundance indicate that substantial hurdles remains to implement eDNA analysis for early detection of, and rapid response to, aquatic invasive plants.


In this project, a downlink resource allocation scheme for OFDMA-based next generation wireless network targets high data rate and efficient resource usage the scheme consist of radio resource and power allocation which are implemented separately. Low complexity heuristic algorithm are first proposed to achieved the radio resource allocation, where graph base framework and fine physical resource block assignment are performed to mitigate major ICI and hence improve the network performance. A novel distributed power allocation is then performed to optimize the performance of cell edge users under desirable conditions. The power optimization is formulated as an iterative barrier constrained water filling problem and solved by Lagrange method. Joint ML MMSE is used to develop simple receiver structure that gives joint ML estimates of multipath channel and the transmitted data sequence. Simulation results indicate that our proposed scheme can improve performance of cell edge users in multicell network


PURPOSE
Delivery of insulin products via pneumatic tubes is often avoided in health systems, as agitation may cause insulin proteins to destabilize, resulting in loss of function through denaturation, aggregation, or other processes. The actual loss of potency due to delivery via pneumatic tubes has not been reported for new, ready-to-use insulin products.

METHODS
Samples were drawn from 7 commercial intravenous (IV) bags containing a 100 units/100 mL premixed solution of regular insulin in sodium chloride injection (Myxredlin, Baxter). The bags were then exposed to 7 unique long-distance pneumatic tube routes. The post-transportation bags were visually inspected for evidence of foaming. Samples were drawn from the post-transportation bags and insulin concentrations were analyzed via an enzyme immunoassay and compared to pretransportation concentrations.

RESULTS
All seven post-transportation insulin samples were within 10% of their respective pretransportation sample. No foaming was observed in any of the Myxredlin bags after transportation through the pneumatic tube system.

CONCLUSION
Transporting 100 unit/100 mL Myxredlin i.v. bags through a pneumatic tube system does not result in a clinically significant loss of potency. Therefore, delivery of this drug product via a pneumatic tube system to patient care areas can be considered in daily practice.


BACKGROUND
Clinically isolated Staphylococcus epidermidis KK3-75, Enterococcus faecalis SMU-14, and Escherichia coli TF6-27 were subjected to test for bladder lodgments.

METHODS
Experimental cystitis on mice was investigated pathologically by light, confocal laser, and electron microscope after intravesical injection of cell suspensions of the strains. Bacterial affinities with bladder mucosal proteins and with extracellular components were detected by Western blot analysis.

RESULTS
Pathological findings of experimental cystitis revealed prominent infiltration of neutrophils except for those that were challenged with Enterococcus faecalis SMU-14. Capsule-like structures were demonstrated for the other two strains. Each strain showed histological tropism within the tissue sections, which correlated with the capability to bind the respective extracellular matrix components tested. Type I collagen bound only to cellular extracts of Enterococcus faecalis SMU-14 and Escherichia coli TF6-27, whereas fibronectin and type IV collagen bound only to those of Staphylococcus epidermidis KK3-75 and Enterococcus faecalis SMU-14. Bladder mucosal proteins had a variety of ability to bind cell surface proteins of each strain. Bacterial cell surface binding of all except for two of the bladder mucosal proteins detected was inhibited by extracellular matrix components.

CONCLUSION
These experimental results suggest that the bacterial affinity of the bladder restricted by strain specific cell surface properties may be important for explanation in the difference of occurrence and progression of urinary tract infections caused by each strain.


Abstract : With the support of this award, we were able to explore mechanochemical activation of small ring cyclopolymers, which ultimately led to the discovery of flex activated mechanophores. These mechanophores take advantage of bond bending motions induced by polymer chain elongation, rather than more tradition bond stretching modes of activation. We found that flex activated mechanophores were uniquely capable of releasing small organic molecules upon activation, without bond scission occurring in the polymer main chain. Using this mechanophore design, we also demonstrated successive mechanophore activation upon consecutive loading cycles in an elastomeric material. In our investigation of other flex activated mechanophore designs, we embarked on related projects in the areas of triggered depolymerization and mechanochemistry of start polymers. Key results from these areas include mechanochemically- and thermally-triggered self-immolative polymers, a quantitative kinetic analysis of mechanical degradation of star versus linear polymers, and a practical approach for modeling chain scission in star polymers.


Objective: The contribution of hypertension in the pathological cascade of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) remains elusive, and appropriate models are lacking [1]. We have previously demonstrated an impairment of short-term memory in adult mice exposed to prolonged angiotensin II (Ang II) infusion [2]. We hypothesize that 1) the underlying mechanism involves local blood brain barrier leakages associated with microglial activations; 2) the retinal microglia reflects the state of microglial cells in the brain and could thus constitute a potential biomarker for VCI. Design and method: 3–4 month-old male C57BL/6 mice were infused for 3 months with Ang II (2000 ng/kg/min; Ang II) or saline (Ctrl) via osmotic minipumps. Blood pressure, Garcia score, working and short-term memories (Y-maze alternation and object location tasks respectively) were assessed weekly. Plasma was collected at the end of the study to perform a cytokine array. Immunohistochemistry of brain samples was done to identify IgG leakages and microglial cells (Iba1 + ). Microglial density and soma size (indicator of activation) were measured using an automated analysis in the pre-frontal cortex (PFC), the cortex (CX), the hippocampus (HIPP), the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), and the corpus callosum (CC). Microglial density was also evaluated in flat-mounted retinas (Iba1 + ). Results: Amongst the identified cytokines that were upregulated in the plasma of hypertensive mice, C5a was the most upregulated. IgG leakages were 12 times larger in Ang II than Ctrl (p = 0.04). Microglial activations were often associated with IgG leakages. Microglial density was increased in the CX, HIPP and CC while microglial soma was increased in CX, HIPP (pAngII < 0.001 density, soma, see Figure). However, retinal microglial density remained unchanged. Figure. No caption available. Conclusions: Prolonged Ang II-induced hypertension is associated with a pro-inflammatory profile, BBB leakages and local microglial activations. The retinal microglia was not affected by hypertension, suggesting it cannot be used as a biomarker of hypertension-mediated VCI. Neuronal loss and white matter integrity, as potential consequences of microglial activations, are currently being investigated to better understand the initiation of hypertension-mediated cognitive impairment.


Lasing action in an electrically pumped organic laser device is demonstrated with a high quality factor (Q) microcavity structure formed by two high-reflective and low-loss electrical contacts. A 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-i-propyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran-doped tris(8-hydroxy-quinoline)aluminum (Alq(3)) film serves as the active layer. A single longitudinal lasing cavity mode is obtained at 621.7 nm with a threshold current density of 860 mA/cm(2) under a room temperature pulse operation.


A windkessel model is widely used to operationalize vascular characteristics. In this paper we employ a non-iterative subspace model identification (SMI) algorithm to estimate parameters in a three- and four-element windkessel model by application of physical foreknowledge. Simulation data of the systemic circulation were used to investigate systematic and random errors in the parameter estimations. Results were compared to different methods as proposed in literature: one closed-loop and two iterative methods for the three-element model, and one iterative method for the four-element model. For the three-element model no significant systematic errors were observed using SMI. Concerning random errors, SMI appeared more robust in parameter estimations compared to the other methods (P<0.05 for a signal-to-noise ratio of 18 dB). For the four-element model, a significant systematic error in the estimate of the arterial inertance L was observed (P=0.011). However, for all methods an increasing number of outliers in parameter estimates were observed at increased noise levels. These outliers were almost exclusive due to errors in estimates of L . In conclusion, with SMI physical parameters can mathematically be derived by application of physiological foreknowledge. For a three-element windkessel model, SMI appeared a very robust method to estimate parameters. However, application to a four-element windkessel model was less accurate because of low identifiability of L . Therefore, based on the simulation results, the use of the four-element windkessel model is questionable.


Purpose of reviewThrombotic microangiopathies (TMAs) manifest as a spectrum of related disorders in the form of thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). New data on both diseases support more and more the relatedness of the disorders and reveal related pathomechanisms, which, however, manifest in different organs. TTP develops primarily at neurological sites, and also in the kidney, and HUS is a kidney disease. In TTP thrombi formation occurs subsequently to the release of multimers of von Willebrand factor (vWF), and in HUS endothelial cell damage is considered the reason for complement and platelet activation leading to thrombus formation. Recent findingsGenetic mutations are associated with both disorders: in TTP the ADAMTS13 gene, the vWF cleaving protease, is affected, and in HUS several complement genes are mutated. In addition autoimmune forms, with acquired, de-novo generated inhibitors in the form of autoantibodies exist for both disorders, affecting ADAMTS13 in TTP or the central complement inhibitor factor H in HUS. In HUS autoantibodies can develop in the context of a specific mostly homozygous chromosomal deletion that represents a new subform of the disease, which is termed DEAP-HUS (deficient for CFHR proteins and autoantibody positive HUS). SummaryAs the underlying disease mechanisms of TMA are now being better understood new options for a more precise diagnosis, improved therapy and prognosis for kidney transplantation become available for the benefit of patients. Here we summarize the recent developments in this rapidly progressing field.


Observations made by the author lead to suspected that O. gutturosa is not transmitted by Simulia but by Culicoides: 1. S. ornatum, the vector said to transmit O. gutturosa, bites preferentially the cattle in the ventral area, but the microfilariae observed in this area pertain to O. lienalis and not O. gutturosa, of which the microfilariae are, at the opposite, located in the dorsal area. 2. Records of O. gutturosa in places where simulia are absent or nearly so, are in accordance with these observations. Experimentally, the cycle of O. gutturosa is obtained in C. nubeculosus with a high level of infestation. Thus the author concludes that O. gutturosa is transmitted by Culicoides and that the cycle, in Simulia, attributed to O. gutturosa,pertains in fact to O. lienalis.


Wireless body area networks became recently a vast field of investigation. A large amount of research in this field is dedicated to the evaluation of various communication protocols, e.g., broadcast or convergecast, against human body mobility. Most of the time this evaluation is done via simulations and in many situations only synthetic data is used for the human body mobility. In this paper we propose for the first time in Wireless Body Area Networks a Markovian analytical model specifically designed for WBAN networks. The main objective of the model is to evaluate the efficiency of a multi-hop transmission in the case of a diffusion-based broadcast protocol, with respect to various performance parameters (e.g., cover probability, average cover number, hitting probability or average cover time). We validate our model by comparing its results to simulation and show its accuracy. Finally, but not least, we show how our model can be used to analytically evaluate the trade-off between transmission power and redundancy, when the same message is broadcasted several times in order to increase the broadcast reliability while maintaining a low transmission power.


This paper considers the relationship between the design and development of the built environment and the political project of creating an inclusive polity. Its focus is the examination of attempts, as part of this process, to re-imagine a shared identity as members of a polity and the role of iconic buildings in this. The paper examines aspects of the ways in which the social construction of nation can privilege particular forms of embodied citizenship-namely, those associated with a normalised body form, which is contrasted with the impaired body. It is especially concerned with the way that the design and use of the built environment is part of this process. Case studies of the design and development of the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly of Wales debating chambers illustrate differences in the notions of citizenship being developed in the two countries, but also that the process of negotiating membership of the nation is never complete and hence that gains made to create more inclusive or progressive constructions of nationhood are fragile.


ARTICLE HISTORY The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of procedural justice on performance with organizational trust as a mediating variable. The population is the State Civil Apparatus of Indragiri Hilir Regency with a sample of 140 people. Data collection techniques using questionnaires and distribution using google form. Technical analysis of the data in this study is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using WarpPLS 7.0 for data processing. The result of this study is that procedural justice has an effect on the affective commitment of ASN to the Indragiri Hilir Regency Government. Procedural justice affects the trust of ASN organizations in the Indragiri Hilir Regency Government. Organizational trust affects the affective commitment of ASN to the Indragiri Hilir Regency Government. Procedural justice affects the affective commitment of ASN to the Indragiri Hilir District Government through organizational trust. Accepted 31 December 2021


We are reporting an uncommon but preventable complication of an ectopic placement of gall stone after spillage following laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a 60yrs old patient who presented with an infraumblical discharging sinus over an old surgical scar. Ultrasonography showed thick walled parietal wall sinus tract at the scar site with minimal fluid collection with presence of a curvilinear hyper intense shadowing in fluid collection. On operation it was found that a large stone was present in the depth of sinus tract. This stone was lodged in a pocket in the preperitoneal space much below the umbilicus and not in any way near the lower extreme of falciform ligament.