Slick-water fracturing treatment is one of the most effective method to develop shale reservoir, which creates complex fracture system by connecting the pre-existing natural fractures. However, the proppant transport and placement behavior is quite different from that in conventional bi-wing fractures due to the low viscosity fluid system and intersections between fractures. The goal of this work is to simulate and understand the characteristic of proppant transport behavior in Complex Fractures network.
 A Eulerian multiphase model is introduced to simulate the transport and settling behavior in the hydraulic fracture network, which takes turbulence effects and friction stress between the proppant particles into consideration and fully couple the fluid phase with particle phase. Simulation work was conducted to investigate the control mechanism and influencing factors for proppant transportation from main fracture into secondary and tertiary fractures.
 The simulation results indicate that a small proppant dune quickly forms in the main fractures first, and almost no proppant enters the lower grade fracture until the proppant dune in the intersection reaches a specific height. With continuous injection of slurry fluid, majority of the proppant enters in the lower grade fracture which is controlled by gravity rolling from the dune in main fractures and fluid drag force, and the proppant settles quickly and gradually reach their own equilibrium height. Parametric study shows that smaller proppant density and particle size can also help proppant transport into secondary fractures and form a higher equilibrium height dune, resulting in larger effective propped area. Moreover, when the lower grade fracture is closer to the inlet entrance, the proppant is more likely to transport in, and the height of sand dunes formed in the fractures is higher.
 The proppant transport process in complex fracture systems is simulated by Eulerian Multiphase Model in this paper. This study extends the understanding of the process and mechanism of proppant transport in complex fracture system and controlling factors, which helps optimize hydraulic fracturing design in shale formation.


Objective To determine the mortality burden associated with unintentional injuries among children younger than 5 years of age in India. Methods The Registrar General of India conducted verbal autopsy for all deaths occurring in 2001–2003 in a nationally representative sample of over 1.1 million homes. These verbal autopsy reports were coded by two of 130 trained physicians, who independently assigned an ICD-10 code to each death. Discrepancies were resolved through reconciliation and, if necessary, adjudication. The probability of death during the first 5 years of life (per 100 000 live births) was estimated from the 2005 United Nations' population and death estimates for India, to which the proportions of deaths from the mortality study were applied. Results Unintentional injuries were the sixth leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age. In 2005, unintentional injuries led to 82 000 deaths (99% CI 71 000 to 88 000) among children under 5 years of age, a mortality rate per 100 000 live births (MR) of 302 (99% CI 262 to 323). Mortality was higher in rural areas (MR=339, 99% CI 282 to 351), mostly due to more drowning deaths, than in urban areas (MR=173, 99% CI 120 to 237), where falls were the leading cause of child injury mortality. Conclusion Unintentional injuries, specifically drowning and falls, lead to substantial mortality in children younger than 5 years of age in India. There is a need for continued monitoring of the injury burden and investigation of risk factors for evidence-based effective injury prevention programmes.


In the context of robot learning from demonstration, it is very important that a robot understands what an object can be used for. By observing a human performing an activity, a robot should be able to identify the human motion, the objects involved and the outcome of the performed activity. One important aspect of this challenging problem is to detect and reason about objects in terms of affordance or alternatively, about their function in the current activity. Affordance is often modeled in terms of appearance however appearance does not necessarily map one-to-one with functional classes. In this paper we propose two alternative features that characterize objects directly in terms of how they are used. Our approach show a significant improvement compared to the traditional appearance based methods.


We describe our efforts to empirically validate a distributed spectrum monitoring system built on commodity smartphones and embedded low-cost spectrum sensors. This system enables real-time spectrum sensing, identifies and locates active transmitters, and generates alarm events when detecting anomalous transmitters. To evaluate the feasibility of such a platform, we perform detailed experiments using a prototype hardware platform using smartphones and RTL dongles. We identify multiple sources of error in the sensing results and the end-user overhead (i.e. smartphone energy draw). We propose and implement a variety of techniques to identify and overcome errors and uncertainty in the data, and to reduce energy consumption. Our work demonstrates the basic viability of user-driven spectrum monitoring on commodity devices.


The most recent sophisticated investigations have provided new and revealing, but also contradictory and controversial information on the biological nature and the cellular origin of Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells (H-RS). Immunophenotypic analyses have shown variable phenotypic antigen expression; but, on balance the data suggest a lymphoid cell expressing T- and/or B-cell-associated markers and certain activation antigens while lacking immunological features of monocytes-macrophages or other lineages. Molecular genetic studies have demonstrated heterogenous findings with respect to rearrangements of T-cell receptor and immunoglobulin genes. Only a small percentage of the cases has rearrangements; this might be due to the threshold of sensitivity of the method combined with the scarcity of the malignant cells. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genomes are clonally integrated in the H-RS cells of about half the cases. The significance of these findings--whether EBV is a causative agent or an epiphenomenon--remains to be elucidated. H-RS cells express mRNA and proteins of various cytokines and cytokine receptors implying a predominant role for cytokines in the pathophysiology of HD. The mononuclear and polynuclear H-RS cells are capable of DNA synthesis and nuclear division; the lack of cellular division leads to multinuclearity through the process of endomitosis. Mutations and expression of only a limited number of oncogenes have been tested thus far. Whether the bcl-2 oncogene is involved in HD remains a matter of debate. Aneuploidy and non-random chromosomal abnormalities are the results of cytogenetic analyses of H-RS cells. However, no chromosomal marker specific for HD has yet been found. Thus, while studies of EBV involvement, growth factor production, oncogene expression and chromosomal abnormalities contributed a fair amount of new data on the nature of H-RS cells, only immunophenotyping and genotyping provided some indication of the cellular derivation: an activated lymphoid cell that possibly expresses oncogenes, that probably is infected with EBV, that most likely produces cytokines, that certainly has multiple karyotypic abnormalities.


Objectives The aim of this study was to characterize the clinical, biological, imaging aspects and outcomes of infectious arthritis of sacroiliac joints in Tunisian individuals. Methods A retrospective bicentric study involving cases of infectious arthritis of sacroiliac joint admitted to hospital between January 2002 and December 2011. Diagnosis was based on clinical examination and image, bacteriological and histological tests. Clinical, laboratory and radiological data, causative microorganism, treatment and outcome was identified. Results We included 15 cases with septic sacro-iliitis; 9 males and 6 females. The mean age was 40,26 years (15 - 71 years). Six patients consume impasteurized milk and only one reported contact with family members known to have tuberculosis. The most frequent symptoms are fever (86,7%) and fessialgy (80%). Pain in the sacroiliac mobilization and lameness are noted in 93,3% and 66% of patients. Leucocitosis was present in 13,3% of patients; elevated ESR in 53,3% and elevated RCP in 40%. Plain radiographies of 7 patients showed lesions that would suggest sacroiliitis, CT had confirmed this diagnosis in 9 patients and magnetic resonances in 6 patients. The lesion was bilateral in one case, associated with spondylodiscitis in 3 cases, and with psoas abscess in 3 cases. The causative agent was isolated in 73,3% of patients, according to the haemocultures in 4 cases, sputum culture in one case, serology in 5 cases and nodes biopsy in one case. The etiology was brucellosis in 5 cases, tuberculosis in 4 cases and Staphylococcus aureus in 4 cases. The causative germ was not identified in 2 cases. Appropriate antibiotic therapy was effective for all the patients, none needed surgical treatment. None of the 15 patients showed evidence of a relapse of the lesion. Conclusions Infection of sacro-iliac joint is a rare condition. Prompt diagnosis and appropriate antibiotherapy results in excellent outcome in most cases. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Objectives The aims of this study were to determine the effectiveness of local compression in patients presenting to the emergency room with intraoral bleeding and to identify when complex haemostatic measures may be required. Materials and Methods Five hundred forty patients who had experienced intraoral haemorrhage were retrospectively reviewed. The outcome variable was the haemostasis method used, i.e., simple (local compression with gauze) or complex (an alternative method after local compression has failed). Predictor variables were sex, age, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class, hepatic cirrhosis, bleeding disorder, use of antithrombotic agents, and site/cause of haemorrhage. Results The mean patient age was 48.9±23.9 years, 53.5% were male, 42.8% were ASA class II or higher, and 23.7% were taking antithrombotic agents. Local compression was used most often (68.1%), followed by local haemostatic agents, sutures, systemic tranexamic acid or blood products, and electrocautery. The most common site of bleeding was the gingiva (91.7%), and the most common cause was tooth extraction (45.7%). Risk factors for needing a complex haemostasis method were use of antithrombotic agents (odds ratio 2.047, P=0.009) and minor oral surgery (excluding extraction and implant procedures; odds ratio 6.081, P=0.001). Conclusion A haemostasis method other than local compression may be needed in patients taking antithrombotic agents or having undergone minor oral surgery.


Studies about environmental burdens often explore overall community risk. Increasing evidence suggests, however, differential burdens by gender and age. The purpose of the authors' research was to determine if gender-related difference exists among children in a region plagued with poor air quality and if increased exposure to pollutants from a major goods movement rail yard influences the relationship. Using a cross-sectional study design, the authors provided respiratory screening for children at two elementary schools. Compared to females, males were at significantly greater odds of exhibiting elevated fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) but less likely to exhibit reduced lung volume. Even in an area of overall poor air quality, the authors found that male children were a vulnerable subpopulation for greater elevated FeNO, while females were at increased risk for reduced lung capacity. Understanding differential burdens in vulnerable subpopulations is critical to providing timely and responsive strategies targeted towards health-based prevention and intervention activities.


Background and Aims Multiple regulatory mechanisms play an important role in arsenic-induced liver injury. To investigate whether histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) methyltransferase (SET7/9) and histone H3K4 demethyltransferase (LSD1/KDM1A) can regulate endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)-related apoptosis by modulating the changes of H3K4 methylations in liver cells treated with arsenic. Methods Apoptosis, proliferation and cell cycles were quantified by flow cytometry and real-time cell analyzer. The expression of ERS- and epigenetic-related proteins was detected by Western blot analysis. The antisense SET7/9 expression vector and the overexpressed LSD1 plasmid were used for transient transfection of LO2 cells. The effects of NaAsO2 on the methylation of H3 in the promoter regions of 78 kDa glucose-regulated protein, activating transcription factor 4 and C/EBP-homologous protein were evaluated by chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. Results The protein expression of LSD1 (1.25±0.08 vs. 1.77±0.08, p=0.02) was markedly decreased by treatment with 100 µM NaAsO2, whereas the SET7/9 (0.68±0.05 vs. 1.10±0.13, p=0.002) expression level was notably increased, which resulted in increased H3K4me1/2 (0.93±0.64, 1.19±0.22 vs. 0.71±0.13, 0.84±0.13, p=0.03 and p=0.003). After silencing SET7/9 and overexpressing LSD1 by transfection, apoptosis rate (in percentage: 3.26±0.34 vs. 7.04±0.42, 4.80±0.32 vs. 7.52±0.38, p=0.004 and p=0.02) was significantly decreased and proliferation rate was notably increased, which is reversed after inhibiting LSD1 (in percentage: 9.31±0.40 vs. 7.52±0.38, p=0.03). Furthermore, the methylation levels of H3 in the promoter regions of GRP78 (20.80±2.40 vs. 11.75±2.47, 20.46±2.23 vs. 14.37±0.91, p=0.03 and p=0.01) and CHOP (48.67±4.04 vs. 16.67±7.02, 59.33±4.51 vs. 20.67±3.06, p=0.004 and p=0.001) were significantly increased in LO2 cells exposed to 100 µM NaAsO2 for 24 h. Conclusions Histone methyltransferase SET7/9 and histone demethyltransferase LSD1 jointly regulate the changes of H3K4me1/me2 levels in arsenic-induced apoptosis. NaAsO2 induces apoptosis in LO2 cells by activating the ERS-mediated apoptotic signaling pathway, at least partially by enhancing the methylation of H3 on the promoter regions of ERS-associated genes, including GRP78 and CHOP.


During the past two decades homoleptic tetramethylaluminates of the trivalent rare-earth metals, Ln(AlMe4)3, have emerged as useful components for efficient catalyst design in the field of 1,3-diene polymerization. Previous work had focused on isoprene polymerization applying Ln(AlMe4)3 precatalysts with Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Gd and Y, in the presence of Et2AlCl as an activator. Polymerizations employing Ln(AlMe4)3 with Ln = La, Y and Nd along with borate/borane co-catalysts [Ph3C][B(C6F5)4], [PhNMe2H][B(C6F5)4] and [B(C6F5)3] were mainly investigated for reasons of comparison with ancillary ligand-supported systems (cf. half-sandwich complexes). The present study investigates into a total of eleven rare-earth elements, namely Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Y, Er and Lu. A full overview on the polymerization behavior of Ln(AlMe4)3 in the presence of perfluorinated borate/borane cocatalysts and R2AlCl-type activators (R = Me, Et) is provided, probing the monomers isoprene and 1,3-butadiene (and preliminary ethylene). Virtually complete cis-1,4-selectivities are obtained for several catalyst/cocatalyst combinations (e.g., Gd(AlMe4)3/Me2AlCl, >99.9%). Insights into the 'black box' of active species are obtained by indirect observations via screening of pre-reaction time and cocatalyst concentration. The microstructure of the polydienes is investigated by combined 1H/13C NMR and ATR-IR spectroscopies. Furthermore, the reaction of [LuMe6(Li(thf)x)3] with AlMe3 has been applied as a new strategy for the efficient synthesis of Lu(AlMe4)3. The solid-state structures of Gd(AlMe4)3 and Tb(AlMe4)3 are reported.


Natural killer (NK) cell activity and its regulation in synovial fluid (SF). synovial tissue (ST). and peripheral blood (PB) was studied in 23 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). NK activity was reduced in PB (P< 0.005), SF (P <0.002), and ST of patients with RA compared to the PB of 28 healthy controls. NK activity in SF was inversely correlated wilh disease activity as measured by erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r=‐0.561; P<0.02). Poly I:C. an Interferon inducer, stimulated NK activity in RA patients' PB and SF and control subjects' PB to similar extents. However, augmentation of NK activity by interleukin‐2 was significantly greater in SF than in PB of RA (P<0.02). Preincubation of mononucleur cells with indomethacin significantly increased the NK activity of normal and RA PB but had no effect on that of SF. These observations suggest that the NK activity may be reduced in both PB and SF of RA and (hat functional differences between populations of cells with NK‐like activity and/or differences in the control or modulation of NK activity exist between PB and SF.


Most problems involving simultaneous localization and mapping can nowadays be solved using one of two fundamentally different approaches. The traditional approach is given by a least-squares objective, which minimizes many local photometric or geometric residuals over explicitly parametrized structure and camera parameters. Unmodeled effects violating the lambertian surface assumption or geometric invariances of individual residuals are encountered through statistical averaging or the addition of robust kernels and smoothness terms. Aiming at more accurate measurement models and the inclusion of higher-order shape priors, the community more recently shifted its attention to deep end-to-end models for solving geometric localization and mapping problems. However, at test-time, these feed-forward models ignore the more traditional geometric or photometric consistency terms, thus leading to a low ability to recover fine details and potentially complete failure in corner case scenarios. With an application to dense object modeling from RGBD images, our work aims at taking the best of both worlds by embedding modern higher-order object shape priors into classical iterative residual minimization objectives. We demonstrate a general ability to improve mapping accuracy with respect to each modality alone, and present a successful application to real data.


The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak that started in China created COVID-19 pandemic all around the world. This pandemic is declared as a world health crisis by the World Health Organization in 2020. In response to this pandemic, many countries have been conducting various measures to manage the spread of the disease employing lockdown, contacts tracing, and massive testing. As the vaccine and medicine for this virus are under development, the governments all around the world can only apply non-curative measures. With many considerations, especially in the economic sector, governments seem hesitant to apply extensive control measures and this results in a considerable financial loss. In this paper, a generic mathematical model with thirteen compartments is developed, of which it is equipped with five control measures namely quarantine, active carrier identification, recovered individual identification, past infection identification, and medical treatment. We employ the COVID-19 outbreak in Jakarta as a study case to evaluate a series of control scenarios. Optimal control approach is used to find the best control strategy in managing the pandemic. It is suggested that adding the efforts on testing policy and medical treatment 40 days after the first confirmed infection is the most cost-effective strategy with the number of death decreased as much as 60:21 percent of the death cases under initial control strategy.


Any programme for determining the incidence of residues of therapeutic substances in meat requires an effective programme of sampling which ensures that the data obtained from a sample are representative of the population from which the sample was drawn. The organisation of such a system in the UK has been achieved in the past two years and a routine testing programme is now possible. Apart from general microbiological screening tests which can be used to detect the presence of most antibiotics in meat, the development of an effective programme of testing meat for residues of therapeutics has also been limited, until recently, by the lack of suitable methods for their detection. However, the use of immunoassay methods now enables very low levels of anabolic growth promoters to be detected and multiresidue tests for anthelmintics are being investigated. In the case of certain important antibiotics such as chloramphenicol, neomycin and the sulphonamides, the microbiological screening tests used at present are insensitive and individual chemical or other methods will have to be used for their detection.


A statistical approach is proposed for estimating the necessary coefficient word length of a digital filter. With this statistical word length definition, an optimization procedure is then proposed for minimizing the statistical word length for a given filter structure and a given set of maximum error constraints. It is shown that by minimizing this statistical word length, the actual coefficient word length upon rounding of the coefficients can generally be reduced as well. Several examples are given and improvements of one to three bits in the actual coefficient word length are observed. The procedure does not necessarily lead to the actual global minimum coefficient word length.


To improve irrigation water use efficiency, reduce cost of irrigation water, this paper discussed the design of wireless sensor network and Internet technology of farmland automatic irrigation control method. Emphasis on an analysis of the routing protocol of sensor network nodes to achieve the system hardware and software design,middleware, and applications such as mobile phone or wireless PDA of internet of things, will constitute a variety of sensors intelligent network, thus enhancing the overall automation system and monitoring levels. The final analysis of the network in the Internet based on the agricultural plants of farmland water-saving irrigation system integrated approach. User use mobile phones or wireless PDA can easily soil moisture content of online monitoring and control to realize the irrigation automation. Application results show that system through the embedded control technology complete intelligent irrigation, improve the agricultural irrigation water use efficiency and irrigation system automatization is generally low status, can well realize water saving.


Introduction Conflict in the Middle East over the past 10 years has seen a change in warfare tactics from the use of ballistic missiles to blast weapons, which has resulted in a well-documented change in wounding patterns. Due to the severity of these injuries, there have been large numbers of amputations, both as life and limb saving procedures. The purpose of this paper is to retrospectively review all UK service personnel who have undergone limb amputation in the last 8 years of conflict and compare those from the early years with the more recent. Methods All UK service personnel scoring more than 1 on the extremity score of the Abbreviated Injury Score were identified from the UK Joint Theatre Trauma Registry and separated into two temporal cohorts (August 2003–February 2008 and August 2008–July 2010). Intheatre medical facility and Role 4 hospital notes from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham were examined for details of mechanisms of injury, number of limbs injured, associated injuries, method of amputation, microbiology of contaminating organisms and outcome. Results There were significant differences in the nature of the amputations, the number of multiple amputations and soft tissue perineal wounds, as well as a significantly higher Injury Severity Score in the later time period. There were also significant differences in the surgical techniques, with more guillotine amputations in the early group, and mechanism of injury, with more blast injuries in the late group. Conclusions This study has confirmed the clinical impression that there has been a significant change in the limb trauma from the Iraq conflict to Afghanistan. These injury patterns have significantly different logistic implications and this must be considered when planning the required medical assets in future conflicts.


We propose three methods for implementing an improved MPEG-2/4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) encoder. The naive implementation using only the informative part of the AAC standard results in coded audio signals with a significantly poor quality. However, the encoder implementation can be modified to improve coding efficiency. Some coding modules require more sophisticated methods for improving the quality. The first among the three methods is a grouping method in the short block mode of AAC. The second is a codebook selection method in the Huffman coding. The third is the scale-factor sectioning method in bit allocation to the frequency components. We also present the methods proposed in our previous papers. The efficiency of the proposed methods has been evaluated objectively and subjectively. We have confirmed that the proposed methods are capable of improving the quality of encoded streams.


This paper presents the newly developed software OrientAL, which aims at providing a fully automated processing chain from aerial photographs to orthophoto maps. It considers the special requirements of archaeological aerial images, including oblique imagery, single images, poor approximate georeferencing, and historic photographs. As a first step the automatic relative orientation of images from an archaeological image archive is presented.


Objective: To analyze the characteristics of vessel density in the optic disc and macular area of patients with different phases of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) and their correlation with visual function. Methods: This case-control study was conducted at the Department of Ophthalmology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital between June 2019 and September 2019. TAO patients and healthy volunteers were included in the study. Patients with a clinical activity score greater than or equal to 3 points were categorized as active TAO. Dysthyroid optic neuropathy (DON) patients with a course less than 6 months were categorized as acute phase of DON, and those more than 6 months were in the chronic group. Healthy volunteers were in the control group. Each group included 12 subjects, with right eyes for analysis. There were 6 males and 6 females in each group. All participants underwent comprehensive ophthalmic examination including best corrected visual acuity and visual field examination for the mean defect (MD). Best corrected visual acuity was subsequently converted to logarithm of minimum angle of resolution (logMAR). Optical coherence tomography was used to measure the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and retinal ganglion cell complex (GCC). Optical coherence tomography angiography was used to the peripapillary and macular vessel density. The differences in the vessel densities in the optic disc and macular area between groups and their correlation with different factors were analyzed. Analysis of variance, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman coefficient were conducted for statistical analysis. Results: There was no significant difference in age among the four groups (P>0.05). The logMAR of the acute DON group was 0.1 (0.0, 0.2), worse than the control group, which was 0.0 (0.0, 0.0) (U=114.000, P<0.05). The overall vessel densities of the optic disc in acute DON and chronic DON were significantly lower than the control group (54.70%±2.31% and 54.31%±3.65% vs. 57.54%±2.17%; t=3.104, 2.636; both P<0.05). The overall superficial vessel densities of the macular area in active TAO, acute DON and chronic DON were significantly lower than the control group (46.07%±3.06% and 42.26%±5.05% and 45.63%±3.87% vs. 49.34%±3.08%), and the differences were statistically significant (t=2.614, 4.147, 2.603; all P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the size of the foveal avascular zone or the density of deep blood vessels in the macular area among the four groups (all P>0.05). In the active TAO period, there was no correlation between the MD value, RNFL thickness, GCC thickness and the vessel densities of the optic disc and macular area (all P>0.05). The vascular density of the whole layer of the optic disc in acute DON was negatively correlated with the MD value (r=-0.591, P<0.05) and positively correlated with the RNFL thickness and GCC thickness (r=0.595, 0.693; both P<0.05). In chronic DON, the overall capillary density of the optic disc was negatively correlated with the MD value (r=-0.673, P<0.05); the superficial overall blood vessel density of the macular area was positively correlated with the thickness of RNFL and GCC (r=0.732, 0.712;both P<0.01). Conclusions: In active TAO, only the blood supply to the superficial layer of the macular area is decreased. In the acute and chronic phases of DON, the blood supply to the superficial layer of the macular area and the optic disc is both reduced; the smaller the blood vessel density, the more severe the visual field defect, and the thinner the RNFL and GCC. (Chin J Ophthalmol, 2020, 56:824-831).


Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are a new energy technology with great potential due to advantages such as high efficiency and no pollution. The structure of the gas flow channels has a profound impact on the overall performance of the fuel cell. Different flow channel geometries have their own advantages and disadvantages, and a good understanding of the influence of these structures on performance can provide a reference for the design and improvement of flow channel geometries in various application contexts. Numerical models can be used as a reasonable and reliable tool to evaluate the influence of operating and structural parameters on cell performance and service time by simulating the transport processes of substances and heat as well as electrochemical reactions inside the fuel cell and can be used for the optimisation of cell design. This paper reviews the recent models of proton exchange membrane fuel cells, summarises and analyses the effect of gas flow channels on fuel cells, and organises and concludes efficient design of flow channel structures to enhance PEMFC performance in terms of the cross-section shape, length, width, number of flow channels, and baffle position.


Abstract Among all the detection methods developed for bioassays, optical-based approaches are the most popular techniques. A widely used and accepted bioanalytical technique for routine characterization of molecular recognition events at a solid interface is surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy. Compared with other techniques, SPR offers a series of advantages including rapid and real-time analysis, in situ detection, and the possibility to determine kinetic as well as thermodynamic parameters of interacting partners without the requirement of tagging one of the two partners. This method is nowadays used in academic and industrial research laboratories for drug discovery processes, safety, and quality control applications as well as for understanding bioaffinity reactions. Past studies have shown that SPR can detect approximately 100 ng/l of proteins. Currently, much effort is still invested to further improve SPR with respect to the sensitivity in the detection of low molecular weight analytes as well as in the detection limit for different analyte/ligand reactions. This review will focus on the use of gold nanoparticles as an amplification strategy in SPR sensing. Compared to other review articles highlighting the several synthetic routes and properties of gold nanoparticles and research utilizing gold nanoparticles for various sensing strategies, this review will exclusively look at the impact of gold nanostructures for ultrasensitive SPR sensing. Signal enhancement by gold nanoparticles is caused by several effects such as surface mass increase due to enhanced surface area, larger refractive index changes by the particle mass, themselves, and electromagnetic field coupling between the plasmonic properties of the particles (localized surface plasmon resonance) and propagating plasmons. The unique optical, electronic, and catalytic properties of gold nanoparticles put them into the forefront of interest for signal amplification as will be outlined here.


In contrast to the former republics of Yugoslavia that fought wars to reach their sovereignty, Montenegro achieved its independence democratically. This was a longer process, but it demonstrated that, even in the traditionally unstable Balkans, the most sensitive issues can be resolved peacefully, based on the concepts and principles of Western democracy. It is this specific feature of Montenegro that requires a special approach to finding adequate modalities to participate in the Partnership for Peace Program (PfP), taking into account the theory and practice of international relations. It is particularly important to use thorough analysis to draw attention to Montenegro's specific circumstances, problems, needs, opportunities, and priorities as it prepares to enter the PfP. By following key mechanisms, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership and Council for Partnership and Individual Partner Relations may choose appropriate and adequate forms of cooperation and common activities with both Allies and Partners as well. Based on research and the status of the police, economic, and security parameters described herein, efficient solutions related to common activities and Allies and Partners' direct assistance can be found so that Montenegro is able to actively participate and act within the Partnership for Peace Program. Montenegro's geographic, demographic, economic, and other resources afford it the opportunity to contribute to the Partnership for Peace. Based on the facts at hand, viable forms of cooperation and engagement can be determined in order to engage the potential of Allies and Partners in common activities. Also worthy of note are the priorities required for the Partnership process to function smoothly, particularly those related to the resolution of common security problems, which presumes quality cooperation and meaningful contributions from all parties. The Partners' "Lessons Learned" constitute an especially good foundation, and can serve as guidelines that Montenegro can use to make appropriate decisions.


Higher TPI HDD requires lower disturbance and higher error rejection capability. One of the limitations to achieve high error rejection capability is the dynamics of the actuator. Dual stage actuator (DSA) has been considered to replace single stage actuator (SSA) someday because of system dynamics difference and more freedom in servo design that may avoid the constraint of single stage actuator dynamics on servo. SSA and DSA were compared based on their dynamics, servo designs, and TMR benefits. The extendibility and limitations of both systems were studied. The criteria on when DSA would be implemented are also discussed.Copyright © 2002 by ASME


Tumor hypoxia has been shown to be a common feature in tumor growth and metastasis. It negatively affects the clinical outcome in patients with various malignancies. Although hypoxia is described in many primary tumor types, data on pulmonary metastases is lacking. We determined the expression of hypoxia-related proteins in paraffin-embedded specimens of pulmonary metastases of different types of cancer (breast cancer n= 6, colo-rectal carcinoma n=29, renal cell carcinoma n=13, sarcoma n=10). All recruited patients underwent curative metastasectomy at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, MUV, between April 2009 and December 2011. Expression of carbonic anhydrase 9 (CA9), heat-shock protein 70 and HIF prolyl hydroxylase 2 was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Metastasis free survival and estimated tumor size and overall survival was determined for all sub-groups. Hypoxia related proteins are expressed in 66.6%, 76.9%, 7.7% and 0.0% of pulmonary metastases of breast cancer, colo-rectal carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma and sarcoma, respectively. Furthermore, metastases with highly positive CA9-staining are associated with early tumor spreading to the lung (Disease free interval: 21.8±7.0 months vs. 46.1±26.6 months; p=0.008) This study provides first evidence for hypoxia marker expression in pulmonary metastases and its clinical relevance. These findings may be important for future therapeutic targets in the therapy of generalized malignant diseases.


To develop rails with higher hardness and thus better durability and longer life, alternative microstructures have been suggested, since conventional pearlitic rail steels have reached their hardness limit. Such a newly developed material has a fine bainite microstructure (coded J6 bainitic steel) and showed higher initial hardness but poorer on-site wear performance, compared to conventional pearlitic steels. This was explained by the fact that pearlitic steels show significant work hardening under severe stress conditions, even though their initial hardness was lower. In this work, the wear behavior of pearlitic and J6 bainitic rail steels was investigated at the micro/nano scale, using the nanoscratch technique. It was found that pearlitic steel shows better wear performance at the micro scale as well, in agreement with large scale rail field tests.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


This article indicates how the study of sea-level cosmic ray phenomena can have a role in A-level physics. It describes a simple but far reaching particle physics experiment that can be carried out in the A-level physics laboratory. A simple model of electron-positron-photon cascades, suitable for use at A-level, is described.


Purpose: Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia following cardiac surgery. An association between preoperative kidney dysfunction and postoperative atrial fibrillation has been previously reported; however, no study has so far investigated the impact of kidney function during cardiopulmonary bypass on the incidence of atrial fibrillation. The aim of this study was to investigate the value of preoperative renal function and urine output during cardiopulmonary bypass as predictors of postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass.
Methods: This observational retrospective study included 409 patients who underwent elective coronary artery bypass surgery. According to whether or not atrial fibrillation developed postoperatively, the patients were divided into a sinus rhythm group (n = 340) and a new-onset atrial fibrillation group (n = 69). The impact of preoperative (serum creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate) and intraoperative (urine output during cardiopulmonary bypass) kidney function on the incidence of new-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation was assessed using univariable and multivariable analyses.
Results:Patients with atrial fibrillation were older, and had higher EuroSCORE II and higher preoperative B-type natriuretic peptide levels than patients with sinus rhythm. Preoperative renal function was worse (higher serum creatinine level and lower estimated glomerular filtration rate) in the atrial fibrillation group than in the sinus rhythm group. However, there were no differences between the groups in urine output during cardiopulmonary bypass. Multivariable analysis identified older age, left ventricular ejection fraction ≤30%, and lower preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate as independent risk factors for new-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation.
Conclusion: Preoperative renal function—but not urine output during cardiopulmonary bypass—is a predictor of new-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass surgery.


Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC., belonging to the Asteraceae family, also known as "ngai camphor," is one of the traditional herbs used in Thailand for folk medicine and a component in local food and drinks. There was, however, no evidence indicating the presence of beneficial compounds at different leaf ages. Exploring various extraction solvents, we investigated the phenolics, flavonoids in particular quercetin content, antioxidant capacity, and antibacterial activity of immature and mature leaf extracts. The dried leaves were macerated in 50% ethanol, 95% ethanol, hexane, or decocted in water. Bioactive substances were analyzed by UV spectrophotometry and HPLC. Analysis of antioxidant capacity was done byDPPH, ABTS, FRAP, and NO scavenging assays. The antibacterial activity of immature leaf extract eluted with 50% ethanol was subsequentially evaluated in vitro. Extraction with 50% ethanol proved optimal, yielding 1.2–1.6-fold and 1.5-fold greater immature and mature leaf extracts than other solvents. More phenolics (1.2-fold), flavonoids (1.1-fold), quercetin content (4.8-fold), and antioxidant activity (1.3-fold) were found in the immature leaf extract. There was a significant positive correlation between antioxidant activity and bioactive compounds. The immature leaf extract eluted with 50% ethanol showed antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.5 mg/mL. The immature leaves of B. balsamifera are a rich source of quercetin and phenolics, and 50% ethanol proved optimal for extracting bioactive components from these leaves.


The book is clearly written but should be read for its authors' personal outlook rather than as a balanced review. For instance, the use of Australia antigen testingin the prevention of posttransfusion hepatitis is dismissed in a few paragraphs although it is the most important practical use of their discovery. The delay of two years between writing and publication means that the monograph is already somewhat dated. The authors recognize this problem in their Foreword and a supplementary bibliography has been included. However, this contains only a small number of references and it is almost impossible to make use of the list because it is arranged in almost random fashion. There is no index, a defect which would be mitigated if the Table of


Background: In August 2017, the European Commission awarded the "European Study on Clinical Diagnostic Reference Levels (DRL) for X-ray Medical Imaging" project to the European Society of Radiology to provide up-to-date Diagnostic Reference Levels based on clinical indications. This work aimed to conduct an extensive literature review by analyzing the most recent studies published and the data provided by the National Competent Authorities to understand the current situation regarding Diagnostic Reference Levels based on clinical indications for Radiation Therapy Computed Tomography. Objective: To review the literature on established DRLs and methodologies for establishing Diagnostic reference levels in radiation therapy planning computed tomography (RTCT). Methods: Eligibility criteria: A cohort study (observational design) reporting DRLs in adult patients undergoing computed tomography (CT) for radiation therapy for the region head and neck or pelvis were included. The comprehensive literature searches for the relevant studies published between 2000 and 2021 were performed using PubMed, Scopus, CINHAL, Web of Science, and ProQuest. Results: Three hundred fifty-six articles were identified through an extensive literature search. Sixty-eight duplicate reports were removed. The title and abstract of 288 studies were assessed and excluded if they did not meet the inclusion criteria. Sixteen of 288 articles were selected for full-text screening (studies conducted between 2000 and 2021). Five articles were included in the review after the full-text screening. Conclusions: A globally approved standard protocol that includes scanning techniques, dose measurement method, and DRL percentile needs to be established to make a valuable and accurate comparison with international DRLs.


This paper explores one particular dimension of broader global policy issues concerning water resources: the regulatory governance aspect of delivering water services to ordinary citizens in urban contexts for domestic use. Water provision, as with many other areas of collective provision, is increasingly shaped by attempts to embed social facets into the expansion of transnational markets: part of the incremental growth of 'globalisation with a human face'. The paper first summarises nascent transnational institutional developments in policymaking and provision around urban water services delivery. It stresses that this process is still heavily dependent on national and local state institutions, particularly domestic regulatory institutions. The paper then elaborates a theoretical framework frames empirical findings from case studies of the regulatory governance of water services in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina during the 1990s and early 2000s. These case studies illustrate how transnational dynamics create a regulatory intersection of social policy and global governance. This pattern could be emblematic of potential trajectories of transnational regulatory politics in areas beyond water (most obviously other public utilities such as gas and electricity, but also health and education).


The current study examined how the trends in childhood vaccination refusal in Kedah, Malaysia, changed over a 4-year period (2013-2016). Data contributed by 60 public health centers were used to determine the annual incidence rates (per 1000 newborns) of vaccination refusal, and to identify the reasons for refusal among the mothers. The trend analysis revealed a 2.2-times increment in the incidence rates of vaccination refusal from 4.72 in 2013 to 10.51 in 2015, followed by a 52.2% reduction to 5.02 in 2016 (P = .046). Besides, the proportion of mothers who refused vaccination because of religious belief reduced from 78% between 2013 and 2015 to 67.1% in 2016 (P = .005). Overall, the finding confirms the positive impact of the educational and religious interventions introduced by the State Health Department of Kedah since January 2016; nonetheless, efforts to strengthen the existing strategies and thereby to maximize the vaccination coverage in Kedah are warranted.


Agent interaction takes place at several levels. Current work in the ARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort has addressed the information content level by the KIF language and the intentional level by the KQML language. In this paper we address the coordination level by means of our Coordination Language (COOL) that relies on speech act based communication, but integrates it in a structured conversation framework that captures the coordination mechanisms agents use when working together. We are currently using this language (i) to represent coordination mechanisms for the supply chain of manufacturing enterprises modeled as intelligent agents and (ii) as an environment for designing and validating coordination protocols for multi-agent systems. This paper describes the basic elements of this language: conversation objects, conversation rules, error recovery rules, continuation rules, conversation nesting. The actual COOL source code and a running trace for the n-queens problem are presented in the Appendix. Topic areas: Coordination, Intelligent agents in enterprise integration


The kinetic theory is developed to investigate a conditioner for a helically transported electron beam. Linear expressions for axial velocity spread are derived. Numerical simulation is used to check the theoretical results and examine nonlinear aspects of the contitioning process. The results show that in the linear regime the action of the beam conditioner on a pulsed beam mainly depends on the phase at which the beam enters the conditioner and depends only slightly on the operating wavelength. In the nonlinear regime, however, the action of the operating wavelength. In the nonlinear regime, however, the action of the conditioner strongly depends on the operating wavelength and only slightly upon the entrance phase. For a properly chosen operating wavelength, a little less than the electron's relativistic cyclotron wavelength, the conditioner can decrease the axial velocity spread of a pulsed beam down to less than one‐third of its initial value.


Background: Self-expanding metal and plastic esophageal stents (SEMS and SEPS, respectively) are used in conjunction with chemoradiation for palliation of malignant dysphagia. To date, the dosimetric effects of stents undergoing proton radiotherapy are not known. Study aim: To investigate the proton radiotherapy dose perturbations caused by esophageal stents of varying designs and materials undergoing external beam treatment for esophageal cancer. Patients and methods: Simulated clinical protocol. Solid acrylic phantom was used to mimic the esophageal tissue environment. Stents made of nitinol, stainless steel and polyester were tested. Proton beam dose of 2 Gy-E was delivered to each stent in a single anterior to posterior field. Film and image based evidence of dose perturbation were main outcomes measured. Results: Only the stainless steel and plastic stents demonstrated slight overall dose attenuations (– 0.5 % and – 0.4 %, respectively). All the nitinol-based stents demonstrated minimal overall dose perturbations ranging from 0.0 % to 1.2 %. Negligible dose perturbations were observed on each of the stent surfaces proximal to the radiation source, ranging from – 0.8 % (stainless steel stent) to 1.0 % (nitinol stent). Negligible dose effects were also observed on the distal surfaces of each stent ranging from – 0.5 % (plastic and stainless steel stents) to 1.0 % (nitinol stent). Conclusion: Proton radiotherapy dose perturbations caused by stents of varying designs and material composition are negligible. Negligible dose perturbation is in keeping with the inherent advantage of proton therapy over traditional radiotherapy composed of photons – given its relative large mass, protons have little side scatter.


A case study of vocal fold paralysis treatment is described with the help of the voice quality analysis application BioMet®Phon. The case corresponds to a description of a 40 - year old female patient who was diagnosed of vocal fold paralysis following a cardio - pulmonar intervention which required intubation for 8 days and posterior tracheotomy for 15 days. The patient presented breathy and asthenic phon ation, and dysphagia. Six main examinations were conducted during a full year period that the treatment lasted consisting in periodic reviews including video - endostroboscopy, voice analysis and breathing function monitoring. The phoniatrician treatment inc luded 20 sessions of vocal rehabilitation, followed by an intracordal infiltration with Radiesse 8 months after the rehabilitation treatment started followed by 6 sessions of rehabilitation more. The videondoscopy and the voicing quality analysis refer a s ubstantial improvement in the vocal function with recovery in all the measures estimated (jitter, shimmer, mucosal wave contents, glottal closure, harmonic contents and biomechanical function analysis). The paper refers the procedure followed and the results obtained by comparing the longitudinal progression of the treatment, illustrating the utility of voice quality analysis tools in speech therapy.


In a clinical trial involving 155 dental arches with irregularity > 5 mm, the rate of alignment was used to compare the alignment efficiency of 16 mil superelastic Ni-Ti versus 17.5 mil triple-stranded steel archwires, and to determine whether ion implantation of the Ni-Ti wire improved its performance. Subjects were randomly assigned to archwire types; both 18 and 22 slot edgewise appliances were employed. Pre-treatment equivalence of the experimental groups was verified. Anterior irregularity was determined monthly (using Little's irregularity index) until it decreased below 2 mm, and the elastomeric ligatures were replaced at each appointment. Effective tooth movement occurred with each of the archwire types. There were no significant differences among wires, but the rate of alignment was significantly faster in the lower arch for subjects with the 22 slot appliance.


OBJECTIVE
To determine blood glucose clearance in 2 species of New World camelids after IV challenge and to examine mechanisms of this clearance.

ANIMALS
5 adult female llamas and 5 adult gelded alpacas.

PROCEDURE
After food was withheld for 12 hours, camelids received 0.5 g of glucose/kg of body weight by rapid IV infusion. Serum concentrations of glucose, nonesterified fatty acids, cortisol, and insulin, and plasma concentrations of lactate were determined before and 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, and 240 minutes after infusion. Ratios of insulin to glucose and insulin to cortisol were calculated for each time point.

RESULTS
Postinfusion glucose concentrations were significantly higher in llamas than alpacas for the first 15 minutes and remained significantly higher than baseline values in both species for 180 minutes. Lactate and cortisol concentrations did not change significantly; nonesterified fatty acid concentrations decreased in both species 30 minutes after infusion. Baseline insulin concentrations were < 6 microU/ml in both species and increased only to 10.1 +/- 0.7 microU/ml in llamas. Insulin concentrations did not change significantly in alpacas.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Llamas and alpacas clear glucose more slowly than other domestic species after challenge, mainly because of a weak insulin response and slow cellular uptake. This response may impair the assimilation of exogenous glucose as well as make llamas and alpacas prone to diabetes-like disorders when an abundance of endogenous or exogenous glucogenic agents are present.


A survey of Sudarshan's works is presented to show that his brilliant role in advancing science on many fronts has been like a catalytic agent which, by definition, plays a singular role in increasing the rate of a process, but remains hidden, and is unchanged at the process end. As might be necessary to remain catalytically active for a lifetime, his broad and seminal contributions to science have often gone unappreciated, and rarely given due honor – unfortunately at a great cost to scientific progress.


A problem statement encouraging elegance is spare, unadorned, clean, and leaves the designer as much room as can be left. This is the hardest part of any design process. A good problem statement is a mentor and a supervisor. It asks the right question. A good problem statement extends its writer's skill and wisdom so that, if those are in short supply, the problem statement can make up for some of that itself.


Automation of acoustic measurements constitutes a
 considerable challenge to designers. On one hand, the special character of
 acoustic measurements in an anechoic room requires designs that minimize
 disturbances to the acoustic field; on the other hand, automation always
 involves the introduction of additional mechanical elements, which disturb this
 field. The authors of this paper attempt to reconcile these conflicting demands
 by designing a mechatronic measurement system. On the basis of known solutions
 and current measurement needs, a number of concepts has been proposed, and a
 design has been identified that can be implemented in the room under study.


Young children who have sustained severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can suffer from debilitating neurocognitive deficits. Impairment of adult hippocampal neurogenesis is associated with cognitive deficits and depression. Very few studies have investigated the adult hippocampal neurogenesis after pediatric TBI. Here we evaluated long-term cognition, adult hippocampal neurogenesis, and microglial activation in a rabbit pediatric TBI model. On postnatal day 5-7 (P5-7), New Zealand white rabbits from the same litter were randomized into naïve, sham (craniotomy alone) and TBI (controlled cortical impact). Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU, 50 mg/kg, ip) was administered at one-month post-injury, once/daily for five consecutive days. Novel object recognition and spontaneous alternation in T-maze tests were performed at 2 months post-injury to measure the cognitive functions. The animals were euthanized after behavioral tests at 3 months of age to evaluate adult hippocampal neurogenesis and microglial activation. We found that 1) Pediatric TBI caused significant deficits in hippocampal dependent cognitive functions. 2) The survival rates of adult-born neurons at both ipsilateral and contralateral hippocampus significantly decreased in the TBI group. 3) TBI induced ectopic migration of adult-born neurons at the dorsal dentate gyrus in both ipsilateral and contralateral hippocampus. 4) TBI increased astrogenesis in the hilus of the dentate gyrus. 5) TBI results in abnormal microglial activation. In conclusion, pediatric TBI causes prolonged neuroinflammation and dysregulation of the adult hippocampal neurogenesis through young adulthood, which might be responsible for the cognitive deficits. Protection of hippocampal adult neurogenesis may potentially improve outcomes.


The Individually Paying Program (IPP) is the voluntary component of the Philippines` social health insurance program. The program caters to those in the informal sector and those without a formal employer-employee relationship. Coverage levels for the IPP were found to be considerably low with a regional average of 57 percent and a provincial average of 53 percent. Massive variation between provinces was found. Four important factors were identified when looking into said variation. First, availability and accessibility is an issue. Second, substitution effect between private and public facilities was observed. Third, income levels do not appear to be a factor in determining the level of insurance coverage. Lastly, the size of certain sectors had a significant effect on the coverage levels observed in the province. Although there is a need to corroborate the findings with an individual-level analysis, these results are good indicators to start with in order to address the lack of coverage in the voluntary program of PhilHealth.


Every sector in the twenty-first century makes use of technology for its activities, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and higher education institutions are not exceptional. However, the cohorts enrolled in the selected higher education institution are from technologically challenged backgrounds. This suggests that in their previous schooling, technology was unemployed as a learning aid. As this may present some challenges for such students, this study aims to investigate challenges experienced by Cost Accounting 2 students who are from a technologically disadvantaged  background. To accomplish that, a quantitative approach was used since it permits surveys to be delivered to the entire impacted population while also reducing sampling error. Because of the Coronavirus, online questionnaires were sent to 400 students, but only 119 (n=119) responded. Blended learning was found to be an effective technique for learning Cost Accounting 2 since the university provided sufficient information on how to use the system. However, there was a lot of discussion about internet access, learning materials access, and library resource access. Based on the findings, blended learning is excellent for studying Cost Accounting 2 as long as the learning management system is customised such that students can navigate it effortlessly. Management must work with internet service providers to try stabilise internet connectivity in the students' neighbourhoods. The additional study can be done using a variety of research methods and target other groups of students.


The complexity of new therapeutics continues to increase and the timeline for the discovery of these therapeutics continues to shrink. This creates demand for new analytical techniques to facilitate quicker discovery and development of novel drugs. Mass spectrometry is one of the most prolific analytical techniques that has been applied across the entire drug discovery pipeline. New mass spectrometers and the associated methods for sampling have been introduced at a rate that keeps pace with new chemistries, therapeutic types, and screening practices used by modern drug hunters. This microperspective covers application and implementation of new mass spectrometry workflows that enable current and future efforts in screening and synthesis for drug discovery.


Abstract— The protective effects of graded doses of arginine‐vasopressin (AVP) on acidified acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) solution‐induced changes in gastric prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) secretion, mucus production, acid back‐diffusion and mucosal damage were studied in the bilateral truncal vagotomized stomach of anaesthetized dogs. After 1–4 h intragastric irrigation of the stomach with AVP (1–100 ng kg−1) plus 20 min acidified ASA solution, a significant (P < 0·05) inhibition in gastric mucosal lesions and acid back‐diffusion produced by acidified ASA solution was observed. The reduction in the gastric PGE2 secretion and in mucus production provoked by the same dose of acidified ASA solution was also diminished. Furthermore, a correlation (r = 0·883; P < 0·01) between AVP‐induced inhibition in ASA‐provoked reduction in gastric PGE2 secretion and in mucus production was found. During the experiment, the heart rate, the peripheral arterial blood pressure and the gastric arterial blood pressure were not altered by AVP (1–100 ng kg−1). Thus, intragastric AVP protects gastric mucosa against ASA‐induced damage without producing cardiovascular side effects. The inhibitory effects of AVP (100 ng kg−1) on acidified ASA‐induced reduction in PGE2 and mucus secretion, as well as on ASA‐induced enhancement in acid back‐diffusion and erosion production were dose‐dependently reversed by a specific V1 antagonist, 1‐(β‐mercapto‐β,β‐cyclopentamethylene‐propionic acid), 2‐(o‐methyl)tyrosine‐Arg8‐vasopressin. From the above results, it is suggested that the protective effects of intragastric AVP on gastric mucosa against acidified ASA‐induced damage is at least partly due to stimulation of the biosynthesis of gastric PGE2, which may contribute to the increase in the gastric mucus secretion and to the decrease in acid back‐diffusion. Furthermore, the endogenous PGE2 stimulated by AVP may be mediated by V1‐receptor activation.


Supraglottic airway devices have a special niche for themselves with regards to airway management in modern anaesthesia practice. They have become a very good alternative to mask ventilation and tracheal intubation in elective surgeries and have an important place in the emergency settings. The single-use supraglottic airway devices I-gel™ and LMA-Supreme™ have been developed with the aim to overcome the limitations and improve the efficacy of currently available supraglottic airway devices like there airway sealing pressure, ease of placement but with discordant results with regards to airway sealing pressure, ease and success of placement and airway morbidity. The aim of this prospective, randomized trial was to evaluate these two airway devices in routine clinical practice.
Materials and Methods: 80 patients (ASA grade1-2) were randomly allocated to two groups; Group I (I-gelTM; n=40) and Group S (LMA-SupremeTM; n=40). A size 3 or 4 (I-gelTM and LMA-SupremeTM) was used in patients and inserted by experienced anaesthesiologists who had 3 years' experience and had performed 20 successful insertions with each device. First attempt success rate, time for insertion and airway sealing pressure of each device was measured. Airway sealing pressure with LMA-SupremeTM was measured at an intracuff pressure of 60cmH2O. Patients were enquired after surgery for the presence of any dysphagia, sore-throat or hoarseness of voice. Data were analyzed statistically using unpaired 't' test and Chi-square test. A p value of Results: The first attempt success rate for I-gelTM was 92.5% and for LMA-SupremeTM was 87.5%. Ventilation was established in 19.7 seconds (range 14-24 seconds) in the I-gelTM group and in 24.2 seconds (range 19-29seconds) in LMA-SupremeTM group (pTM 23.2 cmH2O; LMA-SupremeTM 22.4 cmH2O; p>0.001).
Conclusion: Both I-gelTM and LMA SupremeTM are disposable, latex-free devices which do not need any digital or introducer tool for insertion. They have good airway sealing pressures, ease of insertion and low airway morbidity especially with I-gel, so they can be a good choice in patients undergoing elective surgeries.

Keywords: I-gel, LMA supreme, Airway sealing pressure.


Revised version of a lecture held at the conference "Islamic Fundamentalism and Sufism: Continuities and Confrontations through Modernity and Globalization" at the University of Haifa from July 1-4, 2007. The new Islamic presence in Europe, which is the consequence of massive and voluntary settlement of millions of Muslims in Western societies, owes its visibility partly to the Muslim missionary movements from South, which have proven specific strengths in shaping the Islamic-religious fields in the Diaspora communities in European countries. The new Islamic movements Tablighi Jama'at, Da'wat-e Islami and Sunni Da'wat-e Islami shre the characteristics of new religious movements in the sense that they have been transformed through the confrontation with globalization and modernity. They are believed to be comparable in size and scope to Christian Pentecostalism. These three movements share, in varying degrees, a Sufi background, and preach a peaceful Islam. At the same time terrorists involved in the bombings in Europe since 2004, regularly visited mosques associated with these movements, especially the Tablighi Jama'at. All three missionary movements invite their members to visit their world headquarters or participate in annual meetings in Pakistan or India. The "Islamic project" of the three movements is the "Sunnaization" - that is, the reshaping and reconstruction - of the daily routine and the individual markers of identity based on the examples of the Prophet and the Salaf as portrayed in the Hadith literature. This so-called "apolitical" Sunnaization can be understood as the privatization or individualization of political re-Islamization. Stressing individual transformation it focuses on the private sphere instead of the state, and engages with ahadith rather than the Qur'an. With a new tolerance of ambiguity, Sunnaization combines elements of Sufism and Salafism.


-The binding energy and oscillation strength of the ground-state exciton in type-II quantum dot (QD) is calculated by using a post Hartree-Fock method known as the configuration interaction (CI) method which is significantly more efficient than conventional methods like ab initio method. We show that the Coulomb interaction between electron and holes in these structures considerably affects the transition dipole moment which is the key parameter of optical quantum gating in STIRAP (stimulated Raman adiabatic passage) process for implementing quantum gates [1], [2].


We discuss Topic Detection, a sub-task of the Topic Detection and Tracking (TDT) Project, and present initial results for both a baseline system and a set of extensions that attempt to model events and reportage in the news domain. Moreover, we describe a system that clusters live news feeds and presents this data to the user in a variety of formats. We conclude that this system produces interesting and useful clusters, and outline some areas of future work.


Membrane surface design is significant for the development and application of synthetic polymer hemodialysis membranes. In this study, the influence of zwitterionic cysteine on poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) hollow fiber membrane was investigated. The polydopamine layer was formed through dopamine self-polymerization on PVDF membrane surface, and then cysteine was covalent grafted onto the layer to improve the anti-biofouling property and hemocompatibility. The elementary composition of membrane surfaces was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The influence of polydopamine and cysteine on modified membrane surface morphologies was studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy. The modified PVDF membranes were confirmed to have excellent hydrophilicity, stable mechanical properties and good hemocompatibility (dynamic and static anti-protein adsorption, hemolysis ratio, plasma coagulation). And these properties were increased with the incorporation of polydopamine and cysteine. The optimized modified membranes exhibited high pure water flux (∼ 195.5 L/m2 h at 0.1 MPa) and selectivity (clearance ratio of urea and lysozyme was 75.1 and 55.4%, and rejection rate of bovine serum albumin was 98.8%). This work provides a surface modification method of PVDF hollow fiber membranes and suggests a potential application of PVDF membranes in hemodialysis field. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 2869-2877, 2018.


Recent research has shown that enhanced focal adhesion between cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) and intracellular actin polymerization can accelerate cellular functions like proliferation and differentiation. It is a desirable and necessary technique to modulate cellular functions in the desired lineage in tissue engineering. Previously, we have shown that topographical effects of micropatterns on a cell culture substrate promoted osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) without administration of osteogenic growth factors. In this study, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells from rats were cultured with combined biophysical stimuli, such as surface topography of biomaterials and uniaxial tensile stress and induced osteogenic differentiation. We evaluated MSCs by assessment of alkaline phosphatase (ALP). We demonstrated that a polydimethylsiloxane substrate with microgroove patterns (2 μm of ridge thickness, 1 μm of depth and 1 μm of groove distance) could suppress osteogenic differentiation compared to a flat substrate. Changes of cell adhesion and shape were observed at microgroove substrates by immunofluorescence staining of focal adhesion and actin filaments. We showed that to apply the stretching force promoted differentiation at microgroove substrates but inhibited differentiation at the flat surface. Through this study, a more efficient method to control cellular fate is expected to be established for tissue regeneration in vitro.


We discuss the notion of an effective, average, quantum mechanical path which is a solution of the dynamical equations obtained by extremizing the quantum effective action. Since the effective action can, in general, be complex, the effective path will also, in general, be complex. The imaginary part of the effective action is known to be related to the probability of particle creation by an external source and hence we expect the imaginary part of the effective path also to contain information about particle creation. We try to identify such features using simple examples including that of an effective path through the black hole horizon leading to thermal radiation. Implications of this approach are discussed.


We studied elongation pausing during transcription in vitro on both the sense and the antisense strands of a given gene fragment(5' end of the bla gene of Tn3). The average transcription rate on the sense strand was much lower than that of the antisense strand, and several pauses observed on the former have no detectable antisense partner. A pausing signal was identified, associated with an (AT)6 sequence, in the vicinity of a strong pause on the sense strand and the sole detected pause on the antisense strand. Mutation of this sequence strongly reduced, by a common factor, pausing times at both sites.


Background: Worldwide, nursing students comprise a large portion of students in higher education institutions (HEIs). The expectation that HEIs will educate professionally competent nurses is high. To ensure adequate competence, exit examinations play a significant role in evaluation in many countries. However, there has been no comprehensive analysis of the instruments used and the content evaluated in exit examinations globally. Purposes: The aim of this study was to identify and describe the instruments used in undergraduate nursing students' exit examinations. Methods: Five databases were systematically searched, and eleven studies were included. The data of content used in exit exams were analysed using inductive content analysis. The instruments used in exit exams were tabulated and described. The systematic process was followed to identify included papers. Results: Eleven different instruments were identified, including nine theoretical instruments and two clinical instruments. The exit examinations of undergraduate nursing students varied considerably depending on the country and educational organisation. The content evaluated in the exit examinations covered the holistic nursing perspective. Conclusions: The findings of this review suggest that HEIs should develop and implement more comprehensive evaluation methods and instruments to ensure students' competence upon graduation. The results are important for developing exit examinations in nursing education because they indicate that summative evaluation is needed. Clinical examinations have been used marginally in HEIs, which should be considered when implementing new examinations. Digitalisation (e.g. virtual environments) could be one solution for offering objective assessment, validity and cost-effectiveness. Impact statement This review provides a comprehensive analysis of undergraduate nursing students' exit examinations and indicates that more clinical evaluation methods should be developed to ensure adequate competence.


Estrogen is a steroid hormone, secreted by ovarian antral follicles, which regulates divergent functions of ovarian granulosa cells ranging from differentiation, apoptosis and proliferation. Cellular signals of estrogen are transduced by its cohort receptors. Estrogen receptors belong to nuclear receptor superfamily and comprise two subtypes, namely, estrogen receptor alpha (ER-a) and estrogen receptor beta (ER-ß).


The influence of confinement in the supramolecular β-cyclodextrin nanocavity on the excited state torsional dynamics of the amyloid fibril sensor, Thioflavin-T, is explored using subpicosecond fluorescence up-conversion spectroscopy. In the presence of β-cyclodextrin, the emission intensity and the fluorescence lifetime of Thioflavin-T significantly increases, indicating the confinement effect of the nanocage on the photophysical behaviour of the dye. Detailed time-resolved fluorescence studies show an appreciable dynamic Stokes' shift for the dye in the β-cyclodextrin nanocavity. Analysis of the time-resolved area normalized emission spectra (TRANES) indicates the formation of an emissive TICT state. The rate of formation of the TICT state, as calculated from the time dependent changes in the peak frequency and the width of the emission spectra, is found to be substantially slower in the β-cyclodextrin nanocavity compared to that in bulk water. Present results indicate that ultrafast torsional motion in Thioflavin-T is significantly retarded due to confinement by the β-cyclodextrin nanocavity.


This paper examines whether economic or environmental instability affects fertility. My identification strategy uses regional data to exploit the natural variation within each of the two countries I examine: one European country - Italy - and one Asian country - Japan. I use the variance of the detrended wage to measure economic volatility; the crude death rate to measure mortality risk; and the number and magnitudes of natural disasters to measure environmental instability. According to my results, natural disasters have a significant negative effect on fertility in both countries, while mortality risk and economic volatility have significant negative effects in Italy but no effect in Japan. Thus, instability, particularly that arising from the natural environment, appears to cause a decrease in fertility.


Social Security's projected financial shortfall has spurred discussions about increasing the age at which workers can first receive retirement benefits. This brief examines the future distributional impacts of raising the retirement age by about three years. Raising the retirement age hits lower-income workers less hard than other groups because the disability program provides some protection. However, it still increases poverty rates. Combining the retirement age change with an enhanced minimum benefit increases lifetime benefits for the lowest earners and substantially cuts the Social Security deficit without significantly increasing poverty rates.


A modified Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) differential model was used to evaluate the impact of Japan's 2004 HPAI-outbreaks and US 2003 BSE-outbreaks on Japan's meat import demand system, including cooked poultry, uncooked poultry, beef, pork, and other meats. Analysis indicated that the HPAI-BSE events led to statistically significant shifts in Japan's import demand for all meats, except for uncooked poultry. In the Post-BSE-HPAI era, imports of meat shifted toward rising demand for cooked poultry and pork meats and declining demand for uncooked poultry, beef, and other meats. The differentiation of poultry into cooked and uncooked meat products and the inclusion of both in modeling Japan's meat demand system revealed two opposing trends never before reported; a decreasing demand for uncooked meat and an increasing demand for safer cooked poultry meat.


As a social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) approach, community media blend the art of storytelling with innovative and scalable technologies that can excite and empower communities to improve their health and wellbeing. We define community media as any technology-enabled media that, to varying degrees, are developed in the community, about the community, and with the community. The range of community media tools and formats makes it an attractive health communication or SBCC approach that can be applied to interpersonal, community, and institutional settings. Community media are constantly evolving as they combine and use emerging technologies along with traditional communication platforms to better serve unique community needs. Community media's ability to deepen community participation, access, social learning, and engagement is increasingly made possible with Information and Communications Technology (ICT).Although the definitions and implementation approaches for community media vary, having a flexible range of options in our SBCC toolkit is an asset for community programming, allowing implementers to adapt community media approaches to their own cultural, environmental, and programming contexts. This flexibility will allow community media to evolve with changing community needs and technology, primed to serve as a tool that empowers individuals to tell their stories and improve health and wellbeing in their communities for years to come. In this paper, we synthesise the literature on community media and provide principles and practical guidance to help programme managers and other decision-makers who are considering the use of various types of community media.


Highly crystallized luminescent SrWO4 film has been prepared on a tungsten substrate in an alkaline solution containing strontlum ions by an electrochemical method using constant direct current of 1 mA/cm2 at room temperature (25°C). This film showed only a single blue emission at 461 nm with the excitation of 248 nm at liquid nitrogen temperature (- 196°C), strongly suggesting it consists of well-crystallized defect-free crystals.


Aim: The gray mullet, Mugil cephalus, has been farmed in semi-intensive ponds with tilapia and carps in Egypt for years. The current study used the fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (F-AFLP) technique to search for genetic differences between the populations of M. cephalus in the northern region of Egypt and to detect the gene flow between sampled locations and the homogeneity within M. cephalus genetic pool in Egypt. Materials and Methods: To fulfill the study objectives 60 (15/location) samples were collected from four northern coast governorates of Egypt (Alexandria "sea," Kafr El-Sheikh "farm," Damietta "farm" and Port Said "sea"). Three replicates of bulked DNA (5 samples/replicate) for each location were successfully amplified using the standard AFLP protocol using fluorescent primers. DNA polymorphism, genetic diversity, and population structure were assessed while positive outlier loci were successfully detected among the sampled locations. Based on the geographical distribution of sampling sites, the gene flow, the genetic differentiation, and correlations to sampling locations were estimated. Results: A total of 1890 polymorphic bands were scored for all locations, where 765, 1054, 673, and 751 polymorphic bands were scored between samples from Alexandria, Kafr El-Sheikh, Damietta and Port Said, respectively. The effective number of alleles (ne) for all bulked samples combined together was 1.42. The expected heterozygosity under Hardy–Weinberg assumption (He) for all bulked samples combined together was 0.28. Bulked samples from Damietta yielded the lowest ne (1.35) and the lowest He (0.23) when inbreeding coefficient (FIS) = 1. Bulked samples from Kafr El-Sheikh scored the highest ne (1.55) and the highest He (0.37). Bulked samples from Alexandria scored 1.40 for ne and 0.26 for He, while bulked samples from Port Said scored 1.39 for ne and 0.26 for He. The observed bulked samples formed three sub-population groups, where none is limited to a certain sampling location. A high differentiation among locations was detected, however, is not fully isolating the locations. Gene flow was 0.58. Positive outliers loci (117) were detected among the four sampled locations while weak significant correlation (r=0.15, p=0.03) was found for the distance between them. Conclusion: Even though this species is cultivated in Egypt, the wild population is still present and by the current study a flow of its genes is still exchanged through the northern coast of Egypt. Which contribute to the cultivated populations leading to heterogeneity in its genetic pool and consequently affects the production consistency of M. cephalus in Egypt.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Background: Malignant melanoma is the most aggressive and deadliest form of skin cancer, with a high mortality rate among late-stage melanoma patients. This calls for new and improved therapies within the field. Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAPs) are naturally occurring molecules found in most species, in which they play a significant role in the first line of defense against pathogens, and several CAPs have shown promising anticancer activity. Structure-activity relationship studies on the CAP bovine lactoferricin has resulted in the design of a short chemically modified lytic anticancer peptide, LTX-315, which has potential as a new anticancer drug. Previous animal studies conducted with LTX-315 have demonstrated that intratumoral (i.t.) treatment of syngeneic murine A20 B-cell lymphomas and CT26WT colon carcinomas resulted in complete tumor regression. In the present study, we investigated the antitumor effects of LTX-315 against highly aggressive B16 melanomas in syngeneic mice. Methods: The cytotoxicity of LTX-315 was tested against a series of cell lines in vitro using the MTT assay. B16F1 melanoma cells (5 x 104) were intradermally inoculated into the abdomen of syngeneic C57BL/6N mice and established tumors treated i.t. with LTX-315. Tumor tissue and blood samples were taken for analysis to elaborate the mechanism of action of LTX-315 and for potential immune modulatory effects following i.t. treatment. Blood plasma was analyzed for IL 1β and IL 6 content and tumor tissue was analyzed for infiltrating immune cells and expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines using immunohistochemistry and real time qPCR, respectively. Results: LTX-315 rapidly kills B16 melanoma cells and induces the release of Danger-Associated Molecular Pattern molecules such as the High Mobility Group Box-1 protein in vitro. Intratumoral (i.t.) administration of LTX-315 resulted in tumor necrosis and the infiltration of immune cells into the tumor parenchyma followed by a complete regression of the tumor in the majority of the animals. Animals cured by LTX-315 treatment were protected against a re-challenge with live B16 tumor cells. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that LTX-315 i.t. treatments with LTX-315 induces complete regression of solid B16F1 melanoma tumors, thus leading to local tumor control, followed by protective immune responses. Thus, LTX-315 has potential as a novel immunotherapeutic agent.

Citation Format: Ketil Andre Camilio, Gerd Berge, Chandra Sekhar Ravuri, Oystein Rekdal, Baldur Sveinbjornsson. Complete regression and protective immune responses obtained in B16 melanomas after treatment with LTX-315 (Oncopore®). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 2584. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2584


In the title compound, 2C(19)H(13)N(5).C(8)H(6)O(4).4H(2)O, the terephthalic acid molecule lies on a crystallographic inversion centre and the H atoms of one water molecule exhibit disorder. The maximum deviation of any atom from the mean plane through the C and N atoms of the 2,6-bis(benzimidazol-2-yl)pyridine molecule is only 0.161 (4) A. In the crystal structure, the water molecules play an important role in linking the other molecules via hydrogen bonding. The structure forms a three-dimensional framework via strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding. In addition, there are pi-pi stacking interactions between the imidazole, pyridine and benzene rings.


Colloid cysts of the third ventricle are rare central nervous system tumors that are a recognized cause of unexpected death in young, otherwise healthy adults and children. We report three adults and one child who died from colloid cysts of the third ventricle. Our report illustrates the difficulties of diagnosing these tumors premortem.


A new power electronics laboratory has been constructed at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Key components of the laboratory are a set of custom-designed hardware and software tools. The novel hardware tools include five mobile power electronics testbeds that each contain the semiconductor devices, gate-drive boards, voltage and current sensors, and computer interface connections required to study a wide range of circuit topologies and control techniques. Novel software tools include a set of virtual instruments used for control, data capture, and data analysis. A description of these tools, along with their use in power electronics courses, laboratory exercises, and student research projects, is presented.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this first of two review articles providing an update on sleep disorders was to examine the pathophysiology, epidemiology, and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA is a common sleep disorder whose prevalence is similar to asthma. As with other sleep disorders, OSA has a broad impact on individuals, affecting their daily behaviors, cognitive abilities, and performance, and putting them at increased risk for accidents, mood disorders, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. Thus, early recognition and management, much of which can be implemented by nurses, can reduce health and accident risks and improve daily functioning.

METHODS
This narrative review utilized medical databases such as PubMed to identify relevant English language original and systematic review articles predominantly from peer-reviewed journals from 2012 to 2018. However, as background, findings from classic articles prior to 2012 were also included.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
OSA is a common condition with considerable impact on daily functioning and potential for accidents and serious comorbidities such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depressed mood. The impairments and comorbidities associated with OSA can be reduced through early detection, encouraging treatment, providing education about sleep and OSA, and, importantly, promoting adherence to the predominant therapy, positive airway pressure.


Do bilateral real exchange rates contain stochastic trends? This paper concentrates on univariate time-series models and uses the Beveridge-Nelson decomposition method to provide evidence that real exchange rates for dollar-deutsche mark, dollar-yen, dollar-pound, and dollar-Swiss franc contain stochastic trends. Using quarterly data for the period 1971 I to 1993 IV, we find that real exchange rates are nonstationary stochastic process which do not revert to a deterministic path. Two implications of this empirical findings is highlighted in this study. First, what is perceived as excessive fluctuations in the real exchange rate may not actually be so since the equilibrium itself shifts over time. Second, the empirical validity of the purchasing power parity theory needs to be examined within the framework of an econometric model that treats the real exchange rate as containing stochastic trends. VARIABLE TREND IN REAL EXCHANGE RATES


We have studied the band-gap reduction of GaAs1−xNx alloys with N contents between 0.1% and 1.5% using the absorption measurements in a series of samples grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. At room temperature, we observed a redshift of the band edge of about 205 meV for 1% of nitrogen. To interpret this effect, we assume that the incorporation of nitrogen in GaAs breaks the symmetry of the system and introduces localized N states that are weakly coupled to the extended states of the semiconductor. We have also studied the temperature dependence of the band gap of GaAsN alloys. The band-gap energy difference between 15 and 300 K decreases from 110 meV for GaAs, to 70 meV for GaAs0.985N0.015. All these experimental results can be explained by the band anticrossing model [W. Shan et al., Phys. Status Solidi B 223, 75 (2001)] with a coupling constant CNM of 2.7 eV, taking into account the contribution of tensile strain to the band-gap reduction.


A stochastic model is developed to describe the traffic among ten hospital departments or functional centers that generate 75 percent of all personnel trips to and from two nursing units with a total of 120 beds. The effects of five factors on travel frequencies are investigated by analysis of variance, as are the interactions among the factors. Multiple regression and correlation analyses are used to test the feasibility of predicting travel frequencies from the patient census in three levels of care and from the size of the nursing unit staff, which are found not to be very useful predictors. A Poisson distribution is found to be a good descriptor of the observed frequency distributions for seven of the ten departments studied.


Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the 3rd leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States. Most patients present with an advanced disease and the majority die within five years, many surviving less than six months. Cytotoxic chemotherapy including Gemcitabine (Gem), FOLFIRINOX, nab-paclitaxel offer modest improvement in survival, albeit at the cost of increased side effects and unwanted toxicities. Therefore, developing novel chemotherapeutic agents for PDAC treatment is critical to improve survival. Ellagic acid/ellatitannins are abundantly present in the pomegranate and berries, are actively metabolized by the intestinal microflora to Urolithin A (UA). Oral administration of UA has shown to be highly bioavailable and non-toxic. UA inhibits multiple kinases that are known to be involved in PDAC progression and metastasis. Therefore, we hypothesized that UA would elicit potent anti-cancer therapeutic potential in PDAC. The effect of UA on kinase activity was assessed . Inhibition of AKT (downstream of PI3K/PDK1), p70 S6 Kinase (PS6K) and STAT3 activation was quantified in PDAC cells treated with UA in dose-dependent manner. The mechanism of action was validated for UA's activity on PI3K/PDK1, PS6K and STAT3 activation using immunoblot analysis. MiaPaCa2 cells were treated with specific inhibitors for either AKT (MK2206) or STAT3 (AZD1480) and analyzed for tumorigenicity. UA treated PDAC cells were analyzed for cell proliferation, cell invasion and colony formation. Cell cycle analysis and cell apoptosis were measured by flow cytometry. To test the efficacy of UA in vivo, cells were implanted subcutaneously in athymic nude mice. The animals received UA daily and tumor volume was measured for 5 weeks. Next, we assessed tumor growth and overall survival (OS) in PKT (Ptf1acre/+;LSL-KrasG12D;Tgfbr2fl/fl) mice, an aggressive genetically engineered PDAC mouse model, in response to UA and/or Gem treatment. Tissues from the xenografts and PKT mice treated with vehicle or UA were analyzed for cell proliferation (Ki67) and apoptosis (cleaved Caspase 3) by immunohistochemistry. High expression levels of activated STAT3 or AKT correlate with decreased survival in PDAC. UA treated MiaPaCa2 cells showed significant dose-dependent increase in apoptosis and decrease in anchorage-independent growth. UA inhibited AKT, PS6K and STAT3 signaling. As a single agent, UA effectively reduced in vivo PDAC tumor growth. Immunohistochemistry of UA treated tissues from tumor xenografts and PKT mice showed inhibition of Ki67 positive tumor cells and increased cleaved caspase 3 staining. PKT mice treated with UA showed a decrease in tumor size and an increased OS when compared to vehicle or Gem treated mice alone. These findings show that UA is a novel inhibitor/modulator/regulator for multiple signaling pathways in PDAC. These results suggest UA has potential for pre-clinical development in pancreatic cancer. Citation Format: Supriya Srinivasan, Venkatakrishna Jala, Kumar Honnenahally, Jason Castellanos, Praveen Kumar Vermula, Michael VanSaun, Nipun Merchant, Nagaraj Nagathihalli. Urolithin A prevents pancreatic tumor growth and increases survival by inhibiting PI3K/PDK1 and STAT3 signaling [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5259. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5259


Background

Despite receiving anticoagulation for primary or secondary prevention for atrial fibrillation, new embolic events may occur. Current stroke guidelines contraindicate the use of thrombolysis if oral anticoagulants are used within 48 hours of symptom onset. Idarucizumab may be an alternative for patients receiving dabigatran with an acute stroke when alteplase is indicated. We present a series of four cases of patients who received idarucizumab in neurological emergencies in a middle-income country in Latin America.

Methods

Using the national pharmacologic surveillance data, we retrospectively collected the cases of idarucizumab used in acute stroke, including retinal thrombosis in Colombia between 2018 and 2020.

Results

Four male patients with atrial fibrillation received thrombolysis for acute stroke, and two of them received mechanical thrombectomy. No major complications during hospitalization were present. One of the patients that received combined therapy presented with hematuria; the other patient that received thrombolysis presented with groin hematoma, but none required transfusion. All had favorable mRS at discharge and 90-day follow-up.

Conclusion

The use of thrombolysis after reversal with idarucizumab in patients with ischemic stroke is safe. Our patients presented favorable mRS at discharge and 90-day follow-up. The low number of cases is related to the poor availability of idarucizumab. Only 11 hospitals in 5 cities have storage of the medication. Stronger public policies are needed to guarantee optimal stroke treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation receiving anticoagulation, including access to reversal and reperfusion therapies to reduce further disability, especially in a middle-income country such as Colombia.


The use of K-band frequency for satellite communication in tropical area needs special attention because the atmospheric condition affects the quality of received signal. The length of K-band wavelenght that has similar size with the rain drop makes the attenuation is very high. This paper aims to make a time series generator to model the rain rate and the propagation attenuation of K-band satellite in tropical area by using Hidden Markov Model (HMM). Data for modeling is obtained from measurement result on field. Synthesizer's results show that rain distribution has similarity with the ITU R P.837 recommendation and the measurement data. The calculation of the most probable state path for a sequence between measured and synthesized data shows the similarity about 97.79%.


Recent results with phone-posterior acoustic features estimated by multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) have shown that such features can effectively improve the accuracy of state-of-the-art large vocabulary speech recognition systems. MLP features are trained discriminatively to perform phone classification and are therefore, like acoustic models, tuned to a particular language and application domain. In this paper we investigate how portable such features are across domains and languages. We show that even without retraining, English-trained MLP features can provide a significant boost to recognition accuracy in new domains within the same language, as well as in entirely different languages such as Mandarin and Arabic. We also show the effectiveness of feature-level adaptation in porting MLP features to new domains