The influence of insulin on platelets in vitro has not been exhaustively investigated. To clarify whether insulin affects Ca2+ metabolism in platelets directly or through alteration of other systems regulating intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis, we examined the effect of insulin both alone and in combination with prostaglandin E1 on platelet aggregation and Ca2+ metabolism. Incubation of rat platelets with insulin reduced thrombin-induced Ca2+ influx but did not change thrombin-evoked release of Ca2+ from internal stores or the size of internal Ca2+ stores. The interactive effects of insulin with prostaglandin E1 were only additive, and insulin did not augment the effects of prostaglandin E1 on platelet Ca2+ metabolism. In contrast, insulin did not inhibit thrombin-induced platelet aggregation but did augment inhibition of platelet aggregation by prostaglandin E1. Our results suggest that insulin inhibits platelet function by both prostaglandin E1-dependent and -independent mechanisms.


Blind signatures are an important and useful tool in designing digital cash schemes and electronic voting protocols. Ring signatures on the other hand provide the anonymity of the signer within the ring of users. In order to fit to some real-life applications, it is useful to combine both protocols to create a blind ring signature scheme, which utilizes all of their features. In this paper, we propose, for the first time, a post-quantum blind ring signature scheme. Our scheme is constructed based on multivariate public key cryptography, which is one of the main candidates for post-quantum cryptography.


A standard approach to generating a greyscale equivalent to an input colour image involves calculating the socalled structure tensor at each image pixel. Defining contrast as associated with the maximum-change direction of this matrix, the grey gradient is identified with the first eigenvector direction, with gradient strength given by the square root of its eigenvalue. However, aside from the inherent complexity of such an approach, each pixel's gradient still possesses a sign ambiguity, since an eigenvector is given only up to a sign. This is ostensibly resolved by looking at how one of the R,G,B colour channels behaves, or how the the luminance changes. Instead, we would like to circumvent the sign problem in the first place, and also avoid calculating the costly eigenvector decomposition. So here we suggest replacing the eigenvector approach by generating a greyscale gradient equal to the maximum gradient amongst the R,G,B gradients, in each of x, y. But in order not to neglect the tensor approach, we consider the relationship between the complex and the simple approaches. We also note that, at each pixel, we have both forward-facing and backward-facing derivatives, which are different, and we consider a tensor formed from both. Then, over a standard training set, we ask for an optimum set of weights for all the maximum gradients such that the simple maxima scheme generates a greyscale structure tensor to best match the original, colour, one. We find that a simple scheme that facilitates fast solutions is best. Greyscale results are shown to be excellent, and the algorithm is very


There is increasing evidence that interindividual epigenetic variation is an etiological factor in common human diseases. Such epigenetic variation could be genetic or non-genetic in origin, and epigenome-wide association studies (EWASs) are underway for a wide variety of diseases/phenotypes. However, performing an EWAS is associated with a range of issues not typically encountered in genome-wide association studies (GWASs), such as the tissue to be analyzed. In many EWASs, it is not possible to analyze the target tissue in large numbers of live humans, and consequently surrogate tissues are employed, most commonly blood. But there is as yet no evidence demonstrating that blood is more informative than buccal cells, the other easily accessible tissue. To assess the potential of buccal cells for use in EWASs, we performed a comprehensive analysis of a buccal cell methylome using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing. Strikingly, a buccal vs. blood comparison reveals > 6X as many hypomethylated regions in buccal. These tissue-specific differentially methylated regions (tDMRs) are strongly enriched for DNaseI hotspots. Almost 75% of these tDMRs are not captured by commonly used DNA methylome profiling platforms such as Reduced Representational Bisulfite Sequencing and the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip, and they also display distinct genomic properties. Buccal hypo-tDMRs show a statistically significant enrichment near SNPs associated to disease identified through GWASs. Finally, we find that, compared with blood, buccal hypo-tDMRs show significantly greater overlap with hypomethylated regions in other tissues. We propose that for non-blood based diseases/phenotypes, buccal will be a more informative tissue for EWASs.


The biphenyl/POPOP couple is known for its scintillation properties, but we describe in this letter its use for the discrimination between fast neutrons and gamma rays. More particularly, the influence of the matrix involved in this process is of interest, and for the first time pulse shape discrimination has been observed in non-common solvents such as heptane or ethanol. The discrimination efficiency of our systems is described in terms of figure of merit, angle between neutron and gamma lobes and scintillation performances.


The aim of the study was to identify potential constraints to mutual resource utilization in the bordering areas of Nyangatom and to identify and develop participatory mitigation measures to resource utilization problems based on community and government proposals. The study employed Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informant Interview (KII) to collect the primary data. 1 FGD and 2-3 FGDs were held in each kebele. Livestock production is the major source of livelihood followed by crop production in the district. Bee keeping, fishery and gathering of forest products are the supplementary activities performed by the community. Sell of livestock and livestock products, honey and crop in times of surplus production are the major sources of income and they spend it to fulfill their food demand, medication and purchase of clothing's. Most of the communities in Nyangatom are food insecure. Drought, conflict, diseases and invasive species are the main hazards to the environment in the area whereas resource scarcity and sense of ownership are among the reasons that prohibit mutual resource utilization. Area enclosures allied with plantation of grasses, Rehabilitation of the depleted grazing lands and introduction of improved pasture management, Maintenance, rehabilitation and construction of water infrastructure, Expanding small scale irrigation, Ensuring security and Countering prosopis juliflora were the mitigation measures suggested by the community.


In this article Holly Maples examines how the controversy surrounding the ragtime dance craze in the United States allowed women to renegotiate acceptable gendered behaviour in the public sphere. In the early 1910s many members of the public performed acts of resistance to convention by dancing in the workplace, on the street, and in public halls. Civic institutions and private organizations sought to censor and control both the public space of the dance hall and the bodies of its participants. The controlling of social dance was an attempt to restrain what those opposed to the dances saw as unrestrained and indecent physical behaviour by the nation's youth, primarily targeting ragtime dancing's 'moral degradation' of young women. It was not merely the public nature of the dancing that was seen as dangerous to women, however, but the dances themselves, many of which featured chaotic, off-centred choreography, with either highly sexualized behaviour, as seen in the tango and the apache dance, or clumsy, un-gendered movement, popular in the animal dances of the day. Through ragtime dancing, women performed acts of rupture on their bodies and the urban cityscape, transforming social dancing into public statements of gendered resistance. Holly Maples is a lecturer in Drama at the University of East Anglia. Both a theatre practitioner and a scholar, she trained as an actress at Central School of Speech and Drama in London and completed her PhD in Theatre Studies at Trinity College Dublin. Her book, Culture War: Conflict, Commemoration, and the Contemporary Abbey Theatre, has recently been published in the 'Reimagining Ireland' series by Peter Lang.


In this paper, we define a similarity measure to compare images in the context of (indexing and) retrieval. We use the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence to compare sparse multiscale image descriptions in a wavelet domain. The KL divergence between wavelet coefficient distributions has already been used as a similarity measure between images. The novelty here is twofold. Firstly, we consider the dependencies between the coefficients by means of distributions of mixed intra/interscale neighborhoods. Secondly, to cope with the high-dimensionality of the resulting description space, we estimate the KL divergences in the k-th nearest neighbor framework, instead of using classical fixed size kernel methods. Query-by-example experiments are presented.


"Politimetrics" (Gurr 1972), "polimetrics," (Alker 1975), "politometrics" (Hilton 1976), "political arithmetic" (Petty [1672] 1971), "quantitative Political Science (QPS)," "governmetrics," "posopolitics" (Papayanopoulos 1973), "political science statistics" (Rai and Blydenburgh 1973), "political statistics" (Rice 1926). These are some of the names that scholars have used to describe the field we now call "political methodology."1 The history of political methodology has been quite fragmented until recently, as reflected by this patchwork of names. The field has begun to coalesce during the past decade; we are developing persistent organizations, a growing body of scholarly literature, and an emerging consensus about important problems that need to be solved.


Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is due to a combination of phagocytosis and anaphylaxis gone awry. Immune complexes create their havoc via Fc gamma III receptors that signal via the tyrosine phosphorylation immunoreceptor pathway. Anaphylatoxins, mainly C5a, signal via the MEK kinase cascade, and both engage in cross-talk via NF kappa B. Aspirin-III blocks signals sent by both: immune complexes via FCR, and anaphylatoxin via C5 receptors. Drugs that affect both pathways, for example anti-B cell monoclonal antibodies, such as rituximab, and anti-C5 monoclonal antibodies, such as pexelizumab are currently being investigated. We now appreciate that cytokines are important mediators of inflammation in RA but are downstream of the primary insults: immune complexes and anaphylatoxins. We can therefore begin to ask what the antigen or antigens might be that produce IgGs reactive to 7 S or 19 S rheumatoid factors. The primary antigens of RA could well be CPs, formed perhaps by oral bacteria. Once immunoglobulins become recognized by rheumatoid factors, immune complexes form, and these activate anaphylatoxins. Phagocytosis and anaphylaxis are the proximal events of RA.


Leisure plays a key role in supporting psychological, social and emotional well-being in later life. This paper aims to explore the relationship between leisure, place and income from the perspectives of older adults in the UK and Brazil and how older adults' participation in leisure supports the development of sense of place within their communities. The data presented in the paper was gathered through a case study approach involving three cities in Brazil (Pelotas, Belo Horizonte e Brasília) and three in the UK (Edinburgh, Manchester and Glasgow). The findings draw upon qualitative data collected through the following research methods: face-to-face interviews, go-along interviews and photo diaries. The results have shown the low-income neighbourhoods studied both in Brazil and the UK are likely to have less leisure opportunities which tend to be provided by facilities such as CRAS (Reference Centre for Social Assistance) and communities centres. The lack of leisure opportunities particularly in low-income areas can negatively impact on the way older adults experience the sense of place within their neighbourhoods.


Adult male and female acatalasemic (C3H/AnLCsbCsb), hypocatalasemic (C3H/AnLCscCsc) and normal mice of C3H strain fed on regular laboratory chow for 15 months showed an increased incidence of spontaneous mammary tumor in the decreasing order of female acatalasemic, male acatalasemic, female hypocatalasemic and male hypocatalasemic mice. Normal mice did not develop mammary tumor. We conducted a prospective study with female acatalasemic mice, which showed the highest incidence of mammary tumor, to examine the preventive effect of vitamin E on mammary tumor. Female acatalasemic mice were fed on vitamin E‐deficient (28 animals) and vitamin E‐supplemented diet (25 animals) for 29 months. The incidence of mammary tumor in mice given the vitamin E‐supplemented diet was 47%, while that in mice given vitamin E‐deficient diet was 82% (P<0.002). Mammary tumors were apparent after 9 months of vitamin E deprivation and after 14 months of vitamin E supplementation. Female normal mice did not develop mammary tumor during a comparable period of time. The mean catalase activity of mammary gland in acatalasemic mice was 18.8% of that in normal mice. The results indicate that vitamin E protects acatalasemic mice against the development of mammary tumor.


The correlation between hormonal activity of hypophysis-gonad system and hierarchical status of hamadryas baboon males in an isolated group was studied. It has been established that the level of testosterone was higher in males occupying the leading position in a separate subgroup. A high level of sexual hormone was observed in animals with greater muscular mass and age. No correlation between hierarchical status and luteinizing hormone blood content has been observed in baboon males.


Measurements have been made of the current noise in thick-film resistors (TFR) based on Ru-pyrochlore conductive grains, with sheet resistivities covering a range of four decades. The temperature dependence of the exponent alpha in the 1/falpha noise spectra and of the relative integral noise was investigated in the temperature range from 77 to 650K. It is shown that the presence of a minimum in the relative voltage noise fluctuations ( Delta V2)/(V)2 is a general phenomenon, as is the increase in alpha with increasing temperature. Nevertheless these two effects seem not to be mutually correlated. The possibility of developing an interpretive model for noise phenomena in TFR is discussed.


The research is aimed at (1) identifying whether Acting Play Scripts
technique can improve students' speaking skill; (2) describing to what extent
Acting Play Scripts technique improve students' speaking skill; and (3) describing
the classsituation when Acting Play Scripts technique is implemented in speaking
class. The research was conducted at SMPN I Kalitidu Bojonegoro; the subjects
of the reseach were the eighth grade students in the academic year 2008/2009.
The study applied action research technique to improve students' speaking
ability through Acting Play Scripts (APS). Action research is a way of reflecting
on teaching which is done systematically by collecting data on everyday practice
and analyzing in order to come to some decisions about what the future practice
should be. The research consisted of two cycles, with four meetings in each
cycles.The research elaborated planning, action, observation and reflection in each
cycle.There are two types of data in the research, namely the quantitative and
qualitative data which were collected by observation, interview, questionaire, and
test. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistic, finding out the
mean of the scores in the test and the improvement of thestudents'scores during
the research. The qualitative data were analyzed using Constant-comparative
technique proposed by Strauss and Glasser consisting of the following steps: (1)
comparing incidents aplicable to each category; (2) integrating categories and
their properties; (3) delimiting the theory; and (4) writing the theory.
The results of the study showed that: (1) APS can improve students'
speaking skill; (2) APS can improve students' speaking ability in terms of: (a)
raising achievement in speaking; (b) raising students' fluency in speaking; (c)
improving students' ability to express ideas using appropriate vocabulary and
grammatical form;and (d) improving students' speaking level; and (3) APS can
improve classroom situation, in terms of: (a) creating live teaching atmosphere;
(b) increasing students's participation, reducing teacher domination, providing
bigger oppotunities for speaking practice, enhancing spoken activity; and (c)
increasing teacher innovation and understanding about students' potentials.
Realizing that APS technique is beneficial to improve the students'
speaking ability and imrpoving classroom situation, some suggestions are made
based on the research findings: (1) English teacher should design teaching
materialand action planto conduct APS technique which can be held at school
regularly; (2) students should realize that they have potentials to be good speakers
and open themselves to any chances of self-development in speaking; and (3)
Researcher are expected to use the technique as a startingpoint to conduct further
research in the same field.


Recent studies have demonstrated decoding of lower extremity limb kinematics from noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG), showing feasibility for development of an EEG-based brain-machine interface (BMI) to restore mobility following paralysis. Here, we present a new technique that preserves the statistical richness of EEG data to classify movement state from time-embedded low frequency EEG signals. We tested this new classifier, using cross-validation procedures, during sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit activity in 10 subjects and found decoding accuracy of greater than 95% on average. These results suggest that this classification technique could be used in a BMI system that, when combined with a robotic exoskeleton, can restore functional movement to individuals with paralysis.


Two separate outbreaks of Pseudomonas aeruginosa urinary tract infections (UTIs) were associated with cystoscopy or transurethral prostate resection. The first outbreak was identified after routine bacteremia surveillance demonstrated four cases of P aeruginosa septicemia in a three-month period. A six-month retrospective review of the microbiology records identified 14 cases of P aeruginosa UTI associated with urologic surgery instrumentation. The outbreak terminated after the implementation of two major control measures: (1) replacement of hexachlorophene solution with an iodophor solution for preparing patients and cleaning instruments before disinfection, and (2) weekly gas sterilization of cystoscopy instruments. The second outbreak, consisting of 11 cases of P aeruginosa UTI after transurethral resection of the prostate gland, occurred in a 187-bed community hospital. All available patient isolates were serotype 011, and culture of a rubber adaptor attached to the resectoscope also yielded growth of that serotype. The outbreak promptly terminated when the rubber adaptor was sterilized between cases.


Summary Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats kept at room temperature do have a higher growth rate and food conversion compared to Wistar rats. Mean hormone level in blood samples collected every four hours during a 24 hour period do differ between both strain of rats. So, the mean circulating levels of T 3 , T 4 and corticosterone are significantly lower, whereas prolactin concentrations are higher in SD-rats. Following acute cold exposure comparable increases in plasma T 3 and T 4 are seen in both strains after 3—5 hours. Prolactin plasma concentrations are decreased after 5 and 9 hours but only in SD-rats, whereas they remain unchanged in Wistars. Acclimation to 4°C during 3 and 8 weeks resulted in a de creased growth rate of the SD-rats, which becomes compar able to Wistar animals, but food conversion is lower and food intake higher in SD-rats. A decrease in circulating levels of T 4 is present in Wistars resulting in a significantly lower figure at 8 weeks of cold acclimation, whereas at the same time T 3 is increased. Prolactin is decreased in SD-rats and in creased in Wistars causing at 8 weeks of cold acclimation higher levels in Wistars. Corticosterone levels remain higher in Wistar rats and are comparable to rats kept at room temperature. It is concluded that the differences in growth rate, food conversion and food intake are related to the endocrine differences and responses observed.


Meteorites provide an important source of information about the formation and composition of asteroids, because the level of accuracy of studies and analyses performed in a laboratory cannot be achieved by any ground or space based observation. To better understand what asteroid types a meteorite represents, it is crucial to identify the body they originated from. In this paper, we aim to determine possible parent bodies for the known meteorite falls among the known population of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). By using the similarity criterion DN, based on geocentric quantities, we found 20 possible NEA-meteorite pairs. By performing additional numerical simulations of the backward dynamics, we found that 12 of these pairs may be associated with a possible separation event from the progenitor NEA, while the remaining 8 pairs appear to be ambiguous or random associations. The most interesting are the Pribram and Neuschwanstein meteorites, which are dynamically associated with (482488) 2012 SW20 with a common separation age dating back to about 20−30 kyr ago, and the Motopi Pan meteorite, that has three candidate parent bodies: (454100) 2013 BO73, 2017 MC3, and 2009 FZ4. The average time of separation between our meteorite list and the progenitor body appears to be about 10 kyr, a time consistent with what is expected from the collision frequency of small NEAs. Based on our results, we suggest that about 25 per cent of meteorites do not originate in the main belt, but mainly from little collision events happening between NEAs in the inner Solar System.


It is generally accepted that coronal mass ejections (CMEs) undergo rapid heating as they are released from the Sun. However, to date, the heating mechanism remains an open question. To gain insight into the plasma heating, we derive the density, temperature, and velocity evolution of the 2005 January 9 interplanetary CME event from launch to ion freeze-in distance by examining ion distributions collected within the ejecta near the Earth. We use the Michigan Ionization Code to simulate the ion evolution and determine thermodynamic properties through an extensive iterative search that finds agreement between simulated and observed ion populations. The final results show that the ion distributions can be effectively reconstructed using a combination of ions generated within four distinct plasma structures traveling together. Three of the modeled plasma components derived originate from the prominence and the prominence–corona transition region (PCTR) structures, while a fourth plasma shares features common to the ambient corona. The absolute abundances computed for each plasma reveal that the prominence material contains photospheric composition, while the remaining PCTR and warmer plasma have coronal abundances. Furthermore, we computed an energy release rate for each plasma structure that includes the kinetic, potential, and thermal energy rates, along with the radiative cooling, thermal conduction, and adiabatic cooling rates. We found the prominence material's energy release rate to be consistently larger compared to the other components. In future work, the energy results will be used to investigate the feasibility of a proposed heating mechanism in an effort to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the eruption process.


The concept of Industry 4.0 associated with the increasing digitization of the entire production system is often described as the fourth industrial revolution. The fourth wave assumes a progressive digitization of the value chain in the industry and the development of the networks of contractors, machines, objects, processes and systems that exchange information immediately. These new realities, determine the need to adapt and enhance the qualifications of workers in industrial enterprises. It is natural to ask about the set of competences that will be significant from the perspective of the transition towards Industry 4.0. General purpose of this article is to try to answer this question. In the first part of the article the concept of Industry 4.0 is briefly described. Special attention was paid to the analysis of the network of thematic areas, in which the publications related to this topic are presented. The final part of the article deals with an analysis of the set of competences that will be needed while working in the realities of the fourth industrial revolution. Paper type: Literature review Published online: 19 October 2017 Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 431–441 DOI: 10.21008/j.2083-4950.2017.7.5.4 ISSN 2083-4942 (Print) ISSN 2083-4950 (Online) © 2017 Poznan University of Technology. All rights reserved.


This study focused on examining the impact of outsourcing on the performance of local government revenue collection in Tanzania. The objective was to examine the revenue collection contribution and irregularity (if any) in Kinondoni Municipal Council (KMC), Morogoro Municipal Council (MMC) and Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC) before and after introduction of outsourcing. The study adopted the case study research design and the method of data collection was documentary review. The major findings indicate that, despite introduction of outsourcing in revenue collection in the studied Councils, an increase in revenue has not been fully realised because the revenue has not been remitted by the contracted firms due to collusion between local government staff and the contracted firms which caused the dismal revenue collection in the studied Councils. The study concludes that there is a need for KMC, MMC and DCC to strengthen their capacity to design and enforce contracts, and monitor companies in revenue collection. The study recommends that local governments should comply with the Public Procurement Act No. 7 of 2011, so that tenders for revenue collection are awarded to the companies on merit basis in the studied Councils in order to increase revenues.


This article presents a longitudinal profile of the advanced learner's use of verb morphology in L2 French, with the aim of tracking how such usage evolves within the advanced learner variety over a two-year period, as well as exploring how use of particular morphological forms relates to use of others. The forms are wide-ranging, and concern markers of past time, futurity, conditionality, reverse-order, as well as the subjunctive and 3rd person plural present tense irregular forms which are deemed to constitute "fragile zones" in the advanced learner variety. Results are presented in quantitative terms which allow frequently used forms to be identified against less frequent forms as the study progresses. The effect for naturalistic exposure through study abroad as opposed to regular classroom instruction is explored in terms of the effect of such differential exposure conditions on the emergence and use of the various forms concerned. Findings point to the complexity of morphological development in the advanced learner, whereby development is neither linear nor uniform across the morphological forms, while there is also considerable individual variation between learners. Results are discussed in relation to the advanced learner's acquisitional profile.


In order to improve the diagnasis of plant diseases associated with fastidious phloem-limited promryntes such as rnpoplasmdike ownisms {MLO) and bacterialike organisms (BLO), the production of antibodies against those organisms has heen envisaged. The use of m o m clonal antibody technology should permit one, after immunization of mice with extracts from infected plants, ta obtain hybridomas producing pathogenqecific antibodies. A model system (peri~inkIes infected with Spfrcplawnn din) has been utilked to determine the best immunization procedure to be used and to develop an assay for the screen in^ of hybridomas producing antibodies aminst the pathogen from those producing antibodies against the plant. The results obtained in the case of apple proliferation disease (MLO) and citrus greening disease (BLO) are presented. For many years, the diagnosis of greening disease has been based on symptomatology followed by detection of the greening organism (GO) in the sieve tubes of the symptomatic plants by electron microscopy. The need for a quicker and more accurate method is obvious. and we have therefore envisagedp the preparation of specific antibodies against the GO. This organism has not been cultured yet and is difficult to purify. I t is thus available only in infected plants. In 1983, the GO was transmitted from citrus t o periwinkle, a good host that multiplies 60 t o a higher titer than citrus (1). The development of monoclonal antibody techniques (2) also allows the production of antibodies against one antigenic determinant or epitope and should permit one t o obtain antibodies specific for the GO after immunization with m d e infected plant material. The difficulty is to select the hybridornas producing antibodies only against the GO from the large number of hybridomas producing antibodies against plant proteins. In order to find an assay for m e n ing hybridomas we used a model system composed of S. eitri-infected periwinkles (S. citri, as GO, is restricted to the sieve tubes) and monoclonal and peEyclona1 antibodies against S. ci&i. These antibodies were prepared with S. citri from culture. This model system has also been used to control the immunization efficiency. The results obtained in different experiments conducted with greening-infected periwinkles are presented and discussed. .


Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology that shows great promise for various futuristic applications both for mass public and military. The sensing technology combined with processing power and wireless communication makes it lucrative for being exploited in abundance in future. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. Although the content of sensor messages describing "events of interest" may be encrypted to provide confidentiality, the context surrounding these events may also be sensitive and therefore should be protected from eavesdroppers. An adversary armed with knowledge of the network deployment, routing algorithms, and the base-station (data sink) location can infer the temporal patterns of interesting events by merely monitoring the arrival of packets at the sink, thereby allowing the adversary to remotely track the spatio-temporal evolution of a sensed event. One of the most notable challenges threatening the successful deployment of sensor systems is privacy. Although many privacy-related issues can be addressed by security mechanisms, one sensor network privacy issue that cannot be adequately addressed by network security is source-location privacy.


Foreign experience in the transition to inflation targeting has been studied empirically. The foreign experience shows that countries with inflation targeting regimes have not abandoned and have not returned to other alternative monetary regimes. This indicates that the inflation targeting regime has been successfully tested in practice. It should be noted that inflation targeting has led to new approaches to monetary policy targets. As a result, international economists and experts have started to research inflation targeting as a new path in the scientific arena. The aim of the study is the study is to investigate the influence of indicators of monetary policy stability of Uzbekistan on economic growth using various economic-mathematical models. In the paper was investigated the impact of Uzbekistan's monetary policy stability indicators on economic growth by using four criteria from the 4×2 matrix model in 2011–2020. Based on obtained results, the Phillips-Perron and extended Dickey-Fuller tests determine whether variables are stationary. The long-term correlation between the variables is checked using the Johansen cointegration test. The results show that increases in bank capital adequacy, loan portfolio, money supply, and lower inflation help maintain macroeconomic stability. However, the rising volume of bank deposits and foreign currency appreciation against Uzbek sum hurts economic growth. In addition, liquidity ratio, state gold and foreign exchange reserves are insignificant and do not affect economic growth.


The mechanism of the antiproliferation effect of N1,N12-bis(ethyl)spermine (BESPM) was studied in detail using mouse FM3A cells, since this polyamine analogue mimics the functions of spermine in several aspects [Igarashi, K., Kashiwagi, K., Fukuchi, J., Isobe, Y., Otomo, S. & Shirahata, A. (1990) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 172, 715-720]. Our results indicate that not only the decrease in sperimine and spermine caused by BESPM but also its accumulation play important roles on the inhibition of cell growth by BESPM, since BESPM accumulated in cells at a concentration fivefold that of spermidine in control cells. In comparison with the polaymine-deficient cells caused by alpha-difluoromethylornithine, an inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase, and ethylglyoxal bis(guanylhydrazone), an inhibitor of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase, the behavior of polyamine-deficient cells caused by BESPM was different as follows: the inhibition of cell growth by BESPM was not abrogated by spermine or spermidine; polyamine uptake, which is stimulated during polyamine deficiency, was greatly inhibited, while spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase activity, which is inhibited during polyamine deficiency, was enhanced in BESPM-treated cells; thymidine kinase activity did not decrease in BESPM-treated cells; inhibition of cell growth and macromolecule synthesis by BESPM correlated with the swelling of mitochondria and the decrease in ATP content; BESPM caused cell death when incubated together for several days. The role of BESPM accumulation on inhibition of cell growth is discussed.


The main uncertainty for building 3D geologic and process models is distribution of properties in the inter-well space. The fields comprised of carbonate reservoirs are characterized by the complex porous space structure: availability of secondary porosity, cavern or fracture components. The objective of this paper is to increase the accuracy of the prediction of lithology and permeability and porosity of complex carbonate reservoirs applying the method of petroelastic modelling using the example of one of the Central Khoreyver Uplift (CKU) fields. Obtaining 3D geological and process models capable of quality implementation of representation of the fields' geological peculiarities is necessary for the purpose of the development tasks: decreasing the uncertainties and reducing the development drilling risks.
 The paper proposes a method for predicting reservoir properties of carbonate deposits of Famennian strata of Timano-Pechora petroleum province on the basis of petroelastic modelling. The basis of the method is the principle of complexing different scale geological and geophysical surveys. The lithological division of rocks and identification of reservoir types were performed for the reviewed carbonate deposits. The detailed volumetric lithological and petrophysical models with subsequent tying the obtained results with the core material lithological survey data were developed under results of the complex well logging survey interpretations. An efficient environment model was selected for the reviewed carbonate deposits and petroelastic modelling was carried out. The criteria for predicting the reservoir properties using the seismic data with application of the amplitude inversion method were formulated under results of the petroelastic connections analysis.


Introduction couples HIV testing and counseling is an important intervention to make an informed decision on reproductive health, to adopt preventive behaviors, support each other, and prevent mother-to-child HIV transmissions. Despite the importance of partners of pregnant women HIV testing uptake, there is limited study in Ethiopia. Hence, this study aimed to assess the proportion of HIV testing uptake and its determinants among partners of pregnant women. Methods a community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from January to February 2020 in Addis Ababa. A multistage cluster sampling technique was used to recruit 812 partners of pregnant women. A pre-tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the determinants of HIV testing uptake among partners of pregnant women. Adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was used to declare statistical association and the direction of the association between the dependent variable and independent variables. Results overall, a total of 63.7% (95% CI: 60-67%) of partners of pregnant women were tested for HIV/AIDS. Knowledge on mother to child transmission of HIV (AOR=2.0, 95% CI: 1.37-3.06), previous history of couple HIV testing and counseling (AOR=3.8, 95% CI: 2.49-5.85), discussion with spouse (AOR= 6.6, 95% CI: 4.44-9.91), and having information about discordant HIV test result (AOR =2.3, 95% CI: 1.48-4.14) were significantly associated with partners of pregnant women HIV test uptake. Conclusion HIV testing uptake among partners of pregnant women was low. To increase the uptake of HIV testing, program designers and implementors should work on knowledge of the spouse´s on mother to child transition of HIV, to have more discussion between couples, and consider and strengthen activities that increase couple HIV testing and counseling at the community level before pregnancy.


A new matrix decomposition of the formA = UTU + UTR + RTU is proposed and investigated, where U is an upper triangular matrix (an approximation to the exact Cholesky factor U0), andR is a strictly upper triangular error matrix (with small elements and the fill-in limited by that of U0). For an arbitrary symmetric positive matrixA such a decomposition always exists and can be efficiently constructed; however it is not unique, and is determined by the choice of an involved truncation rule. An analysis of both spectral and Kcondition numbers is given for the preconditioned matrix M = U−TAU−1 and a comparison is made with the RIC preconditioning proposed by Ajiz and Jennings. A concept of approximation order of an incomplete factorization is introduced and it is shown that RIC is the first order method, whereas the proposed method is of second order. The idea underlying the proposed method is also applicable to the analysis of CGNE-type methods for general non-singular matrices and approximate LU factorizations of non-symmetric positive definite matrices. Practical use of the preconditioning techniques developed is discussed and illustrated by an extensive set of numerical examples. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A procedure was developed to characterize the interparticle potential in a lattice that is confined by an external potential. The first of the two steps is to characterize the confining potential, which can be done using various schemes involving observations of particle motion. The second step is to characterize the interparticle potential using measurements of the equilibrium particle positions. This can be done with either of two methods developed here, a force-balance method or a simpler equation-of-state method. To demonstrate and test these methods, an experiment and a molecular dynamics simulation were performed with a one-dimensional Coulomb chain of particles confined in a parabolic potential. The experiment used a dusty plasma consisting of charged microspheres levitated in the plasma sheath above a narrow groove in a lower electrode.


This research examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence with identity achievement styles and identity commitment in the girls of second grade in high school students in Tehran 2012- 2013. The statisticalpopulation include the totalfemale students of the second grade in high school and the sample size had been selected by Cluster-Randomization include N=200.Through carry-out the research, 3 Questionnaire were completed scored include: Schulte's emotional intelligence (1998), Nasser's spiritual intelligence (1387) and Brzvnsky'sidentity achievement styles (2007). The design of research was Ex Post Facto. To reach the conclusions and interpretations of them, SPSS software had been used about raw data by and Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis ways. Analysis of regression showed that there is a relationship between identity styles and emotional intelligence. In this study there is no meaningful relationship between emotional intelligence and confused/avoiding style. The analyses data by regression showed that identity styles predicted by spiritual intelligence. More research regarding the studied variables can render brighter data.


A new case of chondromyxoid fibroma of the jaws is reported, and the current world literature on chondromyxoid fibroma is reviewed. Chondromyxoid fibroma is a rare tumor arising from cartilage-forming mesenchymal tissue. In the long bones, it has frequently been confused with chondrosarcoma or benign chondroblastoma. When it occurs in the jaws, apparent confusion with myxomas of myxofibromas may result. In the jaws the neoplasm typically occurs in the mandible. Initial symptoms are pain or a slowly growing expansile mass. After evaluation of the natural history of these lesions, a conservative approach to surgical therapy is advocated.


This article details the influence of zirconium doping on the piezoelectric properties and relaxor characteristics of 94(Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3–6Ba(ZrxTi1−x)O3 (BNT–6BZT) bulk ceramics. Neutron diffraction measurements of BNT–6BZT doped with 0%–15% Zr revealed an electric-field-induced transition of the average crystal structure from pseudo-cubic to rhombohedral/tetragonal symmetries across the entire compositional range. The addition of Zr up to 10% stabilizes this transition, resulting in saturated polarization hysteresis loops with a maximum polarization of 40 μC/cm2 at 5.5 kV/mm, while corresponding strain hysteresis measurements yield a maximum strain of 0.3%. With further Zr addition, the ferroelectric order is progressively destabilized and typical relaxor characteristics such as double peaks in the current density loops are observed. In the strain hysteresis, this destabilization leads to an increase of the maximum strain by 0.05%. These changes to the physical behavior caused by Zr addition are consistent with a reduction of the transition temperature TF-R, above which the field-induced transformation from the relaxor to ferroelectric state becomes reversible.


Two sisters with recurrent lesions, one on axillae and other on the groin, and with limited response to classical treatments were treated with injections botulinum toxin type A. We observed marked improvement in the patient treated in the groin and complete remission in the patient treated in the axillae. It was possible to spare the use of systemic antibiotics and topical corticosteroids. The high cost is a restrictive factor to routine use and large studies are necessary to access efficacy and cost benefit profile.


A synthetic peptide derived from vaccinia virus growth factor (VGF) was used as an immunogen to prepare antiserum able to immunoprecipitate native VGF from both vaccinia virus-infected cell lysate and cell-free medium. Pulse-chase, tunicamycin treatment, and carbohydrate trimming experiments revealed that VGF is synthesized as a 19-kilodalton (kDa) precursor which is rapidly modified to a high-mannose-type 22-kDa protein. This cell-associated form is further processed into a 25-kDa polypeptide which, after proteolytic cleavage, releases the mature VGF into the medium as a 22-kDa glycoprotein.


Background: Insufficient sleep due to excessive media use is linked to decrease physical activity, poor nutrition, obesity, and decreased overall health-related quality of life.
Objectives: To assess the effect of using the internet and social media on the sleep of 4th-stage secondary school students.
Subjects and Methods: Cross-sectional study with the analytic element; for 500 secondary school students, obtained by choosing two schools randomly from each of the six educational directorates, by using a structured questionnaire.
Result: Secondary school students are involved in this study (n = 500). The study reveals that the majority of students 350 (69.7 %) were aged group (16) years old, Regarding the internet, used by the majority of the 454(90.4%), and 419 (83.5%) students had a mobile phone, 206(41.1%) of them using the internet more than 150 hours per month and concerning the students sleep; Unexplained tiredness in the morning 182(36.3%) was sometimes complained from it, about Nightmares, 187(37.3%) of students sometimes having it, 276(55%) of them wake up during sleep.
 Conclusion: students are using the internet more than one-fifth of their time per month, there is an association between the use of social media and short sleep duration among secondary school students that increases daytime sleepiness, unexplained tiredness in the morning, and nightmares.


This article is a systemic linguistic and stylistic analysis of the corpus of mythological songs of the "Elder Edda" in a wide cultural and historical context: folklore, ritual, literary. This approach made it possible to propose an interpretation of the mythological songs of the "Elder Edda" as a system and take a fresh look at their semantics, composition, structure, style and lexical organization. The most relevant results of the study of the linguistic and stylistic features of the Eddic songs of the mythological cycle can be considered the definition of linguo-stylistic features of various genre structures in their composition, the explanation of their coexistence, the identification of their source and the building of a hierarchy of mythological songs of the "Elder Edda" depending on the degree of representation in them of various genres. For the first time, the study of the mechanism of cultural dynamics makes it possible to use genres, plot, structure, images, motives of the Eddic text in the reconstruction of the mythopoetic model of the world. The author singles out the most representative genres (tula, cosmological and epistemological song, vision, memory, conspiracy, competition in wisdom, travel, afterlife poetry) and markers (the time of creation, the substance that served as material for the creation of the universe, subjects and objects of creation), allowing to evaluate their productivity and give a comparative description. On the basis of a detailed linguostylistic analysis of the mythological cycle of the "Elder Edda", a different degree of closeness between mythological songs is established and their plot-genre classification is proposed. The author's scientific hypothesis consists in the assumption of the deduction of linguostylistic methods of the Eddic cycle from the mythological situation of primordial creation, the dominance of the sacred sphere, which determines the strategy of the characters' behavior and the results of their activities, anthropocentric orientation, which is expressed in the description of cosmogenesis in genealogical terms.


A big-picture look at the history and principles influencing the Anglo-American institution of the law of land, this casebook provides the core materials for a property course. The format of Property allows for a variety of teaching methods and applies easily to courses ranging from three to six hours. The Ninth Edition retains the organization and basic content of prior editions; however, it includes more introductory text to give students the necessary background before examining the difficult problems encountered in the law of property. Many sections have been reorganized to facilitate more efficient coverage of the material. The authors updated the book with relevant cases and materials while maintaining the core property material such as estates in land material, emphasizing historical development, with additional cases and notes to show the extent to which the past governs the present. Updated Coverage of: Concept of Property: Kremen v. Cohen Network Solutions Rights of a Property Owner: Intel Corp. v. Hamidi Takings law: Kelo v. City of New London Finders law: Popov v. Hayashi Adverse Possession: Marengo Cave v. Ross Significant Revisions from the Previous Edition: Introductory text in most sections to facilitate coverage New textual material on future interest New section on adverse possession of real property For more information and additional teaching materials, visit the companion site .


BACKGROUND
Increased concentrations of cell-free DNA have been found in several disorders and have been interpreted as evidence of increased rates of cell death or turnover. Evidence from in vitro and animal experiments suggests that DNA may play a role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS
We measured cell-free DNA in plasma and serum from patients with RA and healthy controls by use of quantitative PCR for glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) DNA. We used protein G Sepharosetrade mark bead adsorption of plasma and elution to isolate antibody-bound DNA.

RESULTS
In paired plasma and serum samples of 16 healthy controls the median GAPDH copies were 4500 genome equivalents (GE)/mL plasma (range 319-21 000) and in 26 RA patients 17 000 GE/mL plasma (2100-2 375 000, P = 0.0001). In the serum from normal controls the median GAPDH copies were 35 000 GE/mL (1700-239 000) and from RA patients 222 000 GE/mL (21 000-2 375 000, P = 0.004). A median of 81% of the cell-free DNA in RA was associated with antibody compared with 9% in healthy controls (P = 0.001). The concentrations of DNA did not vary with the type of therapy patients received.

CONCLUSIONS
These results provide new evidence for a role of cell-free DNA-antibody complexes in the etiology of RA, suggest new avenues for basic research, and may prove to be relevant to diagnosis and assessment of therapy.


ABSTRACT
 The geographic distribution and size of wild pig (Sus scrofa) populations has rapidly expanded in recent years globally, resulting in increased impacts on natural and anthropogenic environments. In this review, we discuss the impacts of wild pigs on native ecosystems in terms of habitat degradation, competition with and depredation of native species, and disease transmission, and highlight recent developments in population control techniques, including areas where further research is required. We also provide an overview of many of the behavioral and demographic characteristics that make it difficult to control wild pigs and additional factors affecting the success of pig management programs in natural areas. Finally, based upon our review of contemporary research and successfully conducted pig eradication campaigns, we provide recommendations for the development of effective wild pig management programs. Overall, we recommend (1) managers implement strategies to detect wild pigs prior to the establishment of stable, breeding populations, (2) management strategies be tailored to specific regional habitat and climatic characteristics, and (3) control be implemented within an adaptive management framework, when possible, to allow further refinement of management objectives and improved characterization of the effects of wild pigs on natural areas.


In this paper, we report experimental results providing a test of the auction theoretic approach to modeling legal systems (see Baye, Kovenock and de Vries, 2005 and Klemperer, 2003). Consistent with the theory, experimental evidence indicates that systems in which winners pay a low fraction of their legal expenditure at trial such as the British and the Continental systems generate higher average total legal costs for cases already at trial. Giving participants the opportunity to opt out of a costly legal dispute, we observe that the British and Continental systems provide lower incentives to litigate. However, contrary to the model's predictions, they generate higher average total legal costs in this case as well. For example, the British system generates fewer trials than the American system, but results in the highest average total legal costs overall. Other legal systems, such as the Quayle and Continental systems, yield intermediate results.


Background: Crime and violence have hindered the development of the people, economy, and health of Mexico. In this study, we conducted a cost-benefit analysis to illustrate the compounding costs associated with not addressing the risk factors that lead children and young persons to violence and crime in Mexico.Methods: We created a fictional account of a typical male criminal offender in Mexico based on quantitative and qualitative data. Using quantitative and qualitative data from public, private, and government sources, we calculated the cost of each stage of Juan's life along with the total cost of all crimes, violence, and events until the age of 37. Results: Direct and indirect costs increased exponentially over time as violent actions and crimes became more severe. The stage where costs were lowest was infancy, totaling $6,216 USD, while the costliest stage was adulthood totaling $1,034,847 USD. The total cost associated with the offender's life (up to age 37) was $1,752,501 USD, while the total estimated cost of implementing prevention programs in each stage of life was $144,254 USD.Conclusions: The Mexican government must prioritize implementing evidence-based policies and programs for mitigating the risk factors that lead young persons to a life of violence and crime. Specifically, investing in programs at the earliest stages of life has been shown to have the greatest benefit in offsetting the compounding associated costs later in life. Our study shows that, theoretically, for every dollar invested on interventions to support Juan's life, $12 are saved. This study can be used as an example and recommendation for other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, which suffer from similar levels of violence and crime, and from similar cultural and socioeconomic conditions.


Abstract Visualization techniques may have changed over the years, but have they fundamentally changed archaeological visual literacy and the ways archaeologists create knowledge? Or do new digital tools merely disguise conventional practices? The answer may reside in a deeper understanding of the long tradition of visualization practice, from the Renaissance to the present, for which the foundation lies in the activities of antiquarians and artists, as well as artistic, technical, and scientific innovations. This paper presents an historical synopsis of two usually separated but complementary research areas, digital archaeology and archaeological visualization, and builds on previous research undertaken on these traditionally separated subjects. By taking a slightly Dutch perspective I will introduce a few visualizing protagonists who have left substantial traces in our collective visual memory, aiming to contribute to a more inclusive historical narrative on archaeological visualization. The overview ends with an integrated discussion on the shared creative visual practice and its epistemic role in archaeological knowledge production. A praxis-oriented and reflexive approach to the history of visualization provides a critical understanding of the current workings of 3D visualization as a creative practice, and how archaeology responds and acts upon innovations and the adoption of new visualization technology.


Erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Er3+:YAG) rods were inserted inside undoped tubes and grown into single-crystal fibers of a diameter of 300 μm using the laser-heated pedestal growth technique. Growth at various rates resulted in radially graded distributions of Er3+ dopant ions, as observed using laser-induced fluorescence imaging. Profiles of the refractive index were measured using cross-sectional reflectometry in a microscope. Dopant distributions and the corresponding index profiles were compared with thermal diffusion theory to determine the inter-diffusion coefficient of Y3+ and Er3+ ions at 2000°C, yielding an estimated value of D=(9.10±0.8)×10-11  m2/s. This work constitutes a step toward controlled growth of fibers with high thermal conductivities, low Brillouin gain, and waveguiding properties required for high-power optical amplifier and laser applications.


ABSTRACT This research is motivated by the operations of a public transit company in Hong Kong. We investigate how real-time information can be utilized in combination with historical data to improve routing and scheduling decisions practically. A dynamic integrated vehicle and crew scheduling problem is studied where travel times are stochastic and time-dependent. The objective is to maximize the route frequencies and mileage to provide good passenger service and simultaneously minimize crew overtime and meal-break delays. To mitigate unexpected delays due to uncertainties in operations, various mathematical models are proposed for revising the schedules in real time under a rolling-horizon framework. Their efficiency and effectiveness are evaluated via simulation using real-world data. The simulation results also identify the potential benefits of revising the schedule dynamically in real time using optimization models. The results show that the proposed approaches can significantly reduce motormen overtime and meal-break delays while maintaining coverage and route frequency requirements.


This study aims to determine and understand the role of Accounting Studies in student
lifestyle and financial behavior of accounting students, which will have an impact on their
future accounting profession. Data was collected through interviews with 10 accounting
students, academics and practitioners which obtained several results. The results of this
study indicated that Accounting Studies plays a role in the lifestyle and financial thinking
of accounting students, and will later be able to have an impact on the performance and
daily life of the accounting profession in the future. Based on this analysis, overall it can be
concluded that besides accounting studies, there is another factor to support the accountant
mindset that is work environment. Mindset, financial behavior and accounting student life
style obtained by accounting studies and it able to support future accounting profession.


Shareholder activism in Europe is sometimes difficult to observe. There are few shareholder proposals put forward at annual meetings on the Continent and even fewer in the United Kingdom. Activism by hedge funds is relatively more frequent but data is only available on the most public cases. This does not imply that shareholder activism in Europe is non-existent; on the contrary. The lack of shareholder proposals could be the result of real shareholder power that only needs to surface occasionally. We analyze this proposition in a non-random sample of 131 European interventions from five activist funds which have provided the authors with proprietary information. Of these 131 interventions, 57 were not made public either during or subsequent to the intervention. Investigating private activism is important because, when it is combined with public activism, it provides a better measure of the overall level of activity. It also allows us to examine the issue of whether private engagements are more profitable than public and hostile engagements, rather like the comparison with hostile versus agreed takeovers (although not all public engagements are hostile and not all private ones are friendly). Our findings indicate that shareholder activists in Europe are more influential than the public numbers might suggest. Also, private engagement outcomes are more profitable when there is chairman turnover and non-takeover restructuring (spin-offs, equity carve-outs). Private activism appears to be particularly significant when engaging with blockholder controlled companies.


This study relates the spatial variability in tree regeneration generated by fire with topography and pre-fire vegetation composition, and analyses how the pattern of fire severities determines post-fire regeneration of the dominant tree species (Pinus halepensis and Quercus ilex) in a large fire that occurred in north-eastern Spain in summer 1994. At the fire level, the proportion of the different fire severities in the burned area was characteristic of large fires that burn with high severity. At the level of plot, the variability of fire severity in the study site depended on two topographic characteristics: elevation and aspect. Plots burned with high fire severity were distributed at higher altitude than less severely burned plots, which were mainly distributed in south- and east-facing slopes. Fire severity also increased with Q. ilex density in the stand. The mosaic of fire severities determined both plant mortality and seedling regeneration. Mortality of stems caused by fire was very high in both species, but many Q. ilex individuals resprouted after fire. Seedling regeneration of P. halepensis showed large differences among plots in the burned area, reflecting large spatial variability due to the elevation gradient, the variation in density of adult pine trees, and the spatial variability created by fire.


Inclusive K 0 s K 0 s production in deep inelastic ep scattering at HERA has been studied with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb − 1 . Two states are observed at masses of 1537 +9 − 8 MeV and 1726 ± 7 MeV, as well as an enhancement around 1300 MeV. The state at 1537 MeV is consistent with the well established f ′ 2 (1525). The state at 1726 MeV may be the glueball candidate f 0 (1710). However, it's width of 38 +20 − 14 MeV is narrower than 125 ± 10 MeV observed by previous experiments for the f 0 (1710).


The Beatbugs are hand-held percussive instruments that allow the creation, manipulation, and sharing of rhythmic motifs through a simple interface. When multiple Beatbugs are connected in a network, players can form large-scale collaborative compositions by interdependently sharing and developing each other's motifs. Each Beatbug player can enter a motif that is then sent through a stochastic computerized "Nerve Center" to other players in the network. Receiving players can decide whether to develop the motif further (by continuously manipulating pitch, timbre, and rhythmic elements using two bend sensor antennae) or to keep it in their personal instrument (by entering and sending their own new motifs to the group.) The tension between the system's stochastic routing scheme and the players' improvised real-time decisions leads to an interdependent, dynamic, and constantly evolving musical experience. A musical composition entitled "Nerve" was written for the system by author Gil Weinberg. It was premiered on February 2002 as part of Tod Machover's Toy Symphony [1] in a concert with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, conducted by Kent Nagano. The paper concludes with a short evaluative discussion of the concert and the week-long workshops that led to it.


We developed an ultra-low noise image sensor in which an organic photoconductive film (OPF) is laminated on the entire surface of the pixel circuits. In order to suppress the kTC noise in the pixel circuit of a three transistor configuration, a high-speed column feedback noise cancel circuit is newly developed. An ultra-low noise of 2.9 electrons during the horizontal blanking period of only 5 μs has been achieved.


A motion transmission system made from coaxial carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is introduced. In the system, the motor is built from a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and the converter is made from triple-walled carbon nanotubes (TWCNTs). The outer shell acts as a stator with two fixed tube ends. The inner tube (rotor 1) and the middle tube (rotor 2) can move freely in the stator. When the axial gaps between the motor and the TWCNTs are small enough and the motor has a relatively high rotational speed, the two rotors have either stable rotation or oscillation, which can be considered as output signals. To investigate the effects of such factors as the length of rotor 2, the rotational speed of the motor, and the environmental temperature on the dynamic response of the two rotors, numerical simulations using molecular dynamics (MD) are presented on a device model having a (5, 5) motor and a (5, 5)/(10, 10)/(1, 15) converter. Numerical results show that the two inner tubes can act as both rotor(s) and oscillator, simultaneously if the middle tube is longer than the inner tube. In particular, we find a new phenomenon, mode conversion of the rotation of rotor 1 by changing the environmental temperature. Briefly, rotor 1 rotates synchronously with the high-speed motor at a higher temperature or with rotor 2 at a lower temperature. The effect of radii difference among the three tubes in the bearing are also discussed by replacing the middle tube (10, 10) with different zigzag tubes.


The first regioselective, stereoselective, and living polymerization of divinyl pyridine monomers, mediated by simple rare earth catalysts, is reported. The polymerization by Ln(CH2SiMe3)3(L)2 (Ln = Sc, Y, Lu, Dy; L = THF, Py) is perfectly regioselective for a 2,5-divinylpyridine (DVP) monomer, and the process only concerned the double bond at the 2-position of DVP and the CC bond at the 5-position selectively remained unreacted. In contrast, the polymerization of DVP by La(CH2SiMe3)3(THF)2 is not regioselective, producing a cross-linking network. The polymerization by Lu(CH2SiMe3)3(Py)2/B(C6F5)3 is most stereoselective, yielding perfect isotactic PDVP with mmmm >99%. The isoselectivity (mm) of the polymers could be controlled in a range of 31% to 99% by adjusting the amount of THF added. The DVP polymerization is controlled by Lu[CH(C5H4N)CH2CH2SiMe3]3 (formed via in situ mixing of Lu(CH2SiMe3)3(THF)2 and 2-vinylpyridine), with the molecular weight (Mn) matching the theoretical value of monomer conversion and a narrow dispersity. The stereoblock polymerization of DVP with 2-vinylpyridine was achieved by adding the monomer sequentially. The post-functionalization of stereoblock polymers containing vinyl groups has been achieved by the thiol–ene "click" reaction in which all the CC double bonds are quantitatively converted to thioether bonds.


Abstract Diseases characterized by recurrent symptoms with prolonged intervals without any clinical manifestations can pose diagnostic difficulties. Some diagnoses will be obvious but other situations can be very challenging. To nosologically delineate a new entity characterized by recurrent flares of induration of the forearms and legs with swelling of the extremities accompanied by intense fatigue and variable other symptoms. Retrospective observational study of patients recorded from 2000 to 2015. All patients included were seen during a consultation at the Dermatology Department of the University Hospital of Strasbourg, France. We retrieved the medical records from patients seen and recorded over the last 16 years having induration of the extremities, the forearm and the legs occurring between 4 and 12 hours after a physical effort accompanied by systemic signs that lasted for a few days. We analyzed in detail the clinical and biological features, evolution, and treatments of these patients. We included 6 males, with a mean age of 47 years; mean age at disease onset was 42. All patients were initially misdiagnosed as having rheumatic disorders. The mean delay before diagnosis was 5 years. The main complaint was painful induration or muscle soreness of the forearms and the legs associated with transient functional impairment and prolonged asthenia for a mean duration of 3.5 days. Induration of the deep soft tissues was very suggestive of myofasciitis. The delay between the triggering physical effort and the swelling was between 6 and 12 hours. Physical effort as triggering factor was never spontaneously mentioned. Two patients had partial response to high dose antihistamines and 2 other patients to the interleukin-1 inhibitor anakinra. One patient responded to hydroxychloroquine. The very stereotypical presentation in those 6 patients suggests that this is a recognizable entity characterized by effort-induced induration of forearms and/or legs, due to deep edematous myofascial involvement, occurring a few hours after a physical effort. We suggest to name this entity delayed effort-induced swelling with myofasciitis and systemic manifestations.


``Integrated'' control of pest species refers to a combination of physical, chemical, and biological actions for purposes of regulation. Attempts at the theoretical optimization of pest control exist in the literature (find seven such studies cited in the reference section). These studies have been analytical studies with simplified models or have been dynamic programming studies with low-order models. In this correspondence the numerical solution of the two-point boundary value problem of the optimal control of pests is illustrated. Such procedures are often subject to convergence problems but always hold the promise of being applicable to higher order models. Linear quadratic regulation about an optimal open loop trajectory is illustrated by example. Another feature here is a description of a ``dollar cost'' performance index. The effect of increasing ``marginal'' cost of control (i.e., increase of the partial derivative of cost with respect to control) is demonstrated. One of the advantages of the numerical method utilized is that the order of the model can be increased to include a dynamic crop state. A dynamic crop state is necessary for the proper calculation of the cumulative economic damage by a pest.


ABSTRACT The world is still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many lost their jobs. It was during this pandemic that people payed more attention to freelancing. However, even before the pandemic, this phenomenon was already gaining ground in the Philippines. The purpose of this paper is to explore Filipino professionals' lived experiences as they transition from the corporate world into a work from home job as online freelancers. This study used a qualitative research design using the phenomenological approach. Eleven participants willingly responded to the key informant interviews (KII). They were professionals who left their previous corporate job to work from home as online freelancers. Results revealed that the challenges they encountered were distractions at home and lack of recognition. The identified themes for the advantages were freedom, more time with the family, and flexibility. Based on the study's findings, it appeared that the benefits of freelance work outweigh the challenges. Freelancing creates alternative employment opportunities for Filipinos, both professionals or not. The implication of the study points to the need for education or information dissemination so that those who need jobs or want to transition from the corporate world can venture into freelancing, especially during a pandemic.


Connectionless networking protocols such as DNS continue to be widely misused for Reflection & Amplification (R&A) DDoS attacks. Early efforts to address the main cause of DNS-based R&A were focused on identifying and attempting to eradicate open DNS resolvers. One characteristic of open resolvers that has not received much attention so far is that – as a result of unexpected behavior – resolvers can react to a single query with multiple DNS responses. We refer to these as Echoing Resolvers. In this paper, we quantify the problem of echoing resolvers in the wild. We identify thousands of such resolvers on the Internet and show how some reply on the order of tens of thousands of times to a single query, further escalating the potential of R&A DDoS attacks. We analyze the cause of response repetition, study behavioral differences among echoing resolvers, and categorize resolvers on the basis of the underlying causes of the observed behavior. We show how the interplay between DNS traffic and the traversed networks is responsible for echoing resolvers. In particular, we identify IP broadcasting as a cause of echoing resolvers, on top of phenomena already described in the literature (e.g., routing loops). Furthermore, we show that using sensitive labels in queries can lead to a more powerful echoing effect while using different query types does not significantly affect echoing behavior. Finally, seeing how some underlying causes of response repetition also affect or can be turned against authoritative nameservers, we quantify the potential impact of echoing resolvers on these as well.


Seismic mapping in the Cardigan Bay basin (CBB) shows that very deep Mesozoic subsidence (post-Carboniferous succession c. 6 km) exerted a significant influence over both the mode and scale of Late Cretaceous-Tertiary uplift. The basin comprises a thick sequence of Mesozoic sediment (including the thickest and most complete Liassic succession in the UK), that fills a central, fault-bounded 'sag' depression, expressed as near-circular isopachs. Inversion, in the sense of reverse reactivation of initially normal faults, is most clearly manifest on seismic data along the northwest and southern margins of the basin, where the Mesozoic succession is thinnest. From integration of seismic data with regional results from apatite fission track analysis (e.g. Lewis et al. 1992), however, it is increasingly clear that the basal Tertiary unconformity records substantial uplift and erosion across the entire basin. Gravity modelling-derived depth to the moho beneath the CBB suggests it is depressed by up to 10 km, from a regional depth of c. 20 km (Meisner et al 1986). On the BIRPS deep seismic profile, SWAT 2 & 3, (Klemperer & Hobbs 1991), the CBB is interpreted as a Mesozoic half-graben, located immediately foreward of the Variscan Front. Consequently its thickened crust cannot easily be interpreted to have undergone thickening during Variscan thrusting. We assign this crustal thickening to Alpine reactivation of deep, Variscan and/or Caledonian structures. Such an interpretation leads to an additional mechanism for regional Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary uplift of the CBB, whereby isostatic uplift occurs in response to the formation of a


Spatial symmetry operations and reciprocity relations are used to establish constraints on the forms of the Mueller matrices describing Rayleigh scattering by fluids, both in the absence or presence of electric and magnetic fields. Deduced forms of the scattering matrices are used to assess the response of a number of different scattering systems to six basic input polarization states; and in each case the analysed intensity components of the output beam transmitted by analysers which select each of the basic polarization states are evaluated in terms of the Mueller matrix elements. Tables of matrix forms and analysed scattered intensities are presented, the use of which provides systematic insight into a wide range of possible differential light-scattering experiments on fluids.


Changhua Christian Hospital (CCH) is the medical center of the longest history in central Taiwan (Figure 1). Originated from the medical clinics started in Changhua Church by David Landsborough from the UK and Rev. Campbell Moody in 1896, CCH has opened up an opportunity to serve people and preaching gospels in the name of Jesus. For more than 100 years, CCH has made many achievements by unremitting efforts.


The vitamins and related compounds cited in the title were investigated for their abilities to modulate sister-chromatid exchanges (SCEs) induced by Trp-P-2 or cyclophosphamide (CP) in human peripheral lymphocyte cultures in the presence of an exogenous metabolizing system from rat liver. When inducer and test substances were given simultaneously, beta-carotene, retinal and alpha-tocopherol caused a dose-dependent decrease of SCE frequencies induced by Trp-P-2 and CP. Vitamin K1, however, brought about an identical effect with Trp-P-2 only, while with CP an initial decrease of SCEs was followed by a statistically significant re-increase at higher concentrations. Vitamin C was ineffective against Trp-P-2, but caused an overall increase of SCEs induced by CP. When blood cultures were preincubated with vitamins before the addition of CP or Trp-P-2, basically identical effects were observed with beta-carotene, retinal, alpha-tocopherol, vitamin K1 and vitamin C. Riboflavin decreased SCEs induced by Trp-P-2 in all treatment schedules, although statistically confirmed minima were observed in the dose-response curves, except in post-treatment experiments. On the other hand, riboflavin only reduced SCEs induced by CP when it was preincubated with lymphocytes. When vitamins were applied in a post-treatment schedule after removal of Trp-P-2 or CP, again, basically identical results against both genotoxins were observed with beta-carotene, retinal and alpha-tocopherol with vitamin K1, however, only with respect to Trp-P-2, and with vitamin C only with respect to CP. In the post-treatment schedule, vitamin K1 caused a decrease of SCE frequencies induced by CP, and vitamin C a decrease of SCEs induced by Trp-P-2.


The Algebra of Modular System is a KR formalism that allows for combinations of modules written in multiple languages. Informally, a module represents a piece of knowledge. It can be given by a knowledge base, be an agent, an ASP, ILP, CP program, etc. Formally, a module is a class of structures over the same vocabulary. Modules are combined declaratively, using, essentially, operations of Codd's relational algebra.
In this paper, we address the problem of checking modular system containment, which we relate to a homomorphism problem. We prove that, for a large class of modular systems, the containment problem (and thus equivalence) is in the complexity class NP, and therefore is solvable by, e.g., SAT solvers. We discuss conditions under which the problem is polynomial time solvable.


This paper describes a group of online services which are designed to support social
survey research and the production of statistical results. The 'Grid Enabled Specialist
Data Environment' (GESDE) services constitute three related systems which offer
facilities to search for, extract and exploit supplementary data and metadata concerned
with the measurement and operationalisation of survey variables. The services also offer
users the opportunity to deposit and distribute their own supplementary data resources for
the benefit of dissemination and replication of the details of their own analysis.
The GESDE services focus upon three application areas: specialist data relating to the
measurement of occupations; educational qualifications; and ethnicity (including
nationality, language, religion, national identity). They identify information resources
related to the operationalisation of variables which seek to measure each of these
concepts - examples include coding frames, crosswalk and translation files, and
standardisation and harmonisation recommendations. These resources constitute
important supplementary data which can be usefully exploited in the analysis of survey
data. The GESDE services work by collecting together as much of this supplementary
data as possible, and making it searchable and retrievable to others. This paper discusses
the current features of the GESDE services (which have been designed as part of a wider
programme of 'e-Science' research in the UK), and considers ongoing challenges in
providing effective support for variable-oriented statistical analysis in the social sciences.


QR decomposition (QRD) is an essential signal processing task for many MIMO signal detection schemes. However, decomposition of complex MIMO channel matrices with large dimensions leads to high computational complexity, and hence results in either large core area or low throughput. Moreover, for mobile communication applications that involve fast-varying channels, it is required to perform QR decomposition with low processing latency. In this paper, we propose a hybrid QRD scheme that uses a combination of multi-dimensional Givens rotations, Householder transformations and the conventional two-dimensional (2D) Givens rotations to both reduce the overall computational complexity and achieve higher execution parallelism. To prove the effectiveness of the proposed QRD scheme, a novel pipelined architecture is presented that uses un-rolled pipelined CORDIC processors iteratively to maximize throughput and resource utilization, while minimizing the gate count. The architectures of the main data processing modules, namely the 2D, Householder 3D and 4D/2D configurable pipelined CORDIC processors, are also presented. Synthesis results for a 4×4 MIMO detector in 0.13µm CMOS process indicate that this QRD design computes a 4×4 complex R matrix and four updated 4×1 complex symbol vectors every 40 cycles, at a clock frequency of 270 MHz and requires 36K gates. The proposed design achieves the lowest processing time and the highest throughput reported to-date for the same framework.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Unintentional drug poisoning deaths represent a major health concern, particularly in rural areas. Although alprazolam is frequently detected in drug-related deaths, characterization of its involvement is limited. Our objective was to compare the characteristics of alprazolam-related deaths with nonalprazolam deaths in a predominantly rural state.

METHODS
A comprehensive forensic drug database (FDD) was developed in 2005 to compile demographic, toxicology, and co-morbidity information from all West Virginia (WV) drug-related deaths. All FDD data from 2005 to mid-November 2007 were analyzed.

RESULTS
Alprazolam contributed to 204 (17.0%) of the 1,199 drug-related deaths and was identified in 7.2% of the 363 deaths occurring during 2005 and in 27.5% of the 422 deaths entered in the database during 2007. At least one other drug, predominantly an opioid, was identified in 97.5% of the alprazolam cases, with concurrent benzodiazepines also found. Compared to nonalprazolam deaths, alprazolam decedents were significantly more likely to be obese and to have preexisting cardiovascular disease, but were less likely to have documented substance abuse. An alprazolam prescription existed in 52.5% of the alprazolam deaths, with 77.6% having a prescription for all drugs identified.

CONCLUSIONS
Alprazolam was a contributing cause of death in a substantial and increasing number of drug-related deaths. Prescriptions for alprazolam and the other drugs detected were often present in these cases.

SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE
Controlled substance monitoring programs should be routinely used as one mechanism to help prevent potential drug misuse/abuse. Our findings provide a baseline for ongoing alprazolam-related death surveillance.


Reinforcement learning is well-studied under discrete actions. Integer actions setting is popular in the industry yet still challenging due to its high dimensionality. To this end, we study reinforcement learning under integer actions by incorporating the Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm with an integer reparameterization. Our key observation for integer actions is that their discrete structure can be simplified using their comparability property. Hence, the proposed integer reparameterization does not need one-hot encoding and is of low dimensionality. Experiments show that the proposed SAC under integer actions is as good as the continuous action version on robot control tasks and outperforms Proximal Policy Optimization on power distribution systems control tasks.


In this paper, the mass sensitivity of dual mode thin film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) based on ZnO film with tilted polar c-axis has been theoretically investigated. The tilted c-axis orientation induces normal plane and in-plane polarizations, which leads to the coexistence of the longitudinal mode and shear mode in the resonator. Equation for predicting electric impedance of dual mode ZnO FBAR with a mass loading layer was derived from the basic piezoelectric constitutive equations. The mass sensitivity of dual mode ZnO resonator was achieved by calculation of resonant frequency shifts of thickness shear mode and longitudinal mode caused by a thin mass loading layer. In the simulation, ZnO thin film has a c-axis tilt angle from 0°–90°, 2µm thickness and 300µm by 300µm electrode area; Al, SiO2, Au and Pt thin films were considered as the mass loading layers. It was found that both thickness longitudinal resonance frequency and shear resonance frequency for different c-axis tilt angle have a large shift due to the mass loading; the mass sensitivities of longitudinal and shear mode for this four mass loading materials are very close, and do not change much with c-axis tilt angle with a value rang around −900 cm2/g. The simulation results can be used for design and application of ZnO FBARs.


A special structure is present in the lens design landscape that makes it different from a general global optimization problem: many local minimums are closely related to minimums of simpler problems and can therefore be found by decomposing the search for them in simple steps. We show here that in the design landscape of a wide-angle pinhole lens and in closely related optimization landscapes, all good local minimums found by other methods can be obtained easily with a succession of one-dimensional searches starting from simpler systems. By replacing high-dimensional searches with a succession of one-dimensional searches, the design efficiency can be increased significantly. By combining this method with conventional design methods, the wide-angle pinhole lens can be designed starting from a single lens.


OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of various risk factors for stroke and its sub-types
among males and females.
DESIGN: Cross sectional /Observational study.
PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: The study was conducted at the Medical Department of
Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad/Jamshoro from January 2006 to March 2007.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patients with features of stroke confirmed by CT scan brain were
enrolled. Brain imaging showing abnormality e.g. brain tumour, meningitis, multiple sclerosis
and metabolic derangements that could explain focal neurologic deficit were the exclusion parameters.
The frequency of various risk factors for stroke and its types among males and females
were evaluated.
RESULTS: Out of total 100 patients, 78(78%) presented with infarction stroke and 22(22%) with
hemorrhagic stroke. Their mean age at presentation was 56.89 with SD=8.92 years. Hypertension
35(59.3%) and smoking 18(94.7%) were the most important risk factors among males,
while the presence of diabetes mellitus 16(55.2%) and IHD 10(62.5%) were found to be more
common among females. Forty-two (42%) and 11(11%) males, while 36(36.3%) and 11(11%) females
suffering from cerebral infarction and cerebral hemorrhage respectively. In-hospital mortality
was 09(09%).
CONCLUSION: Frequency of various risk factors was high in this study which is similar to that
observed in developed countries. Hypertension and smoking were the major risk factors for
males, while diabetes mellitus and IHD were more common in females. We did not find any significant
gender difference between the two stroke types.
CATEGORY: Internal Medicine


Objectives We sought to review the management of scorpion stings in tertiary and secondary care emergency departments in Oman and determine physician's knowledge of management protocols. Methods We conducted a retrospective study of all scorpion stings cases seen in Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) emergency department (ED) from March 2016 to July 2017. Additionally, we conducted a survey of ED physicians regarding their management of scorpion stings in three different EDs including SQUH. Results The total number of scorpion stings seen at SQUH during the study period was 128. Localized pain was seen in 97.7% (n = 125), swelling in 14.8% (n = 19), and local redness in 7.0% (n = 9) of patients. Around 13.0% (n = 17) of patients were found to have systemic symptoms with tachycardia being the most common. Bedside clotting test was done for 11.7% (n = 15) of patients. The most commonly used treatment was local anesthesia (54.7%, n = 70). No patient received scorpion antivenom. In the 89 surveyed physicians the main management method used was analgesia (88.8%, n = 71) followed by local anesthesia (81.1%, n = 65). Most physicians (80.0%, n = 64) believed that local anesthesia was the most effective management. However, 32.5% (n = 26) ordered a whole blood bedside clotting test, 69.2% (n = 18) of which were junior doctors. Conclusions Most scorpion sting cases managed in SQUH had local symptoms. Tachycardia was the most common systemic manifestation. Bedside clotting test was not commonly ordered and mainly requested by junior doctors. Local anesthesia infiltration is the recommended management for scorpion sting. Analgesia was the main management followed by local anesthesia.


GHTA (Gas Hollow Tungsten Arc) welding experiments were conducted under a simulated space environment that consists of vacuum and microgravity. A vacuum chamber for the experiments was placed in the aircraft cabin. Aluminum and titanium plates were employed as work pieces. The experiments prove that the arc discharge phenomena, the welding phenomena, and the microstructure of welded metal receive almost no effect from gravity. Moreover, it is also demonstrated that the weld metal of the plate welded under the simulated space environment hangs down less than that of the plate welded on the ground.


Objectives: The aim was to find the cleaning ability of the toothbrush with or without the use of dentifrice in removal of debris and plaque in hostel inmates aged 20-24 years. Materials and Methods: A randomized clinical trial was carried out on 30 undergraduate students of K.D. Dental College and Hospital. The debris and plaque scores were recorded using debris index-simplified and plaque index respectively. The subjects were divided into three groups. After recording the baseline scores, the study groups were instructed to follow the modified bass method for the period of 10 days and then follow-up scores were recorded. Paired ' t '- test and one-way ANOVA test was used to compare the mean baseline and mean follow-up scores. Results: The difference in mean debris scores at baseline and follow-up for Group II ( P = 0.000) and Group III ( P = 0.005) was found to be statistically significant. However, for Group I ( P = 0.153), this difference was not significant. The difference in mean plaque scores at baseline and follow-up in all the three groups was statistically significant. When the mean differences in debris and plaque scores of the three groups were compared, it was found to be statistically significant for Group I and Group II and Group I and Group III, however, it was not significant for Groups II and III. Conclusion: The present study showed that the cleaning ability of the toothbrush with dentifrice was more effective in the removal of debris and plaque than the cleaning ability of the toothbrush without dentifrice.


The complexity of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) intra prediction design mainly comes from two aspects. First, as compared with the predecessor H.264/AVC, HEVC increases the number of prediction angles from 9 up to 33. Second, HEVC employs 5 kinds of n×n prediction unit size, including 4×4, 8×8, 16×16, 32×32 and 64×64. The computation intensity of intra encoding is increased by one order. In this paper, we provide the high efficient reconfigurable VLSI architecture for all intra directional prediction modes. The proposed design possesses the following merits: (1) Our prediction engine is equipped with sixteen uniform modules, and can be configured to produce 2 · m number row-wise n prediction samples in each cycle, where n = {4, 8, 16, 32, 64} and m = 64/n; (2) As our design always produces the row-wise samples, the hardware consuming transpose register array between the prediction residue module and the following DCT engine is eliminated. This feature further avoids the bubble operations in the horizontal predictions. With TSMC 90nm CMOS technology, the proposed architecture achieves 357MHz operating frequency at the cost of 817.3k gates, and the corresponding power dissipation is 114mW. Our implementation can fulfill the throughput requirement of HD2560 × 1600@46fps real-time encoding.


A system is described for the design, downloading and execution of arbitrary functions, intended for use with acoustic and low-frequency ultrasonic transducers in condition monitoring and materials testing applications. The instrumentation comprises a software design tool and a powerful real-time digital signal processor unit, operating at 580 million multiplication-accumulations per second (MMACs). The embedded firmware employs both an established look-up table approach and a new function interpolation technique to generate the real-time signals with very high precision and flexibility. Using total harmonic distortion (THD) analysis, the purity of the waveforms have been compared with those generated using traditional analogue function generators; this analysis has confirmed that the new instrument has a consistently superior signal-to-noise ratio.


Nitric oxide is emerging as one of the most studied molecules in many aspects of human physiology and pathophysiology. Because of the inflammatory nature of aseptic loosening of total hip replacement, it is likely that nitric oxide plays a major role in this condition as well. Nitric oxide is known to interact with cyclooxygenase enzymes that produce prostanoids. Nitric oxide can stimulate synthesis and activity of the inducible, proinflammatory isoform of the enzyme, namely, cyclooxygenase 2. Interactions between the cytokine inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase 2 pathways serve to regulate bone cell viability such that cyclooxygenase 2 activity can protect against nitric oxide mediated programmed cell death. In the pseudomembrane these two pathways are coactivated in CD68 positive macrophages, fibroblasts, lining cells, and in vascular smooth muscles. Particle generation from wear of the prosthesis has a significant role as an inducer of nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase 2; macrophages laden with small size particles and positive for inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase 2 are a frequent finding. Nitric oxide readily reacts with superoxide to form peroxynitrite, which is a strong oxidant species. In pseudosynovial interface membrane, detection of nitrotyrosine provides evidence for the formation and activity of peroxynitrite. These findings show evidence that nitric oxide, superoxide, and peroxynitrite mediated cellular damage is part of the pathophysiology of aseptic loosening of joint implants. These new findings suggest that antiinflammatory compounds can be useful to treat early aseptic loosening of joint implants.


BACKGROUND
Impaired glucose regulation (IGR) represents the prediabetic state and is associated with gut microbiota (GM) dysbiosis and chronic inflammation. Tangning Ziyabitusi Tablet (TZT) is a Chinese Uyghur herbal medicine with preventative and therapeutic effects on diabetes, but its hypoglycemic mechanisms are unclear.

METHODS
Thirty-six male Wistar rats were divided into the normal diet (ND) and IGR groups. The IGR group was given a high-fat diet (HFD). After the IGR model establishment, the ND group was divided into ND and ND+TZT groups, and the IGR group into IGR and IGR+TZT groups. After 8 weeks of TZT administration, 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics were performed on fecal samples. Mesenteric lymph nodes were also collected, and T lymphocytes separated after rats were sacrificed. Flow cytometry was used to characterize different CD4+ T cell subsets in mesenteric lymph nodes. Finally, we analyzed the correlation between GM and characteristic fecal metabolites.

RESULTS
Impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance were improved in the IGR+TZT group when compared with the IGR group. Bacterial 16S rRNA sequencing results showed that Sobs and Chao1 indices in the IGR group were significantly decreased, but were increased in the IGR+TZT group. The relative abundance of Bacteroidetes was decreased while the relative abundance of Firmicutes was increased in the IGR group. Adlercreutzia abundance was decreased after TZT administration, while the abundance of Christensenellaceae_R-7_group, norank_f_norank_o_Clostridia_UCG-014, UCG-005, and Eubacterium_nodatum_group was increased in the IGR+TZT group. Lymph node CD4+ T cell proportions in the IGR group were significantly increased, while they were significantly decreased in the IGR+TZT group. Correlation analysis showed that tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, T helper cells (Th1, Th2, Treg), and insulin had a greater impact on GM community structure.

CONCLUSIONS
TZT improved glucose tolerance and ameliorated GM dysbiosis in IGR rats. Additionally, TZT significantly modulated CD4+ T cell subset proportions in rat mesenteric lymph nodes and fecal metabolism. Moreover, correlation analysis showed that key microbiota was closely related to IGR indices. Thus, TZT modulated GM composition and immune functions of the intestinal mucosa. We provide useful information for the investigation of active mechanisms and the clinical application of TZT.