Tiagabine (Gabitril, Paris, France) is a new antiepileptic drug that acts as a selective inhibitor of the c-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transporter, GAT-1. It has recently been reported to be effective in diseases other than epilepsy, such as stiff man syndrome and neuropathic pain, conditions in which GABAergic mechanisms are supposedly involved. In multiple sclerosis, painful tonic spasms affect approximately 10% of patients and are usually treated with GABAergic drugs such as baclofen or gabapentin. 5 We undertook an open label pilot study of tiagabine, in a dose range of 5 to 30 mg/day, in a group of seven multiple sclerosis patients with painful tonic spasms who were nonresponsive or intolerant to established drug treatment. The patients had previously been treated with gabapentin, baclofen, diazepam, or clonazepam, and were being followed in the department of neurology, PA Micone Hospital, Genoa, Italy. Four subjects were female and three were male, with a mean age of 45.1 years, mean disease duration of 7.1 years, and mean expanded disability status score (EDSS) of 4.0. Four patients had relapsing-remitting, one had secondary progressive, and two had primary progressive disease. Painful tonic spasms were defined as transient painful extensor or flexor spasms in the lower limbs, with abrupt onset and brief duration (from a few seconds to a few minutes), with repetitive and stereotypical features. The subjective level of the painful tonic spasms was scored using a three point scale previously described: 0, no pain, no attack; 1, mild pain or discomfort, presents only a limited amount of time; 2, intermediate pain or discomfort: the duration moderately interferes with daily activities; 3, severe pain: intensity or frequency of symptoms seriously limiting normal daily activity. Spasticity level was scored using the Ashworth scale. Tiagabine was started at 5 mg daily and increased until spasms were relieved or to the maximum dosage of 30 mg. No other drugs with a potential influence on spasticity were allowed during the study period. The patients were clinically evaluated at baseline (T0), after pain relief was achieved (T1), and after three months from the beginning of the protocol (T2). The minimum follow up period was three months. All specific symptomatic drug treatments used previously were discontinued one week before treatment with tiagabine was begun. The mean dose of tiagabine was 12.8 mg daily. Relief of painful tonic spasms was successful in four of the seven patients (minimum treatment period, three months). All four patients had complete and sustained recovery within one month of initiation of treatment (a reduction of two points on the pain scale); efficacy was maintained for a period of three months in all four subjects. The Ashworth score changed by one point in one subject. The clinical characteristics of the patients and the painful tonic spasm scores before and after treatment are given in table 1. Two patients (Nos 2 and 5) dropped out of the study because of adverse effects: one with nausea and dizziness, the other with drowsiness and weakness. These subjects had a longer disease duration and higher EDSS scores, suggesting a possible correlation between disease severity and adverse effects.


This report describes progress in designing a neutral atom trap capable of trapping sub millikelvin atom in a magnetic trap and shuttling the atoms across the atom chip from a collection area to an optical cavity. The numerical simulation and atom chip design are discussed. Also, discussed are preliminary calculations of quantum noise sources in Kerr nonlinear optics measurements based on electromagnetically induced transparency. These types of measurements may be important for quantum nondemolition measurements at the few photon limit.


Ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy is widely applied in real-time environmental monitoring, especially in diesel vehicle nitrogen monoxide (NO) emissions. However, in field experiments, UV absorption spectrum may exist for different degrees of drifts. Spectral jitters may exist for various reasons such as optical power variation, electrical signal drift, and the refractive index jitters of the optical path for an extended period of time, which causes the detection system to be calibrated. And the pulse xenon lamps as the UV source are characterized by specific emission lines that interfere in spectral analysis directly. For these problems, we proposed the spectral structure matching method based on principal component analysis (PCA), which was compared with the conventional polynomial fitting method to observe feasibility and variability. Further, the UV derivative spectrum was applied to the system appropriately, due to the variation of the absorption peak, and was only related to the target gas by using the above method. We validated our method experimentally by performing the NO UV detection system with the calibration and the comparison test. The results suggested that the calibration relative error was less than 9% and the measurement relative error was less than 6% for this wide range by the proposed processes, which optimized the interference of spectral structures and fluctuation to the system and therefore provided better monitoring. This study may provide an alternative spectral analysis method that is unaffected on the specific emission lines of lamps and is not limited to the spectral region and the target gas.


In spite of major advances in both ground- and space-based instrumentation, the ultralow surface brightness Universe (ULSB) still remains a largely unexplored volume in observational parameter space. ULSB observations provide unique constraints on a wide variety of objects, from the Zodiacal light all the way to the optical cosmological background radiation, through dust cirri, mass-loss shells in giant stars, LSB galaxies and the intracluster light. These surface brightness levels (>28–29 mag arcsec−2) are observed by maximizing the efficiency of the surveys and minimizing or removing the systematics arising in the measurement of surface brightness. Based on full-system photon Monte Carlo simulations, we present here the performance of a ground-based telescope aimed at carrying out ULSB observations, with a curved focal surface design. Its off-axis optical design maximizes the field of view while minimizing the focal ratio. No lenses are used, as their multiple internal scatterings increase the wings of the point spread function (PSF), and the usual requirement of a flat focal plane is relaxed through the use of curved CCD detectors. The telescope has only one unavoidable single refractive surface, the cryostat window, and yet it delivers a PSF with ultracompact wings, which allows the detection, for a given exposure time, of surface brightness levels nearly three orders of magnitude fainter than any other current telescope.


The forensic characteristics of crimes form a relatively stable, interconnected system. The presence of one of its elements makes it possible to state the presence of another one. This necessitates the study on correlation relationships between the elements. The analysis of the data on forensic characteristics of encroachment on personal freedom revealed that between victims and criminals there are specific relationships that form significant circumstances for the investigation of these crimes. It is substantiated that data on the identity of the victim of encroachment on personal freedom are the motivational basis for the commission of the investigated crimes, determining the mechanism of criminal behavior of the perpetrators. The author gives classification of victims of the analyzed crimes: those involving the exploitation of victims and not involving exploitation of the victims. Sociodemographic, moral, psychological and biological traits of victims' personality distinctive of each of the identified groups are substantiated. The classification of the personality traits of criminals encroaching on personal freedom, i.e. "captors," "slave owners," and "imprisoners," is given; the qualitative uniqueness of the personality traits of each group is investigated. To justify the correlation dependencies of criminals and victims, the materials of court practice are analyzed, conclusions are drawn and the results of the study are summarized.


Abstract Objective: To enhance 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) permeability through the skin by loading onto gold nanoparticles (GNPs) capped with two cationic ligands, benzalkonium chloride (BC) or poly (ethylene imine) (PEI). Whereas 5-FU has excellent efficacy against many cancers, its poor permeability through biological membranes and several adverse effects limit its clinical benefits. BC and PEI were selected to stabilize GNPs and to load 5-FU through ionic interactions. Methods: 5-FU/BC-GNPs and 5-FU/PEI-GNPs were prepared at different 5-FU/ligand molar ratios and different pH values and were evaluated using different techniques. GNPs stability was tested as a function of salt concentration and storage time. 5-FU release from BC- and PEI-GNPs was evaluated as a function of solution pH. Ex vivo permeability studies of different 5-FU preparations were carried out using mice skin. Results: 5-FU-loaded GNPs size and surface charge were dependent on the 5-FU/ligand molar ratios. 5-FU entrapment efficiency and loading capacity were dependent on the used ligand, 5-FU/ligand molar ratio and solution pH. Maximum drug entrapment efficiency of 59.0 ± 1.7% and 46.0 ± 1.1% were obtained for 5-FU/BC-GNPs and 5-FU/PEI-GNPs, respectively. 5-FU-loaded GNPs had good stability against salinity and after storage for 4 months at room temperature and at 4 °C. In vitro 5-FU release was pH- and ligand-dependent where slower release was observed at higher pH and for 5-FU/BC-GNPs. 5-FU permeability through mice skin was significantly higher for drug-loaded GNPs compared with drug-ligand complex or drug aqueous solution. Conclusion: Based on these results, BC- and PEI-GNPs might find applications as effective topical delivery systems of 5-FU.


On July 17, 2011, at 18:30:23 UTC, a M L 4.7 earthquake occurred on the east side of the Po Plain (northern Italy), between the towns of Ferrara and Rovigo. The epicentral coordinates provided by the National Earthquake Center of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, INGV) were 45.01˚N and 11.41˚E (http://iside.rm.ingv.it/iside). The depth of the hypocenter was constrained at 8.1 km, corresponding to a buried active source that existed in the area. The source of the event was characterized by a predominant left-transverse focal mechanism, even if there was also an important reverse component. Although it did not produce relevant damage, the earthquake was clearly felt in an area of about 50 km radius around the epicenter. The maximum observed intensity was V on the Mercalli-Cancani-Sieberg (MCS) scale, with a predominant distribution of damage towards the north-west. This study provides an overview of the strong-motion waveforms of the mainshock as recorded by the RAIS (Rete Accelerometrica Italia Settentrionale) strong-motion network, in particular focusing on the recordings provided by the stations located in the central part of the basin, which were installed in correspondence with hundreds of soft sediments. The preliminary results show the relevant influence of the basin on the seismic wavefield, highlighting in particular a possible site-amplification phenomena, and also affecting the ground motion at long periods (T >1 s). The systematic underestimations provided by the empirical ground-motion predictive models calibrated for Italy in terms of acceleration response spectra up to 2.0 s support this hypothesis. The sharing of the 24 waveforms (in raw sac and ascii formats) recorded by RAIS is assured by the availability of the data at the ftp site: ftp://ftp.mi.ingv.it/download/RAIS-FR_rel01/.


Tube hydroforming is one of the successful manufacturing processes to create a variety of shapes using fluid pressure. The process fills the tube with fluid and pressurizes it to deform in various cross-sections. The method is categorized in three types: high pressure, pressure sequencing and low-pressure tube hydroforming. Tube hydroforming has gained popularity due to its many advantages such as part consolidation, uniform deformation, quality of the formed part and the possibility of unique shapes with indents or angles. Due to uniform thinning in the formed part, the parts can be lower weight and thus proven to be the technology to create light-weight parts for automotive and aerospace industries to increase the fuel economy. This paper focuses on low-pressure tube hydroforming. In low-pressure tube hydroforming, during the closing of the die the tube is marginally pressurized to a fixed volume. The previous study which was published in IMECE2019 and 2020 was focused on to investigate the effect of variation of thickness on deformation mechanics of the tube with variation in the process sequence during low-pressure tube hydroforming. In this part of the research, the study focused on how the velocity of the die effect the deformation mechanics with variation of the process sequence during low-pressure tube hydroforming. The circular tube was formed in a square shape. The four sides of die edges were considered as individual edges and the motion of these edges will be varied to achieve the final shape. The deformation mechanics in each condition was presented and analyzed. The die velocity effect on die filling, thickness and strain distribution were studied. It was found that the die velocity effects the tube deformation for the thinner tube and buckling could be eliminated using low pressure with tight die filling.


This paper proposed a novel layout for cross-coupled pair to reduce its extrinsic resistive and capacitive parasitic parameters and another layout for differential pair to decrease the influence of Miller effect and some other parasitic effects. The equivalent circuits of the extrinsic parasitic network of these two structures are first derived and validated using EM simulation. The extraction equations of components in proposed parasitic network are also given.


An online line-scan imaging system containing an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device detector and line-scan spectrograph was used for identifying wholesome and unwholesome freshly slaughtered chicken carcasses on high-speed commercial chicken processing lines. Hyperspectral images were acquired using the line-scan imaging system for 5549 wholesome chicken carcasses and 93 unwholesome chicken carcasses on a commercial processing line, for analysis to optimize ROI size and location and to determine the key intensity waveband and ratio wavebands to be used for online inspection. Multispectral imaging algorithms were developed for real-time online identification of wholesome and unwholesome chicken carcasses. The imaging system inspected over 100,000 chickens on a commercial 140-bpm kill line during continuous operation and achieved over 99% accuracy in identifying wholesome chickens and over 96% accuracy in identifying unwholesome chickens. A system of this type can perform food safety inspection tasks accurately and with less variation in performance at high speeds (e.g., at least 140 bpm), and help poultry plants to improve production efficiency and satisfy increasing consumer demand for poultry products.


Since its first description in 1760, Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) has been reported in many studies. The main characteristics are visual hallucinations, preserved awareness of unreal visions, and absence of psychotic symptoms. CBS can occur with lesions located anywhere along the central visual pathway, from the eye to the calcarine fissure. Objective To describe patients with CBS and carry out a review of the literature. Methods Six patients with visual hallucinations were evaluated in an outpatient memory clinic between 2001 and 2008, and their clinical characteristics recorded. Results Four patients were female, and the mean age was 74.5±16.9 years. Three patients had visual loss secondary to eye disease and three due to cerebral lesions. The visions consisted of animals, persons, moving objects, bizarre creatures or colored forms, and were considered disturbing by five patients. Five patients received treatment, and only three reported partial benefit from the therapy. Complete recovery was not seen in any of the subjects. Conclusions CBS is relatively rare and its recognition is important to avoid misdiagnoses with psychiatric or dementing illnesses.


Soil heterogeneity complicates the design and analysis of field experiments. Block designs were developed for this purpose. However, the analysis of experimental results supposes that the residuals from the treatment are spatially independent and that within block variation is random. Experience indicates that this rarely is the case in field experiments, because of the strong spatial autocorrelation of soil properties. This paper applies geostatistical tools, such as variogram analysis and conditional stochastic simulation, to investigate the optimal experimental plot size and shape and to decide which experimental design is to be preferred. The methodology is illustrated using a case study of water-use efficiency under semiarid conditions in Morocco. It was found that under these conditions an experiment with 16 treatments would use best a plot size of 4 by 8 m oriented north-south, configured according to an incomplete block design with 8 plots per block oriented in two rows in the east-west direction.


In addition to being a potent hepatocarcinogen, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a pulmonary carcinogen in experimental animals and epidemiological studies have shown an association between AFB1 exposure and lung cancer in humans. Since point mutations at codons 12, 13 and 61 of the K-ras protooncogene are often implicated in chemically induced mouse lung tumors and in human lung adenocarcinomas, we undertook an investigation of the role of K-ras activation in AFB1-induced pulmonary carcinogenesis. Female AC3F1 (A/J x C3H/HeJ) mice were treated with AFB1 (150 mg/kg i.p., divided into 24 doses over 8 weeks), and 6-14 months after the completion of dosing mice were killed and pulmonary adenomas and carcinomas removed. Of the 76 AFB1-induced lung tumors analyzed by single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and direct sequencing, 75 possessed K-ras codon 12 mutations (46 GTT, 14 GAT, 13 TGT and 2 TTT; normal, GGT) and one had a GGC-->CGC mutation in codon 13. The observation that K-ras mutations occurred only at G:C base pairs is in agreement with N7-guanine being the primary site of AFB1-DNA adduct formation and with guanine residues being targets for AFB1-induced oxidative DNA damage via formation of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG). The AFB1-specific nature of the observed K-ras mutation spectrum and the fact that 100% of the tumor samples examined contained K-ras mutations is consistent with K-ras activation being an early, critical event in AFB1-induced pulmonary carcinogenesis in AC3F1 mice. The parental origin of the observed K-ras mutations was determined by allele-specific PCR amplification of AFB1-induced lung tumor DNA followed by SSCP analysis. In the vast majority of tumors (73/76), the mutated K-ras allele was derived from the lung tumor susceptible A/J parent. This finding supports the existence of a link between K-ras and differences in mouse lung tumor susceptibility.


OVERVIEW: As a form of crowdsourcing, idea competitions offer a mechanism to engage larger groups in innovation activities. While much of the literature on crowdsourcing focuses on idea competitions that cross a firm's boundaries to engage external partners, relatively little is known about how this approach can be used within large companies to engage the internal community. We describe how an internal idea competition in a large company has evolved over time into a much broader innovation management system that supports a range of different types of innovations, and how it has altered the firm's overall approach to innovation and corporate entrepreneurship.


AIM
Recent changes in funding have reduced the cost of the highly effective levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LIUS) contraceptives (Mirena and Jaydess). This paper explores equity of access to intrauterine contraceptives for Māori and the general population by locating and surveying all potential providers within the Southern District Health Board catchment area.

METHODS
Using online survey, e-mail or phone, we asked if intrauterine contraceptive insertion was provided, what device was provided, cost and number of appointments required. ArcGIS 10.6.1 software was used to estimate population distribution, and to create service areas showing distance to nearest current providers for Māori and the general population.

RESULTS
All 88 potential providers agreed to participate; two thirds (66.3%) provided some intrauterine contraceptive insertion. Approximately three quarters of the Māori and general population live within 5km of a primary provider. Costs ranged from $0 to $270, in addition to the cost of the required consultations. Number of consultations required varied from one to three.

CONCLUSIONS
Cost and travel time likely remain barriers to accessing intrauterine contraceptives for a significant population within this catchment. Increasing the capacity for all primary providers to offer insertion, funding the insertion process, minimising the number of appointments required and providing mobile services would improve access.


Objectives The differential diagnosis between iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) and anaemia of chronic disease (ACD) with or without associated iron deficiency can be challenging. We assessed the use of different parameters, both classical like ferritin, transferrin saturation and stainable bone marrow iron stores, and novel markers such as low haemoglobin density (LHD) and hepcidin to help discriminate between the three entities. This would allow the detection of patients with ACD with associated iron deficiency, which could benefit from iron supplementation that would have otherwise remained undetected. Materials and methods Prospective and observational cohort study from 2012 to 2013 where 200 anaemic cardiac surgical patients were recruited and 165 were studied. Detailed blood and bone marrow analyses were performed to establish the aetiology of anaemia. Results Seventy-four patients (44.8%) had ACD and 29 (39%) of these had an elevated LHD indicating concomitant iron deficiency. Hepcidin was inappropriately normal or increased in the IDA and ACD group. Mean hepcidin was however lower in the group with IDA (4.8 ng/mL) than in the ACD group (15.0 ng/mL; p=0.002). Median hepcidin was lower in patients with ACD and iron restriction as indicated by LHD >4% (17.5 ng/mL) than on those with no iron restriction (25.9 ng/mL; p=0.045). In patients with ACD there was no concordance between Perl's stain and LHD. Conclusions LHD was superior to hepcidin and bone marrow iron stores in identifying patients with ACD and associated iron deficiency, which would potentially benefit from parenteral iron therapy.


Abstract Multimodal imaging is gaining in importance in the field of personalized medicine and can be described as a current trend in medical imaging diagnostics. The segmentation, classification and analysis of tissue structures is essential. The goal of this study is the evaluation of established segmentation methods on different medical image data sets acquired with different diagnostic procedures. Established segmentation methods were implemented using the latest state of the art and applied to medical image data sets. In order to benchmark the segmentation performance quantitatively, medical image data sets were superimposed with artificial Gaussian noise, and the mis-segmentation as a function of the image SNR or CNR was compared to a gold standard. The evaluation of the image segmentation showed that the best results of pixel-based segmentation (< 3%) can be achieved with methods of machine learning, multithreshold and advanced level-set method - even at high artificial noise (SNR< 18). Finally, the complexity of the object geometry and the contrast of the ROI to the surrounding tissue must also be considered to select the best segmentation algorithm.


BACKGROUND
The aim of the study was to examine the different therapeutic options for traumatic hemopneumothorax and in particular the latest concepts (videothoracoscopy).

METHODS
A retrospective study was performed on a group of 20 patients with post-traumatic hemothorax and/or pneumothorax attending the emergency department at Ospedale Vittorio Emanuele in Catania over the past 10 years where 2500 patients with abdominal and/or thoracic trauma were treated during the same period. The patients included 18 males and 2 females with a mean age of 35 years (range 13-70). The cause of injury was a gunshot wound in 8 patients, a blunt trauma following a road accident in 9 and a stab wound in 3 patients. A drainage tube was inserted in 15 patients (a videothoracoscopic approach was used in 2 cases); 3 patients required a diaphragmatic suture and 2 thoracotomy (inferior lobectomy and repair of the main left bronchus).

RESULTS
Three out of 20 patients died with an overall mortality rate of 15%. Two patients died respectively from severe brain and abdominal injuries associated with thoracic trauma, while the third patient died from septic complications.

CONCLUSIONS
In the past few years videothoracoscopy has allowed a different approach to be used in patients affected by hemo-pneumothorax since it allows a more accurate diagnosis (extent and origin of bleeding, identification of associated diaphragmatic lesion) and the possibility of treating pleuro-pulmonary injuries without performing extensive thoracotomies.


The semantic halo of a meter (semantičeskij oreol metra) is a notion that was introduced by Mikhail Gasparov to describe semantic invariants of poetic texts composed using the same metrical scheme. Most studies addressing this phenomenon have been based on expert knowledge of the text corpus. In this study, I propose an automated approach to analyzing the semantic halo of various meters based on keyword extraction, using a simple measure of keyness as developed by Adam Kilgarriff. The method is applied to texts from the Poetic subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus. It allows us to discern basic motifs that are very close to those identified by literary scholars, which proves that it is a promising way to analyze the semantic halo of a meter. Some novel associations can also be inferred from the keyword lists. Clearly, keyword extraction cannot replace profound expert knowledge, but it can serve as a useful first step of the analysis.


A mutant of 'Grande Naine', the cultivar MAI3 (Mt/sa AAA, Cavendish subgroup) has been selected in the field in Martinique for its good horticultural characteristics (hardiness, bunch conformation, productivity...). This peculiar cultivar always demonstrated significant lower susceptibilities to the bUlTOwing nematode Radopholus similis and to the lesion nematode Pratylenchus coffeae. In addition, the cv MAl3 exhibited singularly redder pseudostem as compared to others Cavendish clones. On the basis ofthese observations, we selected in field conditions some others 'coloured' mutants among different banana subgroups; cv MAl3_Green (Musa AAA, Cavendish subgroup), cv dwarfMossi_Green (Musa AAA, Red subgroup) and cvs 920_Red, 920_Green and 921_Red (Musa AAA, CIRAD hybrids). The susceptibility to nematodes of classic cultivars and associated mutants was evaluated under controlled conditions in a growth chamber on Andosol (volcanic ash soils representative of the French West Indies banana production area), at 24-28°C and 80% RH. Forty-five days after inoculation of each banana clone with 400 R. similis or P. coffeae per plant, the entire root system was carefully collected and weighted, and nematodes were extracted. In vitro micropropagation has no effect on the colour stability of the pseudostem. Reproductive factors and root infestations showed consistent trends, with an increase in R. similis root infestations for green mutants (up to 54%) and a decrease for red mutants (up to 61%) compared to classic cultivars. Surprisingly, the opposite consistent trend was observed for P. coffeae root infestations, with a decrease for green mutants (up to 43%) and an increase for red mutants (up to 76%) compared to classic cultivars. These results provide first evidence that colour criterion, representative of the anthocyanins content, could be a good and fairly simple indicator of nematode susceptibility in selection process. (Texte integral)


The results of new magnetic dc and neutron di raction measurements of DyCoSi2 compound are presented. Below TN equal to 10.9 K the Dy moments form collinear G-type structure with the moment parallel to the c-axis. The value of Dy-moment equal to 5.5(2) μB are smaller than free Dy ion value (10.0 μB). These and the three-step magnetization process indicate the strong in uence of the crystal electric eld on the stability of the magnetic order. Increase of the values of the lattice parameters at 1.5 K in reference of these at 20 K indicate magnetostriction e ect at low temperatures.


Although Jesus the Jew provides a fruitful study of first century Galilean Judaism and a stimulating portrait of Jesus, it leaves this reader uneasy at crucial points. First, what does Vermes mean by "charismatic Judaism"? Are the char ismat ics and the Hasidim synonymous? Al though the comparison of Jesus with Honi and Hanina ben Dosa is more con vincing than previous attempts to associate Jesus with the Zealots, the Essenes, or the Rabbinic teachers, the evidence that these men are representat ives of a "stream" composed of "religious personalities with affiliations to diverse movements and groups" (p. 58) is meager and tenuous . Secondly, the choice of the title, Jesus the Jew, for a study of the background and titles of Jesus is curious. Is "the Jew" the most satisfactory title for Jesus? Finally, the occasional caustic remarks and innuendoes about New Testament scholarship detract from the book and should have been omitted. Nevertheless, Jesus the Jew is readable, insightful, and pro vocative. Its sequel on the teaching of Jesus, The Gospel of Jesus the Jew should be equally rewarding.


Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), self-assembled by metal ions and organic ligands via coordination bonds, have been broadly reported as an ideal template or precursor to design and prepare porous nanostructured materials for battery application, due to their high specific surface areas, porous structures and large pore volumes, as well as diverse and tunable structures. Versatile nanostructures, such as carbon, metal oxide, sulfide, selenide and phosphide, have been fabricated from MOFs through pyrolysis or wet chemistry strategies, which exhibit outstanding electrochemical performances for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) because of well-defined nanostructures inherited from the starting MOFs. In this review, recent progress on MOF-derived materials for SIB anodes is summarized. The preparation methods, structure design strategies and structure–performance relationships are briefly introduced, and some insights into the future development of MOF-derived electrode materials for SIBs are discussed.


This paper describes an investigation of using interactive sonification (non-speech sound) to present geo-referenced statistical data to vision-impaired users for problem solving and decision making. By working with vision-impaired users, the work will identify effective interaction and sound designs for geo-referenced data, and derive principles that can guide general interactive data sonification designs for auditory information seeking.


The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway is activated by numerous inflammatory mediators and environmental stresses. We assessed the effects of ultraviolet B (UVB) on the p38 MAPK pathway and determined whether cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression is downstream of this kinase in the skin of UVB-irradiated SKH-1 mice. SKH-1 mice were irradiated with a single dose of UVB (360 mJ per cm2), and activation of the epidermal p38 MAPK pathway was assessed. UVB-induced phosphorylation of p38 MAPK occurred in a time-dependent manner. Phosphorylation of MAPK-activated protein kinase-2 (MAPKAPK-2) also was detected and correlated with an increase in its kinase activity. Phosphorylation of heat shock protein 27 (HSP27), a substrate for MAPKAPK-2, also was detected post-irradiation. Oral administration of the p38 inhibitor, SB242235, prior to UVB irradiation, blocked activation of the p38 MAPK cascade, and abolished MAPKAPK-2 kinase activity and phosphorylation of HSP27. Moreover, SB242235 inhibited expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-6 and KC (murine IL-8) and COX-2. Our data demonstrate that UVB irradiation of murine skin activates epidermal p38 MAPK signaling and induces a local pro-inflammatory response. Blockade of the p38 MAPK pathway may offer an effective approach to reducing or preventing skin damage resulting from acute solar radiation.


The red photoluminescence of Mn dopants in MnS-CdS heteronanostructures has been observed for the first time. The red photoluminescence at 650 nm derives from emission due to the (4)T(1) --> (6)A(1) transition of Mn(2+) dopants in a CdS matrix exposed to gigapascal-level lattice stress. HRTEM, FFT, XRD, and optical studies revealed that the lattice of Mn-doped CdS is compressed to match that of MnS when CdS crystallizes at the MnS surface to form MnS-CdS heteronanostructures. The photoluminescence decay times of such Mn dopants are on the order of nanoseconds because of the spin-flip interactions between Mn dopants and free carriers in the CdS matrix.


Purpose: The library being the most essential pillar of any academic institution needs utmost attention to avoid total collapse of the entire university community. The process of programmes accreditation in Nigerian universities is to ensure a uniform Maximum Academic Standards (MAS). To ensure that the process is meeting its set goals and objectives, this study examines the impact of accreditation on the growth of academic libraries in Nigeria. Methodology: The research adopts a descriptive survey design. A total enumeration technique was used to select 125 respondents as the sampled population. Questionnaire was used for data collection and analyzed using simple percentage. Results: The finding revealed that there is paucity of funds affecting the optimum performance of academic libraries in Nigeria; fund is not released until accreditation is approaching. Findings further revealed that accreditation exercise has been beneficial to the library in terms of increased library information resources and library face lift. The finding also revealed some of the challenges facing academic libraries in Nigeria. When there is no accreditation, the library faces poor attention and lack of fund from the university management which results to poor library services and no acquisition. Policy recommendation: Therefore, the study recommends that academic libraries in Nigeria should device a means of self-funding through Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in form of bindery, internet access provision, reprographic services etc. Also, the university managements should continue to fund its library and release to time the statutory 10% total budget of the institution's recurrent expenditure.


We present a novel method for predominant vocal pitch detection in two-channel polyphonic music. The proposed method contains two stages. In the first stage, we apply the frequency domain independent component Analysis (FD-ICA) for the two-channel polyphonic music to separate the vocal content from the background music. Considering the vocal singing voice and background music are two heterogeneous signals, we employ a statistical learning based method to solve the permutation inconsistency problem in FD-ICA. In the second stage, a noise insensitive vocal pitch detection method is proposed, which is robust to noise and errors introduced by the separation process in the first stage. The proposed method has been tested on the two-channel polyphonic music signals, and experimental results show promising performance


Background: Abdominoplasty is one of the most performed aesthetic surgical procedures, and seroma is a common local complication. The aim of this study was to investigate the beginning of seroma formation after abdominoplasty and its progression. Methods: Twenty-one female patients underwent standard abdominoplasty. To investigate seroma formation, abdominal ultrasound was performed in five regions of the abdominal wall (i.e., epigastric, umbilical, hypogastric, right iliac fossa, and left iliac fossa regions) at five different time points: postoperative days 4, 11, 18, 25, and 32. Results: The incidence of seroma was 4.8 percent on postoperative day 4, 38.1 percent on postoperative day 11, 33.3 percent on postoperative day 18, 23.8 percent on postoperative day 25, and 19 percent on postoperative day 32. The left iliac fossa region had the highest relative volume of fluid collection on postoperative day 4, as did both the right iliac fossa and left iliac fossa regions on postoperative day 11. At other time points, the relative volume of fluid collection was significantly higher in the right iliac fossa region. Conclusion: The highest incidence of seroma occurred on postoperative day 11, and the iliac fossae were the most common locations of seroma. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, IV.


The Indochina I/CDC strain of Plasmodium falciparum was linearly passaged in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) of 3 phenotypes. Splenectomized monkeys of Guyanan and Peruvian type developed high density parasitemias, but considerably lower than the mean peak parasitemia (greater than 10(6)/mm3) in Bolivian phenotype squirrel monkeys. Spleen-intact Bolivian and Peruvian squirrel monkeys all developed potentially lethal infections after linear passage of parasites from Saimiri and Aotus. For the evaluation of induced immunity to P. falciparum, the Indochina I/CDC strain in Saimiri will be a valuable model system.


In the past 20 years, Cuba has emerged as a world leader in urban agriculture and sustainable development, having shifted its policies and practices toward local, organic food production and self-sufficiency. This collective case study explored small-scale, unwaged urban agriculture and household livelihoods in Havana, Cuba. Data were collected from three case households through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and photos. Two of the families produce fruits, vegetables and animal products, and the third produces organic fertilizers. For these families, agricultural production requires time and labour, but produces multiple material and non-material benefits at the individual, household, and community level. The findings demand a more nuanced view of household livelihoods and agency in the Cuban context, and the notion of agriculture as work vs. leisure. As global concerns about resource depletion and social justice in food systems increase, much can be learned from families and countries that have successfully implemented alternatives.


PURPOSE
To determine the predictors of wound recurrence after complete wound healing in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) who underwent endovascular therapy (EVT) for infrapopliteal (IP) lesions with consideration of IP arterial anatomic severity, including classification by the Global Limb Anatomic Staging System (GLASS).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This retrospective single-center study assessed patients with de novo CLTI limbs with tissue loss treated via EVT for IP lesions from September 2016 to May 2021. Among these patients, 149 consecutive limbs from 133 patients who achieved complete wound healing were enrolled. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the wound recurrence rate after complete wound healing. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to assess the association between baseline characteristics and wound recurrence.

RESULTS
The cumulative wound recurrence rate 1 year after complete wound healing was 30%. The mean time for wound recurrence was 7±5 months. Only IP arterial anatomic characteristics remained as a predictor of wound recurrence, whereas wound status and management, including the Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) clinical stage and minor amputation, were not associated with wound recurrence. Multivariate analysis revealed independent associations between wound recurrence and IP 3-vessel occlusive disease (hazard ratio, 2.97; 95% confidence interval, 1.39-6.35), but not poor below-the-ankle runoff, IP Peripheral Arterial Calcium Scoring System (PACSS) grade, and the GLASS IP grade.

CONCLUSION
The only independent predictor of wound recurrence after complete wound healing via EVT in patients with CLTI was IP 3-vessel occlusive disease.

CLINICAL IMPACT
In patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI), wound recurrence after complete wound healing remains a challenge, and studies focused exclusively on wound recurrence are still limited. The present study aimed to determine the risk factors for wound recurrence after complete wound healing in patients with CLTI who underwent endovascular therapy (EVT) for infrapopliteal (IP) lesions, with consideration of IP arterial anatomic severity for the first time. The results showed that IP 3-vessel occlusive disease was the only predictor of wound recurrence, whereas wound status/management and other arterial anatomic characteristics including WIfI clinical stages and GLASS grades were not predictors.


Introduction The long-term use of immunosuppressive agents for prevention of allograft rejection increases the risk of malignancy approximately 100 times as high as that in the general population and Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a relatively common malignancy after kidney transplantation. The aim of present study was to investigate the frequency of KS in patients with kidney transplantation in 20 years period. Material and methods In this study Charts and pathology reports of 1487 recipients for kidney allografts treated at Imam Reza hospital between 1991 and 2012 were reviewed. The SPSS software package version 16 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA) was used for the statistical analysis. Results There were 17 of 1487 incident cases of KS kidney transplant population at our hospital in period of study. There is no significant difference between age and gender of patients. The mean time between transplantation and non-KS malignant tumors was 34.4 ± 21.8 months (range 12–140 months), while in KS patients it was 18.7 ± 25.2 months, which was statistically significantly different (P < 0.05). After detection of KS in 12 patients, we perform serum antibody detection against HHV. Among them, 8 (66.6%) were seropositive. Conclusion KS is a common long-term complication in renal transplant recipients, with an increased incidence compared with the general population. Given that candidates for organ transplantation who are seropositive for HHV-8 -and thus at risk for KS- can now be identified, chemoprevention should be available in this high-risk population.


Specific weaknesses of the Czech agriculture are "longstanding under-capitalization and credit burden on business, low level of support and market protection in comparison with other European countries prior accession to the EU and low level of financial means in the agricultural sector during the transformation process." (Ministry of Agriculture, 2010) These factors are limiting the competitiveness of Czech farms. One of the ways how to combat these disadvantages is to invest to the modernisation of the agricultural sector, support innovations and their transmission into practice. Czech Republic can benefit from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) under established Rural Development Programme (RDP). First priority axis of this program is devoted to increasing of competitiveness of agriculture and forestry. Measure I.1.1 Modernisation of agricultural holdings is aimed on investment promoting and improving the overall performance of the farm to increase its competitiveness. Measure I.1.2 Increasing of the economic value of forests has the same objective, but aims on forestry companies. The mid-term evaluation of the RDP evoked the question if the subsidised investments had contributed to the introduction of new products or services and technologies by the enterprises. The aim of this article is to answer the question if the subsidies on modernisation from the EU's funds have statistically significant impact on the introduction of new technologies or products by agricultural holdings and thus enhancing their competitiveness. On the basis of performed statistical hypothesis testing, the author came to the conclusion that subsidies into modernisation of the agricultural and forestry holdings statistically significantly contributed to the introduction of new technologies and innovations.


Introduction. Ingestion of large quantities of paraquat leads to irreversible, often fatal pulmonary fibrosis. Case presentation. A 50-year-old man (body weight of 78.6 kg) ingested 500 mL Gramoxone® containing 200 g/L of paraquat in a suicide attempt. The patient did not seek medical attention until 15 h after ingestion. Initial treatment consisted of the administration of intravenous methylprednisolone, 250 mg once daily. Seventy-two hours after ingestion the patient was transferred to our tertiary care center. Paraquat concentration was 0.2 mg/L in the serum and urinary concentration was 4.42 mg/L. Antioxidative therapy including the administration of acetylcysteine and an anti-inflammatory therapy employing methylprednisolone (1 g/day) was started. Extended daily dialysis was initiated. As the high plasma concentration of paraquat indicated a 100% predicted mortality, we expanded treatment strategies by using the antiproliferative agent rapamycin. A dose of 8 mg/day was started 72 h after the intoxication. Maximum rapamycin concentrations amounted to 12.9 μg/L. Despite these efforts, the patient died on day 18 after intoxication from respiratory failure caused by severe pulmonary fibrosis. Conclusion. Despite theoretical considerations suggesting the use of rapamycin in paraquat poisoning, the substance failed to halt the progression of pulmonary fibrosis in this case.


An overview of the bibliography regarding the connection of knowledge about precious metal alloys and aspects of the use of computer aided technologies to the optimization of the jewelry casting processes is presented. An analysis of the usability of selected CAx systems was made: 1) for spatial design, called Rhinoceros 6 and 2) CAE system: NovaFlow & Solid (NF&S). The authors describe own research including data acquisition and evaluation of temperature variations during solidification of the selected Au-Ag-Cu alloy, with the identification of the phase transformations of this alloy. The intensity of heat exchange was changed (cooling of specimens under ambient temperature conditions – "normal" intensity and with the furnace – very slow cooling). The problem of completing the simulation database was pointed out and analysed. Examples of simulations of casting selected jewelry (ring and signet) were given and compared with the result of the experiment realized in real conditions. It was confirmed that the optimization by combining experimental and simulation studies allows for the acquisition of new knowledge, and also facilitates the creation of new artistic designs of jewelry as well as performing the feasibility check, and then optimizing the chosen technology.


Manufacturing of Nano gold cosmetics was done at PT. Gizi Indonesia. Clinical trials to cosmetics data supported that cosmetics are able to treat skin health which has been reported partially. For special cases, the recovery process of facial skin damage should also receive attention including cases of facial skin damage caused by chemicals such as phenol, HCl, aqua regia or other harsh chemicals. The problem determined whether the Nano gold is able to recover skin damage due to the harsh chemicals. This clinical trial data on the forms of early skin damage caused by phenol was delivered in the forms of facial photos patients. The recovery progress of facial skin condition was obtained every week for two months. The data included the forms of widespread wounds during the recovery process. This statement supported by anova statistical analysis of the widespread wound changing every week for 8 times. The conclusion is skin damage due to Phenol impregnation can be recovered with the use of Nano gold cosmetics for 8 weeks. This results support the manufacturing of Nano gold cosmetics for the needs of society. It also suggest that Nano gold material can be used for medicine manufacturing in the future.


Time-varying coefficient (TVC) estimation is a technique that has been developed to produce consistent estimates of parameters in the simultaneous face of measurement errors, unknown functional form and omitted variables. Previous work on the technique has not paid explicit attention to the issue of non-stationarity. This paper outlines the basic stages of the technique and discusses in detail how the issue of non-stationarity and cointegration affect each stage of the TVC estimation procedure.


The objective of this study is to find out the effect of second-grade elementary students' (6th-, 7th- and 8th-year students) attitude towards science course on their levels of test anxiety. This study will be carried out by using the descriptive method. The subjects of this study will be 145 second-grade students in Ergin Elementary School in Bala, Ankara, Koseli Elementary School in Bala, Ankara and Şehit Orhan Yalcin Elementary School in Dortdivan, Bolu. The Test Anxiety Inventory and the Scale of Attitude Towards Science will be administered to students. The correlation between test anxiety scores and attitude scores as well as the correlation between anxiety-gender and attitude-gender will be sought for in this study. It has been found out that there is a significant correlation between test anxiety scores and attitude scores. However, no significant difference is known about anxiety-gender and attitude-gender relations.


Human infection with the Fasciola hepatica liver fluke is a rare cause of biliary obstruction, especially within the United States. Humans can become accidental hosts of this parasite by ingesting contaminated drinking water or plants. Symptoms during the acute phase include fever, right upper quadrant pain, eosinophilia, and hepatomegaly. During the chronic stage of infection, the parasite may remain asymptomatic for many years. This article presents a case of biliary obstruction due to Fasciola hepatica that was diagnosed and treated successfully with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.


Computers offer several opportunities that encourage the promotion of teaching and learning experiences.  Like many other nations, Morocco has understood the importance of using computers in schools and universities. For this reason, the Moroccan government has launched several projects aiming at the diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education system. Actually, ICTs are useful for both teachers and students in the sense that they help teachers develop professionally. Also, students can increase their achievements and become independent learners. This paper aims to examine the various factors that have high impact on English professors' use of computer technologies for pedagogical purposes in Moroccan universities. Descriptive analysis of means, and standard deviations were used to analyse the collected data. Also, inferential statistics, mainly Pearson Product Moment Correlation, were employed to account for this correlation. The findings revealed that lack of institutional support has a big influence on professors' decision to utilize or refrain from using ICTs in their classroom practices.


The main objective of this study is to analyze the potential use of L-band radar data for the estimation of soil moisture over tropical agricultural areas under dense vegetation cover conditions. Ten radar images were acquired using the Phased Array Synthetic Aperture Radar/Advanced Land Observing Satellite (PALSAR/ALOS)-2 sensor over the Berambadi watershed (south India), between June and October of 2018. Simultaneous ground measurements of soil moisture, soil roughness, and leaf area index (LAI) were also recorded. The sensitivity of PALSAR observations to variations in soil moisture has been reported by several authors, and is confirmed in the present study, even for the case of very dense crops. The radar signals are simulated using five different radar backscattering models (physical and semi-empirical), over bare soil, and over areas with various types of crop cover (turmeric, marigold, and sorghum). When the semi-empirical water cloud model (WCM) is parameterized as a function of the LAI, to account for the vegetation's contribution to the backscattered signal, it can provide relatively accurate estimations of soil moisture in turmeric and marigold fields, but has certain limitations when applied to sorghum fields. Observed limitations highlight the need to expand the analysis beyond the LAI by including additional vegetation parameters in order to take into account volume scattering in the L-band backscattered radar signal for accurate soil moisture estimation.


A number of analytical enzymes including galactose oxidase, malate dehydrogenase and alcohol oxidase (from the methylotrophic yeast, Hansenula polymorpha) have been stabilized in a dry form by use of a novel, patented polymer–carbohydrate system. The enzymes were dried under vaccum at ambient temperature in the presence of a positively charged (cationic), soluble polymer such as diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-dextran, and a carbohydrate sugar alcohol, lactitol. The dried enzymes retained high activity under conditions of thermal stress at 37 °C. Long term stability testing of alcohol oxidase indicated that 100% of the enzyme activity was retained for up to 2 months incubation at 37 °C in the presence of the stabilizers. In comparison, unstabilized enzyme, which was dried in phosphate buffer alone, retained only 26% activity after 7 d of incubation at 37 °C. Stabilized alcohol oxidase preparations have been used to produce an alcohol assay reagent kit, having a shelf life of over 2 years when stored at 4 °C. Activity loss during the drying step was also reduced in the presence of the stabilizers. This type of stabilization system has application in the long term storage of active enzymes, enzyme products and in the area of enzyme-based analytical reagents and biosensors.


Abstract Extensive research is being carried out to analyse the importance of plant products such as resveratrol and genistein, which are known to exert a variety of pharmacological effects. This study aims at evaluating the protective role of these compounds against the apoptosis induced in normal cells by cytotoxic anticancer agents such as cisplatin and mytomycin C during therapy. Despite the broad antineoplastic action of cisplatin and mitomycin C, their genotoxicity in normal cell might lead to the induction of secondary malignancies. Therefore, the problem of identifying plant compounds, which might exert protective action in normal cells, gains lot of significance. We have analyzed the chemoprotective effect of plant compounds on peripheral blood human lymphocytes when exposed to cisplatin and mitomycin C by pre-treating and post-treating them with resveratrol and genistein at 100 μM concentration Biochemical alterations occurring in many cells during apoptosis include loss of plasma membrane phospholipid asymmetry, DNA fragmentation, and activation of caspase-3, et cetera, and have been assessed. Fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometric techniques have clearly demonstrated that resveratrol and genistein are efficient in protecting lymphocytes undergoing DNA damage when exposed to cisplatin and mitomycin C and exerted their activity by reducing the caspase 3 expression. An interesting observation is that, these compounds offered their protective effect by reducing their apoptotic potential on membrane and nucleic acids against cytotoxic agents, cisplatin, and mitomycin C. These results suggest that resveratrol and genistein might be useful for risk assessments in advance of clinical trials and could be considered as a strong candidate in pharmacogenomics or nutriprotective arena.


Extensive clinical evidence supports that cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is expressed in a variety of human malignant tumour cells in addition to T cells. In certain types of cancer, the overexpression of CTLA-4 is associated with poor patient prognosis. However, few studies have demonstrated the effects of tumour-intrinsic CTLA-4 in cancer stem cells, including melanoma stem cells (MSCs). In the present study, it was demonstrated that melanoma cell-intrinsic CTLA-4 induced tumour cell proliferation in vitro and suppressed tumour cell apoptosis. Furthermore, CTLA-4 was expressed in aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH)+ MSCs. CTLA-4 inhibited MSCs proliferation in vitro by blocking antibodies and significantly downregulated ALDH1A1, ALDH1A3 and ALDH2 mRNA expression (P<0.01). Functionally, blocking CTLA-4 in melanoma cell lines suppressed the properties of stem-like cells, including ALDH activity and significantly suppressed the ability of these cells to form spheres in vitro (P<0.05). In addition, the blocking of CTLA-4 in melanoma cells suppressed the properties of stem-like cells in vivo, including the capacity for tumourigenesis. The presence of residual ALDH+ MSCs within the tumour was observed, and the blocking CTLA-4 significantly decreased the number of residual ALDH+ MSCs in vivo (P<0.01). Altogether, these results indicate the identification of a novel mechanism underlying melanoma progression in the present study and that CTLA-4-targeted therapy may benefit candidate CTLA-4-targeted therapy by improving the long-term outcome for patients with advanced stages of melanoma.


The spawning season of the Japanese mantis shrimp Oratosquilla oratoria (De Haan) was examined in Ishikari Bay. The spawning season was estimated based on the temporal changes of female gonad somatic index (GSI) and sex ratio (number of female individuals/total number of individuals×100(%)) obtained from data between 1989 and 1991. The female GSI gradually increased from April to June, decreased in July, and began to increase again after October until November. However, GSI in November did not attain the value in the next spring. The sex ratio was low between mid June and July and high in May and November. Changes of sex ratio show the difference between male and female activities outside their burrows. The extreme low sex ratio is caused by the egg nursing behavior of females in the burrow. The spawning season of O. oratoria in Ishikari Bay was between June and July and once a year.


Purpose: Casuarina equisetifolia, a fast-growing, abundant tree species on the southeastern coast of China, plays an important role in protecting the coastal environment, but the ecological processes that govern microbiome assembly and within-plant microorganism transmission are poorly known. Methods: In this paper, we used ITS and 16S amplification techniques to study the diversity of fungal and bacterial endophytes in critical plant parts of this species: seeds, branchlets, and roots. Additionally, we examined the litter of this species to understand the process of branchlets from birth to litter. Result: We uncovered a non-random distribution of endophyte diversity in which branchlets had the greatest and seeds had the lowest endophytic fungal diversity. In contrast, litter endophytic bacteria had the highest diversity, and branchlets had the lowest diversity. As for fungi, a large part of the seed microbiome was transmitted to the phyllosphere, while a large part of the bacterial microbiome in the seed was transmitted to the root. Conclusion: Our study provides comprehensive evidence on diversity, potential sources, and transmission pathways for non-crop microbiome assembly and has implications for the management and manipulation of the non-crop microbiome in the future.


The concrete-filled steel tubular has the behavior of avoiding the limit of axial compression ratio,so has been widely used in high-rising structures recently.The structure of the connections are very complex and it is difficult to construct.The new connections of beam-column constrct easily,but mechanical behavior are need further study on.The joints were analysised by finite element.The result reveals that the two connections' seismic behavior are perfect,good ductility;The deformation of the column and the region of the connection is much smaller when they were broken.Indicating the connections's globality is better and the stiffness is bigger.It avoids brittleness for breaking styles when they are given more burden.The connections satisfy the request of code for seismic design of buildings for strong connections and feebleness member bar.


According to the report of the Central Bank of Tunisia (2009), the unemployment rate had reached 13.3% in 2009. This rate had steadily increased from 12.5% in 2006. This is one of the major challenges of the Tunisian economy and many countries of the MENA region. Furthermore, with more than 500 000 job seekers, the unemployment rate in Tunisia remains one of the highest in the MENA region. A feature of unemployment in Tunisia is the unemployment of graduates. The unemployment rate for this category of young people has recently grown dramatically from 16.9% in 2006 to 21.9% in 2009. This rate is expected to rise in coming years despite all the arrangements made for young graduates to insert them into the labour market. To understand the determinants of this type of unemployment, the paper is based on the diagnosis of the situation through a synthesis of the key findings of surveys conducted in 2005 and 2007 on the promotion of graduates in 2004. This diagnosis was supported by an econometric model linking the unemployment indicator to the key indicators of qualification. The massification of the higher education and the lack of creation of adequate jobs are the main causes of the exponential rise of the unemployment rate for graduates. This situation has forced many students to continue their studies, thus paradoxically minimizing their chances of being recruited because of their over qualification. With the exception of a few specialties such as medicine, computing, telecommunications and architecture, where opportunities are available, especially abroad, other types of graduates meet more or less difficulty on the labour market. The solutions to overcome this crisis of unemployment are rather difficult, requiring enormous resources over several years. These solutions would affect several areas; such as the higher education, the vocational training, the investment and the regional integration.


Multi-wavelength Generation, by intermodal transitions induced via dynamically reconfiguring a heterostructure cavity embedded within a photonic crystal ring resonator, is proposed. Tailoring the structure, 13 generated frequencies spanning the S-L bands are demonstrated numerically.


Protozoa of the order Kinetoplastida differ from other organisms in their ability to conjugate glutathione (l-γ-glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine) and spermidine to form trypanothione [N 1,N 8-bis(glutathionyl)spermidine], a metabolite involved in defense against chemical and oxidant stress and other biosynthetic functions. In Crithidia fasciculata, trypanothione is synthesized from GSH and spermidine via the intermediate glutathionylspermidine in two distinct ATP-dependent reactions catalyzed by glutathionylspermidine synthetase (GspS; EC 188.8.131.52) and trypanothione synthetase (TryS; EC 220.127.116.11), respectively. Here we have cloned a single copy gene (TcTryS) from Trypanosoma cruziencoding a protein with 61% sequence identity withCfTryS but only 31% with CfGspS.Saccharomyces cerevisiae transformed withTcTryS were able to synthesize glutathionylspermidine and trypanothione, suggesting that this enzyme is able to catalyze both biosynthetic steps, unlike CfTryS. When cultures were supplemented with aminopropylcadaverine, yeast transformants contained glutathionylaminopropylcadaverine and homotrypanothione [N 1,N 9-bis(glutathionyl)aminopropylcadaverine], metabolites that have been previously identified in T. cruzi, but not in C. fasciculata. Kinetic studies on recombinant TcTryS purified fromEscherichia coli revealed that the enzyme displays high-substrate inhibition with glutathione (K m andK i of 0.57 and 1.2 mm, respectively, and k cat of 3.4 s−1), but obeys Michaelis-Menten kinetics with spermidine, aminopropylcadaverine, glutathionylspermidine, and MgATP as variable substrate. The recombinant enzyme possesses weak amidase activity and can hydrolyze trypanothione, homotrypanothione, or glutathionylspermidine to glutathione and the corresponding polyamine.


Abstract Fe2Mo powders have been produced from Fe2MoO4 powders by gas – solid reduction using pure H2 gas at 1023 and 1173 K. The thermal diffusivity of the cold-pressed Fe2Mo powders having a relative density between 0.52 and 0.72 has been measured at room temperature both in air and in vacuum using the laser-flash method. A correlation was observed between the thermal diffusivity and the relative density for the powders reduced at different temperatures, regardless of the difference in microstructure of the powders. In order to explain the porosity dependence of the effective thermal conductivity, a new simple method developed based on the Ohm's law models was used. The model successfully simulates the experimental data, and the thermal conductivity of bulk Fe2Mo was estimated as 10.8 W/mK.


Abstract A now well-established literature in economics assesses the effect of different forms of bank ownership on various measures of banks' performance. Such literature has its theoretical roots in a surprisingly narrow framework, broadly identified with property rights theory. However, such theory – or bundle of theories – has been increasingly criticized for its inability to account for the emergence, the existence and the functioning of business firms. Indeed, many works and authors counter mainstream property rights theory, arguing instead that firms are entities that cannot be possessed – and that equity ownership should not be equaled with firm ownership. Nowhere is perhaps this critique more salient than in the field of banking. As the 2007/08 crisis reminded many observers, banks are not just firms or corporations: they are institutions, endowed with a dual social purpose (the creation of money and the setting of rules for access to credit). If the ownership of firms is difficult to conceive, the ownership of institutions such as banks is obviously harder still to envision. However, over the past twenty to thirty years, regulatory reform in finance has led to the empowerment of ownership, and especially private ownership, in the field of banking. This is apparent, for instance, with the 2007/44 European Directive, which fully liberalized equity ownership (and control) of banks. Yet, even within the actual legal and regulatory framework, there are many limitations to property rights as applied to banks. This paper thus has two aims: firstly, to develop a theoretical explanation of the heuristic and empirical limitations of "bank ownership"; and, secondly, to analyze, on the basis of an empirical case study of Italian banking law, the nature and extent of the property rights associated with ownership in banks.


Virtual assistants have been widely used by mobile phone users in recent years. Although their capabilities of processing user intents have been developed rapidly, virtual assistants in most platforms are only capable of handling pre-defined high-level tasks supported by extra manual efforts of developers. However, instance-level user intents containing more detailed objectives with complex practical situations, are yet rarely studied so far. In this paper, we explore virtual assistants capable of processing instance-level user intents based on pixels of application screens, without the requirements of extra extensions on the application side. We propose a novel cross-modal deep learning pipeline, which understands the input vocal or textual instance-level user intents, predicts the targeting operational area, and detects the absolute button area on screens without any metadata of applications. We conducted a user study with 10 participants to collect a testing dataset with instance-level user intents. The testing dataset is then utilized to evaluate the performance of our model, which demonstrates that our model is promising with the achievement of 64.43% accuracy on our testing dataset.


Among 280 infants under 1 year of age with congenital heart disease autopsied at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center between 1959 and 1978, there were six instances of grade IV1 pulmonary artery hypertension. Five were patients with ventricular septal defect (four associated with other cardiovascular malformations). The sixth was a patient with atrioventricular canal. The youngest was 2 1/2 months of age. Advanced degrees of pulmonary hypertensive arteriopathy (grade IV or more) have been said to be rare in infants, especially under the age of 1 year. The fact that all of these cases occurred within the last few years of the study suggests the possibility of improved supportive care leading to the prolonged survival of infants who might otherwise have died prior to developing severe disease. In addition, the role of altitude in accelerating the arteriopathy must be considered in the present series. In any case, this unexpected increase in the frequency of severe pulmonary hypertensive arteriopathy should stimulate consideration of early surgical correction of the underlying cardiovascular malformation, especially in areas of relatively high altitude.


Trace metals (K, Fe, Mg, Cu, Ca, Mn, Al, Zn, Mo, Co) and vitamins (biotin, niacin, pyridoxine, lactoflavin, thiamine, pantothenic acid) were tested for enhancing chemical oxygen demand (COD) and toxicity removal in activated sludge treating trade effluent. Rapid respirometry screening indicated that micronutrient addition could not ameliorate macronutrient deficiencies, but could significantly improve the degradation of hard COD in the wastewater (up to 4.24 kg COD/kg MLSS/d, i.e. 320% of the control) with no significant effect on the air requirement of the sludge. Several positive effects led to the conclusion that micronutrients have the potential to optimise the process performance of activated sludge plants treating industrial wastewater. Porous pots were used to further trial eight of the micronutrients. The retention of biomass in the pots was increased in all cases. Improvements in the degradation of COD (up to 260% of the control) were observed while biological oxygen demand (BOD) degradation was not affected. This implied the use of recalcitrant substrate components as a food source. Toxicity tests showed that the effluents from the experimental porous pots were less toxic than the control effluents. The effects of niacin addition in activated sludge treatment of industrial waste at pilot-scale were: improved sludge handling, increased COD, ammonia, suspended solids and phosphorus removal. Several industrialists saw micronutrient addition as a route to successful adaptation of processes to accommodate toxicity– based legislation.


Endoluminal treatment of Barrett's esophagus has become the preferred option for initial intervention for advanced neoplasia without invasive carcinoma. Data from abstracts presented at Digestive Disease Week 2008 provide greater insight into optimal use of existing techniques and an early look at potential next generation therapies. Results from the AIM Dysplasia trial describe a larger study with longer post-treatment surveillance highlighting the efficacy and tolerability of radiofrequency ablation, while early results from liquid nitrogen cryotherapy studies suggest a potential to obtain similar eradication results with very high tolerability. Endoscopic resection, despite its risks, remains a popular option for focal as well as more widespread resection of Barrett's mucosa. Additional abstracts highlight novel approaches to ablation and resection. Enhanced imaging techniques and molecular marker analysis also appear to improve treatment outcomes. However, time and further studies of combined approaches to diagnosis and eradication are necessary to optimize treatment algorithms.


In this paper, a new variant of accelerated gradient descent is proposed. The proposed method does not require any information about the objective function, uses exact line search for the practical accelerations of convergence, converges according to the well-known lower bounds for both convex and non-convex objective functions, possesses primal–dual properties and can be applied in the non-euclidian set-up. As far as we know this is the first such method possessing all of the above properties at the same time. We also present a universal version of the method which is applicable to non-smooth problems. We demonstrate how in practice one can efficiently use the combination of line-search and primal-duality by considering a convex optimization problem with a simple structure (for example, linearly constrained).


Biological membranes consist of lipid bilayers which are permeant to gases and water and some hydrophobic substances, but are impermeant to charged materials such as ions. Biological membranes in cells contain a variety of proteins (ion transporters, ion channels, pumps and other types of pore proteins) to facilitate the transport of ions and other molecules such as glucose and even large molecules such as proteins. The present chapter describes our studies to form bilayers on artificial porous supports and solid supports, and incorporate transporters and ion channels into such artificial membranes in functional form. We were then able to remove ion channels from cells, and place them onto a wide variety of solid and permeant synthetic supports without loss of function. While the above studies involved native ion transport proteins, we also have undertaken studies to modify ion channels to give useful properties. Starting with ion channels of known sequence and crystal structures, these studies outlined the structural basis for functional and regulatory properties. The approaches taken to prepare the engineered composite membranes are generally applicable to the development, design and prediction of properties of a wide variety of materials such as selectively permeable membranes or functionalized thin films with desired chemical, electrical or optical properties. ClC-2 Cltransporting channels, potassium ion channels, and transporters were used for this work. The following major developments have facilitated this phase of the work. First, the primary structure of the ion channels was known from cloning. Second, the X-ray crystal structure and additional NMR structures of a ClC Clchannel have been published. Our group was been able to use both the primary structure and the structural information to develop experiments to engineer new properties into the channels. Recent NMR and X-ray crystal structural studies have given important new information regarding the structure of the intracellular C-terminal region of ClC-2, and this information helped to explain the structural basis for our findings that this same region is involved in phosphorylation-dependent regulation of the channel. Dissection and reconstitution of this region has already been carried out, raising our level of confidence that we can exploit this regulatory region further in future studies, such as


In this paper, the probability of fatigue cracking along di€ erent kinds of grain boundary (GB) and persistent slip bands (PSBs) is considered in the light of data obtained by cyclic deformation of copper bicrystals and columnar crystals. It is found that, in copper bicrystals, fatigue cracks always nucleate and propagate along large-angle GBs, irrespective of whether the GB is perpendicular, parallel or inclined to the stress axis. On the contrary, for columnar copper crystals containing small-angle GBs, PSB± matrix interfaces become the preferential sites for initiation of fatigue crack; fatigue cracking along the small-angle GBs was never observed. For a special ‰ 134Š=‰18 2 7Š copper bicrystal with a S ˆ 19b GB and a common primary slip plane, GB cracking also results in fatigue failure. Based on the results above, the interactions of dislocations carried by PSBs with GBs, including `pile-up of dislocations' , `passing through of dislocations' and `partial passing-through dislocations' , are discussed. It is suggested that the probability of fatigue cracking in fatigued copper crystals increases in the order of small-angle GBs, PSBs and large-angle GBs. }


SUMMARY This paper provides a method for computing the asymptotic covariance matrix from a likelihood function with known maximum likelihood estimate of the parameters. Philosophically, the basic idea is to assume that the likelihood function should be well approximated by a normal density when asymptotic results about the maximum likelihood estimate are applied for statistical inference. Technically, the method makes use of two facts: the information for a one-dimensional parameter can be well computed when the loglikelihood is approximately quadratic over the range corresponding to a small positive confidence interval; and the covariance matrix of a normal distribution can be obtained from its one-dimensional conditional distributions whose sample spaces span the sample space of the joint distribution. We illustrate the method with its application to a linear mixed-effects model.


Bacterial metabolism is fundamental to pathogenesis and has a dominant effect on bacterial killing by antibiotics. Here we explore how Mycobacterium tuberculosis utilises amino acids as nitrogen sources, using a combination of bacterial physiology and stable isotope tracing coupled to liquid chromatography mass spectrometry metabolomics methods. Our results define core properties of the nitrogen metabolic network from M. tuberculosis, such as: (i) the lack of homeostatic control of amino acid pool sizes; (ii) similar rates of utilisation of different amino acids as sole nitrogen sources; (iii) improved nitrogen utilisation from amino acids compared to ammonium; and (iv) co-metabolism of nitrogen sources. Finally, we discover that alanine dehydrogenase, is involved in ammonium assimilation in M. tuberculosis, in addition to its essential role in alanine utilisation. This study represents the first in-depth analysis of nitrogen source utilisation by metabolic generatlist M. tuberculosis and reveals a flexible metabolic network with characteristics that are likely product of evolution in the human host.


The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex structure composed of collagens, proteoglycans, glycosaminoglycans and adhesive glycoproteins. Interactions between the cells and the ECM are crucial to determine cell behavior, such as growth, death, differentiation and motility. Hematopoiesis is the system responsible for the production of blood cells. The control of proliferation and differentiation of these cells is attained through the interaction of the cells with the bone marrow microenvironment. The adhesion of hematopoietic progenitors to ECM molecules and the integrin activation are modulated by a variety of cytokines and growth factors, and this modulation seems to be the mechanism of regulation that influences proliferation of hematopoietic cells, transendothelial/transstromal migration and homing. Both in the migration and homing process, and in tumoral invasion the cells undergo the following steps: 1 - Degradation of the ECM by enzymes, including metalloproteinase, collagenase, plasmin, cathepsin, glycosidase and heparanase, secreted by the cells; 2 - Cell migration through the region previously degraded by enzymes; and 3 - Cell adhesion to specific receptors located on the cellular surface, that generally interact with ECM components. In onco-hematologic diseases, the interaction of neoplastic cells with the extracellular matrix also influences aggressiveness and prognosis of the disease.


The standard view of the transition is based on a distinction between campaigning and governing, with election day as the marker: campaigning before, preparing to govern after. Yet changes are blurring the distinction between the two activities. The Clinton transition in 1992 is the watershed case. Dubbed the "worst" for failing to meet many of the standard tests, Clinton and his aides, nevertheless, were attuned to a campaigning style of governing that was fine-tuned after the 1994 mid-term election. Future transitions will be judged by a revised set of expectations. The conventional rules will be supplemented by tests that account for campaigning as integral to governing. What is called the "permanent campaign" is upon us. Presidents in the 21st century will prepare to govern more publicly from the start, anxious to establish and enhance their status in a more communal style of governing. This book considers the critical ten weeks of transition for recent party changes in the White House (Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton) and signals a pivotal change for the future. Charles Jones identifies the conventional expectations for an effective transition in regard to such topics as dismantling the campaign, connecting with Congress, establishing a theme, and relating to the press.


In this correspondence, the control problem is studied for finite-dimensional linear time-varying (FDLTV) systems. State-space formulas are derived for all FDLTV controllers solving the problem. These controllers are parameterized by the interconnection of the "central controller" with an exponentially stable, free system having norm strictly less than . Our approach is drawn from some changes of variables, a time-varying version of a strict bounded real lemma, and Youla parameterization; thus, the proofs given are simple and clear.


Understanding the formation of massive stars is one of the unsolved problems in modern astronomy. The main difficulty is that the intense radiation from the high-luminosity stars and the thermal pressure from the resulting ionized gas (both insignificant for low-mass stars) may be able to reverse the accretion flow and prevent the star from accreting fresh material. Such feedback effects can naturally be mitigated if accretion proceeds through discs, which is the established mechanism to form sun-like stars. However, recent 3D MHD simulations have shown that accretion on 1000 au scales is through filaments rather than a large disc. This theoretical prediction has never been confirmed via observations owing to the poor linear resolution of previous studies (>1000 au). Here we present the first observational evidence that mass assembly in young high-mass stars forming in protoclusters is predominantly asymmetric and disordered. In particular, we observed the innermost regions around three deeply embedded high-mass protostars with very high spatial resolution (~100 au). We identified multiple massive (several solar masses), warm (50-150 Kelvin) filamentary streamers pointing onto the central sources, which we interpret as multi-directional accretion channels. These structures inhibit the formation of a large, steady disc. Nevertheless, the identification of fast collimated outflows in the three observed systems indicates that (non-steady) compact discs may be present (we measure upper limits on their radii of<80 for one object and<350 astronomical units for the remaining two objects). Our finding contrasts with the simplified classic paradigm of an ordered (and stable) disc/jet system and provides an experimental confirmation of a multi-directional and unsteady accretion model for massive star formation supported by recent 3D (magneto)hydrodynamic simulations.


Question Answering on Electronic Health Records (EHR-QA) has a significant impact on the healthcare domain, and it is being actively studied. Previous research on structured EHR-QA focuses on converting natural language queries into query language such as SQL or SPARQL (NLQ2Query), so the problem scope is limited to pre-defined data types by the specific query language. In order to expand the EHR-QA task beyond this limitation to handle multi-modal medical data and solve complex inference in the future, more primitive systemic language is needed. In this paper, we design the program-based model (NLQ2Program) for EHR-QA as the first step towards the future direction. We tackle MIMICSPARQL*, the graph-based EHR-QA dataset, via a program-based approach in a semi-supervised manner in order to overcome the absence of gold programs. Without the gold program, our proposed model shows comparable performance to the previous state-of-the-art model, which is an NLQ2Query model (0.9% gain). In addition, for a reliable EHR-QA model, we apply the uncertainty decomposition method to measure the ambiguity in the input question. We empirically confirmed data uncertainty is most indicative of the ambiguity in the input question.


Mastitis was induced by infusion of 3,000-7,000 colony-forming units of Klebsiella pneumoniae into the left rear quarter of four primiparous Holstein-Freisians. Greater than 100 organisms were recovered from a quarter milk sample within 2 hr and in 87.5% of the hourly cultures taken after 8 hr. Bacteria, California Mastitis Tests, somatic cell counts and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase levels differed significantly from that of control quarters in infused cows after hr 6, 8, 9 and 9 respectively. High correlations were obtained between somatic cell count and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (r = .97) and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and natural log bacterial count (r. = .88). N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase was related to natural log bacterial counts of samples taken 1, 2, 3, and 4 hr prior to the test (rN-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and natural log bacterial count (r = .91, .92, .93, and .95).


In this article, we carry out a theoretical investigation of the macroscopic response and field statistics in two-phase particulate composites with elasto-plastic constituents and random microstructures under cyclic loading conditions. To this end, we make use of the "incremental variational homogenization" (IVH) procedure of Agoras et al. (2016, "Incremental Variational Procedure for Elasto-Viscoplastic Composites and Application to Polymer- and Metal-Matrix Composites Reinforced by Spheroidal Elastic Particles," Int. J. Solid Struct., 97–98, pp. 668–686) and corresponding unit cell finite element simulations. Results are obtained for statistically isotropic distributions of spherical particles and for "spheroidal distributions" of spheroidal particles. It is shown analytically that the IVH estimate of Agoras et al. and that of Lahellec and Suquet (2013, "Effective Response and Field Statistics in Elasto-Plastic and Elasto-Visco-Plastic Composites Under Radial and Non-Radial Loadings," Int. J. Plasticity, 42, pp. 1–30) are equivalent. In addition, it is illustrated by means of specific numeral comparisons that the IVH estimate is also equivalent (to within numerical accuracy) to the corresponding estimates of Idiart and Lahellec (2016, "Estimates for the Overall Linear Properties of Pointwise Heterogeneous Solids With Application to Elasto-Viscoplasticity," J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 97, pp. 317–332) and Lucchetta et al. (2019, "A Double Incremental Variational Procedure for Elastoplastic Composites With Combined Isotropic and Linear Kinematic Hardening," Int. J. Solid Struct., 158, pp. 243–267). Furthermore, it is shown in the context of specific exact results for composite materials with lamellar microstructures that the elastic–plastic coupling and the Bauschinger effect are the macroscopic manifestations of the incompatibility of the local elastic strains. Local strain hardening is incorporate in the IVH model. The predictions of the IVH model for the macroscopic response of particulate composites are found to be in good agreement with the corresponding numerical results, in general. For the extreme cases of rigidly reinforced composites and porous materials, however, the IVH model fails to capture the elastic–plastic coupling and the Bauschinger effect. The underlying reasons for this shortcoming are discussed and a strategy toward the improvement of the IVH model is proposed.


When using a scanning Doppler laser vibrometer (SLDV) an important amount of user interaction is required to perform a calibration between the required scanning mirror angles and the coordinates of the grid points which are to be measured. Apart from the possibility of leading to incorrect (or inaccurate) laser beam positioning, the user interaction is a problem when the SLDV is used in-line (for instance as a quality control tool in the production process). In this paper, a method is developed to perform the position calibration in a fully automatic manner. The method is validated with the aid of two SLDV measurement examples: a sheet with a rectangular mesh, and an electronic circuit board.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the gamma radiation in vitro on the major phytopathological agents of the mango cultivar Tommy Atkins. The morphophysiological parameters evaluated were mycelial growth, sporulation and aspects of the colonies (color and topographical aspect) of the fungi Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Alternaria alternata and Fusicoccum parvum after exposure in Petri dishes to the application of 1.0 kGy of gamma radiation with Co60 source. The 1.0 kGy dose was significant enough to inhibit the mycelial growth of C. gloeosporioides and A. alternata, but it stimulated the mycelial growth of F. parvum. Results revealed that the sporulation of the C. gloeosporioides and F. parvum fungi reduced the number of spores after the radiation, however, the A. alternata fungus, when exposed to the radiation, resulted in increase in the number of conidia/mL. Cultural changes were not observed in the fungi colonies studied after exposure to gamma radiation.


Nowadays, many people prefer to use herbal remedies instead of chemical treatments, because of a fewer side effects. It seems that herbal drugs can be useful to neuroinflammation diseases like Alzheimer. Alzheimer Disease (AD) is caused by the oxidative stress and inflammatory compounds such as cytokine and beta-amyloid. It causes learning problems due to damage in cells in the hippocampus area .Studies showed 60 to 70% of people over 65 years have AD. Ginger is a plant with unique properties containing vitamins (especially E and C) and Shogaol (which has anti-inflammatory properties).Ginger helps to reduce the symptoms of AD and increases the concentration power. Studies on 60 middle-aged women with AD showed that daily consumption of ginger greatly improved memory and relieved the symptoms of this disease. Vitamin E and C in ginger, maybe reduce the probability of prevalence and incidence of AD. Because vitamin E is an antioxidant and protects cells membrane's from oxidative damage. Vitamin C (soluble in water) found in ginger is oxidized and caused the reduction of vitamin E (fat-soluble) and enables it to better inhibit free radicals. Honey is another effective ingredient in improving nerve inflammation. It again contains vitamin E and C and likes ginger prevent oxidative damage. Honey has free amino acids such as glutamic acid and phenylalanine that increase concentration power and improve the function of the nervous system. This nutrient also helps the absorption of drugs. We suggest that daily consumption of ginger and honey mixture maybe increase the effectiveness and absorption of drugs and potentially prevent cells


Abstract This study presents the relationship between exhaust gas temperature (EGT) and engine operational parameters at two different power settings, including maximum continuous and take-off, in the CFM56-7B turbofan engine. The ground measurements of engine operational parameters including net thrust, fuel flow, low rotational speed, core rotational speed, pressure ratio, air temperature at engine fan inlet, take-off margin temperature, and thrust-specific fuel consumption of 51 different CFM56-7B engines are used to find the relationship mentioned in the study. This engine type is selected due to its common use by the civil aviation sector. In accordance with the results of multiple linear regression analysis, it was shown that EGT is affected by the engine operational parameters in different rate. The relationship between EGT and the operational parameters used in the maximum continuous power setting is slightly stronger than that of take-off power setting, R2=0.73 and 0.69, respectively. The fuel flow, thrust-specific fuel consumption, and take-off margin temperature are determined to be the most significant operational parameters in the correlations used to predict the EGT of 51 CFM56-7B turbofan engines in maximum continuous and take-off power settings, R2=0.28, 0.23, and 0.35 and R2=0.27, 0.14, and 0.60, respectively. It is found that there are good agreements between the predicted and measured values of EGT in the study. It can be concluded that the proposed technique is an effective tool for the EGT estimation of the turbofan engine.


The political dispute with the field of organization studies (OS) for leadership in research and education in business administration in the US and the proliferation of schools of thought in the 1980s resulted in serious questioning of the relevance of the field of strategy. Neoliberal globalization and its discourses pushed strategists of big corporations and academics to build the relevance of the area through increasing specialization and internationalization, but the dominant literature still ignores power and political issues and downplays government organizations. This helps explain the underdevelopment of research in strategic networks, the translation gap faced by business schools in the Anglo-American world, and the resistance in Brazil and other countries to the dominant literature. Analysis shows that research in strategic networks in emerging economies should make visible power and political issues, particularly from a critical perspective on asymmetries enhanced by the advance of neoliberalism, and produce knowledge that is relevant to strategists from both business firms and government and also society at large. In Brazil, researchers from strategy and OS should value and reinforce the proximity of these fields, and foster interdisciplinary developments with geography, global sociology and international relations and in particular with the literature in networks based on international political economy.


Objectives: The effect of lipid phase composition, concentration of lipid and surfactant on the entrapment, morphology, particle size and release profiles of ibuprofen-loaded lipid particles was evaluated. Methods: Formulations containing only a solid lipid (Compritol® 888 ATO) and formulations containing mixture of solid and liquid lipids (Compritol® 888 ATO: Labrafil® M 1944 CS) were prepared at various lipid level (5%, 10% and 15% w/v) and surfactant (1.35% and 3%w/v) concentrations using the hot homogenization method. Results: The particle size distribution was found to be polydisperse with a high concentration of microparticles. The particles were spherical in shape. The preparation method was effective in producing particles with high drug entrapment efficiencies (65% – 100%). Drug release studies showed a controlled release profile that follow diffusion kinetic model for all formulations. High lipid concentrations (10% and 15%) increased drug entrapment capacity and showed low initial burst of the drug during early time of testing dissolution. X-Ray diffraction and NMR studies showed coexistence of both amorphous and crystalline forms of the ibuprofen within the lipid matrix. Addition of Labrafil® led to a more amorphous internal structure by modifying the crystallinity of both ibuprofen and the lipid Compritol®.


Abstract This study aimed to investigate the correlation between triglyceride glucose (TyG) index and coronary artery disease (CAD) with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and identify the risk associated TyG index in different subgroups. A total of 1665 eligible inpatients (CAD with T2DM group [n = 680], non-coronary artery disease without T2DM [n = 985]) were consecutively enrolled in this study. They were assigned into 4 subgroups: middle-aged, elderly, male, and female subgroups. Receiver operating characteristic curve diagnostic test and a logistic regression model was established to analyze the risk factors for CAD with T2DM. TyG index is an independent risk factor for patients with CAD with T2DM. The risk of increased TyG index is greater in the middle-aged and male subgroups than in the elderly and female subgroups, respectively (all P < .05). The specificity and the positive predictive value of the TyG index is greater than the sensitivity and the negative predictive value, respectively (all P < .05). Increased TyG index is a new independent risk factor for CAD with T2DM, and its risk is higher in the middle-aged and male subgroups than in the elderly and female subgroups, respectively. TyG index may be used as a clinical predictor of CAD with T2DM.


We present an analysis of time and space resolved development of all typical regimes of low-pressure DC discharge in argon - low current Townsend discharge, oscillations and constrictions of discharge and high current glow discharges. Our work is based on time-resolved ICCD recordings of the discharge structure, synchronized with current and voltage measurements. Special care is given to radial effects and influence of dielectric walls during development of the glow discharge structure.