ABSTRACT This review surveys recent developments in the historiography of the politics of alcohol in twentieth-century Britain. The 'drink question' has undergone a set of tumultuous shifts, beginning with the decline of the temperance movement after the First World War, diminished conflict in the interwar and post-1945 periods, and the revived concerns over consumption and harm in the late twentieth century. Historians have traditionally presented the drink question as a binary conflict between advocates and opponents of the liberal distribution of drink. Newer narratives question the assumed 'rationality' of modern approaches to alcohol, especially concerning the post-1970s public health model which has been increasingly understood as an indirect manifestation of the temperance movement. The concept of 'moral panics' has been frequently employed to frame the formation of public attitudes towards drink. The article argues that these multifarious developments illustrate how alcohol offers a unique vantage point into various social developments in modern Britain, including that of the changing role of the state, the contested nature of scientific knowledge, and the formation of public opinion. It also suggests that the historiography should overcome its narrow focus on alcohol in modern Britain by juxtaposing it with other substances, regions, and periods.


When a pavement structure fails prematurely, the constructing agency must pay millions of dollars in traffic control and construction costs to rehabilitate or reconstruct the pavement sooner than had the pavement survived its design life. The money required to rehabilitate or reconstruct the pavement could have been put to alternative uses during the remaining years of the pavement's design life; but because the money must be spent when the pavement actually ceases to provide adequate service, the opportunity to apply the much needed capital elsewhere is lost. A primary determinant of a pavement's actual service life is the traffic loading applied to the pavement. Consequently, an important consideration in pavement structural design is a forecast of the traffic loading expected to be applied to the pavement structure during its design life. This research evaluated the Texas Department of Transportation's traffic load forecasting procedures. The research found that traffic load forecast accuracy could be improved by more than 30% from current levels by conducting 24-hour manual vehicle classification sessions at specific pavement project sites and by more than 85% by conducting week-long weigh-in-motion (WIM) sessions at specific pavement project sites. The research shows that if forecast accuracy was improved by the amounts indicated above, fewer pavements would typically fail prematurely; and, while some pavements would still fail prematurely despite improved forecasts, these pavements would have longer lives than under current practice. The research found that the cost to improve traffic load forecasts is justified by the benefits received in return for almost all pavement reconstruction projects and most major pavement rehabilitation projects.


Between 2014 and 2016, the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone experienced the deadliest Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in sub-Saharan Africa. Two years later, a tenth epidemic recurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), specifically in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces, which lasted until June 2020. Though they occurred in different countries, a review of how the EVD outbreaks in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the DRC were handled by the respective country governments, reveal gaps in disease detection, response and action due to lack of surveillance, an EVD preparedness plan, and weak health systems. This perspective discusses the EVD outbreaks in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the DRC, their effects, and draws attention to gaps that need to be addressed by these countries in order to be better prepared to handle future outbreaks. Acting on the proposed recommendations will not only benefit Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the DRC in the future, but will be of benefit to EVD susceptible countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as we live in a global community where diseases are no respecters of boundaries.


will have real roots? The solution which follows will probably be regarded as unacceptable,* but may serve to invite discussion. At any rate, the answer is simple. The notation has been chosen to imply that the coefficients denoted by x, y may be regarded as coordinates in a plane. (Compare an article by the writer in the Gazette, XXI (1937), p. 46). For real roots, the representing points lie " outside " the parabola


Objective: Internal medicine (IM) residents discuss a patient's goals of care (GOC) as part of their initial consultation. Residents have described inexperience, general discomfort, limited formal teaching, and prognostic uncertainty as barriers to effective GOC conversations. The early COVID-19 pandemic resulted in rapid changes to the healthcare system on the individual, patient, and systemic level that might exacerbate and/or introduce new barriers to IM residents' GOC conversations. This qualitative study examines how the early COVID-19 pandemic challenged IM residents' ability to have effective GOC conversations. Methods: Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, participants (n=11) completed a semi-structured interview. Data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously using an open coding, constant comparison process. Interviews were completed until no new themes were identified. Results: Residents self-described their GOC conversations in 5 steps: normalization of the conversation, introduction of expected clinical course, discussion of possible care plans, exploration of the patient's values, and occasionally providing a recommendation. Residents described limited structured teaching around GOC conversations and instead relied on observed role-modelling and self-practice to hone their skillset. Residents described an increased sense of urgency to have GOC conversations due to the uncertainty of clinical course and potential for rapid deterioration of patients with COVID-19. Residents identified restrictive visitor policies as a significant barrier that contributed to feelings of dehumanization. Residents felt that these limitations affected their GOC conversations and potentially resulted in discordant care plans which contributed to moral distress. Conclusion: The early COVID-19 pandemic resulted in several barriers that challenged residents' ability to conduct effective GOC conversations. This is on the background of previously reported discomfort and limited formal training in conducting GOC conversations. Based on our findings, we present a conceptual model involving teaching validated GOC frameworks, positive role-modelling, and experiential learning to support GOC conversation education in post-graduate medical education.


We present results from the first holographic bubble chamber experiment. Using topological information on the events observed in the heavy liquid bubble chamber HOBC, we have determined a total charm pair production cross section of (24.6-8.3+12.0) μb and (3.9-1.9+2.5) μb in 360 GeV/c and 200 GeV/c proton-nucleon interactions respectively. For these estimates we assumed a linear dependence of the charm cross section on the atomic number A.


In the following we present the measurements of time-dependent $\mathcal{CP}$ violation in charmless B meson decays performed by LHCb analyzing the $p-p$ collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV during the 2010 and 2011 LHC runs. In particular we will focus on the analysis of charmless two-body B decays where the direct and mixing-induced CP asymmetry terms of the $B^{0}\to\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ and $B_{s}^{0}\to K^{+}K^{-}$ decays have been measured using 0.69 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected during 2011. The measurement of the branching ratio of the $B_{s}^{0}\to K^{*0}\bar{K}^{*0}$ decay, using 35 pb$^{-1}$ collected during 2010, is also reported. In the end we show the relative branching ratios of all the decay modes of $B_{(s)}^{0}\to K_S h^{+}h^{\prime -}$ decays (where $h^{(\prime)}=\pi,K$), measured analyzing 1 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected during 20 11.


Building materials are the single unit cell of a building and thus are the essential part of construction techniques. It encloses the spaces in a building or acts as an envelope for spaces in architecture. In today's scenario sustainable architecture is at its pace. Sustainable architecture does not only mean to plant trees or using vernacular materials, but it also means to use eco- friendly building materials since building materials are the first and most important part of a building. Life of a building is dependent on the material being used in that building. Therefore, selection of an eco-friendly material is a rapid step towards sustainable and eco-friendly built environment. Now what material could be ecofriendly? Truly saying materials that result in a more sustainable and affordable construction complying with the comfort standards required today can be termed as eco-friendly materials. So, rather making environment sustainable we could use materials that are sustainable, affordable, low energy consumption and can be recycled or reused easily. This paper deals with how green building materials can sustain our environment by reducing its impact on our mother earth, that could lessen the amount of environmental degradation, have consumes less energy, can be re-used in a building itself and the comparison between other man-made materials and their energy consumption that are presently in use .


Abstract Hodgkin's disease (HD) is a common malignant lymphoma that classically presents with painless lymphadenopathy, weight loss, nocturnal sweats, fever, and generalized pruritus. Unlike other lymphoproliferative disorders, cutaneous involvement is uncommon with HD. Diffuse hyperpigmentation, prurigo nodularis, acquired ichthyosis, erythema nodosum, mycosis fungoides, herpes zoster, and vasculitis have all been described as nonspecific or paraneoplastic manifestations of HD. A small set of cases of adult new-onset recalcitrant eczema has recently been described as a nonspecific cutaneous manifestation of HD. In agreement with these reports, we present a case of a 28-year-old woman who initially presented with persistent lymphadenopathy and a pruritic eczematous dermatitis that preceded the diagnosis of HD.


It is well known, that the course of bronchial asthma (BA) changes at some of women during pregnancy. The disease evolves in lighter or severe form. The aim of work was to analyze how the BA course is changing at pregnant women Material and methods. During 2010-2011, the BA course at 37 pregnant women has been studied in perinatal centre of regional hospital. The mean age was 24.2 +/-3.4 years. The average disease duration totaled 7.3 +/-2.7 years. The initial condition of disease course at women was the following: at 9 cases it was easy intermitting, including the remission stage, at 16 it was easy persistent, at 10 – moderate and at 2 - severe. Results. The course of BA at 21 women during pregnancy (56.8 %) didn9t change, at 9 women (24.3 %) it became easier, and at 7 women (18.9 %) it went to severe. In most cases exacerbations occurred during the initial symptomatic BA course (85.6 %). The following exacerbation factors were also marked: the wilful withdrawal of basic medications after the pregnancy identification (54.1 %), the existence of the connection between cold endured before BA exacerbations and exacerbations itself (29.7 %). Conclusions. The BA course during pregnancy can be accompanied by both the reductions and exacerbations of semiology. It might be connected with patients9 self-treatment or with the cold endured earlier.


The aim of the present study was to compare the incidence of brucellosis in groups of Kangal Akkaraman sheep flocks raised in farm conditions in Sivas province. The first and second groups of the sheep flocks were part of the 8 sub-projects which belong to The Project entitled "Nationwide Genetic Improvement of Small Ruminants in Farm Condition" continued for 7 and 1-3 years, respectively. The third group of the sheep flocks was not part of this nationwide project. The study material consisted of 1491 units of blood serum (n=278, 1166 and 47 for the first, second and third groups, respectively). Brucella antibodies were looked for in blood serum using tube and slide agglutination tests. The incidences of brucellosis were 4% and 7.5% in flocks which were part of the nationwide project continued for 7 and 3 years, respectively and 25.5% for the flocks not part of the nationwide project. The differences between groups were found statistically significant. Even though there was no brucella vaccination programs in the flocks of the nationwide project, practices such as regular controls of the flocks by veterinary technicians, drug/vaccination applications for parasites and some other diseases, removal of rams positive for brucella before breeding season significantly reduced the incidence of brucella. As a result, promoting good breeding practices along with the brucella vaccination program applied by the related Ministry can be very beneficial for the eradication of brucella disease that is a big problem for the country.


The unacceptable access and penetration of moisture into building through its structural component such as column's, walls, floors, roofs etc. is called dampness. This study seeks to provide sound up to date information about the various causes of dampness in buildings, the effect of dampness in buildings, method of preventing dampness in buildings or remedies of dampness and diagnosis of dampness. Causes of Dampness in building are a great concern in the construction industry as it often leads to deterioration of structural component such as columns, walls, floors, roofs, and encourage rapid growth of molds and bacteria which causes related health problems. The foundations of all structures are embedded into the soil, blocks and bricks being porous or masonry below ground level can absorb moisture from adjacent ground or by capillary action. Causes of dampness are numerous and most of them are not completely solvable later, this is why this research work seeks to provide all the necessary precaution and preventive measures in order to avoid it because prevention is always better than cure. While water molecules are present in the air and adsorbed by materials within all buildings, when the materials become sufficiently damp to cause material damage or visible mould growth we often say that the building has excess dampness or has dampness problem or we characterize the building as a damp building. The dampness and mould growth may occur on visible interior and exterior surfaces in the building, including within basements or crawl spaces, or hidden inside walls and air conditioning plants and ducting. The study entails a careful and intensive library research interspersed with a well organize program case study in the Greater Accra Region in Ghana. It is also recommended that further, researches must be carried out on the above issues in the similar newly developing areas in the Greater Accra Region in order to avoid this problem of rising dampness in the Ghanaian Construction Induction Industry. Keywords : Penetration, structural component, dampness, capillary action chlorides, nitrates and sulphates.


Nuclear medical bone imaging was used in combination with targeted radiography to detect metastatic or multicentric lesions in 23 dogs with skeletal neoplasms. Each dog with a radiographically diagnosed skeletal neoplasm was injected with Technetium-99m labeled methylene diphosphonate (99mTc-MDP) (15.0 mCi intravenously) for whole body imaging. All areas with increased uptake of 99mTc-MDP were radiographed. In 19 dogs, the amount of bone shaft involvement in primary sites indicated by bone imaging was larger than the amount indicated by radiography. Eighteen dogs had secondary areas of increased 99mTc-MDP uptake, six of which had secondary areas that were suspected radiographically to be neoplastic. Four dogs had lesions characterized histologically as neoplasia, one as bone infarction and one as normal cortical bone. Positive predictive value for this strategy was 66.7%. Results of this study suggest that nuclear medical bone imaging with targeted radiography is a quick, noninvasive technique with a good positive predictive value for evaluation of the skeleton for metastatic or multicentric sites of neoplasia.


The purposes of this study were to examine the influence of proactive personality on creative behavior, the mediating effect of learning goal orientation in the relationship between proactive personality and creative behavior, the moderating effect of creative self-efficacy in the relationship between proactive personality and learning goal orientation, the moderating effects of organizational creative climate and supervisor support for creativity in the relationship between learning goal orientation and creative behavior. Data were gathered from 330 employees who were working in one organization in Korea. To reduce the effect from the common method bias, the creative behavior was rated by others(three hundred and thirty peers, subordinates, and supervisors). As a result, learning goal orientation partially mediated the relationships between proactive personality and creative behavior. Creative self-efficacy moderated the relationship between proactive personality and learning goal orientation. Organizational creative climate moderated the relationship between learning goal orientation and creative behavior. Also supervisor support for creativity had a moderating effect between learning goal orientation and creative behavior. Finally, implication of results and future research tasks were discussed with limitations.


Water resource demand is increasing with the population growth and economic development. Water resource problem for agriculture and food security have become one of the global focal points because of water resource scarcity. The concept of virtual water is useful to analyze and impair this problem. In this paper, virtual water implication was described, and international study progress about it was briefly reviewed. Furthermore, China's agricultural water scarcity and food security were analyzed. According to the grain import prediction and agricultural production conditions of China, the virtual water equivalents of China in 2010 and 2020 were evaluated, which were 88 x 10(9) m3 in 2010 and 95 x 10(9) m3 in 2020. With the function of virtual water to agricultural water stress, virtual water strategy was suggested to relieve agricultural production pressure from water resource and meet growing food demand as well as to promote water resource sustainability in China.


In recent years, special attention has been paid to real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for avian metapneumovirus (AMPV) diagnosis, due to its numerous advantages over classical PCR. A new multiplex quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) with molecular beacon probe assay, designed to target the SH gene, was developed. The test was evaluated in terms of specificity, sensitivity and repeatability, and compared with conventional RT nested-PCR based on the G gene. All of the AMPV subtype A and B strains tested were amplified and specifically detected while no amplification occurred with other non-target bird respiratory pathogens. The detection limit of the assay was 10−0.41 median infectious dose/ml and 101.15 median infectious dose/ml when the AMPV-B strain IT/Ty/B/Vr240/87 and the AMPV-A strain IT/Ty/A/259-01/03 were used, respectively, as templates. In all cases, the amplification efficiency was approximately 2 and the error values were <0.2. Standard curves, generated either using the serial dilution of an RNA suspension or RNA extracted from the serial dilution of titrated viral suspensions as templates, exhibited good linearity (R 2>0.9375) between crossing point values and virus quantities, making the assay herein designed reliable for quantification. When the newly developed qRT-PCR was compared with a conventional RT nested-PCR, it showed greater sensitivity with RNA extracted from both positive controls and from experimentally infected birds. This assay can be effectively used for the detection, identification, differentiation and quantitation of AMPV subtype A or subtype B to assist in disease diagnosis and to carry out rapid surveillance with high levels of sensitivity and specificity.


In this paper a model is developed for the optimization of distributed information systems. Compared with the previous work in this area, the model is more complete, since it considers simultaneously the distribution of processing power, the allocation of programs and databases, and the assignment of communication line capacities. It also considers the return flow of information, as well as the dependencies between programs and databases. In addition, an algorithm, based on the "bounded branch and bound" integer programming technique, has been developed to obtain the optimal solution of the model. The algorithm is more efficient than several existing general nonlinear integer programming algorithms. Also, it avoids some of the disadvantages of heuristic and decomposition algorithms which are used widely in the optimization of computer networks and distributed databases. The algorithm has been implemented in Fortran, and the computation times of the algorithm for several test problems have been found very reasonable.


Many scholars have addressed processes whereby local faiths have come to be classified as Hindu. In Indonesia, such classifications are of profound significance among practitioners and for the state. For some Ngaju Dayaks, an indigenous people of Indonesian Borneo, obtaining recognition of Kaharingan, the traditional faith, as Hinduism was part of a struggle for social justice. Others demand that the alliance between Kaharingan and Hinduism be dissolved. The article explores the goals and activities of two important religious organizations committed to Kaharingan's survival and promulgation in different forms. The authors argue that differences between the two lend insight into how and why this faith is simultaneously classified as both a new and an old religion in Indonesia, as both Hinduism and not-Hinduism, and they suggest that the Kaharingan case encourages reflection on what constitutes a "new" religious movement.


We present a doping method to improve the femtosecond laser ablation rate and promote ablation selectivity. Doping transition metal ions, Co2+ or Cu2+, in silicate glass apparently change absorption spectroscopy and induce resonant absorption at wavelengths of 600 and 800 nm, respectively. Comparing with femtosecond laser processing of the same glass without doping, we find that the threshold fluence decreases and the ablation rate increases in resonant absorption in doped silicate glass. Resonant absorption effectively increases multiphoton ionization for seed-free electron generation, which in turn enhances avalanche ionization.


In this contribution global observability of nonlinear systems is investigated. The main idea is to derive a criterion which allows to decide if two initial states of a system can be distinguished by the output of the system. This well known criterion is equivalent to an infinite set of nonlinear equations. If the system is globally observable this set of equations has a very special solution set which can be characterized algebraically. Based on results from commutative algebra some new algorithmic methods to describe the solution set are given. This allows a global observability analysis for polynomial systems and for some specific classes of nonlinear systems. The new method is applied to an example from the literature.


The Samin sub-watershed (SSW) is one of the critical watersheds in Indonesia which need conservation. The identification of land-use/land-cover changes (LUCC) can help in deciding the priority of conservation areas as well as limiting the widespread of critical lands in the watershed, which can contribute to climate change. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of land use change on climate parameters, i.e. precipitation, air temperature and relative air humidity. The method is by using the descriptive explorative. The study employed Indonesian topographic map and Landsat's imageries of 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016. The climate data from 1996 to 2016 were obtained from surroundings weather station. Data were analyzed using Geographic Information System (GIS) and SPSS. The results showed that land use was dominated by rice fields 22,552.83 ha (69.20%), and converted to non-agricultural lands 165.05 hectares/year for the last 20 years. Forest area decreased 65.8 ha/year, and settlement (housing and industrial estates) increased 253.87 ha/year (11.07%). The statistical analysis resulted in a negative relationship between forest area and air temperature and, but no significant correlation with rainfall.


Abstract. Potential oxygen radical scavenging properties of the H2‐receptor antagonists cimetidine, ranitidine and famotidine were investigated. These drugs, although ineffective against superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide, can scavenge hydroxyl radical (OH·) with a very high rate constant, which is about tenfold higher than that of the specific scavenger mannitol for famotidine (1·7 × 1010 mol−1 s−1) and cimetidine (1·6 × 1010 mol−1 s−1), ranitidine displaying a rate constant of 7·5 × 109 mol−1 s−1. These OH· scavenging effects are significant beginning from 10, 28 and 100 μmol 1−1 concentration for famotidine, cimetidine and ranitidine, respectively, thus suggesting that the drugs may effectively act as OH· scavengers in vivo especially in the gastric lumen. Only cimetidine can apparently bind and inactivate iron, which further emphasizes its antioxidant capacity. Moreover, all drugs, even at 10 μmol 1−1 concentration, show powerful scavenging effects on hypochlorous acid and monochloramine, which are cytotoxic oxidants arising from inflammatory cells, such as neutrophils. These data suggest that some therapeutical effects of H2‐receptor antagonists in peptic ulcer may also be related to their antiradical‐antioxidant capacity, and that these drugs could potentially be used in other disease entities characterized by free radical‐mediated oxidative stress in vivo.


Fine-grained image hashing is a challenging problem due to the difficulties of discriminative region localization and hash code generation. Most existing deep hashing approaches solve the two tasks independently. While these two tasks are correlated and can reinforce each other. In this paper, we propose a deep fine-grained hashing to simultaneously localize the discriminative regions and generate the efficient binary codes. The proposed approach consists of a region localization module and a hash coding module. The region localization module aims to provide informative regions to the hash coding module. The hash coding module aims to generate effective binary codes and give feedback for learning better localizer. Moreover, to better capture subtle differences, multi-scale regions at different layers are learned without the need of bounding-box/part annotations. Extensive experiments are conducted on two public benchmark fine-grained datasets. The results demonstrate significant improvements in the performance of our method relative to other fine-grained hashing algorithms.


Networks are becoming a key element in most current and all future, telescope and observatory projects. The ability to easily and efficiently pass observation data, alert data and instrumentation requests between distributed systems could enable science as never before. However, any effective large scale or meta-network of astronomical resources will require a common communication format or development resources will have to be continuously dedicated to creating interpreters. The necessary elements of any astronomy communication can be easily identified, efficiently described and rigidly formatted so that both robotic and human operations can use the same data. In this paper we will explore the current state of notification, what notification requirements are essential to create a successful standard and present a standard now under development by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA), called the VOEvent.


Purpose To evaluate dynamic and static properties of lateral canthal tendon and involutional periorbital anthropometric and lateral canthal changes with any possible effect of sleep preference side on these changes. Methods Ninety-two healthy adult subjects with a mean age of 43.5 years were enrolled in the study. Lateral canthal tendon lengths (LCT), canthal movement amplitudes, and other periorbital anthropometric parameters were measured. Any effects of age and sleep preference side on anthropometric and particularly lateral canthal tendon measurements were evaluated. Pearson correlation analysis, one-way analysis of variance, and t-test for paired samples were used for statistical evaluation. Results LCT length was weakly correlated with age, lower lid tractability, horizontal palpebral fissure length, and interpupillary distance and also inversely correlated with margin reflex distance, but not with other measurements. Age was also correlated with lower lid tractability, and with the ratio of LCT to the horizontal palpebral fissure length (LCT/HPFL). No correlation between age and horizontal palpebral fissure length was detected. Age was weakly and inversely correlated with canthal height but not with canthal movement amplitudes. No effect of sleep preference side on LCT length, canthal height, or lower lid tractability was detected. Conclusions Lateral canthus has a dynamic structure that is not correlated with any other periorbital anthropometric measurements. LCT length is correlated with lower lid tractability, and increases with age, unlike horizontal palpebral fissure that stays constant with increasing LCT/HPFL ratio. Sleep preference side has no effect on the eyelid metrics and LCT. (Eur J Ophthalmol 2007; 17: 143–50)


Background: The dosage of herb ultrafine particle (UFP) depended on the increased level of its dissolution, toxicity, and efficacy. Objective: The dissolution, antibacterial activity, and cytotoxicity of Coptidis rhizoma (CR) UFP were compared with those of traditional decoction (TD). Materials and Methods: The dissolution of berberine (BBR) of CR TD and UFP was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The antibacterial activity of CR extract was assayed by plate-hole diffusion and broth dilution method; the inhibitory effect of rat serums against bacteria growth was evaluated after orally given CR UFP or TD extract. The cytotoxicity of CR extract was evaluated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Results: The dissolution amount of BBR from CR UFP increased 6-8-folds in comparison to TD at 2 min, the accumulative amount of BBR in both UFP and TD group increased in a time-dependent manner. The minimal inhibitory concentrations and minimal bactericidal concentrations of CR UFP extract decreased to 1/2~1/4 of those of TD extract. The inhibitory effect of rat serums against bacteria growth decreased time-dependently, and no statistical difference was observed between two groups at each time point. The 50% cytotoxic concentrations of UFP extract increased 1.66~1.97 fold than those of TD. Conclusions: The antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity of CR UFP increased in a dissolution-effect manner in vitro, the increased level of cytotoxicity was lower than that of antibacterial activity, and the inhibitory effect of rat serums containing drugs of UFP group did not improve.


Taking a black hole as a black body system, using general black body radiation theory, a Schwarzschild black hole and a Kerr–Newman black hole are investigated respectively. It is concluded that a black hole can be regarded as an ideal general black body system exactly for the changing process only. However, a stationary global black hole cannot be smoothly regarded as a general black body system. A black hole has some special characteristics which different from a general thermodynamics system. This conclusion means that a black hole should be inherently dynamical, at least when it is taken as a black body system.


This is a case of idiopathic NA-SCAD (non-atherosclerotic spontaneous coronary artery dissection) occurring in a patient receiving rituximab chemotherapy for stable Stage IV follicular lymphoma. This patient experienced typical angina relieved with nitroglycerin. A diagnosis of non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction secondary to NA-SCAD was made based on invasive coronary angiography features and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging. The association between NA-SCAD and rituximab therapy has been previously described in various case reports. In the absence of identifiable precipitating factors, NA-SCAD secondary to rituximab is probable.


A rigid spatial structure represents a three-dimensional structural system in which the size of the singular planar elements is very small related to the whole construction. In this paper we will do investigations of quadrilateral patterns and we will propose an analytical method for designing structural rigid folding with quadrilateral patterns following geometrical surfaces of different topology. Our method offers folding structures with four fold lines meeting in one node which allows a simpler solution of join connections and assembling of the whole spatial and structural system. As the physical characteristics of paper can lead to all kinds of wrong conclusions it is necessary to use CAD tools in addition to scale models, where the entire folding element is reconstructed and its geometric characteristics are controlled. This kind of control reflects on the scale model. Models are then adjusted, examined and built to reach certain conclusions that are once more tested in CAD software.


This paper discusses the Malaysia Keris design within the scope of the presence of the Fibonacci sequence component in design related to the art elements and design principles, which make it stand as an iconic item to symbolise Malaysian identity. The existing literature emphasised on the philosophical part of it. Using tool or instrument, of form analysis based on Fibonacci sequence spiral, has mapped the DNA of the design. The empirical findings show that the existence of Fibonacci sequences is significant in Malaysian keris design. Moreover, 'emphasis' has given the distribution of the visual weight of objects and value.
Keywords: Elements of art; Fibonacci sequence; Keris; Principles of design
eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bsby e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI3.2547


In a photo-cathode radio-frequency (rf) gun, the micro-bunched charge output from the gun is dependent linearly on the laser injection phase, due to the Scottay effect in the process of photoemission and the procedure of the electron longitudinal acceleration. Based on this principle, a new method is proposed, which should be utilized to measure the time jitter between the driving laser pulse and the rf phase with a very high resolution of a few tens of femtoseconds.


Interpreting bulky 2D design drawings from consultants into a 3D mental picture for construction purposes is tedious. If only visualizing a 3D mental picture of the project creates burdens to user, then he will find more problems in integrating this information with other plans such as the construction process and safety regulations. In other words, it is difficult to add more contents in the 2D design representation. Virtual Reality (VR) aims to allow the end-user to view a 3D model of a project. So, contents of the design can be added, such as construction processes and safety plans, at the virtually real project before actual construction is undertaken.
 This paper discusses the virtually real construction model (component and process) of the Hong Kong Housing Authority standard block, specific developed functions of the virtual reality application and the role of a Design-For-Safety-Process (DFSP) for the purpose of site safety hazards recognition and remedial measures to prevent the occurrence of accidents.


In-situ static compaction by grouting is routinely used as a countermeasure against liquefaction in loose sandy ground. The surrounding ground's stress changes induced by grout injection are considered to be an important cause for the stabilisation effects, along with some densification of the ground in the bulb's vicinity. The present study investigates characteristics of the stress changes by simulating compaction grouting processes in a geotechnical centrifuge. Detailed descriptions are given of apparatus and experimental techniques specifically developed for conducting miniature injection tests. The observed increases in the horizontal stresses, evaluated in terms of the earth pressure coefficient, K, reflected the influence of grout pile spacing, and were found to be consistent with field measurements except near the surface. The centrifuge tests also allowed the changes in the dominant stress direction within the horizontal planes at the stabilised domain's centre to be evaluated, with the results indicating the dependency of the stress changes upon depth and interactions between neighboring grout piles. The significance of the stress changes in increasing the liquefaction resistance is demonstrated by mapping liquefaction curves against initial stress states through a series of cyclic hollow cylinder simple shear tests.


Simple Summary The increasing global demand and accessibility for proton beam therapy has been fueled by its recognised clinical benefits over traditional radiotherapy, primarily its ability to precisely target tumors while sparing more healthy tissue. However, the effectiveness of proton treatment plans can be compromised by four key variables: patient motion, patient setup, proton range, and radiobiological effects. A promising solution for mitigating radiobiological uncertainty is a novel method known as Linear Energy Transfer (LET) optimisation. This systematic review is aimed at compiling data related to the clinical motivation for, and various methodologies of, LET optimisation in proton beam therapy. It will present the current standing of LET optimisation in the field, and provide recommendations for future research and clinical deployment. Abstract The well-known clinical benefits of proton therapy are achieved through higher target-conformality and normal tissue sparing than conventional radiotherapy. However, there is an increased sensitivity to uncertainties in patient motion/setup, proton range and radiobiological effect. Although recent efforts have mitigated some uncertainties, radiobiological effect remains unresolved due to a lack of clinical data for relevant endpoints. Therefore, RBE optimisations may be currently unsuitable for clinical treatment planning. LET optimisation is a novel method that substitutes RBE with LET, shifting LET hotspots outside critical structures. This review outlines the current status of LET optimisation in proton therapy, highlighting knowledge gaps and possible future research. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a search of the MEDLINE® and Scopus databases was performed in July 2023, identifying 70 relevant articles. Generally, LET optimisation methods achieved their treatment objectives; however, clinical benefit is patient-dependent. Inconsistencies in the reported data suggest further testing is required to identify therapeutically favourable methods. We discuss the methods which are suitable for near-future clinical deployment, with fast computation times and compatibility with existing treatment protocols. Although there is some clinical evidence of a correlation between high LET and adverse effects, further developments are needed to inform future patient selection protocols for widespread application of LET optimisation in proton therapy.


Design and experimental evaluation of a sixth-order fully integrated continuous-time 10.7-MHz bandpass filter are presented. Circuit performance is stabilized through on-chip tuning by a dual-loop master-slave control scheme that locks center frequency and bandwidth to an external reference signal. Difficulties in design and performance are discussed and corrections suggested where appropriate.


OBJECTIVE
CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (known as Treg cells) suppress unwanted and autoreactive T cell responses. Treg cells express the costimulatory molecule CTLA-4 intracellularly, but the mechanisms by which Treg cells exploit CTLA-4 signaling remain unclear. The present study was undertaken to investigate the role of CTLA-4 in controlling the homeostasis and suppressive function of Treg cells.

METHODS
Murine Treg cells were analyzed by flow cytometry for coexpression of CTLA-4 and typical Treg cell-expressed molecules, and the influence of CTLA-4 on T cell proliferation, suppression, and apoptosis was investigated by in vitro assays. To analyze the importance of CTLA-4 in Treg cell-mediated suppression in vivo, wild-type Treg cells were transferred into CTLA-4-deficient mice displaying lymphoproliferation, and survival was monitored over time.

RESULTS
A strong correlation between expression of forkhead box P3 and ex vivo expression of CTLA-4 in Treg cells was observed. Inhibition of CTLA-4 signaling in Treg cells during in vitro stimulation increased cell cycling and led to enhanced activation-induced cell death (AICD), which was mediated by CD95/CD95 ligand-induced activation of caspases. Blockade of CTLA-4 signaling resulted in impairment of the suppressive capacity of Treg cells. Despite these effects, high amounts of Treg cells persisted in CTLA-4-deficient mice. Results of transfer experiments in CTLA-4-deficient mice showed that the mice had a significantly prolonged lifespan when CTLA-4-competent Treg cells were injected.

CONCLUSION
Expression of CTLA-4 on Treg cells serves to control T cell proliferation, to confer resistance against AICD, and to maintain the suppressive function of Treg cells.


Rural Peru has shown poverty and inequality reductions, but some regions lag behind. We analyse the driving forces behind these trends by using microsimulation-based decompositions. We find that poverty and inequality reductions are mainly attributable to positive price effect in Peru's agricultural sector, in part due to international market forces. Favourable developments have increased incomes also in non-agricultural sectors, and created new jobs, but were less pro-poor than is ideal. Further, shrinking farm sizes have hampered poverty reduction. Policies should target the participation in cash cropping and non-agricultural activities, especially if positive commodity price developments are only transitory.


Gastric carcinoma is a biologically heterogenous disease and survival varies among the patients with same stage. Recent studies have shown that a subset of gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma over express the HER2/neu protein and these patients can be treated by monoclonal antibody against HER2/neu protein. The purpose of this study was to detect the frequency of HER2 expression in gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma and to evaluate the relationship between HER2 expression and clinicopathological features in these patients. This descriptive cross sectional study was carried out at the Department of Pathology, Dhaka Medical College, from January 2013 to December 2014. A total of 130 patients with primary gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinomas were included in this study. All the cases were evaluated for routine histological examination and immunohistochemical examination was done for HER2/neu protein. Among the 130 cases, HER2 over expression was found in 12.3% cases and was more frequent in gastroesophageal junction (28%) than in gastric carcinoma (8.6%) (P=0.026). HER2 positivity was found significantly more in intestinal type carcinoma (19%), papillary carcinoma (63%) and in fungating growth pattern (P=0.003, 0.001 and 0.001 respectively). HER2 expression was also positive in grade-I or grade-II tumor but negative in grade-III tumor (P=0.001). No significant association of HER2 expression was found with age, sex, lymph node metastasis and extent of tumor. In conclusion it can be stated that gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma of intestinal type or papillary and tubular type with well to moderate differentiation can be targeted for therapy using Herceptin.


The unification of logic and probability has been seen as a long-standing concern in philosophy and mathematical logic. In this paper, we propose a new general probabilistic modal logic of belief and only-believing in the situation calculus. Our logic can express both continuous and discrete degrees of belief. More importantly, expressing degrees of belief for arbitrary first-order formulas in a dynamic setting is possible for the first time, going well beyond previous proposals where fluents are assumed to be nullary or discrete. We show that our notion of belief retains many of the properties known from the previous related work.


This paper illustrates a progressive work done to implement a smart computer-assisted question-answer system, which combines different AI tools and techniques. The system is being implemented to overcome the problem raised if program developers insufficiently explore the expert's domain knowledge, which result an inadequate knowledge-based system to the task of providing good advice or making informed decisions. Thus, the best way is developing a computer-assisted question-answer system that can be generalized and used by experts themselves to transfer their ideas into a series of data, rules and knowledge. The system is automatically generated, thus experts in any domain, regardless of their computer knowledge, can use it. The system combines different AI tools and techniques to accomplish the mentioned task.


Nursery is a stage most important in the productive process of fruit crops. A trial was conducted for analyzed the effect of
two types of pack and two substrates on vegetative growth of papaya seedlings. The experiment was made from June to
August 2006. The experimental design was randomized completely, four treatments and three replicates. T1 plastic bags
(730 ml) and lime loam soil, T2 plastic bags and peat moss, T3 plastic trays of two hundred cavities (20 ml per cavity) and
lime loam soil and T4 plastic trays and peat moss. The variables studied were: seedling height, stem diameter, number of
leaves photo synthetically active and dry biomass of roots and stem plus leaves of seedlings. Statistical analysis was
variance analysis and test Tukey 5 %. Medium values of seedlings height varied from 5.10 to 21.29 cm, stem diameter 3.23
to 6.87 mm, number of leaves 4 to 7, dry biomass stem plus leaves 0.01 to 0.69 g and dry biomass roots 0.01 to 0.48 g. T2
was the highest in all studied variables. Results showed that plastic bags and lime loam soil were more adequate for
propagation of papaya seedlings at nursery


Experimental and theoretical investigation of single-electron capture and additional experimental studies of single-electron loss cross sections in He+-Ar collisions at impact energies of 1.5-5.0 keV for experimental studies and from 10 to 4000 keV for the theoretical calculations are presented. Comparisons are made with other experimental results, for single-electron capture the present measurements confirm the behaviour observed by previous measurements in the energy range 1.5-5.0 keV, except with the data of Eisele and Nagy (1977 J. Chem. Phys. 66 883-5), and for single-electron loss an extrapolation of the high-energy results to low energies shows good agreement with the present data, giving the general shape of the cross section curve. Our theoretical calculations are in good agreement with the experimental data and reproduce the main features of the cross section energy dependence. We present the most important contributions to the total cross sections from the partial capture cross section to the He(1s) and He(n = 2) states, with the former as the dominant channel over the energy region considered.


In the past few years, the ALMA radio telescope has become available for solar observations. ALMA diagnostics of the solar atmosphere are of high interest because of the theoretically expected linear relationship between the brightness temperature at millimeter wavelengths and the local gas temperature in the solar atmosphere. Key for the interpretation of solar ALMA observations is understanding where in the solar atmosphere the ALMA emission originates. Recent theoretical studies have suggested that ALMA bands at 1.2 (band 6) and 3 mm (band 3) form in the middle and upper chromosphere at significantly different heights. We study the formation of ALMA diagnostics using a 2.5D radiative MHD model that includes the effects of ion–neutral interactions (ambipolar diffusion) and nonequilibrium ionization of hydrogen and helium. Our results suggest that in active regions and network regions, observations at both wavelengths most often originate from similar heights in the upper chromosphere, contrary to previous results. Nonequilibrium ionization increases the opacity in the chromosphere so that ALMA mostly observes spicules and fibrils along the canopy fields. We combine these modeling results with observations from IRIS, SDO, and ALMA to suggest a new interpretation for the recently reported "dark chromospheric holes," regions of very low temperatures in the chromosphere.


Traditionally electric power systems are operated in such a way that the total fuel cost is minimized regardless of emissions produced. With increased requirements for environmental protection, alternative strategies are required. This paper presents a summary of algorithms of environmental-economic dispatch in electric power systems since 1970. The algorithms attempt to reduce the production of atmospheric emissions such as NO/sub x/ and SO/sub x/ caused by the operation of fossil-fueled thermal generation. Such reduction is achieved by including emissions either as a constraint or as a weighted function the objective of the overall dispatching problem. >


As the makeup of the electrical engineering workforce changes to include more women engineers, industry is recognizing that their competitive advantage can be strengthened by the unique perspective that women can bring to the workplace. The efforts established through academia, professional organizations, and industry have helped to attract and retain women in the engineering profession by enabling talented people to develop to their fullest potential. More importantly, a greater challenge lies with the men and women who make up the engineering profession, managers as well as co-workers. Managers need to initiate the necessary changes in the day-to-day activity in the workplace, in promotions and assignments, and in employees benefits. They also need to support programs that expose women to engineering, and co-workers need to be willing to be involved in these programs. Co-workers need to be actively involved in creating a respectful environment where everyone can feel valued. It is through these efforts that an environment will be created where competent engineers will have the opportunity to perform to the peak of their abilities and industry will reap the benefits of a diverse workforce. >


This correlation study analyzes the results of departmental examinations and the final grades of students enrolled in Fundamentals of Accounting I (AC1&2) and Fundamentals of Accounting II (AC103N) in School Years 2005 to 2008 (2,280 in AC1&2 and 1,224 in AC103N).  It found a positive relationship among the AC1&2 variables but an inverse relationship among those of the AC103N.  The study concludes that there is a significant correlation between the departmental examination results and the final grades of the students in basic accounting courses in the school years covered by the study.


The aim of this study was to assess the effect of vocal fold medialization, accomplished by injection of autologous fascia, on airflow dynamics and voice acoustics. Ten patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis were included. Flow-volume spirometry, body plethysmography, and acoustic analysis of voice were performed within 1 week before injection of autologous fascia and 4 to 14 months after operation. Medialization of the paralyzed vocal fold decreased the mean peak inspiratory flow (PIF) from 4.63 L to 4.10 L (p = .012). The acoustic characteristics of the voice improved: the values of jitter, shimmer, and mean noise-to-harmonics ratio decreased significantly (p = .006, p = .017, and p = .047, respectively), and the mean maximal phonation time almost doubled (p = .002). Changes in PIF and shimmer showed a negative correlation (r = −.857, p = .007). In conclusion, injection of autologous fascia improves voice acoustics, but induces a slight abnormal limitation on PIF. The results also suggest that improvement in voice acoustics is most prominent in subjects with the least deterioration in inspiratory airflow.


ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate intravenous tranexamic acid's (TA) effect on blood loss and transfusion ratios in pelvis-acetabulum fractures treated with open reduction and internal fixation. METHODS: Patients who underwent open reduction and internal fixation due to pelvis-acetabulum fractures between January 2017 and January 2019 constituted this study's target population. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, patients were divided into two groups: Those who were perioperatively given 15 mg/kg TA (i.e., Group 1) and those who were not (i.e., Group 2). Data including age, gender, mechanism of injury, fracture type, presence or absence of additional injuries, the time interval between admission and surgery, incision site, pre-operative and post-operative hemoglobin levels, intraoperative estimated blood loss (EBL), number of blood units transfused, and complications were recorded. Two groups were compared regarding these parameters. RESULTS: The study cohort included 58 patients. There were 30 patients in Group 1 and 28 patients in Group 2. Our analysis revealed that the number of blood units transfused was significantly higher in Group 2 than Group 1 (p=0.016). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding intraoperative EBL, pre-operative and post-operative hemoglobin levels, and the time interval between admission and surgery. CONCLUSION: Administration of intravenous TA reduces blood transfusion requirement in patients with pelvis-acetabulum fractures treated with open reduction and internal fixation. This approach can prevent potential blood transfusion-related complications.


Modulation of the octahedral crystal field environment of Cr3+ is an effective approach to achieve tunable emission. Here, we prepared a series of broadband MP3O9:Cr3+ (M = Al, Ga, In) near-infrared (NIR) phosphors, and cubic AlP3O9:Cr3+ (APO-c:Cr3+) and monoclinic AlP3O9:Cr3+ (APO-m:Cr3+) phosphors were prepared by controlling the synthesis temperature. The emission wavelength was tuned from 787 nm for APO-c:Cr3+ to 894 nm for monoclinic InP3O9:Cr3+ (IPO:Cr3+) by regulating the M ion and reducing the crystal field intensity. Excitingly, the MP3O9:Cr3+ (M = Al, Ga, In) family shows excellent thermal stability; the emission intensity of APO-c:Cr3+, APO-m:Cr3+ and monoclinic GaP3O9:Cr3+ (GPO:Cr3+) can still maintain 95.6%, 86% and 86% of that at room temperature when heating to 423 K, respectively. An NIR LED device was prepared by incorporating GPO:Cr3+ and a blue light LED, demonstrating the potential application in night vision and non-destructive testing.


One of the key challenges for the next-generation light sources such as X-FELs is to implement a timing stabilization and distribution system to enable ~ 10 fs synchronization of the different RF and laser sources distributed in such facilities with distances up to a few kilometers. These requirements appear to be beyond the capability of traditional RF distribution systems based on temperature-stabilized coaxial cables. A promising alternative is to use an optical transmission system: A train of pulses generated from a laser with low timing jitter is distributed over length-stabilized fiber links to remote locations. The repetition frequency of the pulse train and its higher harmonics contain the synchronization information. At the remote locations, RF signals are extracted simply by using a photodiode and a suitable bandpass filter to pick the desired harmonic of the laser repetition rate. Passively mode-locked Er-doped fiber lasers provide excellent long-term stability. The laser must have extremely low timing jitter, particularly at high frequencies (>1 kHz). Ultimately, the timing jitter is limited by quantum fluctuations in the number of photons making up the pulse and the incoherent photons added in the cavity due to spontaneous emission. The amplitude and phase noise of a home-built laser, generating 100-fs, 1-nJ pulses, was characterized. The measured phase noise (timing jitter) is sub-10 fs, from 1 kHz to Nyquist frequency. In addition to synchronization of accelerators, the ultra-low timing jitter pulse source can find applications in next-generation telecommunication systems.


The future international accelerator Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research FAIR at Darmstadt, Germany will serve as research facility for a large community of scientists in Europe and around the world. It will expand on experiences made at GSI in combining synchrotrons with storage rings, and will open access to a broad spectrum of experimental approaches. The physics of strongly interacting systems is the main research field, but also aspects of atomic and plasma physics as well as material science will be addressed. The key features of the facility are high intensities, multi-user parallel operation and brilliant beams of secondary reaction products, i.e. exotic instable nuclei and anti-protons. The opportunities have attracted by now three large communities interested in nuclear structure studies using rare isotopes, hadron spectroscopy exploiting collisions of anti-protons with various targets and physics of ultra-dense nuclear matter created in central collisions of very heavy ions. Moreover, many smaller groups of scientists have proposed exiting experiments to investigate e.g. anti-matter, QED in strong fields and strongly correlated plasmas.


Due to the inflation factor, for that we need to invest in an investment asset, the current value of money will decrease. The investment instrument studied in this study were shares, using financial ratios to establish whether financial ratios are correlated with stock prices so that we can search for companies that can provide benefits in the form of capital gains, the object of this research uses ratios, among others: earnings per share, total asset turnover, return on equity, and debt/asset ratio. This research, using the help of the Eviews version 10 program as an application to process the data used, was carried out on companies listed on the lq45 index. In this study, the purposive sampling method was used as the sampling method. The number of samples used were 23 companies with research data carried out from 2017 to 2021, so 115 observation data were obtained. From the results of this study it is known that: (1) Earnings per share has a significant positive effect on share prices, this is evidenced with a significance of 0.0000 and a t value of 11.35574, so H1 is accepted; (2) The Turnover of Total Assets has a significant positive effect on stock prices, this is evidenced by the significance of 0.0156 and the value of the arithmetic t (2.456378) for which H2 is accepted; (3) Return on Equity has a significant positive effect on share prices, this is evidenced by a significance of 0.0010 and a t-count value of 3.368250, so H3 is accepted; (4) The debt to asset ratio has a significant negative effect on share prices, this is evidenced by a significant value of 0.1872 and a t-count value of (1.327267) so H4 is rejected; (5) Obtained Simultaneous Test Results Arithmetic results F of 33.50263 with probability 0.000000 can be concluded if simultaneously all variables have a significant influence on stock prices. The results of the regression analysis show the adjusted value (r^2) of 0.532807, which means that variations in Earnings per Share, Total Asset Turnover, Return on Equity, and Debt to Assets Ratio can explain the 53.28 % of changes in stock price. While the remaining 46.72% is explained by other variables not examined in this study.


This research is based on ethnographic fieldwork amongst women purchasing direct sales cosmetics in Slovakia. To interpret the data I use concepts from social as well as evolutionary anthropology. In the thesis I examine the closely bonded female collectives that emerged during the purchasing of cosmetics from direct sales companies. I show that while the company sales representatives were trained in the network selling marketing to make a profit, under specified conditions women's collectives emerged that encouraged the shared ritualized purchase of cosmetics which undermined the sales representatives' incentives to make a gain. I identify and explain the mechanisms that intensified the relationships amongst the women who created collectives of allies. In this ritually forged environment the women created small collectives based on mutual trust, sharing, egalitarianism and cooperation that extended beyond the context of attractiveness enhancement. In the ritual mode women generated a resistance culture that opposed the individualistic and competitive practices of the cosmetic companies and favoured the leveling of beautification through ritual egalitarianism. From the energetically costly ritual performance ambivalent ritual gender emerged that incorporated both female and male characteristics and was controlled by the female collectives. Endowed with ritual power women employed their ritually created collective agency by claiming their ritual space and time. In the process of ritualization the women transformed economic relations into gift-like relationships that through a web of social obligations created bonds of solidarity and cooperation amongst them. As a result of the collective ritual practice cosmetics became a signal of commitment to the cosmetic coalition. They were invested with the meanings of morality, cooperation and equality of quasi kinship ties. Through regular participation in the collective cosmetic rituals women learnt a ritual template that enabled them to enter any such female collective across Slovakia. These collectives provided their female members with benefits beyond the ritual context. The thesis contributes to the body of work on female competition and cooperation. It shows that once women are united through collective rituals with cosmetics and beautification at their centre they create a safe environment where cooperation rather than competition through beauty prevails. Through recognizing and interpreting the mechanisms for bonding and group commitment the thesis also develops the model of female cosmetic coalitions within the setting of direct sales cosmetics in Slovakia


Misconstruing the meaning of Cronbach's alpha, experts on facial attractiveness have conveyed the impression that facial-attractiveness judgment standards are largely shared. This claim is unsubstantiated, because information necessary for deciding whether judgments of facial attractiveness are more influenced by commonly shared or by privately held evaluation standards is lacking. Three experiments, using diverse face and rater samples to investigate the relative contributions of private and shared taste to judgments of facial attractiveness, are reported. These experiments show that for a variety of ancillary conditions, and contrary to the prevalent notion in the literature, private taste is about as powerful as shared taste. Important implications for scientific research strategy and laypeople's self-esteem are discussed.


Viewing psychological ownership as a positive resource for impacting human performance in organizations, the present study investigated the relationship between organizational justice and psychological ownership among non-family employees in family firms. The concept of ownership which has been the focus of attention by scholars and business managers has three different dimensions. Social identity theory has been applied to many organizational contexts, including family businesses. Due to numerous characteristics often attributed to family firms, they constitute a unique context for non-family employees' justice perceptions. These are linked to non-family employees' pro-organizational attitudes and behaviors, which are essential for family firms' success. Social identity theory has been applied to many organizational contexts, including family businesses. However, the current study is one of the first to explore the organizational identification of non-family member employees in Iran. Based on previous research, it seems likely that, for family business employees, organizational identification mediates the relationship between organizational justice and commitment. This study proposes a model of psychological ownership for family business employees based on these considerations.


The spectrum of six times ionized chlorine, Cl VII, has been investigated in the wavelength interval 100-6000 Å. The region below 270 Å has been studied by means of theta pinch and open spark spectrum recordings while above 270 Å we have used the beam-foil method and a sliding spark light source. 133 lines have been identified of which about 85 are new. The observed term system has been recalculated and extended to include 52 terms. The ionization limit, as derived from the polarization formula, is 921 096 ± 5 cm-1.


Fetal thyroid glands of athymic nude mice (BALB/cAnNCrj-nu/nu) were examined morphometrically on day 18 of gestation. Compared to euthymic litter mate controls (BALB/ cAnNCrj-nu/+), both the cell height and diameter of thyroid follicles were significantly smaller; fewer well-developed follicles were found in the peripheral region of the thyroid; the body weight and total volume of the thyroid gland were also smaller in nude mice. These results suggest underdevelopment of the fetal thyroid gland of the athymic nude mouse.


The scale dependence of nutrient loads exported from a catchment is a function of complex interactions between hydrologic and biogeochemical processes that modulate the input signals from the hillslope by aggregation and attenuation in a converging river network. Observational data support an empirical inverse relation between the biogeochemical cycling rate constant for nitrate k (T−1) and the stream stage h (L), k = vf/h, with vf, the uptake velocity (LT−1), being constant in space under steady flow conditions. Here we offer a physical explanation for the persistence of this pattern across scales and then extend the analysis to spatiotemporal scaling of k under transient‐flow conditions. Inverse k‐h dependence arose as an emergent pattern by coupling the mechanistic Transient Storage Model with a network model. Analytical modeling indicated that (1) nitrate processing efficiency increases with increasing variability in the discharge Q and (2) temporal averaging had no effect on the exponent a of the k‐h relationship (k = vf/ha) in catchments with low Q variability, but strong dependence arose in catchments with high variability in Q. Network modeling in domains with low Q variability confirmed that the exponent a was independent of temporal averaging, but vf was a function of the averaging timescale. The probability distribution functions for k could be adequately predicted using analytical approaches. Understanding the k‐h scaling relationships enables the direct estimation of the variability in nutrient losses due to in‐stream reactions without requiring explicit information for spatially distributed network modeling.


Similar to the other physical dimensions of light, such as time, space, polarization, wavelength, and intensity, optical angular momentum (AM) is another physically-orthogonal dimension of light. Owing to an unbounded set of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes carried by helically-phased beams, the availability of using AM-carrying beams as information carrier to generate, transport and detect optical signals has recently been largely explored in both classical and quantum optical communications, suggesting that AM is indeed a promising candidate to dramatically boost the optical multiplexing capacity. However, the extrinsic nature of OAM modes restricts conventional OAM multiplexing to bulky phase sensitive elements, imposing a fundamental limit for realizing on-chip OAM multiplexing. Recently, we demonstrate an entirely-new concept of nanoplasmonic multiplexing of AM of light, which for the first time enables AM multiplexing to be carried out by an integrated device with six orders of magnitude reduced footprint as compared to the conventional OAM detectors. We show that nanoring slit waveguides exhibit a distinctive outcoupling efficiency on tightly-confined plasmonic AM modes coupled from AM-carrying beams. More intriguingly, unlike the linear momentum sensitivity with a typical sharp resonance, the discovered AM mode-sorting sensitivity is nonresonant in nature, leading to an ultra-broadband AM multiplexing ranging from visible to terahertz wavelengths. This nanoplasmonic manipulation of AM of ultra-broadband light offers exciting avenues for future on-chip AM applications in highly-sensitive bio-imaging and bio-sensing, ultrahigh-bandwidth optical communications, ultrahigh-definition displays, and ultrahigh-capacity data storage.


The development of teaching and learning activities must be evaluated to find out the success or failure of learning. This evaluation must be done because teaching now will certainly affect the next learning process, especially the reading comprehension model. This study aims to produce a reading comprehension model that is able to improve the reading comprehension skills of second semester students in the English for Professions subject to 2 Semester Credit Systems (SKS) in the department of animal husbandry at the University of Nahdlatul Ulama Blitar. The study approach used was Research and Development by modifying the ten steps of implementing the research strategy into three steps. The research subjects were lecturers and students majoring in animal husbandry at the University of Nahdlatul Ulama Blitar. Data collection techniques used was observation, questionnaires, interviews and tests. Research data analyzed using qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques. Data results show that the use of reciprocal teaching reading strategies combined with peer-teaching methods can significantly improve students' reading comprehension skills. The care giving effect arising from the application of reciprocal teaching to reading comprehension increases social values in second semester students in the English for Professional course.


The construction of new roads and the consistent extension of already-existing roads or the line-shape revision of those roads are increased with the governmental investment to SOC facilities currently. Accordingly, the road cut slopes are in the trend of rapidly increasing. As the road slope has increased, a lot of human and property damages has entailed consequently and in the local case, numerous studies have carried out aiming at minimizing this damages caused by the rockfall and landslide. In general, standard falling rock prevention facility has employed for most of the local road slope based on "Guide for Installation and Management of Road Safety Facilities" published by MLTM(the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs) but profound doubt has raised as to whether this rockfall prevention facility would function properly enough to prevent rockfall efficiently without any damages in case of actual occurrence of rockfall. In addition, it is a reality that in most cases, such work is relied on overseas technology as a whole as the local technical level is low and in case of rockfall prevention net, it is judged that a study on rockfall prevention net that is able to endure more powerful rockfall energy is required as the problem including net bursting is taken place as a result of enough bearing force being failed to be demonstrated due to its partial weak point(not uniformly made). Under this background, in this study, three kinds of model depending on mesh size of expanded metal that is considered to have an adoptability as rockfall prevention net, as target are selected and characteristics depending on mesh size of expanded metal is intended to be researched through a pull-out test performance by using pull-out test equipment rockfall prevention net.


The ability to target and inhibit individual gene expression with antisense oligonucleotides has shown promising activity in preclinical cancer models. Recent clinical studies have tested antisense compounds directed against seven cancer related genes including p53, bcl-2, c-raf, H-ras, protein kinase C-alpha, and protein kinase A. Class specific effects of the phosphorothioate backbone common to the first generation of antisense compounds have dominated the side effects of these oligonucleotides. Inhibition of target gene expression has been modest at most, and clinical activity has been primarily anecdotal. Combinations of the antisense compounds with chemotherapy and second-generation oligonucleotides offer promise that these agents might become a standard part of future cancer therapy.


Panniculitides represent a heterogeneous group of inflammatory diseases that are traditionally considered one of the most difficult challenge for clinicians and pathologists. They may occur in a variety of dermato/rheumatologic diseases and are of particular relevance for clinicians dealing with such pathologies, including immune-mediated/autoimmune and autoinflammatory disorders. In fact, panniculitides can be the initial sign of presentation of a dermato/rheumatologic disease, thereby providing the physician with important clues to the correct diagnosis. Then, panniculitides may serve as an easy-to-access indicator of both systemic involvement and prognostic outcome in dermato/rheumatologic disorders. This review will focus on clinical and histopathological findings of panniculitides in the setting of dermato/rheumatologic disorders and discusses the value of skin biopsies and consequent histopathological examination in the diagnosis of these disorders with the help of a logarithmic table.


Phenazocine (Narphen - SNP) is an analgesic comparable to morphine, morphine-like analgesics and pentazocine1 and was introduced into clinical practice about 10 years ago for the treatment of chronic pain and in terminal disease. It has also been used for obstetric and post-operative pain. We discuss its advantages and disadvantages.


This work proposes a calibration method to determine the complex permittivity of materials based on the cavity-perturbation method. The method can characterize a sample with relative large in volume or high in dielectric constant, which significantly broadens the scope of the conventional perturbation method. The theory is validated with a full wave solver and an experiment was conducted. A sample of silicon carbide was heated using high-power microwave and characterized with low-power signal, all operating in the same cavity but staggered in time sequence. The complex permittivity of the silicon carbide varying with temperature was measured and discussed. The proposed approach heats and measures the sample strictly by microwave techniques, which fosters the study of microwave∕material interaction.


Diffractive arrays of strongly scattering noble metal particles coupled to a high-index slab of gain material can form the basis for plasmonic distributed feedback lasers. In this chapter, we discuss recent theoretical and experimental results describing the electromagnetic properties of these structures. Particularly, we investigate bandgap topology versus detuning between the plasmonic and Bragg resonances. We examine the complex dispersion relation, accounting for the fact that the particles are electrodynamic scatterers with radiation loss, that couple via a stratified medium system supporting guided modes. From the complex dispersion of this array we can deduce loss and outcoupling properties of the various Bloch modes, giving a handle on its lasing properties. From the experimental side, we show how to measure the dispersion relation using fluorescence microscopy, and systematically examine the array dispersion for realized plasmonic lasers as function of detuning between particle and lattice resonance. We conclude the chapter with a vision towards employing disordered, quasiperiodic and random plasmonic arrays to induce different optical responses, and experimentally demonstrate the exceptional robustness of lasing to disorder in these systems.


Nenana basin in central Alaska is a long (90 km), narrow (12 km), and deep (7 km) sedimentary basin aligned with an active fault zone producing Mw≥6 earthquakes. From 2015 to 2019, 13 broadband seismic stations were deployed in the region as part of the Fault Locations and Alaska Tectonics from Seismicity project. These stations recorded a wide range of earthquakes, including Mw 3–4 directly below the basin as well as several regional earthquakes Mw>6. These 43 local and regional earthquakes, in addition to five teleseismic events and continuously recorded ambient noise, provide a data set that we use to quantify the response of Nenana basin to the seismic wavefield. We calculate spectral ratios between each station and a bedrock reference station for 48 earthquakes. We find amplification of 11–14 dB (amplification ratio 3.5–5.0) for low frequencies (0.1–0.5 Hz), and 8–15 dB (amplification ratio 2.5–5.6) for high frequencies (0.5–4.0 Hz) on the vertical component. At low frequencies, amplification of the earthquake wavefield agrees well with amplification of seismic noise, with both data sets exhibiting stronger amplification on the horizontal components, in comparison with the vertical component. Furthermore, stations overlying the deeper part of the basin exhibit stronger amplification, whereas stations at the margin of the basin exhibit minimal low-frequency amplification. At higher frequencies, amplification occurs at both deeper basin stations and also marginal basin stations. Our study establishes a catalog of diverse events for future theoretical and numerical studies that can use Nenana basin to better understand the complex influence of sedimentary basins on the seismic wavefield.


Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SSJ) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) correspond to an acute and rare life-threatening mucocutaneous reaction. We describe the etiology, length of stay, comorbidities and mortality of TEN in our hospital in a retrospective study of 12 years. Twenty-one patients were included in the study. The mean age was 66 years: 57.1% were females. One third had mucosal surface involvement. Median TBSA of epidermal detachment was 66% on day 1. Forty-two per cent had a SCORTEN at admission of 3 and 28.6% had a SCORTEN of 4, which performs 70.6% with SCORTEN ≥5. The most common causes of SJS/TEN in this study were antibiotics. There were a total of 15 deaths (71.4%). All the patients in the antibiotic group died. Patients who needed invasive ventilation had higher mortality (91%) than the non-invasive ventilation group (50%) and the group on spontaneous ventilation (42.8%). The most common complications were sepsis (53%) and renal failure (23%). Highest mortality due to sepsis was in the antibiotic group. When SCORTEN score was calculated for each patient, statistical evaluation showed an increase in mortality with increasing final score. The most crucial interventions are discontinuation of the causative drug and immediate referral to a burn unit, which helps in early diagnosis and decreases mortality. Our study provides insights into the confirmation of the risk of SJS/TEN as well as its treatment. When SSJ/TEN is caused by antibiotics, the suspicion of developing fatal sepsis should be high regardless of the patient's medical condition.


Restrictions on the American banking system in the early Twentieth Century affected the ability of commercial banks to provide financing to large industrial firms. Consequently, the investment and growth of these firms may have been finance-constrained. This paper examines the ability of J.P. Morgan & Company to alleviate finance-constrained investment and growth for firms with which it became affiliated. The paper also studies the impact of the Clayton Antitrust Act on the investment and growth of Morgan-affiliated firms versus non-affiliated firms. The overall findings suggest that arelationship with Morgan helped firms reduce finance-constraints.


Objective To inform international discourse about judicial countermajoritarianism, we assess whether decisions enhancing gay rights by Canadian courts increase the media's attention to homosexuality and related topics. Method We first collect a data set of monthly counts of relevant articles published in two prominent Canadian newspapers and then estimate Markov‐switching models to evaluate whether increases in media attention to homosexuality are coincident with judicial decisions enhancing gay rights in Canada. Results Each of five landmark gay rights decisions is coincident with a period of heightened media attention to homosexuality. The data show that Canadian newspapers publish nearly twice as many relevant stories during these "active" regimes compared to "inactive" periods. Conclusion Canadian courts can increase attention to issues in the national media. This result supports a dynamic view of the interaction between courts and democratic majorities in place of the static view of democracy endemic to normative discourse about judicial countermajoritarianism.


A symposium held at the 42nd annual Society for Medical Decision Making conference on October 26, 2020, focused on intergenerational decision making. The symposium covered existing research and clinical experiences using formal presentations and moderated discussion and was attended by 43 people. Presentations focused on the roles of pediatric patients in decision making, caregiver decision making for a child with complex medical needs, caregiver involvement in advanced care planning, and the inclusion of spillover effects in economic evaluations. The moderated discussion, summarized in this article, highlighted existing resources and gaps in intergenerational decision making in four areas: decision aids, economic evaluation, participant perspectives, and measures. Intergenerational decision making is an understudied and poorly understood aspect of medical decision making that requires particular attention as our society ages and technological advances provide new innovations for life-sustaining measures across all stages of the lifespan.


Ocean circulation, upwelling phenomena and chlorophyll-a concentrations were investigated within the framework of numerical model simulations with 1/12° nested horizontal grid-size, in the tropical western Indian Ocean, along the coasts of Tanzania and Kenya. Ekman driven upwelling exhibited high levels of spatial and temporal variability in the region, characterized by a more vigorous occurrence/intensification during the Northeast than the Southwest Monsoon season. A similar trend was observed for chlorophyll-a distribution, but with an additional strong contribution during the inter-monsoon period from March to April. Trend analysis of a SST-derived coastal upwelling index (CUI) computed over the Pemba Channel and offshore of the East African Coastal Current (EACC), for 24 years (1990 - 2013), revealed a general linear relation of the form CUI(yr) = 2.4x10-7yr – 285, with a steady small annual increase of the upwelling phenomena by 0.0024/year ≃ 4% during the whole period of the simulation, which could be attributed to documented increasing trends of wind intensity and water volume transport in the region. The CUI exhibited the two most dominant peaks of variabilities on the range of annual and semi-annual timescales. The wind-stress southward component and the easting/westing veering of the northward EACC at 6°S revealed that these parameters were moderate and significantly correlated with the CUI (r = - 0.53 and 0.52, p<0.05) respectively, further suggesting its intensification during the Northeast Monsoon season.


The purpose of this work is to build maps of regional stresses in the Romashkinskoye oilfield formations.The use of the obtained data in the design of field development allows subsequently to keep the system at the maximum production rate for a long time (A.V. Ulybin, 2017) and to fully develop hydrocarbons from the subsoil, predict the direction of fracture formation and increase the efficiency of field development.
 The novelty of the work is due to insufficient knowledge of the influence of rock stresses on the development of the analyzed objects. For the first time for the analyzed territories, a map of regional stresses was obtained to assess natural and induced fracturing due to hydraulic fracturing.
 Cross-dipole sonic logging is based on the use of at least one monopole source with a carrier frequency of the order of 8-12 kHz and a bandwidth of 0-20 kHz, to create longitudinal and transverse waves, as well as Stoneley waves. Registration occurs at probe distances that correspond to the far zone of the wave field (S.V. Dobrynin, access date 2020).
 Microseismic imager (MCI) logs primarily display resistivity measurements of formations near the borehole wall. As a result of using this method, it is possible to obtain information on changes in porosity, lithological composition and structure of layers, the presence of fractures and caverns.
 Passive seismic monitoring consists in continuous recording of microseismic noises by permanently installed or periodically installed seismological sensors in order to localize sources of underground microseisms of a natural and man-made nature (O. V. Kizim, date of access 2020).
 In the process of studies carried out at the wells of the Romashkinskoye field, it was noticed that the calculation of anisotropy in the interval of the Verean layer is complicated by the presence of decompacted rocks and high cavernosity. From the analysis results, conclusions can be drawn about the depth of the hydraulic fracture propagation.
 As a result of the analysis of the MCI logging results, performed at the wells of the Romashkinskoye field, the boundaries of the stratum, the dip angles, the dip azimuth for the Kashirian, Bashkirian, Aleksinian, Upino-Malevian beds were identified. Angular unconformity between some strata is revealed. In the analyzed wells, "healed" fractures were identified in the Verean layer, the Bashkirian stage, the Aleksinian and Tulian layers, and in the Upper Turnaisian substage, and their dip angles and azimuths were established.
 The purpose of the passive ground microseismic monitoring of hydraulic fracturing carried out at the wells of the Romashkinskoye field was to determine the azimuths, extent, developmental character of fracture zones and to assess the zones of probable proppant penetration in the formation during hydraulic fracturing in the vertical wellbore. As a result of the research, the azimuth of the center line, the length of the center line, the length of the proppant penetration zones, and the predicted fracture height were determined for the wells.
 Based on the results of geophysical and seismic studies the Romashkinskoye oilfield formations,a map of regional stresses was built, which allows the correct selection of wells for hydraulic fracturing.


The aims of the present study were first to identify discrete patterns of childhood victimization experiences including crime, child maltreatment, peer/sibling victimization, sexual violence, and witnessing violence among adult trauma victims using latent class analysis; second, to examine the association between class-membership and suicidal behavior, and third to investigate the differential role of dispositional anger on the association between class-membership and suicidal behavior. We hypothesized that those classes with accumulating exposure to different types of childhood victimization (e.g., poly-victimization) would endorse higher suicidal behavior, than the other less severe classes, and those in the most severe class with higher anger trait would have stronger association with suicidal behavior. Respondents were 346 adults (N = 346; Mage = 35.0 years; 55.9% female) who had experienced a lifetime traumatic event. Sixty four percent had experienced polyvictimization (four or more victimization experiences) and 38.8% met the cut-off score for suicidal behavior. Three distinct classes emerged namely, the Least victimization (Class 1), the Predominantly crime and sibling/peer victimization (Class 2), and the Poly-victimization (Class 3) classes. Regression analysis controlling for age and gender indicated that only the main effect of anger was significantly associated with suicidal behavior. The interaction term suggested that those in the Polyvictimization class were higher on suicidal behavior as a result of a stronger association between anger and suicidal behavior in contrast to the association found in Class 2. Clinical implications of findings entail imparting anger management skills to facilitate wellbeing among adult with childhood poly-victimization experiences.


Should they find themselves faced with the need for long-term care and support, a majority of Americans will tell you they would wish to retain their independence and dignity, remaining in their own homes and active in their communities as long as possible given their conditions or disabilities. It's not only seniors and the aging population, but also millions of younger disabled individuals across the country. Many view this choice not merely as a preference but a right they cling to fiercely. Yet as widespread as this sentiment may be, many of our nation's citizens and their families and loved ones find themselves unclear about the process, unaware of their options in long-term care, and often uninformed at the time of hospital discharge of available resources to help.


Background: Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is caused by HPV types 6 and 11 and has a substantial papilloma growth in the airway and is recurrent. The activity of HPV neoplasms is related to the cell cycle, a complex series of processes that cause cells to grow and replicate. The p53 and Ki67 proteins, as one of the tumor gene controllers, have the function of controlling the cell cycle and assisting the apoptotic process of damage to DNA. Objective: This study aims to analyze the relationship between RRP aggressiveness and p53 and Ki67 protein expression as one of the predictive factors for aggressive disease progression. Methods: This study was an observational analytic study with a crosssectional form. The p53 and Ki67 protein examination results were obtained from immunohistochemical examination by staining monoclonal antibody rabbit Anti-Human p53 and Ki67 clone 318-6-11. Data analysis used binary logistic regression to determine the relationship between the independent and dependent variables with a significant p <0.05. Results: From 19 samples, the distribution of the sex distribution of male patients (42.10%), while for women of eleven patients (57.90%). The type of RRP that was served the most by the participants was RPP for 13 children (68.40%). Positive p53 protein expression was found in 8 (42.10%) patients, while 11 (57.90%) patients had negative p53 protein expression. Moreover, on positive Ki67 protein expression, there were 5 (26.30%) patients and 14 (73.70%) patients with negative Ki67 protein expression. Discussion: High p53 protein expression indicates that the cell cycle is not controlled, so it is regulated by the p53 protein to control the cycle through the process of apoptosis or capture. The uncontrolled cell cycle causes tumors to grow very fast. Meanwhile, high Ki67 protein expression indicates an uncontrolled cell cycle because most of them are not resting. Conclusion: There is no relationship between the aggressiveness of recurrent tract papillomas with p53 and Ki67 protein expression.


The information society (IS) is a concept (sometimes controversial) whose existence has been championed as a development enabler. This has resulted in several initiatives geared towards policy making, strategy, and implementation of information and Communication Technologies (ICT) both in the developing and developed countries. These initiatives led to the formulation of various information society assessment tools at different levels as assessment is accepted as an important guide to more effective policy, strategy and further implementation of ICT. While the overall concept of measurement as a basis of evaluating and modifying policy and strategy is correct, the objectivity, relevance, and sufficiency of the tools as applied in different contexts is often questionable. In this paper, an explorative study of the information society theories and some of the existing assessment tools at both macro and micro-levels is given. The analysis involved identifying the motivation - the purpose for which the tool was developed; assessment features - what the tool measures; temporal concept - stage of ICT diffusion the tool measures; the approach to tool development; and the approach to measurement - how is it measured. According to our findings, a typical assessment exercise focuses on the technology/infrastructure, its increase in terms of availability, adoption, and use, and is descriptive in nature. Information society assessment is further challenged by the dynamic and complex nature of the field, data and change measure constraints. We propose that policy making and further implementation would benefit from and be better advised by measures that focus on the phenomenon (society) to which ICT is relevantly applied (i.e. within context); identifying change attributed to the ICT and depending on theory as their basis of development.


The relationship between blood group antigens and peptic ulcer disease has been widely evaluated in the past, but only one study relating H pylori seroprevalence to ABO blood groups among Iraqi patients with peptic ulcer disease is available. We aimed to evaluate the frequency of peptic ulcer disease among different ABO blood groups in Iraqi patients, and we thought it was worthwhile to try to determine whether these components take some part in disease etiology. One hundred and six patients with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) (43 male and 63 female; mean  age: 48 ± 18 years) who attended Baghdad teaching hospital and Al- Yarmouk teaching hospital endoscopy centers were enrolled , and 238 control Subjects.  Finger blood samples were used for ABO/Rhesus (Rh) blood group antigen typing. The ABO blood group phenotype frequency in peptic ulcer patients was as follows: 18.9% for blood group A, 15.1% for blood group B, 57.5 % for blood group O and 8.5% for blood group AB.  Rh positivity was found in 100% of patients. Significant higher percentage of patients with both gastric and duodenal ulcer disease are those holding  blood group O+   compared to other blood group phenotypes  (57.5%)( p= 0.003) .The present study show higher incidence of doudenal ulcer( DU) in patients  with blood group O+ compared to gastric ulcer( GU)   patients (65.6%vs 54.1%) , although no  statistical difference between both diseases was found,( p ˃ 0.05) in respect to other blood  group phenotypes.   Peptic ulcer disease is predominant in patients aged between 50-59 years represents with higher percentage (26.4%) compared to other age groups.  Patients with blood group O+ phenotype presented with a highly significant percentage of Peptic ulcer disease, since those individuals may express a higher inflammatory responses to H. pylori with higher levels of lymphocyte infiltration in the gastrointestinal mucosa   , and a higher frequency of secretor status  . In addition, they do not produce the substance on the surface of blood group O+ cells that may protect the lining of the duodenum .According to these results, probably ABO/Rh blood group (mainly blood group O+)   has an important role in patients with peptic ulcer disease as additional risk . The functional significance of ABO blood group distribution might be associated with biological behavior of Peptic ulcer disease. The impact of blood group on Peptic ulcer disease may be a focus for further studies.
Keywords:  ABO/ Rh Blood group system - Upper gastrointestinal disorders –Age &  Gender distribution