Background Rheumatic fever (RF) is an autoimmune phenomenon that occurs after infection with group A streptococcus. Inflammation of the joints, heart and brain results in the common clinical manifestation of arthritis, carditis and chorea. The major morbidity and mortality result from rheumatic heart disease (RHD). Objectives To retrospectively evaluate the demographic features, clinical characteristics and outcome among RF/RHD cases admitted in our Hospital in the last 35 years. Methods Clinical and instrumental data of 359 RF cases observed between 1980 and 2014 were retrospectively evaluated. The clinical features of RF were classified according to the revised Jones criteria. Of these patients (201 males and 158 females with mean age at onset of RF 8.4±2.6 years), 325 had acute RF (ARF), while 34 were an exception to the Jones criteria. Patients with acute RHD (ARHD) were divided into 2 groups: 218 aged >5 years and 21 aged <5 years, comparing the clinical characteristics and echocardiographic parameters. Valvular disease was studied by echocardiographic assessment with classification of severity in 3 degrees: mild, moderate and severe according to a qualitative and semi-quantitative assessment of the colour flow Doppler. We compared the follow-up for mitral regurgitation (MR) and aortic regurgitation (AR), either as isolated lesion or in combined mitral-aortic regurgitation (MAR), in order to assess their severity, the time course and the eventual resolution of valvular lesion. Results The majority of patient is Caucasian born in Italy (93.9%). Commonest major clinical manifestation among RF patients was carditis (72.1%) followed by arthritis (57.9%), p<0.05. Commonest valvular lesion among RHD patients was MR (48.3%), followed by MAR (44.4%) and AR (6.2%). No patient aged <5 years presented AR. Higher severity of ARHD was observed in children aged <5 years (66.7% of moderate-severe carditis compared to 48.2% of children >5 years, p<0.05) and a slower healing (Graph I). Graph I. Healing % of valvular disease at 5 years. Conclusions The study evidenced that carditis is the most common major clinical manifestation in our population. The prevalence of ARHD in preschool age is significant (8.8%) and higher than reported in the literature (2.5% - 5%). The valvulopathy was more severe in younger children, explaining the slower resolution time. References WHO Expert Consultation on Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease (2001: Geneva Switzerland). Rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease: report of a WHO Expert Consultation, Geneva, October 29–November 1, 2001. WHO Technical Report Series; 923. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2004. Tani LY et al. Rheumatic fever in children younger than 5 years: is the presentation different? Pediatrics 2003; 112: 1065-8. Canter B et al. Rheumatic fever in children under 5 years old. Pediatrics 2004; 114: 329-30. Disclosure of Interest None declared


A compact size optical neural network using high resolution liquid crystal televisions (LCTVs) has been constructed. System design consideration and an experimental demonstration of the LCTV neural network are provided. 1.


BACKGROUND
The management of biliary atresia (BA) has evolved with time. The outcome of BA treatment in the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center had not been recorded and we addressed this issue in this study.

METHODS
Medical records of the 93 patients with BA who underwent Kasai portoenterostomy (KP) in the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center from 1986 to 2005 were reviewed retrospectively. There were 46 male and 47 female patients included in this study. Sixty patients received KP before 60 days of age and 33 patients received KP after 60 days of age.

RESULTS
Jaundice-free survival with native liver was accomplished in 29 of 60 patients who received KP before 60 days of age but in only 9 of 33 after that age (p = 0.048). Cholangitis developed in 56 patients (60.2%). Incidence of cholangitis was not significantly different between the patients free of jaundice (22/38) and those with persistent jaundice (34/55) (p = 0.704). Seven patients had single cysts and 1 had multiple cysts, with 4 being jaundice-free. Five out of 9 were free of jaundice after re-do KP. Among the 62 patients followed for more than 5 years, 32 (51.6%) survived with native liver.

CONCLUSION
This study revealed that half of the patients with BA survived with their native liver for more than 5 years. Age at operation, not post-KP cholangitis or liver cysts, was the most determinant factor of BA outcome.


A photometric detector for an optically active compound is described in which two polarizers are set on both sides of the flow cell. When a nonchromophoric, optically active compound passes through the cell, the intensity of natural light transmitted through the polarizers and flow cell is changed. The detection of such a sample is possible photometrically. A large inclination angle between the polarizers increases the absorbance change and allows dextrorotatory and levorotatory to be differentiated. The direct HPLC/ photometric detection of sugars is presented as an example of this device.


We assume a constant current density in a homogeneous one-component plasma of infinite extent and calculate the resulting magnetic energy per particle. Our starting point is the conserved approximately relativistic (Darwin) energy for a system of electromagnetically interacting particles that arises from the neglect of radiation. For the idealized model of a homogeneous one-component plasma the energy only depends on the particle canonical momenta and the vector potential. The vector potential is then calculated in terms of the canonical momenta using recent theoretical advances and the plasma Hamiltonian is obtained. The result can be understood either as due to the energy lowering caused by the attraction of parallel currents or, alternatively, as due to the inductive inertia associated with the flow of net current.


The electrocaloric effect of ferroelectric ceramics has been studied extensively for solid-state caloric cooling. Generally, most ferroelectric ceramics are poor thermal conductors. In this work, the possibility of enhancing the thermal conduction of ferroelectric ceramics through the electrocaloric effect is studied. A multilayer ceramic structure is proposed and the proper sequential electric field is applied to each ceramic layer. The result shows that the thermal conduction of the multilayer structure is significantly enhanced because of the electrocaloric effect of the ferroelectric ceramics. As a result, the work finds an alternatively way of applying the electrocaloric effect, prompting thermal conduction.


The status of surgical margins after radical prostatectomy is a major prognostic factor. The role of several technical aspects of radical prostatectomy, such have surgical access, bladder neck preservation or neurovascular bundle sparing, in generating supplementary positive margins has been controversial for many years. Positive margins along with other poor prognostic factors are important elements in the decision to perform adjuvant therapy after radical prostatectomy. This review of the literature, based on a Medline search, was designed to update these various issues encountered by urologists in their everyday practice.


This article deals with a method for acquiring vegetation maps, suitable for monitoring and evaluating the conservation status of heathland vegetation from hyperspectral data. The applied method is a recursive supervised segmentation algorithm based on a Tree-structured Markov Random Field (TS-MRF), capable of incorporating structural dependencies in the classification process. To this end, a tree structure is used that is built upon structural dependencies that are present in the field. The classification results from this TS-MRF with extended tree are compared to pixel-based classification results, results from a simple smoothing post-processing, and the result from the original binary TS-MRF technique.


Developing a commercially relevant Atlantic cod aquaculture industry will require improvements in feed sustainability. Camelina oil and meal are potential replacements of fish oil and fish meal in aquaculture feeds. Camelina oil is high in 18:3ω3 (30%), with an ω3/ω6 ratio > 1. Camelina meal has a considerable crude protein level (38%), which includes significant amounts of methionine and phenylalanine. Four diets were tested; each diet was fed to triplicate tanks (3 tanks per diet) of Atlantic cod (14.4 g/fish; 70 fish per tank) for 13 wk. The diets included a fish oil/fish meal control (FO) and three diets which replaced 100% of fish oil with camelina oil: one diet contained fish meal (100CO), another solvent extracted fish meal (100COSEFM), and another had fish meal partially reduced by 15% inclusion of camelina meal (100CO15CM). Growth was measured (length and weight) and tissue samples were collected for lipid analysis (muscle, liver, brain, gut, spleen, skin, and carcass) at wk 0 (before feeding the experimental diet) and at wk 13. Cod fed camelina oil had a lower (P < 0.001) final weight than cod fed the FO diet (50.8 ± 10.3 g/fish). Cod fed 100CO15CM had a lower (P < 0.001) final weight (35.0 ± 8.0 g) than those fed 100CO (43.6 ± 8.9 g) and 100COSEFM (46.7 ± 10.7 g). Cod tissues in the 100COSEFM treatment were most impacted by dietary fatty acid profile. Multivariate statistics revealed that FO and 100COSEFM tissue fatty acid profiles were 21 to 31% different, depending on tissue type. The full replacement of fish oil with camelina oil, plus solvent extracted fish meal had an overarching effect on the entire fatty acid profile of the whole animal. Fatty acid mass balance calculations indicated that cod fed 100COSEFM elongated 13% of 18:3ω3 to 20:3ω3 and oxidized the remaining 87%, whereas cod fed fish oil showed a much lower (P < 0.001) elongation of 18:3ω3 of 1.6%. These results suggest that excess 18:3ω3 from camelina oil caused some fatty acid elongation, but little desaturation. Energy budget estimates indicated that cod fed 100COSEFM deposited the most energy throughout the trial (60 kJ/fish; P = 0.019), mostly in the liver (90%). Excess camelina lipids were not necessarily utilized for energy, which likely impacted growth. Feeding 100% camelina oil to Atlantic cod impacted growth and lipid and fatty acid composition; however, additional removal of fish oil from fish meal caused the greatest change in cod lipid composition and utilization.


This paper reports a series of 43 patients with lung cancer treated by means of planned preoperative radiotherapy between 1961 and 1966. A five-year survival figure of 23% is reported for the series. The rationale of the treatment is discussed, together with some clinical situations in which it was felt that this regime had a definite advantage over other methods.


This paper deals with question of corporate governance, which is of crucial economic, political, and social importance for countries in transition. Explained are principles, models, and regulations of corporate governance. Author proposes establishment of Forum for Corporate Governance that would, by developing dialog betwen private and public sector, contribute to efficiency of business environment and to increase of SCG competitiveness at national and international level.


Background: thyroid cancer is the most common malignant disease in endocrine system and is rapidly increasing in incidence. The use of routine prophylactic central neck dissection for the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer has been an area of debate over the past few decades. Aim of the Work: the primary aim of surgery was to resect disease, minimize the chance of recurrence and achieve this with minimal morbidity. Selecting the appropriate procedure is critical as not only does surgery provide initial therapy, but also optimizes the patient for adjuvant radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy when required. Patients and Methods: this study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of prophylactic central lymph nodal dissection in patients diagnosed with differentiated thyroid carcinoma from several points of view including operative time, hospital stay, postoperative complications and most importantly the recurrence. Our patients were operated upon between August 2016 and August 2017 with minimal follow up of 6 months and follow up extended to 2 years after surgery. Results: Operative time was significantly higher in group B with a mean time of 141.68 ± 12.72 as compared to group A. The most outstanding difference in terms of complications was detected in transient hypoparathyroidism that occurred in 16% of group B patients. A single case of recurrence was detected at 12 month in group A that was confirmed by fine needle aspiration cytology which required reoperation. Conclusion: there was no convincing evidence that pCND leads to an improvement in recurrence rate, overall survival, or any clinically significant variable when applied indiscriminately to DTC patients.


This study describes the neuromuscular organization of the superior longitudinal muscle (SL) of the human tongue with focus on whether SL organization is compatible with multiple strategies of motor unit (MU) activation. Microdissection demonstrates that the human SL is comprised of discrete muscle fascicles (8.5-16 mm length) that occupy <20% of total SL length. Immunohistochemical staining of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms demonstrates the presence of at least three different MyHC phenotypes in the human SL: fibers composed of slow but not fast MyHC isoforms, fibers composed of fast but not slow MyHC isoforms, and hybrid fibers composed of both slow and fast MyHC isoforms. These data are compatible with differential organization of SL motor units according to antero-posterior tongue location and muscle fiber MyHC composition. Whether two strategies are in operation in SL activation, one in which MUs are selected by virtue of location and another in which MUs are selected by virtue of fiber MyHC identity (and related properties) awaits physiological investigation.


Experiments conducted in the greenhouse indicated that 2,4-D antagonism of glyphosate toxicity to wheat was sodium salt = butoxyethyl ester ≥ diethanolamine. Isopropylamine salt of 2,4-D generally was not antagonistic to glyphosate phytotoxicity. Isopropylamine salt of 2,4-D did not influence the antagonism of glyphosate by inorganic salts in the spray carrier. Antagonism of glyphosate toxicity to wheat by 2,4-D increased when sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride, and ferric sulfate were in the spray carrier water. Isopropylamine alone as an adjuvant enhanced glyphosate toxicity to wheat, and overcame ferric sulfate and sodium bicarbonate antagonism of glyphosate. Diammonium sulfate adjuvant overcame antagonism to glyphosate phytotoxicity from 2,4-D, sodium bicarbonate, and calcium chloride each alone or the salts in combination with 2,4-D. Nonionic surfactants differed in enhancement of glyphosate but none overcame antagonism from salts or 2,4-D.


To identify genes that are most responsive to a sustained activation of a G(s) protein-coupled receptor, HEK293 cells were stably transfected with the beta(2)-adrenergic receptor and stimulated with agonist isoproterenol (1 mum). A microarray study indicated that the gene with the highest stimulation index (500-fold) encoded the common alpha-subunit of human glycoprotein hormones (GPHalpha). Induction of GPHalpha transcription in response to cAMP elevations resulted in a dramatic increase (600-fold) of protein secretion as shown by RT-PCR and a highly specific time-resolved immunofluorometric assay. Cloning and sequencing of the GPHalpha cDNA and mass spectrometric analysis of HPLC-purified GPHalpha derived from serum-free HEK293-beta(2)-adrenergic receptor-stimulated cells verified the nature of the molecule. Enzymatic deglycosylation with subsequent Western blots revealed that this was a large hyperglycosylated form of GPHalpha that had not been associated with a beta-subunit previously. This uncombined variant is known to be either cosecreted with GPHs from the pituitary, the placenta, and a variety of tumors or secreted without GPHs from APUD cells and rare tumors. Moreover, it is similar to GPHalpha found at high concentrations in seminal plasma. As shown by a panel of endogenous or transfected G protein-coupled receptors in HEK293 cells, the expression of large GPHalpha was controlled by G(s)- and G(q)- but not G(i)-dependent receptors and mediated via cAMP and Ca(++) release. This suggests that Gq- or G(s)-coupled receptors other than the classical GnRH receptor may play a role in the regulation of nonpituitary, nonplacental GPHalpha secretion under physiological and pathological conditions.


Study Design. Retrospective cohort study. Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the evolution of proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) rate over 10-year enrollment period within a prospective database. Summary of Background Data. PJK is a common complication following adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery and has been intensively studied over the last decade. Methods. Patients with instrumentation extended to the pelvis and minimum 2-year follow-up were included. To investigate evolution of PJK/proximal junctional failure (PJF) rate, a moving average of 321 patients was calculated across the enrollment period. Logistic regression was used to investigate the association between the date of surgery (DOS) and PJK and/or PJF. Comparison of PJK/PJF rates, demographics, and surgical strategies was performed between the first and second half of the cohort. Results. A total of 641 patients met inclusion criteria (age: 64±10 years, 78.2% female, body mass index: 28.3±5.7). The overall rate of radiographic PJK at 2 years was 47.9%; 12.9% of the patients developed PJF, with 31.3% being revised within 2-year follow-up. Stratification by DOS produced two halves. Between these two periods, rate of PJK and PJF demonstrated nonsignificant decrease (50.3%–45.5%, P=0.22) and (15.0%–10.9%, P=0.12), respectively. Linear interpolation suggested a decrease of 1.2% PJK per year and 1.0% for PJF. Patients enrolled later in the study were older and more likely to be classified as pure sagittal deformity (P<0.001). There was a significant reduction in the use of three-column osteotomies (P<0.001), an increase in anterior longitudinal ligament release (P<0.001), and an increase in the use of PJK prophylaxis (31.3% vs 55.1%). Logistical regression demonstrated no significant association between DOS and radiographic PJK (P=0.19) or PJF (P=0.39). Conclusion. Despite extensive research examining risk factors for PJK/PJF and increasing utilization of intraoperative PJK prophylaxis techniques, the rate of radiographic PJK and/or PJF did not significantly decrease across the 10-year enrollment period of this ASD database.


Introduction Gastric cancer remains an important cancer worldwide, and conventional chemotherapeutic drugs have the defects of drug resistance and cell toxicity. α-Hederin has been found to have certain therapeutic effects on various types of human cancers. However, studies on the α-hederin that exert biological activities on the cisplatin-resistant gastric cancer cells are limited. In this study, we evaluated the effects of α-hederin in HGC27/DDP and the potential mechanisms both in vivo and in vitro. Methods HGC27/DDP cells were cultured in DMEM/F12 medium. Cell proliferation and viability were assessed quantitatively using Cell Counting Kit-8. Cell invasion and migration were detected by Transwell invasion assay and wound healing assay. Cell apoptosis was examined by employing Hoechst 33258 Staining Kit and an Annexin V-PE apoptosis kit. Intracellular GSH levels were examined by using a GSH Assay Kit. DCFH-DA and JC-1 Kit were used to detect levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and changes in mitochondrial membrane potential (∆Ψm). The protein levels of Apaf-1, AIF, Bax, Bcl-2, Cyt C, Survivin, cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-9, MMP-9 and MMP-2 were detected by Western blot analysis. The effect of α-hederin in vivo was observed by xenograft tumor models in nude mice. Results The α-hederin treatment significantly inhibited the proliferation in a dose- and time-dependent manner of HGC27/DDP and induced obvious apoptosis compared with the control group (P<0.05). Meanwhile, the ability of cells to invade and migrate was suppressed (P<0.05). The α-hederin induced the depletion of GSH (P<0.05) and the accumulation of intracellular ROS (P<0.05), changed the mitochondrial membrane potential (P<0.05), increased the Bax, Apaf-1, AIF, Cyt C, cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-9 expression and decreased the protein level of Bcl-2, survivin, MMP-9 and MMP-2 (P<0.05). Pretreatment with NAC (12 mM) enhanced the tendency and pretreatment with BSO (8 mM) attenuated the tendency above (P<0.05). Meanwhile, α-hederin inhibited xenograft tumor growth in vivo (P<0.05). Conclusion Our study provides strong molecular evidence to support our hypothesis that α-hederin inhibits the proliferation and induces the apoptosis of HGC27/DDP cells by increasing the levels of intracellular ROS and triggering mitochondrial pathway activation.


A hierarchical knowledge-based controller is proposed to improve the performance of complex control systems, such as robots. Unlike parameter- and performance- adaptive controllers, this controller is designed only to modify the reference input of a low-level servo controller. Because the internal parameters and structure of the low-level controller are not affected, commercial servo controllers can be made to perform more sophisticated tasks than originally intended. The principle of the knowledge-based controller, modification of the reference input, knowledge representation, existence of the solution, and analyses of the controller's stability and tracking error are described in detail. A self-tuning multiple-step predictor is designed as a part of the controller to eliminate the undesirable effects of system time delay. Both linear and nonlinear example control systems are tested via extensive simulations and have all shown promising performances.


. The Industrial Internet of Things is irreversibly transforming the economy. New strategic opportunities derived from the high-speed streams of Big Data of the Industrial Internet of Things are changing the boundaries of industries, creating opportunities for new strategic decisions, including in marketing. The use of Industrial Internet of Things technologies in marketing is of interest. The continuous interaction of devices and programs connected to the Internet and controlled by their own intelligent systems gives the marketing system the ability to automatically manage the effectiveness of marketing processes, increases the stability of the system, warns of possible threats from the Internet or new opportunities for the system. The purpose of the article is to improve the IIoT system of enterprise marketing through a systematic analysis of the positive synergistic interactions of its subsystems, determine the feedback of subsystems, and increase the functionality of the system. In the system of organizing marketing activities, a synergistic effect arises from the interaction of subsystems associated with intensive information exchange between distributed devices and business objects of the Industrial Internet of Things, each of which independently manages its own area, determined by its competencies. In the process of work, the tasks of studying the contribution to the effectiveness of marketing of functional subsystems were solved: information technology, intellectual, Internet marketing and information security subsystem. Classical system analysis was used as a research method. The scientific novelty of the work lies in a systematic analysis of the effectiveness of marketing based on the Industrial Internet of Things. The conditions under which marketing is most effective are determined. The practical significance of the work lies in the fact that the basis for the development of an effective marketing system based on the Industrial Internet of Things is proposed.


Many perceived cues to deception have been reported in the literature, but little attention has been paid to how they are combined when making deception judgments. The present research used a data-driven approach to investigate how cues are integrated when evaluating veracity. 215 participants performed a deception detection task before completing a deception cue use questionnaire. A factor analysis of the questionnaire data produced two dimensions, one associated with nonverbal cues to anxiety, the other associated with detail and level of involvement. The present work extends our understanding of deception detection processes and underlines the importance of examining not just the cues that people use but also the way in which they use them.


Aim

Peri‐implantitis is a common cause of late implant failure. Studies have investigated different treatment strategies. The effectiveness of these modalities, however, remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the success of surgical peri‐implantitis treatment using clinical and radiographic parameters.

Material and methods

A systematic review of published literature was employed. Key words were selected to conduct an electronic search using four databases for literature on human clinical studies. Meta‐analyses were carried out for clinical probing, pocket depth and radiographic bone level.

Results

A total of 16 papers met the inclusion criteria. Four treatment modalities to supplement mechanical debridement were identified: (i) apically repositioned flap, (ii) chemical surface decontamination, (iii) implantoplasty, and (iv) bone augmentation. Inconsistent results were evident which were dependent on several treatment‐independent factors. No clinical benefits were identified for the additional use of surface decontamination, while limited evidence demonstrated improvement of clinical and radiographic outcomes after implantoplasty. The effect of bone augmentation appeared limited to 'filling' radiographic defects.

Conclusions

The outcomes of the currently available surgical interventions for peri‐implantitis remain unpredictable. There is no reliable evidence to suggest which methods are the most effective. Further randomised‐controlled studies are needed to identify the best treatment methods.


The light enhancement phenomena in InGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells (MQWs) infiltrated with metal nanoparticles (NPs) are studied using resonant and off-resonant localized plasmon interactions. The emission and recombination characteristics of carriers in InGaN/GaN MQW structures with inverted hexagonal pits (IHPs) are modified distinctly depending on the nature of their interaction with the metal NPs and with the pumping and emitted photons. It is observed that the emission intensity of light is significantly enhanced when the emission energy is off-resonant to the localized plasmon frequency of the metal nanoparticles. This results in enhanced emission from MQW due to Au nanoparticles and from IHPs due to Ag nanoparticles. At resonant-plasmon frequency of the Ag NPs, the emission from MQWs is quenched due to the re-absorption of the emitted photons, or due to the drift carriers from c-plane MQWs towards the NPs because of the Coulomb forces induced by the image charge effect.


Vernacular settlements are mostly made up of buildings whose exceptional stability is testified by their survival over the centuries, even under natural and anthropogenic wounds. The unesco site of the Amalfi Coast shows a vast repertoire of cases to learn about the surviving examples of vernacular techniques and their structural qualities. It is possible to appreciate constructive protection measures that highlight the ancient actions to ensure the built environment's safety. This research aims to represent an effort in the knowledge of the traditional mitigation measures, often considered simply as local architectural elements, analyzing a large number of protective devices on the Amalfi Coast, to take the right actions in the future recovery, conservation, and maintenance operations.


Methods for direct (without the use of the Kramers–Kronig relations) measuring the dielectric response (dynamic conductivity and permittivity) spectra of dielectrics, conductors, and superconductors in the terahertz frequency range (0.03–1.5 THz) are described. The methods are realised by using BWO (backward-wave oscillator) spectrometers developed at the A.M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute, RAS. Dielectric measurements can be performed at temperatures from 2 to 1000 K in magnetic fields up to 8 T. The dielectric response spectra are investigated for a number of materials with properties determined by electron correlation effects: superconductors, one-dimensional conductors, heavy fermion systems, spin-ladder cuprates, and spin glasses.


Aim: In this study, we evaluated whether peritraumatic dissociation (PD) was associated with symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and whether this association was modified by trauma prior to police work. Method: Symptoms of depression, PTSD, peritraumatic dissociative experience (PDE), and trauma prior to police work were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, PTSD Checklist–Civilian, PDE questionnaire, and the Brief Trauma questionnaire, respectively, in 328 police officers. Separate regression models were used to assess if either symptoms of depression or PTSD were associated with PD stratified by prior trauma. Means were adjusted for race, number of drinks per week, and smoking. Results: PD was associated with symptoms of PTSD and depression (&bgr; = 0.65, p < .001 and &bgr; = 0.27, p < .001, respectively). PD was positively associated with symptoms of PTSD regardless of prior trauma (&bgr; = 0.61, p < .001(without prior trauma), 0.75, p < .001 (with prior trauma). In contrast to PTSD, depression symptoms were significantly associated with PD scores in individuals with prior trauma (&bgr; = 0.47, p < .001), but not in individuals without prior trauma (&bgr; = 0.13, p = .165). Limitations: This is a cross-sectional study. Outcomes were obtained via self-report and were not clinically diagnosed. Aspects of both the trauma event as well as the symptoms and severity of PD may have introduced recall bias. Conclusion: These results add to the literature indicating that PD plays a role in symptoms of PTSD and depression and how prior trauma may modify this relationship.


The present study was undertaken to determine time dependent viability changes of purified Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts, stored in antimicrobial-supplemented PBS at +4oC, using vital dyes (DAPI/PI). The trials demonstrated that vital dyes could provide estimation of oocyst viability, and furthermore, if interpreted correctly, they could be used to determine the degree of the viability in Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts as cell culture-PCR assay is used.


The aim of the present study is to describe some of the possible relations between music, language, and verbal picture (or metaphor) which can be found in the drammi per musica of the early 18 th century and especially in four allegorical arias of Vivaldi's opus La Griselda (1735). The paper illustrates some aspects of the cooperation between librettist (Goldoni) and composer (Vivaldi) as well as the importance of the metaphor for the interlinkage of music and language in such arias. It is divided into two parts: The first part presented in the following outlines the bipartite textual structure of the mentioned simile arias (metaphoric vs. literal stanza) which recalls the same two-piece structure of renaissance and baroque emblems. The second part will focus on the interaction of poetic language, verbal image, and Vivaldi's music in the mentioned simile arias.


Facing up to the theme of the relationship between methodologies of research and methodologies of formation for sustaining the endogenous development, imposes the reference at two interpretative dimensions, the research of unit and the research of the relationship. The necessity to start from the relationship and not from the parts and the demand of unit in comparison to a fragmentation, often disguised as the specialization and from the necessity to deep, become imperatives of education and research. It doesn't deal only with reconstructing unit and tracking the relationship through a ermeneutic process, but it treats rather to individualize and work with methodologies that found their progress upon the search of the relationship and the unit. That means also maturing methodological choices that can produce new knowledges and therefore becoming vehicle of change and innovation. In such context the reference introduced in the contribution is the participatory action research.


This dissertation is dedicated to a comprehensive study and performance analysis of the transformer-less Multilevel Cascaded H-bridge Inverter (MCHI) based STATic synchronous COMpensator (STATCOM). Among the shunt-connected Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) controllers, STATCOM has shown extensive feasibility and effectiveness in solving a wide range of power quality problems. By referring to the literature reviews, MCHI with separated DC capacitors is certainly the most versatile power inverter topology for STATCOM applications. However, due to the ill-defined transfer functions, complex control schemes and formulations were emerged to achieve a low-switching frequency high-bandwidth power control. As a result, adequate controller parameters were generally obtained by using trial and error method, which were practically ineffective and time-consuming. In this dissertation, the STATCOM is controlled to provide reactive power (VAR) compensation at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) under different loading conditions. The goal of this work is to enhance the performance of the STATCOM with the associated proposed control scheme in achieving high dynamic response, improving transient performance, and producing high-quality output voltage waveform. To evaluate the superiority of the proposed control scheme, intensive simulation studies and numerous experiments are conducted accordingly, where a very good match between the simulation results and the experimental results is achieved in all cases and documented in this dissertation.


PURPOSE
This ethnographic investigation of a general hospital aims to critically analyse a much lauded corporate culture. Rather than accepting the managerial and academic claims concerning the mobilisation of corporate culture at face value, this study builds upon a labour process analysis and takes a close look at how it actually seems to work.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
The paper explores and describes how executive managers seek to design and impose corporate culture change and how it affects the nursing employees of this organisation. This was achieved by means of a six month field study of day-to-day life in the hospital's nursing division.

FINDINGS
The results lend little support to the official claims that, if managerial objectives are realised, they are achieved through some combination of shared values and employee participation. The evidence lends more support to the critical view in labour process writing that modern cultural strategies lead to increased corporate control, greater employee subjection and extensive effort intensification. The contradiction this brings into the working lives of the employees leads to the conclusion that the rhetoric of corporate culture change does not affect the pre-existing attitudes and value orientations of nursing employees. However, there were considerable variations in how employees received the managerial message and thus, by their degree of misbehaviour and adaptation, affected the organisation itself as well as using the cultural rhetoric against the management for their own ends.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE
The paper concludes that an extended labour process analysis is necessary to challenge the way in which corporate culture change is explored and described by management academics and practitioners.


We welcome discussion on the geology of the Dead Sea Fault in Syria but we have to disagree with Westaway's (2004, and discussion) mapping assumptions, his estimates of timing of fault slip, and his proposed offsets and slip rates. As he notes, our new 40Ar–39Ar ages on the basalts adjacent to the Dead Sea Fault significantly clarify and refine the chronology of the lavas. Westaway (2004) used the old whole-rock K–Ar ages of Mouty et al. (1992) in NW Syria to constrain timing of fault motion and slip rates. The dispute appears to relate to the interpretation of the relationship between the basalts and the strike-slip fault. Westaway suggests that the northern Dead Sea Fault was active before eruption of the lavas; our mapping clearly shows that the fault post-dates and cuts both the Coastal Ranges folding and the basaltic flows that unconformably overlie the folded Mesozoic sedimentary rocks.

Westaway claims that the northern Dead Sea Fault in western Syria is transpressive not transtensional. This is difficult to understand when the northern Dead Sea Fault is split along the Al-Ghab depression, a classic rhomb-shaped transtensional basin where inward dipping normal faults (Searle et al. 2010, fig. 3a, e …


The Kaiser Physical Activity Survey (KPAS), designed specifically for diverse activity domains (housework, caregiving, occupational activity), is used to assess physical activity among multiethnic midlife women. This study evaluates KPAS reliability and validity (not widely documented) in measuring physical activity among 341 groups in this classification. Internal consistency coefficients are adequate for all ethnic groups except non-Hispanic (N-H) African Americans. To evaluate construct validity, the researchers use multiple analytic approaches, including correlation between behavioral intention and KPAS scores and factor analysis. KPAS scores correlate positively with behavioral intention scores among all ethnic groups. Eight factors are extracted among all groups except N-H Asian Americans. In the convergent validity test, N-H African Americans and N-H Asian Americans show unique patterns. Overall, the KPAS proves reliable as a reasonably accurate instrument to assess physical activities among multiethnic groups of midlife women. However, cultural sensitivity among N-H African Americans and N-H Asian Americans needs further examination.


John Adam's opera Nixon in China (1987) opened the era of what some critics called 'CNN operas' — an operatic mixture of political issues and televisual representation. Since Nixon, various attempts to interrogate issues of world politics, power and realism on the (post)operatic stage took place: video documentary opera Three Tales (1998–2002) by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot, "The News" (2011) by Jacob ter Veldhuis (Jacob TV), five one-minute operas by Michel van der Aa (produced from 2010 to 2014, commissioned for the Dutch TV program Der Wereld Drait Door), Aliados (2013) by Sebastian Rivas, to mention only the few. This article attempts to give a partial overview of different operatic approaches to televisual expression and to illuminate ways of depicting documentary and news in recent opera focusing on the political figures.


This thesis presents a study of the magnetism of surface supported atoms performed principally with XMCD spectroscopy and multiplet calculations. The objective of the research was twofold: first, to study the underlying interactions and conditions governing the magnetization stability of surface supported atoms, with the aim of achieving long magnetic lifetimes, and second, to assemble single atom magnets in an ordered pattern. Through our study of $4f$ lanthanide atoms on supporting substrates, we established that their magnetic stability is governed by their quantum level structure, in particular their ground $J_z$ state and the height of the energy barrier for thermally assisted magnetization reversal. These features are ruled through the crystal field interaction with their supporting surface. The adsorption site of adatoms governs the symmetry of the crystal field and, consequently, the coupling between the different $J_z$ levels. This in turn enables magnetization reversal either through quantum tunneling between $J_z$ states or via scattering with the electrons and phonons of the substrate. To reduce the scattering events, it is necessary to decouple the adatoms from the metal substrate by using decoupling layers. Here we show that a single layer of graphene is sufficient to decouple Dy atoms from the underlying Ir(111) substrate, resulting in a magnetic lifetime of about 1000 s at 2.5 K. In addition, we show that the moire pattern of the graphene/Ir(111) surface can be used as a template for the self-assembly of these single atom magnets into well ordered superlattices. Further, by studying multiple graphene/metal substrates we show that the interaction of graphene with the supporting substrate greatly influences the magnetization stability of adsorbed atoms. Finally, we show that replacing graphene with an insulating layer does not result in a stable magnetization of adsorbed atoms if its superior decoupling is not accompanied with an adequate crystal field symmetry.


The mGlu5, a class C G-protein-coupled receptor and member of the group I mGlu receptor family, has been demonstrated to play a role in a number of therapeutic areas within the CNS, including schizophrenia, dementia, epilepsy, cognition, drug abuse, and fragile X syndrome. Small-molecule modulation of mGlu5 via positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) is being pursued as a promising approach for the treatment of schizophrenia and has been validated preclinically in a number of animal models. This article provides a brief historical overview of mGlu5 PAMs in the primary literature followed by a comprehensive overview of the patent literature since 2004. Schizophrenia is a complex disorder and although no mGlu5 PAMs have progressed into clinical trials in patients, the target continues to show promise as an attractive non-dopaminergic therapy. The successful development of mGlu5 PAMs for clinical testing must address several issues, including challenges associated with 'molecular switches', allosteric-agonist activity and stimulus bias.


Nowadays, small, low-cost sensor nodes are being widely used to build self-organizing, large-scale, wireless networks for various applications, such as environmental surveillance, health monitoring and so on. Given its unique features, protecting a wireless sensor network is a difficult challenge. In this paper, we present S2RP, a secure and scalable rekeying protocol for sensor networks. S2RP aims at a trade-off between security and resource consumption while it guarantees an authentic distribution of keys that preserves both forward and backward security. The proposed protocol is efficient in terms of communication overhead as it reduces the number and the size of rekeying messages. It is efficient in terms of computation overhead as it guarantees the necessary level of confidentiality and authenticity of rekeying messages by only using symmetric ciphers and one-way hash functions. It follows that S2 RP meets the reduced capabilities of sensor nodes, results scalable, and particularly attractive for large and/or highly dynamic groups


Programming parallel applications for heterogeneous HPC platforms is much more straightforward when using the task-based programming paradigm. The simplicity exists because a runtime takes care of many activities usually carried out by the application developer, such as task mapping, load balancing, and memory management operations. In this paper, we present a visualization-based performance analysis methodology to investigate the CPU-GPU-Disk memory management of the StarPU runtime, a popular task-based middleware for HPC applications. We detail the design of novel graphical strategies that were fundamental to recognize performance problems in four study cases. We first identify poor management of data handles when GPU memory is saturated, leading to low application performance. Our experiments using the dense tiled-based Cholesky factorization show that our fix leads to performance gains of 66% and better scalability for larger input sizes. In the other three cases, we study scenarios where the main memory is insufficient to store all the application's data, forcing the runtime to store data out-of-core. Using our methodology, we pin-point different behavior among schedulers and how we have identified a crucial problem in the application code regarding initial block placement, which leads to poor performance.


Quantum brain as a novel hypothesis states that some non-trivial mechanisms in quantum computation, such as superposition and entanglement, may have important influence for the formation of brain functions. Inspired by this idea, we propose Quantum Superposition Spiking Neural Network (QS-SNN), which introduce quantum superposition to spiking neural network models to handel challenges which are hard for other state-of-the-art machine learning models. For human brain, grasping the main information no matter how the background changes is necessary to interact efficiently with diverse environments. As an example, it is easy for human to recognize the digits whether it is white character with black background or inversely black character with white background. While if the current machine learning models are trained with one of the cases (e.g. white character with black background), it will be nearly impossible for them to recognize the color inverted version. To handel this challenge, we propose two-compartment spiking neural network with superposition states encoding, which is inspired by quantum information theory and spatial-temporal spiking property from neuron information encoding in the brain. Typical network structures like fully-connected ANN, VGG, ResNet and DenseNet are challenged with the same task. We train these networks on original image dataset and then invert the background color to test their generalization. Result shows that artificial neural network can not deal with this condition while the quantum superposition spiking neural network(QS-SNN) which we proposed in this paper recognizes the color-inverse image successfully. Further the QS-SNN shows its robustness when noises are added on inputs.


Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a disease associated with both short- and long-term complications. Acute complications include refractory respiratory failure requiring prolonged dependence on mechanical ventilation and the subsequent need for tracheostomy and gastrostomy tubes, protracted immobilization, and lengthy stays in the intensive care unit resulting in delirium, critical illness myopathy, and polyneuropathy, as well as secondary nosocomial infections. Chronic adverse outcomes of ARDS include irreversible changes such as fibrosis, tracheal stenosis from prolonged tracheostomy tube placement, pulmonary function decline, cognitive impairment and memory loss, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, muscle weakness, ambulatory dysfunction, and an overall poor quality of life. The degree of disability in ARDS survivors is heterogeneous and can be evident even years after hospitalization. Although survival rates have improved over the past 4 decades, mortality remains significant with rates reported as high as 40%. Despite advancements in management, the causes of death in ARDS have remained relatively unchanged since the 1980s with sepsis/septic shock and multiorgan failure at the top of the list.


A novel DC-to-960 MHz impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) transceiver based on threshold detection technique is developed. It features a digital pulse-shaping transmitter, a DC power-free pulse discriminator and an error-recovery phase-frequency detector. The developed transceiver in 90 nm CMOS achieves the lowest energy consumption of 2.2 pJ/bit transmitter and 1.9 pJ/bit receiver at 100 Mbps in the UWB transceivers. key words: impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB), digital pulseshaping, pulse discriminator, error-recovery phase-frequency detector


This study aimed to explore the main determinants of repeated-sprint ability (RSA) in women soccer players considering aerobic capacity, sprinting performance, change-of-direction, vertical height jump, and hip adductor/abductor isometric strength. Twenty-two women soccer players from the same team participating in the first Portuguese league were observed. Fitness assessments were performed three times during a 22-week cohort period. The following assessments were made: (i) hip abductor and adductor strength, (ii) squat and countermovement jump (height), (iii) change-of-direction test, (iv) linear sprinting at 10- and 30-m, (v) RSA test, and (vi) Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1. Positive moderate correlations were found between peak minimum RSA and adductor and abductor strength (r = 0.51, p < 0.02 and r = 0.54, p < 0.01, respectively). Positive moderate correlations were also found between peak maximum RSA and adductor and abductor strength (r = 0.55, p < 0.02 and r = 0.46, p < 0.01, respectively). Lastly, a moderate negative correlation was found between fatigue index in RSA and YYIR1 test performance (r = −0.62, p < 0.004). In conclusion, abductor and adductor isometric strength-based coadjutant training programs, together with a high degree of aerobic endurance, may be suitable for inducing RSA in female soccer players.


A 37-year-old Malay woman presented with progressive deterioration in vision and was diagnosed with advanced proliferative diabetic retinopathy with neovascular glaucoma. Intravitreal ranibizumab injection (an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor) was administered prior to vitrectomy. Slit lamp assessment 2 days post-injection revealed significant regression of both iris and retinal neovascularisation. This resulted in adequate reduction of intra-ocular pressure prior to surgery. In addition, the regression of retinal vessels reduced the risk of intra-operative haemorrhage, thus aiding the surgical excision of the fibrovascular membranes. Periodic post-operative assessment in the first 3 weeks showed minimal inflammation and no recurrence of vitreous haemorrhage. This case illustrates that intravitreal ranibizumab has a role as an adjunct therapy prior to diabetic vitrectomy to significantly reduce the risk of intra-ocular haemorrhage.


This study aimed to determine the role of guava fruit filtrate (GFF) on maintaining the pre-freezing and post-thawed quality of Bali bullspermatozoa in tris-egg yolk (TEY) extender. The bovine semen was collected using artificial vagina twice a week (n= 10). Ejaculate sampleswere divided into four tubes and each tube was respectively added the following diluents: TEY, TEY + 5% GFF, TEY + 10% GFF, and TEY +15% GFF. The diluted semen was filled into the straws (0.25 mL) and cooled in refrigerator at 4° C for 2.5 hours. The samples were kept onvapor phase of liquid nitrogen (N2) (-120° C) for 10 minutes prior to be stored in liquid phase (-196° C). The quality of pre-freezing and postthawedspermatozoa in straw sample (i.e. motility, viability, and abnormality) was evaluated under light microscopy at 400x magnification. Datawere analysed statistically. The percentage of motility and viability both on pre-freezing and post-thawed process were significantly higher insemen diluted with TEY + 10% GFF compared to control (TEY), TEY + 5% GFF, and TEY + 15% GFF. Addition of 10% GFF into tris-egg yolkextender play role for maintaining the quality of pre-freezing and post-thawed Bali bull spermatozoa.


The weighting exponent m is called the fuzzifier that can have influence on the clustering performance of fuzzy c-means (FCM) and m∈ [1.5,2.5] is suggested by Pal and Bezdek [13]. In this paper, we will discuss the robust properties of FCM and show that the parameter m will have influence on the robustness of FCM. According to our analysis, we find that a large m value will make FCM more robust to noise and outliers. However, if m is larger than the theoretical upper bound proposed by Yu et al. [14], the sample mean will become the unique optimizer. Here, we suggest to implement the FCM algorithm with m∈ [1.5,4] under the restriction when m is smaller than the theoretical upper bound. Keywords—Fuzzy c-means, robust, fuzzifier.


The fine needle aspiration biopsy findings in four cases of renal oncocytomas were reviewed. The cytologic smears contained many large, well-demarcated, eosinophilic cells with prominent nucleoli. Some of the cells were binucleated. The findings in these cases indicate that renal oncocytoma may be suggested preoperatively on the bases of renal angiography and aspiration biopsy cytology. The differential diagnosis between renal adenocarcinoma and carcinomas with oncocytic differentiation is discussed.


The logarithmic decrement (log-dec) is one of the most popular methods for viscous damping estimation in linear, single degree of freedom systems. It estimates the damping ratio by examining the decay in the amplitude between two peaks some number of cycles apart. The accuracy in the estimation is sensitive to the chosen number of cycles, where the latter can be optimized such that the uncertainty in the estimation is minimized. However, the log-dec method is not suitable for systems with high damping ratios (approximately > 0.3). Another recent approach for damping estimation is based on considering a ratio of the amplitudes of the positive and negative areas in the free response of the oscillator. Although prior works on the areas method only tested lightly damped systems, we show here that — in contrast to log-dec — this approach can estimate the damping ratio over the whole range of underdamped linear oscillators. However, in contrast to log-dec, there are no available guidelines on how many areas to include in the damping estimation. In this work, we derive uncertainty analysis expressions for the areas method and we utilize them to obtain the optimal number of areas to use. Our results show that for a very low damping ratio (< 0.01), choosing more than two areas in the estimation increases the uncertainty. In contrast, for moderate to high damping (between 0.05 and 1), we need to consider all the available areas in the estimation. One caveat in the range of high damping (between 0.3 and 1) is that while it is desirable to include all the available areas, uncertainty increases when considering up to 3 areas. Therefore, if only 4 areas are available in this range, then to reduce the uncertainty in the estimate only the first two areas must be considered. The results are verified using a large number of numerical simulations including different levels of noise.


The general formalism of wave propagation and scattering effects is applied to optically generated thermal waves in order to describe imaging of near-surface features. The contrast functions of amplitude and phase calculated for flat bottom holes show good agreement with experimental results obtained with lockin-thermography.


In experimental membranous nephropathy, complement C5b-9-induced glomerular epithelial cell (GEC) injury leads to morphological changes in GEC and proteinuria, in association with phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) activation. The present study addresses the role of calcium-independent PLA(2) (iPLA(2)) in GEC injury. iPLA(2)beta short and iPLA(2)gamma were expressed in cultured rat GEC and normal rat glomeruli. To determine whether iPLA(2) is involved in complement-mediated arachidonic acid (AA) release, GEC were stably transfected with iPLA(2)gamma or iPLA(2)beta cDNAs (GEC-iPLA(2)gamma; GEC-iPLA(2)beta). Compared with control cells (GEC-Neo), GEC-iPLA(2)gamma and GEC-iPLA(2)beta demonstrated greater expression of iPLA(2) proteins and activities. Complement-mediated release of [(3)H]AA was augmented significantly in GEC-iPLA(2)gamma compared with GEC-Neo, and the augmented [(3)H]AA release was inhibited by the iPLA(2)-directed inhibitor bromoenol lactone (BEL). For comparison, overexpression of iPLA(2)gamma also amplified [(3)H]AA release after incubation of GEC with H(2)O(2), or chemical anoxia followed by reexposure to glucose (in vitro ischemia-reperfusion injury). In parallel with release of [(3)H]AA, complement-mediated production of prostaglandin E(2) was amplified in GEC-iPLA(2)gamma. Complement-mediated cytotoxicity was attenuated significantly in GEC-iPLA(2)gamma compared with GEC-Neo, and the cytoprotective effect of iPLA(2)gamma was reversed by BEL, and in part by indomethacin. Overexpression of iPLA(2)beta did not amplify complement-dependent [(3)H]AA release, but nonetheless attenuated complement-mediated cytotoxicity. Thus iPLA(2)gamma may be involved in complement-mediated release of AA. Expression of iPLA(2)gamma or iPLA(2)beta induces cytoprotection against complement-dependent GEC injury. Modulation of iPLA(2) activity may prove to be a novel approach to reducing GEC injury.


ABSTRACT Early severe preeclampsia with changes consistent with the Hemolysis elevated liver enzymes low platelet count (HELLP) variant and severe fetal growth restriction rarely resolves prior to delivery. Established clinical disease is preceded by endothelial dysfunction and inflammation. Endothelial activation is reported in vitro to be raised in the presence of necrotic trophoblastic debris which is deported into the maternal circulation in preeclampsia. We report on an early severe preeclamptic patient admitted at 24 weeks gestation. Maternal serum was taken at day 2, 16, 30 of admission and 45 days postpartum. 20% maternal serum or trophoblastic debris from first trimester placental explants that had been cultured with 10% maternal serum was exposed to endothelial cells. Endothelial cell activation was quantified by the cell surface ICAM-1 expression and U937 monocyte adhesion assay. The clinical condition of this patient improved including the blood pressure, liver function, and platelet count by the 3rd day after antihypertensive treatment and remained normal until delivery at 37 weeks. ICAM-1 expression and U937 moncyte adhesion assay of endothelial cells was significantly increased following exposure of the endothelial cells to the maternal serum or trophoblastic debris from placentae treated with maternal serum drawn on day 2. However, ICAM-1 expression and the monocyte adhesion assay were significantly reduced following exposure of endothelial cells to maternal serum or trophoblastic debris from placenta treated with maternal serum drawn on day 16 or 30. Our data suggest unknown factor(s) in the maternal serum triggered endothelial cell activation when the clinical symptoms were present. The improvement in the clinical condition occurred along with the changes in endothelial cell activation.


In the last decades, dendrimers have received attention in biomedicine that requires detailed study on the mechanism of their interaction with cell membranes. In this article, we report on the role of dendrimer structure in their interaction with liposomes. Here, the interactions between cationic pyridylphenylene dendrimers of the first, second, and third generations with mixed or completely charged pyridyl periphery (D16+, D215+, D229+, and D350+) with cholesterol-containing (CL/Chol/DOPC) anionic liposomes were investigated by microelectrophoresis, dynamic light scattering, fluorescence spectroscopy, and conductometry. It was found that the architecture of the dendrimer, namely the generation, the amount of charged pyridynium groups, the hydrophobic phenylene units, and the rigidity of the spatial structure, determined the special features of the dendrimer–liposome interactions. The binding of D350+ and D229+ with almost fully charged peripheries to liposomes was due to electrostatic forces: the dendrimer molecules could be removed from the liposomal surfaces by NaCl addition. D350+ and D229+ did not display a disruptive effect toward membranes, did not penetrate into the hydrophobic lipid bilayer, and were able to migrate between liposomes. For D215+, a dendrimer with a mixed periphery, hydrophobic interactions of phenylene units with the hydrocarbon tails of lipids were observed, along with electrostatic complexation with liposomes. As a result, defects were formed in the bilayer, which led to irreversible interactions with lipid membranes wherein there was no migration of D215+ between liposomes. A first-generation dendrimer, D16+, which was characterized by small size, a high degree of hydrophobicity, and a rigid structure, when interacting with liposomes caused significant destruction of liposomal membranes. Evidently, this interaction was irreversible: the addition of salt did not lead to the dissociation of the complex.


ANGINA pectoris is the hallmark symptom of coronary artery disease and its frequency and severity has traditionally provided the basis for evaluation and treatment. Assessment of patients with coronary artery disease and decisions regarding their treatment are usually based on the patient's subjective account of symptoms. Studies (exercise tolerance tests, radionuclide angiography, and coronary arteriography) performed during brief visits to the clinic or hospital can only provide an indirect estimate of the patient's ischemic activity out of the hospital. Recent studies suggest that a large population of adults with coronary artery disease experience many episodes of asymptomatic or silent transient myocardial ischemia on a daily basis, apart from the events that occur with pain. 1,2 Ambulatory electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring of ST segments provides an objective measurement of transient ischemia during everyday life, and, as a result, a more extensive and detailed understanding of the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease has


A method is presented for predicting one-particle energies for a molecule in a junction with one metal electrode, using density functional theory methods. In contrast to previous studies, in which restricted spin configurations were analyzed, we take spin polarization into account. Furthermore, in addition to junctions in which the molecule is weakly coupled, our method is also capable of describing junctions in which the molecule is chemisorbed to the metal contact. We implemented a fully self-consistent scissor operator to correct the highest occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital gap in transport calculations for single molecule junctions. We present results for various systems and compare our results with those obtained by other groups.


In the calculation of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) image reconstruction, System Response Matrix (SRM) characterizes the numerical relationship between measurement space and image space. Due to a significant amount of calculation and low efficiency of the current SRM algorithm, the application of iterative reconstruction in the medical and industrial fields is limited. The time and space of computing SRM are the most important factors that researchers are concerned about. In this paper, the Straight Line Truncation (hereinafter referred to as SLT) method is applied to calculate the SRM. We verified that it improves the speed of calculating the SRM and reduces its spatial complexity. The experimental results show that the forward projection speed of SLT algorithm is six times more than that of the traditional Ray-Tracing algorithm. Besides, the forward projection speed of the small angle of SLT is about 23 times that of the traditional Ray-Tracing algorithm, and the storage space of SLT is about one sixty-fourth of the storage space of traditional Ray-Tracing algorithm.


This paper use grey theory to establish prediction model to forecast the volume of ports of coasts in Fangcheng Port in Guangxi. Since the access to statistical data of ports of coasts in Fangcheng Port in Guangxi, it is difficult to forecast using traditional method. Through establish the GM(1,1) model , this paper gives the predation on ports of coasts in Fangcheng Port in Guangxi, The predicted results show that the throughput growth faster in the next few years, and will achieve Historical breakthrough in 2014.


Introduction and objectives Pain is common, with 43% of medical inpatients experiencing moderate to severe pain [Dix et al BJA 2004;92(2):235–237]. Factors contributing to inadequate pain relief include concerns about analgesic side effects, drug interactions and impact of treatment on co-morbidities. In respiratory in-patients we audited prevalence and severity of pain, adequacy of pain relief and contraindications to escalation of analgesia. Methods Unselected adult inpatients (≥16 years) with respiratory disease managed on a respiratory specialist ward were included in the audit. Patients with lung cancer or chest drains were excluded. Diagnoses, investigation results and medications were collected from patient records and patients underwent pain assessment (Brief Pain Inventory). Analgesia was defined as inadequate if patients reported an average pain score or pain interference score (pain interfering with daily activities) >3/10 during the previous 24 h. For patients with inadequate analgesia, cautions and contraindications to analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were determined to establish whether analgesia could be escalated. Results Of 101 patients interviewed, main respiratory diagnoses were: COPD (40%), pneumonia/LRTI (38%), asthma (13%) and other (10%). 52 patients reported any pain in the last 24 h, of which the sites of worst pain were chest (44%), back (25%), limb (19%) and other (12%). Of these patients, 85% (n=44) were assessed as having inadequate analgesia. Abstract P226 Table 1 groups those patients with inadequate analgesia by position on the WHO analgesic ladder and details the proportion of patients who have no contraindication to stepping up the ladder. Abstract P226 Table 1 also highlights the proportion of patients who may benefit from adjuvant NSAID therapy. Of those patients with inadequate analgesia, 82% (n=36) had no contraindication to escalation of analgesia and 32% (n=14) had no contraindication to treatment with NSAIDs.Abstract P226 Table 1 Analgesic options for 44 patients with inadequate pain relief No analgesia Paracetamol Mild/moderate opioids Strong opioids Step-up contraindicated 0 3 0 5 18% Step-up possible 12 14 10 0 82% NSAID contraindicated 11 12 5 2 68% NSAID possible 1 5 5 3 32% Total 12 17 10 5 Conclusions Pain is common in hospital in-patients with respiratory disease. 44% of respiratory in-patients did not receive adequate analgesia. 82% of these had no contraindication to stepping up the pain ladder and 32% could have had an NSAID added to their treatment. Respiratory patients may benefit from closer assessment of their pain and options regarding prescribed analgesia.


ABSTRACT The lack of diversity in the teaching profession is recognised internationally [Schleicher, A. 2014. Equity, Excellence and Inclusiveness in Education: Policy Lessons from around the World. Paris: OECD]. Research shows consistently that teachers from majority socio-economic and ethnic groupings dominate, often in contrast to school populations. While studies in the USA and the UK have shown that teachers with disabilities are significantly under-represented compared to the general population, there has been a dearth of research in this area in Ireland, including in relation to initial teacher education (ITE). Following a review of the literature and an overview of the study's methodology, we present findings exploring 2014 ITE applicants and entrants with respect to their dis/ability status and intersections with other socio-demographic variables based on data gathered in the Diversity in Initial Teacher Education in Ireland national research project, establishing the first national dataset about disability in Irish state-funded ITE. While we identified increases in the proportion of disabled students entering ITE, especially at postgraduate level, applicants with disabilities were significantly less likely to be accepted into undergraduate primary ITE than were those without, and there was considerable variation in the proportions from different categories entering ITE. We end by discussing the significance and implications of our findings in terms of practice, policy, and further research.


Objective: To determine the photoprotective effect of epigallocatechin (EGC) extracted from green tea using microemulsions as a carrier system. Methods: In the present study, EGC was extracted from commercially available branded as well as loose green tea samples. Further, microemulsions (MEs) of these extracts were formulated and were evaluated for their antioxidant and photoprotective effects. MEs were formulated using Capmul MCM as oily phase, Tween 80 as a surfactant and Labrasol as co-surfactant after studying the phase behavior. MEs containing green tea extracts were applied to the rat dorsal skin after exposure to UV radiation (rate of exposure = 9.71 J/cm2, dose = 0.9011 mJ/cm2 Results: The content of EGC in loose and branded tea leaf extracts was found to be 0.00322 % w/w and 0.00468 % w/w, respectively. FTIR studies revealed the instability of formulations prepared with water as aqueous phase after UV exposure. However, in the case of PB (pH 7.4) as the aqueous phase in MEs; no change in the spectra of formulations after UV exposure for different time intervals was observed. Results of TEWL studies indicated that the barrier perturbation was not severe which clearly states the safety aspect of the formulation. The extinction coefficient (EC /sec). The effect of the formulation was evaluated in terms of reduced glutathione level (GSH), radical scavenging activity (DPPH), transepidermal water loss (TEWL), irritation potential and histological changes. The EGC content of both types of green tea was estimated using HPTLC and photo-stability of ME formulation was evaluated using FTIR-ATR technique. 50 Conclusion: The results of the present investigation indicated that pH of the aqueous phase used for preparing the formulation affected the photostability of the formulation. Further, MEs prepared using green tea extracts exhibited photoprotective effects. Hence, the green tea extract containing ME formulations have promising potential to be a cosmeceutical. ) value for loose tea and branded tea leaf extract was found to be 170 µg/ml and 79 µg/ml, respectively. The yield of the extract was 0.00322±0.026 % w/w for loose tea and 0.00468±0.150 % w/w for branded tea.


The present field experiment was conducted during Kharif, 2014 at Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidhyalaya, Jabalpur (M.P.), its resulted that the each and alternate year Zn application significantly increased the plant height, pods plant-1, seeds pod-1, test weight, grain and straw yield, oil and protein content, Zn uptake by seed and straw, all Zn fractions and organic carbon content in soil after harvest of soybean over single year Zn application but each and alternate year Zn application were statistically at par. The application of 5 kg Zn ha-1 significantly increased the pods plant-1, seeds pod-1, test weight, grain and straw yield, oil and protein content, Zn uptake by seed, water soluble and occluded fraction and organic carbon in soil over control the highest plant height, nodules per plant, Zn content at different growth stages, total Zn uptake and available Zn content in soil were found at 10 kg Zn ha-1 which was at par with 5 kg Zn ha-1. The maximum content of water soluble and occluded fractions in soil was observed at 5 kg Zn ha-1, while exchangeable, complexed organically bound, residual and total Zn fraction was found maximum at 10 kg Zn ha-1.The water soluble, exchangeable, complexes, organically bound Zn fraction in soil has positively significant relationship with grain yield of soybean.


A multiscale Bayesian neural network (BNN) based algorithm was applied to obtain soil hydraulic parameters at multiple scales in the Rio Grande basin (near Picacho Mountain, approximately 11 km northwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico). Point-scale measurements were upscaled to 30 m and 1 km resolutions. These scaled parameters were used in a physically based hydrologic model as inputs to obtain soil moisture states across the study area. The test sites were chosen to provide variety in terrain, land use characteristics, vegetation, soil types, and soil distribution patterns. In order to validate the effectiveness of the upscaled soil water retention parameters, and thus the soil hydraulic parameters, hydrologic simulations were conducted using the HYDRUS-3D hydrologic simulation software. Outputs from the hydrologic simulations using the scaled parameters were compared with those using data from SSURGO and STATSGO soil maps. The BNN-based upscaling algorithm for soil retention parameters from point-scale measurements to 30 m and 1 km, resolutions performed reasonably well (Pearson's R > 0.6) at both scales. High correlations (>0.6) between the simulated soil moisture values based on the upscaled and the soil map-derived soil hydraulic parameters show that the methodology is applicable to semi-arid regions to obtain effective soil hydraulic parameter values at coarse scales from fine-scale measurements of soil texture, structure, and retention data.


We consider the evolution of an initially localized wave packet after a sudden change in the Hamiltonian, i.e. a quench. When both bound and scattering eigenstates exist in the post-quench Hamiltonian, one might expect partial delocalization of the wave packet to ensue. Here we show that if the quench consists of a sudden switching-off of short-range inter-particle interactions, then Tan ' s universal relations guarantee delocalization through the high-momentum tail of the momentum distribution. Furthermore, we consider the in fl uence of the range of the interaction and show how a fi nite range alters the coupling to highly excited states. We illustrate our results using numerical simulations of externally trapped particles in one dimension. If the external potential is both disordered and correlated, then the interaction quench leads to transport via delocalized states, showing that localization in disordered systems is sensitive to non-adia-batic changes in the interactions between particles.


The accurate and timely estimation of river discharge plays an important role in hydrological modeling, especially for avoiding the consequences of flood events. The majority of existing work on hydrologic prediction focuses on modeling the inherent physical process for specific river basins, while the geographic-connections between rivers are largely ignored. Geographically connected rivers provide rich spatial information that can be used to predict discharge amounts. In this paper, we study a novel problem of exploiting both temporal patterns and spatial connections for hydrological prediction. We construct three relationship graphs for hydrological gauges in the study area: the hydraulic distance graph, the Euclidean distance graph and the correlation graph. We fuse these graphs into one hydrological network graph, and propose a novel framework ST-Hydro which exploits Graph Convolutional Networks (GCN) for learning the spatial feature representations, and Recurrent Neural Networks with carefully designed activation functions for capturing temporal features simultaneously for hydrological prediction. Experimental results on real world data set demonstrate that the proposed framework can predict the river discharge effectively and at an early stage.


We investigated the temporally evolving network structures of the Japanese and Korean stock markets through the minimum spanning trees composed of listed stocks. We tested the validity of conventional grouping by industrial categories, and found a common trend of decrease for Japan and Korea. This phenomenon supports the increasing external effects on the markets due to the globalization of both countries. At last the Korean market are grouped with the MSCI Korea Index, a good reference for foreigners' trading, in the early 2000s [12]. In the Japanese market, this tendency is strengthened more and more by burst of the bubble in 1990's.


Background: The occurrence of second malignancies in cancer survivors is not uncommon. Due to advances in diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, the survival of cancer patients has improved and the incidence of second malignancies is also on the rise. The second malignancy may be synchronous or metachronous. Though there are plenty of case reports on double malignancies, original studies are less. The present study aims to analyse the frequency, types of double malignancies and their effect on the morbidity and mortality of the patients. Methods: This is a retrospective and prospective analysis of cancer patients done in a tertiary care hospital. All patients who presented with double malignancies from January 2004 to December 2014 were included. Retrospective data was obtained for cases from January 2004 to October 2011 and prospective data was obtained from November 2011 to December 2014. The study included 32 patients with double malignancies. Results: Gynaecological malignancies were most common in our study, followed by head and neck and gastrointestinal malignancies. Most of the malignancies were synchronous (56.25%). Double malignancies involving the head and neck, female reproductive tract, breast can be explained by common etiological factors like Human papillomma virus (HPV). Field cancerisation explains the synchronous cancers in Head and neck, upper aero digestive tract and reproductive tract. Conclusions: This study emphasises the importance of screening cancer patients for other primary malignancies during initial evaluation as well as during follow up period, in addition to the metastatic workup. It also stresses that timely reduction of risk factors in cancer survivors can prevent further malignancies.


SHIELD is the Midland Thoracic Society9s rare surveillance scheme for occupational asthma in the West Midlands, England, UK (working population 2.2 million). The database is a useful tool to locate outbreaks within a particular field of work and discover causative agents. There have been 1644 notifications of occupational asthma since January 1992. Isocyanates have been the commonest cause of occupational asthma over the last 20 years accounting for an average of 21% of all cases until 2005 when notifications dropped. Metal working fluid notification peaked in 2004 and 2005 due to a large outbreak in the manufacture of car engines; there has since been a smaller outbreak in another engineering works. Notification of occupational asthma to cleaning agents has risen in recent years. These include chlorine based products, products containing benzalkonium chloride and alcohol hand gels. Chrome outbreaks have been related to stainless steel manufacture (welding and milling). Flour/amylase reports have risen in the last 2 years but cobalt, colophony and latex have remained at a low stable level. The latter agents are likely to remain low due to the availability of colopony-free solders and nitrile/vinyl gloves. In summary, Shield remains a useful tool to identify occupational asthma outbreaks and trends in data. Although isocyanates remains the biggest offender, new causes are still being identified and old ones re-surfacing in different industries.


Internet measurements show that the size distribution of Web-based transactions is usually very skewed; a few large requests constitute most of the total traÆc. Motivated by the advantages of scheduling algorithms which favor short jobs, we propose to perform di erentiated control over Web-based transactions to give preferential service to short web requests. The control is realized through service semantics provided by Internet TraÆc Managers, a Di serv-like architecture. To evaluate the performance of such a control system, it is necessary to have a fast but accurate analytical method. To this end, we model the Internet as a time-shared system and propose a numerical approach which utilizes Kleinrock's conservation law to solve the model. The numerical results are shown to match well those obtained by packet-level simulation, which runs orders of magnitude slower than our numerical method.


With the rising incidence of chronic liver disease caused by viral hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma is showing a corresponding rise worldwide. Surgery remains the mainstay of treatment, but patients unfit for surgery or liver transplantation form the bulk of those presenting with this disease. Palliative treatments are being used to treat those and radiological modalities form the mainstay of the treatment. Radiology plays a major role in the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of hepatocellular carcinoma. Current radiological treatment modalities include percutaneous ethanol ablation, radiofrequency ablation and trans-arterial chemoembolization. This update highlights the recent advancements in the field and compares their relative merits and demerits.


Perceptual processes can be probed by fitting stimulus-response models that relate measured brain signals such as electroencephalography (EEG) to the stimuli that evoke them. These models have also found application for the control of devices such as hearing aids. The quality of the fit, as measured by correlation, classification, or information rate metrics, indicates the value of the model and the usefulness of the device. Models based on Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) achieve a quality of fit that surpasses that of commonly-used linear forward and backward models. Here, we show that their performance can be further improved using several techniques that capture the time-varying and context-dependent relationships within the data, including adaptive beamforming, CCA weight optimization, and recurrent neural networks that capture the time-varying and context-dependent relationships within the data. We demonstrate these results using a match-vs-mismatch classification paradigm, in which the classifier must decide which of two stimulus samples produced a given EEG response and which is a randomly chosen stimulus sample. This task captures the essential features of the more complex auditory attention decoding (AAD) task explored in many other studies.


Previously, we reported that the catalytic subunit of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2Ac) undergoes carboxylmethylation (CML) at its COOH-terminal leucine, and that inhibitors of such a posttranslational modification markedly attenuate nutrient-induced insulin secretion from isolated beta-cells. More recent studies have suggested direct inhibitory effects of glucose metabolites on PP2A activity in isolated beta-cells, implying that inhibition of PP2A leads to stimulation of insulin secretion. Because the CML of PP2Ac has been shown to facilitate the holoenzyme assembly and subsequent functional activation of PP2A, we investigated putative regulation by glucose of the CML of PP2Ac in insulin-secreting (INS)-1 cells. Our data indicated a marked inhibition by specific intermediates of glucose metabolism (e.g., citrate and phosphoenolpyruvate) of the CML of PP2Ac in INS-1 cell lysates. Such inhibitory effects were also demonstrable in intact cells by glucose. Mannoheptulose, an inhibitor of glucose metabolism, completely prevented inhibitory effects of glucose on the CML of PP2Ac. Moreover, glucose-mediated inhibition of the CML of PP2Ac was resistant to diazoxide, suggesting that glucose metabolism and the generation of glucose metabolites might control inhibition of the CML of PP2Ac. A membrane-depolarizing concentration of KCl also induced inhibition of the CML of PP2Ac in intact INS cells. On the basis of these data, we propose that glucose metabolism and increase in intracellular calcium facilitate inhibition of the CML of PP2Ac, resulting in functional inactivation of PP2A. This, in turn, might retain the key signaling proteins of the insulin exocytotic cascade in their phosphorylated state, leading to stimulated insulin secretion.


The history of Sufi traditions in Khwārazm reveals patterns of development that broadly correlate with patterns and alignments evident in the region's social, political, and economic history; this is not unexpected, of course, but this correlation provides a convenient vantage point from which to explore Khwārazmian Sufi traditions, and it also lends significance to the literary and folkloric legacies of those traditions, which can illuminate aspects of Khwārazmian history for periods otherwise poorly represented in written sources. The present study offers a broad outline of Sufi activity in Khwārazm, from the 12th century to the 19th, noting the sometimes alternating, sometimes overlapping patterns of locally-rooted Sufi communities, deeply embedded in Khwārazmian social topography, and of regionally- and internationally-connected Sufi groups reflecting large-scale networks; in the latter case, particular attention is given to 'mapping' the links of Sufi communities based in Khwārazm with other groups – both in distinctive configurations of regional Central Asian frameworks (i.e., northern Khurāsān, Manghishlāq, the Syr Daryā valley, the Dasht-i Qipchāq), and in wider 'global' frameworks connecting Khwārazm with the broader Muslim world (the holy cities, Istanbul, Crimea, Kashmīr and India). Consideration of the initial phase of Sufi history in the region, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, is followed by a focus on the sparse but significant evidence on Khwārazmian Sufis of the 14th and 15th centuries, perhaps the most poorly known era of Khwārazmian history in the Muslim era, and to the much richer source base for the flourishing of 'Kubravī' communities – in Khwārazm and in the regions closely connected with it – during the 16th century; the continuation of these patterns, but also the emergence of distinctively local Khwārazmian variants of other Sufi traditions ('Yasavī' and Naqshbandī), from the 17th century to the early 19th will also be addressed.


In atherosclerosis, chemokines recruit circulating mononuclear leukocytes to the vascular wall. A key factor is CX(3)CL1, a chemokine with soluble and transmembrane species that acts as both a chemoattractant and an adhesion molecule. Thromboxane A(2) and its receptor, TP, are also critical to atherogenesis by promoting vascular inflammation and consequent leukocyte recruitment. We examined the effects of TP stimulation on processing and function of CX(3)CL1, using CX(3)CL1-expressing human ECV-304 cells and primary human vascular endothelial cells. TP agonists promoted rapid shedding of cell surface CX(3)CL1, which was inhibited by pharmacological inhibitors or specific small interfering RNA targeting tumor necrosis factor-alpha-converting enzyme (TACE). Because it reduced cell surface CX(3)CL1, we predicted that TP stimulation would inhibit adhesion of leukocytes expressing the CX(3)CL1 cognate receptor but, paradoxically, saw enhanced adhesion. We questioned whether the enhanced ability of the remaining membrane-associated CX(3)CL1 to bind targets was caused by changes in its lateral mobility. Using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, we found that plasmalemmal CX(3)CL1 was initially tethered but ultimately mobilized by TP agonists. TP stimulation provoked clustering of transmembrane CX(3)CL1 at sites of contact with adherent leukocytes. These data demonstrate that TP stimulation induces two distinct effects: a rapid cleavage of surface CX(3)CL1, thereby releasing the soluble chemoattractant, plus mobilization of the remaining transmembrane CX(3)CL1 to enhance the avidity of interactions with adherent leukocytes. The dual effect of TP allows CX(3)CL1 to recruit leukocytes to sites of vascular inflammation while enhancing their adhesion once recruited.


The objectives of this study were to evaluate the physicochemical characteristics of puffer fish under storage conditions. Free amino acids were identified in the order of taurine > alanine > lysine > leucine > glutamic acid > valine. Glutamic acid, lysine, histidine, arginine, proline, and aspartic acid increased over time and with increased temperature, and valine and tyrosine were affected by temperature. ATP decreased dramatically during 36 h of storage at 4℃, 24 h of storage at 12℃, and 16 h of storage at 20℃. IMP reached its highest level when puffer fish was stored for 36 h at 4 and 12℃ and 24 h at 20℃, and hypoxanthine levels grew steeply at 60 h at 4℃, 24 h at 12℃ and 20 h at 20℃. In terms of K value, the puffer fish was available for sliced raw fish within 60 h at 4℃, 24 h at 12℃ and 12 h at 20℃, and the fish can be taken in after cooking within 72 h at 4℃ and 12℃ and 36 h at 20℃. The physicochemical quality characteristics showed that puffer fish is available for sliced raw fish within 36 h at 4℃, 16 h at 12℃ and 12 h at 20℃, and that the fish can be taken after cooking within 72 h at 4℃ and 12℃ and 36 h at 20℃.


Abstract Based on a national analysis of Indigenous family violence, the 2001 monograph on 'Violence in Indigenous Communities' by the author and his colleagues for the Australian Attorney-General's Department called for government agencies to 'take a regional approach to supporting and co-ordinating local community initiatives' together with 'partnerships between Indigenous program personnel and mainstream services...' (Memmott et al., 2001, p. 4). This current article reports on regional aspects of two subsequent pieces of research by the author, one in the Barkly Region of central-east Northern Territory for Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation (2007) and the other in the Torres Strait for the Queensland Department of Communities (2008). The research findings from both of these studies develop the case for government policy to accommodate regional approaches to Indigenous family violence due to combinations of geographic and culturally specific causal factors. The importance of nurturing social and cultural capital in Indigenous communities to strengthen social values, leadership and cohesion in addressing Indigenous violence will be emphasised. Some comment will be made on the role of underlying factors ('deep historical circumstances') in contributing to violence, in conjunction with precipitating causes and situational factors, the former being somewhat downplayed in policy debate over the period of the Howard government.


One of the cleanest energy sources on the planet, nuclear energy is recognized for its great potential as a dual-use technology (with both civil and military application). The complexity of nuclear development also results in an intense spin-off process, generating benefits in the social, scientific, and industrial fields and contributing to projects in different sectors. The objective of this paper is to present the Brazilian Navy's Nuclear Program, its history and its main aspects. Moreover, it aims to outline the relevance of the program to the Brazilian nuclear sector and to the national defense industrial base. For this purpose, the text is mostly based on official data and literature review, focusing especially on nuclear development since the 1940s. Its results allow us to conclude, in particular, that the development of this technology would also enable Brazil to remain in the group of countries with high nuclear capacity as well as, in the future, to become an exporter of nuclear fuel. Finally, it is important to understand it as a long-term state program and to ensure its maintenance and continuity, given its current advanced stage and its effects on Brazil's development.


Introduction: Nasotracheal intubation (NTI) is the method of choice when orotracheal intubation is not feasible (Patients with limited mouth opening), where orotracheal intubation is predicted to be difficult and in patients having airway related mechanical issues (angioedema, Ludwig's angina, tongue haematomas, jaw fracture etc.). A common problem facing anaesthetist while performing nasotracheal intubation is bleeding which might affect the course of intubation, surgery and recovery of the patient. Oxymetazoline is a selective α1 and a partial α2 adrenergic receptors agonist. Since vascular beds widely express α1 receptors, the action of oxymetazoline results in vasoconstriction. The mechanism of action of ephedrine is shown to be increasing the effects of NE by mobilizing and releasing the NE from the mobile pool. Aims: To evaluate and compare the effect of using prophylactic nasal drops of oxymetazoline versus ephedrine on the incidence of nasal bleeding when nasotracheal intubation is performed. Materials and Methods: This interventional randomized single blinded controlled study was conducted in Khartoum Dental Hospital during the period from September to October 2017. Sixty patients undergoing dental surgery were selected and were randomly assigned into two groups to receive either 1 ml of oxymetazoline 0.05% nasal drops (30 patients) or 1 ml of Ephedrine 1% nasal drops (30 patients) 5 minutes before induction. The incidence and severity of epistaxis, the incidence of the commonest complications related to nasal bleeding and the mode of recovery were assessed following NTI. Data was collected through predesigned data collection sheet then analyzed using a statistical package for the social sciences version and presented as tables and figures. Results: Among 60 participants, 53.3% had no bleeding with oxymetazoline application compared to 30% with those who used ephedrine. Fair recovery was reported in 96.7% patients who received oxymetazoline compared to 63.3% from those who received ephedrine. Complicated recovery was significantly more in patients who received ephedrine (36.7%)) compared to a single patient 3.3% from oxymetazoline group. Conclusion: the study concluded that patients undergoing NTI had no or minimal bleeding and lower rate of complications with the use of oxymetazoline 0.5% compared to ephedrine nasal drops.


SUMMARY An anthropometric study and dietary investiga tions wereconductedin an Iban communityin the Sixth Division of Sarawak. 140 children aged 0 to 6 years, were assessed anthropometrically. Their mean weights and heights were much lower than those of their counterparts in Singapore. 7% of the children were nutritional dwarfs while about 68% were either wasted or wasted as well as stunted. Rice was the staple food in the community while other foods were considered unnecessary. Child feeding practices alsoreflected this dependancy on rice leading to a toddlerdiet which is mainly carbohydrate in nature. The dietary assessmentshowed a quantitative adequacy of energy as well as protein, a [inding whicn does not reflect the seasonal fluctuations with periods of hunger. The predominant contribution from rice resulted in protein intakes which were qualitatively deficient.


ABSTRACTWild edible mushrooms (WEM) have high economic and culi-nary value, due to their nutritional and medical properties. They are regarded as functional foods, as well as of the nutritional properties that they have, it has been shown to have beneficial health effects and may be used in the prevention or treatment of diseases. It's therapeutic action is attributed to the bioactive com -pounds that they have in their fruiting bodies. Although, globally, it has only been studied for 6% of the fungal diversity. There is a wide range of WEM which can be consumed safely and that can be exploited for the development food products, therefore it is necessary to promote future researches with WEM to reveal more information about their health benefits, because currently available information is still scanty. In this paper the importance of studying the WEM were described, the physical and chemical characteristics and the bioactive compounds of the most popular genus of mushroom in the food area were also described in order to know their nutritional and therapeutic benefits, eliminate false beliefs around them and encourage consumption.Key words: Wild edible mushroom; economy value; nutritional properties; medicinal properties; bioactive compounds.Rev Chil Nutr Vol. 43, No1, 2016