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Abstract
Ear rots caused by different Fusarium spp. are one of the most dangerous food and feed safety challenges in maize production. At present, the majority of the inbreds and hybrids are susceptible. Gibberella and Fusarium ear rots (caused by Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium verticillioides, respectively) are the two main diseases, but more than 10 further Fusarium spp. cause ear rots. Natural infection is initiated by a mixture of the local Fusarium spp., but usually one species predominates. Many maize breeders rely on natural infection to create sufficient levels of disease severity for selection-resistant genotypes; however, there are few locations where the natural infection is sufficiently uniform to make this selection efficient and successful. Thus, an artificial inoculation method normally performed with one fungal species is now used by more breeders. Most published papers on breeding for ear rot resistance are focused on either F. graminearum or F. verticillioides, and reports involving both or more Fusarium spp. are rare. Several reports support the hypothesis that resistance to multiple species especially F. graminearum, F. culmorum and F. verticillioides may be common. Significant differences in genotypic resistance after inoculation exist. Resistance to the two major modes of fungal entry into the ear, via the silk or through kernel wounds, is not correlated in all genotypes. The reason is not clear. When silk channel resistance was assessed, the data from natural and artificial inoculation trials correlated well. Analogous data relating to kernel resistance have not been published. Both native and exotic sources of resistance are important, but surprisingly little information is available. Few papers report on the use of artificial inoculation during inbred development. Most of the publications on inoculation are concerned with testing at later stages when combining ability is tested. Inbreds differ in general and specific combining ability for ear rot resistance. The expression of resistance to disease severity and resistance to toxins is often used as synonyms, but in fact they are not. Higher resistance to visual disease severities mostly results in lower toxin contamination, and the resistance level seems to be the most important factor regulating the toxin content. The mode of inheritance of resistance appears to differ: additive, possibly non-additive effects, digenic (dominant) and polygenic patterns have been identified. Improved phenotyping methods that take into account the influence of stalk rot and the use of several independent isolates are available. The QTLs mostly exhibit small effects and some are validated; however, marker-assisted selection in breeding cannot yet be foreseen. As the severity of natural infections tends to correlate with the artificial inoculation results, the incorporation of artificial inoculation methods in breeding programmes is now the most important task. As genotypic resistance differences between hybrids are high, the registration of hybrids should consider the use of the inoculation tests to choose most resistant hybrids for commercial production. This is the most rapid way to increase feed safety.


Artificial stimulation of Agouti-Related Peptide (AgRP) neurons promotes intense food consumption, yet paradoxically during natural behavior these cells are inhibited before feeding begins. Previously, to reconcile these observations, we showed that brief stimulation of AgRP neurons can generate hunger that persists for tens of minutes, but the mechanisms underlying this sustained hunger drive remain unknown (Chen et al., 2016). Here we show that Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is uniquely required for the long-lasting effects of AgRP neurons on feeding behavior. We blocked the ability of AgRP neurons to signal through AgRP, NPY, or GABA, and then stimulated these cells using a paradigm that mimics their natural regulation. Deletion of NPY, but not AgRP or GABA, abolished optically-stimulated feeding, and this was rescued by NPY re-expression selectively in AgRP neurons. These findings reveal a unique role for NPY in sustaining hunger in the interval between food discovery and consumption.


In this study, the boiler of Mashhad Toos power plant is studied numerically in order to investigate the possibility to improve its efficiency and reduce its pollutants emission. In this regard, first the current status of the boiler is simulated and the numerical results are compared with the available experimental data, where a good agreement is observed. Next, the effects of the injected fuel droplets' diameters, air flow rate and the inlet air swirl direction arrangement on the boiler thermal efficiency and pollution emissions are studied. An appropriate arrangement of the inlet air swirl directions for the nine liquid-fueled burners of the boiler is proposed that will lead to a higher boiler thermal efficiency and lifetime.


Plasma concentrations of lactoferrin were measured in immediately separated EDTA samples from 5 subjects who had received HLA identical bone marrow transplants for leukaemia or aplastic anaemia and from 7 subjects who were leukopenic as a consequence of chemotherapy for a variety of malignant conditions. Plasma lactoferrin concentrations were found to closely parallel the leucocyte count and were not found to either predict or to antedate leucocyte regeneration. Serial measurements of plasma lactoferrin in a subject with no circulating neutrophils who received a bone marrow graft revealed that the clearance of lactoferrin followed an exponential pattern and had an initial half time of 2.2 h.


This project explored the needs of mothers beyond the immediate postnatal period in Queensland, Australia, for the development of improved models of care. Data were collected through group and individual interviews. A qualitative methodology using thematic analysis captured the experience of 58 participants. Four key themes were generated: Caring for self, Being connected, Getting direction and Having options. Being connected with care providers and peers was highly valued by participants as was having a sense of direction. Having a relationship with a carer who knew them personally throughout pregnancy and postnatal care avoided retelling stories and facilitated information sharing. Relationship-based care enabled mothers to better meet their personal needs necessary to fulfil the parenting role. Yet, many points of disconnect were identified including inconsistencies in information and gaps in care. These findings demonstrate a range of unmet needs, situated within a lack of relational continuity. Maternity and child health professionals, service managers and policy makers must reorient systems by listening, acknowledging and keeping the voice of mothers at the centre of care.


Global warming presents one of the most serious threats to South American nations. Countries in the region are at risk of a variety of climate change related problems: rising sea levels, diminishing  potable water supplies, forest res, intense storms and ooding, heat waves and the spread of diseases. These disasters are occurring more frequently in the region and will likely increase in intensity also. The armed forces in the region are the only government departments with both the capacity and the manpower to respond to these massive catastrophes. Military support to civilian authorities will be required more frequently and under more severe conditions as climate change conditions worsen.


In this paper, we describe the 1809 eruption of Mt. Etna, Italy, which represents one historical and rare case in which it is possible to closely observe the internal structure of the feeder system. This is possible thanks to the presence of two large pit craters located in the middle of the eruptive fracture field that allow studying a section of the shallow feeder system. Along the walls of one of these craters, we analysed well-exposed cross sections of the uppermost 15–20 m of the feeder system and related volcanic products. Here, we describe the structure, morphology and lithology of this portion of the 1809 feeder system, including the host rock which conditioned the propagation of the dyke, and compare the results with other recent eruptions. Finally, we propose a dynamic model of the magma behaviour inside a laterally–propagating feeder dyke, demonstrating how this dynamic triggered important changes in the eruptive style (from effusive/Strombolian to phreatomagmatic) during the same eruption. This is therefore an exceptional case to understand how basaltic magmas move during the propagation of an eruptive fissure. Our results are also useful for hazard assessment related to the development of flank eruptions, potentially the most hazardous type of eruption from basaltic volcanoes in densely urbanized areas like those at Mt. Etna.


Abstract Introduction Gallstone ileus is a very infrequent complication of cholelithiasis in which single or multiple stones pass through an abnormal fistula to the lumen of the intestine leading to a true mechanical obstruction. We are reporting a case of a female who developed intestinal obstruction due to gallstones during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and was managed urgently surgically in a low-settings hospital. Case Presentation An 85-year-old white female with 40 years history of gallstone disease, hypertension, and type-2 diabetes presented to the accidents and emergency unit with upper central crampy abdominal pain for 5 days associated with green color vomiting and absolute constipation. On examination, she was barely stable, dehydrated, had a distended abdomen, and guarding in the epigastric region. Her electrolytes were disturbed and had elevated serum creatinine and blood urea. Imaging studies confirmed gallstone ileus. Management was surgical despite the lack of facilities and equipment including COVID-19 personal protective equipment. Conclusion Despite being an infrequent complication, gallstone ileus might present at the most unexpected time and in the least equipped hospital where the surgeon's suspicion, risk stratification, and improvisation by utilizing what is available are the keys for successful management and saving lives.


Last term, in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. United States, the Supreme Court resolved the scope of CERCLA's arranger liability by holding that an arranger must intend to dispose, in order to be held liable as a Potentially Responsible Party ("PRP"). The case sheds light on the Supreme Court's plain language construction of CERCLA, and its willingness to graft requirements for liability which some consider inconsistent with a strict liability statute. The Court's decision focuses attention on other PRP disputes, specifically the extent to which a previous owner, one of the four categories of PRP, can be held liable for toxic waste disposal. While lower courts remain divided, this Comment seeks to furnish a test for when a previous owner can be held liable as a PRP, particularly in those cases where unintentional disposal occurs. Remaining true to canons of statutory interpretation, rather than privileging CERCLA's strict liability emphasis, the breadth of liability under one of America's toughest environmental laws can finally achieve clarity.


For applications in which antennas are located near or in integrated circuits (ICs), the switching noise from digital circuits can interfere with the operation of antennas. This paper presents a study of the switching noise picked up by a planar dipole antenna from a divide-by-128 IC located near the antenna. To develop understanding of the measurement results, a lumped-element simulation model has been developed. Quantitative agreements between the measurements and simulations for numerous experiments have been obtained. The measurements indicate that by selecting the signal frequency on the antennas much greater than the circuit frequency, the immunity from switching noise can be improved. The measurements also showed that circuits such as buffers are relatively noisier, and emanate more noise at higher operating frequencies. Finally, the measurements showed that using antennas with a differential or balanced feed structure can substantially reduce the coupling of switching noise (/spl sim/20 dB) which is mostly common-mode in nature.


The availability of location information of mobile terminals, relays, femto cells and primary units provides opportunities to greatly enhance the operation of wireless communication systems. We provide an overview of some of the possibilities, starting with physical layer considerations for a single link. However, most of the opportunities concern resource allocation aspects. Especially for multi-user systems, for which recent information theory progress has shown that an optimized handling may lead to significant system capacity increase. But the optimization of multi-user systems requires very precise Channel State Information at the Transmitter (CSIT). The problem is compounded when taking furthermore user selection into account. CSIT is typically obtained by feedback (FB), which leads to transmission overhead. Channel reciprocity based TDD systems only represent a limited alternative in multi-cell settings, or for user selection. For single-cell multi-user communications, we argue for a revival of SDMA (Spatial Division Multiple Access). We then consider the multi-cell problem, and cognitive radio. Some (but not all) of the location aided techniques require substantial databases, which have come into vogue in the context of flexible spectrum access. Location aided techniques may furthermore exploit location prediction through mobility trajectory information. This would allow slow fading (and even connectivity) predictibility, something that is difficult to achieve without location information. Of course, proposals for location aided techniques need to be weighted against classical approaches (CSIT learning) in order to assess their definitive value.


Stock price predictions suffer from two well known difficulties, i.e., complicated and non-stationary variations within the large historic data. This paper establishes a novel financial time series-forecasting model by a case based fuzzy decision tree induction for stock price movement predictions in Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TSEC). This forecasting model integrates a case based reasoning technique, a fuzzy decision tree (FDT) and genetic algorithms (GA) to construct a decision-making system based on historical data and technical indexes. The model is major based on the idea that the historic price data base can be transformed into a smaller case-base together with a group of fuzzy decision rules. As a result, the model can be more accurately react to the current tendency of the stock price movement from these smaller case based fuzzy decision tree inductions. Hit rate is applied as a performance measure and the effectiveness of our proposed CBFDT model is demonstrated by experimentally compared with other approaches on various stocks from TSEC. The average hit rate of CBFDT model is 91% the highest among others.


During weeks 3 to 26 of lactation, two groups of 24 cows were offered either a 60:40 (high) or a 40:60 (low) ratio of concentrate dry matter:silage dry matter. The 40:60 diet was restricted to give the same daily metabolizable energy and crude protein intake. The hooves of half the cows on each diet were trimmed prior to the experiment, the other half remaining untrimmed. The high concentrate ratio significantly increased locomotion score (high scores indicating poorer locomotion), and the number and duration of clinical cases of lameness. Trimming of hooves significantly reduced the number and diiration of clinical cases. Hoof growth was significantly increased by trimming. Hoof hardness was significantly reduced by the high concentrate ratio. The low concentrate ratio had 8/24 cows lame for an average of 3·3 weeks compared with 11 cows for 3·9 weeks on the high ratio. There were 7/24 trimmed cows lame for 3·1 weeks compared with 12 untrimmed cows lame for 4·2 weeks. The main hoof lesions were solar ulcers and heel erosion. There was no significant effect on milk yield, but milk protein was signficantly increased by the high concentrate ratio. Condition score was significantly negatively correlated with locomotion score.


S is a TQM technique used by organizations comes from five Japanese words; Seiri (sort), Seiton (set in order), Seiso (shine), Seiketsu (standardize), and Shitsuke (sustain). This system helps to organize a workplace for efficiency and decrease wasting and optimize quality and productivity via monitoring an organized environment. It also provides useful visual evidences to obtain more firm results. There is a real need for empirical studies in field of new management systems and their impact on company's performance. As importance role of continuous improvement in today's organizations, and lack of sufficient evidence to show the positive impact of 5S on organizational performance, this paper aims to identifying the effectiveness of 5S implementation on organizational as well employees performance and their attitude towards 5s. Surveying method is used and data collection is done by distributing questionnaire among general employees of the organizations which have implemented 5S techniques. The target organizations are chosen from different industries and diverse field of work. The results show that 5S is an effective tool for improvement of organizational performance, regardless of organization type, size, its production or its service. Consequently, 5S techniques would strongly support the objectives of organization to achieve continuous improvement and higher performance.


Extracting object-level representations for downstream reasoning tasks is an emerging area in AI. Learning object-centric representations in an unsupervised setting presents multiple challenges, a key one being binding an arbitrary number of object instances to a specialized object slot. Recent object-centric representation methods like Slot Attention utilize iterative attention to learn composable representations with dynamic inference level binding but fail to achieve specialized slot level binding. To address this, in this paper we propose Unsupervised Conditional Slot Attention using a novel Probabilistic Slot Dictionary (PSD). We define PSD with (i) abstract object-level property vectors as key and (ii) parametric Gaussian distribution as its corresponding value. We demonstrate the benefits of the learnt specific object-level conditioning distributions in multiple downstream tasks, namely object discovery, compositional scene generation, and compositional visual reasoning. We show that our method provides scene composition capabilities and a significant boost in a few shot adaptability tasks of compositional visual reasoning, while performing similarly or better than slot attention in object discovery tasks


Along with the trend towards low cost, high performance computer systems and the widespread availability of the Internet, Peer to Peer (P2P) technology is receiving increased attention. One aspect of P2P, decentralized storage utilizing optimistic concurrency control, suffers from a number of problems such as the detection of collisions and the resolution of conflicts. Solutions to date have been application-specific. This paper proposes a new data management structure dubbed WOODS (Write Once Oriented Data management Structure) which does not require conflict resolution for applications such as email, where only read and append access in required and where the order of concurrent updates is not crucial. The paper applies WOODS to a mailing list system, demonstrating that inter-application synchronization is not required for concurrent updates and that it can be used even when the network is partitioned and later reintegrated.


ABSTRACT The world of tourism today is very sad due to its negative impacts, such as promiscuity, alcoholism, drug trafficking, and so on. Tourism observers continue to make inroads, so that the development of tourism in Indonesia can have a positive impact on people's lives. including developing a type of halal tourism or sharia tourism. The purpose of this study provides an overview of the Al-Quran and Sunnah about tourism based on sharia principles, both related to recommendations, goals, ethics, basic principles of Islam and management of Islamic tourism so that in the future sharia tourism will become part of the mental and spiritual education process of the Muslim community. The method used in this study is a normative qualitative method which is a study to solve a problem that basically relies on critical and in-depth review of relevant library materials. The results of this study are also expected to make a positive contribution to the government in this case the Ministry of Tourism and Culture both at the district / city, provincial and national levels in order to develop sharia tourism in Indonesia. Keywords: al-Quran, al-Sunnah, Tourism.


As the UK's retail financial services sector discovers the value of retaining customers it is also becoming aware that product elimination has the potential to damage existing purchasing relationships. Unlike physical goods, where elimination is often undertaken with scant regard for the customer, in financial services the customer is central to the elimination action. The nature of the product and the existence of operational constraints have created two levels of elimination. The first, partial elimination, removes the product from some but not all customers, and requires the organisation to provide on‐going support. Full elimination occurs only when all customers cease to own the product and production is terminated. These two levels of elimination are comprised of different processes that impact on customers in different ways. The way they impact will determine whether wider organisational objectives such as customer retention as an outcome of a product elimination action can be achieved.


This paper investigates the minimization problem of weighted roundoff noise and pole sensitivity subject to l2-scaling constraints for state-space digital filters. A new measure for evaluating roundoff noise and pole sensitivity is proposed, and an efficient technique for minimizing this measure is developed. It is shown that the problem can be converted into an unconstrained optimization problem by using linear-algebraic techniques. The unconstrained optimization problem at hand is then solved iteratively by employing an efficient quasiNewton algorithm with closed-form formulas for key gradient evaluation. Finally a numerical example is presented to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed technique.


Purpose: To study whether a 3D view of the dose distribution and treatment beams on an autostereoscopic display facilitates a 'smart' placement of additional beams for robotic radiosurgery. Method and Materials: Treatment plans for robotic radiosurgery with the CyberKnife system (Accuray Inc., Sunnyvale) consist of a large number of non-isocentrical, cylindrical beams directed towards arbitrary points within the target volume. We implemented a tool to visualize the resulting 3D dose distribution and the beam directions using the visualization toolkit (VTK). A hypsometric color scheme allows to identify cold and hot spots in the target volume, i.e. regions where the dose is close to the lower or upper bound specified for the target. Given this information we manually added a 20 beams to an existing treatment plan with 1200 beams for an intracranial tumor. The beams where placed such that a large number of cold voxels were hit but hot voxels were avoided. To assess the spatial extent of the cold and hot regions and the orientation of the beams an autostereoscopic display (SeeReal Technologies GmbH, Dresden) was used. An inverse planning algorithm similar to the one used by the CyberKnife system was implemented to re-optimize the plan, the result was compared to the original plan. Results: The original plan consisted of 119 weighted beams with an accumulated weight of 21763.3 MU. Adding 20 beams we obtained a plan with 123 beams with the total weight reduced to 21610.7 MU. All 20 new beams got the maximum weight of 250 MU per beam, i.e. other, less efficient beams were discarded by the optimizer. Conclusion: The visualization tool proved to be useful in the guidance of beam placement. A direction of additional beams towards cold spots in the target volume can improve the plan quality.


In this paper, the implementation of an operating system oriented RBAC model is discussed. Firstly, on the basis of RBAC96 model, a new RBAC model named OSR is presented. Secondly, the OSR model is enforced in RFSOS kernel by the way of integrating GFAC method and Capability mechanism together. All parts of the OSR implementation are described in detail.


Purpose. This work provides for the development of a hydraulic model for calculating the unsteady ammonia outflow from a damaged pipeline and the implementation of this model into a numerical model for predicting emergency air pollution. Methodology. To solve the problem, the calculated dependencies of the pressure flow hydraulics were used. An empirical model to calculate the evaporation of ammonia from a damaged pipeline was also used. To calculate the process of spreading ammonia in atmospheric air, a three-dimensional equation of convective-diffusion transfer of impurities was used. Mathematical modeling of the spread of ammonia from a damaged pipeline takes into account the change with height of the wind flow velocity, as well as the change with height of the vertical coefficient of atmospheric diffusion, the dynamics of changes over time in the intensity of ammonia leakage from the damaged pipeline. For the numerical solution of the three-dimensional differential equation for the transfer of ammonia in atmospheric air, its physical splitting is carried out: an equation that describes the transport of an impurity due to convection is singled out separately, an equation that describes the transport of an impurity due to atmospheric diffusion and separately an equation that describes a change in the ammonia concentration in air due to the action of the emission source. The McCormack method is used to numerically integrate the equation for the convective transfer of ammonia in air. The Richardson method is used to numerically integrate the equation of diffusion transfer of an impurity. The Euler method is used to numerically integrate the equation that describes the change in ammonia concentration under the influence of an emission source. Findings. Based on the developed model of unsteady ammonia outflow from the damaged pipeline and the created numerical model of ammonia propagation in the atmospheric air, a computational experiment was carried out to assess the level of atmospheric air and underlying surface pollution in the event of an emergency ammonia outflow in the section where the Tolyatti – Odessa ammonia pipeline crosses the Dnipro River. Data on non-stationary environmental pollution were obtained. Originality. A mathematical model that allows calculating the unsteady process of ammonia outflow from a damaged pipeline has been developed. A numerical model is proposed to determine the areas of contamination during an emergency ammonia outflow from the Tolyatti – Odessa ammonia pipeline. Practical value. Based on the developed model, a code has been created that makes it possible to promptly predict the environmental pollution dynamics during an emergency ammonia outflow. The proposed mathematical model can be used in the development of emergency response plan for chemically hazardous facilities.


We calculated N budgets and conducted nutrient uptake experiments to evaluate the fate of N in the aquatic environment of the Ipswich River basin, northeastern Massachusetts. A mass balance indicates that the basin retains about 50% of gross N inputs, mostly in terrestrial components of the landscape, and the loss and retention of total nitrogen (TN) in the aquatic environment was about 9% of stream loading. Uptake lengths of PO4 and NH4 were measurable in headwater streams, but NO3 uptake was below detection (minimum detection limit = 0.05 μM). Retention or loss of NO3 was observed in a main stem reach bordered by wetland habitat. Nitrate removal in urban headwater tributaries was because of water withdrawals and denitrification during hypoxic events and in ponded wetlands with long water residence times. A mass balance using an entire river network indicates that basin‐wide losses due to aquatic denitrification are considerably lower than estimates from several recent studies and range from 4 to 16% of TDN in stream loading. Withdrawals for domestic use restrict the runoff of headwater catchments from reaching the main stem during low base flow periods, thereby contributing to the spatial and temporal regulation of N export from headwater tributaries.


The ocular retardation (or) mutation in mice has been studied morphologically in serial 1 mu sections. This recessively inherited, fully penetrant mutation is characterized by an early arrest of retinal development, aplasia of the optic nerve, cataractous degeneration of the lens, and microphthalmia. We describe early alterations of normally occurring morphogenetic cell death in the optic cup and aberrations of optic fissure formation which appear to precede the arrest of retinal and optic nerve development. The subsequent disappearance of central retinal vessels and cataract formation are interpreted as secondary phenomena.


Sars-CoV-2 is spread through contact between people and an understanding of where people are in contact with each other is necessary to prevent its spread. In this paper, the residential building density of Bulawayo was considered a proxy for high density of people. OpenStreetMap (OSM) building data was downloaded and converted from polygon to point data for use in the analysis. World View 2 data was used to visually map those areas where data was missing in OSM. More automated methods were attempted using eCognition however the short turnaround time of the project limited the success of this approach and work in this regard in ongoing. Land use attribute data was joined to the building shape file in order to select only those building which were designated as residential in nature. The residential building density was calculated per hectare and a hot spot analysis of the residential building density determined statistically significant clusters of high density residential buildings. The high density areas are mostly located in the west of the City, where new settlements are being created to accommodate new arrivals to the city. The East is typified by low density housing, largely a legacy of the City's colonial past. A series of maps which could be printed on A3 paper were produced for the City. The maps displayed both the results of the hot spot analysis and land use and these have been made available to City officials to help in planning their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.


In connexion with the experimental work of Lonsdale & Smith on the diffuse scattering of X-rays by single crystals of sodium, the results obtained in previous publications have been completed by a detailed calculation of the surfaces of isodiffusion for the (002), (112), (222) and (110) reflexions of sodium single crystals. The surfaces are plotted in stereographic projection, and it is shown in a forthcoming publication of Lonsdale & Smith that these theoretical predictions are in excellent agreement with experiment. The Faxen-Waller theory of the diffuse scattering process has thus received decisive experimental confirmation.


This study investigated local epicardial electrical organization during ventricular fibrillation (VF), and its relationship with defibrillation outcome. Unipolar electrograms (5 seconds duration) prior to defibrillation shock were recorded from 112 epicardial sites during 168 defibrillation attempts on nine canine subjects. Magnitude-squared coherence (MSC) spectrums were used to calculate normalized coherence values for each of the sites with respect to a reference site chosen ad hoc. The average coherence value at distances 3.5 mm and 26.67 mm from the reference site were found to be 0.69/spl plusmn/0.11 and 0.30/spl plusmn/0.05 respectively (p<0.01). None of the several local coherence parameters were found to be associated with defibrillation outcome. These preliminary results suggest that the state of local myocardial organization, as quantified by MSC values with respect to a single reference electrode, may not be related to defibrillation outcome.


The frequency of various anomalies was compared in probands with Fanconi anaemia and their affected sibs. As probands are usually ascertained because of a 'characteristic' array of physical anomalies, the frequencies of these specific anomalies may be overestimated in probands, whereas their affected sibs may provide a more accurate estimate. The frequencies of growth retardation, skin hyperpigmentation, radial ray deformities, radial ray reduction deformities, hypogenitalia, and supernumerary thumbs were significantly lower in the affected sibs of probands than in probands. Since 25% of the affected sibs had no dysmorphic features, absence of dysmorphism is not sufficient to rule out the diagnosis.


Despite the encouraging developments of the past two years, Myanmar faces an uncertain future fraught with very difficult political, economic and challenges. This paper examines where Myanmar has been, where it is, and what kinds of changes are needed to create conditions for unity, peace and inclusive and sustainable development. While the analysis in this paper is cautionary and often negative, its purpose is to solve problems, not complain. Creating a coalition for nation building will be easier if the poor current situation is better understood. Achieving the desired goals will not be easy and will likely take longer than many understand or imagine. Avoiding narrow coalitions that would continue current extractive policies is necessary to move forward. However, a feasible path exists and many current government policies are meant to put the nation on that path.This paper aims to contribute to those efforts and build on the progress already made.


Rooting and acclimatization phases of Galanthus ikariae micropropagation were studied using bulblets produced in vitro from bulb-scales. For rooting, bulblets were cultured on full, 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 strength modified Murashige and Skoog (MMS) media which contained different concentrations of sucrose (30, 60 g·L -1 ), activated charcoal (AC) (0.2, 0.5 and 1.0%) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (0, 0.01, 0.1 and 0.5 mg·L -1 ). Cultures were incubated in a growth chamber at 23°C, 16 / 8 hour photoperiod for 16 week. The results indicated that NAA concentration is important factor for root formation. The effects of other factors such as medium strength, AC and sucrose concentrations on rooting were not found statistically signifficant. Compared to other dosages of NAA, the highest rate of rooting was obtained from culture media containing 0.5 mg·L -1 NAA. For the transplantation stages of experiments, rooted bulblets in 1/8 MMS medium which contained 0.5% AC, 0.5 mg·L -1 NAA and 60 g·L -1 sucrose concentration and 1/2 MMS medium which contained 0.5% AC, 0.5 mg·L -1 NAA and 30 g·L -1 sucrose concentration were transferred either directly to the sterile soil mixture or incubated for 8 weeks at 4°C or incubated for 4 weeks in MMS medium contained 2% sucrose and different concentrations of gibberellic acid (GA3) (10 or 50 mg·L -1 ) and then to soil. Although the differences between the proportions obtained from treatments were statistically unsignificant, the highest rate of survival was determined as 28 % in bulblets which were rooted in 1/2 MMS medium containing 30 g·L -1 sucrose, 0.5 % AC and 0.5 mg·L -1 NAA and then transferred directly to the soil.


OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to examine clinical efficacy, safety, and intermediate clinical outcomes with everolimus-eluting stents (EESs) in patients with transplant coronary artery disease (TCAD).

BACKGROUND
TCAD is a major cause of mortality in patients following orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT). Systemic everolimus in OHT patients has been shown to reduce TCAD. The safety and efficacy of an EES, the Xience V, have not been evaluated in this population.

METHODS
Patients post-OHT with hemodynamically significant CAD who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with EES were included. Participants were maintained on dual antiplatelet therapy for 1-year post-PCI. We examined procedural success, in-hospital and 1-year mortality, stent thrombosis, angiographic restenosis, and myocardial infarction rates. All patients had follow-up angiography 1-year after PCI. Target vessel revascularization (TVR), target lesion revascularization (TLR), in-segment restenosis, target vessel failure (TVF), and lumen late loss were noted.

RESULTS
PCI was performed in 34 de novo lesions in 21 patients, and 40 EES were placed. Procedural success rate was 100%. Average stent was 16.5 ± 5.1 mm long and 3.0 ± 0.6 mm in diameter. All patients had angiographic follow-up (409 ± 201 days). There was no stent thrombosis, deaths, or myocardial infarctions during follow-up. Two patients had focal in-stent restenosis. TLR rate was 5.9% (2/34), and TVR rate was 11.1% (3/27). Quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) showed stenosis diameter to be 19.98 ± 17.57%.

CONCLUSIONS
Use of an EES is associated with a low incidence of TVR and TLR in patients with TCAD. Further studies are needed to determine whether PCI with EES changes long-term outcomes.


SPC24 is a crucial component of the mitotic checkpoint machinery in tumorigenesis. High levels of SPC24 have been found in various cancers, including breast cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, osteosarcoma and thyroid cancer. However, to the best of our knowledge, the impact of SPC24 on prostate cancer (PCa) and other prostate diseases remains unclear. In the present study expression of global SPC24 messenger RNA (mRNA) was assessed in a subset of patients with PCa included in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Increased levels of SPC24 expression were found in PCa patients >60 years old compared to patients <60 and increased SPC24 expression was also associated with higher levels of prostate specific antigen (P<0.05) and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). Higher levels of SPC24 expression were associated with negative outcomes in PCa patients (P<0.05). Furthermore, in Chinese patients with prostatitis, benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and PCa, SPC24 was expressed at significantly higher levels than that in adjacent/normal tissues, as assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry and western blotting. High expression of SPC24 was associated with high Gleason stages (IV and V; P<0.05). Further analysis, based on Gene Ontology and pathway functional enrichment analysis, suggested that nuclear division cycle 80 (NDC80), an SPC24 protein interaction partner, and mitotic spindle checkpoint serine/threonine-protein kinase BUB1 (BUB1), a core subunit of the spindle assembly checkpoint, may be associated with SPC24 in PCa development. Finally, using binary logistic regression, algorithms combining the receiver operating characteristic between SPC24 and BUB1 or NDC80 indicated that a combination of these markers may provide better PCa diagnosis ability than other PCa diagnosis markers. Taken together, these findings suggest that SPC24 may be a promising prostate disease biomarker.


In the face of political rhetoric about Russia being outside of Europe both in the West and in Russia itself, it is all the more necessary to remember that European and Russian culture grew out of the same source: Christianity. Therefore, inter-confessional dialogue between Russian Orthodoxy and the Roman Catholic Church is particularly relevant today. In this context, scholars have focused attention on the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, who has been described as a forerunner of the ecumenical movement. This article enriches accounts of his thought by shining a spotlight on the context of spiritual and moral thought in Russia in his day. The article also shows how Russian emperors of the nineteenth century (in particular Alexander III) promoted the idea of a rapprochement with the Holy See. The author argues that these mutual initiatives of the Holy See and the Russian government were the political foundation for Solovyov's theocratic project. The mid-nineteenth century was remarkable both for the flowering of Russian culture and the strengthening of Russian statehood, which together promoted the formation and articulation of key ideas in Russian intellectual history. The author shows that Russia's mission to restore Christian unity was central to nineteenth-century Russian thought.


Dendritic cells (DCs) are key regulators of protective immune responses and tolerance to (self-)Ags. Therefore, the scientific rationale for the use of tolerogenic DC therapy in the fields of allergies, autoimmunity, and transplantation medicine is strong. In this study, we analyzed the tolerogenic capacity of IL-10–modulated DC (IL-10DC) subpopulations to identify a DC subset that combines potent immunosuppressive activities with valuable immune properties for clinical implementation. IL-10DCs consist of two phenotypically distinct subpopulations: CD83highCCR7+ IL-10DCs and CD83lowCCR7− IL-10DCs. Suppressor assays with activated effector T cells revealed that CD4+ regulatory T cells generated by CD83high IL-10DCs (iTreg+) exhibited a significantly higher suppressive capacity compared with CD4+ regulatory T cells generated by CD83low IL-10DCs (iTreg−). In this context, iTreg+ displayed a more activated phenotype (proliferation, cytokine production) compared with iTreg−. In contrast to CD83low IL-10DCs, CD83high IL-10DCs exerted a strong migratory capacity toward the secondary lymphoid organ chemokine CCL21 and retained a functionally stable phenotype under inflammatory conditions. In addition, CD83high IL-10DCs expressed significantly higher levels of surface and soluble CD25. Functional analysis demonstrated that IL-10DC–related soluble CD25 efficiently inhibited the proliferation of activated T cells and that blockade of CD25 function abolished the induction of regulatory T cells by IL-10DCs, indicating a critical role for IL-10DC–related CD25 in shifting the immune response toward an iTreg− controlled tolerance reaction. In conclusion, the selective use of the CD83high IL-10DC subset may result in a higher efficacy of tolerance induction in vivo and may support the development of novel DC vaccination strategies for transplantations, as well as for allergic and autoimmune diseases.


Introduction: Ketamine has been tested to the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder [1]. In Swiss mice, an organism frequently used in antidepressant basic research, different doses and treatment schedules produced controversial results in the forced swim test (FST). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the antidepressant effect of ketamine in the FST in Swiss mice performing a systematic review and meta-analysis. Material and Methods: The PRISMA's 2009 workflow diagram was used to perform the present analysis. Relevant studies, collected by searching in PubMed database up to August, 2017 (keywords: "mice" and "forced swim test" and "ketamine"), were included accordingly to the following criteria: Swiss mice tested in the FST after treatment with any dose or treatment schedule with ketamine. Exclusions occurred following the criteria "no Swiss mice" or "no adults" or "females" or "reviews". Titles and abstracts were screened in a first round and when needed a second round on the full text was performed by one person. Data on drug and vehicle treatment, mice, experimental design and immobility time were extracted to meta-analysis. The quality of studies was assessed using SYRCLE's risk bias tool. Results: Eight out of 83 relevant studies obtained through systematic review were included in the meta-analysis. Additional two studies were excluded because they presented chronic treatment schedule, a post hoc criterion. The antidepressant effect of ketamine ranged from less than 5% to 94% according to the doses. The standard mean difference (SMD) with random effect was -2.66[-3.93;-1.39], 95% CI, for all studies. But the heterogeneity in this studies was high (i2=100%). The effect size (Z) was 4.10 with p<0.0001. Discussion and Conclusion: Ketamine appears to reduce immobility time in the FST compared to the control group, an index of antidepressant effect, in Swiss male mice. Only one study favored the control treatment (ket 100mg, 0.78[0.62;0.95]). This systematic review provided reference to future preclinical studies. Acknowlegments Capes, CNPq.


In this article, we prove a new bound for the least prime ideal in the Chebotarev density theorem, which improves the main theorem of Zaman [Funct. Approx. Comment. Math. 57 (2017), no.1, 115-142] by a factor of $5/2$. Our main improvement comes from a new version of Turan's power sum method. The key new idea is to use Harnack's inequality for harmonic functions to derive a superior lower bound for the generalised Fejer kernel.


Background Osteoarticular tuberculosis (OAT) is still common in Mediterranean countries such as Tunisia.The incidence of OAT is increasing, mainly related to expanding immunosuppressive factors and comorbidities. Objectives This study aimed to analyze the prognostic factors and therapeutic outcomes of OAT. Methods Over a period of 20 years [1996- 2016], patients with the diagnosis of OAT were retrospectively identified. Clinical, laboratory and radiology features in these patients were analyzed to identify the prognostic factors. Results Sixty patients (29 men) fulfilled the diagnostic criteria, admitted to the Rheumatology Service with an average of 54 years (range: 16 to 86).We did not find any significant association between prognosis and an advanced age (>60years) at the time of diagnosis, a long diagnostic delay or initial neurologic involvement.However, we found that cervical localization in tuberculous spondylodiscitis, classified as an only infection site or in multi-level vertebral damage, was significantly associated to a poor prognosis.Our study revealed that hyperleucocytosis higher than 11500 elements/mm3 at the initial blood count constituted the only biological bad prognostic factor during OAT. Based on radiological findings, the presence of abscess or vertebral compression fractures on bone imaging (MRI)and the presence of vertebral deformity (kyphosis or kyphoscoliosis) were strongly linked to a bad outcome.The following table (Table1) summarizes the poor prognostic factors during OAT.Table 1. The poor prognostic factors during OAT PROGNOSTIC FACTOR p Odds Ratio White blood cell counts >11500 elements/mm3 0,041 22 Presence of abscess on MRI 0,024 13 Presence of vertebral compression fractures 0,018 Indefinite Vertebral deformity <0,001 Indefinite Cervical localization 0,033 15 Age>60years 0,078 – Long diagnostic delay 0,062 – Initial neurologic damage 0,053 – Conclusions This study revealed that cervical localization in tuberculous spondylodiscitis, initial hyperleucocytosis, and the presence of abscess on MRI as well as vertebral compression fractures and vertebral deformity are associated with a bad outcome in OAT. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is prescribed as a treatment to restore motor function in individuals with neurological impairments. However, the rapid onset of FES-induced muscle fatigue significantly limits its duration of use and limb movement quality. In this paper, an electric motor-assist is proposed to alleviate the fatigue effects by sharing work load with FES. A model predictive control (MPC) method is used to allocate control inputs to FES and the electric motor. To reduce the computational load, the dynamics is feedback linearized so that the nominal model inside the MPC method becomes linear. The state variables: the angular position and the muscle fatigue are still preserved in the transformed state space to keep the optimization meaningful. Because after feedback linearization the original linear input constraints may become nonlinear and state-dependent, a barrier cost function is used to overcome this issue. The simulation results show a satisfactory control performance and a reduction in the computation due to the linearization.


Case report
Lord of the rings: Tuberculoma in a cured carcinoma Larynx patient
Dr.Lokesh.S1, Dr.ArunKumar.R2
Abstract:
A middle aged chronic smoker for more than 2 decades, who was recently diagnosed and treated for carcinoma larynx presented with fever of unknown origin with progressive decline in his sensorium. On clinical and laboratory evaluation he had multiple ring enhancing lesions in Brain and military tuberculosis on chest X ray. He was subsequently treated with Anti Tubercular Therapy (ATT) and he showed significant improvement.
Key words: Anti Tubercular Therapy, Miliary Tuberculosis, Carcinoma Larynx.


Background/Significance The deregulation of molecular checkpoints in the cell cycle is associated with a number of cancers. Cyclin E, controlling the transition from G1 to S phase, is overexpressed in many tumors and thus a target of future cancer therapy. Because molecular determinants of radiation sensitivity are differentially regulated via cell cycle phase, cyclin E activity may be an important determinant of radiation sensitivity. Since deregulation of cyclin E is reported to induce chromosome instability, cyclin E overexpression may increase radiosensitivity by interfering with DNA repair mechanisms. Methods A glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) line was transduced with a recombinant adenovirus containing the human cyclin E cDNA. Cyclin E upregulation was confirmed with Western Blot analysis. Cells lines underwent standard clonogenic radiobiologic assays after Cs-137 irradiation. To quantify radiation-induced double-stranded DNA breaks, agarose-embedded cells were irradiated with a 90 Gy dose and subsequently subjected to pulsed field gel electrophoresis after one hour. To investigate cell kinetics as a modulator of radiation toxicity, parallel flasks cultured in identical conditions underwent FACS analysis. Results GBM cells were significantly affected by cyclin E overexpression for all parameters measured. FACS analysis demonstrated an almost two-fold increase in cells in G2 or M phase versus G0 or G1 phase in the cyclin E-positive population, compared to control populations. Additionally, cyclin E-transduced GBM cells had higher rates of radiation-induced cell kill at doses over 10 Gy and showed a 60% increase in DNA double-strand breaks compared to control cells, one hour after radiation with a 90 Gy dose. Conclusions In this study, we show that cyclin E transduction, resulting in cyclin E overexpression, sensitizes GBM cells to ionizing radiation. High levels of cyclin E push cells through S phase and result in a greater percentage of cells in G1 or M. The chromosomally unstable cells exposed to ionizing radiation at later cell cycle phases continue to divide, thus abrogating cell cycle checkpoint control and altering clonogenicity. The data suggest that cyclin E overexpression interferes with DNA double-strand break repair mechanisms regulating clonogenic radiation survival. Similarly, the data support the hypothesis that cyclin E overexpression alters the radiation sensitivity phenotype by both DNA repair and checkpoint control mechanisms.


The notion that humans commonly commit a "fundamental attribution error" by overattributing causality to persons rather than situations rests on a particular model of the attribution process. That model is a scientific analysis of causality. Using insights from legal reasoning, the present article contrasts the scientific model, "intuitive psychologizing," with an alternative view of attributions as sanctioning decisions, or "intuitive lawyering." It is suggested that sanctioning attributions rest on a different rational decision rule that tests whether the actor could have done otherwise. Kelley's model of the attribution process appears to be fundamentally a scientific analysis, whereas Jones and Davis's model appears to be fundamentally a sanctioning analysis. The supposed error of overattributing to persons is in fact an error only within the first type of model and may be perfectly rational within the second. Given that we are not always sure how experimental subjects interpret the situation or the questions they answer, further exploration of human use of "intuitive lawyering" as well as "intuitive psychologizing" is an important issue for future attribution research.


SUMMARY. A 10-page questionnaire on biosecurity practices was mailed to 187 growers on the Delmarva Peninsula in October 2000. The growers were selected by three broiler integrators on the basis of flock performance and were classified as cases (bottom 10% performers) and controls (top 10% performers). After two mailings, 71 growers (38%) responded to the survey, of which 47 (66.2%) represented good performers and 24 (33.8%) represented poor performers. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses revealed that increased frequency of sanitizing water lines was statistically significantly associated with good flock performance (P = 0.0449). The presence of wild birds inside poultry houses during grow-out showed a slightly statistically significant association with poor flock performance (P = 0.0633).


Silver nanomaterials are increasingly being used as antimicrobial agents in medical devices, yet their effects on immunocompetence are unclear. This study investigated modulation of immune cell profiles and cell activation by exposure to silver nanoparticles (AgNP). Mice were injected iv (each day for 2 d) with 66 or 300 µg of either 20 or 110 nm AgNP (or sodium citrate) and sacrificed 1 d later. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that injection of 66 µg of 20 nm AgNP increased Th2 cells and decreased effector memory cells, while exposure to the same dose of larger-sized AgNP had no effect on numbers of CD3+,CD4+, Th1, Th2, Th17 cells, CD4/CD8 ratio, or total memory/naïve/central memory/effector memory cells compared to controls. At 300 µg, 20 nm AgNP significantly decreased the number of naïve CD4+ cells and CD3+CD4- cells (i.e., cytotoxic T cells), while increasing central memory cells, activated central memory cells, effector memory cells, activated effector memory cells, total memory cells, and natural killer cells. A somewhat different cell profile was observed following exposure to the same dose of 110 nm AgNP including an increase in activated CD11c+ cells (macrophages). Taken together, these data indicate that systemic AgNP exposure can modulate the immune system in a dose-dependent manner, with smaller size particles leading to more drastic effects. Overall, these studies have policy implications and demonstrate the need for protecting already vulnerable individuals.


As more complex and functionally diverse requirements are placed on high consequence embedded applications, ensuring safe and secure operation requires an ultra-reliable execution environment. The selection of an embedded processor and its development environment has the most far-reaching effects on the production of the system than any other element in the design. This choice ripples through the remainder of the hardware design and profoundly affects the entire software development process. Experience indicates an object oriented (OO) methodology provides a superior development environment. However, embedded programming languages do not directly support OO techniques. Furthermore, the processors themselves do not support nor enforce an OO environment. This paper describes a system level architecture for an object aware processor targeted at high consequence embedded applications.


In this thesis I present a detailed study of the optical to X-ray spectral properties of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We propose a new broadband SED model which combines the standard accretion disc emission, low and high temperature Comptonisation components by introducing a corona radius. Applying the new models to broadband spectral data, we found that RX J0136.9-3510 and RE J0134+396 have similar {\it rms} spectra and broadband SEDs, representing a distinct spectral state which can only be attained by super Eddington flows.

A detailed optical and X-ray spectral analysis is then carried out for a big sample of 51 unobscured nearby type 1 AGNs. We find that NLS1s tend to have softer 2-10 keV spectra, lower black hole mass, higher Eddington ratio, higher $\alpha_{ox}$ index and smaller coronal radius. The edge of Balmer continuum is shifted redwards and smoothed by more than predicted by the FWHM of the Balmer emission lines. A new method called `Correlation Spectra Technique (CST)' is proposed, which is powerful for multi-waveband spectral analysis. We find that among the three Balmer line components, the broad component has the best correlation with hard X-ray emission. Optical oxygen forbidden lines all well correlate with the hard X-ray emission.

We conducted a systematic cross-correlation among the 9 key SED parameters: $\Gamma_{2-10keV}$, $\kappa_{2-10keV}$, $\kappa_{5100A}$, $\lambda_{Edd}$, FWHM$_{H\beta}$, M$_{BH}$, $\alpha_{ox}$, L$_{bol}$ and L$_{2-10keV}$, and found the driven parameters to be M$_{BH}$, $\lambda_{Edd}$ and L$_{bol}$ (or equivalently $\dot{M}$). AGN's intrinsic SEDs exhibit strong diversity and changes similarly with $\lambda_{Edd}$, $\kappa_{2-10keV}$, $\kappa_{5100}$, $\Gamma_{2-10keV}$, FWHM$_{H\beta}$ and M$_{BH}$. However, the SED shape is not sensitive to L$_{bol}$.


This paper compares experimental results (differences of potential), obtained with a 16-electrode electrical resistance tomography (ERT) device using the adjacent-electrode pair measurement strategy, with finite-element method (FEM) simulations in two and three dimensions. In the first part of the paper, ERT measurements made on a homogeneous medium are compared with two- and three-dimensional FEM simulations. It is shown that the dependence of the electrical field on the axial coordinate cannot be neglected. Consequently, only the three-dimensional FEM simulations are able to fit the experimental results. In the second part of the paper, ERT measurements on static physical phantoms immersed in water evidence that ERT is significantly more sensitive to non-symmetrical distributions than to symmetrical ones. This observation is confirmed by three-dimensional FEM simulations performed on numerical phantoms that mimic the physical ones. In the last part of the paper, an attempt to use three-dimensional simulations to determine the characteristics (diameter and gas content) of a gas core created by injecting a gas flow from a single-orifice gas sparger leads to promising results.


The stem canker caused by Diaporthe helianthi is one of the most serious diseases of sunflower in Europe, where the pathogen induces economical losses in several countries. The incidence levels of that disease are quite different in relation to the geographic origin of fungal populations: a severe epidemiology is reported in former Yugoslavia and in France, whereas in Italy it is recorded only sporadically although climatic conditions are favourable for infection. Therefore the genetic variability of D. helianthi isolates from different geographic origins (France, ex-Yugoslavia, Italy, Argentina and Romania) was investigated by several research groups, in order to disclose different genetic biotypes. The detection of plasmids in most isolates allowed the analysis of their distribution and intraspecific variability in the whole fungal collection. Their presence was limited to all French and Yugoslavian isolates and only to one Italian. They were identified as linear plasmids sized about 2.3 Kb. More detailed analysis was then performed on one plasmid (plasmid F) purified from a French isolate. Its intracellular location was proved to be mitochondrial. Plasmid F was then used as a probe in Southern hybridisation experiments on total DNAs derived from all D. helianthi isolates and it revealed a specificity towards all plasmids hosted by French and Yugoslavian isolates while no recognition was evident in Italian isolates, suggesting a molecular divergence of the Italian plasmid previously detected. An RFLP hybridisation analysis performed on genomic DNAs revealed a homogeneous restriction pattern in all French and Yugoslavian isolates, strongly supporting the hypothesis of a molecular relationship among plasmids present in those isolates. In conclusion plasmids harboured by French and Yugoslavian D. helianthi populations can be exploited as markers for isolates from those geographic regions where the disease is more dangerous. No information is yet available about the role of these plasmids upon pathogen virulence; anyway their presence should be investigated to choose isolates for selection of resistant sunflower varieties.


In this thesis several simulations have been carried out aimed at improving the knowledge of vehicle aerodynamics and improving the flow around vehicles with respect to the
aerodynamic drag. Five flows around different simplified vehicle models have been considered in five appended publications. One tractor-trailer model, two passenger car
models, one freight wagon model and one regional train model. In the simulations of the flow around the tractor-trailer model, the focus is on the flow in the gap between the tractor and the trailer and how this flow affects the global drag of the model. Large Eddy Simulation is used to simulate the flow around four variants of the model with different geometrical configurations. The behavior of the drag coefficient of the tractor-trailer model when varying the gap width and the shape of the front edges on the tractor is explained by identifying and analysing the large vortices around and in the the gap. The focus in the study on one of the passenger vehicle models is on the so-called A-pillar vortex. This is a swirling longitudinal vortex formed along the side windows on passenger vehicles due to the separation of the flow from the side edges of the front window and the engine hood. Flow control, both steady blowing and suction, from actuators located on
the side of the front of the model, is applied in the LES simulations. Steady blowing into the vortex causes expedited breakdown of the vortex, which in turn influence the pressure distribution on the side windows and the overall drag of the model. Steady suction prevents the formation of the vortex, thereby removing the vortex entirely. Simulations aimed at improving the knowledge of the flow around a generic freight wagon model using LES is also reported. The model is smoothed in comparison to a real container wagon, but the overall geometrical features such as wheels and underhood are included. The simulations of the flow around the regional train model is done using Partially Averaged Navier Stokes (PANS). PANS is a recently proposed hybrid turbulence model for engineering types of flow. The regional train model consists of a bluff body with a length to height/width ration of 7:1. The flow around this model poses several challenging flow situations to simulate such as separation from the leading curved front edges, an attached boundary layer flow and separation from the curved rear edges at the moderate Reynolds number of 400 000 based on the models' width. An open cavity is placed on the model at the base and the drag is thereby decreased by some 10%. The second passenger vehicle model that has been investigated is a square back Ahmed body. This flow is simulated using LES, and the temporally and spatially resolved flow field is used as input
to a Reduced-Order Model (ROM). The ROM is constructed by a decomposition of the flow field into spatially stationary modes with corresponding time-varying amplitudes,
using the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD). The introduction of the POD into the governing equations reduces these equations to a linear-quadratic dynamical system with known coefficient. This system is then truncated, so that the remaining system contains a low number of modes. It is investigated how to best model the influence of the truncated high-frequency modes on the remaining system.


A mixture of 150 mg mebendazole and 30mg pyrantel pamoate was given on 3 consecutive or near-consecutive days to 70 children infected with one or more of Necator americanus, Ascaris lumbricoides, Strongyloides stercoralis, S. fuelleborni-like and Trichuris trichiura. This treatment had an efficacy of 95 per cent for N. americanus infections, 100 per cent for A. lumbricoides, 57 per cent for Strongyloides spp., and 75 per cent for T. trichiura. The results indicate that the treatment given is effective against the infections of N. americanus and A. lumbricoides but is only partially effective for Strongyloides and T. trichiura infections.


Ionospheric variability resulting from earthquake events is a known
phenomenon as revealed by various seismo-ionospheric coupling studies.
Variations resulting from seismo-ionospheric couplings are known to be much
weaker, and noted to occur only locally in an area that is specified by the
magnitude of the earthquake. Whereas disturbances generated by other sources
like geomagnetic storms, exhibit a more global behaviour. For this study,
GPS-TEC data of 31 days (15 days before and 15 days after the occurrence of
June 12, 2011 earthquakes) were examined. There were 14 earthquakes within 6 hours
of that day that triggered the eruption that occurred on the 19th and 20th.
This eruption produced the highest level of sulfur dioxide emissions in the
earth's atmosphere that was ever detected from space. Any correlation between the identified TEC anomalies and the earthquakes
were examined. The results showed an anomaly which started two days before the
earthquakes. There was a consistent decrease in the GPS-TEC two days before the
earthquake. The day of the earthquake also witnessed the most anomalous decrease
during the days understudy. The 19th day of June 2011 eruptions however
reflected in the ionosphere through the decrease in electron concentrations.


Plant growth promoting is a multitask phenomenon. The bacteria achieve this by suppressing plant pathogens, production of plant-growth regulators, fixing atmospheric nitrogen, and solubilizing phosphate and micronutrients. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the facultative oligotrophic bacteria isolates as biocontrol and plant growth promoting agents. The test isolates (FNS1 and FNS2) possessed Plant Growth Promoting  Rhizobacteria (PGPR) (abilities  including  Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) production, Salicylic acid (SA) production, zinc and phosphate solubilization, N2-fixation, cellulase and chitinase production) and potency against pathogenic fungi causing damping-off disease (Pythium ultimum and Rhizoctonia solani). Isolates were tested against high temperature, pH and salt tolerant characters which prevail in this region. Molecular identification by 16s rDNA and nucleotide sequencing was made for the test isolates. Snap bean (Phasolius vulgaris L. cv, Xera) plants were inoculated with bacterial isolates (FNS1 and FNS2) in presence of 1/3 Nitrogen (N)-recommended dose. Inoculated plants increased significantly in N-content and plants dry weight. The antagonizer strains together enhanced the level of defense principles like Peroxidase (PO), Polyphenol Oxidase (PPO) and Total phenol content of plants. Damping-off disease suppression was expressed as there was increase in the percentage of survived plants which were inoculated when compared with uninoculated plants. These results indicate that Bacillus thioparans and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia have growth promoting potential and can be tested at field level for investment as bioinoculant.


Operational psychology continues to expand at a rapid rate. Over the course of the last decade, it has emerged from relative obscurity and developed into an exciting, and somewhat controversial, professional subdiscipline within psychology. As the community of operational psychologists has increased and matured, it has reached a tipping point, creating the need for practice guidelines, training programs, and a greater emphasis on operationally relevant empirical research. The starting point for these developments is an integrative definition of operational psychology. In this article, we revisit previous definitions, relevant research literature, and recent developments in this specialty. We propose a definition that emphasizes consultation to an operational decision maker concerning issues of national security and defense.


Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted pediatric residency programs to adjust the delivery of educational curricula and to update content relevant to the pandemic. Objective: In this descriptive paper, we present how we rapidly developed and implemented a COVID-19 pandemic elective for pediatric residents. Methods: This curriculum was established at a single tertiary care children's hospital in June 2020. We used the ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation) framework to develop a two-week elective (30 hours) consisting of six flexibly scheduled modules. We administered post-elective surveys and exit interviews to solicit feedback to improve the elective and obtain effectiveness of our educational interventions. Results: We developed an asynchronous online COVID-19 Elective for Pediatric Residents. The curriculum modules focus on pathophysiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the disaster management ecosystem, simulation of clinical care, mental health ramifications, and public health consequences. We also include six in-situ experiences (visits to a drive-through COVID-19 testing site, testing laboratory and local public health department, a simulation of a critically ill child, and meetings with emergency managers and social workers) to solidify learning and allow for further reflection. To date, eight participants have taken the elective. All participants strongly agreed on a five-point Likert item survey that the elective enhanced their knowledge in current evidence-based literature for COVID-19, disaster preparedness, hospital response, management of the critically ill child, and mental and public health ramifications. All participants agreed this curriculum was relevant to and will change their practice. Conclusions: We demonstrate how a COVID-19 elective for pediatric residents could be quickly developed and implemented. The pilot results show that pediatric trainees value asynchronous learning, supplemented by relevant in-situ experiences. Moreover, these results suggest that this curriculum provides needed disaster response and resiliency education for pediatric residents.


An off-line analyzing system is developed to investigate the mechanical adaptability properties of tri-axis differential-drive in-pipe robot. It can real-time obtain the reference velocity without trackslip and the practical velocity for the driving wheels, load carrying properties for the in-pipe robot, as well as the current and voltage of the driving motor. The mechanical adaptability property indexes, such as the driving efficiency, adaptive precision and differential velocity property, are proposed and determined in experiments for the in-pipe robot. It is indicated that the tri-axis differential-drive is provided with the high driving efficiency and differential velocity precision, verifying its remarkable adaptability to various in-pipe configuration.


Music media contains high levels of sexual content and children spend a considerable amount of time interacting with it. This poses the question as to whether children internalise and imitate the sexual behaviours displayed by music artists. This study observed the self-presentation of 366 children aged 5–14 years at two Australian primary school discos. Children of all age groups were directly imitating both sexual and non-sexual dress and behaviours seen in contemporary music videos. Approximately one third of children observed presented in a sexualised way, which suggests children more broadly may be adopting sexualised behaviours at an early age. The prevalence and nature of sexualised behaviours by children, and the impact of this on children's socio-sexual development, are matters requiring further investigation.


In the mid-thirteenth century, the Dominican friar Vincent of Beauvais compiled the largest encyclopedia ever during the Middle Ages: the fourfold Speculum maius, whose Latin Speculum historiale became by far its most copied and widespread volume. During the 1320's and early 1330's, Jean de Vignay translated the whole Speculum historiale into French and dedicated the work to the French queen Joan of Burgundy, wife of Philip of Valois. This dissertation consists in a partial critical edition of this French translation, the Miroir historial. Two books have been selected: Book I, which contains Vincent's prologue to the whole encyclopedia, and Book V, featuring one of the longest medieval histories of Alexander the Great. Book I's obvious interest lies in that it is the most detailed account of an encyclopedist's work, providing us with one of the most valuable insights into a compiler's mind and philosophy. Book V is certainly one the most influential histories of the Macedonian emperor, which inspired many late medieval and Renaissance authors, although very few scholars have looked into it and thoroughly examined its structure, contents and sources. This dissertation features two previously unpublished books in addition to giving access to the most extensive extract from the Miroir historial that has ever appeared in print. The edition includes a thorough examination and identification of every source used by the translator but also by Vincent de Beauvais. The investigation shows, among other things, that nearly three quarters of the history of Alexander are in fact an abridged version of the account found in Helinand of Froidmont's Chronicon (Books XVII and XVIII), to which Vincent added additional sources, mainly theological and philosophical. The edition is based on three fourteenth-century manuscripts and includes a detailed analysis of the translator's life and works, a glossary as well as an index of all the proper nouns.


The characteristics of main low nitrogen combustion technologies are to be introduced. By analysis of unit's typical outfire accident after low nitrogen combustion transformation, proposed some targeted solutions to optimize operation of the thermal power unit, such as adjustment of the air distribution, optimization of the oxygen control and reasonable blending combustion etc., can effectively ensure the combustion stability and reduce the concentration of nitrogen oxides emissions, provide a reference for similar units. Keywords-low nitrogen combustion; staging combustion; blending combustion; coal-air ratio; thermal power unit


We focus on adaptive policies for load balancing in clustered web servers, based on the size distribution of the requested documents. The proposed scheduling policy, ADAPTLOAD, adapts its balancing parameters on-the-fly, according to changes in the behavior of the customer population such as fluctuations in the intensity of arrivals or document popularity. Detailed performance comparisons via simulation using traces from the 1998 World Cup show that ADAPTLOAD is robust as it consistently outperforms traditional load balancing policies, especially under conditions of transient overload.


OBJECTIVE
To review the literature related to the benefits and risks of postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

DATA SOURCES
Computerized searches on MEDLINE and CINAHL.

STUDY SELECTION
Articles from indexed journals in the English language related to the topics in this review and published after 1986 (except for earlier classic pieces) were evaluated.

DATA EXTRACTION
Data were extracted and information was organized about HRT under the following headings: indications, risks, contraindications, management of therapy, and evaluation of risks and benefits.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Hormone replacement therapy is used to treat symptoms of estrogen deficiency and to prevent disease. The small risk of breast cancer associated with HRT is outweighed by the beneficial effects of such therapy in preventing cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis.

CONCLUSIONS
Evidence suggests that HRT should be offered to all postmenopausal women in whom it is not contraindicated. Ideally, each woman should decide whether to receive HRT after weighing the risks and benefits. Additional research is needed on the effects of different doses, types of estrogen and progestin, and treatment duration, and on which HRT regimen offers the best risk-benefit profile.


The number of litigants in person (LiPs) has risen exponentially over the last decade. This has coincided with the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules and legislation; the Access to Justice Act 1999, which was introduced to promote just that "access to justice".

The reality however is that through various government initiatives since the first New Labour administration of 1997 which started dismantling aspects of the Welfare State (set up by the post-war reforming Labour government), which has included the introduction of competitive price tendering for Legal Aid contracts and the systematic withdrawal of Legal Aid for areas of civil justice including personal injury, clinical negligence and most recently private family law, a whole raft of the UK citizens have been disenfranchised and fall within what is commonly termed the 'justice gap'. This has given rise to an increased number of LiPs who have been unable to afford legal advice .

The concern within the judiciary is evident and initiatives are beginning to be explored to remedy what is undoubtedly a growing problem for the civil justice system. Due to closure of many charitable advice services and law centres during the past six years or so of austerity, Universities have for instance started to fill the space once occupied by legal advice services which traditionally provided advice and assistance to those most in need at no cost to the end-user.

The CLOCK in Kent Community Legal Companion project is a social justice outreach initiative, which provides LIPs with the opportunity to have access to justice through the assistance of law students at CCCU. The student Companions assist society's more vulnerable to navigate the court system and where required, signpost them to partner provider agencies and free legal advice services.


textabstractDue to the increasing incidence of obesity, more means of treating obesity are necessary. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a potential target tissue via which obesity can be treated due to its unique ability to use energy to produce heat. Not much is known however about the mechanisms via which BAT activity is maintained under physiological circumstances. This thesis describes the influence of two different types of hormones on BAT activity: stress hormones and sex hormone steroids.
The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis hormones adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and glucocorticoids (GCs) both regulate BAT activity in mice. ACTH activates BAT and browning of WAT while GCs very likely counteract this effect. Long term exposure of GCs in mice also inhibit BAT activity, but this can be overruled by cold exposure, underscoring the flexibility of this tissue. Also in humans with Cushings disease we find that brown fat activity seems to be activated again after normalisation of circulating GCs. We thus show that GCs inhibit BAT activity, at least in the long turn
Because women seem to have more brown fat activity than men, we show in this thesis that in both rodents and humans females have a higher potency to induce browning of WAT and have a higher prevalence of active BAT. The female hormone Estrogen is at least partly responsible for higher BAT activity in females.


Ethical beliefs may vary across cultures but there are things that must be valued as preconditions to any cultural practice. Physical and mental abilities vital to believing, valuing and practising a culture are such preconditions and it is always important to protect them. If one is to practise a distinct culture, she must at least have these basic abilities. Access to basic healthcare is one way to ensure that vital abilities are protected. John Rawls argued that access to all-purpose primary goods must be ensured. Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum claim that universal capabilities are what resources are meant to enable. Len Doyal and Ian Gough identify physical health and autonomy as basic needs of every person in every culture. When we disagree on what to prioritize, when resources to satisfy competing demands are scarce, our common needs can provide a point of normative convergence. Need-based rationing, however, has been criticized for being too indeterminate to give guidance for deciding which healthcare services to prioritize and for tending to create a bottomless-pit problem. But there is a difference between needing something (first-order need) and needing to have the ability to need (second-order need). Even if we disagree about which first-order need to prioritize, we must accept the importance of satisfying our second-order need to have the ability to value things. We all have a second-order need for basic healthcare as a means to protect our vital abilities even if we differ in what our cultures consider to be particular first-order needs.


This paper is a comment on Household Debt in the Consumer Age: Source of Growth - Risk of Collapse by Barry Z. Cynamon and Steven M. Fazzari which can be found at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1153180.


Model versioning occupies a central position in model configuration management systems, which are considered integral ingredients in every large model driven engineering project. There are two major approaches in describing versions of models: the state-based approach and the change (operation) based approach. In both cases, the differences between two different versions of a model are called model differences. We focus on the state-based approach to versioning and show that in this case the model differences require a locally unique labeling for all model elements. Next, we specify a generic method for assigning unique labels to all model elements in versioned models. We also show that the described labeling method is also applicable to ambiguous models, i.e. models which contain structurally identical elements having the same parent element. The main application area of the presented method is the process of calculating model differences in case that modeling tools do not assign unique identifiers to all model elements.


The Cordillera Real, northern section of the east Andean range of Bolivia, contains relatively abundant tin and tungsten deposits, genetically related to a number of granitic intrusions which cut a thick series of Paleozoic shales and sandstones. "Several examples of wall- rock control are described. Analysis of the vein pattern suggests that fracturing was the result of regional shearing forces rather than local stresses. Mineralogically the high-temperature ores, tin and tungsten, predominate, but some lead-zinc and antimony ores are indicative of a cooler environment. . . . The deposits are believed to have been formed at intermediate depth with intensities ranging from hypothermal to leptothermal."


Analysis and geometry on complex homogeneous domains, by Jacques Faraut, Soji Kaneyuki, Adam Korahyi, Qi-keng Lu and Guy Roos. Progress in Mathematics 185. Pp. 540. SFrl 18. 2000. ISBN 3 7643 4138 6 (Birkhauser). Complex tori, by Christina Birkenhake and Herbert Lange. Progress in Mathematics 177. Pp. 251. SFr88. 1999. ISBN 3 7643 4103 3 (Birkhauser). The first book attempts to draw together a number of elements in a field that is notoriously difficult for the beginner because of the amount of preliminary knowledge required. The five authors have each written a section and the sections can be read independently. Their aim is to help the advanced graduate student who knows the basics of three fields: differential geometry; the theory of several complex variables; and Lie group theory.


Objectives: Currently, there is no standardized training protocol to teach surgeons how to deal with vascular injuries during laparoscopic procedures. The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a standardized algorithm for managing vascular injury during laparoscopic nephrectomies. Materials and Methods: The performance of 6 surgeons was assessed during 10 laparoscopic nephrectomies in a porcine model. During the first and tenth operations, an injury was made in the renal vein without warning the surgeon. After the first procedure, the surgeons were instructed on how to proceed in dealing with the vascular injury, according to an algorithm developed by the designers of this study. The performance of each surgeon before and after learning the algorithm was assessed. Results: After learning the algorithm there was a decreased blood loss from 327 ± 403.11 ml to 37 ± 18.92 ml (p = 0.031) and decreased operative time from 43 ± 14.53 min to 27 ± 8.27 min (p = 0.015). There was also improvement in the time to start lesion repair from 147 ± 117.65 sec to 51 ± 39.09 sec (p = 0.025). There was a trend toward improvement in the reaction time to the injury (22 ± 21.55 sec vs. 14 ± 6.39, p = 0.188), the time required to control the bleeding (50 ± 94.2 sec vs. 14 ± 6.95 sec, p = 0.141), and the total time required to completely repair of the vascular injury (178 ± 170.4 sec vs. 119 ± 183.87 sec, p = 0.302). Conclusion: A standardized algorithm may help to reduce the potential risks associated with laparoscopic surgery. Further studies will help to refine and determine the benefits of standardized protocols such as that developed in this study for the management of life-threatening laparoscopic complications.


The problem of finding a subset of points in a pattern that best match to a subset of points in another pattern through a transformation in an optimal sense is considered. An exhaustive search to find the best assignment mapping one set of points to another set is, if the number of points that are to be matched is large, computationally expensive. A genetic algorithm that searches for the best ('almost the best') assignment efficiently is described. To map the point pattern matching into the framework of a genetic algorithm, a fitness function that is inversely proportional to the match error and a scheme for encoding an assignment between two sets of points into a string are used, along with a genetic operator known as the mixed-type partial matching crossover. Experimental results have demonstrated the robustness and the fast convergence of the algorithm. The algorithm can be applied to n-dimensional point patterns and any transformation. Results are presented for two-dimensional point patterns and a similarity transformation.<<ETX>>


The increased externalisation of labour in Uganda has come along with increased incidents of human trafficking. Indeed, transnational trafficking—a silent and often invisible activity—is by far the most frequent offence committed; primarily involving female adults trafficked for labour and sexual exploitation. Evidence from the Uganda Police Force shows that notwithstanding the rising incidents of human trafficking, prosecution of this criminal offence remains low. More so, conviction rates are also extremely low mainly due to limited capacity (human and financial resources) to collect sufficient evidence and trace the perpetrators and the unavailability of victims to serve as witnesses. To address the challenge, the brief recommends measures such as scaling-up public sensitisation on and enforcement of the 2009 law on Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, and labour migration guidelines. Also, we advocate for enhancing the capacity of security agencies to handle human trafficking cases better and strengthening service provision to victim and survivors of trafficking


Many digital systems have need for continuous-type output for oscilloscope display, process control, or hybrid computation. This paper presents a generalization and unification of the theory of extrapolation and reconstruction of sampled data. This generalization allows implementation of a recursive algorithm or digital filter in conjunction with the continuous data reconstruction. The general procedure is demonstrated for the implementation of an nth-order recursion relation using polynomial or exponential data reconstruction requiring only a single resetting integrator for the general nth-order reconstructor.


Pancreatic islets produce and secrete cytokines and chemokines in response to inflammatory and metabolic stress. The physiological role of these "isletokines" in health and disease is largely unknown. We observed that islets release multiple inflammatory mediators in patients undergoing islet transplants within hours of infusion. The proinflammatory cytokine interferon-γ–induced protein 10 (IP-10/CXCL10) was among the highest released, and high levels correlated with poor islet transplant outcomes. Transgenic mouse studies confirmed that donor islet–specific expression of IP-10 contributed to islet inflammation and loss of β-cell function in islet grafts. The effects of islet-derived IP-10 could be blocked by treatment of donor islets and recipient mice with anti–IP-10 neutralizing monoclonal antibody. In vitro studies showed induction of the IP-10 gene was mediated by calcineurin-dependent NFAT signaling in pancreatic β-cells in response to oxidative or inflammatory stress. Sustained association of NFAT and p300 histone acetyltransferase with the IP-10 gene required p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activity, which differentially regulated IP-10 expression and subsequent protein release. Overall, these findings elucidate an NFAT-MAPK signaling paradigm for induction of isletokine expression in β-cells and reveal IP-10 as a primary therapeutic target to prevent β-cell–induced inflammatory loss of graft function after islet cell transplantation.


The Second Post Primary Education Project in Burkina Faso, seeks to improve, access, and the quality of education, including teaching improvements, within the framework for institutional strengthening, and capacity building within the Ministry of Education. In addition, construction of schools and facilities are included, and thus this environmental assessment calls for mitigation measures as follows. Project design will take into consideration appropriate sites for construction of schools and facilities in a participatory approach with local populations. While technical assistance will support communities' choices, such as availability of water supply, and environmental and social aspects. Rigorous control planning will be in place to control potential soil erosion, water contamination, and natural habitats. Bidding documents shall include technical specifications to comply by environmental regulations and standards, including spraying construction areas to minimize air contamination; appropriate waste disposal - solid wastes to be transported in covered trucks to selected sites for final disposal - and, effluents control to prevent water sources contamination. Lubricants, chemicals, and oil spills will be appropriately stored, and covered for disposal in accordance with standard regulations. Public awareness campaigns will be conducted to educate communities accordingly to these environmental guidelines. Regular inspections will be conducted during construction, as well as on buildings maintenance - school's solid wastes, on water supply and discharges, etc. Landscaping and re-vegetation (favoring native species) will be conducted following construction in an effort to conserve natural habitats, and control air pollution.


Isolated rabbit luteal cells from day 12 of pseudopregnancy were cultured with a variety of growth factors, hCG and arachidonic acid (AA) in serum-free culture medium for 96 hours. The time course of prostaglandin (PG) E2, PGF2 alpha, and progesterone was determined. TNF-alpha, IL-2, IGF-I, IGF-II, and EGF alone were not able to change significantly the production of either progesterone or PGE2 and PGF2 alpha when compared with the controls. AA as the precursor of PG biosynthesis increased the production of PGE2 and PGF2 alpha significantly (1.2-fold and 2.6-fold, respectively; p < 0.05; p < 0.01). AA together with EGF increased the level of PG more pronounced when compared with AA alone (1.5-fold for PGE2, 5-fold for PGF2 alpha; p < 0.05 and p < 0.005). The progesterone production of the cells remained unchanged during growth factor exposure. We conclude that EGF together with high amounts of AA is able to stimulate the PG biosynthesis in cultured rabbit luteal cells. Since the level of PGF2 alpha increases more pronounced than PGE2, an activation of the PGE2 9-ketoreductase may be possible. Therefore, EGF could be relevant as an additional regression factor controlling the PGE2/PGF2 alpha-ratio in the corpus luteum of rabbits. This mechanism seems to be independent from the progesterone synthesis.


Plasma fuelling and density control are an open issue regarding EU DEMO studies and solutions may be different from present day experiments. The present paper addresses through JINTRAC core transport code simulations the feasibility of different fuelling methods such as gas puff and pellet injection and the influence of neoclassical and anomalous inward pinch in the edge transport barrier in order to achieve and control the target DEMO density. Given the expected high fusion power production, He accumulation in the plasma core is a critical issue, and an estimation of the influence of impurities (He, Ar, and W) on core fuelling and plasma dilution is given together with a discussion on D–T core balance. The DEMO reference scenario investigated in this work is characterized by a peaked density profile, which requires a careful core fuelling. Due to the large pedestal temperature gradient, gas puff may not be a feasible option for core density control, unless assuming a large anomalous inward pinch in the edge transport barrier of more than ~2 m s−1. Pellet injection from the high field side of the torus, on the contrary, may represent a viable solution for core fuelling and D–T ratio control. The effect of pellet mass, speed, and injection geometry is also discussed in the present paper. Regardless, core fuelling efficiency with pellet injection is almost entirely determined by the presence of E  ×  B drift.