An extension of the amplitude method is proposed. An iterative algorithm is developed to build an amplitude equation model that is shown to provide precise quantitative results even far from the linear instability threshold. The method is applied to the study of stationary Rayleigh-Bénard thermoconvective rolls in the nonlinear regime. In particular, the generation of second and third spatial harmonics is analyzed. Comparison with experimental results and direct numerical calculations is also made and a very good agreement is found.


AIM
To evaluate the role of adenovirus-mediated transduction human VEGF isoform 165 via direct myocardial injection in rats with an occluded circumflex coronary artery, and the possible underlying mechanism.

METHODS
Sprague-Dawley rats were induced myocardial infarction (MI) with ligation of the left coronary artery. Rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: 1) the sham group; 2) the MI group; 3) the NS (normal saline) group and 4) the VEGF group. Direct myocardial injection of 0.1 ml rAAV-hVEGF165 (virus titer, 2×1010 v.p./ml) was performed in the border zone of myocardial infarction in the VEGF group at 3 different sites, whereas 0.1 ml of normal saline was injected in the NS group. 4 weeks after treatment, the serum levels of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), angiotensin-II (Ang II), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and endothelin-1 (ET-1) were detected by competitive radioimmunoassay. The level of VEGF, Bax, and Bcl-2 was assessed by IHC.

RESULTS
The whole heart weight, left heart weight, heart mass index and left heart mass index in the VEGF group were higher than those in the MI and NS group. VEGF treatment could also significantly increase cardiac function, and increase microvessel density in the infarcted area. Moreover, VEGF treatment could decrease the serum neurohumoral factors (ANP, Ag II, and TE-1), and inhibit myocardial apoptosis via TNF-α, Bax, and Bcl-2.

CONCLUSION
Adenovirus-mediated VEGF165 gene therapy could significantly improve cardiac function possibly by inducing myocardial collateral vessel development, inhibiting the apoptosis of myocardial cells, and inhibiting ventricular remodeling.


One of the main disadvantages of conventional silicon-on-insulator (SOI) materials is that the buried oxide layer has poor thermal conductivity and so the self-heating effect becomes a problem. In order to mitigate this effect, the single crystalline Si/SiO/sub x/N/sub y//Si substrate structures were successfully formed using Si/SiO/sub x/N/sub y/ direct wafer bonding and the hydrogen induced layer transfer method. Cross-sectional high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and spreading resistance (SPR) reveal that the bonded interface is abrupt and the top Si layer exhibits nearly perfect single crystalline quality.


The role of true e-Government is becoming vital and gaining much attention as modern businesses need adaptive, dynamic and strategic business partnerships in the form of Virtual Organizations and e-Enterprises to survive in the turbulent and global competitive environment. Therefore, managing today's dynamic, collaborative and networked nature of government environment is quite challenging. Real e-Government solution is expected to use, flexible and reusable technology to support valuable citizens and modern business expectations to access necessary government services and information. Here comes the requirement for more efficient ways of integrating their systems together under appropriate e-Government solution. It enables citizens and business organizations to interact with government on nearly all matters, 24/7, without knowing which part of the government is providing the required service. In fact, much research work is being done in e-Business Integration but e-Government Integration is comparatively ignored. As a matter of fact, practical implementation of 'seamless' government across jurisdiction is the most challenging aspect of the future of eGovernment which is the subject of our research. In this research, we first formalize the basis/requirements of such e-Government Integration framework as standard and then analyze all candidate software solutions which could help us in development of better and appropriate integrated solution of e-Government, and finally develop the required e-Government Integration framework that adheres to the requirements. Fulfilling our requirement, major approaches like SOA and EDA, transformation of supporting technologies starting from Electronic Data Interchange to WS's and integration at processes level through XML are primarily examined with the intent to give easy to use, reusable, flexible, scalable and adaptable e-Government Integration solution. Our proposed solution encompasses the most difficult problem of efficiently connecting varied inter eGovernments and intra e-Government activities with citizens and modern business configurations like: Virtual Organizations (VO), e-Enterprises, etc. allowing the governments to respond efficiently


This paper presents the BigEarthNet that is a new large-scale multi-label Sentinel-2 benchmark archive. The BigEarthNet consists of 590, 326 Sentinel-2 image patches, each of which is a section of i) 120 × 120 pixels for 10m bands; ii) 60×60 pixels for 20m bands; and iii) 20×20 pixels for 60m bands. Unlike most of the existing archives, each image patch is annotated by multiple land-cover classes (i.e., multi-labels) that are provided from the CORINE Land Cover database of the year 2018 (CLC 2018). The BigEarthNet is significantly larger than the existing archives in remote sensing (RS) and thus is much more convenient to be used as a training source in the context of deep learning. This paper first addresses the limitations of the existing archives and then describes the properties of the BigEarthNet. Experimental results obtained in the framework of RS image scene classification problems show that a shallow Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture trained on the BigEarthNet provides much higher accuracy compared to a state-of-the-art CNN model pre-trained on the ImageNet (which is a very popular large-scale benchmark archive in computer vision). The BigEarthNet opens up promising directions to advance operational RS applications and research in massive Sentinel-2 image archives.


Background The Sustainable Development Goals specifically target a reduction in neonatal mortality rates. However, the highest neonatal mortality rates occur in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia. Although several factors contributing to these high rates have been explored, there continues to be a general dearth of studies and inconsistencies of factors to understand the problem. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the prevalence and factors associated with neonatal mortality in Ethiopia. Methods A panel study was conducted among 2,855 pregnant or recently postpartum women selected using the multistage cluster sampling technique from October 2019 to September 2020. Data were collected by experienced and trained female resident enumerators and coded, cleaned, and analyzed using STATA version 16.1 software. We used the Kaplan–Meier survival curve to show the pattern of neonatal deaths during the first 28 days of life. Frequencies and rates were reported along with the percentages and using a 95% confidence interval, respectively. The Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to explore the association of explanatory and outcome variables. Finally, an adjusted hazard ratio with a 95% confidence interval was used to report the results, with a p < 0.05 to declare statistical significance. Results The neonatal mortality rate was 26.84 (95% CI: 19.43, 36.96) per 1,000 live births. Neonates born to rural resident mothers (AHR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.05, 4.54), mothers of advanced age (AHR = 2.49, 95% CI: 1.19, 5.21), and primipara mothers (AHR = 3.16, 95% CI: 1.52, 6.60) had a higher hazard of neonatal mortality. However, neonates born to women who attended technical and vocational level education (AHR = 0.08, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.62) had a lower hazard of neonatal mortality. Conclusions The neonatal mortality rate in Ethiopia is high, with increased risk among specific subsets of the population. The findings highlight that neonatal survival can be improved through tailored interventions for rural residents, emerging regions, and primipara women by improving female education and avoiding pregnancy at an advanced maternal age to achieve Sustainable Development Goal target 3.2.


Summary form only given, as follows. In this paper, we investigated the factors that can influence the address time and especially, electric field effects and priming particle effects are compared to achieve a high speed addressing and finally, the address characteristics of high Xe contents panel are investigated The test panel used in this experiment has the conventional coplanar structure with three electrodes and stripe type barrier rib with VGA resolution and filled with Ne-Xe 4%, 8%, and 12% 400 Torr gas mixture each.


Summary
The flower of Orchis coriophora L. contains free nectar in the spur and is very fragant; it attracts a large gallery of pollinators mainly Apis mellifera. The capsule production rate is about 90%

O. collina Sol. ex Russ. has empty spurs and is scentless; pollinators are scarce and capsule production rate is about 25%.

The species are sympatric in some habitats in Israel and create rare hybrids which seem to be the result of common pollinators.

It is suggested that each of the two species represents different pollination strategy in the genus. This view and the implications on self and cross pollination are discussed.


Sugar cane production requires a number of operations to be carried out in the field through number of implements and machines. Therefore, time consuming and required large amount of energy. A combined field cultivator was designed in Kenana agricultural implements factory (KAIF) to carry out at one time multi operations, cultivation, furrow-reforming and Fertilizer placement. This is to increase field productivity, reduce farm power and lower operation time and cost. The combined implement was evaluated in Kenana cultivation fields and compared with the three individual implements, rigid tine cultivator, furrow reformer and fertilizer applicator. The measured parameters were drawbar pull, power requirements, field capacity, fuel consumption and total time in the field. The results showed highly significant differences at 1% level between the different implements for the field capacity, fuel consumption and significant differences at 5% for the drawbar pull. Power requirement in (kW) for the combined cultivator was 77% of those individual implements. Total time per feddan to accomplish the required operations by the combined cultivator was 57% of that required by the individual implements. Fuel consumption was reduced to 57% when combined implement was used compared to that consumed by individual implements. It was concluded that the combined cultivator was effective in increasing field productivity and reducing power and cost of operations.


Data clustering in kernel-induced feature space is interesting in that, by nonlinearly mapping the observed data from a low-dimensional input space into a high (possibly infinite)-dimensional feature space by means of a given kernel function, the kernel-based clustering can reveal complicated (e.g. linearly nonseparable) data structures that may be missed by traditional clustering methods in the standard Euclidean space. A kernel-based deterministic annealing (KDA) algorithm is developed for data clustering by using a Gaussian kernel function. The Gaussian parameter (width), which determines the nonlinear mapping together with the Gaussian kernel, is adaptively selected by the scaled inverse of data covariance. The effectiveness of the Gaussian parameter (width) selection method and the superiority of the KDA algorithm for clustering a variety of data structures are supported by the experimental results on artificial and real data sets.


A UV-curable polyurethane (PU)-coating system containing phosphorus is formulated by the combination of photoinitiator, PU acrylate oligomer, and UV-reactive phosphazene monomer. PU acrylate oligomer is prepared by the addition of 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) to NCO-terminated PU prepolymer. UV-reactive phosphazene monomer is derived from the HEMA substitution reaction to hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene (NPCl2)3. The curing reaction of this PU-coating system is carried out by UV irradiation. The resultant UV-cured PU-coated films demonstrated better performance properties than those of original UV-cured PU acrylate (UV-PU) without UV-reactive phosphazene monomer. Furthermore, their thermal properties are investigated by a thermogravimetric analyzer and a dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer, respectively. The combustion behaviors of these UV-cured PU-coated films are evaluated by the measurements of a limiting oxygen index and a cone calorimeter. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 85: 1980–1991, 2002


Purpose: Simulation is a long-established learning and assessment activity in healthcare education. Simulation has been used to provide opportunities for students to experience complex patient interactions in a low-risk setting to prepare students to manage all the demands of total patient care as new practitioners. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, single cohort study, with pre–post quantitative survey analysis including theme frequency, was to determine how participating in a multi-patient simulation consisting of different clinical settings and diagnoses would impact physical therapy students' confidence in clinical and decision-making skills.
Methods: Thirty-three, entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy students completed a simulation and debriefing across four different healthcare settings while addressing different aspects of patient management within each of these settings. Students completed two surveys before and after this simulation to measure their self-appraised confidence. Quantitative data from these surveys were analyzed using Wilcoxon tests and the free-response entries from the surveys were analyzed for theme occurrence frequency.
Results: Students' total clinical skill confidence scores decreased (P = 0.015), specifically in areas of strength testing (P = 0.008), postural assessment (P = 0.002), and planning an appropriate intervention plan (P = 0.033). Students' total decision-making confidence scores did not significantly change; however, areas of improvement included recognizing physiological and psychological changes in patients in a timely manner (P = 0.025) and distinguishing between clinically important and lower priority impairments (P = 0.048). Occurrence of theme frequencies from free responses revealed a decrease in student confidence related to "flow and organization" as well as "evaluation."
Conclusion: While incorporating a multi-patient simulation improved some aspects of students' self-appraised confidence in clinical decision-making skills, there was an unexpected decrease in students' overall confidence.


Copper(I) Thiocyanate (CuSCN) is an inorganic hole transporting layer (HTL) used in perovskite solar cells (PSC). This material offers higher stability and reliability compared to conventional HTL. In this work, for depositing CuSCN (inorganic compound) we were using spin coating technique. The annealing temperature of CuSCN is varied in order to analyze the structural and electrical characteristics. The structural characteristics are determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Meanwhile, the electrical characteristic is measured by the I-V characteristics measurement. SEM images show the material surface features such as crystallinity morphology and density. XRD and Raman spectroscopy are used to confirm the coated surface on the ITO substrate is CuSCN. Besides, the I-V characteristic reveals that the conductivity with respect to annealing temperature. As a result, the optimized annealing temperature of CuSCN is 80 °C and showing conductivity of 62.96 S/m. In conclusion, CuSCN has a significant conductivity, hence suitable for the application as the HTL for perovskite solar cells.


In the last few decades significant progress has been made in the area of spatial and temporal reasoning. There is a growing interest in this area, especially within the artificial intelligence community, which may be attributed to the large number of application domains in which one has to deal directly or indirectly with temporal or spatial information, or both. However, dealing with time and space is not restricted to artificial intelligence. The analysis of concurrent programs, for example, faces difficult temporal questions, while the design of complex hardware for modern computing machines is plagued by spatial problems. Geographic information systems, tracking systems, mobile networks, distributed systems, cooperating autonomous agents, distributed databases, planning, robot motion, and many other complex systems challenge the capabilities of existing knowledge representation methods and reasoning techniques. Even long-standing research areas such as natural language understanding and production line management are brimming with unanswered questions about the interpretation and control of time and space. There is a large body of methods and techniques to attack problems involving space and time, including non-monotonic and modal logics, circumscription methods, chronological minimization methods, relation algebras, and applications of constraint-based reasoning. At the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in


Gene transfer vectors derived from neurotropic viruses provide a powerful tool for gene therapy of a variety of neurological diseases. The lentiviral vector system permits the efficient transfer of genes into non-dividing cells in the central nervous system and sustains long-term expression of the genes (Naldini et al., 1996; Reiser et al., 1996; Mochizuki et al., 1998; Mitrophanous et al., 1999). This vector system has been used for gene therapy trials in animal models for neurological diseases (for reviews, see Azzouz et al., 2004a; Wong et al., 2006; Lundberg et al., 2008). Axonal transport in the retrograde direction, as observed in the case of some viral vectors, has a considerable advantage for transferring genes into neuronal cell bodies situated in regions remote from the injection sites of the vectors (see Fig. 1). These viral vectors, when injected into the striatum, deliver the genes through retrograde transport into nigrostriatal dopamine neurons that are the major target for gene therapy of Parkinson's disease (Zheng et al., 2005; Barkats et al., 2006). Intramuscular injection of the vectors also delivers retrogradely the genes into motor neurons that are the target for gene therapy of motor neuron diseases (Baumgartner & Shine, 1998; Perrelet et al., 2000; Mazarakis et al., 2001; Sakamoto et al., 2003; Azzouz et al., 2004b). To enhance the gene transfer of a human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1)-based vector via retrograde transport, we have previously generated the HIV-1 vector pseudotyped with a selective variant of rabies virus glycoprotein (RV-G) (Kato et al., 2007). Injection of this RV-G-pseudotyped vector into the mouse striatum yields an increase in gene transfer into neuronal populations in the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and ventral midbrain, each of which innervates the striatum. Injection of the RV-G pseudotype into the monkey striatum (caudate and putamen) results in increased gene transfer into the nigrostriatal dopamine neurons. The RV-G pseudotyping of the HIV-1 vector enhances the efficiency of gene transfer through retrograde axonal transport in the rodent and nonhuman primate brains. However, because large-scale application of gene therapy trials requires


Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is caused by relative insulin deficiency, due in part to reduced β-cell mass (11, 62). Therapies aimed at expanding β-cell mass may be useful to treat T2D (14). Although feeding rodents a high-fat diet (HFD) for an extended period (3-6 mo) increases β-cell mass by inducing β-cell proliferation (16, 20, 53, 54), evidence suggests that adult human β-cells may not meaningfully proliferate in response to obesity. The timing and identity of the earliest initiators of the rodent compensatory growth response, possible therapeutic targets to drive proliferation in refractory human β-cells, are not known. To develop a model to identify early drivers of β-cell proliferation, we studied mice during the first week of HFD exposure, determining the onset of proliferation in the context of diet-related physiological changes. Within the first week of HFD, mice consumed more kilocalories, gained weight and fat mass, and developed hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and glucose intolerance due to impaired insulin secretion. The β-cell proliferative response also began within the first week of HFD feeding. Intriguingly, β-cell proliferation increased before insulin resistance was detected. Cyclin D2 protein expression was increased in islets by day 7, suggesting it may be an early effector driving compensatory β-cell proliferation in mice. This study defines the time frame and physiology to identify novel upstream regulatory signals driving mouse β-cell mass expansion, in order to explore their efficacy, or reasons for inefficacy, in initiating human β-cell proliferation.


Selenium is an essential trace element for humans and other animals, and there is mounting evidence for the efficacy of certain forms of selenium as cancerchemopreventive compounds. However, over the years, numerous elements such as As, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg, Sn, Pb, Ni, Co, Sb, Bi, Ag, Au, and Mo have been found to inhibit anti-carcinogenic effects of selenium, which may affect the anticarcinogenic activity of selenium. The interaction between selenium and arsenic has been one of the most extensively studied. The proposed mechanisms of this interaction include the increase of biliary excretion and direct interaction/precipitation of selenium and arsenic, and their effects on zinc finger protein function, cellular signaling and methylation pathways. This article focuses on these proposed mechanisms and how anti-carcinogenic effects of selenium may be affected by arsenic.


Purpose of reviewAllergic diseases have only recently gained serious attention in Africa. This review discusses recent studies that have focused on allergy among Africans and people of African ancestry. Recent findingsTime trend studies of the prevalence of allergies in Africa show a consistent increase over a period of 7–10 years. Recent studies have reported that the link between IgE, skin reactivity to allergens and allergic symptoms increases with increasing gross national income of the country. Association between helminth infections, and allergies seem contradictory, which may be attributed to differences in the length of infection and species studied. Importantly, researchers have identified an 'urban diet' component, which is associated with increased skin reactivity to allergens. Finally, whereas Africans in rural Africa seem to suffer less from allergies, people of African ancestry in affluent countries have higher prevalence and greater severity of allergic symptoms than natives of these host countries, raising important issues on genetic control of allergic diseases. SummaryMechanisms underlying the development of allergy are a complex interaction of genetic susceptibility and environmental exposures. Identification of specific environmental factors, mechanistic pathways and genetic risk factors in sufficiently powered studies will be necessary to better understand and control the allergic march in Africa and elsewhere.


Iron-core electromagnets are widely used as applied-field switches in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) flux pumps. It was recently reported that the critical current ( Ic ) of the HTS wire is suppressed by up to 45% in the air gap of the iron core. Here, it is reported that the self-field Ic of a single tape (unifilar) is suppressed from 357 A to 195 A while in the air gap of an iron core, agreeing closely with the previous study. This is extended by showing that the Ic response to a perpendicular magnetic field is asymmetric, with a peak Ic of 249 A found to be at 0.16 T of applied magnetic field. This effect can be eliminated using an anti-parallel current configuration (bifilar), which is shown experimentally to recover close to the no-core self-field Ic of 357 A with no observed asymmetry. The results of both types of switch configurations are closely replicated in finite-element modelling using COMSOL Multiphysics®. This is caused by the asymmetric interaction between the self-induced magnetic field of the HTS switch element and the magnetic circuit of the iron-core electromagnet.


Italian national guidelines recommend to regions the implementation of organised screening programmes for cervical cancer. As in previous years since 1998 we collected aggregated tables of data from Italian organised cervical screening programmes in order to centrally compute process indicators. Data on women invited during 2010 and screened up to April 2011 were considered. In 2010, the target population of Italian organised screening programmes included 13,538,080 women, corresponding to 80.1% of Italian women aged 25-64 years. Compliance to invitation was 39.8%, with a strong North-South decreasing trend. However, it should be considered that many women are screened outside organised programmes. Among screened women, 4.7% were referred for repeat cytology and 62.7% of them complied; 2.5% of screened women were referred to colposcopy. Compliance with colposcopy referral was 85.9% among women referred because of ASC-US or more severe cytology and 88.7% among those referred because of HSIL or more severe cytology. The positive predictive value (PPV) of referral because of ASC-US or more severe cytology for CIN2 or more severe histology was 16.0%. The unadjusted detection rate of CIN2 or more severe histology was 3.2 per 1,000 screened women (3.5 standardised on the Italian population, truncated 25-64).


Index coding and coded caching are two active research topics in information theory with strong ties to each other. Motivated by the multi-access coded caching problem, we study a new class of structured index coding problems (ICPs) which are formed by the union of several symmetric ICPs. We derive upper and lower bounds on the optimal server transmission rate for this class of ICPs and demonstrate that they differ by at most a factor of two. Finally, we apply these results to the multi-access coded caching problem to derive better bounds than the state of the art.


Electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) has been widely used in fluidized bed measurements because of the noninvasive and nonintrusive features. The successful application of ECT in fluidized bed measurements depends on the appropriate design of sensors. This paper discusses the effect of ECT sensor length on fluidized bed measurements by simulations and experiments. The sensitivity distributions in different axial positions of a sensor are compared, which shows the similarity of sensitivity distribution contours and decline of intensity along the sensor axial direction. Fluidized beds of three different diameters (45, 55, and 65 mm) are used to compare the effect of sensor electrode length on fluidized bed measurements. In each fluidized bed, five sensors with different electrode lengths are tested. The experimental results show that the sensor electrode length has significant effect on bubble detection in fluidized bed measurements, and it is recommended that the sensor electrode length should be as short as possible considering the signal-to-noise ratio constraint.


A haplotype formed by the minor alleles of three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the complement receptor 2 (CR2/CD21) gene is associated with decreased risk of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Two of these SNPs (rs1048971 and rs17615) are in exon 10 and the third (rs4308977) is in the alternatively spliced exon 11, which is differentially expressed on follicular dendritic cells (FDC). The minor alleles of these three SNPs and a fourth SNP in exon 11 (rs17616) decrease the splicing efficiency of exon 11 in vitro and ex vivo, but the specific SNP responsible for this is not known. An exon-trapping vector (pL53In) in which genomic DNA spanning introns 9 to 12 of CR2 had been cloned was modified by site-directed mutagenesis to generate vectors containing various allelic combinations of these SNPs. After transient transfection into the Raji B cell and HK FDC lines, the relative amount of vector-derived mRNA transcripts including or excluding exon 11 was measured by quantitative RT-PCR. The presence of the minor allele at rs17615, rs4308977, or rs17616 partially reduced splicing efficiency of exon 11, whereas the presence of the minor allele at both rs17615 and rs17616 reduced it to same extent as when all four SNPs were minor. These data suggest that the minor alleles at rs17615 and rs17616 modify the secondary structure of the CR2 pre-mRNA, interfering with splice site recognition by regulatory proteins that could serve as targets for therapeutic intervention.


The Pr3+-doped NaNbO3 perovskite is introduced as a new red phosphor excitable in the near UV region at around 350 nm. A bright single red emission is observed at room temperature and ascribed to transitions between the 1D2 excited state and the ground state 3H4 of Pr3+ ions. This peculiar behavior is related to the presence of a low-lying intervalence charge transfer state that contributes to quench the emission from the otherwise emitting 3P0 level. Red afterglow is also evidenced in NaNbO3:Pr3+. A preliminary model is discussed to clarify the afterglow mechanism.


Cationic dyes of various natures have been investigated in order to select a dye that is stable under strongly alkaline conditions and applicable for the quantitative extraction-photometric determination of higher carboxylic acids. The nature of the dye, solvent, the length of the hydrocarbon radical of carboxylic acids and the pH of the aqueous phase for the extraction of ionic associates of higher carboxylic acids with cationic dye with pyronin G were experimentally studied. The study substantiates the practical application of the cationic dye pyronin G as an effective reagent for the quantitative extraction-photometric determination of higher carboxylic acids.


Aspect-based sentiment classification aims to predict sentimental polarities of one or multiple aspects in texts. As texts always contain a large proportion of task-irrelevant words, accurate alignment between aspects and their sentimental descriptions is the most crucial and challenging step. State-of-the-art approaches are mainly based on word-level attention learned from recurrent neural network variants (e.g., LSTM) or graph neural networks. From another view, these methods essentially weight and aggregate all possible alignments. However, this mechanism heavily relies on large-scale supervision training: without enough labels, it could easily overfit with difficulty in generalization. To address this challenge, we propose SentRL, a reinforcement learning-based framework for aspect-based sentiment classification. In this framework, input texts are transformed into their dependency graphs. Then, an agent is deployed to walk on the graphs, explores paths from target aspect nodes to their potential sentimental regions, and differentiates the effectiveness of different paths. By limiting the agent's exploration budget, our method encourages the agent to skip task-irrelevant information and focus on the most effective paths for alignment purpose. Our method considerably reduces the impact of task-irrelevant words and improves generalization performance. Compared with competitive baseline methods, our approach achieves the highest performance on public benchmark datasets with up to 3.7% improvement.


Individual Level Analysis of France President Emmanuel Macron. This paper is the result of an individual level analysis study conducted to explain qualitatively the personality, motivation and beliefs of French President Emmanuel Macron. This study employs qualitative data consisting of event data collected from various news sources with exclusionof exclusive interviews and state speeches and studied since Emmanuel Macron was inaugurated as President of France on May 17, 2017. Explanations regarding personality, motivation and beliefs assist to compile the rationality built on the record of educational background, family background, personality also helps to identify the relationship between leadership styles, motivation for decisions and actions that reflect the direction of French foreign policy. While beliefs are recognized through statements and answers given by for questions raised by journalists or foreign journalists in certain situations. This paper using a framework of individual analysis studies by Valerie Hudson, Jerrold Post and Margaret Hermann, it is concluded that Emmanuelle Macron is classified as a type of leader who is inconsistent with the characteristics of expansionist ambitions, high information complexity, good level of diplomatic knowledge  or training and always had a consideration to invite other countries to establish harmonious and strategic relations with France.Keywords:   individual level analysis, leadership type, conciliatory leadership type, foreign policy analysis


Moulds, notably Stachybotrys chartarum (atra),
are constant contributors to air pollution particularly to air quality in
buildings. The spores themselves or their volatile organic products are present
in variable amounts in almost all environments, particularly in buildings
affected by flooding. These moulds and products can account for the sick
building syndrome and have been tied to such occurrences as the outbreak of
pulmonary hemosiderosis and hemorrhage in infants in Cleveland, Ohio. The
present study was designed to investigate the effects of S. chartarum extracts on surfactant protein expression, surfactant
quality and cell survival in the developing lung. S. chartarum extracts were incubated with cultures of several cell
types; isolated fetal lung type II cells and fetal lung fibroblasts, and human
lung A549 cells, a continuously growing cell line derived from
surfactant producing type II alveolar cells. MTT formazan assays were employed
to test cell viability. The synthesis and release of the predominant surfactant
protein A (SP-A), which is involved in the regulation of surfactant turnover
and metabolism, and surfactant protein B (SP-B) involved in shuttling phospholipids
between surfactant subcompartments was also assessed. Antibodies to these
proteins and western blotting results were used to assess the quantity of protein produced by the various cell
types. A novel approach utilizing captive bubble surfactometry was employed to
investigate the quality of surfactant in terms of surface tension and bubble
volume measurements. Electron microscopy was used to
examine changes in cellular structure of control and S. chartarum-treated cells. Results of the study showed that
exposure to the S. chartarum extracts
had deleterious effects on fetal lung epithelial cell viability and their
ability to produce pulmonary surfactant. S.
chartarum extracts also induced deleterious changes to the developing fetal
lung cells in terms of expression of SP-A and SP-B as well as to the surface
tension reducing abilities of the pulmonary surfactant. Ultrastructurally,
spore toxin associated changes were apparent in the isolated lung cells most
notably in the lamellar bodies of fetal rat lung alveolar type II and human
A549 cells. This study has demonstrated the potential damage to surfactant
production and function which may be induced by inhaling S. chartarum toxins.


Collaborative multi-robot perception provides multiple views of an environment, offering varying perspectives to collaboratively understand the environment even when individual robots have poor points of view or when occlusions are caused by obstacles. These multiple observations must be intelligently fused for accurate recognition, and relevant observations need to be selected in order to allow unnecessary robots to continue on to observe other targets. This research problem has not been well studied in the literature yet. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to collaborative multi-robot perception that simultaneously integrates view selection, feature selection, and object recognition into a unified regularized optimization formulation, which uses sparsity-inducing norms to identify the robots with the most representative views and the modalities with the most discriminative features. As our optimization formulation is hard to solve due to the introduced non-smooth norms, we implement a new iterative optimization algorithm, which is guaranteed to converge to the optimal solution. We evaluate our approach on multi-view benchmark datasets, a case-study in simulation, and on a physical multi-robot system. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach enables accurate object recognition and effective view selection as defined by mutual information.


Background There is concern that women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at increased risk of high-grade cervical dysplasia (HGCD) detected via cervical smear. There is also controversy regarding the effect of chronic disease/disability on routine cancer screening attendance in this population. Objectives To (1) compare uptake of cervical screening for women with RA in the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register for Rheumatoid Arthritis (BSRBR-RA) with the general population and (2) compare frequency of HGCD between RA and the general population and between patients with RA ever versus never exposed to biologics. Methods The BSRBR-RA, a prospective cohort study, was linked to the NHS Cervical Screening Programme England (CSPE). Data from 2004–2014 was analysed in line with CSPE methods who publish coverage analysis annually; coverage is defined as the number of women who have been adequately screened at the defined age-dependent review period out of the total number of women eligible for screening in this period. Annual coverage was calculated for the eligible BSRBR-RA population and compared to national statistics. Within the BSRBR-RA, coverage was also compared between those patients with mild/moderate disability (mean Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) scores <2) and high disability (HAQ ≥2). Rates of HGCD (moderate dyskariosis or greater) and low grade cervical dysplasia (LGCD, borderline or mild dyskariosis) were compared to rates of negative smears using risk difference calculations between the BSRBR-RA and national statistics, and between the biologic naïve (standard DMARD therapy) and biologic exposed cohorts within the BSRBR-RA. Results Of 13565 linked records, 12939 women had RA of which 12785 had cervical screening data, 2132 (17%) on nbDMARD therapy and 10653 (83%) with biologic exposure. Between 2004–2014 mean five-year coverage was higher in the BSRBR-RA population at 82.5% (95% CI 81.9, 83.1) compared to 79.0% (95% CI 78.5, 79.6) nationally. This mostly reflects significantly higher age appropriate coverage in the 25–49 year group for the BSRBR-RA population: 77.2% (95% CI 75.9, 78.6) compared to 71.4% (95% CI 70.2, 72.6) nationally. Coverage was higher among women with HAQ <2 (n=6631) compared to those with HAQ ≥2 (n=5163): 85.4% (95% CI 84.7, 86.1) and 78.1% (95% CI 77.3, 78.8) respectively. The risk of HGCD was lower in the BSRBR (0.9%) compared to the general population (1.3%) with a risk difference of -0.004 (95% CI -0.005, -0.002). The risk of LGCD was higher in the BSRBR (7.5%) compared to the general population (5.4%) with a risk difference of 0.021 (95% CI 0.017, 0.025). There was no significant risk difference for HGCD between the biologic and nbDMARD cohorts at 0.009 (95% CI -0.003, 0.021). Conclusions Women in the BSRBR-RA in England have higher rates of cervical screening attendance than the general population, although high HAQ scores had a negative effect on screening attendance. Those aged 25–49 years had markedly higher attendance; this may reflect familiarity with accessing healthcare. Cytology analysis suggests lower risk for HGCD in the RA group but higher risk for LGCD; this may reflect increased screening attendance. Women receiving biologic therapy were not at an increased risk of HGCD compared to those receiving standard DMARD therapy. Disclosure of Interest None declared


An ink jet instrument was used to measure the drop absorption time of various ink-receiver systems. The drop absorption time is defined as the time required for the receiver to completely absorb the impinging ink drop, i.e., the drop totally penetrates into the receiver and disappears from the receiver surface. The instrument consists of a piezo printhead with drive electronics, a stage for receiver support, a strobe light, a CCD camera, imaging optics, and image capture system. The drops ejected from the printhead have a volume of about 25 pL and a velocity of about 5 m/sec. The receivers used in the measurements include both non-porous and porous receivers. Results indicate that nonporous receivers with swellable polymeric coatings have much longer drop absorption time (>30 sec) than those receivers with porous coatings (-33-100 msec). The difference in drop absorption time between non-porous and porous receivers can be ascribed to the basic difference in the physical mechanisms of ink penetration into the receiver, i.e., diffusion of ink in the polymeric receiver versus capillary flow of ink in the porous receiver. Based on these physical phenomena, simple one-dimensional models have been developed to describe the drop absorption process in the non-porous and porous receivers. The dependence of drop absorption time on the volume of ink drop and physical properties of ink, such as viscosity and surface tension, and receiver, such as diffusion coefficient and porosity, was also derived. Comparison of model results with experimental data are presented and discussed.


In this paper, a concise method to express by induction the so-called extended connection coefficients between two orthogonal polynomial sequences in a general sense is highlighted. Some illustrative examples arising from the semi-classical case are studied.


Potential spat collectors and suitable culture sites were investigated for the development of edible oyster culture from June to December 2019 at three study sites (Moheshkhali, the Jeti of Nuniarchora, and Sonadia) of Cox's Bazar coast of Bangladesh. Four types of collectors such as oyster shell, earthen pot, kortal (windowpane oyster shell) and tiles were investigated. On site sampling of water quality parameters and number of spats on each collector were done at 15-days interval following standard methods. Results indicated insignificant difference (P > 0.05) in temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and pH, while significant difference (P < 0.05) in total dissolved solids, total suspended solids and Chl-a content of the water among the study locations. However, these parameters were in suitable range for growth and spawning of oyster. Results also indicated spat recruitment was significantly influenced by the types of collectors and study locations with significantly (P < 0.05) higher spat were recruited in Tiles. Tiles were also found to facilitate with an advantage of recycling of this collector. The location in interaction with polluting materials such as total dissolved solids and total suspended solids had a significant effect on spat recruitment rate and therefore, Sonadia was the most suitable location for spat recruitment. This study site can also be used as a suitable location for the development of oyster culture in the cost of Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh based on its environmental characteristics.
Bangladesh J. Zool. 49 (2): 257-265, 2021


Networking and software design principles converge currently under the notions of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). This means that network services are not anymore static and manually configured, but they become flexible and in the end virtualized components. This convergence enables to dynamically orchestrate the network, to move network functions to the cloud and to direct and prioritize traffic intelligently. Applying cloud principles to network services, configuration and management requires mechanisms for automation, virtualization and elasticity. Ultimately, network services may improve the customer experience for the end users requiring on-demand network resources. The Cross-Layer Orchestrator (CLO) presented in this paper, establishes a tie between the Application and the Network Layers. Through the proposed Cross Layer API, the CLO provides an interface for client and server side applications to reserve, alter and release network resources. Our solution makes the network more dynamic by extending the orchestration functionalities not only to provide on-demand provisioning of network services, but also network flows. In this way the network should be able to adapt accordingly to the requirements of the applications.


Welding joints of rails are a weak point of a jointless railway line, which stipulates actuality of studies on increasing their operational resistance. Microstructures of welded joints made by existing at present welding technology and by a new one were compared. Existing (base) technology comprises further thermal treatment of the welded joint, while the new technology comprises welding followed by a short-time electric current impact during the rail joint cooling. To study the microstructures of welded joints, samples were cut out the welded seam zone and heat affected zone, as well as out of the base metal. The study was carried out in the depth of 5 mm from the surface, after thin section etching by 4% solution of nitric acid in alcohol. In the macro-structure of the metal of welded joint, made by the base technology, an uneven heat affected zone was detected. The zone had the following dimensions: 51 mm – in the head, from 45 mm to 62 mm – in the neck and 64 mm – in the bottom (by each of the seal side). In the longitudinal mac- ro-template of sample Б (the new welding method), the heat affected zone was even and along the whole joint had the width of 22 mm (in each of the joint side). It was shown, that the new welding method of railway rails enables to decrease the extension of zone with sorbitic and granular pearlite at various stage of coagulation. A short-time impact of electric current during rail joint cooling ensures obtaining a zone with a decreased hardness of 15 mm extension and decrease of welded seam metal hardness relatively the lower border of base metal hardness by less than 15%. Application an additional local thermal treatment by a separate induction heating during base technology results in forming zones of 30 mm extension in the area of welded joint, which wear resistance is 4.5 times lower comparing with wear resistance of the rail base metal. At the new welding method application, the extension of the abovementioned zone does not exceed 10 mm and wear resistance was decreased by less than 2 times.


Global Citizens in the 21st-Century Classroom: A Mixed-Methods Study of Motivational Aspects of Global Awareness Robert James Windorf B.S., New York University; M.A., New York University; M.S., Molloy College; P.D., St. John's University; C.A.S., Hofstra University The present global setting is increasingly driven by the interdependence of heightened environmental, political, socio-economic, and technological forces. As a result, today's students need a variety of skills to succeed on both professional and personal levels. A wide and increasing array of scholars strongly advocates for students to achieve enhanced global awareness to become global citizens and to successfully navigate this challenging global environment. The growing importance of global awareness and understanding students' motivational behaviors toward its attainment strongly inspired the purpose of this dissertation study. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was utilized for this dissertation study to examine how an ethnically, racially, and socio-economically diverse group of high school students (n = 172) reported their motivational characteristics associated with their global awareness levels as a result of participating in a global-themed curriculum program. Data collection and analyses were grounded in Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), which includes intrinsic and varied extrinsic nuances and descriptions of the respective roles of these forms of motivation in cognitive and social development. As a means to assess the participating students' levels of motivation and global awareness, an electronic survey was MOTIVATION AND GLOBAL AWARENESS administered, including the following measures: (a) the Situational Motivational Scale (SIMS) (Guay, Vallerand, & Blanchard, 2000), (b) the Programme for International Student Assessment – Global Competence Student Information Questionnaire (PISA; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2018), and (c) a demographic questionnaire. The student sample's quantitative data were obtained from this online survey instrument. The qualitative data were taken from focus group discussions, during which students (n = 23) reflected on various motivators for their enrollments and participations in their respective global-themed courses. Based on the quantitative data analyses, the student sample possessed motivational characteristics to participate in their respective global-themed courses, as highlighted in the SIMS' Intrinsic Motivation and Identified Regulation subscales scores. In addition, the respective data scores for several PISA subscales, namely, Awareness of Global Issues, Student's Engagement with Others, Re: Global Issues, Interest in Learning About Other Cultures, and Global Competence Activities at School, revealed the strongest tendency toward measurements of the students' global awareness. Moreover, various correlation and multiple regression analyses of the independent and dependent quantitative data variables showed evidence of the student sample's global awareness. The qualitative data analysis revealed various interrelated factors that led to the development of the students' global awareness and the many perceived benefits they had received from participating in those courses, including improved academic skills and heightened global perspectives that led to the development of enhanced empathy and desires to become social cause advocates. The integrated data analyses revealed that the SIMS Intrinsic Motivation and Identified Regulation subscales data related to students' participations in the global-themed courses were MOTIVATION AND GLOBAL AWARENESS supported by the qualitative results anchored in motivations to seek more in-depth knowledge about global studies, and to participate in higher-level curricula to earn college credits. Components of the highest-scoring PISA subscales, such as the ability to discuss and to analyze topical global issues like the global climate crisis and the technological revolution, and keeping abreast of newsworthy global events via social media platforms, which indicated important elements of global awareness, were clearly supported in the qualitative data. The findings of this study reinforced the necessity for students to become better prepared to face the numerous challenges within an increasingly interconnected and competitive working world. This dissertation has important implications for researchers in the field of educational psychology and educators engaged in the creation and delivery of 21st-century skills and global awareness-inspired curricula. The following are recommendations to include opportunities for developing global awareness: (a) create learning environments to foster innate psychological personal needs such as competency, autonomy, and relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000); (b) promote foreign language learning, including realistic experiences to reinforce the numerous benefits of that important skill; and, (c) embrace empathy and tolerance toward others, leading to demonstrated needs for social cause advocacy as important extensions of global awareness development. MOTIVATION AND GLOBAL AWARENESS


This working paper reconstructs the road to same-sex marriage equality in Brazil through the lens of countermovements and the conservative lawyers representing them. First, the working paper brings some insights from constitutional theory regarding non-textual, interpretative constitutional change fostered by social movements and countermovements. From Eskridge's theory of social movements and constitutional law, the author hypotheses whether the arguments presented by the conservative lawyers before the Brazilian apex court (Supremo Tribunal Federal – STF) indicates a 'politics of preservation'. Second, the author argues that combination of interpretative syncretism in the STF, and the inertia of political branches in protecting sexual minorities partially explain the prominent role of the STF in sexual where there is an increasing participation of conservative lawyers and the countermovements they represent in constitutional adjudication. This is done through a closer look at the STF decision on same-sex union (2011), at the National Council of Justice (Conselho Nacional de Justica – CNJ) resolution establishing nationwide same-sex marriage (2013), and the subsequent pending case challenging such resolution before the STF in the same year. Overall, the author calls for a more solid equality jurisprudence in Brazil – marked by carefully crafted interpretation of equality, agreed among the majority of the STF Justices. Only then, the STF will have the institutional courage and legal soundness to face up the inertial of political branches in protecting sexual minorities and to deal with the rise of conservative lawyering.


Suicide means of taking ones Hfe. Emile Durkheim, the first to study suicide systematically, distinguished three different types, depending on what motivates the act of self-destruction: altruistic, anomic and egoistic.Durkhetm's classification system altruistic suicide based on sacrificing oneself for the good for others. The soldiers who hurts himself upon a grenade to save others, and ritual suicide, such as hara-kiri, intended to save ones family from shame, are classic examples. Anomic suicide that results, m Durkheim's analysis, from the sense that life no longer has meaning, from a sense of anomie, loneliness, isolation, and loss of contact with the norms and values of society also called norm less suicide. In Durkheim's classification system, egoistic suicide resulting from a sense of deep personal failure, a feeling that one is personally responsible for not living up to societal and personal expectation. SuicidehasbeendeclaredamajorheathproblemmtheUnitedStates by the Surgeon General, David Satche(1999). He noted that the suicide rate among children has doubled since 1980 and that the elderly account for one m five suicides. Although countries around the world have different overall rates of suicide, this increase m suicide rate seems to hold true worldwide. In most countries, the young adult's group seems to be at the widest risk. In Denmark and Japan countries with different cultural histories, suicide is the number one cause of death amount 25-34 years old age and account for 30% of all deaths among 25% of among women.


ABSTRACT Cilia/flagella are structurally conserved and dynamic organelles; their assembly and disassembly are coordinated with the cell cycle and cell differentiation. Several post-translational modifications, including acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation and ubiquitylation, participate in ciliary disassembly. However, the detailed mechanism and the role of ubiquitylation in ciliary disassembly are unclear. This study identified 20 proteins that were ubiquitylated in shortening flagella of Chlamydomonas. α-Tubulin was the most abundant ubiquitylated protein and it was labeled with K63 polyubiquitin chains primarily at K304. Expression of an α-tubulin mutant (K304R), which could not be ubiquitylated, decreased the rate of flagellar disassembly and resulted in an enrichment of the mutant form in the axoneme, suggesting that ubiquitylation of α-tubulin is required for the normal kinetics of axonemal disassembly. Immunoprecipitation and glutathione-S-transferase pulldown assays demonstrated that the retrograde intraflagellar transport (IFT) protein, IFT139, interacted with a variety of ubiquitylated proteins, including α-tubulin, suggesting that IFT-A was responsible for transporting ubiquitylated proteins out of the flagella. Our data suggest an important role for ubiquitylation and retrograde IFT in ciliary disassembly. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper. Summary: In Chlamydomonas, ciliary α-tubulin is labeled with K63 polyubiquitin chains at K304 during ciliary disassembly and transported to cell body by retrograde intraflagellar transport.


AIM
Calcitonin is a hormone secreted by thyroid C-cells. Its primary effect seems to be a direct inhibition of bone degradation, but the physiological function of calcitonin in humans is still uncertain. The role of this hormone in the development of osteoporosis is unknown, but few authors have shown bone mass reduction in thyroidectomy patients.

METHODS
To investigate the influence of calcitonin deficiency on bone turnover, 9 males (age 31 to 66 years) submitted to total thyroidectomy in 1996 for non-toxic goitre have been studied. These patients received thyroxine treatment at individual dose but never with suppressed TSH levels. Moreover 8 sex-, age- and Body Mass Index-matched normal subjects have also been studied as control group.

RESULTS
Calcitonin was undetectable in thyroidectomized patients, while the mean value was 7.1+/-3.2 pg/ml in the control group. At bone ultrasonography 50% of patients showed osteopenia, while only 1 subject showed osteopenia in the control group. The mean calcium serum level of patients was significant lower than in the control group (p<0.001). Calcium urinary level was increased in patients than controls. PTH serum levels were statistically decreased (p<0.001) in patients more than in controls. Osteocalcin showed a significantly (p<0.05) lower bone formation in patients than in controls, while the markers of resorption, deoxypyridinoline and N-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen, suggested an increased bone turnover in calcitonin-deficiency patients.

CONCLUSION
The results of this study show that the chronic lack of calcitonin in total thyroidectomized patients may play a role in increased bone degradation and osteopenia with a higher risk of bone fracture.


This article contributes to the discussion on how inter-ethnic relations challenge cultural boundaries, in this case Minangkabau matrilineal-Islamic culture in Padang of West Sumatra, Indonesia. This paper will focus on how Minangkabau people establish relationship with other ethnic groups in Padang, a multi-ethnic city. The paper argues that matrilineal principles (descent and inheritance through the maternal line) and Islam are the defining aspects to be considered by Minangkabau people in maintaining relationship with other ethnic groups. Moreover, there is some interplay between the need to protect Minangkabau Islamic-matrilineal adat in maintaining inter-ethnic relations by Minangkabau people and their assimilation and exclusivity interests.


How do people who are not parents talk about their lives, relationships and their experience of ageing? There is a widespread belief that relationships between adult children and their parents are crucial to the support of older people. There is nonetheless an increasing minority of older people without children (some 18% for women born in 1922 and projected to rise to around 23% for those born in 1972, Quinn et al., 1998). It is important to learn from the experience of those already in their period of later life.
This paper examines datasets from Qualidata studies (SN5237, SN6011) and data from interviews held between 1998 and 2002 with people aged over 65 years. It compares the narratives co-constructed by respondent and interviewer concerning children and grandchildren with the possibilities for a joint construction of stories from childless respondents. My analysis suggests that narrative structures for a life that progresses through stages associated with the heterosexual family are so deeply embedded in the understanding of both interviewer and respondent, that while the beginnings of other kinds of story can be identified, their telling is often inhibited.
Reference
Quinn, M., Ruddock, V. and Wood, R. (1998) 'Birth Statistics: Recent trends in England and Wales', Population Trends, 94, pp.12–18.


Since poverty is a serious issue that has had its impacts on human internationally, this paper aims to discuss poverty from different aspects and the reasons for making a history of poverty, as well as if the developed countries caused in making history of poverty. Furthermore, this paper discussed the history of poverty in the past 50 years and some initiatives have undertaken by UN and international bank to overcome the impacts of poverty in developing countries, particularly on education and healthcare. Then,  a comparison was made between some developing countries how they benefited from these initiatives, while others remained poor.


The present work concerns the preliminary analysis for the study of the (n,2n) reaction channel of the 165Ho isotope at near threshold energies: 10.1, 10.4 and 10.7 MeV (Eth=8.04 MeV). The cross sections for the population of both the ground state (Jπ=1+) and the isomeric state (Jπ=6-, Eex=139.8 keV) of the 164Ho product-nucleus were measured at the afore mentioned energies via the activation technique relative to the 27Al(n,α)24Na and 197Au(n,2n)196Au reactions. The quasi-monoenergetic neutron beams were produced through the 2H(d,n)3He reaction in the 5.5 MV Tandem Van de Graaf accelerator of N.C.S.R ''Demokritos''. The preliminary experimental results are compared with theoretical predictions based on TALYS code.


Colostrum is the first milk that supplies newborns with immune supporting peptides. Due to its heterogeneous and variable characteristic, standardized assays for assessment of its biological activities are a challenge. Current set of studies were aimed to investigate the immune activity of bovine colostrum blends and different fractions as well as validate a method to assess variability across different lots.

 Immune activity of a bovine colostrum blend and different fractions was evaluated by their ability to enhance PBMC-mediated killing of K562 cells. K562 cell killing was assessed by flow cytometry using DAPI. PBMCs derived from multiple healthy donors were initially investigated. Sample from the highest responder was used for subsequent studies. Different lots of product were assessed.

 Bovine colostrum blend and different fractions similarly reduced K562 cells number and these effects were generally greater than IL-2 control. Despite consistently effective at enhancing PBMCs-mediated K562 killing, the degree of the effect was significantly variable across different lots. These biological effects were dependable on the solubility of the product.

 Assessment of PBMC-mediated killing of K562 cells by flow cytometry using DAPI is a reliable method for measuring immune activity of bovine colostrum and different fractions as long as product is well dissolved into solution and the same biological sample from a single donor is used for investigation of batch-to-batch variability.


Ultrasonography in an 18 week pregnancy selected for detailed scanning because of a single elevated maternal serum AFP result suggested the presence of anencephaly. Amniocentesis at 19 weeks yielded a clear AF with an elevated AFP result (5.4 MOM) and no evidence of an acetylcholinesterase band of neural origin on PAG electrophoresis. At termination, the fetus had cephalo‐amniotic fusion and multiple abnormalities including bilateral cleft lip and palate and digital amputations characteristic of the amniotic band syndrome. The cranial defect was completely sealed by attachment of the amniotic surface of the placenta to the skull.


Objective: Current evidence regarding the safety of abdominal subcutaneous injections in pregnant women is limited. In this study, we developed a predictive model for abdominal skin-subcutaneous fat thickness (S-ScFT) by gestational periods (GP) in pregnant women. Methods: A total of 354 cases were measured for S-ScFT. Three machine learning algorithms, namely deep learning, random forest, and support vector machine, were used for S-ScFT predictive modeling and factor analysis for each abdominal site. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and RapidMiner softwares. Results: The deep learning algorithm best predicted the abdominal S-ScFT. The common important variables in all three algorithms for the prediction of abdominal S-ScFT were menarcheal age, prepregnancy weight, prepregnancy body mass index (categorized), large fetus for gestational age, and alcohol consumption. Conclusion: Predicting the safety of subcutaneous injections during pregnancy could be beneficial for managing gestational diabetes mellitus in pregnant women.