Haemodynamic changes and catecholamine responses were measured during anaesthesia with sufentanil (total dose 7 micrograms kg-1) supplemented with isoflurane in 14 patients undergoing coronary artery surgery. Isoflurane was used to control systolic arterial pressure, which was allowed to decrease to 100 mm Hg. Mean inspired isoflurane concentration was 0.22 (SD 0.19)% (induction), 0.34 (0.18)% (pre-bypass) and 0.22 (0.17)% (post-bypass). During cardiopulmonary bypass 0.22 (0.13)% isoflurane was administered to control mean perfusion pressure. During induction and the pre-bypass period, significant decreases in systolic and diastolic arterial pressure, systemic vascular resistance and left ventricular stroke work index (LVSWI) (P less than 0.01) were noted. The decrease in LVSWI with unchanged filling pressures indicated myocardial depression. Serum catecholamine concentrations remained at the pre-induction value until cardiopulmonary bypass, when a significant increase was noted. Tracheal intubation, sternotomy and sternal spread were not associated with hypertension or tachycardia. Clinical signs that could reflect myocardial ischaemia were not observed peroperatively. After operation, cardiac enzymes were within the normal clinical range and ECG was unchanged.


In this article the notion that women retained a special position among "Gnostics", compared the surrounding context, is questioned. It is pointed out that there are no necessary correlation between myth and social reality. Finally, it is argued that proto-orthodox portrayals of "Gnostics" as favoring women should chiefly be under-stood as a polemical technique meant to discredit ones opponents.


This research paper is focused on the exploration of the impediments to beneficial trade and their resultant market transaction arrangement in maize and rice. The study therefore was confined to the following three specific objectives to first, explore perceptions and experiences on the impediments to beneficial trade among rice and maize growers and their socio-economic impacts for farmers and food security in the study area. Second, to identify production and marketing models and describe their structure, conduct and performance; and thirdly, to describe transaction costs and related impediments in the value added chain for both crops in Tanzania. Survey was done in three regions: Shinyanga region representing rice growing regions and Ruvuma and Iringa regions representing maize growing regions of Tanzania. The study involved a sample of 100 smallholder rice farmer traders and 131 maize farmer traders. This study adapted Williamsonian Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) approach (as applied in Pitelis (1993) and Furubotn et al. (2000) to identify market arrangements based on transaction costs of producing and trading in the two grain crops. Based on the observed farmers' perception and experiences with prevailing trade impediments, this study has proposed five stylized market arrangements referred to in this paper as Cereal Transaction Arrangements (CTAs). Each of these CTAs was found to have strengths and weaknesses—hence no single trade policy could be more appropriate across all CTAs. The paper recommends that the government should reduce transactions costs in CTA4 and also CTA5 which involve more progressive commercial farmers by putting in place pro-poor trade policies. Such transaction costs include cost of identifying weighing devices, constructing warehouses, corruption, levies and quantitative trade restrictions.


Reconstructing an unknown curve or surface from sample points is an important task in geometric modeling applications. Sample points obtained from real applications are usually noisy. For example, when data sets are obtained by scanning images in the plane or images in three dimensions. In computer graphics, many curve and surface reconstruction algorithms have been developed. However, their common drawback is the lack of theoretical guarantees on the quality of the reconstruction. This motivates computational geometers to propose algorithms that return provably faithful reconstructions. Algorithms of this type are known when there is no noise in the input. This leaves the problem of noise handling open. We propose a probabilistic noise model for the curve reconstruction problem. Based on this model, we design a curve reconstruction algorithm for noisy input points. The reconstruction is faithful with probability approaching 1 as the sampling density increases. Then we extend our approach to surface reconstruction from noisy input points. Not only do we improve the algorithm to make it run faster, we also make the noise model deterministic which extends its applicability and simplifies the analysis of the algorithm. We show that the surface reconstructed is faithful if the input points satisfy the deterministic noise model.


This paper describes our submission for SemEval 2018 Task 7 shared task on semantic relation extraction and classification in scientific papers. Our model is based on the end-to-end relation extraction model of (Miwa and Bansal, 2016) with several enhancements such as character-level encoding attention mechanism on selecting pretrained concept candidate embeddings. Our official submission ranked the second in relation classification task (Subtask 1.1 and Subtask 2 Senerio 2), and the first in the relation extraction task (Subtask 2 Scenario 1).


BACKGROUND
 Background: Gestational diabetes mellites (GDM) is a type of diabetes that commonly occur in the second part of the pregnancy and usually goes away once the baby is born. Maternal risk associated with GDM are pre-eclampsia, caesarean delivery, perineal trauma, post-partum haemorrhage and delayed breastfeeding. Possible neonatal risk also included macrosomia growth restriction, birth injuries, respiratory distress, hypoglycaemia and jaundice. Dietary advice and blood glucose monitoring and glucose-lowering therapy should be offered to diagnosed patients.
The increasing ownership of mobile phones and advances in mobile applications (apps) provide an innovative personalised management among women with GDM.
Numerous mobile phone apps are available for women to gain access via app stores, however to our knowledge, no review has documented both health professional and patient's perception of those apps. The use of telemedicine was convincingly shown to result in better glucose control, but reduced costs to the health system or patients, and patient or health-carer acceptability were not clearly demonstrated due to limited data.

 OBJECTIVE
 Aim: This review was aimed to discover patient and health professional's perception of mobile apps available for managing GDM via both app stores and 5 relevant electronic databases.

 METHODS
 Method: Two separate searches were conducted, i.e. app stores (iTunes and Google Play store), electronic databases CINAHL, Cochrane library, Medline, PsycINFO and PubMed using major key words: patient, health professional, perception, mobile application and gestational diabetes.

 RESULTS
 Result: Seven studies were included in the final analysis. We categorised articles under two themes: 1) patient's experiences of available mobile apps focused on GDM and 2) health professional's feedback on mobile apps focused on GDM. Only two studies focused on both patient and health professional's perception on mobile apps to manage GDM.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Conclusion: There is a limited body of research on mobile apps in relation to both patient and health professional's perception of GDM management. Mobile apps can be an effective way to manage GDM, but apps should not be restricted to collecting and providing information only. Collected data should be shared as a communication platform for both patients and health professional to be utilised as an active tool to update GDM treatment plans.


Trihedron sticky traps were used to monitor the prevalence and intensity of Thelazia spp. in face flies associated with 2 groups of cattle. Traps were set for 24 hr once a week beginning 2 wk before cattle were turned out to pasture following winter housing and continued until flies reached diapause in October. The 50 heifers in group 1 received 1 treatment with ivermectin (Ivomec Pour-On for cattle, 500 micrograms/kg body weight) on the day of turnout onto pasture. The 50 cows and their calves in group 2 were not treated. Treating cattle with ivermectin delayed the onset of infection in Musca autumnalis by 20 days and reduced the prevalence to 2.2% compared to 26.9% in flies from the control pasture. Although residues of ivermectin eradicate many fly larvae developing in cattle feces, there was no significant difference in the number of flies counted on the faces of cattle or in the number of flies caught on sticky traps on the 2 pastures (P > 0.05).


The objective of this study was to evaluate the intake and ingestive behavior of sheep and goats fed with cactus pear ( Opuntia ficus-indica Mill) and prickly pear ( Opuntia sp.). Twenty crossbred animals – 10 sheep and 10 goats – were used. They were lodged in a collective shed, contained individually with ropes, distributed using a completely randomized design, and treated with a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement (2 animal species and 2 varieties of cactus). Behavioral observations were made at five-minute intervals during a 24-hour period. Dry matter, ether extract, acid detergent fiber, total carbohydrate and non-fibrous carbohydrate intake were reduced (p 0.05) on feeding time and feeding efficiency. The time spent with rumination was greater for the diet with prickly pear, and the animals on the prickly pear diet remained more time idle. Comparing goats and sheep species, it was verified that the rumination efficiency, for both DM and NDF, was greater for sheep species. The animals spent more time ruminating lying than standing, but no difference was verified between the sides on which the animals chose to lie down.


Dear Sir, In a recently published study Marsh and Gaffney (1) examined the effect of strenuous exercise on blood fibrinolytic activity. Although the expected sharp rise in euglobulin lysis time units was observed over a duration of 45 min after exercise, no significant increase in fibrin(ogen) degradation products (FDP) D and E was found. The authors concluded that although exercise causes increases in blood plasminogen activator, "the net actual fibrinolytic effect is non-existent and the fibrinogenolytic effect small". This interpretation goes beyond the data provided and may be rather misleading. In a previous study of exercise-induced fibrinolysis and fibrinogenolysis (2), we showed a similar 4fold increase in euglobulin lysis units in the post-exercise blood unassociated with any change in FDP. Incubation (37" C) of post exercise blood for > 24 hr caused no change to occur in either the fibrinogen concentration or the percent of high and low fibrinogen (fibrinogen I and 11) as measured by SDS-PAGE using 3.5% gels. From this we concluded that no A,-chain degradation had occurred and that exercise-induced fibrinolytic activity does not induce any demonstrable fibrinogenolysis. We subsequently showed the addition of vascular plasminogen activator to plasma similarly fails to induce any degradation of fibrinogen (3). By contrast, fibrin was degraded rapidly in the post-exercise plasma. The plasma clot lysis time was 4.4 (3.4-5.8) hr compared with a pre-exercise time of > 24 hr. Furthermore, precipitated fibrinogen and paracoagulated fibrin monomers also lysed rapidly in the post but not the pre-exercise plasma. Therefore, it appears that exercise induced fibrinolytic activity is capable of rapidly lysing fibrin or its precipitable derivatives but not fibrinogen. The failure of Marsh and Gaffney as well as ourselves to see a rise in FDP after strenuous exercise is simply a reflection of the fact that the healthy subjects used in these studies did not have any intravascular fibrin deposits to lyse. I believe that this interpretation is more in keeping with the findings than that suggested by Marsh and Gaffney. I would also submit that the fibrinolytic response is a specific, rather than "non-specific response" to exercise. The importance of this effect of exercise to good health is of course only a matter for speculation at this time.


Providing hard data for trends that many perceive only vaguely and some deny altogether, "Designing for Diversity" reveals a profession rife with gender and racial discrimination and examines the aspects of architectural practice that hinder or support the full participation of women and persons of color. Drawing on interviews and surveys of hundreds of architects, Kathryn H. Anthony outlines some of the forms of discrimination that recur most frequently in architecture: being offered added responsibility without a commensurate rise in position, salary, or credit; not being allowed to engage in client contact, field experience, or construction supervision; and being confined to certain kinds of positions, typically interior design for women, government work for African Americans, and computer-aided design for Asian American architects. Anthony discusses the profession's attitude toward flexible schedules, part-time contracts, and the demands of family and identifies strategies that have helped under-represented individuals advance in the profession, especially establishing a strong relationship with a mentor. She also observes a strong tendency for under-represented architects to leave mainstream practice, either establishing their own firms, going into government or corporate work, or abandoning the field altogether. Given the traditional mismatch between diverse consumers and predominantly white male producers of the built environment, plus the shifting population balance toward communities of color, Anthony contends that the architectural profession staves off true diversity at its own peril. "Designing for Diversity" argues convincingly that improving the climate for non-traditional architects will do much to strengthen architecture as a profession. Practicing architects, managers of firms, and educators will learn how to create conditions more welcoming to a diversity of users as well as designers of the built environment.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: In response to the public health emergency created by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, American Heart Association volunteers and staff aimed to rapidly develop and launch a resource for the medical and research community to expedite scientific advancement through shared learning, quality improvement, and research. In <4 weeks after it was first announced on April 3, 2020, AHA's COVID-19 CVD Registry powered by Get With The Guidelines received its first clinical records. Methods and Results: Participating hospitals are enrolling consecutive hospitalized patients with active COVID-19 disease, regardless of CVD status. This hospital quality improvement program will allow participating hospitals and health systems to evaluate patient-level data including mortality rates, intensive care unit bed days, and ventilator days from individual review of electronic medical records of sequential adult patients with active COVID-19 infection. Participating sites can leverage these data for onsite, rapid quality improvement, and benchmarking versus other institutions. After 9 weeks, >130 sites have enrolled in the program and >4000 records have been abstracted in the national dataset. Additionally, the aggregate dataset will be a valuable data resource for the medical research community. Conclusions: The AHA COVID-19 CVD Registry will support greater understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular disease and will inform best practices for evaluation and management of patients with COVID-19.


A configuration management system organizes large software systems and helps maintain those systems over a long lifetime. The problems that arise in the design of such a tool include the manipulation and accurate representation of system configurations, versions and derivation histories. Access control, the large quantities of data, and the evolutionary nature of software development all help to compound the problems. The SAGA (Software Automation, Generation and Administration) project has developed CLEMMA, a configuration librarian. CLEMMA uses relational database technology to provide a powerful but compact configuration management system. It is based on an extended relational model of software development in which components have an object-oriented representation. The authors present the design of CLEMMA and discuss its solutions to the problems of configuration management.<<ETX>>


Summary Functionalized copolyimides continue to attract much attention as membrane materials because they can fulfill the demands for industrial applications. Thus not only good separation characteristics but also high temperature stability and chemical resistance are required. Furthermore, it is very important that membrane materials are resistant to plasticization since it has been shown that this phenomenon leads to a significant increase in permeability with a dramatic loss in selectivity. Plasticization effects occur with most polymer membranes at high CO2 concentrations and pressures, respectively. Plasticization effects are also observed with higher hydrocarbons such as propylene, propane, aromatics or sulfur containing aromatics. Unfortunately, these components are present in mixtures of high commercial relevance and can be separated economically by single membrane units or hybrid processes where conventional separation units are combined with membrane-based processes. In this paper the advantages of carboxy group containing 6FDA (4,4′-hexafluoroisopropylidene diphthalic anhydride) -copolyimides are discussed based on the experimental results for non cross-linked, ionically and covalently cross-linked membrane materials with respect to the separation of olefins/paraffins, e.g. propylene/propane, aromatic/aliphatic separation e.g. benzene/cyclohexane as well as high pressure gas separations, e.g. CO2/CH4 mixtures. In addition, opportunities for implementing the membrane units in conventional separation processes are discussed.


In the course of our investigations (1, 2) and following the studies of others (3) of the lipids in the blood of nonimmunized and immunized horses, an investigation was made of the composition of the alcohol-ether extract of serum prepared according to the method of Bloor (4).
 Four-cubic-centimeter samples of sera were made up to 100 cc. with redistilled 95-per-cent alcohol and ether, 3:1. Total and free cholesterol were determined by precipitation with digitonin, according to the methods of Osato and Heki (5). Forty cubic centimeters of the alcohol-ether extract of the serum were used for the determination of total cholesterol and 125 cc. for the free cholesterol.
 The estimation of phospholipids was based on the determination of phosphorus and calculated as lecithin, molecular weight 778. Fifty cubic centimeters of the alcohol-ether extract of the serum and 1.25 cc. of saturated magnesium nitrate solution were evaporated to dryness in a 50-cc.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if there is an association between focal and systemic bone loss in patients with RA.

METHODS
Bone loss is a hallmark finding in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and manifests as localized, periarticular and systemic bone loss. RA patients were selected from the Consortium of Rheumatology Researchers of North America (CORRONA) database. Multiple logistic regression models were constructed to assess the association between the presence or absence of erosions and T-scores at the lumbar spine (LS) and total hips and adjusted for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), medications and disease activity indices.

RESULTS
Data on erosions and T-scores were available in 3,898 and 5,099 subjects, respectively. Patients with erosions had a significantly lower LS T-scores (-0.9) compared to RA patients without erosions (p=0.0002). Similarly, the mean total hip T-scores were significantly lower in patients with (-1.4) compared to subjects without erosions (-1.0) (p<0.01). The odds of having no erosion increased by 21% for each 1-unit increase in LS T-score and 46% for each 1 unit increase in hip Tscore. Patients with erosions were significantly younger (p<0.01) had a lower BMI (p<0.01) and higher DAS28 scores than those without erosions. More patients with erosions were on anti-TNF therapy, disease modifying drugs and osteoporosis medications than patients without erosions (p<0.01, 0.003 and 0.0003).

CONCLUSION
RA patients with bone erosions have significantly lower T-scores at the LS and hips compared with RA patients without erosions. These data suggest a relationship between localized and generalized bone loss in RA.


The biological production of 1,3-propanediol from glycerol, which is a by-product in a bio-diesel production process, is of great interest. However, major difficulties still exist in downstream processing because 1,3-propanediol has a high boiling point. In this study, reactive extraction with aldehydes in the presence of a hydrophobic acidic ionic liquid as an acidic catalyst was used to extract 1,3-propanediol from an aqueous solution. Hydrophobic acidic ionic liquids have successfully played the role of acidic catalysts for acetalization as well as hydrochloric acid. Aromatic compounds as diluents were preferable for this acetalization. Conversion of 60 g/dm 3 of 1,3 propanediol reached 96% at a concentration of 4.0 mol/dm 3 of 1-butanal in toluene.


Thailand ministry of energy has declared to increase the use of alternative energy 25% in 10 years, 20122021. Follow the government policy, Khon Kaen University, came up with the renewable energy plan as part of the main policy between 2012-2015. The beginning of solar cells projects in Khon kaen University are between the years 2012-2015 following the Thai government policy at that time. The public lighting and solar roof are the two main applications at this period. It can be concluded that during that period the university can produce 40,513.40 KwHr/year or 164,231.10 bath/year. The projects draw attention of people within the campus and outside and made people concern of the renewable energy widely. Nowadays, as the solar cells technology has been changed, Khon Kaen University has to follow the new technology and plan for more solar cells application in the future.


Objective and subjective measurement in examining acoustic exposure in high-rise buildings were conducted in three high-rise hostels located in Klang Valley, Malaysia, namely 12th Residential College, University of Malaya (H1), 11th Residential College, Universiti Putra Malaysia (H2), and Murni Student Apartment, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (H3). This study is aimed at assessing the effects of acoustic comfort in high-rise hostel rooms at different floor levels. Measurements were taken in the month of May until July in 2007. One measured room has been selected on the first, fifth and top floors at each block in these high-rise hostels. 298 female students accommodating these hostels participated in the questionnaire investigation. Findings revealed that sound pressure levels increase with the room floor level due to wind and air temperature influences. It is also observed that mean difference for occupants that can hear road traffic noise significantly differed that is similar to the objective measurement where the highest sound pressure level (SPL) detected was in H3, followed by H2 and lastly H1.


In this paper, we present a novel steganographic method for embedding of secret data in still grayscale JPEG image. The embedding is performed in DCT domain in JPEG file. Hiding a secret data relies in change of selected quantized DCT transform coefficients according to modulo function, which allows to extract the secret message without cover-image being present what gives predisposition of blind steganography systems. Histogram analysis is deployed to create secure steganography system against histogram attacks. Moreover, prior embedding, a secret message is encrypted by AES 128-bit cipher to increase security level of steganography system as well as to acquire desired after-embedding histogram characteristics of DCT coefficients.


The revolution and acceleration in DNA sequencing over the past three decades has driven the development of new biomolecular tools like environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding for characterizing marine biodiversity. In order to operationalize eDNA approaches for routine NOAA observatories, new bioinformatic programs and improved organismal reference barcodes are needed to serve accurate and reliable biological data in a timely manner. To address these needs, we present Rapid Exploration and Visualization through an Automated Metabarcoding Pipeline (REVAMP), which provides streamlined end-to-end data processing from raw reads to data exploration, visualization, and hypothesis generation. One benefit of REVAMP is the ability to iteratively assess marker gene and reference database performance. Here, we used a filtered reference database that only included sequences uploaded prior to specified date cutoffs from 1995 to 2022 to analyze changes in eDNA metabarcoding taxonomic assignments, revealing patterns of uneven improvement in taxonomic assignment depth and accuracy across time, region, and marker sets. This work highlights the need for targeted reference sequencing efforts for key regional taxa and the importance of such efforts for improving eDNA biomonitoring approaches in the future.


Synopsis : Effective thermal conductivities of fired pellets, nonfired pellets and sinter which were reduced in a stepwise manner to magnetite, wustite and metallic iron by CO-CO2 or H2 gas have been measured by the laser flash method in the temperature range from room temperature to 1 273 K. As the reduction proceeded, porosity of the samples changed from 23 % to 62 %. Measured effective thermal conductivities of the samples were remarkably smaller than those of dense materials. Thermal conductivities of metallic iron and hematite depended strongly on temperature in comparison with wustite. As the samples were reduced, the effective thermal conductivity decreased and reached a minimum value in wustite, but increased to 5•`10 times in metallic iron. The treatment of reduction in stepwise at 1 273 brought a little difference among the effective thermal conductivities of the three kinds of samples. The influence of reducing gas, namely ; pure CO or H2, on the temperature dependence of the effective thermal conductivity of metallic iron was observed. This is probably attributed to the generation of different structures of the samples. The data measured were correlated on the basis of the unit cell model. As a result, this model succeeded in explaining the actual bonding condition among neighbor grains and the equations obtained agreed well with the data observed.


In this paper, we study some of the properties of Q-intuitionistic L-fuzzy subnearring of a nearring and prove some results on these.


Skeletal muscle adapts to a progressive overload, but the response can vary between different modes and intensities of exercise. Generally, a minimal threshold intensity of 65% of the one repetition maximum (1-RM) is needed to elicit muscle hypertrophy; however, recent studies have challenged this hypothesis and have provided evidence that low-intensity training (LIT) combined with vascular restriction (KAATSU) may also elicit increases in muscle size and strength. The physiological aspects of applying vascular restriction during exercise are not fully understood and may be explained by several factors. Examining the results of previous studies may help elucidate the factors responsible for the adaptations associated with vascular restriction in humans. Therefore, the objectives of this review are to summarize current knowledge regarding the physiological adaptations of skeletal muscle after low-intensity exercise combined with vascular restriction, the different training protocols used to elicit adaptations, and suggested areas for future research.


A reanalysis of the fluorine abundance in three Galactic AGB carbon stars (TX Psc, AQ Sgr and R Scl) has been performed from the molecular HF (1-0) R9 line at 2.3358 $\mu$m. High-resolution (R$\sim 50000$) and high signal to noise spectra obtained with the CRIRES spectrograph and the VLT telescope or from the NOAO archive (for TX Psc) have been used. Our abundance analysis uses the latest generation of MARCS model atmospheres for cool carbon rich stars. Using spectral synthesis in LTE we derive for these stars fluorine abundances that are systematically lower by $\sim 0.8$ dex in average with respect to the sole previous estimates by Jorissen, Smith & Lambert (1992). The possible reasons of this discrepancy are explored. We conclude that the difference may rely on the blending with C-bearing molecules (CN and C$_2$) that were not properly taken into account in the former study. The new F abundances are in better agreement with the prediction of full network stellar models of low mass AGB stars. These models also reproduce the $s$-process elements distribution in the sampled stars. This result, if confirmed in a larger sample of AGB stars, might alleviate the current difficulty to explain the largest [F/O] ratios found by Jorissen et al. In particular, it may not be necessary to search for alternative nuclear chains affecting the production of F in AGB stars.


The main argument of this article is that Israel seeks to govern its expat citizens not so much through the mobilisation of their 'rational capacities to evaluate truth claims but through affects' (Isin, 2004:225). Such viscerality of Israeli nationalism can be seen in the ways in which specific emotions – mourning, shame, guilt and fear of loss – are activated through particular semiotic choices. These affective resources, in turn, are marshalled together in order to create a sense of nostalgia, a desire to return 'home', which is deeply imbricated with processes of territorialisation of Israel as the Jewish homeland par excellence , and consequently engenders a problematic regime of identities – Israeli Jewish versus Diasporic Jewish. By exploring an example of how national (be)longing is activated through the circulation of emotions across texts and spaces, the article not only seeks to contribute to current discussions about affect in linguistic landscape scholarship, but also offers a fresh perspective on critical sociolinguistic work on nationalism.


This study investigates numerically the atomization process occurring in a plain jet airblast atomizer. The population balance equation is solved for the dispersed phase coupled with a CFD Eulerian multi-fluid model. The Sauter mean diameter values obtained numerically compare favorably with previous experimental data only at certain flow conditions. Finally, this study proposes some enhancements on using the numerical model which were revealed from the model formulation and the results obtained.


With the new business models of the Web 2.0 the need for continuous requirements engineering becomes even more important. Future applications are in 'perpetual beta' and well-understood user needs are a competitive advantage in a billion dollar market. However, user communities have to be addressed with new Web 2.0 style elicitation tools, since support by communities is offered at will in the most cases. In this paper, we research community-driven elicitation processes and their tool support. Identification of user needs with and without proposed Web 2.0 style elicitation processes are modeled explicitly using the strategic modeling approach i*. In a case study we implemented a Bubble Annotation Tool (BAT) for enjoyable, intuitive and traceable interaction within communities performing requirements engineering processes. First experiences with the tool in a study conducted to elicit requirements for an iPhone application are reported and discussed.


NGC 2146 is a peculiar spiral galaxy which is currently undergoing a major burst of star formation and is immersed in a extended H I structure that has morphological and kinematical resemblence to a strong tidal interaction. This paper reports aperture synthesis observations carried out in the 21cm line with the Very Large Array (VLA) of two fields positioned to optimally cover the H I streams to the north and south of the galaxy, along with a 300Ft total power spectral mapping program to recover the low surface brightness extended emission. The observations reveal elongated streams of neutral hydrogen towards both the north and the south of the optical galaxy extending out up to 6 Holmberg radii. The streams are not in the principle plane of rotation of the galaxy, but instead are suggestive of a tidal interaction between NGC 2146 and a LSB companion that was destroyed by the encounter and remains undetected at optical wavelengths. Part of the southern stream is turning back to fall into the main galaxy, where it will create a long-lived warp in the H I disk of NGC 2146. Analysis of the trajectory of the outlying gas suggests that the closest encounter took place about 1 billion years ago and that infall of debris will continue for a similar time span.


We demonstrate that the class of languages accepted by deterministic one-counter machines, or DOCAs (a natural subset of the context-free languages), is learnable in polynomial time. Our learning protocol is based upon Angluin's concept of a "minimally adequate teacher" who can answer membership queries about a concept and provide counterexamples to incorrect hypothesized concepts. We also demonstrate that the problem of testing DOCAs for equivalence may be solved in polynomial time, answering a question posed by Valiant and Paterson.


Introduction in this study, we aimed to compare the clinical and radiological results of single 4.5 mm locking compression plate (LCP), dual 3.5 mm LCP and intramedullary nailing (IMN) methods applied to the surgical treatment of humeral shaft fractures. Methods the study included 77 patients (41 males, 36 females; mean age 46.38 years; range 18-74 years) with humeral shaft fractures treated with a single 4.5 mm LCP, dual 3.5 mm LCP and IMN between January 2016 and December 2020. Single 4.5 mm LCP (Group A) was applied to 31 (40.3%) patients, dual 3.5 mm LCP (Group B) to 20 (26%) patients and IMN (Group C) to 26 (33.8%) patients. The preoperative and postoperative data of the patients were analyzed from the hospital registry system. A short version of the disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand (QuickDASH) questionnaire was used to evaluate functional outcomes. Results as a result of the comparison of the rates of nonunion between the groups, a significantly lower rate of nonunion was observed in group B patients (p=0.027). While the rate of nonunion was 14% in the cases included in the study, no cases of nonunion were encountered in group B. There was no difference between the three groups in terms of demographic data and other postoperative complications. Conclusion dual 3.5 mm LCP method is a suitable alternative to other surgical methods in the treatment of humeral shaft fractures, due to similar functional results and lesser nonunion.


This work studies the application of the virtual Access Point (vAP) technology to the eduroam [1] service. The vAP technology is based on instantiating multiple Access Point instances over a single physical WLAN radio, without requiring support for any special feature on the mobile devices. In this work vAPs are used for the purpose of enabling per-realm policies at the wireless segment, and facilitating inter-domain mobility.


The paper studies the factors associated with the emergence of systemic banking crises in a sample of developed and developing countries in 1981-94 using a multivariate logit econometric model. The results show that a weak macroeconomic environment with low growth and high inflation makes crises more likely; high real interest rates have also contributed to banking sector fragility, and so does vulnerability to balance-of-payments crises. Countries with an explicit deposit insurance scheme were also particularly at risk, and so were countries with weak law enforcement.


This study examined the effect of implementing a new preoperative briefing protocol on self- and peer-assessments of individual operating room (OR) teamwork behaviors. From July 2006 to February 2007, OR teamwork performance at a rural community hospital was evaluated before and after training and implementation of the protocol. After each case, every member on the team completed a 360-degree type teamwork behavior evaluation containing both self- and peer-assessments using a six-point Likert type scale (1 = definitely no to 6 = definitely yes). Individual behavior change was measured using the mean scale score of pre and postprotocol assessments. Statistical analysis included t test for both pre/post and self/peer differences. Data were available for one general surgeon and nine OR staff (pre = 20 cases, post = 16 cases). The preprotocol self-assessment mean score was significantly higher than peer-assessment (5.63 vs 5.29, P < 0.0267). Pre and postprotocol peer assessment mean scores revealed a statistically significant gain in teamwork behaviors. No difference was observed in postassessment mean scores for self- and peer-assessments. Individuals overestimated their teamwork behaviors before protocol implementation. Using a preoperative protocol seems to improve OR staff teamwork behaviors and self-assessment accuracy. The use of a 360-degree assessment method targeting specific, observable behaviors may be useful in evaluating team-based interventions and enhancing teamwork effectiveness.


In the Laboratory of Experimental Astrophysics of the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia we make ices analogs to those that can be found in different astrophysical environments as, for example, interstellar medium and in many objects of our Solar System. We study several characteristics of these ices, like density integrated absorbance of its main absorption bands and refractive inde. In order to obtain the first, we need to measure the thickness (around 1 micrometer) and the mass (around 60 micrograms with relative error around 3%.). The first one is obtained by interferometry with lasers and the second using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCMB). It utilizes the piezoelectric qualities of quartz crystal. The application of an electric field to the gold coated quartz crystal causes a shear deformation (parallel to the gold surface). The crystal can reach the resonance if an alternating electric field is applied at a particular frequency that, for its part, depends on the mass deposited on it.


AIM
To determine the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) and trans-abdominal ultrasound in the detection of choledocholithiasis, and to compare bile duct stone characteristics using endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), MRCP and ultrasound.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Of 191 consecutive patients referred for diagnostic ERCP, choledocholithiasis was diagnosed in 34 patients using direct cholangiography. The latter took the form of ERCP (n = 29), intraoperative cholangiography (n = 3) or percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (n = 2). All patients underwent MRCP and ultrasound examinations and their findings for choledocholitiasis were compared with those at direct cholangiography. Finally, in the 29 patients with choledocholithiasis diagnosed under ERCP, stone characteristics were compared across the three investigations of ERCP, MRCP and ultrasound.

RESULTS
Compared with direct cholangiography, MRCP showed a sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of 91%, 98% and 97%, respectively, in the diagnosis of choledocholithiasis. MRCP resulted in three false-negative and three false-positive findings, four of which occurred due to confusion with lesions at the ampulla. Ultrasound showed a sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of 38%, 100% and 89%, respectively, in the diagnosis of choledocholithiasis. ERCP revealed a greater number of stones and these were more proximally distributed within the bile ducts when compared to MRCP.

CONCLUSIONS
MRCP is highly accurate in the diagnosis of choloedocholithiasis and has the potential to replace diagnostic ERCP. MRCP underestimates the number of bile duct stones present.


Residual learning is a recently proposed learning framework to facilitate the training of very deep neural networks. Residual blocks or units are made of a set of stacked layers, where the inputs are added back to their outputs with the aim of creating identity mappings. In practice, such identity mappings are accomplished by means of the so-called skip or residual connections. However, multiple implementation alternatives arise with respect to where such skip connections are applied within the set of stacked layers that make up a residual block. While ResNet architectures for image classification using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been widely discussed in the literature, few works have adopted ResNet architectures so far for 1D audio classification tasks. Thus, the suitability of different residual block designs for raw audio classification is partly unknown. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the performance of several residual block implementations within a state-of-the-art CNN-based architecture for end-to-end audio classification using raw audio waveforms. For comparison purposes, we analyze as well the performance of the residual blocks under a similar 2D architecture using a conventional time-frequency audio represen-tation as input. The results show that the achieved accuracy is considerably dependent, not only on the specific residual block implementation, but also on the selected input normalization.


Summary Mu rhythm, one of the EEG alpha components, is recorded at the central region on the scalp corresponding to the sensorimotor area, and is reduced by activation of the brain motor system. It has been reported that high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders(ASD) show mu power suppression related to self-performed hand movements but not when observing those performed by others. To clarify whether these phenomena were specific to high-functioning individuals with ASD, we measured mu power for observing and executing movements in 14 nonASD and 11 ASD children (the age ranged from 6 to 18 years old) with intellectual disabilities. EEG rhythms were recorded on the scalp while subjects were resting with eyes open; watching animated clips of ball throw, ball catch, paper rock (i.e., opening and closing of fist) and bouncing ball; moving their own hand to catch a ball and do paper rock. We focused on the alpha component at the central region contralateral to the dominant hand. In the non-ASD group, alpha power was distinctly suppressed when subjects observed other's paper rock and performed their own, compared with rest and other conditions. We consider that this alpha component was mu rhythm and the power suppression indicated activation of the brain system for simple motor tasks than for complex tasks such as ball handling. Mu suppression for simple actual and observed tasks such as paper rock were less in the ASD group than in the non-ASD group. We suggest that this weak activation of observation and execution system for movement is characteristic of individuals with both ASD and intellectual disabilities but not of non-ASD ones with intellectual disabilities. Furthermore, since there was a little mu suppression for simple tasks in children with ASD, we should investigate a required condition to activate the brain motor system for children with ASD.


Almost a decade has passed since Chile begins to implement a Thermal Regulation for
dwellings, which established a minimum requirement for each building component, according to
different climatic zones. This article proposes a series of dynamic simulations, in order to
assess the thermal comfort (during winter and summer) of apartments in Santiago de Chile for
lower and upper middle class. Some building typologies were defined by means of the twostage
clustering methodology. These were built using the properties for sale database of
Portalinmobiliario.com (2003-2009). The results of thermal simulations show that the Thermal
Regulation has a positive impact in the thermal behaviour of these typologies during the heating
season. However, at the same time, there is an important risk of overheating in summer.


This article is based on a study that sought to examine the socio-economic impacts of labour migration on families in Mzimba district in terms of education, health, labour supply, intra-family roles, norms, decision-making, and others. Eight villages with the highest number of out-migrants out of 27 in the district were studied. Fifty respondents of households with a migrant member were randomly selected as a sample for the study. Another random sample of 20 respondents from households without-migrants was selected to serve as a control group. The field data were obtained using in-depth interviews, observations, and focus group discussions. Secondary data were obtained mainly through library research. The study reveals that, overall, households with migrant relatives in South Africa have experienced a change in their welfare; ranging from positive change in socio-economic conditions and/or positive change in their social and family relations. Negative consequences included loneliness, especially for spouse left at home; psycho-social problems, especially for children due to the absence of fathers; and low esteem that females feel when their husbands are absent to the extent of not being involved fully in family matters. On the part of the migrants themselves, they live in untenable working conditions, often illegally, and in most circumstances very unwelcome in the host country. Keywords : international labour migration, migrants, remittances, household dynamics


The differential cross sections for the 58Ni(n,p)58Co reaction are measured at 18.5 MeV. The angular distribution for the possible transitions to the parent analogue states of the E1 GDR has been compared with DWBA calculations based on the Jensen-Steinwedel form factor. Agreement between the experimental data and the L=1 transitions have been obtained, including also an isotropic contribution. The M1 GDR transitions have been correlated with the 1+ analogue states in 58Ni. The proton emission 58Ni(n,p) cross section has been estimated.


Malaria immunity is complex and multi-faceted, and fundamental gaps remain in our understanding of how it develops. Here, we use detailed clinical and entomological data from three parallel cohort studies conducted across the malaria transmission spectrum in Uganda to quantify the development of immunity against symptomatic Plasmodium falciparum as a function of age and transmission intensity. We focus on: anti-parasite immunity (i.e; ability to control parasite densities) and anti-disease immunity (i.e; ability to tolerate higher parasite densities without fever). Our findings suggest a strong effect of age on both types of immunity, that remains significant after adjusting for cumulative exposure. They also show a non-linear effect of transmission intensity, where children experiencing the lowest transmission appear to develop immunity faster than those experiencing higher transmission. These findings illustrate how anti-parasite and anti-disease immunity develop in parallel, reducing the probability of experiencing symptomatic malaria upon each subsequent P. falciparum infection.


Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have gained significant attention owing to their ability to handle graph-structured data and the improvement in practical applications. However, many of these models prioritize high utility performance, such as accuracy, with a lack of privacy consideration, which is a major concern in modern society where privacy attacks are rampant. To address this issue, researchers have started to develop privacy-preserving GNNs. Despite this progress, there is a lack of a comprehensive overview of the attacks and the techniques for preserving privacy in the graph domain. In this survey, we aim to address this gap by summarizing the attacks on graph data according to the targeted information, categorizing the privacy preservation techniques in GNNs, and reviewing the datasets and applications that could be used for analyzing/solving privacy issues in GNNs. We also outline potential directions for future research in order to build better privacy-preserving GNNs.


The rapidly growing market for sensor systems on the one hand boosts the development of new sensor principles and technologies [1,2], on the other hand the increasing fields of use require an integration of these sensors on system level under a wide spread of application conditions. This paper will discuss the main tasks that have to be solved by the electronic system, which interfaces the sensor and the application environment [3,4]. On side of the sensor physical points of view dominate the requirements, which, e.g., call for low noise readout, high gain, minimum sensor loading, and compensation of crossensitivities. The application requires completely different considerations, like compatibility with former solutions, standardized interfaces, low power consumption or networking capability as well as cost efficiency. Between these completely different classes of requirements electronic circuitry operates as a mediator featuring sophisticated readout electronics for each type of sensor, intermediate signal processing layers, and customisable interfaces that are usable for all kinds of sensors. After the general consideration of the above topics some examples of sensor systems will be presented and the individual solutions of the mentioned challenge will be discussed from the circuit designers point of view. At last some approaches for future developments of sensor systems will be presented.


Abstract Reproductive parameters and estimates of population size of northern river otters (Lontra canadensis) are poorly documented in southeastern United States. We examined the current population status of river otters in Kentucky, reintroduced in 1991 to 1994, by deriving demographic and reproductive characteristics from necropsies of river otter carcasses collected during harvests in Nov. through Feb., 2006–2009. We derived age distribution, sex ratio, pregnancy rate, and litter size of river otters and used these data to model future population growth of river otters in Kentucky. Data indicate 35.7% of female river otters in the yearling age class showed evidence of reproductive activity. The pregnancy rate (0.72) and average litter size [3.14 ± 1.46(sd)] of adult females was high compared with values reported for established populations of river otters elsewhere in eastern North America; consistent with an expanding and successfully recolonizing population. The population age distribution was skewed toward young age classes, with sex ratio of juvenile animals (1.58∶1.0) significantly favoring males. Models demonstrated the most plausible population growth estimates when using a 5% additive mortality factor, with extinction a possibility at lower published annual survivorship rates (below 0.73). Our data support a conservative harvest rate for sustained long-term management of river otters in Kentucky, especially for the eastern mountain region.


The aim of this work is to study the adhesion strength of Amphibalanus amphitrite in the İzmir Bay and compare the results with the pseudobarnacle adhesion test. Normally, adhesion tests are performed to evaluate the performance of the antifouling coatings, but the test results can also be used to predict biofouling cleaning process efficacy. The biofouling process is highly dependent on environmental conditions. For this reason, laboratory tests are required to perform the performance tests on self-polishing coatings in cases where living organisms cannot be reached. For this purpose, different self-polishing antifouling coatings have been formulated. Field tests for the coatings were carried out in the Aegean Sea for 10 weeks. After 10 weeks, barnacle and pseudobarnacle adhesion tests were conducted on coatings. When the results were compared, similarity was observed between the adhesion strength of barnacles and pseudobarnacles with 10 mm diameter on coating with the rosin/xylene/BaSO4 (40:40:20 w/w %). The adhesion strength of barnacles and pseudobarnacles on the coating 12 was found to be 0.46 and 0.45 MPa, respectively. In conclusion, the present study exhibits the first data related to the adhesion strength of A. amphitrite on rosin-based self-polishing coatings in the Aegean Sea. Moreover, based on field tests, a pseudobarnacle adhesion test methodology was developed to mimic barnacles and the correlation between barnacle and pseudobarnacle tests was examined.


We present in this paper a framework for performance prediction of parallel programs on hierarchical clusters. This framework is mainly designed for the use by the switching functions in parallel adaptive applications. Indeed, the principal referred objectives by this framework are the accuracy of the prediction and the rapidity of the prediction process. To achieve these objectives, our framework is based on two principal steps, the first is at the installation moment of the parallel application, and the second is at runtime. In the first step, we profile two components which are sequential kernels of the program and network performances. In order to model accurately these two components we have developed new strategies of regression. In the second step, we use the generated models and the runtime variables to the completion time estimation via our fast simulator MPI-PERF-SIM. Our experimentations on the Grid'5000 platform demonstrate the interest of this approach that can be the basis of adaptivity for parallel numerical libraries on dedicated hierarchical platforms.


Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) restrain the proliferation of endothelial cells, which is an important determinant of diabetic vasculopathy. Mitochondrial biogenesis serves an essential role in cellular adaptation and repair. The current study aimed to investigate alterations in mitochondrial energy metabolism in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and the latent mechanism regulated by AGEs. The proliferation of cultured HUVECs stimulated with AGEs was detected using an MTT assay and a real‑time cell analyzer (RTCA). Mitochondrial energy metabolism was measured using a Seahorse metabolic flux analyzer. Mitochondrial membrane potential was detected under fluorescence microscopy following staining with tetraethylrhodamine and MitoTracker Red. Respiratory chain complexes I‑V were detected using western blotting. MTT and RTCA assays demonstrated that AGEs treatment significantly inhibited the viability and proliferation of HUVECs when compared with bovine serum albumin treatment. Results from the Seahorse metabolic flux analyzer indicated that mitochondrial aerobic respiration and glycolysis declined following AGEs treatment. In addition, mitochondrial membrane potential and the expression of mitochondrial respiration chain complexes I/II/III/IV/V notably decreased in the presence of AGEs. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicated that AGEs exhibited an inhibitory effect on the proliferation in HUVECs potentially by mediating the dysfunction of mitochondrial energy metabolism and glycolysis. This may provide a new consideration for therapeutic methods in diabetic vascular complications.


Born in 1941 and graduated from the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematografico in 1969, Marcela Fernandez Violante has been a formidable pioneering figure in Mexican cinema. She was the director of the CUEC from 1984-8 and one of the first women admitted into the film director's union. Many of her films have received awards and critical acclaim. Despite her industrial and university prominence, and the repeated recognition of her importance in film histories, especially as a representative of a growing number of women filmmakers, her work is little studied by academics. This is for a variety of reasons: her early work, while independent in aesthetic, thematic and narrative terms, was made within the studio system; unlike many other women filmmakers, her films cannot be easily categorised as feminist; and she often tackles historical figures who are out of political favour. In sum, her output is difficult to place along the lines of previous studies of this period of Mexican film. The history of Mexican cinema has long been told in terms of a progressive development from the decline of the studios from the late 1950s to the birth and growth of the independent sector in the late 1960s and early 1970s (see, for example, Mora (1989), and Hershfield and Maciel, (1996)). This framing privileges a select few male auteurs, colours them as politically radical, and suggests that there was a dramatic break from the previous aesthetic and technical model of the studio filmmakers. The transition was neither as independent nor absolute as has been suggested. Yet, the frameworks applied have encouraged subsequent critics to create a canon made up of independent filmmakers, on the one hand, who are worthy of study, and studio workers who should be ignored, on the other. The filmmakers who fit into this prescribed auteurist model have received critical attention, whilst others, such as Fernandez Violante, challenge the neat categorisations and have, therefore, been ignored. There is a need to reconsider this idea of a sudden break with the past and Fernandez Violante is an ideal case study. Drawing on multiple interviews with her (for example, Iglesias and Fregoso (1998) and Medrano Platas (1999), archival research, and close readings of a selection of her early films, De todos modos Juan te llamas (1976), Cananea (1978), y Misterio (1980), I shall interrogate how historiography and gender identification have determined how her career has been read and how her work has been overlooked. This chapter aims to examine her output and consider how she blurs accepted critical models forcing us to re-frame their supposed neatness.


China's economic success from 1978 to 2011 is truly surprising, for example the growth rate of its GDP (an average of 10% a year for thirty years, second place in the world in 2011, 14 times its GDP from 1978 to 2007). However, we could also add that China's economic history is very far from being over, and in the future it will continue surprising us with its innovations, which it will have to keep in mind if it wants to have a close idea of the most successful development strategy of recent decades.


In this paper a proof is given that only one of either the X‐ or the Y‐matrix in PLS algorithms needs to be deflated during the sequential process of computing latent vectors. With the aid of this proof the original kernel algorithm developed by Lindgren et al. (J. Chemometrics, 7, 45 (1993)) is modified to provide two faster and more economical algorithms. The performances of these new algorithms are compared with that of De Jong and Ter Braak's (J. Chemometrics, 8, 169 (1994)) modified kernel algorithm in terms of speed and the new algorithms are shown to be much faster. A very fast kernel algorithm for updating PLS models in a recursive manner and for exponentially discounting past data is also presented. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A prototype online extreme precipitation monitoring system is developed from the TRMM TMPA near- real-time precipitation product. The system utilizes estimated equivalent average recurrence interval (ARI) for up-to-date precipitation accumulations from the past 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10 days to locate locally severe events.ThemappingofprecipitationaccumulationsintoARIisbasedonlocalstatisticsfittedintogeneralized extreme value (GEV) distribution functions. Initial evaluation shows that the system captures historic ex- treme precipitation events quite well. The system provides additional rarity information for ongoing precipitation events based on local climatology that could be used by the general public and decision makers for various hazard management applications. Limitations of the TRMM ARI due to short record length and data accuracy are assessed through comparison with long-term high-resolution gauge-based rainfall datasets from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center and the Asian Precipitation–Highly-Resolved Observational Data Integration Toward Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE) project. TMPA-based extreme clima- tology captures extreme distribution patterns from gauge data, but a strong tendency to overestimate from TMPA over regimes of complex orography exists.


The oxidation-induced crack healing of an Al2O3 composite loaded with various volume fractions of Ti2Al0.5Sn0.5C repair filler particles was investigated by annealing in air at a relatively low temperature of 700°C. After annealing a composite with 20 vol.% repair fillers (with a particle size of ~5.6 µm) for 48 hours, artificial indentation cracks prepared on the surface, as well as pores near the surface, were completely healed by filling with condensed oxidation products. Additionally, minor fraction of metallic Sn was detected. A complementary study by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy revealed that nano-sized oxidation products (SnO2, TiO2, and α-Al2O3 phase) were formed as major crack-filling species. After healing, the strength recovery of the Al2O3 composites was significantly improved in the composites loaded with more than 10 vol.% repair fillers and achieved 107% at 700 for 48 hours.


Quantum Computation is seen as an alternative paradigm for computing as the physical implentations for the basic information unit, the binary digit, approach the atomic level. As the laws of quantum mechanics take over at this level, quantum phenomena such as superposition, the ensuing parallelism and entanglement can be harnessed to offer faster algorithms. Deutch- Jozsa was the first problem for such an algorithm was exhibited that was provably faster than any deterministic classical algorithm. Here we make an attempt at a generalization of this algorithm, hoping that it could lead to similar generalizations for other quantum algorithms.


Detailed knowledge of the internal structure of high-enthalpy flows can provide valuable insight to the performance of scramjet combustors. Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) is often employed to measure temperature and species concentration. However, TDLAS is a path-integrated line-of-sight (LOS) measurement, and thus does not produce spatially resolved distributions. Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Tomography (TDLAT) is a non-intrusive measurement technique for determining two-dimensional spatially resolved distributions of temperature and species concentration in high enthalpy flows. TDLAT combines TDLAS with tomographic image reconstruction. Several separate line-of-sight TDLAS measurements are analyzed in order to produce highly resolved temperature and species concentration distributions. Measurements have been collected at the University of Virginia's Supersonic Combustion Facility (UVaSCF) as well as at the NASA Langley Direct-Connect Supersonic Combustion Test Facility (DCSCTF). Measurements collected at the DCSCTF required significant modifications to system hardware and software designs due to its larger measurement area and shorter test duration. Initial LOS measurements from the NASA Langley DCSCTF operating at an equivalence ratio of 0.5 are presented. Results show the capability of TDLAT to adapt to several experimental setups and test parameters.


The aim of the study was to know the effect of Curcuma xanthorhiza as herbal feed additive on feed consumption, daily body weight gain and feed conversion ratio of Kampung Unggul Balitnak (KUB) Chicken. The research was conducted at Kemukus Village, Ketapang District, South Lampung Regency. The experimental used 80 unisex KUB chicken aged 5 week. They were feed a ration with control ration + 0% temulawak flour (P0), control ration + 0,1% temulawak flour (P1), control ration + 0,2% temulawak flour (P2) and control ration + 0,3% temulawak flour (P4) during 30 days. The control ration containing 21% crude protein and 3150 kcal/kg metabolism energy. The study used a quantitative method with completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 4 replications. The results showed that the addition of temulawak flour (Curcuma xanthoriza) up to 0.3% did not effect (P> 0.05) on feed consumption but was affected (P <0.05) on daily body weight gain and feed conversion ratio.
Keywords: daily body weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, KUB Chicken, temulawak


Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy has been used to analyze magnetic and ferroelectric phase transitions in two multiferroic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with perovskite-like structures [(CH3)2NH2]M(HCOO)3 (DMA[M]F, M = Co, Mn). Elastic and anelastic anomalies are evident at both the magnetic ordering temperature and above the higher temperature ferroelectric transition. Broadening of peaks above the ferroelectric transition implies the diminishing presence of a dynamic process and is caused by an ordering of the central DMA ([(CH3)2NH2]+) cation which ultimately causes a change in the hydrogen bond conformation and provides the driving mechanism for ferroelectricity. This is unlike traditional mechanisms for ferroelectricity in perovskites which typically involve ionic displacements. A comparison of these mechanisms is made by drawing on examples from the literature. Small elastic stiffening at low temperatures suggests weak magnetoelastic coupling in these materials. This behavior is consistent with other magnetic systems studied, although there is no change in Q−1 associated with magnetic order-disorder, and is the first evidence of magnetoelastic coupling in MOFs. This could help lead to the tailoring of MOFs with a larger coupling leading to magnetoelectric coupling via a common strain mechanism.


PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW
Currently, there is strong evidence about an association between hymenoptera venom anaphylaxis (HVA) and mastocytosis. This review is focused on the most relevant clinical and biological features of systemic mastocytosis associated with HVA.

RECENT FINDINGS
HVA is a relatively common complication that modifies the natural course of patients with mastocytosis, particularly men with indolent systemic mastocytosis without skin lesions (ISMs-) in whom HVA can be the presenting symptom in up to around one-half of the cases. Patients with ISMs- associated with HVA are typically males with cardiovascular symptoms in the absence of itching, urticaria, and angioedema during anaphylaxis. Noteworthy, ISMs- is characterized by a low bone marrow mast cell load and a low risk for disease progression. Early and more recent studies support that specific venom immunotherapy (VIT) is a well-tolerated and effective treatment in patients with mastocytosis.

SUMMARY
VIT should be given life-long to all patients with mastocytosis and proven immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated HVA. In patients with negative venom skin test and undetectable IgE antibodies, additional studies such as component-based allergy testing might contribute to confirm an IgE-mediated mechanism of anaphylaxis in some cases, thus providing the indication of VIT.


The present investigational study was intentionally aimed to detect of E.moshkoviskii in stool as the first study and new record in Iraq by using polymerase chain reaction technique. Additionally understand the prevalence of these three parasites (E.moshkoviskii, E.dispar, and E.histolytica) in the human population. Stool sampling of 190 specimens was performed from clinically recognized patients suffering diarrhea with an inflammatory feature from Al-Diwaniya Teaching Hospital, Maternity and Children Hospital, Afak general Hospital and some Hospitals in the province of Iraq. All samples undergo full history was distributed according to name, age, gender, address, bloody diarrhea and clinical symptoms. General stool examination was done to samples within 30 minutes. The samples were divided into two sterile containers the first one grown in media and the second two were kept frozen at -20 Ċ (deep freezing) for DNA extraction used for PCR. From extracted DNA was added 5µl in PCR tube (master mix) with 1.5 µl forward primer and 1.5µl reverse primer, then 12µl from nuclease-free water, all volume was completed to 20 µl. One hundred ninety stool samples were collected and examined by general stool examination positive for Entamoeba spp The present study showed the high prevalence of amoebiasis in rural area more than urban area, the result revealed that the infected patients in rural area 119 (62.6%) while in urban area 71 (37.3%) The present study revealed the high percentage (25.2%) of infection with gastrointestinal symptoms under the age of 14 years old and above the age of 45 years. In the present study was showed the PCR product was detected in 182 (96 %) samples, and 8 (4 %) were detected as negative utilizing PCR test. The present study concluded that presence of three-identical species of Entamoeba utilizing PCR to target stool-based DNA of patients expressing gastrointestinal symptoms (E.moshkoviskii, E. dispar, and E.histolytica) could be grown in modified Lock's – egg slant medium . The single round PCR described in this study is a specific and sensitive method for distinguishing between those species.
Keywords: E.moshkoviskii; Polymerase chain reaction technique; Diarrhea.


Aim To analyze the cited papers published in Journal of Baoji University of Arts and Sciences: Natural Science(JBUAS: Nat Sci) and to provide a reference for establishing a scientific evaluation system and further improving the quality of the magazine.Methods Document metrology and CNKI database are used to analyze the cited papers written by authors from Baoji University of Arts and Sciences(BUAS) and published in JBUAS: Nat Sci.;SCI database is used to analyze the cited papers written by authors from Baoji region.Results The 1 434 papers published in JBUAS: Nat Sci were indexed by CNKI database,601 papers,accounting for 41.91% of 1 434,were written by BUAS's authors.544 papers had been cited one time or more times(cited times ≥1),which is 37.94% of 1 434 papers;244 papers(cited times ≥1) were written by BUAS's authors,which constitutes 44.85% of 544 papers and 40.60% of 601 papers respectively.5 101 papers written by BUAS's authors were indexed by CNKI database,but cited papers(cited time ≥1) were 2 157,which makes up 42.29% of 5 101 papers,the cited rate of BUAS authors' papers are higher than the cited rate of papers published in JBUAS: Nat Sci.There are 114 papers(cited times ≥10),19 of which were published in non-core journals,it represents 13.19% of 114 papers and there are only 23 papers(cited times≥20),30.43% papers of which were published in non-core journals.293 papers written by Baoji authors were indexed by SCI database,120 of which were cited(cited times≥1),it is 40.95% of 293 papers.Conclusion "Evaluating paper according to journal published the paper" is not scientific,it is necessary that importance is attached to the cited frequency of academic papers.The best option of academic papers evaluation is to establish an objective,scientific evaluation system to eliminate misunderstanding of evaluating the quality of academic papers.


Automated severity assessment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients can help rationally allocate medical resources and improve patients' survival rates. The existing methods conduct severity assessment tasks mainly on a unitary modal and single view, which is appropriate to exclude potential interactive information. To tackle the problem, in this paper, we propose a multi-view multi-modal model to automatically assess the severity of COVID-19 patients based on deep learning. The proposed model receives multi-view ultrasound images and biomedical indices of patients and generates comprehensive features for assessment tasks. Also, we propose a reciprocal attention module to acquire the underlying interactions between multi-view ultrasound data. Moreover, we propose biomedical transform module to integrate biomedical data with ultrasound data to produce multi-modal features. The proposed model is trained and tested on compound datasets, and it yields 92.75% for accuracy and 80.95% for recall, which is the best performance compared to other state-of-the-art methods. Further ablation experiments and discussions conformably indicate the feasibility and advancement of the proposed model.


This paper introduces a new model describing the aggregate growth of job markets. We divide the job market in each city into two groups: native job market of size and an immigrant job market of size . A reversible migration of jobs exists in both groups. In addition, the interaction between these two groups creates both native and immigrant jobs. A loss of native jobs also takes place due to the interaction. Through studying initial conditions, job-creation rate, and job-loss rate we discover some meaningful results. The size change of native job market is closely related to that of the migration rate, native job-creation rate, and native job-loss rate. We assume that these rates are proportional to the sizes of two groups and find out that for certain initial conditions, immigrants influence native job markets positively. They create more jobs for both job markets. In addition, we can make conclusions about the future trend of the flow of jobs. People will move to places like big cities where there is a higher concentration of job opportunities.


Information security in distributed systems and the use of networks for carrying data between computers is a major factor that has affected security. In this paper, we discuss security and propose security metrics issues in the context of Adaptive Distributed Systems [ADS]. A key premise of ADS is to collect detailed information based on the changes in the environment and choose efficient mechanisms (algorithms and/or encryption techniques, and secured and cost effective communication channel) for exchanging the gathered information between the targets distributed systems and the central monitoring system. Security issues in distributed systems have been solved using techniques such as cryptographic algorithms i.e. using RSA algorithm


Near infrared observations of Venus' nightside hemisphere were acquired from the 2.6-m Nordic Optical Telescope at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory located on La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain during May ( 117 - 126 degrees phase angle) and August 2004 (86 - 80 degrees phase angle). The May (3-10) run was coordinated with other globally distributed observatories, enabling tracking of cloud features over a longer temporal baseline (see Young et al. abstract, this conference)than possible from a single site. The observations, mainly in the 2.1 micron K-band, were aquired to allow a study of the atmospheric circulation pattern and and cloud evolution, partly to support the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission.Other participating observatories include, the 2-m Himalayan Chandra Telescope at Mt. Saraswati, Hanle, Indian Astronomical Observatory, the 1.2-m Mt Abu Telescope of the Physical Research Observatory, the Sacramento Peak Observatory, National Solar Observatory, New Mexico, USA, and the 3.6-m NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA. We gratefully acknowledge the staff at NOT and the Wenner-Gren Foundations and the Swedish Research Council for making these observations possible.


DFT's main target is to achieve maximum controllability and observability which helps to improve the yield and reliability of design. IDT helps improve the CVY and also the reliability of the design. Before (Deep Submicron Devices) DSM, reliability testing was done by burn-In testing. Now, IDDQ has replaced almost the Burn-In testing. Current testing is more important for the reliability testing. The main challenge for IDT is to select the threshold values. There are many methods available for the selection of threshold values just for IDT. In DSM, the same IDDQ threshold value is used for all the IDDQ strobes, which will not work in VDSM devices. Therefore, separate IDDQ threshold values used in ever different pattern for testing, which will increase reliability screening. The main objective is that if some physical defect is not detected by some pattern, but it will be detected by another, as the threshold value will be changed for each pattern. Experiments have shown that IDT is a good approach to minimize the yield loss and test escape (TE).


This thesis analyzes the relationship between educational attainment and individual economic outcomes throughout the 420 counties of the Appalachian region of the United States. In doing so, this thesis seeks to better understand the impact of education on a region whose income dynamics have lagged significantly behind the rest of the United States for over a half-century. Initial analysis finds that Appalachian counties' incomes per capita lag consistently behind the remainder of the United States, although they receive similar levels of supplementary income benefits. In general, educational attainment, income and income maintenance benefits have all risen over time across the region. Using fixed effects models for both region and time, this thesis finds an unequivocally positive relationship between all levels of educational attainment and per capita income at the county level. Additionally, these models find that an increase in bachelor's degree attainment results in a greater increase in per capita income than an equal increase in high school diploma attainment; however, this difference is relatively small. Similar analysis of the impact of education on supplemental income benefits produced ambiguous results. While fixed effects models for region and time produced negative slope estimates, variance across models and higher standard errors make some of these results difficult to interpret. This ambiguity may be a result of a limited selection of data or significant variation in income maintenance benefits by county. Collectively, this thesis produces encouraging results for future research and policy analysis, finding that educational attainment has had a significant influence on individual earnings across the Appalachian region of the United States in the last half-century.


In 1968, Kuhn Brothers, Inc. entered into a lease for rental space promising to pay its landlord, a shopping center known as The Center of Lebanon, a minimum rent with additional payment to be calculated on gross receipts (percentage rent).1 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Wal-Mart) acquired Kuhn Brothers in 1981 and stepped in as tenant in The Center of Lebanon.2 Meanwhile, WalMart and The Center of Lebanon amended the 1968 lease to increase the base rent and reduce the percentage rent.3 In 1985, BVT Lebanon Shopping Center (BVT) bought out The Center of Lebanon, and BVT revised the lease at Wal-Mart's request, expanding the leased premises to 84,000 square feet.4 To make the expansion possible, BVT spent approximately $1,500,000.5 In early October of 1994, believing that Wal-Mart intended to replace its Lebanon store with Bud's Discount City (Bud's), BVT sued Wal-Mart for $4,689,526 in compensatory damages alleging an anticipatory breach of an implied covenant of continuous occupancy.6 Bud's replaced Wal-Mart on October 5, 1995.7 Although Wal-Mart continued to pay base rent, BVT collected no percentage rent because Bud's never generated sufficient gross receipts under the lease agreement to allow for any such collection! At trial, the Tennessee state court found that Wal-Mart breached the implied covenant of continuous occupancy and the express permitted use clause contained in the lease agreement.9 The two measures of damages BVT presented to the trial court were: "1) the present value of the lost future percentage rent alone, or 2) the diminution in the fair market value of the shopping center caused by Wal-Mart's withdrawal as the anchor tenant."10 The trial court chose to base the award on the lost future percentage rent under the lease agreement and granted BVT $2,507,674 in compensatory damages for breach of contract.11 Wal-Mart appealed, and BVT, seeking compensatory damages based on the diminution in value theory, cross-appealed.12 The court of appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment in favor of BVT, but it held that the proper measure of damages was the "diminution in value of the entire shopping center."13 As a result, the court modified the compensatory damages to $4,695,000.14 The Tennessee Supreme Court held, affirmed.15 On this issue of first impression in Tennessee, the court concluded that the "appropriate measure of damages in a breach of covenant of continuous occupancy is the diminution in fair market value." BVT Lebanon Shopping Ctr., Ltd. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 48 S.W.3d 132, 136 (Tenn. 2001). Generally, damages are available to the non-breaching party in a breach of contract case.16 The basic theory of recovery for a breach of contract is that the non-breaching party is entitled to the benefits he or she would have received had the contract been fully performed by the breaching party.17 Therefore, the non-breaching party is entitled to recover his or her "expectation interest" or benefit of the bargain.18 Under no circumstances, however, is the non-breaching party to be placed in a better position than he or she would have found him or herself had the breaching party fully performed.19 Another equally important theory is that damages will only be awarded if "sustained as a proximate result of the breach [and] so long as such damages are reasonably shown and capable of reasonably [sic] and accurate ascertainment. …


Objective: Sepsis often leads to lung injury, although the mechanisms that initiate this are unclear. One preinjury phenomenon that has not been explored previously is the effect of bacterial (nonlipopolysaccharide) sepsis on the distribution of alveolar perfusion. The goals of our studies were to measure this. Design: Randomized, controlled, prospective animal study. Setting: University animal laboratory. Subjects: Male Sprague-Dawley rats (450–550 g). Interventions: We induced sepsis by placing gelatin capsules containing Escherichia coli and Bacteroides fragilis into the abdomens of rats (n = 9). Empty capsules (n = 6) were placed into the abdomens of controls. After 24 hrs, 4-&mgr;m-diameter fluorescent latex particles (2 × 108) were infused into the pulmonary circulation. Sepsis was induced in additional rats and controls to assess lung injury, as follows: Lung histology was performed on eight septic rats and on seven controls; lung lavage was performed on three septic rats and three controls after their plasma albumin had been labeled with Evans blue dye. Measurements and Main Results: Confocal microscopy was used to prepare digital maps of latex particle trapping patterns (eight per lung). Analysis of these patterns revealed statistically more clustering (perfusion inhomogeneity) down to tissue volumes less than that of ten alveoli in septic lungs compared with controls (p ≤ .05). Bacterial counts and neutrophil counts were significantly higher in the circulation of septic rats (p ≤ .05). Blood pressures and arterial Po2s were unchanged. Cell counts in histological images were three-fold higher in septic lungs than in controls (p ≤ .05). Lung lavage revealed 0.41 ± 0.03 mL of plasma in the lungs of septic rats, and 0.06 ± 0.05 mL in the lungs of controls (p ≤ .05). Conclusions: Bacterial sepsis caused significant maldistribution of interalveolar perfusion in the lungs of rats in the absence of significant lung injury.


'Assertible' abbreviates 'warrantedly assertible' throughout. (AA) is the result of reading in the S4 axiom of modal logic p → p as 'it is assertible that', or of substituting those words for 'one knows that' in the KK schema 'If one knows that P, then one knows that one knows that P'. This paper argues that (AA) has false consequences. Some clarifications: Assertibility depends on circumstances; it is gained or lost as the available evidence changes. Thus (AA) has implicit generality both over circumstances and in the schematic variable 'P'. 'P' is replaceable by declarative sentences, which may have features sensitive to the circumstances, e.g. tense (as in the third occurrence of 'is' in (AA)). The circumstances are the


This work aims to develop an uncertainty analysis methodology for the propagation and quantification of the effects of nuclear cross-section uncertainties on important core-wide attributes, such as power distribution and core critical eigenvalue. Given the computationally taxing nature of this endeavor, our goal is to develop a methodology capable of preserving the accuracy of brute force sampling techniques for uncertainty quantification while realizing the efficiency of deterministic techniques. To achieve that, a reduced order modeling (ROM) approach is proposed to deal with the enormous size of the uncertainty space, comprising all the cross-section few-group parameters required in core-wide simulation. The idea is to generate a compressed representation of the uncertainty space, as represented by a covariance matrix, that renders sampling techniques computationally a feasible option for quantifying and prioritizing the various sources of uncertainties.While the proposed developments are general to any reactor physics computational sequence, we customize our approach to the NESTLE [1]-TRITON [2] computational sequence, which will serve as a demonstrative tool for the implementation of our approach. NESTLE is a software used for core wide simulation, which relies on the few-group cross-sections to calculate core wide attributes over multiple cycles of depletion. Its input cross-sections are generated using a matrix of conditions evaluated using a lattice physics code, which in our implementation is done using the TRITON software of the ORNL' SCALE suit. This manuscript presents one of the early steps towards this goal. Specifically, we focus here on the development of the algorithms for determining the reduced dimension of covariance matrix. Numerical experiment using the TRITON software is employed to demonstrate how the reduction is achieved.Copyright © 2017 by ASME


Aim: Our aim was to evaluate the feasibility of using ultrasonography (US) in the detection and management of small bowel bezoars in elderly patients (> 65 y). Material and Methods: This study included 15 elderly patients (> 65 y) with small bowel obstruction and initial diagnosis of small bowel bezoar using abdominal computed tomography (CT) from among 182 patients with small bowel obstruction. The diagnostic performance of US was prospectively evaluated and compared with the surgical or clinical diagnoses. Results: Among the 15 patients, ten of them were diagnosed via ultrasonography as having small bowel bezoar. Eight patients were also surgically diagnosed with phytobezoars, and the remaining two patients who showed bezoars on US showed complete symptomatic improvement with ultrasonographic follow-up showing the bezoar passing through the cecum. The other five patients were surgically diagnosed with brid ileus. US correctly diagnosed small bowel bezoars in all patients. The sonographic follow-up of the bezoars in the two patients who showed symptomatic improvement was also successful. Conclusion: US is a feasible imaging modality for the diagnosis and follow-up of small bowel bezoars. Timely diagnosis and management of bezoars is especially important in elderly patients. US can help both, radiologists and clinicians in easy diagnosis and timely management of small bowel bezoars in elderly patients.


Reports on the detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere have motivated numerous studies aiming to confirm orexplain its presence on a planet where it might imply a biogenic or more likely a geophysical origin. Our intent is to complement and improve on the previously reported detection attempts by the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite(ACS) on board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). This latter study reported the results of a campaign that was a few months inlength, and was significantly hindered by a dusty period that impaired detection performances. We unveil 640 solar occultation measurements gathering 1.44 Martian years worth of data produced by the ACS. No methane was detected. Probing the clear northern summer season allowed us to reach 1-σupper limits of around 10pptv (20 pptv at 2-σ), with an annual mean of the smallest upper limits of 20 pptv. Upper limits are controlled by the amount ofdust in the atmosphere, which impairs detection performance around the equator and during the southern spring and summer seasons.Observations performed near Gale crater yielded 1-σupper limits of up to four times less than the background values measured bythe Curiosity rover during the corresponding seasons. Reconciliation of the absence of methane in the TGO spectra with the positive detections by Curiosity is even moredifficult in light of this annual survey performed by ACS. Stronger constraints are placed on the physical and chemical mechanismcapable of explaining why the mean of the best overall upper limits of ACS is ten times below the smallest methane abundancesmeasured by Curiosity.


Assessing the potential for forest carbon (C) capture and storage requires accurate assessments of C in live tree tissues. In the vast majority of local, regional, and global assessments, C content has been assumed to be 50% of tree biomass; however, recent studies indicate that this assumption is not accurate, with substantial variation in C content among tree species as well as among tissue types. Here we conduct a comprehensive literature review to present a global synthesis of C content in tissues of live trees. We found a total of 253 species-specific stem wood C content records in 31 studies, and an additional 34 records of species with C content values of other tissues in addition to stem wood. In all biomes, wood C content varied widely across species ranging from 41.9–51.6% in tropical species, 45.7–60.7% in subtropical/Mediterranean species, and 43.4–55.6% in temperate/boreal species. Stem wood C content varied significantly as a function of biome and species type (conifer, angiosperm). Conifer species exhibited greater wood C content than angiosperm species (50.8 ± 0.7% (95% C.I.) and 47.7 ± 0.3%, respectively), a trend that was consistent among all biomes. Although studies have documented differences in C content among plant tissues, interspecific differences in stem wood appear to be of greater importance overall: among species, stem wood C content explained 37, 76, 48, 81, and 63% respectively of the variation in bark, branch, twig, coarse root, and fine root C content values, respectively. In each case, these intraspecific patterns approximated 1:1 linear relationships. Most published stem wood C content values (and all values for other tree tissues) are based on dried wood samples, and so neglect volatile C constituents that constitute on average 1.3–2.5% of total C in live wood. Capturing this volatile C fraction is an important methodological consideration for future studies. Our review, and associated data compilation, provides empirically supported wood C fractions that can be easily incorporated into forest C accounting, and may correct systematic errors of ~1.6–5.8% in forest C assessments.


Background Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are more sedentary than the general population, which can have serious health consequences. Reducing sedentary behaviour (SB) and increasing light intensity physical activity is advocated as a potentially more achievable health promotion focus in patients with chronic diseases and mobility problems. Intervention studies have shown that behavioural approaches are effective in reducing SB in healthy populations. Whether this applies to patients with RA is yet to be determined. Objectives To test the efficacy of a 16-week individually tailored, behavioural intervention in reducing daily sitting time, pain and fatigue and improving health-related quality of life, self-efficacy, physical function and cardio-metabolic disease risk in patients with RA. Methods Parallel-group, observer-blinded randomised controlled trial (N=150). RA patients >18 years of age, self-reported daily sitting time >5 hours and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) score <2.5 were consecutively recruited from a rheumatology outpatient clinic. The intervention group (n=75) received three individual motivational counselling sessions with a health professional and text messages aiming at improving motivation for light intensity physical activity through reduction of SB. The control group (n=75) was encouraged to maintain usual lifestyle. Primary outcome was change from baseline in daily sitting time measured objectively by ActivPAL, analysed using ANCOVA with a factor for group and adjustment for the outcome level at baseline. Primary analyses were based on the intention-to-treat population. Secondary outcomes included patient-reported outcomes and cardio-metabolic biomarkers (blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood glucose, body weight and waist circumference). Results After 16 weeks, three participants were lost to follow-up. There was a mean decrease in daily sitting time of 1.61 hours (h)/day with the intervention and an increase of 0.59 h/day in the control group; between-group difference was -2.20 h/day (95%CI: -2.72 to -1.69; p<.0001) in favour of the intervention group. Most of the secondary outcomes were also in favour of the intervention; VAS-pain: -22.36 (-29.27 to -15.44); VAS-fatigue: -26.80 (-34.32 to -19.30), physical function (HAQ): -0.42, (-0.54 to -0.30) and total cholesterol: -0.37 (-0.50 to -0.24) mmol/l. Conclusions An individually tailored, behavioural intervention effectively reduced daily sitting time by on average more than two hours in patients with RA and additionally improved patient-reported clinical outcomes and cholesterol levels. The results may be important for clinical practise and physical activity recommendations for patients with RA and can most likely be generalised to other populations with chronic disease and mobility limitations. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Extraneural metastatic disease of glioma is rare and poses unique therapeutic challenges. Increasingly, the ability to sequence genetic alterations in tumors has allowed for the identification of common oncogenic signatures such as the activating BRAFV600E mutation and may be useful in therapeutic decision making. We report two patients with widespread aggressive gliomas whose tumors were found to express the BRAFV600E mutation and then responded robustly albeit transiently when exposed to vemurafenib. Although both patients succumbed to their disease, our results suggest that targeting BRAF might be appropriate for patients with aggressive gliomas that express this mutation.


Abstract During a period of 4 years, soil chemical and physical properties of the temporary capping system in Rastorf (Northern Germany) were estimated, whereby compost was partly used as soil improver in the upper recultivation layer. The air capacity and the available water capacity of soil samples were first determined in 2013 (without compost), and then in 2015 (with compost) under laboratory conditions. Herein, the addition of compost had a positive effect on: the air capacity up to 13.4 cm3 cm−3; and the available water capacity up to 20.1 cm3 cm−3 in 2015, in the recultivation layer (0-20 cm). However, taking into account the in situ results of the tensiometer and frequency domain reflectometry measurements, the addition of compost had a negative effect. The soil-compost mixture led to restricted remoistening even after a normal summer drying period in autumn and induced more negative matric potentials in the recultivation layer. In summary, the soil-improving effect of the compost addition, in conjunction with an increased water storage capacity, is undeniable and was demonstrated in a combined field and laboratory study. Therefore, intensive hydrophobicity can inhibit the homogeneous remoistening of the soil, resulting in a decreased hydraulic effectiveness of the sealing system.