In miniature magnetically levitated rotating machines, permanent magnet bearings are generally used for rotor levitation in the radial directions and electro-magnetic actuators are used for rotor stabilization in the axial direction. In this configuration rotor radial oscillations are unavoidable because no controllable force is applicable in these directions. Consequently, rotor damping relies entirely on the media in the air-gap. This paper presents a novel electro-magnetic actuator for miniature magnetically levitated rotating machine. The actuator stator core consists of four poles for flux passage. The currents on these poles are independently controlled so that axial and radial forces are produced. The axial force is used for rotor levitation control, while the radial force is used to assist in radial oscillation suppression. Theoretical analysis and experimental verifications for the radial force production are provided.


The journey from history to heritage is explored through the history of the Brunswick Ironworks of Caernarfon Gwynedd which is presented as an ethnographic case study. Brunswick Ironworks are a family business which has been located in the town of Caernarfon for over one hundred years. It has contributed significantly to the visual appearance of the town through its work as art metal blacksmiths. The ethnographic study is based on the history of the Brunswick Ironworks supported by the materials generated from Irish case studies which assisted in the creation of the Brunswick heritage trail (one of the outcomes of the research project). The history of the company was researched from 1906-2010 using documents held by the company charting their development as art metal blacksmiths. The company has worked on key commissions ranging from work in the Royal Palaces of (Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle) to the ironwork for the coffin of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey.
The heritage debate is discussed by charting the journey from history to heritage as illustrated through the history of the Brunswick Ironworks. The current debate on heritage was discussed revealing that heritage in the case of the Brunswick project was a process developed to suit the requirements of the research project. The project revealed that through the creative use of one specific aspect of the Brunswick Ironworks heritage (the Unknown Warrior) the profile of the company was used to guide its future development through the utilisation of their skills as art metal blacksmiths in the twenty first century.
The research project was a journey which revealed new aspects of the heritage of the Brunswick Ironworks as the project developed and evolved. The creation of the six objectives for the Brunswick Ironworks emerged following detailed discussions between the owner Mr Meurig Williams and the researcher. These objectives assisted in the identification of a structure for the project. As the project developed and evolved a transferable model emerged which could be utilised by other researchers providing a template from which to begin their journey.
The six objectives identified for the project were ambitious and required the acquisition of new skills for the researcher. These ranged from learning how to catalogue the Brunswick archive to improving and developing photographic skills which were used to record the work of the company resulting in the creation of a photographic archive.
The outcomes from the research project indicated that when heritage is viewed as a process it encourages connections to be made which in the case of the Brunswick project were enriched by the active sharing of their heritage. This supported other locations which were able to develop their link with the Unknown Warrior. This in turn raised the profile of the company on a national level which brought their skills as art metal blacksmiths to a wider market illustrating how the past heritage of the company was developed to guide its future development.


This paper proposes an approach allowing topology learning and recognition in indoor environments by using a probabilistic approach called Bayesian programming. The main goal of this approach is to cope with the uncertainty, imprecision and incompleteness of handled information. The Bayesian program for topology recognition and door detection is presented. The method has been successfully tested in indoor environments with the BIBA robot, a fully autonomous robot. The experiments address both the topology learning and topology recognition capabilities of the approach.


The focus of this paper is the derivation of an effective model for biofilm growth in a porous medium and its effect on fluid flow. The starting point is a pore‐scale model in which the local geometry of the pore is represented as a thin strip. The model accounts for changes in pore volume due to biomass accumulation. As the ratio of the width of the strip to its length approaches zero, we apply a formal limiting argument to derive a one‐dimensional upscaled (effective) model. For a better understanding of the terms and parameters involved in the equations derived here, we compare these equations to a well‐known core‐scale model from the literature.


Millimetre-wave- and terahertz sensors are a premier choice for the non-destructive inspection of letters and parcels as well as the control of products. A small versatile scanner ahs been developed, which allows to demonstrate this capability. The scanner employs mechanical scanning in transmission geometry, the transmitter ans receiver located at two rotating discs facing its other with the test sample linearly shifted in between. The paper describes the geometrical set-up and gives typical results.


We have employed a recent implementation of genetic algorithms to study a range of standard benchmark functions for global optimization. It turns out that some of them are not very useful as challenging test functions, since they neither allow for a discrimination between different variants of genetic operators nor exhibit a dimensionality scaling resembling that of real-world problems, for example that of global structure optimization of atomic and molecular clusters. The latter properties seem to be simulated better by two other types of benchmark functions. One type is designed to be deceptive, exemplified here by Lunacek's function. The other type offers additional advantages of markedly increased complexity and of broad tunability in search space characteristics. For the latter type, we use an implementation based on randomly distributed Gaussians. We advocate the use of the latter types of test functions for algorithm development and benchmarking.


I propose a general theory for examining the spatial distribution of crime by specifically addressing and estimating the spatial distribution of the residences of offenders, targets, guardians, and their respective expected movement patterns across space and time. The model combines information on the locations of persons, typical spatial movement patterns, and situational characteristics of locations to create estimates of crime potential at various locations at various points in time and makes four key contributions. First, the equations make the ideas involved in the theory explicit, and they highlight points at which our current state of empirical evidence is lacking. Second, by creating measures of spatial "potentials" of offenders, targets, and guardians, this theory provides a precise grounding for operationalizing spatial effects in studies of place and crime. Third, the equations provide an explicit consideration of offenders and where they might travel and, therefore, incorporates offenders into crime-and-place research. Fourth, these equations suggest ways that researchers could use simulations to predict stable patterns, as well as changes, in the levels of crime at both micro and macro scales. Finally, I provide an empirical demonstration of the added explanatory power provided by the theory to a study of place and crime.


It is widely acknowledged that today's news media are changing radically. New forms of what is coming to be known as 'networked journalism' are increasingly visible. These new forms of journalism raise many ethical issues not the least because, as we argue in this paper, they encourage new forms of boundary crossing on a scale not possible until recently. We suggest that these developments contain the seeds for the possibility to better understand differences and distinctions among people, but that they also heighten the possibilities for misunderstanding. Networked journalism does not yet provide a fully open space for dialogue. However, as journalists take on new roles and more voices are heard, there is a growing need to understand the implications of the new forms of boundary crossing that are being encouraged by this new form of journalism. Emerging forms of journalism may provide a foundation for public dialogue that enables stories about distant others to be told and better understood. The consequence may be that there will be new opportunities for enhanced sharing of viewpoints. Although convergent media platforms create opportunities for new exchanges, there are reasons to question whether the potential will be met.


In this paper we produce a new algorithm for optical character recognition OCR in Persian words by discomposing them to their containing primitive elements. All Persian letters and words are consisting of 9 primitive elements suggested. At first primitive elements are extracted by using the modified Hough Transform and make the primitive arrays. And then these elements from first and end of the array are compared with Character Identification Vectors (CIV) and recognize the characters. In this method two processes of separation and recognition are accomplished simultaneously and don't depend on font and size of it unlike the others. This algorithm is done for 5 most important Persian fonts -Time New Roman, Nazanin, Yaghut, Zar and Titr- in three sizes of 12, 14 and 16, with 93.43% precision.


This work is a proposed simulation for forward link channel of CDMA2000 -1x system by using QPSK, 8QAM and 16QAM, and converting the proposed system to VHDL language by using Simulink HDL Coder for implementing in FPGA board. The results of simulation for forward link channel of CDMA2000 system shows improvement when using three levels of codes (LPNC, Walsh code and complex coding) in the present of AWGN for QPSK modulation the system performance is improved from (1.8 to 1.9) in dB for BER (Bit Error Rate) 10 to 10 and for 8QAM the system performance is improved at (2.9) in dB for BER 10 to 10 and for 16QAM the system performance is improved from (1 to 1.2) in dB for BER 10 to 10 . The results of simulation in the present of AWGN and Rayleigh fading channel are improvement within (0.5) in dB for the different Doppler Frequencies (5 - 230Hz). The Simulink HDL Coder has been used for converting the MATLABSimulink models to VHDL language. The verification of the generated VHDL code has been done using Altera-ModelSim program, while the synthesis reports and board programming files have been obtained using the Quartus II program. System implementation has been done using FPGA technology with Altera Cyclone II boards. The implementation of the forward link channel by using Simulink HDL coder shows feasibility and flexibility in solving the problem of complex multiplication of complex spreading code also the practical results were closed to that obtained from ModelSim program.


The kinetics of chloride and bromide transport were examined in intact human red blood cells and resealed ghosts. Because the influx and efflux of halide ions are almost equal (less than 0.01% difference), the stimulation of the exchange flux by external halides could be determined by measuring 36Cl or 82Br efflux. When the external halide concentration was increased by replacement of isoionic, isotonic solutions of sucrose and the nontransported anion citrate, the stimulation of the exchange flux was hyperbolic and was maximum at 20 mM halide externally. The K 1/2-out, the external concentration of chloride or bromide which stimulated the efflux to half of its maximum value, was 3 and 1 mM respectively, 15-fold smaller than K 1/2-in which we found to be about equal to the K 1/2 of halide self-exchange with nearly equal internal and external concentrations. Thus, the transport mechanism behaves asymmetrically with respect to these transported halides. Bromide flux was two-fold greater in bromide-chloride heteroexchange than in bromide-bromide self-exchange but it was still much smaller than the chloride self-exchange flux. The maximum influx and efflux of bromide in exchange for chloride were roughly eqal. Thus, since the maximum transport rates in the two directions are nearly equal, the kinetics of bromide equilibrium exchange with equal concentrations on the two sides are controlled on the inside where K 1/2 is greatest. The K 1/2-out Cl was a hyperbolic function of internal chloride concentration and was proportional to the maximum flux at each internal chloride concentration. These results are evaluated in terms of two broad categories of models. We conclude that, in contrast to other ion transport systems which have been shown to have kinetics of a sequential mechanism, anion exchange is compatible with a ping-pong mechanism in which a single site reciprocates between inside- and outside-facing orientations with asymmetric K 1/2 values.


Objectives: It is currently recommended that after return of spontaneous circulation following cardiac arrest, fever should be prevented using TTM through a servo-controlled system. This technology is not yet available in many global settings, where manual physical measures without servo-control is the only option. Our aim was to compare feasibility, safety and quality assurance of servo-controlled system versus no servo-controlled system cooling, TTM protocols for cooling, maintenance and rewarming following return of spontaneous circulation after cardiac arrest in children. Design: Prospective, multicenter, nonrandomized, study. Setting: PICUs of 20 hospitals in South America, Spain, and Italy, 2012–2014. Patients: Under 18 years old with a cardiac arrest longer than 2 minutes, in coma and surviving to PICU admission requiring mechanical ventilation were included. Methods: TTM to 32–34°C was performed by prospectively designed protocol across 20 centers, with either servo-controlled system or no servo-controlled system methods, depending on servo-controlled system availability. We analyzed clinical data, cardiac arrest, temperature, mechanical ventilation duration, length of hospitalization, complications, survival, and neurologic outcomes at 6 months. Primary outcome: feasibility, safety and quality assurance of the cooling technique and secondary outcome: survival and Pediatric Cerebral Performance Category at 6 months. Measurements and Main Results: Seventy patients were recruited, 51 of 70 TTM (72.8%) with servo-controlled system. TTM induction, maintenance, and rewarming were feasible in both groups. Servo-controlled system was more effective than no servo-controlled system in maintaining TTM (69 vs 60%; p = 0.004). Servo-controlled system had fewer temperatures above 38.1°C during the 5 days of TTM (0.1% vs 2.9%; p < 0.001). No differences in mortality, complications, length of mechanical ventilation and of stay, or neurologic sequelae were found between the two groups. Conclusions: TTM protocol (for cooling, maintenance and rewarming) following return of spontaneous circulation after cardiac arrest in children was feasible and safe with both servo-controlled system and no servo-controlled system techniques. Achieving, maintaining, and rewarming within protocol targets were more effective with servo-controlled system versus no servo-controlled system techniques.


The main objective of this class experiment is to measure the activity of two metabolic enzymes in crude extract from bird pectoral muscle and to relate the differences to their mode of locomotion and ecology. The laboratory is adapted to stimulate the interest of wildlife management students to biochemistry. The enzymatic activities of cytochrome c oxidase and lactate dehydrogenase are measured in pectoral muscle of black duck and ring-necked pheasant. The black ducks have a high cytochrome c oxidase/lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) ratio, which reflects high aerobic capacity required for sustained and long distance flight. The low cytochrome c oxidase/LDH ratio in ring-necked pheasants and high level of LDH activity suggest that this bird can only support short bursts of flight, which may be related to his strategy of predator avoidance.


: The course of influenza infection in mice with a developed graft-versus-host reaction (GVHR) was changed. Due to disturbances in the inflammatory process the pneumonia was delayed and less marked. Consequently, the infected mice died later than controls. Influenza virus reproduction in the lungs was more intensive and its persistence more prolonged. Interferon production in the lungs of mice with GVHR was similar to that in the controls.


In the NiMnCo–C system, diamond single crystals have been successfully synthesized by adding C3H5N3O as an organic additive under 5.5–6.2 GPa and 1280–1320 °C. The synthesized diamonds are initially characterized using OM, SEM, FTIR, Raman, XPS and powder XRD. With the increase of the C3H5N3O content, the color of diamonds changes from light yellow to green. The FTIR spectra of the diamond synthesized indicate that its nitrogen concentration increases with the increase of the C3H5N3O additive. The typical oxygen and hydrogen related peaks appear and the absorption intensity increases with addition of C3H5N3O. The Raman spectrum and XRD spectrum show synthesized diamonds with a good quality phase of crystallization. The XPS results again confirmed that oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen related impurities exist in the diamond. It is meaningful to provide reference data to further recognize the composition of the natural diamond growth environment.


The present study examined associations between parents' levels of acculturation depressive symptoms, family support, and couple relationship quality with coparenting conflict. We also explored the effects of coparenting conflict on parenting and infant social development in a sample of low-income Mexican American (n = 735) infants (age 9 months) and their parents. Results indicated that couple conflict was the strongest predictor of coparenting conflict. Coparenting conflict had a significant effect on mother--infant interaction and father engagement. The effects of coparenting on father caregiving varied by father's level of acculturation; when there is high coparenting conflict, more acculturated fathers engaged in more caregiving than do less acculturated fathers. Coparenting conflict was not predictive of infant social development.


The main aim of this work was to assess the multi-task role of ferritin (Ft) in the oxidative metabolism of soybean (Glycine max). Soybean seeds incubated for 24 h yielded 41 ± 5 μg Ft/g fresh weight. The rate of in vitro incorporation of iron (Fe) into Ft was tested by supplementing the reaction medium with physiological Fe chelators. The control rate, observed in the presence of 100 μM Fe, was not significantly different from the values observed in the presence of 100 μM Fe-his. However, it was significantly higher in the presence of 100 μM Fe-citrate (approximately 4.5-fold) or of 100 μM Fe-ATP (approximately 14-fold). Moreover, a substantial decrease in the Trp-dependent fluorescence of the Ft protein was determined during Fe uptake from Fe-citrate, as compared with the control. On the other hand, Ft addition to homogenates from soybean embryonic axes reduced endogenously generated ascorbyl radical, according to its capacity for Fe uptake. The data presented here suggest that Ft could be involved in the generation of free radicals, such as hydroxyl radical, by Fe-catalyzed reactions. Moreover, the scavenging of these radicals by Ft itself could then lead to protein damage. However, Ft could also prevent cellular damage by the uptake of catalytically active Fe.


The fault analysis and evaluation of fault voltage and current in the power system network is very important for a stable and reliable operation of the power system. In the present paper, a study of various reasons for faults in a real grid is carried out and various methods of localizing the fault are also discussed. All the analyses of the faults have being performed on the real grid of 22KV of Roha town feeder. The data of last three years including parameters like time of faults, maximum downtime, voltage before and after the fault, current before and after the fault, power before and after the fault are considered for the analysis. The study undertaken herewith is an attempt to develop a methodology and framework for achieving better and reliable energy supply.


Compared to childless (nulliparous) women, the breast cancer risk of mothers can be 50% lower. The cause of the protective effect of parity is not yet clarified. However, it has been shown that immune cells of mothers show an enhanced cytotoxicity against tumor cells. Hence, it was assumed that T cells mediate the anti-cancer effect via the recognition of tumor-associated antigens (TAA). Moreo-ver, regulatory T cells (Treg), being essential for the prevention of pathological immune responses, can also suppress anti-tumor immunity. In breast cancer patients, the intratumoral accumulation of Treg cells is associated with a lower overall survival and an increased risk of relapse. Previous studies have revealed the presence of TAA-specific T cells in the blood of breast cancer patients. On the downside, the anti-tumor immunity of these patients is frequently suppressed by TAA-specific Treg cells.
The aim of this study was to investigate the induction and characteristics of spontaneous T cell re-sponses against TAA during pregnancy, which may form a lifelong immune protection against breast cancer. Furthermore, we asked whether previous pregnancies may also have an impact on the anti-tumor immunity of breast cancer patients.
We isolated peripheral blood T cells from nulliparous and primigravid women, mothers and breast cancer patients and analyzed their TAA specificity, functional properties and phenotype. IFN-γ ELISpot analyses with long synthetic peptides were performed to detect the frequency of TAA specif-ic T cells in blood samples. The impact of TAA-specific Treg cells on anti-tumor immunity was as-sessed by performing the IFN-γ ELISpot analyses before and after depletion of CD4+CD25+ T cells. By applying the Treg-specificity assay, we analyzed the antigenic specificities of these Treg cells.
The results of this study indicate a spontaneous induction of anti-tumor immune responses during the first trimester of pregnancy. Highly functional TAA-specific memory T cells were detected in 85% of healthy mothers, but in none of the nulliparous controls. Furthermore, we found that a lifelong immunological memory is formed, that positively impacts on anti-tumor immunity, since TAA-specific T cell responses in mothers with breast cancer were significantly stronger and less impaired by Treg cells, as compared to nullipara.
The findings obtained in this thesis support the implementation of a prospective study, which corre-lates the prevalence of TAA-specific T cells with the incidence of breast cancer. Based on this study, the potential benefit of a preventive vaccine is to be estimated, which may be applied to nulliparous women.


We now know not only that Alfred, Lord Tennyson, owned a copy of William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job, but also that it had pride of place in his collection at Farringford on the Isle of Wight in the early 1860s. According to a list kept at the Tennyson Research Centre in Lincoln, he displayed it on his drawing-room table well before he received Alexander Gilchrist's Life of Blake (1863) and well before the general Blake revival. His wife, Emily, recorded in her journal that Tennyson acquired Blake's Job on 9 April 1856. It is one of the 215 published "Proof" copies (65 on French paper and 150 on India paper) printed in 1826 by James Lahee, since the word was erased after these copies had been printed. Tennyson's copy is on India paper.


Of necessity, many tax-price elasticities are calculated from tax return data. Survey data on families' charitable giving and reporting on their tax returns indicate that reporting is a significant part of tax-price elasticity estimates. Roughly a quarter of the tax-price elasticity estimated from tax returns represents changes in reporting as opposed to changes in actual donations. These results are consistent with a model in which individuals face unit costs of reporting in addition to any fixed cost of itemization. JEL Codes: H2


Simulation-to-real transfer is an important strategy for making reinforcement learning practical with real robots. Successful sim-to-real transfer systems have difficulty producing policies which generalize across tasks, despite training for thousands of hours equivalent real robot time. To address this shortcoming, we present a novel approach to efficiently learning new robotic skills directly on a real robot, based on model-predictive control (MPC) and an algorithm for learning task representations. In short, we show how to reuse the simulation from the pre-training step of sim-to-real methods as a tool for foresight, allowing the sim-to-real policy adapt to unseen tasks. Rather than end-to-end learning policies for single tasks and attempting to transfer them, we first use simulation to simultaneously learn (1) a continuous parameterization (i.e. a skill embedding or latent) of task-appropriate primitive skills, and (2) a single policy for these skills which is conditioned on this representation. We then directly transfer our multi-skill policy to a real robot, and actuate the robot by choosing sequences of skill latents which actuate the policy, with each latent corresponding to a pre-learned primitive skill controller. We complete unseen tasks by choosing new sequences of skill latents to control the robot using MPC, where our MPC model is composed of the pre-trained skill policy executed in the simulation environment, run in parallel with the real robot. We discuss the background and principles of our method, detail its practical implementation, and evaluate its performance by using our method to train a real Sawyer Robot to achieve motion tasks such as drawing and block pushing.


This thesis is aimed to explain why the annexation of Crimea took place in march 2014. With help from the attribution theory my aim is to investigate how individuals explain the behaviour of states. The attribution theory is a part of social psychology and aims to elucidate why individuals explain events in certain ways. By using the attribution theory as a theoretical instrument, the aim is to use idea analysis as the method, identifying explanations that harmonizes with the attribution theory. In the analysistwo perspectives are used: Jones and Nisbett's internal and external attributions and Vertzberger's theory on the use of history in decision making. Therefore, the analysis set four questions: Why did according, to the swedish authors, Russia annex Crimea? Why did according to Vladimir Putin, Russia annex crimea? Is the attribution theory still relevant? Four texts are used in the analysis, three debate articles written by Swedish authors and also Vladimir Putin's speech in Moscow 2014. It is evident that the explanations in all four texts can be explained using the attribution theory.


Summary Multivessel coil shooting is a towed-streamer acquisition method that provides full-azimuth, long-offsets seismic data, and has been used in the Gulf of Mexico for subsalt exploration since 2010. A typical configuration consists of two streamer vessels and two source vessels, each vessel deploying a single source array. In this paper we propose a new design for multivessel coil shooting acquisition that is based on eight source arrays and simultaneous shooting. To prove that this design is geophysically feasible, we performed seismic simulation with 3D finite-difference acoustic modeling and depth imaging using reverse time migration (RTM). Based on the results of this simulation, a field experiment was proposed. A new method for active source separation was introduced and tested on synthetic and real data.


Second language vocabulary acquisition has been modeled both as multidimensional in nature and as a continuum wherein the learner's knowledge of a word develops along a cline from recognition through production. In order to empirically examine and compare these models, the authors assess the degree to which the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS; Paribakht & Wesche, 1993), which implicitly assumes a cline model of acquisition, conforms to a linear trait model under the Rasch Partial Credit Model, and determine the dimensionality of the individual tasks contained on the scale (self-report, first language [L1] equivalent, and sentence) using DETECT. The authors find that, although the VKS functions adequately overall as a measurement model, Stages 3 (can give an adequate L1 equivalent) and 4 (can use with semantic appropriateness) are psychometrically indistinct, suggesting they should be collapsed into a single category of definitional knowledge. Analysis under DIMTEST and DETECT indicates that other forms of vocabulary knowledge measured by the VKS are weakly multidimensional, which has implications for continuum models of vocabulary acquisition.


The parasitic plant Striga hermonthica (Delile) Benth. is stimulated to germinate by biomolecules (strigolactones) produced in the roots of host and some non-host plants. Non-hosts induce Striga's suicidal germination and are therefore used as trap crops. Among trap crops, the Slenderleaf legume in the genus Crotalaria (Crotalaria brevidens (L.) Benth.) and (Crotalaria orchroleuca (G.) Don.) has been popularized in African smallholder farms. However, the Striga germination efficiency of these locally grown Crotalaria varieties (landraces) is unknown. Also unclear is Crotolaria's extent to inhibiting Striga growth, post germination. Extensive parasite penetration can expose the trap crop to secondary infections and possible phytotoxicity from Striga. We used in vitro germination assays to determine the Striga germination efficiency of 29 Crotalaria landraces. Furthermore, we determined Crotalaria's ability to inhibit Striga attachment and growth using histological analysis. We found that: i) Crotalaria stimulated germination of Striga seeds at frequencies ranging between 15.5% and 54.5% compared to 74.2% stimulation by the synthetic strigolactone (GR24) used a positive control; ii) Crotalaria blocked Striga entry at multiple levels and did not allow growth beyond the pericycle, effectively blocking vascular connection with the non-host. Hence, Crotalaria is suitable as a trap crop in integrated Striga management.


BACKGROUND
Esthesioneuroblastoma (ENB), also known as olfactory neuroblastoma, is a rare malignant neoplasm of the olfactory mucosa. Despite surgical resection combined with radiotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy, ENB often relapses with rapid progression. Current multimodality, nontargeted therapy for relapsed ENB is of limited clinical benefit.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We queried whether comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) of relapsed or refractory ENB can uncover genomic alterations (GA) that could identify potential targeted therapies for these patients. CGP was performed on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections from 41 consecutive clinical cases of ENBs using a hybrid-capture, adaptor ligation based next-generation sequencing assay to a mean coverage depth of 593X. The results were analyzed for base substitutions, insertions and deletions, select rearrangements, and copy number changes (amplifications and homozygous deletions).

RESULTS
Clinically relevant GA (CRGA) were defined as GA linked to drugs on the market or under evaluation in clinical trials. A total of 28 ENBs harbored GA, with a mean of 1.5 GA per sample. Approximately half of the ENBs (21, 51%) featured at least one CRGA, with an average of 1 CRGA per sample. The most commonly altered gene was TP53 (17%), with GA in PIK3CA, NF1, CDKN2A, and CDKN2C occurring in 7% of samples.

CONCLUSION
We report comprehensive genomic profiles for 41 ENB tumors. CGP revealed potential new therapeutic targets, including targetable GA in the mTOR, CDK and growth factor signaling pathways, highlighting the clinical value of genomic profiling in ENB.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Comprehensive genomic profiling of 41 relapsed or refractory ENBs reveals recurrent alterations or classes of mutation, including amplification of tyrosine kinases encoded on chromosome 5q and mutations affecting genes in the mTOR/PI3K pathway. Approximately half of the ENBs (21, 51%) featured at least one clinically relevant genomic alteration (CRGA), with an average of 1 CRGA per sample. The most commonly altered gene was TP53 (17%), and alterations in PIK3CA, NF1, CDKN2A, or CDKN2C were identified in 7% of samples. Responses to treatment with the kinase inhibitors sunitinib, everolimus, and pazopanib are presented in conjunction with tumor genomics.


Let S denote a subset of Rn defined by quadratic equality and inequality constraints and let S denote its projected semidefinite program (SDP) relaxation. For example, take S and S to be the epigraph of a quadratically constrained quadratic program (QCQP) and the projected epigraph of its SDP relaxation respectively. In this paper, we suggest and analyze a systematic rounding procedure defined in the original space that can be used to decide convex hull exactness, i.e., declare conv(S) = S or output a point in S \ conv(S). The motivation and analysis of this procedure stem from a geometric treatment of the projected SDP relaxation. Specifically, one of the major contributions of this paper is an explicit description of the set of rounding directions at a given point in S using only constraints in the original space. We close with a few applications of our framework recovering a well-known convex hull description, usually derived via the perspective reformulation trick, for a particular convex quadratic mixed integer set as well as new results on the NP-hard partition problem.


The same situation is often viewed from multiple points, leading to the same painted picture, but with different hues, contexts, and angles. Disease is no different. Actions and re-actions to difficult diagnoses differ from patient to patient, and from physician to physician, but amidst the differing perspectives lies a common goal: empathic healing and survival.


Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) form a convenient structural series of molecules with which to examine the selectivity exerted on their removal by soil microbiota. It is known that there is an inverse relationship between PAH molecular size and degradation rates in soil. In this paper, we look at how the magnitude of the slope for this relationship, m, can be used as an indicator of the effect of metal co-contaminants on degradation rates across a range of PAH molecular weights. The analysis utilises data collected from our previous microcosm study (Deary, M.E.; Ekumankama, C.C.; Cummings, S.P. Development of a novel kinetic model for the analysis of PAH biodegradation in the presence of lead and cadmium co-contaminants. Journal of Hazard Materials 2016, 307, 240–252) in which we followed the degradation of the 16 US EPA PAHs over 40 weeks in soil microcosms taken from a high organic matter content woodland soil. The soil was amended with a PAH mixture (total concentration of 2166 mg kg−1) and with a range of metal co-contaminant concentrations (lead, up to 782 mg kg−1; cadmium up to 620 mg kg−1; and mercury up to 1150 mg kg−1). It was found that the magnitude of m increases in relation to the applied concentration of metal co-contaminant, indicating a more adverse effect on microbial communities that participate in the removal of higher molecular weight PAHs. We conclude that m is a useful parameter by which we might measure the differential effects of environmental contaminants on the PAH removal. Such information will be useful in planning and implementing remediation strategies.


Dental fear is a multifactorial problem frequently encountered during dental treatment of children. Studies have indicated that, among others, the behavior of the dentist may play a part in the development of this dental fear. The present study was undertaken to examine the behavioral aspects of the dentist-patient relationship, and specific dentists' behavior that can reduce dental fear. The behavior of forty children referred to a center for special dental care and of two dentists was assessed during treatment. T-test results showed that the children's level of fear decreased after treatment (mean 3.2 vs. 2.1, t = -5.6, p = .000). In addition, it was found that the dentists behaved more directly and authoritatively during the treatment of highly fearful children than during the treatment of relatively less fearful children (p < or = .034). It seems that this direct approach had a positive, long-term effect on these children's fearful behavior during treatment.


Causality is grounded in every scientific field. Computational modelling is no exception, except that it is our focus in this article. But what if we have made a mistake? Is causality a constraint on our understanding of complex systems? Is it an obstacle in our ability to build theories to control change in complex systems? Or do we merely need to refine the concept as we evolve from one level of complexity to another? We start the journey of this article by glancing over a few key pieces of work from Philosophy and Metaphysics. We then centre the discussion on the pivotal element of this paper, causality of change in complex systems of systems and demonstrate that a counterfactual analysis of causality breaks down. We steer the discussion more towards "change" and the separation between physical and perceptual elements. Three applications are presented as examples of the type of complexity we face in computational modelling of complex systems of systems. These three applications --covering story generation in linguistics, network centric operations in defence and interdependency security problems --demonstrate how causal dependencies can be modelled, identified and extracted from a computational environment that mimics real-world complex systems of systems. We conclude the paper with a proposed model to control change in complex systems; a model we call the E4 model.


Problem: American adults are facing two major lifestyle-related problems that have surfaced during the previous two-to-three decades: an epidemic of increasing adiposity and a deteriorating pursuit of physical activity. These lifestyle traits, which emerge prior to adolescent growth and development, are culturally linked. The literature suggests that this "weight plague" and "inactivity lifestyle" both have a gender bias and are ethnically prevalent. In particular, the African-American race and the female gender are associated with propensity for this combination. Additionally, the literature suggests that risks for various debilitating diseases are more pronounced as fat mass increases and activity level decreases. Therefore, what consequence, if any, do these trends have on the neuromuscular characteristics of adolescent African-American females? Procedures: Thirty-two subjects were randomly selected to participate in a seven week protocol that encompassed analysis of body composition, indices of skeletal muscular strength, and questionnaires which quantified time spent in leisure, occupational, and/or structured physical activity endeavors. In order to illustrate comparisons, subjects were grouped as "low-risk" or "high-risk," depending upon their body mass index (BMI<22.5= "low-risk" and BMI>22.5= "high-risk," respectively). Results: There was no sound evidence that suggests lessening of neuromuscular function among subjects. Although possessing significantly greater total body fat-freemass (p=0.029), leg fat-free mass (p=0.041), arm fat-free mass (p=0.025), and thigh extensor absolute-strength (p=0.013), the "high-risk" individuals demonstrated less attributable variance in their muscular strength and size indices. Surprisingly, the "highrisk" subjects were more active (kcal/d, p=0.042 and 5 day pedometer readings, p=0.0001) than their "low-risk" counterparts according to self-report measures of physical activity. However, the pursuit of hard-to-vigorous physical activities was almost non-existent between both groups (1.88 and 2.56 hrs/wk for "low-risk" and "high-risk" respectively). Conclusion: Although groups differed in body composition, muscular strength, and activity durations, altered neuromuscular function among subjects were not present. Given the minimal pursuit of hard-to-vigorous activities, more time engaging in these activities may be the critical element in offsetting premature neuromuscular disorders, although not observed. Moreover, more research in needed that focuses on adolescent skeletal muscular characteristics and their relation to physical activity durations. Additionally, developing ways to enhance hard-to-vigorous activities is strongly encouraged. INDEX WORDS: African-American Females, Adolescence, Neuromuscular Function, Body Composition and Mass, Physical Activity, Upper Arm Flexors, Thigh Extensors, Isometric Torque, Absolute Strength, Specific Tension, MR-imaging, DEXA, Pedometer/step counter, and 7-day Physical Activity Recall. BODY COMPOSITION, NEUROMUSCULAR FUNCTION, AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AMONG ADOLESCENT AFRICAN-AMERICAN FEMALES


Chen and Tsai (2002) proposed a variance-components technique to decompose the prediction error of ground motions into three components: the earthquake-to-earthquake, the site-to-site, and the residual errors, with three corresponding variance components. From a data set of over seven thousand records with various site conditions, Tsai and Chen (2003) found that the relative percentages of the three components of variances are dependent upon the numbers of earthquake events and stations providing the sampled records, and the variances of the earthquake and the site components are in general smaller than that of the residual. Noting that the residual encompasses the path-to-path error in ground motions, in this work we show that if the variability of the path effect can be sensibly specified a priori, the path- to-path component of error can be further differentiated from the residual errors. The prediction error can be reduced dramatically after ground-motion estimates have been corrected for the site as well as the path effects of variability in ground motion. Although the path component of error, unlike the site component, cannot be directly eliminated from the ground-motion estimates for future earthquake events, we propose to account for the path effect by turning it into useful information such as the three-dimensional (3D) velocity structural model obtained by the inversion technique. If a 3D model describing the path effect for each source-to-site pair can be constructed, the ground-motion prediction with both the site and path effects accounted for may be feasibly practical.


When the size of a neurosphere cultured in vitro reaches a certain critical value, a necrotic core will appear inside the neurosphere because of the limitation of oxygen or other nutrients transport from medium to the cells in the neurasphere. Large necrotic core will greatly reduce the expansion of NSCs. The cellular automaton (CA) model is applied in this article to model the growth of NSCs in sphere state. The appearance and enlargement of the necrotic core in a neurosphere is calculated by coupling the CA model with the nutrient diffusion analysis in bioreactors. The calculation results indicate that the culture conditions, such as seeding density, the concentration of nutrients in medium and the mass transfer coefficient between a neurosphere and medium, have some effects on the appearance of the necrotic core. However, the necrotic core mainly depends on the inner diffusion. It will certainly appear if the size of the neurosphere is large enough even the outside mass transfer is in a good condition in bioreactors. Additionally, the appearance of the necrotic core resulting from the shortage of oxygen is earlier than that caused by the limitation of glucose. And the growth of the necrotic core is very fast after its appearance, and the whole neurosphere may become necrotic. The model developed with cellular automaton and mass transfer is a good qualitative representation of NSCs growth in bioreactors.


Angiogenesis in the burn wound healing process is important. The application stem cell therapy in burn wound problem is expected to increase formation of new blood vessel so that the distribution of oxygen and nutrients working well. The purpose of this study was to known effect of human Adipose Derived Stem Cell (hADSC) in collagen gel on the average number of blood vessels based on time dependent. This study used 25 male rats Sprague Dawley who had received three internal wounds with different treatments. The treatments used hADSC in collagen gel, collagen gel only and without treatment. The rats were divided into 5 groups based on the duration of observation day 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28. Rat without burn wound were used as control. Observation blood vessels number using hematoxylin-eosin staining and calculated of average number blood vessels from five filed in five mice. Statistical analysis used ANOVA one way with significance value p<0.05. The average number blood vessels increase significantly until day 21 and decreased on day 28, both in untreated burn wound, collagen gel and hADSC in collagen gel. The treatment with hADSC in collagen gel was not significantly different from the collagen gel group or without treatment at day 7, 14 and 21. Even though the average of blood vessels of treatment with hADSC in collagen gel was not significantly different but our research had showed that treatment with hADSC in collagen gel was higher number of blood vessels than another group. Decrease of blood vessel number at 28 days indicated start of near homeostasis state and treatment hADSC in collagen gel has significantly decreased than another group. Our research showed that angiogenesis was time dependent and hADSC in collagen gel have not a role in increase of number blood vessels but we have indicated that hADSC might be have a role in qualitative improvement of angiogenesis.


The Lower Cretaceous sediments of the Bedfordshire area are Aptian and Albian in age. During this time the area was situated within an extensional tectonic regime, and the pattern of sedimentation, in terms of lateral variation both in sediment type and thickness, reflects the influence of normal faulting. Jurassic topography, created by block faulting and erosion, controlled the distribution of later facies largely by continued tectonic processes, especially the reactivation of the Jurassic fault block system, which produced syn-sedimentary faulting of the overlying sequence. Thus the 'traditional' view of the infill of an erosional basin by the Lower Greensand is challenged.


The use of common learning methods is monotonous and does not stimulate the inclinations of learners as desired, especially in the early stages of learning. This stage is accompanied by performance difficulties, lack of experience and insufficient motor skills to help them learn to play basketball. Research objectives (preparing a set of preparatory games for basketball players to identify the impact of the preliminary games on some offensive skills of basketball for players). The second chapter deals with the experimental research method and the research community determined by the Young Players in the province of Babylon and the sample. A simple random procedure was used to select players from the Babylon Sports Talent Development Department as the experimental group. As for the rules, they are the players of Al-Hilla Sports Club. A series of introductory games were prepared to develop, in a competitive manner, the main motor skills and some basic skills. The tests were also identified and the appropriate statistical means were selected. In the third chapter, the results of the research variables were presented and discussed. The conclusions were that the preparatory games are one of the most effective methods of developing basic skills in basketball and for young ages. The development of the experimental group as a result of following the curriculum. As for the recommendations, it is necessary to pay attention to young age groups and to consider them more in the research. The use of introductory games is of great benefit for the rapid learning of basic skills and should therefore be taken into account.


Choosing a particular operational system and software can have a significant effect on a company's formulated business strategy. The investment required in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is very high and inappropriate selection of the system could present difficulties for the company. Therefore meticulous planning is required in the implementation process and only knowledge is needed to increase chances of success in of implementation of ERP which is one of the goals of this research which was to establish the factors which influences the ERP adoption by Kenya commercial banks. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are configurable information systems packages that integrate information and information-based processes within and across functional areas in an organization. ERP systems promise seamless integration of all the information flowing through the organization. Acquisition of ERP systems often lead to huge financial investments that could adversely affect an organization's performance. It is therefore important for organizations to be able to evaluate their needs for ERPs before investing in them. Equally, it is imperative that organizations be able to evaluate the impact of these systems on their performance. The study identified important factors that influence ERP adoption in by Kenya commercial banks. The study employed a survey research design and was carried out in the population of interest of this study which was commercial banks operating in Kenya. Currently there are forty six banks operating in Kenya, the sample size for the study included 10 commercial banks that have currently adopted ERP systems. A preliminary confirmatory study was done in Equity bank. The study being a survey meant that questionnaires was distributed to all selected commercial banks in Kenya, three employees in each bank were selected from the operations, IT and user department of each bank. A pilot study was initially carried out to establish the reliability and validity of the instruments. Reliability was determined using the test-retest method as well as the Cronbach's coefficient formula. The reliability coefficients vary between values of 0.00 and 1.00 case of this study. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics which included the mean, standard deviation and multiple regressions with the help of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Findings were presented using frequencies, percentages and means. The research findings showed that organizational factors which included top management factors, banks' size, absorption capacity and internal need of the bank are the most important factors when it came to the factors influencing adoption of ERP. Other factors included the environmental factors, technological and individual factors respectively. The study recommended that it is important for a bank to perform a thorough research and audit of the internal systems before implementing ERP.


The conditions of labour appear to favour the development of pleural effusion. The frequency of postpartum pleural effusion was investigated in this study using thoracic ultrasonography. Thirty one postpartum and 22 healthy nonpregnant women of the same age-group were examined, both supine and seated, via an intercostal approach. Seven of the 31 (23%) postpartum women had pleural effusion within 1-24 h of normal delivery. None of the nonpregnant women had pleural effusion. No correlation was found between postpartum pleural effusion and age, weight-gain during pregnancy, duration of labour, use of intravenous fluid, or oxytocin administration. Pleural effusion seems to be a common finding postpartum, but of no clinical significance.


Due to the inaccessibility of post-implantation human embryos and the restriction on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) embryos cultured beyond 14 days, the knowledge of early post-implantation human embryogenesis remains extremely limited. Recently, we have developed a microfluidic in-vitro platform, based on human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which is capable of recapitulating several key developmental landmarks of early human post-implantation embryonic development, including lumenogenesis of the epiblast (EPI), amniogenesis, and specification of primordial germ cells (PGCs) and of primitive streak (PS) cells. Given its controllability and reproducibility, the microfluidic platform provides a powerful experimental platform to advance knowledge of human embryology and reproduction. This protocol describes the preparation of the microfluidic device and its implementation for modeling human post-implantation epiblast and amnion development using hPSCs.


The article focuses on the analysis of the evolution of contemporary theoretic approaches to the choice of an optimal form of ownership, and the corresponding estimation of privatization in the context of the advantages and disadvantages of the public and private sectors of the national economy. Various interpretations of the fundamental privatization theorem are considered: based on the principal-agent relationship; based on the comparison of the structure of information flows; the combination of ownership rights and contractual rights; consideration of sociopolitical factors, etc. The latest trends in Russia's de-statization policy in 2010-2013 are analyzed in the context of 'reluctant privatization', with special emphasis on the asymmetry between the statization and privatization processes.


This edited collection investigates where the European Convention on Human Rights as a living instrument stands on migration and the rights of migrants. This book offers a comprehensive analysis of cases brought by migrants in different stages of migration, covering the right to flee, who is entitled to enter and remain in Europe, and what treatment is owed to them when they come within the jurisdiction of a Council of Europe member state. As such, the book evaluates the case law of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning different categories of migrants including asylum seekers, irregular migrants, those who have migrated through domestic lawful routes, and those who are currently second or third generation migrants in Europe. The broad perspective adopted by the book allows for a systematic analysis of how and to what extent the Convention protects non-refoulement, migrant children, family rights of migrants, status rights of migrants, economic and social rights of migrants, as well as cultural and religious rights of migrants.


Due to increasing shares of renewable energies in electricity production, the cost-effective system integration of these installations is becoming more and more important. Technologies and locations are viewed as system-friendly when they are more cost-efficient and easier to integrate because they, unlike other installations, produce at times when electricity is more valuable. This report shows that project developers of renewable energies in Germany have had limited incentivesto invest in system-friendly installations. A market value model is derived based on five criteria for the further development of support instruments. This model creates appropriate incentives for investments in system-friendly installation while simultaneously avoiding additional financial risks for project developers. With such an approach based on a market value factor, the support costs for renewable energies as well as for levies in the overall electricity system and for the energy transition in general can be minimized over the long-term.


Allergy to tartrazine-containing psychotropic medication (especially antidepressants) had been reported. 20 patients of apparent allergy to tartrazine-containing alprazolam brands in 480 patients exposed to the dye are described. Rechallenge with non tartrazine-containing alprazolam brands did not produce the similar allergic reactions.


Micro-lending has been introduced as an effective antipoverty tool in recent decades. However not all of micro-lending institutes are successful both in accomplishing their mission and in loan recovery. According to World Bank's focus note (2006), less than a quarter of its projects that funded micro-lending were judged successful. This paper describes a specific type of micro-lending (Grameen way of micro-lending invented by Mohammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2006). Then it summarizes the differences of conventional bank and Grameen Bank. Also this paper illustrates the important loops that make the Grameen successful both in the loan recovery and in accomplishing its mission. The final contribution of this paper is to develop a system dynamics model to test some Grameen policies that researchers believe are the key elements of Grameen's success. I find support for the fact that small loan size which is designed to match the client's knowledge maximizes Grameen's capital. Also the model finds that investing some portion of Grameen's capital, giving loan to groups of people and choosing appropriate interest rate are crucial for Grameen Bank.


Objectives The aim of the study was to determine the effect of phototherapy on serum calcium level in neonatal jaundice. Background Phototherapy plays a significant role in the treatment and prevention of hyperbilirubinemia in neonates. However, this treatment modality may result in the development of some complications such as induction of hypocalcemia. Patients and methods This study included 50 full-term neonates with jaundice (25 males and 25 females) who received phototherapy for treatment of neonatal indirect hyperbilirubinemia and 25 neonates (13 males and 12 females) complaining of exaggerated physiological hyperbilirubinemia taken as control not exposed to phototherapy. Serum calcium was checked before and 48 h after starting phototherapy. A comparative study was conducted between these groups to determine the effect of phototherapy on serum calcium level. Results In the neonates of the study group, the serum bilirubin level before phototherapy was 15.48 ± 1.94 mg/dl. However, the serum bilirubin level after phototherapy was 12.41 ± 2.10 mg/dl. There was highly statistically significant decrease of the serum bilirubin levels after phototherapy as compared with serum bilirubin levels before phototherapy in the study group (P < 0.001). With respect to the calcium level, the total serum calcium level before phototherapy was 9.36 ± 0.29 mg/dl, whereas the serum calcium level after phototherapy was 8.58 ± 0.76 mg/dl. There was highly statistically significant decrease of the serum calcium levels after phototherapy as compared with serum calcium levels before phototherapy in the study group. Conclusion Hypocalcemia is a common complication of phototherapy.


Background: Evidence shows that bedside teaching is declining in recent years. One reason is the expectation for students to earn credit. Here, the impact of education method on undergraduate assessment score will be tested.
Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study conducted with 66 undergraduate medical students who were allocated into two matched groups on the basis of a pulmonary pathophysiology course score in the internal medicine department of the Birjand University of Medical Sciences (Iran). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was chosen as the theme of this education. After groups were allocated, training was conducted with 36 students using the Traditional Patient's Bedside Teaching (Tr-BT) method and for 30 students using the Conference Room Case Presentations (Cr-CP) method. Evaluation were conducted at the end of the three-month course period using the Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ) and Key Feature (KF) examination. Data were analyzed using independent t tests, Mann-Whitney U, and the chi-square test.
Results: Among the collected student the scores of KF, inward ratings and MCQ examinations in intern vs extern were (8.58 ± 1.46 vs 8.31 ± 1.58; P = 0.65), (14.75±1.54 vs 15.51±1.88; P = 0.08),( 10.77 ± 2.20 vs 10.47 ± 1.61; P = 0.55) respectively. The mean of the pulmonary pathophysiology score was 13.03 ± 1.66 in the Tr-BT group compared with 12.67 ± 1.92 in the Cr-CP group (P = 0.23). The means of the MCQ scores were 10.07 ± 2.13 and 11.37 ± 1.56 in the Tr-BT and Cr-CP groups, respectively (P = 0.007).
Conclusion: The score of the MCQ exam was significantly higher in the group taught using the Cr-CP method. Students and teachers may prefer Cr-CP. To increase interest in bedside teaching, the assessment methods of medical students should be based on practical and clinical judgment evaluation.


Summary. The attitudes of 234 anonymous couples undergoing in vitro fertilization toward sperm and oocyte donation were explored by questionnaire. All the questionnaires were returned of which 222 (95%) were complete and analysed. A high proportion of couples found the use of donor sperm acceptable for therapeutic, diagnostic and treatment purposes (77%, 90% and 97% respectively) and 72%, 84% and 90% respectively were willing to donate oocytes for these purposes. Of potential oocyte donors 41% would agree to nonanonymous donation, 12% would wish to meet the recipient couple and although only 4% wanted to choose the recipient, a quarter of the couples would prefer a relative or friend as the recipient. Provision of nonidentifying information about the donor to the recipient couple was acceptable to almost 70% whereas 40% found giving the same information to the child acceptable.


This paper presents a method for one-shot learning of dexterous grasps and grasp generation for novel objects. A model of each grasp type is learned from a single kinesthetic demonstration and several types are taught. These models are used to select and generate grasps for unfamiliar objects. Both the learning and generation stages use an incomplete point cloud from a depth camera, so no prior model of an object shape is used. The learned model is a product of experts, in which experts are of two types. The first type is a contact model and is a density over the pose of a single hand link relative to the local object surface. The second type is the hand-configuration model and is a density over the whole-hand configuration. Grasp generation for an unfamiliar object optimizes the product of these two model types, generating thousands of grasp candidates in under 30 seconds. The method is robust to incomplete data at both training and testing stages. When several grasp types are considered the method selects the highest-likelihood grasp across all the types. In an experiment, the training set consisted of five different grasps and the test set of 45 previously unseen objects. The success rate of the first-choice grasp is 84.4% or 77.7% if seven views or a single view of the test object are taken, respectively.


Background Associations between parental depression and offspring affective and disruptive disorders are well documented. Few genetically informed studies have explored the processes underlying intergenerational associations. Method A semi-structured interview assessing DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders was administered to twins (n=1296) from the Australian Twin Register (ATR), their spouses (n=1046) and offspring (n=2555). We used the Children of Twins (CoT) design to delineate the extent to which intergenerational associations were consistent with a causal influence or due to genetic confounds. Results In between-family analyses, parental depression was associated significantly with offspring depression [hazard ratio (HR) 1.52, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20–1.93] and conduct disorder (CD; HR 2.27, CI 1.31–3.93). Survival analysis indicated that the intergenerational transmission of depression is consistent with a causal (environmental) inference, with a significant intergenerational association in offspring of discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs (HR 1.39, CI 1.00–1.94). Logistic regression analysis suggested that the parental depression–offspring CD association was due to shared genetic liability in the parents and offspring. No intergenerational association was found when comparing the offspring of discordant MZ twins [odds ratio (OR) 1.41, CI 0.63–3.14], but offspring of discordant dizygotic (DZ) twins differed in their rates of CD (OR 2.53, CI 0.95–6.76). All findings remained after controlling for several measured covariates, including history of depression and CD in the twins' spouses. Conclusions The mechanisms underlying associations between parental depression and offspring psychopathology seem to differ depending on the outcome. The results are consistent with a causal environmental role of parental depression in offspring depression whereas common genetic factors account for the association of parental depression and offspring CD.


Tricuspid regurgitation in carcinoid syndrome leads to significant morbidity and mortality that may warrant a tricuspid valve replacement. However, for patients with high serotonin levels and known hypercoagulable risks, the optimum timing for surgery and postoperative anticoagulation approaches remain unclear. High serotonin-triggered hypercoagulability makes prosthetic valves susceptible to thrombosis. Despite appropriate management with a somatostatin analog, some patients continue to have high markers of serotonin that causes platelet aggregation and rapid clot formation. In severely symptomatic patients who require valve surgery, it may not be feasible to postpone surgery until these metabolites are normalized, which may add a substantial risk for postoperative valve thrombosis to an otherwise uneventful procedure. In some, there is a significant need to predict and prevent bioprosthetic valve thrombosis in carcinoid heart disease and to identify best anticoagulation practices across a spectrum of its complex coagulation dynamics and clinical presentation.


'Evidence-based practice', 'applied sport science' and 'bridging the gap': notions that frequent academic publications, underpin practice models and theme conference presentations. Conceptually similar, these terms both highlight and redress the estrangement between research and practice. No more apparent is this than within the field of Strength and Conditioning (S&C), where practices and methods are often developed by practitioners within clubs and organisations out of necessity that are later investigated and published within academia.


Aim. To compare the effect of fosinopril and atenolol on synchronization of heart 0.1 Hz-rhythms and blood microcirculatory. Material and methods. 63 patients at the age of 47±8 with hypertension (HT) of grade 1-2 were enrolled in the study. 0.1 Hz-oscillations in heart rate variability (HRV) and in filling of microcirculatory bed were registered during passive tilt test under spontaneous breathing. The duration of each stage of test was 10 min. Synchronization was estimated as a phase difference between 0.1 Hz-rhythms of heart rate and filling of microcirculatory bed. Frequency values of HRV spectrum in LF- and HF-ranges were also assessed. Results. Fosinopril and atenolol showed comparable effect on blood pressure (BP) reduction. Atenolol decreased in heart rate significantly. Treatment with either fosinopril or atenolol in pa- tients with significant vegetative dysfunction resulted in repair of functional interaction between heart 0.1 Hz-regulation and microcirculatory bed. Functional dissociation of 0.1 Hz-regula-tion mechanisms was observed under the treatment with fosinopril or atenolol in patients with initially sufficient interaction. Conclusions. Fosinopril and atenolol influenced similarly on heart 0.1 Hz-mechanisms and microcirculation autonomic regulation in patients with HT. Atenolol is a drug of choice in patients with sympathicotony. Both drugs should be administered in according with an individual level of 0.1-Hz rhythms synchronization assessed before start of the treatment.


Phase I clinical trials are primarily designed to assess the safety and toxicity of a new agent and determine the recommended dose for further trials that assess efficacy. Patients entering these trials typically have multiply relapsed or refractory disease and would otherwise receive supportive treatment. The collective outcomes of patients enrolled onto phase I trials in solid tumors but not in hematological malignancies have previously been reported. We analyzed the overall outcomes and survival of 91 patients enrolled onto one of 14 Phase I and I/II trials for hematological malignancies at a dedicated early phase trials unit within a tertiary hematology unit. Median time on trial was 3.7 months (range 0-24), 32% experienced grade 3 or 4 adverse events. The overall response rate was 41%, overall survival 18 months (95% confidence intervals 5-30 months) and progression free survival 7 months (95% CI 1-13), although there was a significant difference according to underlying hematological cancer subtype. Response rate was strongly associated with survival time. On multivariate analysis, disease subtype and LDH at time of trial entry showed an association with survival rate. These results demonstrate that the outcomes of patients with hematiological malignancies entering phase I trials is better than expected.


Abstract Detection of explosives has been identified as a near term commercial opportunity for using a fusion plasma. Typical explosive compositions contain low Z material (C, N, O) which are not easily detected using conventional x-rays or metal detectors. However, 2.45 MeV neutrons produced in a D-D fusion reaction can be used for detection of explosives or other clandestine materials in suitcases, packages, or shipping containers. Steady-state D-D operation is possible using an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) fusion device. The University of Wisconsin IEC device has produced D-D neutrons at 1.8 × 108 neutrons/second at a true cathode voltage of 166 kV and a meter current of 68 mA. These neutron production rates are approaching the levels required for the detection of explosives. In order to increase and optimize the neutron production rate in the IEC device, experiments were performed altering the cathode's size (diameter), geometry, and material composition. Preliminary results indicate that significant differences in neutron production rates are not achieved by altering the geometry or material composition of the cathode. However, the neutron production rate was found to increase approximately 20% by doubling the cathode's diameter from 10 cm to 20 cm. In addition, increasing the cathode voltage from 34 kV to 94 kV at a meter current of 30 mA increased the neutron production rate from 1.24 × 106 n/s to 2.83 × 107 n/s.


The MPICH-SCore high performance communication library for cluster computing is integrated into the MPICHG-2 library in order to adapt PC clusters to a Grid environment. The integrated library is called MPICH-G2/SCore. In addition, for the purpose of comparison with other approaches, MPICH-SCore itself is extended to encapsulate its network packet into a UDP packet so that packets are delivered via L3 switches. This extension is called UDP-encapsulated MPICH-SCore. In this paper, three implementations of the MPI library, UDP-encapsulated MPICH-SCore, MPICH-G2/SCore, and MPICH-P4, are evaluated using an emulated WAN environment where two clusters, each consisting of sixteen hosts, are connected by a router PC. The router PC controls the latency of message delivery between clusters, and the added latency is varied from I millisecond to 4 milliseconds in round-trip time. Experiments are performed using the NAS Parallel Benchmarks, which show UDP-encapsulated MPICH-SCore most often performs better than other implementations. However, the differences are not critical for the benchmarks. The preliminary results show that the performance of the LU benchmark scales up linearly with under 4 millisecond round-trip latency. The CG and MG benchmarks show the scalability of 1.13 and 1.24 times with 4 millisecond round-trip latency, respectively.


With reference to the recent literature, a representation of case-history, therapy and prognosis of bronchial carcinoma is made. Inhalation of tar products by smoking, as well as predominantly occupational dust are the important etiological factors for the increase in bronchial carcinoma. Because of the long occult progression of the disease the diagnosis based on clinical symptoms is made very late. Only a greater effort in organisation and diagnostics permits an early detection in high-risk groups. Therapeutic success has remained constant since the sixties. Up to now only the consequent pre-operative selection of patients has been significant for improvement of surgical results. Five-year cures are more frequent after lobectomy than after pneumonectomy. In radiation therapy, the use of high-voltage gamma rays in contrast to conventional deep radio-therapy, has not brought any significant improvement. An additional intensive and individual care and follow-up of patients is of vital importance. The optimal curative radiation dose is 6000 rad. Particularly pre-operative irradiation is important to prepare some inoperable patients for curative surgery. Postoperative radiation therapy is also valuable for doubtful radical surgery and after exploratory thoracotomy. Palliative radiation therapy results in rapid disappearance of symptoms; with generalized disease or in suspicion for formation of metastases, chemotherapy should be preferred. This is particularly true for anaplastic, small and large cell carcinomas, and their rapidly growing metastases. In those cases, combination of polychemotherapy may decrease the tumor size and increase the length of remission. The prognosis depends on microscopic tumor type, stage of the disease, and therapy. Abnormal excretion of steroids and immunological disturbances are prognostic at the time of diagnosis.


ABSTRACT This study utilizes state-level data from 2001 to 2009 to estimate the impact of the 2007 financial crisis upon health care expenditures. Higher death rates are consistently found to have a positive and statistically significant impact on health expenditures. While mental health and COPD are not generally found to impact expenditures, increases in the percentage of the population diagnosed with cholesterol and obesity tend to increase health expenditures. Increases in health expenditures slowed considerably after the financial crisis. Even though recessions (high unemployment rates) are generally found to have a positive impact on health expenditures, the post-financial crisis time period is estimated to have much lower health expenditures than in other time periods. Our results can be used to give insight into the conditions under which the slower rate of increase in health expenditures can be expected to increase. More research will be needed to be able to more completely explore not only the reasons for these changes in health expenditures but also whether they are likely to continue into the future.


Background : Gendola ( Basella rubra L .) is a medicinal plant native to South Kalimantan. Therefore, this research aims to determine the antioxidant activity of B. rubra and the specific as well as nonspecific parameters of its ethanolic stem extract through pharmacognostic tests. Objective : The specific parameters comprise of the extract composition, phytochemical screening, TLC profile, organoleptic, and microscopic variables. Meanwhile, drying shrinkage and ash content were the non-specific parameters. Materials and Methods : The Indonesian Herbal Pharmacopoeia was used as a reference for the pharmacognostic test method. Also, the antioxidant activity was determined through the DPPH method, which was based on the IC 50 value. Results : A tasteless, brownish-purple powder with a characteristic smell, was obtained from the simple organoleptic assay while the epidermis, cortex, endodermis, pith, xylem, phloem, cambium, cell walls, stoma, epidermal, guard, and neighboring cells were observed through microscopic examinations. The B. rubra stem contains phenolic compounds, flavonoids, steroids, tannins, and saponins. A good TLC profile was shown by the eluents of n-hexane: ethyl acetate (3:7) and chloroform: methanol (9:1). The B. rubra simplicia stem had a water-and ethanol-soluble extract, drying shrinkage, total ash, and acid insoluble ash contents of 16.433% ± 0.252, 10.5% ± 0.173, 8.467% ± 0.153, 6.5% ± 0.1, and 0.517% ± 0.115, respectively. Conclusion: Moreover, the pharmacognostic test results were acceptable. The B. rubra stem ethanol extract had an antioxidant activity of 344,096 ppm based on the IC 50 value.


The importance of angiography and of interventional radiology in tumours of the pancreas, liver and bile ducts is disussed. Angiography is performed prior to surgical intervention to assess tumour resectability, for a preoperative visualisation of vascular anatomy, as well as in non-diagnostic findings in ultrasound and computerised tomography. Diagnostic and therapeutic interventional techniques in the liver (fine needle puncture, perfusion, embolisation) and the bile ducts (PCT, ERCP, PTCD, endoprothesis, stents) are performed selectively in tumour patients in close co-operation with surgeons, radiologists and gastroenterologists


Preprandial and postprandial (2 and 4 hours) serum bile acids (SBA) and pre and postprandial (2 hours) plasma ammonia concentrations were evaluated. Additionally, the effects of freezing (for 24 and 48 hours at -20oC) were observed on plasma ammonia concentrations in 22 healthy dogs. The preprandial SBA concentration was 2.1 ± 0.3 mmol/l and 7.5 ± 1.2 mmol/l and 7.8 ± 1.4 mmol/l for samples obtained 2 and 4 hours after feeding, respectively. Fasting and postprandial (2 hours) plasma ammonia concentrations were significantly different when measurement was performed within 30 minutes after blood collection (118.2 ± 13.2 mg/dl or 67.3 ± 7.5 mmol/l and 227.9 ± 59.2 mg/dl or 129.9 ± 33.7 mmol/l), but the difference between pre and postprandial concentrations was not observed when ammonia was measured in samples stored (-20o) for 24 and 48 hours. Plasma freezing makes ammonia concentrations fall considerably when these levels were initially too high, mainly in postprandial samples. From these results it may be suggested that canine plasma cannot be stored for later ammonia determination by using freezing as the sole stabilizer, and for SBA determinations, blood samples might be collected 2 or 4 hours after feeding. Plasma ammonia values obtained in this study should allow comparisons to data obtained from dogs with hepatic disease or hepatoencephalopathy, so as to confirm the importance of its use as means of diagnosis and prognosis in future.


We calculate the Overhauser frequency shifts in semiconductor nanostructures resulting from the hyperfine interaction between nonequilibrium electronic spins and nuclear spins. The frequency shifts depend on the electronic local density of states and spin polarization as well as the electronic and nuclear spin relaxation mechanisms. Unlike previous calculations, our method accounts for the electron confinement in low dimensional semiconductor nanostructures, resulting in both nuclear spin polarizations and Overhauser shifts that are strongly dependent on position. Our results explain previously puzzling measurements of Overhauser shifts in an Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As parabolic quantum well by showing the connection between the electron spin lifetime and the frequency shifts.


Aim: This study was conducted to study the coagulase (coa) gene-based genetic diversity of Staphylococcus aureus, isolated from different samples of cattle from three different regions in East Java Province, Indonesia. Materials and Methods: A total of 160 raw milk samples collected in East Java Province, Indonesia, were screened for the presence of S. aureus. The presumptive isolates were confirmed by coa test. The confirmed S. aureus isolates were subjected to coa gene polymerase chain reaction. Results: Of 160 different samples, 20 (12.5%) isolates of S. aureus were confirmed by positive coa test. Of 20 S. aureus isolates, 19 (95%) isolates carried coa gene. Six different genotypes of coa gene, i.e., 440 bp, 510 bp, 547 bp, 680 bp, 740 bp, and 820 bp were obtained. One coa genotypes, 510 bp (10 isolates) were observed in polymorphism to be more prevalent than the others, and the genotype was present in at least one isolates from every region. Conclusion: It can be concluded that coa gene is easily epidemiological tool for detection of variation strain from S. aureus.


The ROBOCARE Domestic Environment (RDE) is the result of a three-year project aimed at developing cognitive support technology for elderly people. Specifically, the domestic environment is equipped with sensors, intelligent software components and devices which cooperate to provide cognitive support to the assisted person. The ROBOCARE interaction capabilities have been concentrated in a robotic mediator who acts as the main communication channel between the users and the intelligent domestic environment. This paper presents an evaluation of elderly people's perception of assistive robots and smart domotic environments. Results show how the acceptability of robotic devices in home setting does not depend only on the practical benefits they can provide, but also on complex relationships between the cognitive, affective and emotional components of people's images of robot. Specially, we analyzes a number of evaluation criteria related to the robot's aspect, the way in which it communicates with the user, and the perceived usefulness of its support services. Among these criteria, the paper proposes and reports an evaluation of how perceived frailty, with reference to both health in general and fear of cognitive weakening, more specifically, can influence the evaluation of a potential aid in everyday life, namely the robotic assistant. The paper also provides a discussion which can be useful for the design of future assistive agents and socially interactive robotic.


An α-β alloy (β~8% in the stress relieved condition) of Ti-5Ta-1.8Nb has been subjected to severe plastic deformation (SPD) by cryo-rolling. The grain size of α-Ti could be reduced significantly from ~ 8µm to 100 nm and less by cryo-rolling. Extensive plastic deformation leads to grain fragmentation through the formation of defect clusters. The fragmented grains exhibit deformation texture. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) confirmed the presence of low and high angle grain boundaries. The role of substitutional atoms (Ta, Nb) in producing lattice strains and altering the projected potential from the atomic columns has been discussed. Although, the minor phase, β (bcc-Ti) is evident in the starting alloy, it was not observed after SPD, possibly due to extended solid solution formation (Gibbs–Thomson effect) in the fine grains or due to the stress induced transformation of the α-Ti phase.


In this paper, we describe a formative study to learn how one chronically ill population thinks about food, mentally organizes food, and interprets consumption-level icons. We found that many participants let their pride influence their choices, resulting in preferred interfaces that they could not accurately interpret. The results indicate that participants organized food in similar ways, had difficulty reading from their preferred consumption-level icons, and wanted to combine multiple interface designs when searching for food.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in non-oil countries in the Middle East and North Africa (non-oil-MENA) during the period from 2000 to 2014. The Pedroni (2000) test shows that there is a long-term cointegration relationship between those variables; however, the Granger causality test in the vector error correction model (VECM) shows that this relationship is bidirectional in the short and long term. Thus, to ensure sustainable economic growth without pollution and to reduce dependence on abroad, renewable energies can be chosen as substitutes for conventional energies in the non-oil-MENA countries.

Design/methodology/approach
First, LLC and IPS unit root tests are used to test the variables stationarity; and, second, Pedroni panel cointegration and Engle–Granger causality by VECM analysis are used to check the relationship between the studied variables.

Findings
Empirical results show that the renewable energy consumption and economic growth are cointegrated and that there are two-way causal relationships between them in the long and in the short term. These countries must therefore encourage the consumption of renewable energy instead of traditional energy to reduce their dependence on energy from abroad and CO2 pollution.

Originality/value
The originality of this work lies in the measurements of the study variables and the empirical investigation methods used.


Seventeen polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (dioxins) as well as twelve dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) congeners were analysed in the seafood samples (prawn, squid, fish, processed seafood and dried anchovy). The average sum of dioxins and dl-PCBs in the seafood samples were 2.577 WHO2005-TEQ (pg g -1 fw). Mean exposure to dioxins and PCBs (in pg TEQ kg-1 body weight day-1) was assessed to be 0.333 and 0.643, respectively in the adult population (aged 18-59 years). Although the monthly dietary exposure of female was higher than male, but there is no significant difference found between the genders. Adults from rural area were reported to have the highest monthly exposure to dioxins and PCBs. Across the ethnicity, the highest exposure was found among the Malay, followed by Chinese and Indian. The daily, weekly and monthly exposure to all groups of the population were lower in comparison with the corresponding tolerable limits. However, the results obtained in this study indicated that there is a health risk to high consumer (those who consumes the amount of food corresponding to the 97.5th percentile of the consumption data) and caution of reducing the consumption of seafood should be taken.


Ammonia is one of the most important agricultural fertilizers and renewable energy carriers, and is also one of the most highly produced inorganic compounds in the world. The traditional industrial ammonia synthesis mainly uses the Haber–Bosch method, which consumes a large amount of fossil fuels and emits a lot of greenhouse gas. Thus, a more environmentally friendly method is needed for the production of ammonia. In this paper, we present a new electrocatalyst to produce NH3 under ambient conditions, which was obtained via the carbonization of Ru-dispersed ZIF-8. As a result, the catalyst could achieve a maximum NH3 production rate of about 16.68 μgNH3 h−1 mgcat.−1 at −0.4 V (vs. RHE) and a faradaic efficiency of 14.23% at −0.3 V (vs. RHE) at room temperature and ambient pressure in 0.1 M KOH. Also, the loading of Ru is only 16 wt%. Thus, this work provides a feasible method to design highly dispersed noble metal electrocatalysts for the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR).


BIM technologies are an integral part of the modern building process. In order to approach the complex implementation of BIM, it is necessary to use not only the 3D modeling process. The next step is to generate a 4D model based on the 3D model and work schedule. Russian construction companies implementing BIM are beginning to implement 4D models not only during the design phase but also during the construction phase. This article shows the principle of control of the construction site due to the information model. The most common software applications are identified. Their main characteristics are clarified and also in what situations the software applications can be used to organize the most effective work. Content


Cellular membranes undergo remodeling during many cellular processes including endocytosis, cytoskeletal protrusion, and organelle biogenesis. During these events, specialized proteins sense and amplify fluctuations in membrane curvature to create stably curved architectures. Amphiphysin1 is a multi-domain protein containing an N-terminal crescent-shaped BAR (Bin/Amphiphysin/Rvs) domain and a C-terminal domain that is largely disordered. When studied in isolation, the BAR domain of Amphiphysin1 senses membrane curvature and generates membrane tubules. However, the disordered domain has been largely overlooked in these studies. Interestingly, our recent work has demonstrated that the disordered domain is capable of substantially amplifying the membrane remodeling ability of the BAR domain. However, the physical mechanisms responsible for these effects are presently unclear. Here we elucidated the functional role of the disordered domain by gradually truncating it, creating a family of mutant proteins, each of which contained the BAR domain and a fraction of the disordered domain. Using quantitative fluorescence and electron microscopy, our results indicate that the disordered domain contributes to membrane remodeling by making it more difficult for the protein to bind to and assemble on flat membrane surfaces. Specifically, we found that the disordered domain began to significantly impact membrane remodeling when its projected area exceeded that of the BAR domain. Once this threshold was crossed, steric interactions with the membrane surface and with neighboring disordered domains gave rise to increased curvature sensing and membrane vesiculation, respectively. These findings provide insight into the synergy between structured and disordered domains, each of which play important biophysical roles in membrane remodeling.


Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory condition, which significantly impacts patients' health-related quality of life and burdens healthcare budgets. Our objective was to provide an overview of the healthcare resource use (HCRU) for the treatment of moderate to severe UC in Germany.

 A retrospective analysis was conducted using claims data from a German sickness fund (AOK PLUS). Patients were included if they had ≥2 outpatient diagnoses in different quarters and/or one inpatient UC diagnosis (ICD-10: K51), were aged ≥18 years and initiated an advanced therapy (anti-TNFs, vedolizumab, tofacitinib) between 01/01/2015-30/06/2019.
 HCRU associated with UC treatment was assessed in terms of outpatient visits, work-related sick leave days, and UC caused hospitalizations. Direct UC-related costs (inpatient, outpatient and medication costs based on pharmacy sales price at prescription date) were calculated from the perspective of the German statutory health insurance.
 All patients were followed from the start of treatment until the end of the study period, or loss to follow-up. In case of treatment discontinuation or change of index therapy, patient follow-up was censored 90 days after the last prescription of index therapy. UC-related HCRU and cost were reported per observable patient-year (PY) and stratified according to prior use of advanced therapies (naïve vs. experienced).

 574 patients were included (adalimumab: 230, infliximab: 172, golimumab: 56, vedolizumab: 113, tofacitinib: 3). Mean age was 41.9 years; 53.5% were female. On average, 2.5 outpatient visits per PY were billed by general practitioners and 1.4 by gastroenterologists. 27.0% of patients had at least one UC-related hospitalization (mean length of stay: 11.2 days). The mean number of documented UC-related sick leave days amounted to 13.1 per PY. HCRU was similar in therapy-naïve vs. experienced patients (Table 1).
 Inpatient costs for any cause amounted on average to €4,522/PY, with UC accounting for €3,190/PY (70.5%). Total UC costs amounted to €34.068/PY (Table 2). Expenses for prescribed UC-related drugs amounted to €28,885/PY (95.6% of total drug costs), and outpatient treatment to €511/PY with only €123/PY for Gastroenterologists' visits (0.4% of total UC-costs/PY). In addition, indirect cost resulting from sick leave due to UC were estimated at €2,979/PY.

 Our study indicates a high economic burden in UC patients who initiated treatment with advanced therapies. UC-related medication was identified as the main cost driver. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of UC patients required hospitalization in the first 12 months after starting new advanced therapy.


Initializing weights are important for fast convergence and performance improvement of Artificial Neural Network models. This study proposes a heuristic method to initialize weights for Neural Network with Fibonacci sequence. Experiments have been carried out with different network structures and datasets and results have been compared with other initialization techniques such as Zero, Random, Xavier and He. It has been observed that for small sized datasets, Fibonacci initialization technique reports 94% of test accuracy which is better than Random (85%) and close to Xavier (93%) and He (96%) initialization methods. Also, for medium sized dataset, we have noted that performance of Fibonacci weight initialization method is comparable with the same for Random, Xavier and He initialization techniques.


Introduction: In spite of the changing patterns of blindness seen globally, cataract remains the most common cause of blindness worldwide. Modern cataract surgery aims to achieve a better unaided visual acuity (VA) with rapid postsurgical recovery and minimal complications. Small incision cataract surgery (SICS) is the most common cataract surgery done all over the world due to its nondependence on expensive machines and easier learning curve. VA following surgery is one of the key indicators for evaluating the quality of surgery. Materials and Methods: This descriptive observational study was conducted in the ophthalmology department of a tertiary care hospital. It included 50 eyes of patients with uncomplicated senile cataract who underwent SICS. Patients were first evaluated for cataract using visual assessment, slit-lamp examination, ophthalmoscopy, and B-scan in case of mature cataracts. Results: Age of patients varied from 39 to 72 years. The hardness of the nucleus varied from Grade 1 to Grade 4 by lens opacities classification system III classification. The types of cataract operated were cortical cataract with posterior subcapsular cataract (n = 36) and nuclear cataract (n = 16). Thirty-eight eyes out of 50 eyes (68%) had unaided VA of 6/18–6/60, whereas only 24% of eyes had vision better than 6/18 on POD 1. Unaided visual outcome on POD 7 showed 60% cases with VA better than 6/18. In two cases, vision remained below 6/60. Intraocular lens power was determined using the SRK II formula. In majority of cases (48%), the incision size was between 6.5 and 7 mm. The contour of the external incision was straight in 72% cases and frown shape in 14% cases. Most eyes showed improvement of vision between 1st and 7th postoperative day. However, in one eye, vision remained below 6/60. Conclusions: Sight restoring cataract surgery is undoubtedly one of society's most cost-effective medical commonly done surgeries not only in India but also all over the world. All grades of nuclear sclerosis can be dealt with by this technique. A surgeon can further improve his/her postoperative results by giving due attention to the site, size, and contour of his/her incisions and taking care to protect the corneal endothelium while doing intraocular maneuvers and nucleus removal.


Arctic plants are affected by many stressors. Root-associated fungi are thought to influence plant performance in stressful environmental conditions. However, the relationships are not transparent; do the number of fungal partners, their ecological functions and community composition mediate the impact of environmental conditions and/or influence host plant performance? To address these questions, we used a common arctic plant as a model system: Bistorta vivipara. Whole plants (including root system) were collected from nine locations in Spitsbergen (n=214). Morphometric features were measured as a proxy for performance and combined with metabarcoding datasets of their root-associated fungi (amplicon sequence variants, ASVs), edaphic and meteorological variables. Seven biological hypotheses regarding fungal influence on plant measures were tested using structural equation modelling. The best-fitting model revealed that local temperature affected plants both directly (negatively aboveground and positively below-ground) and indirectly - mediated by fungal richness and the ratio of symbio- and saprotrophic ASVs. Fungal community composition did not impact plant measurements and plant reproductive investment did not depend on any fungal parameters. The lack of impact of fungal community composition on plant performance suggests that the functional importance of fungi is more important than their identity. The influence of temperature on host plants is therefore complex and should be examined further.