PURPOSE
To describe and evaluate a novel algorithm for generating synthetic CT images from MR-SIM data for dose calculations in MR-only treatment planning.

METHODS
A voxel-based weighted summation method was implemented to generate synthetic CT (synCT) images. MR data were acquired using Philips 1.0T Panorama high-field open MR-SIM. Retrospective patient data from seven prostate patients and one brain patient (three lesions) enrolled in an IRB-approved study were used. 3D T1-weighted fast field echo and 3D T2-weighted turbo spin echo sequences were utilized for all patients. A 3D balanced turbo field echo sequence using spectral presaturation with inversion recovery was acquired for prostate patients, but 3D ultra-short echo time (UTE)-DIXON was instead acquired for the brain patient to amplify bone signal for semi-automatic bone segmentation. Weight optimization was performed using a training subset of patients. HU value differences between planning CT and synCTs were analyzed using mean absolute error (MAE). Original patient CT-based treatment plans were mapped onto synCTs, dose was recalculated using original leaf motion and MU values, and DRRs were generated. Dosevolume metrics and gamma analysis were used for dosimetric evaluation.

RESULTS
Average whole-body MAE of synCTs across all patients was 75+12 HU. In prostate cancer patients, average HU difference between planning and synCTs was 0.9±1.0% for soft tissue structures and 4.3±2.5% for bony structures. DRRs were generated from synCTs and qualitatively showed good geometric agreement with planning CT-generated DRRs. D99, mean dose, and maximum dose to CTV calculated using the synCT remained within 1.2% of planning CT-based dose calculations. All gamma analysis evaluated at 2%/2mm dose difference/distance to agreement) pass rates were greater than 95% with an average of 99.9±0.1% for prostate patients and 98.4±2.2% for three brain lesions.

CONCLUSION
SynCTs were generated with clinically acceptable accuracy comparable to planning CTs, enabling dose computations for MR-only simulation. Research supported in part by a grant from Philips HealthCare (Best, Netherlands).


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs that are key regulators of gene expression by directly binding to the 3'-untranslated region of their target mRNAs, resulting in translational repression or degradation of mRNA. It has been demonstrated that miRNAs have key roles in a variety of human malignancies, including osteosarcoma. The present study aimed to assess the molecular mechanism of miR-93 in the regulation of osteosarcoma cell proliferation. Reverse-transcription quantitative PCR and western blot assays were used to examine mRNA and protein expression. An MTT assay and flow cytometry were performed to determine the cell proliferation and cell cycle distribution. A luciferase reporter assay was performed to confirm the direct targeting of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (CDKN1A), also known as P21, by miR-93, which was suggested by a bioinformatics analysis. The results showed that the expression of miR-93 was frequently and significantly increased in a total of 19 osteosarcoma tissues compared to their matched adjacent non-tumor tissues, and the upregulation of miR-93 was associated with the malignant progression of osteosarcoma. Furthermore, miR-93 was also upregulated in the human osteosarcoma cell lines Saos-2, U2OS, SW1353 and MG63 when compared with that in the human osteoblast cell line hFOB1.19. Transfection with miR-93 inhibitor significantly reduced the miR-93 levels and inhibited the proliferation of U2OS and MG63 osteosarcoma cells. The protein levels of P21 were negatively regulated by miR-93 in U2OS and MG63 cells. Knockdown of miR-93 caused cell cycle arrest at G1 stage in U2OS and MG63 cells, identical to the effect of P21 overexpression. Finally, P21 was found to be significantly downregulated in osteosarcoma tissues compared to their matched adjacent non-tumor tissues, suggesting that the inhibition of P21 may be due to increased miR-93 expression in osteosarcoma tissues. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that miR-93 enhances the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells, at least in part via inhibiting P21 expression and thus promoting cell cycle progression.


Detonation waves dominate the fluid flow in an explosive material. For numerical simulations, there is a need to account for the important properties of a propagating detonation wave without the fine grid necessary to resolve the very narrow reaction zone. The effects of the dynamics within the reaction zone on the fluid state behind the detonation wave are discussed. In contrast to a shock wave, the behavior of a detonation wave depends on the front curvature. Moreover, the flow behind a diverging underdriven detonation wave is supersonic relative to the front. This leads to composite waves and split waves which are analogous to those that occur for a fluid with a nonconvex equation of state. The wave structure and the wave curve for both converging and diverging detonation waves are described. The wave curve allows numerical calculations using the front tracking method to model multidimensional detonation problems. Implementing the analytic wave structure in numerical calculations is discussed.


The study was designed to produce native starches from cassava, yam and rice, and to modify a portion of the native starches by oxidation and compare their properties. The modification process was carried out by treating the native starches with food grade sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). The proximate, swelling index and pasting properties of native and oxidized starches were analyzed using standard methods and the mean values compared statistically. Some of the oxidized starches had varying degrees of improvement in their properties. The ash content of the oxidized starches was low when compared with the native starches. The fiber content was increased as the oxidized samples had significantly (p < 0.05) higher values than their native counterparts. The swelling index trend shows that oxidized rice starch had the highest peak while the native starches presented the lowest deep. Oxidized rice starch had the highest fiber while the native cassava starch had the least. Native rice starch had the highest peak viscosity (4922 cP) while the oxidized rice had the lowest peak viscosity (1223 cP). Sodium hypochlorite treatment improved the setback viscosity of the oxidized starches, which indicates that oxidized yam and cassava starches with high values acquired greater integrity to withstand retro-gradation. Thus, when the oxidized cassava and yam starches are used in food formulation, they might be able to withstand syneresis or weeping during freeze-thaw cycles. There is the need to explore more about starches from tropical roots and tuber crops and application of a variety of modifications in order to unlock their potentials for industrial applications. Keywords : Native starch, hypochlorite, oxidized starch, swelling index, setback viscosity.


Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a monoclonal disease of histiocytes that can involve many or very few organ systems. It is a relatively benign disorder with a 3% mortality in adults. LCH rarely involves the thyroid gland. We report two cases, both presenting in males with a goiter. Both patients were treated with subtotal thyroidectomy. The first patient also received radiotherapy to his thyroid bed and scalp. We summarize the prior reported cases of LCH involving the thyroid and review the current treatment modalities used for LCH.


ABSTRACT Shin, S.; Nam, J.; Son, S.; Kim, I.H., and Jung, T.-H., 2017. Field observation and numerical modelling of rip currents within a pocket beach. In: Lee, J.L.; Griffiths, T.; Lotan, A.; Suh, K.-S., and Lee, J. (eds.), The 2nd International Water Safety Symposium. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 79, pp. 229–233. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Understanding the occurrence mechanism of rip currents are very important in terms of the sediment transport and the water safety issues. In order to investigate the rip current occurrence mechanism, field observations were carried out at Chunjin beach and a numerical model was employed to simulate rip currents by using the field observation data. The collected data set includes the beach topography, bottom bathymetries, shoreline, sand sample, and incident waves for each season. The field observation data showed the spatiotemporal variations of shoreline and sand bars. The results also showed that the rip currents were generated near the crescentic sand bar. For better understanding the mechanism of rip currents, numerical simulation using phase- resolving, three-dimensional 3D Non-Hydrostatic WAVE Model (NHWAVE) was also carried out. The model considered incoming wave conditions collected from the field observation to look at the nearshore current generation patterns. Through this numerical model, this study could have investigated vertical profiles of nearshore wave-induced current while the field observation data represent depth uniform currents. The numerical simulation showed a good agreement with the field observation and provided useful information for nearshore circulation.


Purpose: "ROPtool" is a computer program that measures retinal blood vessel tortuosity. Our aim was to determine the feasibility and accuracy of analyzing images with ROPtool, which were obtained using video indirect ophthalmoscopy. Methods: Forty-five posterior pole still images captured from indirect ophthalmoscopy video clips were selected; 20 were selected for high quality and 25 were randomly selected. One of the authors (S.A.) used ROPtool to measure tortuosity for each quadrant of each image. Two of the authors (D.K.W. and S.F.F.) independently judged tortuosity on a 10-point scale, and their averaged grades were used as the reference standard. Results: Among randomly selected images, ROPtool was able to trace at least two major vessels in 43 of 100 quadrants (43%). Lighter fundus pigment color was associated with ROPtool's ability to analyze images (P = 0.004). When considering analyzable images only, ROPtool's sensitivity in detecting tortuosity sufficient for plus disease was 83% (5/6) and specificity was 90% (18/20). ROPtool's sensitivity for pre-plus tortuosity was 100% (9/9) and specificity was 71% (12/17). Conclusion: ROPtool is useful for analyzing video indirect ophthalmoscopy images only when applied to those with high quality. When analyzing these images, ROPtool has very good accuracy compared to consensus of experienced examiners.


Background: This study aims to implement an enhanced recovery pathway (ERP) for patients undergoing gynecologic surgery and to track clinical outcomes, including perioperative opioid use and adverse events. Methods: Patients undergoing gynecologic surgery with a planned overnight stay were eligible. The primary outcome measure was perioperative opioid use in oral morphine milligram equivalents. Secondary outcome measures included bundle completion and length of stay. Balancing measures included rates of total and specific adverse events. Data were stratified by route of surgery and univariate analyses were performed between pre- and post-ERP groups to compare demographic factors and outcome measures. Linear regression analyses were run to assess mean differences in perioperative opioid use and length of stay when adjusting for route of surgery, age, body mass index (BMI), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) status, surgical subspecialty, and postoperative hemoglobin change, and/or bundle completion score. Results: The ERP was implemented in 16 weeks and selected in 63 eligible patients from February 1 to April 30, 2017. ERP bundle completion was significantly higher for all surgical categories following formal pathway implementation. Compared to the pre-ERP cohort, the ERP cohort demonstrated significantly decreased total opioid use in laparotomies (175.5 mg vs. 209.8 mg, P = 0.03) and minimally invasive surgeries (125 mg vs. 170.3 mg, P = 0.018). Additionally, significantly decreased intraoperative opioids were used in both laparotomies (95 mg vs. 105 mg, P = 0.03) and minimally invasive surgeries (75 mg vs. 108.5 mg, P < 0.0001), as well as significantly decreased postoperative opioid use in minimally invasive surgeries (15 mg vs. 45 mg, P = 0.04). A one-point increase in ERP bundle completion score was associated with a 9.2 mg decrease in total opioid used (P = 0.0375) as well as a 4.8 h decrease in length of stay (P < 0.0001) when adjusting for route of surgery, age, BMI, ASA status, surgical subspecialty, and case length. There were no significant differences in adverse events when ERP was used. Conclusions: ERP implementation was rapidly accomplished at our urban, safety-net hospital. The pathway reduced perioperative opioid use without increasing adverse events. Continued monitoring of enhanced recovery quality improvement measures, including bundle completion, is essential to ensure adherence, safety, and effectiveness. J Clin Gynecol Obstet. 2020;9(3):43-52 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jcgo666


Textile dye wastewaters are characterized by strong colour, salts and other additives, high pH, temperature, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biodegradable materials. Being aesthetically and environmentally unacceptable, these wastewaters need to be treated before their discharge. Anaerobic bioprocesses have been proposed as being environmentally friendly and relatively cheap; however, when applied to real effluent with a complex composition, they can fail. In this study, a photoreactor combining UV light and TiO2, immobilized in cellulosic fabric, was applied for the treatment of two industrial textile wastewaters. High colour and COD removal, and detoxification, were achieved for both wastewaters, at controlled pH of 5.5. Effluents showed very poor biodegradability due to their complex composition; thus, the proposed process is an efficient alternative.


This paper explores the relationship activists in America and China had with Quotations from Chairman Mao, arguing that the book became a symbol of liberation and freedom for political activists in 1966 - 71 Capitalist America, while simultaneously existing as a symbol of conformity for political activists, and a symbol of oppression for many in Communist China. The paper analyses three aspects: revolution and political activism and their difference in meaning within Capitalist America and Communist China, Mao's aim in releasing the book at home and abroad and race, anti-imperialism and their influence on the interpretation of the Red Book in America and China. Furthermore, the paper discusses the impact these three aspects had on the symbolism the book harboured within either society. The article aims to take the reader on a journey, exploring these central themes; reaching the conclusion that all three factors equally impacted the meaning attached to the Red Book during the Cultural Revolution.


In Mother Stone Anne Middleton Wagner looks anew at the carvings of the first generation of British modernists, a group centered around Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and Jacob Epstein. Wagner probes the work of these sculptors, discusses their shared avant-garde materialism, and identifies a common theme that runs through their work and that of other artists of the period: maternity. Why were artists for three turbulent decades after the First World War seemingly preoccupied with representations of pregnant women and the mother and child? Why was this the great new subject, especially for sculpture? Why was the imagery of bodily reproduction at the core of the effort to revitalize what in Britain had become a somnolent art? Wagner finds the answers to these questions at the intersection between the politics of maternity and sculptural innovation. She situates British sculpture fully within the new reality of "bio-power"--the realm of Marie Stopes, Brave New World, and Melanie Klein. And in a series of brilliant studies of key works, she offers a radical rereading of this sculpture's main concerns and formal language.


Colour-coded doppler echocardiography uses a pulsed doppler shooting lines scanning system to perform a true real-time doppler angiography of intracradiac flows. Combined with ultrasonic imaging, it has proved irreplaceable for the diagnosis of leakages and for direct visualization of intracradiac shunts; by determining the anatomical location of the jet it facilitates an accurate pulsed and continuous Doppler study. Aortic leakages are best evaluated by measuring the jet at its point of origin. The quantification of moderate to medium leakages remains difficult since it depends on numerous factors and needs integration of other echocardiographic data. Echocardiographic contrast tests after intravenous injection of microbubbles diagnose the right-to-left shunts by the passage of contrast into the left cavities, and the left-to-right shunts by a washing image.


The aim of this study was to develop a new container for cryopreservation of a limited number of spermatozoa. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of this new container, we performed preclinical evaluations using human sperm or mouse oocytes and sperm. First, using human sperm that was frozen and then thawed, we demonstrated that the sperm recovery rate using the new container was 96.7% (58/60), which was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the recovery rate of 21.2% (11/52) when using the Cryotop®. Sperm motility rates were 19.2% (10/52) using the Cryotop® and 35.0% (21/60) using the new container. Second, murine epididymal spermatozoa were divided into three groups: fresh spermatozoa, spermatozoa frozen using a straw, and spermatozoa frozen using the new container. Sperm motility, sperm membrane and DNA integrity, in vitro development of fertilized eggs, and offspring development after embryo transfer were assessed. The motility of freeze-thawed sperm was lower in spermatozoa that were frozen using the new container than in fresh spermatozoa or those that were frozen using a straw. After intracytoplasmic sperm injection, the survival rate was 96.7% (145/150), the 2-cell development rate was 90.3% (131/145), and the blastocyst development rate was 77.2% (112/145), when using the new container. There were no differences in the sperm membrane, DNA integrity, or in the embryo development rates to the blastocyst stage among the different frozen groups. Six offspring were derived from spermatozoa freeze-thawed in the new container, and they developed normally. Thus, the new container allows easy handling of a small number of sperms and minimizes sperm loss during cryopreservation.


Abstract Life table studies of sunn pest were carried out in Varamin, Iran, from 1998–2001 in order to determine stage-specific mortalities and the impact of specific natural enemies on population dynamics. Populations were sampled 2–3 times weekly in agricultural fields during the growing season and monthly during the period of dormancy at resting sites in nearby mountains some 30 km away from cereal fields. Adults spend a period of 9–10 months in diapause and suffered overcompensatory, density-dependent mortality during this period. Variation in adult overwintering survival was inferred to be largely a function of the physiological condition of bugs that is reduced in a density-dependent manner by intraspecific competition for food among newly molted adults prior to migration to resting sites. Adult mortality emerged as the primary factor in key factor analysis, contributing 73% of the total variance in mortality. Other important factors were egg parasitism by Trissolcus vassilievi Mayr and adult parasitism by several species of Tachinidae. Although T. vassilievi made only a minor contribution to overall variance in total mortality, it had a significant effect on the number of newly molted adults, the life stage that is most damaging to cereal crops. The equilibrium level of the pest population in wheat fields was inferred to be ca. 72.6 adults m−2, a number that substantially exceeds the economic threshold that ranges from 3–5 adults m−2.


Purpose: To examine the effects of an employer-based monetary incentive program on membership termination and usage at a fitness center. Design: Retrospective nested case–control study examining the relationship between participation in an incentive program, visits to the fitness center, and membership termination at 1 year. Setting: University-based fitness center. Participants: Members (N = 1122) of a university-based fitness center. Intervention: Members were offered either a US$25 incentive for each month they visited the fitness center at least 10 times or no incentive. Measures: Data were extracted from the membership database and included membership termination at 1 year (yes, no), length of membership (days), participation in the incentive program (yes, no), and visits to the fitness center per month. Analysis: Cox proportional hazards model. Results: Members in the incentive program visited the fitness center on average more times per month (5.3 vs 4.3; P < .0001) but were significantly more likely to terminate memberships at 1 year compared to members who did not receive the incentive (38% vs 31%; P = .013). After controlling for relevant covariates, members who received the incentive had a 24% greater hazard of terminating their memberships compared to members who did not receive the incentive (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.24; P = .041). After controlling for the number of visits per month, the incentive program was no longer significantly related to membership termination (HR = 1.21; P = .07). Conclusion: Being in a monetary incentive program to attend a fitness center may be initially associated with a greater fitness center utilization but may not be associated with a reduced risk of membership termination.


A fundamental element of future generic pattern recognition technology is the ability to extract similar patterns for the same scene despite wide ranging extraneous variables, including lighting, turbidity, sensor exposure variations, and signal noise. In the process of demonstrating pattern constancy of this kind for retinex/visual servo (RVS) image enhancement processing, we found that the pattern constancy performance depended somewhat on scene content. Most notably, the scene topography and, in particular, the scale and extent of the topography in an image, affects the pattern constancy the most. This paper will explore these effects in more depth and present experimental data from several time series tests. These results further quantify the impact of topography on pattern constancy. Despite this residual inconstancy, the results of overall pattern constancy testing support the idea that RVS image processing can be a universal front-end for generic visual pattern recognition. While the effects on pattern constancy were significant, the RVS processing still does achieve a high degree of pattern constancy over a wide spectrum of scene content diversity, and wide ranging extraneousness variations in lighting, turbidity, and sensor exposure.


Abstract Use of non-ionic contrast media (CM) in coronary arteriography has been reported to cause transient cortical blindness, confusion, amnesia and very rare focal deficits. We report a 69-year old patient with stable angina pectoris who underwent coronary angioplasty with stent placement due to in-stent thrombosis of the right coronary artery and developed stroke symptoms with radiological suspicion of subarachnoid hemorrhage. No vascular malformations were detected on CT cerebral angiography. Dual antiplatelet treatment was continued. Complete neurological recovery was observed within 48 hours post angiography. As observed with repeated CT scans, sulcal hyperdensities mostly faded after 24 hours and totally disappeared within 7 days when she was discharged home. Our case shows transient neurological symptoms and rapid disappearing of sulcal hyperdensities, suggesting temporary blood brain barrier disruption, consequential cerebral infarction and contrast media extravasation as the main mechanisms which allowed us to treat the patient with dual antiplatelet treatment.


Due to their osteogenic germination potential, periosteum-derived osteoprogenitor cells are a potential source for tissue engineering a bone graft that could be used to regenerate skeletal defects. In this study we evaluated if ectopic bone formation could be induced by a construct made of human periosteal cells and a novel scaffold architecture whose mechanical properties are in the range of cancellous bone. Biopsies from human calvarial periosteum were harvested and cells were isolated from the inner cambial layer. Fifty thousand periosteal cells were seeded into the scaffolds measuring 6 × 6 × 2 mm. The cell–scaffold constructs were cultured for a period of 3 weeks prior to implantation into balb C nude mice. Mice were sacrificed and implants were analyzed 6 and 17 weeks postoperatively. Immunohistochemical analysis confirmed the osteoblastic phenotype of the seeded cells. Formation of focal adhesions and stress fibers could be observed in both scaffold architectures. Three-dimensional cell proliferation was observed after 2 weeks of culturing with centripetal growth pattern inside the pore network. The deposition of calcified extracellular matrix was observed after 3 weeks of culturing. In vivo, endochondral bone formation with osteoid production was detectable via von Kossa and Osteocalcin staining after 6 and 17 weeks. Histology and SEM revealed that the entire scaffold/bone grafts were penetrated by a vascular network. This study showed the potential of bone tissue engineering by using human periosteal cells in combination with a novel scaffold technology.


Workflow technology has reached a reasonable degree of maturity, with a number of both research prototypes and commercial systems available. However, methodological issues have received little attention, and WF developers often have to face the WF development process with neither a methodological support nor a global view of the process. In this paper, we introduce a requirements engineering layer in the workflow development lifecycle. It is organization-based, and follows a bottom-up modeling strategy. In order to capture business processes requirements to obtain a workflow model, we describe the tasks in the process as use cases. The use case model is refined by applying specialization, use and extension relationships, as we go up in the organizational hierarchy. A preliminary workflow model implementing the business processes is obtained automatically from the use case model. The transformation is driven by a set of rules derived from the equivalencies between use case and workflow concepts plus a set of process patterns. A tool supporting our method has been implemented and is outlined in this work.


Modeling dynamic heterogeneity in amorphous shape memory polymers (SMPs) is a huge challenge due to the complex statistics of strain energy distributions during their thermodynamic relaxations. In this study, based on the dynamic heterogeneity of strain energy distribution, we have considered, for the first time, the influences of different temperature rates and strain rates on strain energy evolution as a dynamic equilibria, rather than a quasi-static problem. We propose a phase transition model incorporated with Gaussian distribution statistics to investigate the dynamic equilibria with glass transition heterogeneity and tailorable mechanics for the amorphous SMPs. The Gaussian distribution statistics is firstly applied to characterize the heterogeneity of strain energy distributions in the amorphous polymers. Phase transition theory is then developed to describe working principles of strain energy evolution, glass transition heterogeneity, thermodynamic relaxation and tailorable mechanics. Finally, the dynamic equilibria of heterogeneity about the statistics of strain energy distribution are formulated based on the one dimensional Maxwell multi-branch model. The analytical results are compared with the experimental data of epoxy, polyamide and vinylester SMPs reported in literature, and good agreements between them are demonstrated. This study provides a new insight into the dynamic heterogeneity in the mechanics of amorphous SMPs.


Research has explored the relationship between self-knowledge and self-awareness. Specifically, psychologists see self-awareness as a step on the path toward self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is not a monolithic concept. For instance, the working self-concept is the self that is most relevant and accessible at a given time, while the global self-concept is an enduring, stored version of oneself. Implicit self-views are normally unconscious, whereas explicit self-views are generally conscious. The discrepancy between implicit and explicit self-knowledge sometimes results in inaccurate evaluations of attitudes, thoughts, and feelings. Other types of self-knowledge are context-dependent. Established theories such as social identity theory state that people have distinct self-views in different situations. For example, self-complexity refers to the number of self-aspects a person possesses. Finally, there are also distinctions between accurate (i.e., self-assessment theory) and positive self-knowledge (i.e., self-enhancement theory). Self-assessment theory posits that people are information seekers who desire accurate self-views. On the contrary, self-enhancement theory says that people seek to maintain positive self-views and are averse to negative self-information. Depending on the context and the concerns for self-presentation, individuals have preferences to pursue accurate or enhancing self-information.
 Increased self-knowledge can manifest in three major ways: via biological, interpersonal, and intrapsychic origins. Biological explanations of the origins of self-knowledge are mostly concerned with genetic expressions and brain activities. Interpersonal paths also help individuals develop self-knowledge. For instance, social comparison facilitates people's formation of self-views by comparing themselves with similar others. Reflected appraisals increase people's awareness of their own abilities, qualities, and identities through others' lens. Intrapsychic self-knowledge can be obtained through self-perception, in which people learn about themselves by observing and analyzing their behaviors in relevant situations. Introspection—focusing on the self—helps people ascertain the reasons behind their feelings and behaviors, which contributes to self-views. However, introspection can sometimes lead to flawed self-knowledge, or result in negative feelings induced by the feelings of inadequacy.
 Building on introspection, self-awareness provides another avenue for self-knowledge. The capacity to be aware of one's existence, or reflexive self-consciousness, is a fundamental component of human cognition. Experimentally induced self-awareness has been shown to have positive effects (e.g., greater compliance with internal standards). Sometimes, however, awareness can have aversive consequences (e.g., suicide) because it reveals that one has fallen short of one's goals. One way to reduce this discomfort is to avoid self-awareness, such as by cognitive deconstruction—an induction of a cognitive state that lacks emotion, a sense of the future, or concentration on the present. Another way to avoid self-awareness is through deindividuation, which is characterized by a temporary loss of personal identity, especially in a large group. Because self-awareness is associated with both life- and death-related thoughts, researchers argue the nature of this awareness is existential.


A study of event shape observables in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV is presented. The data for this analysis were recorded by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron collider. The variables studied are the transverse thrust and thrust minor, both defined in the plane perpendicular to the beam direction. The observables are measured using energies from unclustered calorimeter cells. In addition to studies of the differential distributions, we present the dependence of event shape mean values on the leading jet transverse energy. Data are compared with pythia Tune A and to resummed parton level predictions that were matched to fixed order results at NLO accuracy (NLO+NLL). Predictions from pythia Tune A agree fairly well with the data. However, the underlying event contributes significantly to these observables, making it difficult to make direct comparisons to the NLO+NLL predictions, which do not account for the underlying event. To overcome this difficulty, we introduce a new observable, a weighted difference of the mean values of the thrust and thrust minor, which is less sensitive to the underlying event, allowing for a comparison with NLO+NLL. Both pythia Tune A and the NLO+NLL calculations agree well within the 20% theoretical uncertainty with the data for this observable, indicating that perturbative QCD successfully describes shapes of the hadronic final states.


We present the clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical features of 15 vesical leiomyosarcomas. The nine male and six female patients ranged in age from 16 to 72 years (median: 49 years). Gross hematuria was the most common complaint. The tumors most often arose in the dome of the bladder (50%) and ranged in size from 1 to 10 cm (median: 5 cm). Five patients underwent total cystectomy, nine had a partial cystectomy or local excision, and one was only biopsied. Based on the highest of five sets of mitotic counts per case, eight tumors had one or fewer mitotic figures per 10 high-power fields (MF/10HPF); none of these patients developed metastases during a follow-up interval of 1 month to 20 years (mean: 62 months). Five tumors showed three to six MF/10HPF; one patient in this group died after 6 years with unresectable metastases, whereas the others are disease free with follow-up of 8 months to 8 years (mean: 62 months). Two tumors contained 10–15 MF/10HPF; one produced widespread metastases and was fatal after 3 months, whereas the other has not recurred or metastasized after 9 months. All tumors had infiltrating margins and invaded the bladder musculature—important features in their distinction from vesical leiomyoma. Nine leiomyosarcomas had zones of myxoid intercellular material; six of these were predominantly or exclusively myxoid. The myxoid foci often closely resembled inflammatory pseudotumor, particularly in superficial portions of the neoplasms. In two cases, an intense superficial plasma cell infiltrate mimicked a plasma cell granuloma. All 12 leiomyosarcomas studied immunohistochemically were negative for epithelial markers (cytokeratins and epithelial membrane antigen); staining for muscle-specific actin and vimentin was uniformly positive, and eight neoplasms also expressed desmin.


Today, many therapies are available for the treatment of psoriasis and eczema. One of the oldest topical therapies is coal tar. Coal tar has been used for decades, but over the past years, the use of coal tar has decreased for several reasons, including the supposed carcinogenicity of coal tar. We investigated the current and past treatment policies for psoriasis and eczema with special emphasis on the use of tar products; a postal survey was conducted among all dermatologists in two European countries: the Netherlands (n = 360) and the Flemish speaking part of Belgium (Flanders) (n = 328). This study was conducted as part of the ongoing LATER-study ("Late effects of coal tar treatment in eczema and psoriasis; the Radboud study"). All practising dermatologists received a questionnaire. Dermatologists were asked to describe their treatment policies in mild/moderate psoriasis, severe psoriasis, mild/moderate eczema and severe eczema. The response rate to the questionnaire was 62.5% for the Dutch dermatologists and 45.7% for the Flemish dermatologists. Almost all dermatologists prescribe topical corticosteroids. In eczema, most of the dermatologists prescribe the recently introduced calcineurin inhibitors (95%). Coal tar is a second choice topical therapy. Dutch dermatologists mainly use tar in the treatment of eczema (72% vs. 48% in Flanders), whereas in Flanders, tar is mainly prescribed in psoriasis (60% vs. 41% in Holland). Flemish dermatologists very frequently prescribe PUVA in psoriasis (93% vs. 63%). Topical treatment, especially topical corticosteroids, is the mainstay in psoriasis and eczema. Coal tar still is an important (second choice) therapy for the topical treatment of psoriasis and eczema, but its use varies from country to country. Despite the carcinogenicity of PUVA, this photochemotherapy is frequently prescribed by dermatologists, mainly in Flanders.


Morphological methods were used to examine injury-induced growth of peripheral and central axons of nociceptive mechanosensory neurones in the ventrocaudal (VC) clusters of the pleural ganglia of Aplysia californica. Pedal nerve crush transected all axons in the nerve while leaving the overlying sheath largely intact. Immunohistochemical staining was performed with an antibody to a sensory-neurone-specific peptide, sensorin-A. Following bilateral crush of pedal nerve p9, which innervates the tail, sensorin-A immunofluorescence was lost distal to the crush site within 2 days. Fine immunopositive fibres began to invade the crush region within 5 days. These fibres arborized in the crush region and gradually extended down the crushed nerve. Immunopositive fibres were found near the tail within 3 weeks. Similar results were obtained after injecting individual sensory neurone somata in the tail/p9 region of the VC cluster with biocytin. Biocytin injections and horseradish peroxidase injections 3 weeks after ipsilateral pedal nerve crush revealed new fibres projecting rostrally from the tail/p9 region of the VC cluster and entering the pleural-cerebral and pleural-abdominal connectives. Such projections were never observed in control, uncrushed preparations. These results demonstrate that nerve injury triggers extensive growth of both peripheral and central processes of the VC sensory neurones.


Studying history helps to create and reinforce a collective historical consciousness within Western society. Certain historical figures become consistent characters in the creation of our understanding of our humanity, which is then reintegrated into the historical consciousness. Literature for children is one of the ways in which society reinforces important historical figures and western society's perceptions of our historical past. Non-fiction, historical fiction and biographical writing are the three genres writers of children's literature use to teach children history. Joan of Arc has been manipulated by historians, writers and artists to become whatever was necessary for the particular society to believe in at the time. The consistency of Joan of Arc in the historical consciousness and her popularity among writers for children is not a coincidence. The fact that her personality and physical image is intangible and, therefore, a mystery, makes it easy for writers to make Joan into the person that they wish her to be. Currently, in our historical consciousness, Joan symbolizes patriotism, medieval chivalry, pop feminism, spirituality and heroism. The popularity Joan of Arc in contemporary children's literature is a result of and indeed part of the continual creation and re-interpretation of Western society's historical consciousness.


[Abstract] This protocol describes investigation of protein-protein interactions in baker yeast by co-immunoprecipitation (CoIP). CoIP is a technique to identify physiologically relevant protein-protein interactions in the cell. The interesting protein can be isolated out of solution using antibody that specifically binds to that particular protein (antigene protein). The partner proteins that are bound to a specific target protein can be co-immunoprecipitated together with an antigen. These protein complexes can then be analyzed to identify new binding partners, binding affinities, the kinetics of binding and the function of the target protein. Here I describe the protocols that allow to immunoprecipitate different protein complexes, for example NAC complex (Panasenko et al., 2009), Ccr4-Not complex (Panasenko and Collort, 2011), ribosomes (Panasenko and Collort, 2012) and investigate their partners. For each CoIP I used the different lysis buffer, as indicated below in recipes.


A dissertation on Improving Community livelihood through improved cassava production is a result of the Community Needs Assessments (CNA) conducted in Matanzi village in Mkuranga district. The Project Goal is enhancement of living standard of Matanzi village community at household level by raising income, employment opportunities, and food security through improved cassava production. CNA results revealed that Matanzi community earn low income due to low yield of cassava crop. Cassava low yield is caused by poor agriculture's practices such as poor spacing, poor disease control, small areas/plots of cultivation and lack of reliable market for agricultural product. Matanzi village community have resources but they are not empowered to utilize their resources and available opportunities for their social economic development. Using a participatory method, four objectives were set; To sensitize and train 55 head of households on improved cassava production techniques, Raise cultivated area from less than 1ha per household to 2 ha per household by the January 2016, Controlling Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) and Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) by March 2016 and To instruct cassava best practice to Heads of households and reliable to the Market by June 2016. The Community Needs Assessment was carried by using participatory methodologies such as Focused Group Discussions, Interview and Observations. Research tools used are Questions, Discussion Guide, and Interview guide, came out with five major community needs which needed to be urgently addressed.


Nearly 1,000 cases of beryllium-related disease have been reported in the United States since the first three cases were reported by VanOrdstrand and his associates in 1943. In addition to acute chemical pneumonitis, beryllium exposure has also resulted in berylliosis, a chronic granulomatous disease. The largest number of berylliosis cases was reported in the fluorescent lamp industry where beryllium was used in phosphors until 1949. Other cases occurred due to air pollution in the vicinity of beryllium-producing factories and exposure of family members to beryllium dust brought home on contaminated work clothes. Many of the peculiar epidemiologic features of both the acute and chronic forms of beryllium disease can be explained by its sensitizing characteristics. The standards that were established for the control of beryllium disease in the later 1940s have been remarkably effective and have now been adopted worldwide.


This paper develops a global variational approach to cutting curved surfaces so that they can be flattened into the plane with low metric distortion. Such cuts are a critical component in a variety of algorithms that seek to parameterize surfaces over flat domains, or fabricate structures from flat materials. Rather than evaluate the quality of a cut solely based on properties of the curve itself (e.g., its length or curvature), we formulate a flow that directly optimizes the distortion induced by cutting and flattening. Notably, we do not have to explicitly parameterize the surface in order to evaluate the cost of a cut, but can instead integrate a simple evolution equation defined on the cut curve itself. We arrive at this flow via a novel application of shape derivatives to the Yamabe equation from conformal geometry. We then develop an Eulerian numerical integrator on triangulated surfaces, which does not restrict cuts to mesh edges and can incorporate user-defined data such as importance or occlusion. The resulting cut curves can be used to drive distortion to arbitrarily low levels, and have a very different character from cuts obtained via purely discrete formulations. We briefly explore potential applications to computational design, as well as connections to space filling curves and the problem of uniform heat distribution.


The safety and efficacy of olsalazine sodium was compared to sulfasalazine over 3 months in a multicenter, randomized, double-blind study of 56 children with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis. Twenty-eight children received 30 mg/kg/day of olsalazine (maximum, 2 g/day) and 28 received 60 mg/kg/day of sulfasalazine (maximum, 4 g/day). Side effects were frequent in both groups. Eleven of 28 patients (39%) on olsalazine reported headache, nausea, vomiting, rash, pruritus, increased diarrhea, and/or fever. Thirteen of 28 on sulfasalazine (46%) reported similar side effects and/or neutropenia, and four patients had the drug stopped because of an adverse reaction. After 3 months, 11 of 28 (39%) on olsalazine were asymptomatic or clinically improved, compared to 22 of 28 (79%) on sulfasalazine (p = 0.006). In addition, 10 of 28 patients on olsalazine versus one on sulfasalazine required prednisone because of lack of response or worsening of colitis (p = 0.005). The dose of olsalazine used in this clinical trial was thought to be equivalent to a standard dose of sulfasalazine, but fewer patients on olsalazine improved and a greater number had progression of symptoms when compared to sulfasalazine. Although side effects were slightly less frequent for olsalazine, the number of patients was too small to detect a clinically significant difference.


Cell growth of rat lens epithelium during galactose-induced cataract formation was examined in the present study using fluorescence cytophotometry or proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) immunohistochemistry. Six-week old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 4 dietary groups according to galactose supplementation of the diet: 5%, 10%, 15% and 25% galactose diet groups. Whole-mount preparations of rat lens epithelium were prepared. The nuclear content of epithelial cells was measured using fluorescence cytophotometry, and cells undergoing DNA synthesis (PCNA labeled cells) were detected using the PCNA immunohistochemical staining method. The results of fluorescence cytophotometry showed that cells containing tetraploid nuclei (4C cells) gradually increased in number. In the 5% galactose diet fed rats, the number of 4C cells peaked on the 9th day after the start of dietary galactose supplementation, the 7th day in the 10% galactose diet fed rats and on the 5th day in the 15% and 25% galactose diet fed rats. On each day that 4C cells peaked, a large number of PCNA labeled cells were observed in the central zone of the epithelial cell layer. These results suggest that growth stimulation of lens epithelial cells depends upon the concentration of galactose in the diet and precedes changes in lens fiber.


Timely use of emergency contraception after all contraceptive failures could prevent up to 50% of all unintended pregnancies. In 2002, 85% of adolescents' pregnancies were unintended, resulting in almost 500,000 births and 235,000 abortions. Emergency contraceptive services may be especially useful to adolescents because of their erratic patterns of sexual behavior and contraceptive use. Providing these services during emergency department hospital visits is vitally important in helping adolescents to prevent unwanted pregnancies. This IRB-approved study aimed to expand upon current data in the literature by assessing the type and amount of emergency contraceptive services provided to adolescents in these hospital settings nationwide. Research included in this thesis represents a pilot study of thirty-two physicians who work in twenty-one children's hospital emergency departments across the United States. Telephone surveys were conducted with these physicians to assess the types of EC services available in their emergency departments and their attitudes regarding these services. Recommendations for undertaking a full-scale study of this same target population include improving response rates by modifying the survey administration protocol and increasing the number of contacts made with each physician.Results indicate that children's hospital emergency department physicians are not meeting the current standard of care for emergency contraceptive counseling and prescribing practices with adolescents. These results support the need for increased education and awareness for emergency department physicians in children's hospitals regarding emergency contraception and strategies to optimally communicate this information to their adolescent patients. The relevance of public health in this thesis is exemplified by the potential of the research to inform both the public health and medical communities about how emergency contraception is provided to female adolescents in children's hospital emergency departments. Comparison of results from both this pilot study and the full-scale study that will be based on this pilot study may lead to legislative and hospital policy change to improve the availability of emergency contraceptive services to adolescents, and hence to a reduction in the unintended pregnancy rate among adolescents.


ABSTRACT Little is known about oviposition in colonial seabirds. Egg-laying behaviors of Glaucous-winged Gulls (Larus glaucescens) were recorded using custom-modified digital pocket spy cameras. Oviposition involved standing or crouching over the nest, a series of contractions while assuming a characteristic posture, a short labor vocalization at the peak of contraction by some gulls, and a drying time while standing over the nest after oviposition. Active camouflage by some females was noted while sitting on the nest prior to and after oviposition and after an egg robbery occured. Eggs were laid throughout the day and night. Not surprisingly, given that our study occurred during the first part of the egg-laying season, Poisson regression analysis showed that egg laying increased with the day of the year. It decreased with solar elevation. Egg losses by cannibalism and predation increased with rising tides and with the day of year when more eggs were present. The implications for egg censuses are discussed.


Extractive fermentation (or in situ product removal (ISPR)) is an operational method used to combat product inhibition in fermentations. To achieve ISPR, different separation techniques, modes of operation and physical reactor configurations have been proposed. However, the relative paucity of industrial application necessitates continued investigation into reactor systems. This article outlines a bioreactor designed to facilitate in situ product extraction and recovery, through adapting the reaction volume to include a settler and solvent extraction and recycle section. This semipartition bioreactor is proposed as a new mode of operation for continuous liquid‐liquid extractive fermentation. The design is demonstrated as a modified bench‐top fermentation vessel, initially analysed in terms of fluid dynamic studies, in a model two‐liquid phase system. A continuous abiotic simulation of lactic acid (LA) fermentation is then demonstrated. The results show that mixing in the main reaction vessel is unaffected by the inserted settling zone, and that the size of the settling tube effects the maximum volumetric removal rate. In these tests the largest settling tube gave a potential continuous volumetric removal rate of 7.63 ml/min; sufficiently large to allow for continuous product extraction even in a highly productive fermentation. To demonstrate the applicability of the developed reactor, an abiotic simulation of a LA fermentation was performed. LA was added to reactor continuously at a rate of 33ml/h, while continuous in situ extraction removed the LA using 15% trioctylamine in oleyl alcohol. The reactor showed stable LA concentration of 1 g/L, with the balance of the LA successfully extracted and recovered using back extraction. This study demonstrates a potentially useful physical configuration for continuous in situ extraction.


Manufacturing of precise couples is the most important key technology for hydraulic products. The hydraulic characteristics are not only strongly correlated with their geometric elements, but also associated with the surface qualities of the couples, including surface roughness and surface texture, and which primarily influence the dead zone, lag rings and friction of the couples. In order to get better surface machining quality of the precise hydraulic couples, the process of surface grinding and polishing was researched. Through process test, the optimum parameters of grinding and polishing processing were found, which made the surface roughness achieved Ra 0.031μm.


Jumriyah, 2014, the planning of child-friendly School (CFS) in SD Negeri Gebugan 01 Bergas Subdistrict, Semarang Regenc. Graduate school of management master's degree of education. Satya Wacana Christian University Salatiga. Supervisor Prof. Dr. Slameto, M. Pd The purpose of this study was to describe (1) the role of the teacher, (2) the role of the parents, the community and the Committee in the planning of child-friendly schools), (3) Creating a child-friendly school planning is participatory in SD Negeri Gebugan 01. Using data collection techniques of observation, interview and question form. Technique of data analysis performed with the collection of data, data presentation, data reduction, and conclusion. Test the validity of the data in this study using a triangulation source with validation by experts and tested the effectiveness of the product in the activities of the Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The results of this research are (1) the role of teachers in the planning of child-friendly school (CFS) among others in selecting and planning the fun and learning method oriented to students, compassionate in serving students as well as participate in determining the planning measures that are child-friendly. (2) the role of parents, community child-friendly schools in planning between the concern in the development of the school, and participation in the creation of the school work plan (RKS). (3) results in a child-friendly school which planning comprises 12 indicators are validated and tested their effectiveness until it becomes a ready planning carried out in schools. Keyword: Planning A Child-Friendly School (CFS).


Multifunctional agriculture could be strategic for the recovery of some mountain areas of the Alps, and traditional crops like cereals generated study cases that triggered processes of development, such as rye in Camonica Valley (Northern Italy). However, farmers are often newcomers, and the specificities of low input agriculture make the training in agriculture fundamental. The impact of public workshops/seminars (organized by the Ge.S.Di.Mont. Research Centre of the University of Milan in Camonica Valley) on cereal cultivation between 2016 and 2021 was investigated. Moreover, rye produced in Camonica Valley was analyzed. The results show an increase in participation and a wider use of the streaming service. The percentage of participants not from an agricultural background had always remained about 50%, but decreased to 15.17% ± 5.07 in 2021, in contrast to the increase of professionals in agriculture and forestry. This is probably due to the accreditation of training activities for agronomists and foresters, and to the start of specific training projects regarding cereals. Samples of rye produced in Camonica Valley following the period of training activities were phytochemically/nutritionally characterized and compared to commercial rye. Locally produced rye proved to be comparable to the commercial one; however it showed a remarkable unevenness in secondary metabolite content and productivity, due to environmental differences and diverse agro-techniques.


The major limiting factors for curcumin to be accepted as a modern drug, despite its widespread applications, are its low aqueous solubility, low retention time and poor bioavailability. When subjected to a mild physical stress, curcumin is observed to internalize within the micellar hydrophobic core of oleic acid sophorolipid resulting in the formation of curcumin–sophorolipid nanoconjugates (CurSL). These bio-composites show enhanced retention time and increased bioavailability of curcumin in rat models. In the presence of gold salts, CurSL act as potent reducing and capping agents, resulting in the synthesis of monodispersed, spherical gold nanoparticles (CurSL–GNPs) of 8–10 nm in size. Physico-chemical, morphological and optical characteristics of both the nanoparticles are discussed based on spectroscopic absorption, photoluminescence (PL), dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta potential, SEM and TEM measurements. FTIR spectroscopy signatures of these nanoparticles confirm the retention of functional groups in the end products. A retention time of 2 hours in blood plasma and an increase in curcumin recovery by about 150 times that previously reported were observed in the pharmacokinetic (pKa) studies performed on Wistar rats. The bio-distribution of gold nanoparticles in rats was studied using EDX, which revealed their presence in different vital organs. The absence of unusual legions or necrosis in histopathological analysis of vital organs in all the rat models suggests the use of curcumin–sophorolipid nano-conjugates enhances curcumin bioavailability and the Cur–SL based nano-gold formulation is a good drug delivery carrier.


One of the most important moments in the history of the US Supreme Court occurred outside of the Court with the invention of public opinion polling. As opposed to the prevailing narrative that presents the relationship between the Court and public opinion throughout history as a structurally unchanged relationship, I argue that the invention of public opinion polling brought a conceptual change in how judicial legitimacy is understood. This change remains hidden in plain sight. It is hidden because many of the terms used when discussing judicial legitimacy have remained constant, while their meaning has changed significantly. In this chapter, I offer a succinct analysis of the origins of this change and its manifestations in the US, alongside a brief discussion of how this change has begun to travel to other legal systems.

Until the invention of public opinion polls, no source of data could give direct, regular, and reliable measurements of public opinion apart from elections. As a result of the arrival of public opinion polls, elected representatives have lost their monopoly on the claim to legitimacy based on public support. Since the 1960s, public opinion polls for the first time in history have routinely measured the American Supreme Court's public support and demonstrated it publicly. From that point on, judicial legitimacy could be understood in terms of public support.

This technological change, together with an ongoing decline in the belief in legal expertise, has brought a shift in the understanding of judicial legitimacy. This shift has many manifestations. Two of them are discussed in this chapter. First, I discuss how Alexander Hamilton's famous dictum from the Federalist No. 78 has been paraphrased in recent decades to fit the new understanding of judicial legitimacy. Second, I show that the countermajoritarian difficulty that was created to address the problem of accountability has been transformed to capture the difficulty in countering public opinion.

Ideas travel and in the second part of this chapter, I demonstrate how the shift in the understanding of judicial legitimacy has migrated both to judicial and scholarly writing outside the US. First, I focus on how the Israeli Supreme Court imported the new American understanding of judicial legitimacy into its adjudication. Second, I examine a recent monograph written on the South African Constitutional Court that explores its work according to the understanding that judicial legitimacy equates to public support for the court.


Formin proteins, characterized by two conserved formin homology (FH) domains, play an important role in cytoskeletal regulation and dynamics. The FH domains are most commonly implicated with the polymerization of F-actin and more recently with the stabilization of microtubules. Inverted formin 1 (INF1) is an atypical formin that has its FH1 and FH2 domains in its N-terminus. The C-terminus of INF 1 contains five conserved regions unlike any other sequence found in the database. In this study, we demonstrate that INF1 discreetly associates with microtubules via a unique bipartite microtubule-binding domain (MTBD) in the C-terminus. Additionally, similar to the diaphanous related formin mDia, INF1 induces microtubule stabilization and acetylation. Expression of the MTBD alone, and not the FH2 domain, is sufficient to induce microtubule stabilization. However, in the absence of the MTBD, the N-terminus induces microtubule stabilization dependent on the presence of both the FH1 and the FH2 domains. In addition, knockdown of INF 1 protein in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts results in a dramatic loss of acetylated microtubules suggesting INF1 is required for MT acetylation in these cells. Furthermore, we show that INF1 is not regulated by auto-inhibition, but is constitutively active both in vivo and in vitro. Our overexpression results suggest the INF1 C-terminus contains a putative regulatory domain targeted by an unknown inhibitory factor. Finally, we show that INF1 is capable of bundling both microtubules and F-actin simultaneously, implying that INF1 is a cytoskeletal cross-linking protein that could play an important role in cell polarity, cell migration and other cytoskeletal dependent processes.


Real-world evidence can provide answers on healthcare utilization and appropriateness, post-marketing drugs safety and comparative effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness profiles of healthcare pathways. Healthcare utilization databases, possibly integrated with drug and disease registries, electronic medical records, survey and cohort data (i.e. real-world data), allow to trace healthcare 'footprints' left from beneficiaries of National Health Service.
Beaver is a research platform available on demand to Italian regions which we developed for computing indicators of healthcare utilization and clinical outcomes, as well as for generating evidence on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness profile. Two distinct solutions may be adopted. One, the so-called Beaver Light front-end allows to automatically compute health indicators of adherence to official guidelines. Two, the so-called Beaver Full front-end involves an eight-step procedure entirely driven by the study protocol.
In order to fulfil the directives recently issued by the European Parliament and Council and the Italian Authority for the protection of individual data, the platform resides in each region's infrastructure, so limiting the free movement of electronic health data. Indeed, regional authorities should be responsible for data safety and for allowing data accessibility. The use of standardized and validated algorithms enables to obtain regional estimates that, being obtained by employing regional platforms containing data extracted with standardized procedure, may be compared and possibly summarized by using common meta-analytic techniques.
In conclusion, the Beaver regional platform is a promising tool which may contribute to stimulate healthcare research in Italy.


Since 1962, all patients with stab wounds of the abdomen admitted to New York Medical College-Metropolitan Hospital Center were managed on a selective basis. This study was compared to an earlier retrospective study (1958 to 1962). In the recent series operation was mandatory if the patient demonstrated signs of peritoneal irritation, shock, blood in the stomach, rectum or urine evisceration or free peritoneal air. Others were observed vigilantly under the supervision of the trauma team and explored if such signs appeared. The exploration rate has been reduced from 56% to 28% without increase in mortality, and no deaths resulted from observation without surgery. Drug addiction was encountered in 26% of the patients. Management, preoperative evaluation, and postoperative complications, especially with drug addicts, are detailed.


Objective To assess patterns of healthcare resource utilization prior to anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF) in patients diagnosed with radiculopathy with a retrospective cohort study design. Background ACDF is associated with improvement in quality of life among patients with cervical radiculopathy. However, little is known regarding utilization of healthcare services and total cost of care before ACDF surgery in the United States. Methods We analyzed a group of patients who received ACDF for radiculopathy during 2009-2011 using a healthcare database of over 20 million patients of all ages. Patients with fewer than two years of data prior to ACDF procedure were excluded. Inclusion criteria included patients with a diagnosis of disc displacement/degeneration and radiculopathy. All charges related to healthcare administration within two years prior to surgery were recorded and analyzed. Results Sixteen hundred seventy six patients met the inclusion criteria. Seventy-three percent of patients were in the 40-59 year age range; 55% were women and 45% were men. In the two years preceding the surgery, 34% of patients received prescription NSAIDs, and 98% received prescription narcotics for total charges of $101,188 ($174.46/patient) and $222,860 ($134.82/patient) respectively. Total pain-related interventions over two years (oral pharmacotherapy and injections) were charged at $4,368,900 at an average of $2,606/treatment. Total outpatient charges including physician office visits, other outpatient visits and emergency room visits amounted to $25,450,012. Mean total outpatient charges over the two years preceding ACDF was $15,556 per patient for 26,397 episodes of care. Injectable corticosteroids were provided for 84.7% of patients and charges related to this treatment totaled $1,137 per patient. Conclusions In the two years prior to ACDF, healthcare resource utilization is extremely high. Given that these patients ultimately undergo surgical intervention, opportunities to reduce charges of conservative care exist.


A prediction method of coal and gas outburst was presented based on the combination of attribute reduction function of rough set theory and nonlinear mapping characteristics of support vector machine. Firstly, attribute reduction and denoising were executed. Secondly, the training samples that have been processed were input to the support vector machine to train the model. Finally, the trained model was used to predict the testing samples. Practical application demonstrates that: (1) Gas pressure, gas emission rate, geological structure, protodyakonov coefficient of coal and mining depth are the indispensable indexes of coal and gas outburst. (2) The prediction model based on rough set and support vector machine has high precision and good practicability, and is a very efficient method for predicting coal and gas outburst.


Life is made up of a long list of decisions. In each of them there exists quite a number of choices and most of the decisions are effected by uncertainties and preferences, from choosing a healthy lunch and nice clothes to choosing a profession and a field of study. Uncertainties can be modeled by probabilities and preferences by utilities. A rational decision maker prefers to make a decision with the least regret or the most satisfaction. The principle of maximum expected utility can be helpful in this issue. Expected utility deals with problems in which agents make a decision under conditions in which probabilities of states play a role in the choice, as well as the utilities of outcomes. Argumentation formalisms could be an option to model these problems and to pick one or several alternatives. In this paper, a new argument-based framework, numerical abstract dialectical frameworks (nADFs for short), is introduced to do so. First, the semantics of this formalism, which is a generalization of abstract dialectical frameworks (ADFs for short), based on many-valued interpretations are introduced, including preferred, grounded, complete and model-based semantics. Second, it is shown how nADFs are expressive enough to formalize standard decision problems. It is shown that the different types of semantics of an nADF that is associated with a decision problem all coincide and have the standard meaning. In this way, it is shown how the nADF semantics can be used to choose the best set of decisions.


There is increasing awareness that a library is the heart of any education system. The library is fundamental to the success of any school. However, most libraries in most cases have not performed and developed to the expectation. The overall aim of this study was to ascertain the library management and resource mobilisation practices in Zambian secondary school libraries. The study was largely quantitative in nature. Thirty-one (31) secondary schools purposively selected participated in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather primary data. In addition, observations were conducted for some schools. The results are reported and include the general standard of library infrastructure, management of collections, library security and maintenance; promotion of library services to patrons, methods of resources mobilisation, staffing levels and subject qualifications of staff in charge of secondary school libraries.


In this paper, we investigate the implications of continued industrial economic growth on environmental pollution in China in order to inform strategic policies to achieve sustainable development of the industrial sector. We calculate green total factor productivity (TFP) for each industrial sector by estimating the Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index using a Slacks-based Measure Directional Distance Function (SBM-DDF). We find that the green TFP increased at an average annual rate of approximately 6% over the 11-year period. A slightly greater portion of this growth is attributable to technological progress (57%) rather than technical efficiency (43%). To investigate the relationship between industrial economic growth and pollutant levels, we first adopt a hierarchical clustering procedure to group all industrial sectors into green-intensive, intermediate and extensive clusters based on the contribution of green TFP to industrial economic growth within respective industries. Based on an econometric estimation of the relationship between pollutant levels and industrial GDP per capita, we find clear evidence in favor of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory only with wastewater as the primary pollutant of interest and only with industrial sectors that are already relatively pollution intensive. We find no evidence in support of the EKC theory when sulfur dioxide or solid waste is the pollutant of major concern. In general, blindly accelerating industrial economic growth will likely worsen environmental quality, unless reasonable environmental policy interventions are implemented.


A company can consider a disastrous incident from several perspectives. The pervasive ones are 'Who did it ?' and 'How could it happen' How the public reacts to these perspectives has been determined in a field experiment. Subjects read a direct-mail letter in which an international chain of hotels commented on two recent fires from either the who or the how perspective on their causes. Evaluative responses to the text versions interacted with gender; persuasive effects depended on both gender and value-relevant involvement. Gender determined the direction of the preference; men reacted more positively to the how version, women tended to do so to the who version. Involvement determined the magnitude of these differences; the more concerned about personal safety, the greater the differences. These results can be understood in terms of certain moral beliefs and behaviors derived from crisis management theory.


This project stemmed from a need to improve understanding of the transition from school to university music and other related subjects. Students now come from a wide range of backgrounds and university staff need to understand these more comprehensively in order to manage transition more effectively. The project examined how curricula can build upon the strengths of students and how to avoid the (negative) view that it is necessary to begin an undergraduate course with essentially remedial work. It has the support of the subject centre for performing arts (PALATINE), the music subject association (NAMHE), and the Society for Music Analysis (SMA).


Forty years ago, the first women soldiers joined the Belgian army. Since then, much progress has been made in the feminization of the staffs, particularly through various laws and policies implemented on this purpose. However, female staff is still a largely under-represented group in the Belgian army. This could be mainly explained by the fact that the characteristics traditionally assigned to women do not match the military culture, primarily based on so-called "male" values. Given this situation, we tried to identify the personality profile and the coping strategies of those women who chose to pursue a leadership career, as army officer, in a male-dominated environment. We therefore conducted a survey with a selected sample of 38 female military officers. Four tools were used: an anamnestic questionnaire, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. From the main sample, we then extracted a subsample of 17 officers who agreed to participate in a semi-structured interview. The results of the personality inventory revealed high marks in the areas of extraversion and consciousness, and a low score in neuroticism. The CISS allowed us to demonstrate that our subjects do not use a specific style of coping and the CSEI highlighted that their self-esteem is within the average range. The semi-directive interviews confirmed these results and allowed us to observe that most of our subjects do not perceive discrimination relating to their career development even if the access to promotions is still limited.


Abstract Non-adherence to medication leads to reduced health outcomes and increased health care costs. More evidence and analysis is needed to understand the determinants of non-adherence, particularly the impact of the doctor-patient interaction. This relationship is often characterised by conflict during consultations. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether a game theoretic approach can explain the conflict during consultations that lead patients to non-adhere to medical recommendations. The game theoretic models constructed employ the Psychological Expected Utility theory. There is a distinction between information-loving and information-averse patients. Doctors do not always know the type of patient they have and on the basis of limited knowledge, they need to decide how much information to pass on. We relax the assumption of perfect agency and introduce the concept of the doctor's effort. Uncertainty is resolved under various hypotheses of bounded rationality. A complete resolution of the games is offered, and comparative statics results and economic interpretations are given. When a doctor knows with certainty the type of patient she has, she will transfer adequate information and the patient will adhere. If the doctor cannot recognize the patient's need the outcome may be non-adherence to recommendations. Doctors who understand patients' needs improve adherence rates. To enhance adherence, a number of policy recommendations are made. Financial incentives to the doctor do not benefit all types of patients.


The 2006 ASMI Conference will consider the history and practices of consumption in Italy, and the consumption of goods, products and services that have been encoded as 'Italian' outside the country itself. The conference will be open to papers on all aspects of consumption (broadly defined) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including those employing economic, social, cultural, theoretical and political approaches. Papers on consumption in Italy might discuss themes such as the transition to a consumer society, investigating areas such as advertising, fashion, retailing, sport and popular music; and the impact of consumption in processes such as identity formation, the construction of gender roles, the 'Americanization' of daily life and the conduct of politics. Papers on the consumption of Italy might deal with the transfer of commodities from Italy to overseas, consumer and material culture within the Italian diasporas, the encoding of 'Italianess' in the branding of products, and the uses and meanings constructed through the consumption of Italian goods. The keynote speakers at the conference will be Donna Gabaccia (University of Minnesota) and Roberta Sassatelli (University of Milan). There will also be a presentation by the organizers on their research project 'The Cappuccino Conquests: A Transnational History of Italian Coffee': http://www.cappuccinoconquests.org.uk The working language of the conference will be English. The organizers anticipate publishing a selection of revised conference papers either in a collected volume of essays or as a journal theme issue. Paper proposals of no more than one page, including a title, brief abstract, and statement of the proposer's status and affiliation, should be sent to the organizers via email.


Aim. To evaluate clinical features of hyperphagia reactions, their significance in attraction abnormities within eating disorders and treatment options for these conditions with escitalopram. Material and methods. Mental state of 39 women (age 19-50 years) with psychogenic overeating and obesity (body mass index of 30 to 53 kg/m 2) was studied. Patients were admitted to the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Diagnostic criteria for International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition, as well as Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Ferreri Anxiety Rating Diagram (FARD) were used for syndrome qualifications. Patient Global Impression of Change was also studied using a 4-point scale of results (excellent, good, fair, and negative). Results. Clinical features of hyperphagic reactions were found. Escitalopram treatment course was completed with excellent and good results in 80% of patients. 50%-reduction in HADS score for anxiety was found in 74% of patients, for depression in 63%, and for Ferreri scale in 68% of patients. Escitalopram promoted more intensive body weight loss: 11% vs 8% of baseline weight in active and control groups, respectively. Adverse events occurred only in 7 (36%) patients; they were transient and did not require therapy discontinuation. Conclusion: Significant differences of premanifest disorders were often observed in patients history. Escitalopram in these patients showed efficacy in improvement of both mental and somatic symptoms of anxiety. It decreased dependence on food as a factor mitigating affect and stress, thus provided better results in body weight reduction.


Thailand is somewhat lagging behind other countries in Southeast Asia in adopting the concept of payment for environmental services (PES) as an instrument for creating incentives for natural resources conservation. There are a number of activities involving payments for provision of activities or environmental services but these are missing many elements that would qualify them as a PES project. Others are mainly at the design stage or at the initial stages of implementation. One of the major challenges is to create recognition of the benefits from ecosystems services. Presently, private sectors attach considerable importance to CSR projects. There is nothing wrong with CSR projects but CSR activities do not address missing markets, nor aim to create incentives to undertake conservation measures on a sustainable basis. To create demand on a scale that would give the momentum for PES would require a revamp existing legal tools to create effective demand for conservation services. It may be strategically better to approach the 'private sector institution' such as: the Federation of Thai Industries and the Thai Chamber of Commerce, rather than individual private companies. Without this, CSR investment is likely to be spread so thin and while succeeding in promoting publicity of private companies, tangible outcomes in improving the environment are likely to be limited. Although biophysical conditions precede other criteria for selection of potential PES project sites, given that there is an estimated number of forest-dependent people of 1 to 2 million people most of whom believed to be poor and living in environmentally sensitive areas, it is undeniable that PES can be instrumental to addressing poverty alleviation objectives. A major challenge that must be addressed however, is the legal framework. Although not explicitly endorsing the concept of creating incentives for service providers, the relevant laws can be, -and needs to be-, relaxed in specific cases, particularly where PES types projects will be launched in protected areas where there are legal restrictions over access. PES can also supplement the legal provisions to protect biodiversity resources. Like all public goods, over-exploitation of biodiversity resources, is due to the failure to recognize that the economic value exceeds the market prices of the tradable parts of biodiversity resources. Unless there is recognition of the non-tradable benefits, biodiversity resources will continue to be underpriced and under valued, hence the potential contribution of the concept of PES projects to create recognition, demonstrate its economic values and link between the demand and supply side to capture those values.


Background Web-based brief alcohol interventions are effective in reducing alcohol use among students when measured at limited follow-up time points. To date, no studies have tested Web-based brief alcohol intervention effectiveness over time by using a large number of measurements. Objective Testing whether the What Do You Drink (WDYD) Web-based brief alcohol intervention can sustain a reduction in alcohol use among heavy-drinking students aged 18-24 years at 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-up intervals. Methods A purely Web-based, 2-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial applying an ecological momentary assessment approach with 30 weekly measurements was conducted in the Netherlands (2010-2011). Participants were recruited offline and online. A total of 907 participants were randomized into the experimental condition (n=456) including the single-session and fully automated WDYD intervention, or into the control condition (n=451) including assessment only. Weekly alcohol consumption and frequency of binge drinking were the self-assessed outcome measures. Results Attrition rates of the 907 participants were 110 (12.1%), 130 (14.3%), and 162 (17.9%) at 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-up intervals, respectively. Latent growth curve analyses according to the intention-to-treat principle revealed that participants in the experimental condition had significantly lower weekly alcohol consumption compared to participants in the control condition that was sustained at 3-month follow-up (intercept=–2.60, P<.001; slope=0.16, P=.08). Additional linear regression analyses indicated that this intercept difference resulted from significantly higher levels of alcohol units per week for participants in the control condition compared to those in the experimental condition at 1-month (beta=–2.56, SE 0.74, Cohen's d=0.20, P=.001), 3-month (beta=–1.76, SE 0.60, Cohen's d=0.13, P=.003), and 6-month (beta=–1.21, SE 0.58, Cohen's d=0.09, P=.04) follow-up intervals. Latent growth curve analyses further indicated that participants in the experimental condition had a significantly lower frequency of binge drinking compared to participants in the control condition that was sustained at 6-month follow-up (intercept=–0.14, P=.01; slope=0.004, P=.19). This intercept difference resulted from higher levels in this outcome for participants in the control condition relative to participants in the experimental condition at 1-month (beta=–1.15, SE 0.06, Cohen's d=0.16, P=.01), 3-month (beta=–0.12, SE 0.05, Cohen's d=0.09, P=.01), and 6-month (beta=–0.09, SE 0.05, Cohen's d=0.03, P=.045) follow-up intervals. Conclusions The WDYD intervention was shown to be effective in preventing an increase in weekly alcohol consumption and frequency of binge drinking directly after the intervention. This effect was sustained 3 and 6 months after the intervention. Trial Registration Netherlands Trial Register NTR2665; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=2665 (Archived by WebCite at http://webcitation.org/6LuQVn12M).


The prostate is a small gland located below the bladder and upper part of the urethra. In developed countries prostate cancer is the second common cancer (after skin cancer), and also the second leading cause of cancer death (after lung cancer) among men. The several studies have been shown prostate cancer familial aggregation. The main reason for this aggregation is inheritance included genes. The family history is an important risk factor for developing the disease. The genes AR , CYP17 , SRD5A2 , HSD3B1 and HSD3B2 are all intimately involved in androgen metabolism and cell proliferation in the prostate. Each shows intraspecific polymorphism and variation among racial-ethnic groups that is associated with the risk of prostate cancer. Some of genes expressed in the prostate are in association with the production of seminal fluid and also with prostate cancer. Epigenetic modifications, specifically DNA hypermethylation, are believed to play an important role in the down-regulation of genes important for protection against prostate cancer. In prostate cancer numerous molecular and genetic aberrations have been described. It is now well established that cancer cells exhibit a number of genetic defects in apoptotic pathways. In this review article, the most recent data in molecular genetic, prevention and especially gene therapy in prostate cancer are introduced. Abstract


Solid waste management has received increasing attention from researchers and decision makers, who are concerned about establishing sustainable waste management systems. The aim of the research was to improve a waste management system in Makkah, which has experienced significant variations in the amount of waste generated. The research was based on simulations of the consequences of different waste management treatment options and technologies, i.e. incineration, MRF, AD, composting and MBT. The methodology used to analyse and evaluate the data was based on life cycle assessment (LCA) and specialist packages such as the EASEWASTE tool. Makkah was selected as a case study for this research because it is the holiest city in the Islamic world. In 2012, for example, more than 13 million pilgrims travelled to Makkah during religious periods to perform Hajj or Umrah. Therefore, substantial changes in the population of Makkah throughout the year lead to a highly unstable rate of waste generation and characterisation. Furthermore, the only disposal method used in Makkah is landfill, without gas collection or leachate treatment systems. To the best of the author's knowledge, no LCA studies have been conducted on any aspect of waste management in relation to Saudi Arabia, or Makkah in particular. The research has provided an understanding of the existing system of Makkah's waste management during pilgrimage (Hajj and Umrah) and non-pilgrimage time periods. It has also provided a comprehensive approach to evaluate the current strategy of waste management used in Makkah, as well as the alternatives, by applying LCA methodology during different periods of pilgrimage.


Abstract The research performed and presented in this paper, aims to verify the welding behavior of electrodes developed experimentally, as well as the possibility of their use in production. A group of two electrodes produced by Bohler Company, Gridur 24 and B.M.N were taken as reference, in order to compare them in terms of the mechanical properties of the deposited metal, with the experimentally developed electrodes EICr12Fe and EIMn13SiFe. They were made determinations of the chemical composition of the deposited metal with the two types of electrodes, measurements regarding the hardness of the metal deposited, comparative determinations of the structure of the weld deposit, and of the welding penetration, determinations of the deposition yield and verification of the welding behavior.


Many accounts of tourism have adopted an almost paradigmatic visual model of the gaze. This collection presents an expanded notion of spectatorship with a more dynamic sense of embodied and performed engagement with places. The approach resonates with ideas in anthropology, sociology, and geography on performance, invented traditions, constructed places and traveling cultures. Contributions highlight the often contradictory, contested and paradoxical constructions of landscape and community involved both in tourist attractions and among tourists themselves. The collection examines many different practices, ranging from the energetic pursuit of adventure holidays to the reading of holiday brochures. It illustrates different techniques of seeing the landscape and a variety of ways of creating and performing the local. Chapters thus demonstrate the mutual entanglement of practices, images, conventions, and creativity. They chart these global flows of people, texts, images, and artefacts. Case studies are drawn from diverse types of tourism and destination focused around North America, Europe, and Australasia. Simon Coleman teaches in the Department of Anthropology, University of Durham. Mike Crang is Lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of Durham.


Advances in mobile autonomous platforms for oceanographic sensing, including gliders and deep-water profiling floats, have provided new opportunities for passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of cetaceans. However, there are few direct comparisons of these mobile autonomous systems to more traditional methods, such as stationary bottom-moored recorders. Cross-platform comparisons are necessary to enable interpretation of results across historical and contemporary surveys that use different recorder types, and to identify potential biases introduced by the platform. Understanding tradeoffs across recording platforms informs best practices for future cetacean monitoring efforts. This study directly compares the PAM capabilities of a glider (Seaglider) and a deep-water profiling float (QUEphone) to a stationary seafloor system (High-frequency Acoustic Recording Package, or HARP) deployed simultaneously over a 2 week period in the Catalina Basin, California, United States. Two HARPs were deployed 4 km apart while a glider and deep-water float surveyed within 20 km of the HARPs. Acoustic recordings were analyzed for the presence of multiple cetacean species, including beaked whales, delphinids, and minke whales. Variation in acoustic occurrence at 1-min (beaked whales only), hourly, and daily scales were examined. The number of minutes, hours, and days with beaked whale echolocation clicks were variable across recorders, likely due to differences in the noise floor of each recording system, the spatial distribution of the recorders, and the short detection radius of such a high-frequency, directional signal type. Delphinid whistles and clicks were prevalent across all recorders, and at levels that may have masked beaked whale vocalizations. The number and timing of hours and days with minke whale boing sounds were nearly identical across recorder types, as was expected given the relatively long propagation distance of boings. This comparison provides evidence that gliders and deep-water floats record cetaceans at similar detection rates to traditional stationary recorders at a single point. The spatiotemporal scale over which these single hydrophone systems record sounds is highly dependent on acoustic features of the sound source. Additionally, these mobile platforms provide improved spatial coverage which may be critical for species that produce calls that propagate only over short distances such as beaked whales.


Abstract Though African-American and Latino electoral success in state legislative and congressional elections continues to occur almost entirely in majority-minority districts, minorities now have new opportunities in districts that are only 40–50% minority. This success can primarily be explained in terms of a curvilinear model that generates a "sweet spot" of maximum likelihood of minority candidate electoral success as a function of minority population share of the district and the proportion of the district that votes Republican. Past racial redistricting legal challenges often focused on cracking concentrated racial minorities to prevent the creation of majority-minority districts. Future lawsuits may also follow in the steps of recent successful court challenges against racially motivated packing that resulted in the reduction of minority population percentage in a previously majority-minority district in order to enhance minority opportunity in an adjacent non-majority-minority district.


Mitoxantrone is an antitumor agent that was synthesized to try to develop a doxorubicinlike drug with a better therapeutic index. It has clinical activity for acute leukemias, breast carcinoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and ovarian cancers. There is some lack of cross-resistance to the anthracyclines. Its spectrum of toxicity is advantageous in that it causes less alopecia and can be administered for a slightly longer time than doxorubicin. For selected patients, mitoxantrone can be useful as a substitute for doxorubicin, but doxorubicin will remain the more widely used drug.


Temporary migration is of growing significance in Europe. Upon migration to a country with higher technological development that typically coincides with positive wage differentials, temporary migrants may upgrade their skills by learning on the job and subsequently import the newly acquired human capital to their source country, thus adding to international know-how diffusion and the catching up of the respective economy. This paper is the first to provide supportive evidence of this hypothesis in a cross-country East to West European perspective, using the 2003 Youth Eurobarometer dataset.


Received: May 24, 2019 Accepted: August 27, 2019 Published: September 30, 2019 Volume: 2 Issue: 5 DOI: 10.32996/ijllt.2019.2.5.28 This research has an aim to investigate to what extent Saudi English textbooks help in enhancing Saudi student's critical thinking skills. The research topic was selected by keeping in mind the experience that Saudi Arabia students always face difficulty in the application of critical thinking skills for the determination of best possible solutions. The critical thinking skills are the necessity of professional life and if students of Saudi Arabia are failed in applying it to a particular situation, then it is important to investigate the reasons for it. The literature has concluded the same thing that the critical thinking skills learning should of that type which helps students in applying it to a particular situation because if they do not know its application, then critical thinking skill is useless. The past studies have revealed that the English textbooks have some elements of critical thinking skills but, it is important to investigate that either specific textbook contains the elements by which learner can learn the critical thinking skill or not. The primary research data was collected through a questionnaire of Five Point Likert Scale, which shows that the teachers of Saudi Arabia have neutral reply towards the role of English Textbook activities in the development of critical thinking skills. Teachers who are the research respondents of this study claimed that some gaps exist in the Saudi curricula for the development of critical thinking skills among students. This study successfully explored the role of curricula in the development of critical thinking skills among students, and how much Saudi Arabia curricula is efficient in it. KEYWORDS