This study analyses a surge capacitor failure on the neutral bus in a ±500 kV high voltage direct current (HVDC) converter station. Both overvoltage and insulation of the surge capacitor are investigated through simulation, practical record data analysis, and experimentation. A highly accurate HVDC model is established on the basis of the topological structure and parameters of the HVDC project. Using this model, the failure process is simulated by combining neutral bus overvoltage record analysis and voltage divider performance test. Results indicate that the 246 kV uncharacteristically high overvoltage on the neutral bus is a measurement error caused by voltage divider fault. From the field test, difference equation of the voltage divider is derived to reconstruct the actual overvoltage, the amplitude of which is 73 kV. The amplitude is significantly lower than that of the switching impulse withstand level of the surge capacitor, which should not cause capacitor failure. Therefore, the primary cause of capacitor failure is insulation damage rather than overvoltage. Finally, maintenance measures are proposed and applied in the station.


We examined whether the tumor volume (TV) is a good predictor of PSA recurrence after radical prostatectomy. Data were collected for 158 patients with clinically localized prostate cancer undergoing radical prostatectomy without neoadjuvant hormonal therapy in our hospital since April 2005 to September 2007. Along with the routine pathological assessment, TV was assessed in all prostatectomy specimens. PSA recurrence was defined as PSA levels of greater than 0.2 ng/ml. The TVs were 1.81+/-1.66 ml (mean +/-SD) ranging from 0.02 to 8.20 ml. The TV in cT1c was 1.77+/-1.64, and 1.89+/-1.72 ml in cT2 (not significant). Significant differences were observed between TV and pT. The TVs in pT2a, pT2b and pT3/4 were 0.54+/-0.54, 1.63+/-1.47 and 2.67+/-1.80 ml, respectively. The median follow-up period was 32.3 months (range from 15 to 45) after radical prostatectomy, and PSA recurrence was observed in 32 cases. Patients with smaller TV (TV <1.3 ml) had a higher PSA-free survival rate (89.5%) than those with a larger TV (TV > or = 1.3 ml, 66.7%) with a significant difference atp <0.001 (log-rank test). A multivariate analysis was performed for PSA, TV, pT, Gleason Score (GS), and surgical margins. Significant differences were observed for GS, and surgical margins, but not for TV. Clinically organ-confined disease in Japanese patients with prostate cancer included various cancers from clinically insignificant to locally advanced ones. In our series, TV was not regarded as a predictor of PSA recurrence after radical prostatectomy.


Abstract Background The Mediterranean diet (MD) prototype is widely used as an educational tool in public health programmes; few studies, however, have been conducted on the adherence of children to this diet. Objective To evaluate the quality of Cypriot children's diet by assessing the degree of adherence to the MD. Methods A national cross-sectional study among 1140 children (mean age = 10·7 (sd 0·98) years), using stratified multistage sampling design, was conducted in primary schools of Cyprus. Dietary assessment was based on a 154-item semi-quantitative FFQ and the two supplementary questionnaires (a Food Groups Frequency Questionnaire and a Short Eating Habits Questionnaire). Adherence to the MD was assessed by the KIDMED index. The association between the frequencies of consumption of various food groups and the level of adherence to the MD (poor v. average v. good KIDMED score) was also evaluated. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to adjust for potential confounders. Results Only 6·7 % of the sample was classified as high adherers of MD, whereas 37 % had a poor KIDMED score. Multiple logistic regression analysis has shown that children with at least an average KIDMED score were more likely to eat frequently seafood and fish, legumes, nuts, bread, fruits, leafy vegetables, olives, low glycaemic index foods and unrefined foods. Effect size of associations was from medium to high. Conclusion Higher adherence to MD is associated with better diet quality in children. The MD prototype may thus represent a useful educational tool for promotion of healthy eating habits in children.


The major goal of this study is to investigate conceptual emotion metaphors of Korean, particularly those of ANGER, HAPPINESS, and SADNESS, by utilizing a corpus-based analysis. The universality of conceptual metaphors continues to be a controversial topic in cognitive linguistics and thus, more cross-linguistic and language-specific studies are needed to support the theoretical framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). To this end, the current study identifies and examines Korean metaphorical expressions through a conceptual analysis, supported by both quantitative and qualitative methods, and aims to find out the types of concepts with which ANGER, HAPPINESS, and SADNESS are associated, and thus, to what extent these associations comprise primary (universal) and complex (cultural) metaphors, as suggested by the current view of the CMT. I argue that while it is important to distinguish between universal and cultural metaphors, the hierarchical mapping of variation also describes the characteristics of a language vis-a-vis universality or cultural specificity. Furthermore, I claim that the characteristics of metaphorical expressions should also be determined based on analysis of their occurrences in language use. The data suggest a positive correlation between frequency and productivity. Understanding the frequency and productivity of emotion metaphors through analysis of their occurrence in actual language use will allow better understanding and provide a basis for further investigation of native speakers' cognitive styles and cognitive tendencies.


A new concept in the interior design of autonomous vehicles is rotatable or swivelling seats that allow people sitting in the front row to rotate their seats and face backwards. In the current study, we used a take-over request task conducted in a fixed-based driving simulator to compare two conditions, driver front-facing and rear-facing. Thirty-six adult drivers participated in the experiment using a within-subject design with take-over time budget varied. Take-over reaction time, remaining action time, crash, situation awareness and trust in automation were measured. Repeated measures ANOVA and Generalized Linear Mixed Model were conducted to analyze the results. The results showed that the rear-facing configuration led to longer take-over reaction time (on average 1.56 s longer than front-facing, p < 0.001), but it caused drivers to intervene faster after they turned back their seat in comparison to the traditional front-facing configuration. Situation awareness in both front-facing and rear-facing autonomous driving conditions were significantly lower (p < 0.001) than the manual driving condition, but there was no significant difference between the two autonomous driving conditions (p = 1.000). There was no significant difference of automation trust between front-facing and rear-facing conditions (p = 0.166). The current study showed that in a fixed-based simulator representing a conditionally autonomous car, when using the rear-facing driver seat configuration (where participants rotated the seat by themselves), participants had longer take-over reaction time overall due to physical turning, but they intervened faster after they turned back their seat for take-over response in comparison to the traditional front-facing seat configuration. This behavioral change might be at the cost of reduced take-over response quality. Crash rate was not significantly different in the current laboratory study (overall the average rate of crash was 11%). A limitation of the current study is that the driving simulator does not support other measures of take-over request (TOR) quality such as minimal time to collision and maximum magnitude of acceleration. Based on the current study, future studies are needed to further examine the effect of rotatable seat configurations with more detailed analysis of both TOR speed and quality measures as well as in real world driving conditions for better understanding of their safety implications.


A 16-year-old male presented with persistent abdominal pain for 2 weeks. Mild elevation of liver enzymes ALT and AST was observed. Abdominal ultrasound revealed a missing right kidney and a dense cystic mass near the bladder. CT scan confirmed right kidney agenesis and identified a 7.5×7.5×10 cm cystic mass extending from the bladder to the prostate. Due to fever and worsening pain, laparoscopic surgery was performed to remove the complicated seminal vesicle cyst. Purulent ejaculate was drained and the cystic mass was completely excised. The patient recovered well and liver enzyme levels returned to normal after 1 month.


Here we studied the combinatory expression patterns of nine developmental regulatory genes and six markers of different neuronal subpopulations in the telencephalic subpallium of developing chicken, from early embryos until hatching, in order to better understand the formation and organization of the basal telencephalon and the origin of its different cell groups. The genes analyzed include those encoding for: the transcription factors Islet1, Lhx6, Lhx7/8, Nkx2.1, and Pax6; the signaling protein Sonic hedgehog; the LIM‐only genes Lmo3 and Lmo4; the cell adhesion molecule cadherin‐8; markers of γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic, cholinergic, or glutamatergic neurons; and markers of neuron subpopulations containing substance P, enkephalin, or neuropeptide Y. The combinatory expression patterns of these genes indicate that the chicken subpallium parcellates into eight molecularly different compartments during development (three striatal, three pallidal, and two preoptic subdivisions), and suggest that each compartment produces specific cell groups. Our data are particularly relevant for understanding the avian extended amygdala and suggest the existence of distinct central and medial extended amygdala complexes in the subpallium, as well as a pallial amygdalo‐hypothalamic cell corridor, which are comparable to homonymous complexes of mammals based on similar embryonic origin, molecular features, and some connectivity patterns. Our data also indicate that the dorsal and ventral parts of the chicken basal ganglia originate in different striatal and pallidal compartments, and suggest a massive migration of neurons from the pallidal compartment into the medial striatum, which may explain the existence of pallidal‐like cells within the medial striatum of birds. J. Comp. Neurol. 515:465–501, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This one-day workshop, situated in an AirBnB home, intends to engage participants with concerns of the domestic across a wide spectrum of HCI practice; from those designing technologies to configure space, makers and hackers of the Internet of Things, those seeking to promote behavioral change in the home and those envisaging new forms of domestic space; critically and uncritically. Through provocations, installations, artifacts and demonstrations we shall question the degree of personal agency that these technologies afford the inhabitant. In doing so we expect to find both points of unity and points of debate which we shall document in a short film, to be shared with the community and beyond.


To the Editor: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging public health concern for industrialized countries (1). Although HEV infection has been associated with travel to countries where the virus is endemic, cases of autochthonous HEV are increasing (2). Detection of HEV RNA in blood donations in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, and China and accumulating reports of HEV transmitted through blood transfusion highlight the potential risk this virus poses to blood supply safety (1–4).

In Australia, where most HEV infections are associated with travel (5), an average of 25 HEV cases occurred each year during 1999–2013 (http://www9.health.gov.au/cda/source/rpt_3.cfm). HEV infection is nationally notifiable in Australia, but the presence of subclinical infections and the lack of recent seroprevalence studies have prevented the accurate estimation of HEV incidence and population exposure. Thus, we examined HEV seroprevalence in a cohort of Australian blood donors, assessed risk factors for exposure, and used the data to examine the effectiveness of current blood safety strategies for the management of HEV in Australia.

Plasma samples (n = 3,237) were collected from donors during August–September 2013. Information on age, sex, state of residence, new/repeat donor status, and overseas travel disclosure was obtained. Details of any relevant blood donation deferral (malaria, diarrhea) applied on previous donation attempts were also collected. Application of a specific malaria deferral code is routine for donors disclosing travel to a malaria-endemic country, and a diarrhea deferral applies when a donor reports having had diarrhea (of viral or unknown cause) 1 week before any attempted donation.

All samples were tested for HEV IgG by using the Wantai HEV-IgG ELISA (Beijing Wantai Biologic Pharmacy Enterprise Co., Ltd, Beijing, China). Positive samples were tested for HEV IgM by using the Wantai HEV-IgM ELISA and for HEV RNA by using a prototype transcription-mediated amplification assay (Hologic Inc., San Diego, CA, USA).

Of 3,237 samples, 194 (5.99%) were positive for HEV IgG (95% CI 5.18–6.81). Compared with estimates from previous studies that used the Wantai ELISA (6–9), our estimate is comparable to those reported from Scotland (4.7%) and New Zealand (4.2%) but lower than those from the United States (18.8%) and southwestern France (52.5%). Considerable debate exists regarding the sensitivity and specificity of HEV detection methods (2,10); however, on the basis of studies in France and the United Kingdom (9,10), we believe that the measured seroprevalence in our study is accurate.

Our findings showed an increased seroprevalence of HEV associated with previous malaria deferral, diarrhea deferral, and age (multivariate logistic regression) (Table), the latter of which is consistent with previous findings (9). IgG seropositivity was also higher (7.73%) in donors who had traveled to a malaria-endemic country. HEV is often endemic to malaria-endemic countries (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2014); however, the HEV exposure status of travelers is unknown before departure, so the exact place of exposure cannot be determined. Furthermore, 3.37% of donors in our study had evidence of previous HEV exposure; these donors had not reported travel outside Australia, so they may have acquired HEV locally. Because subclinical HEV infection is possible, persons infected locally may not be identified by the current donor screening questionnaire and thus pose a potential risk to blood supply safety.

Table

HEV (IgG) seroprevalence, and risk factors for exposure, in Australian blood donors*

Detection of HEV IgM in 4 (2.06%) of the 194 samples from IgG-positive donors indicates the donors had been recently exposed to HEV (95% CI 0.06–4.06). All 4 donors had traveled overseas; 3 reported travel to malaria-endemic countries. HEV RNA was not detected in any of the HEV IgG–positive samples. Although it is encouraging that HEV nucleic acid was not detected, the sample size is insufficient to accurately determine the true rate of HEV RNA carriage among donors in this study; a larger study is planned.

Management strategies to safeguard the Australian blood supply against transfusion-transmitted HEV are based on donor selection guidelines. To identify donors with possible bacteremia/viremia, including HEV, blood donation staff members ask donors several medical, behavioral, and travel-based questions before donation. These include questions relating to general wellness, sex practices, gastric upset, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and vomiting within the previous week. In addition, for 4 months after a donor's return from travel to a malaria-endemic country, donations are restricted to plasma for fractionation. Some protection against blood donations from HEV-infected persons may occur because HEV and malaria are co-endemic to many countries. Our findings showed a higher HEV seroprevalence among donors with prior malaria or diarrhea deferrals; thus, malaria- and diarrhea-related screening questions may reduce contributions from donors with travel-associated HEV infection.

Our findings showed HEV exposure in travelers and nontravelers, suggesting the possibility of imported and locally acquired HEV in Australia. Prior HEV exposure was higher in donors who were temporarily excluded from donating blood on previous donation attempts, suggesting the current management strategy in Australia is partially effective in minimizing any risk of HEV transmission through blood transfusion. However, the presence of HEV IgG in donors who reported no overseas travel and/or no prior related deferrals, coupled with the knowledge that asymptomatic infection is possible, suggests that additional safety precautions may be warranted.


We study a chemostat model in which two microbial species grow on a single resource. We show that species coexistence is possible when the species which would normally win the exclusive competition aggregates in flocs. Our mathematical analysis exploits the fact that flocculation is fast compared to biological growth, a common hypothesis in floc models. A numerical study shows the validity of this approach in a large parameter range. We indicate how our model yields a mechanistic justification for the so-called density-dependent growth.


I grew up in the United States thinking that Britain was the most caring country in the world because the NHS provided free health care to everyone regardless of race, creed, age, or financial circumstances. I worked in the finest hospitals in the United States for almost 20 years, and the inequality of care provided for the "have nots" was distressing.

I married the Englishman who encouraged the NHS to deliver services more effectively by using information systems. In 1991 he developed a rare disease that took eight months to diagnose and was physically and mentally debilitating. Since then I have witnessed an appalling lack of accountability and waste of resources.

> People need to know where to obtain the right information—at the right time

Professionals opened sterile trays to obtain a single lumbar puncture needle or sterile dressing. Patients received meals that resulted in surgery being postponed. Patients were …


Low-complexity protein domains promote the formation of various biomolecular condensates. However, in many cases, the precise sequence features governing condensate formation and identity remain unclear. Here, we investigate the role of intrinsically disordered mixed-charge domains (MCDs) in nuclear speckle condensation. Proteins composed exclusively of arginine/aspartic-acid dipeptide repeats undergo length-dependent condensation and speckle incorporation. Substituting arginine with lysine in synthetic and natural speckle-associated MCDs abolishes these activities, identifying a key role for multivalent contacts through arginine's guanidinium ion. MCDs can synergise with a speckle-associated RNA recognition motif to promote speckle specificity and residence. MCD behaviour is tuneable through net-charge: increasing negative charge abolishes condensation and speckle incorporation. By contrast, increasing positive charge through arginine leads to enhanced condensation, speckle enlargement, decreased splicing factor mobility, and defective mRNA export. Together, these results identify key sequence determinants of MCD-promoted speckle condensation, and link the speckle's dynamic material properties with function in mRNA processing.


This paper reviews some basic mathematical results on Lyapunov exponents, one of the most fundamental concepts in dynamical systems. The first few sections contain some very general results in nonuniform hyperbolic theory. We consider (f, μ), where f is an arbitrary dynamical system and μ is an arbitrary invariant measure, and discuss relations between Lyapunov exponents and several dynamical quantities of interest, including entropy, fractal dimension and rates of escape. The second half of this review focuses on observable chaos, characterized by positive Lyapunov exponents on positive Lebesgue measure sets. Much attention is given to SRB measures, a very special kind of invariant measures that offer a way to understand observable chaos in dissipative systems. Paradoxical as it may seem, given a concrete system, it is generally impossible to determine with mathematical certainty if it has observable chaos unless strong geometric conditions are satisfied; case studies will be discussed. The final section is on noisy or stochastically perturbed systems, for which we present a dynamical picture simpler than that for purely deterministic systems. In this short review, we have elected to limit ourselves to finite-dimensional systems and to discrete time. The phase space, which is assumed to be Rd?> or a Riemannian manifold, is denoted by M throughout. The Lebesgue or the Riemannian measure on M is denoted by m?>, and the dynamics are generated by iterating a self-map of M, written f: M↺. For flows, the reviewed results are applicable to time-t maps and Poincaré return maps to cross-sections. This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to 'Lyapunov analysis: from dynamical systems theory to applications'.


The firing of spinal motoneurons (MNs) is controlled continuously by inputs from muscle, joint and skin receptors. Besides altering MN synaptic drive, the removal of these inputs is liable to alter the synaptic noise and, thus, the variability of their tonic activity. Sensory afferents, which are a major source of common and/or synchronized inputs shared by several MNs, may also contribute to the coupling in the time and frequency domains (synchrony and coherence, respectively) observed when cross-correlation and coherence analyses are applied to the discharges of MN pairs. Surprisingly, no consistent changes in firing frequency, nor in synchrony and coherence were reported to affect the activity of 3 pairs of motor units (MUs) tested in a case of sensory polyradiculoneuropathy (SPRNP), leading to an irreversible loss of large diameter sensory afferents (Farmer et al., 1993). Such a limited sample, however, precludes a definite conclusion about the actual impact that a chronic loss of muscle and cutaneous afferents may have on the firing properties of human MUs. To address this issue, the firing pattern of 92 MU pairs was analyzed at low contraction force in a case of SPRNP leading similarly to a permanent loss of proprioceptive inputs. Compared with 8 control subjects, MNs in this patient tended to discharge with slightly shorter inter-spike intervals but with greater variability. Synchronous firing tended to occur more frequently with a tighter coupling in the patient. There was no consistent change in coherence in the 15–30 Hz frequency range attributed to the MN corticospinal drive, but a greater coherence was observed below 5 Hz and between 30 and 60 Hz in the patient. The possible origins of the greater irregularity in MN tonic discharges, the tighter coupling of the synchronous firing and the changes in coherence observed in the absence of proprioceptive inputs are discussed.


In 1922, there were thirty-five state health resorts in the Soviet Union. This article introduces the historic role of health resorts as sites of nature conservation in the Soviet Union, comparable to national parks and nature reserves (zapovedniki), and highlights the role of physicians and medical ideas in the formulation and promotion of conservation policies in the Soviet Union. It analyzes conservation laws and regulations that covered health resorts, prohibiting a range of activities throughout their territories to protect natural healing resources such as mineral waters, muds, and beaches. In the 1930s, Soviet health resorts became influential centers of conservation when the science of ecology lost state support and ecological study centers in the nature reserves were dismantled. The idea that the natural environment should be protected to serve human health gained influence with official patrons in the Soviet state because physicians explicitly aligned the health resorts with the anthropocentric ideology of the state and its goal of industrialization, opening up health resort medicine to the industrial workforce. Health and nature's curative ideas also formed the foundation for nature protection during Stalinism. State patronage of health resort conservation increased in the Stalinist period, culminating in 1940, when the reach of conservation was extended to local health resorts. The article concludes with an examination of conservation work in the Sochi health resort.


The metabolism of the germinating barley seed is a complicated physiological process. From the point of view of industrial malting, the syntheses of amylolytic and proteolytic enzymes as well as the degradation of endospermal structures are extremely important. In order to control his process the maltster needs to have a good understanding of these processes as well as of the regulatory mechanisms which control them. When a good malting barley is allowed to germinate under traditional conditions for the time needed, a good malt can be produced without this scientific background. The present day brewing industry, however, has to work with barleys which are not of the traditional malting type and furthermore accelerated processes are an economic necessity. Under these circumstances, the maltster needs all scientific help he can get. Biochemical and physiological research on germination provides him with the tools he needs for process control and optimisation.


The high incidence of resistance to DNA-damaging chemotherapeutic drugs and severe side effects of chemotherapy have led to a search for biomarkers able to predict which patients are most likely to respond to therapy. ERCC1-XPF nuclease is required for nucleotide excision repair of helix-distorting DNA damage and the repair of DNA interstrand crosslinks. Thus, it is essential for several pathways of repair of DNA damage by cisplatin and related drugs, which are widely used in the treatment of non-small cell lung carcinoma and other late-stage tumors. Consequently, there is tremendous interest in measuring ERCC1-XPF expression in tumor samples. Many immunohistochemistry studies have been done, but the antibodies for ERCC1-XPF were not rigorously tested for antigen specificity. Herein, we survey a battery of antibodies raised against human ERCC1 or XPF for their specificity using ERCC1-XPF-deficient cells as a negative control. Antibodies were tested for the following applications: immunoblotting, immunoprecipitation from cell extracts, immunofluorescence detection in fixed cells, colocalization of ERCC1-XPF with UV radiation-induced DNA damage in fixed cells, and immunohistochemistry in paraffin-embedded samples. Although several commercially available antibodies are suitable for immunodetection of ERCC1-XPF in some applications, only a select subset is appropriate for detection of this repair complex in fixed specimens. The most commonly used antibody, 8F1, is not suitable for immunodetection in tissue. The results with validated antibodies reveal marked differences in ERCC1-XPF protein levels between samples and cell types.


The current study investigated the association between sports nutrition knowledge and dietary quality in a sample of adult Irish male hurling players. Nutrition knowledge was measured by the validated Sports Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (SNKQ). Diet quality was measured by the Australian Recommended Food Score (ARFS) calculated from food frequency questionnaire data. Analysis of variance and linear modelling were used to assess associations between variables. A total of 265 (129 elite, 136 sub-elite) players were recruited. No significant difference in nutrition knowledge (SNKQ) was found between groups. Results showed a significant difference (p = 0.02; d = 0.39 ± 0.25; small) in food score (ARFS) between groups. A weak, positive association (r = 0.3, p = 0.007) was found between nutrition knowledge and food score. Elite level players, aged 28–32, with college degrees, that have previously received nutritional guidance displayed the highest levels of both nutrition knowledge and food score. Higher levels of nutrition knowledge and food score were expected in elite players, however were only found in food score. Nutrition knowledge does contribute to dietary quality although future interventions should focus on specific gaps in knowledge such as how to meet total energy/carbohydrate requirements.


This article summarizes the proceedings of a conference hosted by the Bank of Canada in May 1997. The first conference held by the Bank on this subject was in 1993, two years after the introduction of inflation targeting in Canada. The 1997 conference revisited many of the analytic issues related to price stability that had been examined at the first conference, while also considering several additional questions. This time, with the extension of inflation-control targets beyond 1998 under consideration, particular emphasis was placed on the role and design of those targets. The conference also featured a round-table discussion among practitioners of monetary policy in three inflation-targeting countries -- New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Their remarks, which focussed on the experience with inflation targets, bring out very clearly the common challenges facing monetary policymakers in open economies.


This paper presents the results of research on the effects of organizational level and population or industry-level clocks on organizational mortality rates. It reports estimates of a model in which the effect of organizational age varies by organizational size and the effect of density varies by population age. Analysis of data on the mortality experiences of all firms that produced automobiles in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States during 1885-1981 reveals complex patterns of effects of organizational age and size. The results concerning density and population age generally support a recent extension of the theory of density-dependent organizational evolution


The objective of the present study was to investigate the antiulcer activity of methanol extract of Oxalis corniculata (whole plant) using pylorus ligation and indomethacin-induced gastric ulceration in Wistar rats. The extract was preliminary evaluated for acute oral toxicity test using Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines 423. Further, it was studied for antiulcer potential at the dose levels of 125, 250 and 500 mg/kg. Ranitidine was used as a standard drug (100 mg/kg). Acid secretory parameters like gastric volume, pH, total acidity and free acidity were measured in pylorus ligation model, whereas numbers of ulcers, ulcers score and ulcer index was measured in pylorus ligated and indomethacin treated rats. Pretreatment of test extract significantly (p<0.05) decreased the gastric volume, total acidity, free acidity and increase in the pH of the gastric fluid in pylorus-ligated rats. It also showed significant (p<0.05) decrease in number of ulcers, ulcers score and ulcer index in pylorus ligated and indomethacin treated rats. Results of the study suggest that, the methanol extract of Oxalis corniculata possesses significant antisecretory and antiulcer effects and justify the traditional usage of this herb to treat peptic ulcers.


In this paper, the performance evaluation of a concentrating photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) collector is carried out. By writing energy, balance for the various components of CPVT collector, a set of nonlinear equations is obtained to calculate the temperature of different parts of the system. The electrical parameters of the CPVT collector are calculated by the four-parameter model of current-voltage. The simulation results of the present study are in good accordance with the previous studies data. The results show that with the fluid velocity increase from 0.08 to 0.43 m/s, the electrical efficiency and thermal efficiency increase by 1.05% and 2.2%, respectively. The thermal efficiency is enhanced by 9.4% as the receiver width is increased from 0.06 to 0.2 m. With the increase of diameter pipe from 0.017 to 0.06 m an increase of 2.75% and 3.9% is observed in the thermal and electrical efficiencies, respectively. The thermal efficiency has an ascending/descending trend with the increase of collector length. The increase of fluid inlet temperature from 273.15 to 363.15 K reduces the thermal and electrical efficiencies by 7.3% and 4.05%, respectively. The increase of the incident beam radiation from 300 to 1000 W/m2 enhances the electrical efficiency by 4%, while the thermal efficiency has an ascending/descending trend. The ambient temperature increase causes an increase of 5.1% in thermal efficiency. The effect of receiver width and ambient temperature on electrical efficiency is negligible.


Abstract 'Student success' is a key driver in higher education policy and funding. Institutions often adopt a particular lens of success, emphasising 'retention and completion', 'high grades', 'employability after graduation' discourses, which place high value on human capital or fiscal outcomes. We explored how students themselves articulated notions of success to understand how these meanings aligned with the implicit value system perpetuated by neoliberal higher education systems. Qualitative data collected from 240 survey responses in the first phase of a study, were analysed using Appraisal, a linguistic framework to systematically categorise evaluative language choices. This article focuses on questions eliciting students' articulations of success. Neoliberal discourses were challenged by these students, who were first-in-family at university, with success expressed in a personal and generational sense rather than solely meritocratic terms.


The global production and use of wood fuel pellets has increased significantly in recent years. The raw material and the energy required to dry it are the main production costs. Therefore, it is crucial to minimize energy consumption, production costs, and the environmental impact associated with wood pellets. However, these changes should not negatively affect the quality of the pellets. One way to achieve these goals is to use additives. This work investigates how different types of sugar additives affect both the energy needed by the pellet press and the durability and oxidation of the produced pellets. When sugar was used as an additive, the energy use was practically unaffected. When molasses and SSL were added, a small decrease in energy use was observed (6 to 8%) for admixtures up to 1 wt.%; however, when more molasses was added, the energy use increased. Using these additives increased the bulk density (7 to 15 %) and durability (10 to 20 %) of the pellets. The storage of the pellets also caused a small increase in durability (1 to 3 %). Volatile organic compounds were produced as oxidation peaks within the first two months of storage; thereafter, the peaks tapered off.


To identify the influence of different methods of crop treatment on Soil Loss (tonnes) in Yuca areas in the Cabuyal river catchment. Crop treatment = inter-cropped with grain legumes.


Guidelines on the management of hypertension have been developed by various professional bodies and institutions to primarily address the issues of diagnosis, treatment, and control in order to rationalize and improve the management of hypertension. Hypertension guidelines across the world have recently been updated following the new and controversial lower blood pressure threshold of ≥130/80 mmHg for the diagnosis of hypertension adopted by the Americans. While there are differences between the major as well as between the Asian national guidelines, there were also many similarities. This paper discusses and highlights the differences and similarities between the major international guidelines of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association, of the European Society of Cardiology/European Society of Hypertension, and of the International Society of Hypertension and also compares them with the Asian guidelines.


We investigate the informativeness of hygiene signals in online reviews, and their effect on consumer choice and restaurant hygiene. We first extract signals of hygiene from Yelp. Among all dimensions that regulators monitor through mandated restaurant inspections, we find that reviews are more informative about hygiene dimensions that consumers directly experience food temperature and pests - than other dimensions. Next, we find causal evidence that consumer demand is sensitive to these hygiene signals. We also find suggestive evidence that restaurants that are more exposed to Yelp are cleaner along dimensions for which online reviews are more informative.


Background The concentration of sFlt-1, a major anti-angiogenic protein in maternal circulation has been seen to be raised in preeclamptic pregnancies. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress represents one of the three (immunological, oxidative and ER stress) major stresses which placenta undergoes during pregnancies. The present study is designed to investigate the role of sFlt-1 in induction of ER stress in trophoblast cells. Materials and Methods Maternal serum levels of anti-angiogenic protein sFlt-1 and central regulator of unfolded protein response GRP78 was measured using sandwich ELISA. The expression of various ER stress markers (GRP78, eIF2α, XBP1, ATF6 and apoptotic protein CHOP) were analyzed depending on various treatments given to the trophoblast cells using Immunofluorescence, western blot and q-RT PCR. Results Increased expression of ER stress markers (GRP78, eIF2α, XBP1 ATF6 and apoptotic protein CHOP) was detected in the placental trophoblast cells treated with raised concentration of sFlt-1. Conclusion Significant upregulated expression of ER stress markers in trophoblast cells exposed with increased concentration of sFlt-1 suggested that it may be one of the anti-angiogenic factors present in maternal sera which not only contributes to oxidative stress but also may cause endoplasmic reticulum stress.


In this work, we use coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations to study spherical nanoparticles functionalized with AB diblock copolymer chains at low grafting density, to obtain a design library linking copolymer composition, monomer-monomer interaction strengths, graft lengths, particle sizes, and monomer solvent-philicity to the two stages of nanoparticle assembly: the initial formation of patches within the copolymer-grafted particles from attractive monomers aggregating, and then the (equilibrium) assembled cluster formation. With regards to patch formation, as the fraction of the solvent-phobic (A or B) block decreases along the graft and the interaction strength decreases, the propensity to form patches on the particles decreases. As the fraction of the solvent-phobic block increases, the time for patch formation decreases, in particular if the inner A block is solvent-phobic. As the ratio of graft length to particle size increases the propensity to form fewer patches increases due to inter-graft monomer aggregation. For all compositions, the assembled clusters formed in B-selective solvents (solvent-phobic A block) have a higher fraction of particles at smaller inter-particle distances than in A-selective solvents (solvent-phobic B block). In an A-selective solvent at low interaction strengths, as the graft length to particle diameter ratio is increased, the tendency to form isotropic clusters at equilibrium is increased, and intermediate anisotropic chain-like assembly is observed. When these anisotropic intermediate states are observed, they accelerate the formation of equilibrium isotropic clusters. With increasing strength of interaction between solvent-phobic B monomers, the intermediate states disappear from the assembly pathway. At low and intermediate interaction strengths, as fraction of A block increases, the clusters' outer shell of solvent-philic A monomers which surrounds the patch of solvent-phobic B monomers becomes dense, hindering addition of more particles to the cluster leading to smaller overall clusters. In a B-selective solvent, predominantly anisotropic clusters form, and show an increase in shape anisotropy with increasing monomer interaction strength. In both cases of monomer solvent-philicity, with an increase in the graft length to particle diameter ratio we see a decrease in anisotropic cluster formation. And, in both cases of monomer solvent philicity, with increasing monomer interaction strength the average cluster size and tendency to form anisotropic clusters is increased.


This article reports the results of a field investigation aimed to characterize the morphology of both rills monitored at Sparacia experimental area and two ephemeral gullies (EGs) located in the Tremamargi basin, Sicily, Italy. At first, the available literature data together with the measurements carried out in this investigation were used to show that the EG length is a key parameter for the estimation of the eroded volume. Then, the comparison among the pairs length and volume corresponding to measured rills, EGs and gullies showed that the exponent of the power relationship is independent of the channelized erosion type (rill, EG and gully), while a different scale factor has to be used for each erosion process. Finally, a single relationship applicable to all channelized erosion processes was deduced applying the dimensional analysis and the self‐similarity theory. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abrasive jet finishing process is a novel process whose objective is to remove surface defect layer and to diminish roughness and ripple after grinding. Experiments were performed with plane grinderM7120 and workpiece material 45# steel which was ground with the surface roughness values of Ra =0.2-0.6 μm . The machined surface morphology was studied using SEM and the microcosmic geometry parameters were measured with MICROMESVRE2 instrument. In this paper, with the fractal dimension, Ra , Rq and the supporting rate curve, the surfaces of grinding machining and abrasive jet finishing machining were researched. The result indicated that the machined surfaces changed from continuous parallel micro-groove and plough to randomly distributed discontinuous micro-pit could be observed with the increase of machining circles and surface roughness was obviously improved. Furthermore, the isotropy surface and uniformity veins both parallel and perpendicular machining direction were attained by abrasive jet precision finishing with grinding wheel as restraint. The supporting rate curve of the surface profile can be increased. This is favorable for the wearable capability of the workpiece.


This chapter describes networking for education for sustainable development within the Austrian ECOLOG-schools network. It discusses theoretical concepts of Education for Sustainable Development and school development from an Austrian perspective, as well as networks in education in general and the organization of the ECOLOG-network in particular. Furthermore, the international Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI) network is described as an influential stimulus for the development of ECOLOG. Based upon these foundations, the concept and results of evaluation studies of ECOLOG-schools are described and reflected. The impact of ECOLOG on the developments in environmental education/education for sustainable development in Austria is described and reflected. The paper concludes with a summary of the evaluation process and with an outlook for the future development of the network.


A potential benefit of immunomodulatory agents such as tocilizumab (TCZ) has been reported in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) and severe pulmonary involvement. However, this therapy has been scarcely studied in kidney transplant (KT) recipients. Herein, we describe the clinical course and outcome of 10 KT patients with severe COVID‐19 that were treated with TCZ. Mean age of the study group was 54 ± 10 years (70% females), and 30% of the cases were within 6 months from transplant. Mycophenolate mofetil was discontinued in all cases upon admission, whereas baseline steroids were maintained and tacrolimus dose was reduced. Initial treatment included hydroxychloroquine, antibiotics, and prophylactic anticoagulation. Before treatment with TCZ, 3 patients were receiving high‐flow oxygen, 4 patients low‐flow oxygen and 1 case non‐invasive ventilation. All patients received a single dose of intravenous TCZ within a mean time of 7 ± 4 days since admission. During a median follow‐up of 16 days (IQR: 10‐29), 7 patients (70%) gradually improved and were finally discharged while three cases (30%) did not exhibited clinical improvement and ultimately died. In conclusion, although treatment with TCZ could be associated with improved clinical outcomes in a subset of KT recipients with COVID‐19, further studies are warranted before drawing firm conclusions.


Major problem areas of LP-Gas dispensing systems relate to deficiencies in existing systems, improper fuel transfer practices, customer service standards, failure to observe regulations and codes, and education and training of personnel handling transfer of LP-Gas. The state of the art is at a point where engineering and technical deficiencies of existing dispensing systems can be corrected satisfactorily in most instances. High standards of customer service are being met by some marketers and dealers, especially those who maintain continuing education and training programs for their personnel. Requirements for satisfactory dispensing systems are clearly outlined in equipment manufacturers' technical literature and field service manuals. The continuous, ongoing element of training is the key factor in marketers' and dealers' programs, with persistent follow-up of all critical phases of such efforts. Equipment manufacturers and industry publishers continue to provide excellent source material for the education and training of industry personnel. It has been accepted as the joint responsibility of manufacturers, marketers, dealers, LP-Gas associations, and industry trade journals to continue established programs and to initiate new ones. It is evident that important contributions to the state of the art in LP-Gas fueling systems will continue for the benefit of all segments of themore » industry in the years ahead.« less


In this study, the food conditions for mussels are estimated at different locations within the Oosterschelde. In 2014, 2015 and 2016, mussels with a uniform size were placed in baskets at the borders of commercial culture plots distributed over the Oosterschelde. Each month, a subsample was taken from each basket to measure growth (shell length and individual weight) of the mussels. The results show a variation in growth performance, both in shell length as in flesh weight, between the different locations. A model approach was used to translate the spatial differences in growth to spatial differences in food conditions. A Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) model was fitted to the data in order to trace-back the food conditions. During this fitting, the food correction factor (ψψ) was optimized. ψψ can be interpreted as an indication of the food conditions (algae concentration, quality, current velocity) at that specific location in comparison to the average food conditions in the whole Oosterschelde. The results show that there is a spatial, but also year-to-year variation in food conditions within the Oosterschelde. Locations with the best food conditions were Neeltje Jans N in 2015 and Hammen 9, Dortsman and Krabbenkreek in 2016. Growth of the mussels in the baskets in 2014 was lower than in 2015 and 2016. This is probably caused by the larger size of the mussels that were used in 2014 and the fact that the growth of mussels reduces with size. In contravention to the expectations, there was no clear pattern in growth conditions from the western part of the Oosterschelde to the eastern and northern part. For example, the growth of the mussels at the two locations in the northern part of the Oosterschelde (Krabbenkreek and Viane) where ralatively good compared to the other locations. In practice, however, mussel farmers use the culture plots in the northern part mainly for storage of seed and halfgrown mussels. Possibly the mussels in the baskets perform better in this area than on the bottom culture plots. The DEB model is a good tool to trace-back the food conditions from the measured growth data. The parameters for blue mussel, that is used for the DEB model should be updated. The parameters are presently based on historical data, whereas new data are available.


The requirements elicited from stakeholders suffer from various afflictions, including informality, incompleteness, ambiguity, vagueness, inconsistencies, and more. It is the task of requirements engineering (RE) processes to derive from these an eligible (formal, complete enough, unambiguous, consistent, measurable, satisfiable, modifiable and traceable) requirements specification that truly captures stakeholder needs. We propose Desiree, a refinement calculus for systematically transforming stakeholder requirements into an eligible specification. The core of the calculus is a rich set of requirements operators that iteratively transform stakeholder requirements by strengthening or weakening them, thereby reducing incompleteness, removing ambiguities and vagueness, eliminating unattainability and conflicts, turning them into an eligible specification. The framework also includes an ontology for modeling and classifying requirements, a description-based language for representing requirements, as well as a systematic method for applying the concepts and operators in order to engineer an eligible specification from stakeholder requirements. In addition, we define the semantics of the requirements concepts and operators, and develop a graphical modeling tool in support of the entire framework. To evaluate our proposal, we have conducted a series of empirical evaluations, including an ontology evaluation by classifying a large public requirements set, a language evaluation by rewriting the large set of requirements using our description-based syntax, a method evaluation through a realistic case study, and an evaluation of the entire framework through three controlled experiments. The results of our evaluations show that our ontology, language, and method are adequate in capturing requirements in practice, and offer strong evidence that with sufficient training, our framework indeed helps people conduct more effective requirements engineering.


Linear controllers cannot get satisfactory results for active magnetic bearings (AMB) due to the highly nonlinear and open-loop unstable electromechanical dynamics. This paper proposes a combined controller which integrates a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) with a single neuron controller for AMB. The FLC operates with a small single neuron control component when the system error is big; the FLC and the single neuron controller operate simultaneously when the system error is small. The proposed controller overcomes the defect of the FLC which has a steady state error, and the defect of a single neuron controller which has unsatisfied dynamic performance. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed controller has improved the dynamic performance and the disturbance rejection ability of AMB. Keywords—active magnetic bearings, proportional-integralderivative, fuzzy logic controller, single neuron


During the High Middle Ages, a number of new religious orders developed in Palestine, in Spain, and along the northeastern frontier of Latin Europe for the defense of Christian lands, not with the more typical monastic weapons of fasting and prayer, but with the sword and lance. These subsequently became known as military orders, and they developed, alongside the mendicants and caritatives, as a distinctive subset of the religious life in the High Middle Ages. In light of the inherent pacifism of Christianity, the prevalence of contemporary peace movements, and the canonical prohibitions against the shedding of blood, or even the carrying of weapons by the clergy, the genesis of this variety of the religious life is a fascinating subject.1 Recently, a leading scholar of monastic spirituality has argued that the institution of the military orders, alongside that of lay brothers, was the most important innovation of the twelfth-century reform movement. These orders, he argues, all grew from the same root-that of monasticism-onto which was grafted the military life.' This observation typifies the conventional wisdom, namely, that whatever circumstances led to the creation of a particular military order, all of them came to practice a common vocation. A closer examination of individual exemplars of that tradition, however, reveals some fundamental differences among military orders. The most basic is one of Rule. In the twelfth century, there were two broad categories of religious observance within the Western Church. The first is monastic and was reflected in variant interpretations of the Rule of St. Benedict. The second is canonical, and it found expression in various versions of the Rule of St. Augustine. Unlike monks, whose primary focus is upon inner perfection, canons have a more public apostolate in service to churches or various caritative causes. Several military orders, such as the Orders of the Temple or the Spanish Order of Calatrava, followed customs that are monastic in derivation, while others, such as the Order of St. John and the Spanish Order of Santiago, proceeded from the canonical tradition. A few orders, most notably the Teutonic Order, combined the two rules in some fashion. Because of the two the canonical tradition of this era is more closely associated with the works of mercy-feeding the poor, sheltering the homeless, ransoming captives, etc. Perhaps some clue to the underlying significance of this difference in Rule might be had from an examination of the charitable apostolates pursued by individual military orders. In other words, did the practice of a canonical Rule impose a larger charitable commitment than that accepted by orders that followed monastic customs? One test of this supposition can be the relative weight given in these orders to the establishment and maintenance of shelters and hospitals. Anthony Luttrell, a prominent historian of the Order of St. John, argues that all military orders had a hospitaller function.3 But, even if he is completely correct on this point, Luttrell's observation does not render our investigation moot because attitudes are sometimes more important and revealing than mere actions. Caroline Walker Bynum argues persuasively in her Docere verbo et exemplo that the fundamental difference between monks and canons in the twelfth century was not one of work, because there are numerous examples of both monks and canons preaching, praying and doing good works. The distinction is rather one of attitude and focus. The canon sees his mission to teach by word and by example, whereas the monk sees himself as essentially a learner. The one focuses upon the improvement or edification of society, the other upon his own individual emotional and spiritual growth. The monk was more likely inclined toward sharing the plight of the poor, rather than ameliorating it. Indeed, Giles Constable argues that reformed monasticism in the twelfth century sought to reduce the social role of monasteries to tend to the personal religious needs of monks. …


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes of cancer patients, their family, and community members in Albania, a post-communist country in Southeast Europe, regarding breaking bad news.

METHODS
One hundred and fifty consecutive cancer patients, 150 respective relatives, and an age-sex-residence matched sample of 150 individuals in Tirana district were interviewed from September 2009-January 2010 about attitudes related to diagnosis disclosure. Logistic regression was used to assess the association of diagnosis disclosure with demographic characteristics.

RESULTS
Community members were the most in favor, whereas the patients' relatives were the least in favor of diagnosis disclosure. Most of the patients, who were aware of their diagnosis, were not satisfied with the disclosure approach employed by the medical staff. The odds of favoring diagnosis disclosure were significantly higher among younger, male, urban, and more educated patients.

CONCLUSION
This survey identified important characteristics of cancer patients, their relatives, and a community-based sample in Albania that could predict the willingness to disclose a fatal diagnosis. Establishment of a formal training of health professionals regarding breaking bad news should be considered in order to ensure a proper approach of communicating diagnosis to cancer patients in transitional Albania.


LTE (Long Term Evolution) is standardized in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) to provide higher data throughput as well as lower latency for various IP based services including web browsing, VoIP (Voice over IP), video streaming and so on. In this paper, we conduct the performance evaluation of LTE by indoor and outdoor experiments. We evaluated both TCP throughput and UDP transmission delay. For the TCP throughput evaluation, we observed the TCP- uplink-limit problem in which the uplink performance degradation in low SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) region affects on the downlink TCP throughput. We also analyzed the transmission delay of UDP packets. The delay distribution is affected by the traffic pattern, i.e. packet size and inter packet gap.


1865 Cadi-05, a novel poly TLR agonist, poly antigenic vaccine containing heat-killed Mycobacterium w (Mw) has previously been shown to be effective against bladder cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. In the current study, Mw successfully demonstrated growth inhibition of U937, HL60, p210-gfp (32D-bcr-abl transfectant) and NSF-60 myeloid leukemia cell lines in a dose-dependent manner (measured by MTT assay). A dose of >100 million Mw significantly inhibited growth in all these cell types. A combination of Etoposide and Mw increased apoptosis in U937 cells as compared to Etoposide treatment alone (measured by Annexin V staining). Mw treatment of U937 cells induced dose-dependent apoptosis (determined by PARP-cleavage). Furthermore, treatment of NSF-60 cells with GCSF protected against Mw induced cell death (measured by MTT assay). Cadi-05 is currently being examined in a clonogenic assay for normal human myeloid progenitor cells (for cytotoxicity) and acute myeloid leukemia cells from patients (for efficacy). Additional studies are being performed to examine if Mw-induced apoptosis is mediated through TLR in the myeloid leukemia cells.


High levels of either public debt or wealth inequality are detrimental to social and economic stability. At a time when reducing public debt and decreasing wealth inequality have become important policy priorities, the question arises about whether these two goals stand in con
ict. With this in mind, Chapter 1 assesses the effects of public debt on wealth inequality based on an analytically tractable model of heterogeneous agents. Its scope, in particular, is to investigate whether a reduction of public debt or of budget deficits in general might amplify or not the levels of wealth inequality. In answering this question, we explore a novel channel where, for example, a reduction in budget deficits amplifies wealth inequality due to the change in factor prices, and in particular that of interest rates. Therefore, and besides that our research is the first to explore this type of question, our main contribution is that we show how a change in public debt can affect wealth inequality in an implicit way through the change in factor incomes - that is, the general equilibrium effects.

In Chapter 2, on the other hand, we study the design of policies within an endogenous growth model of incomplete markets and partial commitment. Markets are incomplete in two dimensions, the government cannot insure itself from the presence of aggregate risk, and the accumulation of human capital is subject to idiosyncratic risk. Our primary contribution highlights the importance of human capital to effectively manage the economy along the cycle. More specifically, we make a novel argument: taking short run risks are effective responses to a shock that might depress the economy. An investment in human capital which is subject to idiosyncratic risk, serves that purpose. Its returns however, must be protected over-time through an effective provision of liquidity and manipulation of taxes. In our case this policy requires to subsidise physical capital and tax human capital, while the government must own assets.

Finally, In Chapter 3 we estimate the fiscal multipliers for Greece. In particular, using the SVAR approach of Blanchard and Perotti we estimate the dynamic effects of government spending and tax revenues on output. The results over the available sample indicate some strong Keynesian effects. That is government spending multipliers are large while the tax multipliers are relatively small. However the conclusions are confined to the peculiarities of the available sample and are not easily exportable to alternative periods or allow any generalizations.


In arctic pipeline projects, seismic risk and differential settlements are common, whether local or distributed across long stretches. For buried pipelines, seismic hazards are generally classified as wave propagation hazard (WP) or permanent ground deformation (PGD) hazard. Below ground crossing of seismic faults has been the real challenge in a series of pipeline projects. STress Based Design (STBD) criteria has been used in the past. Application of this method is straightforward as simple linear elastic analysis is required to calculate the load effects in the specified conditions. In the assessment of the structural integrity of a pipeline, load effects are compared with allowable states of stress. Unfortunately, unsatisfactory design, both from economic and safety points of view, may result. StraiN Based Design (SNBD) is an attractive option in these situations.The use of SNBD in pipeline technology has been widely discussed during the last decade, particularly for offshore applications. In many instances the offshore pipeline engineer can adopt SNBD to avoid onerous measures necessary to meet the traditional STBD criteria. First introduced to make allowance for crossing bottom roughness and harsh environments, more recently for High Pressure/High Temperature (HP/HT) applications, SNBD is currently used in a series of strategic project developments in North America and East Siberia, for both offshore and land pipelines crossing regions affected by ice gouging and geo-hazards from seismic activity such as land slides, active faults, soil lateral spreading due to soil liquefaction etc. Conditions for which SNBD are applicable, as well as permissible deformations in relation to line pipe material and safe operation of the pipeline in the long run, are of major concern.In this paper, the following is discussed:• Relevant hazards for arctic land and offshore pipelines such as ice scouring, permafrost thaw, frost heave etc..• The design approach and design philosophy for Buried Pipeline Crossing active faults. In particular:○ The Pipeline Crossing Layout of local features to minimize Load Effects;○ Material and Steel Wall Thickness Selection vs. Crossing Location;○ Pipeline Deformation Capacity (PDC) Assessment;○ Pipeline Strain Demand (PSD) Assessment;○ Pipeline Trench Design including Shape, Back-filling etc. vs. Pipe-Soil and Temperature Effects.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Ports and rivers adjacent to the coast often suffer from high siltation rates. In order to maintain water depths of ports and rivers sediment needs to be frequently dredged. In many cases this sediment is polluted and dumped elsewhere in the water system. The Elbe estuary represents the largest and economically most important German estuary. Due to changed hydrodynamics the siltation rates increased in the past years. In consequence 6mio m³ low polluted sediment was dredged and dumped in the German Bight since 2005. The dumping activity is subject to severe governmental restrictions as biannual monitoring programs to observe the impact on benthic organisms and fishes. To today the impact of ocean dumping on benthic microbial communities is not included in these monitoring programs. Microbial communities represent the basis of any ecosystem. Substantial functions as nutrient cycling might be affected by changes in community structure and composition. In a pilot study we investigated microbial communities in three monitoring campaigns in August 2009, April and August 2010. Each campaign comprised 125 sampling stations at the dumping area including the dumping site and a reference site. We utilised automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis to obtain profiles of microbial communities of each sampling station. Microbial communities' information was linked to contextual data as grain size fractions and pollutants. Additionally, representative samples were chosen to yield phylogenetic information by 454 pyrosequencing. Microbial communities of the reference site and dumping site remained significant different in all sampling campaigns. After a dumping activity we observed significant different microbial communities at the dumping site. Redundancy analyses revealed a strong gradient of grain size distributions and pollutants affecting the microbial community structure. Finally 454 sequencing revealed a unique microbial community at the dumping centre. The presence of sulphate-reducing groups affiliated to Deltaproteobacteria, especially Desulfuromonadaceae and Desulfobacteraceae appeared to be affected by the dumped material. In conclusion our results suggest a significant impact of the dumping activity on benthic microbial communities. Its consequences need to be clarified urgently. We suggest the inclusion and elaboration of microbial community analyses in future monitoring programs in order to verify anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems.


We explored whether the five previously reported molecular subtypes in breast cancer show a preference for organ-specific relapse and searched for molecular pathways involved. The "intrinsic" gene list describing the subtypes was used to classify 344 primary breast tumors of lymph node-negative patients. Fisher exact tests were used to determine the association between a tumor subtype and a particular site of distant relapse in these patients who only received local treatment. Modulated genes and pathways were identified in the various groups using Significance Analysis of Microarrays and Global Testing. Bone relapse patients were most abundant in the luminal subtypes but were found less than expected in the basal subtype. The reverse was true for lung and brain relapse patients with the remark that absence of lung relapse was luminal A specific. Finally, a pleura relapse, although rare, was found almost exclusively in both luminal subtypes. Many differentially expressed genes were identified, of which several were in common in a subtype and the site to which the subtype preferentially relapsed. WNT signaling was up-regulated in the basal subtype and in brain-specific relapse, and down-modulated in the luminal B subtype and in bone-specific relapse. Focal adhesion was found up-regulated in the luminal A subtype but down-regulated in lung relapse. The five major molecular subtypes in breast cancer are evidently different with regard to their ability to metastasize to distant organ(s), and share biological features and pathways with their preferred distant metastatic site.


RATIONALE
Macrolides, such as clarithromycin (CLR) and azithromycin (AZM), are frequently the only oral antibiotics that are active against Mycobacterium abscessus and M. massiliense infections.

OBJECTIVES
To compare the activity of CLR and AZM in experimental models.

METHODS
We compared the treatment efficacies of CLR and AZM and determined the correlation between efficacy and induced erythromycin ribosome methyltransferase gene (erm)(41) expression in experimental models of M. abscessus and M. massiliense infections.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
In all tested M. abscessus isolates, a high level of inducible CLR resistance developed (minimal inhibitory concentration [MIC] on Day 3 versus Day 14; P < 0.001). Whereas the AZM MIC increased on Day 14 (P < 0.01 versus Day 3), the level was significantly lower than the CLR MIC on Day 14 (P < 0.001). However, the MICs of CLR and AZM for the M. massiliense isolates did not change. Compared with CLR, AZM presented greater antibiotic activity against M. abscessus in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo (P < 0.05), whereas both macrolides were comparably effective against M. massiliense. In M. abscessus infection, the level of erm(41) expression was higher after exposure to CLR than after exposure to AZM (P < 0.001). Experiments using an erm(41)-knockout M. abscessus mutant and an M. massiliense transformant expressing M. abscessus erm(41) confirmed that erm(41) was responsible for inducible CLR resistance.

CONCLUSIONS
CLR induces greater erm(41) expression and thus higher macrolide resistance than AZM in M. abscessus infection. AZM may be more effective against M. abscessus, whereas both macrolides appear to be equally effective against M. massiliense.


How should the Internet be governed? What role should governments play? What about the private sector? Does it still make sense — as it did in 1998 when it was created — for a non-profit corporation based in California to be responsible for managing the Domain Name System (DNS), which matches IP addresses with website names? Would your answer change if you were a resident of New Delhi, or Beijing? From net neutrality to privacy, encryption, and the proper role for governments in securing critical infrastructure, Internet governance is a multi-faceted field with an increasing number of power centers shaping myriad global cybersecurity debates. Recently, in the wake of the 2015-16 Apple encryption debate touched off by the FBI's request to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, the role of the private sector vis-a-vis States has enjoyed renewed attention at a time when the prevailing multi-stakeholder approach – incorporating a variety of non-governmental actors in an open and participative polycentric governance process – has come under strain. This reexamination is a continuation of the global debate following revelations by former NSA-contractor Edward Snowden, prompting a reassessment of the benefits and drawbacks of the current state of Internet governance and what role international law and institutions should play in crafting twenty-first century cyberspace. This Article delves into this debate by focusing on the Apple encryption saga and what it portends for the role of emerging private and public power centers in shaping the future of polycentric Internet governance. Addressing this question and what it portends for the prospects of cyber peace in an age often defined by cyber insecurity is central to enhancing global equity, security, and privacy online.


A number of tactical radio sets have been reported inoperable as a result of lead breakage of transistor and quartz crystals. The lead material was a KovarTM-type iron-nickel-cobalt glass sealing alloy (54 percent Fe-29 percent Ni-17 percent Co). The location and type of fractures indicated that these leads failed by stress-corrosion cracking. Such failures result from the combined effects of mechanical stress and a mildly corrosive atmosphere. The only source of specific corrodent for this type of failure was chloride ions found in residual flux on printed circuitry. The corrosive effects of the residual flux was demonstrated by the identification of corrosion products found on the printed wiring. Careful selection of the solder flux, scrupulous cleaning of the printed-circuit boards, and conformal coating is recommended for all similar applications.


Finally, it would appear that even the Ministry of Pensions' Medical Services Division-and I venture to think many other medical men-are not in agreement with Dr. Lawrence on the question of the amount of disablement arising from diabetes, as in all cases accepted for pension the percentage awarded by the Ministry is usually fairly high. These percentage assessments are, of course, given in accordance with Article 9 of the royal warrant, which means that the assessment is on a comparison between the disabled member and a normal healthy man of the same age, not taking into account his incapacity for employment or any other external factor.-I am, etc.,


Background: Tinea corporis is a worldwide superficial fungal infection that mimics many other annular lesions. As the Tinea Corporis have a significant impact on patient's life physically and psychologically. So, physicians must have knowledge about this condition and its treatment options. Objective: To compare the efficacy of terbinafine versus fluconazole in patients of tinea corporis. Study Design: It was a randomized controlled trial. Settings: Research was conducted at Department of Pharmacology Duration: for a period of 6 months from 10 Feb to 10 Aug 2020 at Khalifa Gulnawaz Teaching Hospital, Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa & DHQ Teaching Hospital, Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. Methodology: From both the genders 102 patients aged between 20-45 years who presented with tinea corporis were included in the study. Two treatment groups were made by random allocation of patients. Patients in Group-A were treated with oral terbinafine while those in Group-B were given fluconazole. Frequency of efficacy being outcome variable was labeled upon complete resolution of the tinea corporis in 4 weeks (counted from start of treatment) and was compared between the groups. An informed written informed consent was taken from all the patients. Results: The patients had a mean age of 31.66±6.99 years while the mean duration of disease was 5.41±2.16 months. There were 55 (53.9%) male and 47 (46.1%) female patients with a male to female ratio of 1.2:1. The frequency of efficacy was significantly higher in patients treated with terbinafine as compared to fluconazole (90.2% vs. 64.7%; p-value=0.002). This difference was same in all subgroups as well. Conclusion: Oral terbinafine was found more efficacious than conventional treatment with oral fluconazole in patients with tinea corporis regardless of patient's age, gender and duration of disease which advocates preferred use of terbinafine in the treatment of such patients in future practice.


A useful property of the anomalous magnetic field T associated with some simple geological bodies is that the field is homogeneous with respect to horizontal distance and height. Its horizontal and vertical derivatives are also homogeneous fields so the angle ratio θ of the lateral gradient over the vertical gradient is constant along rays emanating outward from a single point that represents the body location. Hence drawing these raypaths, which connect the same θ values at different upward continued heights along a profile, can be used to identify the location and depth of the source. This is the basis for the source location using the total-field homogeneity (SLUTH) method. A six-step procedure is proposed to automate the SLUTH method, allowing large amounts of data to be interpreted
quickly and easily. Furthermore, the rate of decay of the field along these raypaths provides a means to estimate the type of body that is the cause of the anomaly. Once the type of body is known, a quantity related to the susceptibility can be estimated.
An analysis of the results in the case when there is interaction between two proximal magnetic sheets shows a distortion when the bodies are within 600 m of each other. A similar distortion is seen when analysing field data from Timmins, Ontario, Canada, which consists of many other magnetic body models such as contacts and thin sheets. Adding noise to synthetic data shows that the estimates we obtain for the source parameters are robust for the typical noise levels seen in survey data.
Because a lot of information about the characteristics of the causative geologic body can be determined using the method, it is a challenge to summarize the results on a single map. Our approach is to use different shaped symbols for each type of body, with the size of the symbol being proportional to the susceptibility-thickness and the shade indicative of the error in estimating the position. Data from Chibougamau, Quebec, Canada are used to illustrate these display techniques.


We study the quantizations of the algebras of regular functions on nilpo- tent orbits. We show that such a quantization always exists and is unique if the orbit is birationally rigid. Further we show that, for special birationally rigid orbits, the quan- tization has integral central character in all cases but four (one orbit in E7 and three orbits in E8). We use this to complete the computation of Goldie ranks for primitive ideals with integral central character for all special nilpotent orbits but one (in E8). Our main ingredient are results on the geometry of normalizations of the closures of nilpotent orbits by Fu and Namikawa.


Given healthy dogs, fed abundant iron and protein-free or low protein diets, with sustained anemia due to bleeding, we can study the capacity of these animals to produce simultaneously new hemoglobin and plasma protein. The reserve stores of blood protein producing materials in this way are very largely depleted, and levels of 6 to 8 gm. per cent for hemoglobin and 4 to 5 gm. per cent for plasma protein can be maintained for considerable periods of time. These dogs are very susceptible to infection and to injury by many poisons. Under such conditions, these anemic and hypoproteinemic dogs will use very efficiently a variety of digests (serum, hemoglobin, and casein) and the growth mixture (Rose) of pure amino acids. Nitrogen balance is maintained and considerable new blood proteins are produced. Dog plasma by vein is used freely in these doubly depleted dogs to make new hemoglobin in abundance (Table 1). Serum digests by vein are well utilized to make new hemoglobin and plasma protein in the same dogs (Table 1). Serum digests by mouth are effectively used to make new blood proteins (Table 5). Dog or sheep hemoglobin given in large amounts intraperitoneally are remarkably well utilized to form hemoglobin and plasma protein (Table 6). It must be obvious that the globin of the hemoglobin is saved in these protein-depleted dogs and used to make large amounts of hemoglobin and plasma protein. Hemoglobin digests are also well utilized whether given by mouth (Table 7) or by vein (Table 8) and liberal amounts of plasma protein are manufactured from digests presumably ideally suited for hemoglobin production. Casein digests are well used (Table 8) and form as much new plasma protein as any material tested—even serum digests. Amino acid mixtures are of especial interest. The growth mixture of 10 amino acids (Rose) is well utilized by mouth or by vein and favors new hemoglobin production more than any material tested (Table 2). Cystine replacing methionine in the amino acid mixture increases the plasma protein—hemoglobin output ratio, that is it favors plasma protein production. Digests of various sorts and amino acid mixtures or combinations of digests and amino acid mixtures can be used rapidly and effectively to build new hemoglobin or plasma protein, to maintain nitrogen equilibrium, and to replete reserve protein stores. These experiments point to clinical problems. The unexplained preference given to hemoglobin production in these hypoproteinemic dogs is observed under all conditions, even when whole plasma or serum digests are given by vein. In general, 2 to 4 gm. of hemoglobin are formed for every gram of plasma protein. This all adds up to a remarkable fluidity in the use of plasma protein or hemoglobin which can contribute directly to the body protein pool from which are evolved, without waste of nitrogen, the needed proteins, whether hemoglobin, plasma protein, or tissue proteins.


This paper presents theoretical and experimental results showing the effects of linear and circular birefringence on the sensing coil of an in-line Sagnac interferometer current sensor. Linear birefringence induces local scale factor variations along the length of the sensing coil which can be suppressed with circular birefringence. We show that by winding the sensing coil with tension in a helix configuration, these variations may be effectively reduced to zero for ordinary single mode fiber. In our opinion, this method of implementation overcomes the need to use annealed fiber in the sensing coil.


: Screening status of women aged 20-64 registered with a large group practice was determined using laboratory and general practice records. A postal survey was carried out on 1,416 women divided into: 1. 'Non-attenders'--never had a smear. 2. 'Defaulters'--smear more than five years ago. 3. 'Attenders'--smear in last five years. Screening status was related to social class and education. Single and nulliparous women were less likely to have been screened. Knowledge of the test was poor in all three groups. Most women were willing to have a smear performed and previous non-attendance might have been overcome by a call/recall system. The woman's general practitioner was the preferred taker of smears, regardless of sex. Of those willing to have the test 95% would attend the general practitioner if no alternative was provided. Improved uptake depends on an organised call/recall system with smear taking based in primary care, and on improved health education.


The Anatomical Society has developed a series of learning outcomes in consultation with nursing educators delivering anatomical content to undergraduate (preregistration) nursing students. A Delphi panel methodology was adopted to select experts within the field that would recommend core anatomical content in undergraduate nursing programmes throughout the UK. Using the Anatomical Society's Core Gross Anatomy Syllabus for Medical Students as a foundation, a modified Delphi technique was used to develop discipline‐specific outcomes to nursing graduates. The Delphi panel consisted of 48 individuals (n = 48) with a minimum of 3 years' experience teaching anatomy to nursing students, representing a broad spectrum of UK Higher Education Institutions. The output from this study was 64 nursing specific learning outcomes in anatomy that are applicable to all undergraduate (preregistration) programmes in the UK. The new core anatomy syllabus for Undergraduate Nursing offers a basic anatomical framework upon which nurse educators, clinical mentors and nursing students can underpin their clinical practice and knowledge. The learning outcomes presented may be used to develop anatomy teaching within an integrated nursing curriculum.


Cashew apple presents a characteristic astringency. However, the compounds responsible for this characteristic were not described yet. A cashew apple extract was added to a BSA solution and the compounds before and after precipitation were analyzed by UPLC-QTOF/MSE. The extract astringency was measured on a 5-point scale (0: non astringent and 4: extremely astringent). Among the phenolics detected anacardic acids were identified and evaluated for their astringent effect. In the sensorial tests the cashew apple extract was considered very astringent (average of 2.5). A mixture of anacardic acids, had an average of 1.76 (astringent). The three isolated anacardic acids were evaluated. The in silicoexperiments were performed to analyze mainly the steric factor associated to the binding. The sensory results were confirmed by in silico analysis, indicating that a higher unsaturation degree of the aliphatic chain leads to an astringency increase.


We investigate the complexity of several decision, enumeration and counting problems in axiom pinpointing in Description Logics. We prove hardness results that already hold for the propositional Horn fragment. We show that for this fragment, unless p = np, all minimal subsets of a given TBox that have a given consequence, i.e. MinAs, cannot be enumerated in a specified lexicographic order with polynomial delay. Moreover, we show that recognizing the set of all MinAs is at least as hard as recognizing the set of all minimal transversals of a given hypergraph, however whether this problem is intractable remains open. We also show that checking the existence of a MinA that does not contain any of the given sets of axioms, as well as checking the existence of a MinA that contains a specified axiom are both np-hard. In addition we show that counting all MinAs and counting the MinAs that contain a certain axiom are both #p-hard.


We report about the method of neutron imaging which can be considered as complement and alternative to the more common X-ray techniques. While the image quality obtained (resolution, dynamic, contrast) is comparable, the particular sensitivity for the investigated materials can differ much. With respect to bronze objects containing Cu, Sn, Zn or Pb in large amounts, the transmission of neutrons is considerably higher than is possible with common X-ray devices. Furthermore, traces of organic materials (corrosion products, resin, wax, oil, lacquer) can be detected accurately. The report describes by means of selected examples how to apply the neutron techniques most efficiently and what infor- mation can be derived from these studies. In addition we describe in brief some alternative analytical tools based on X-ray fluorescence and diffraction that are applicable for material characterization on the surface. The beam lines at PSI's large-scale facilities can be used on demand if the scientific justification for a dedicated study is submitted in a proposal. (Key words: neutron imaging, bronze objects, tomography, complementarity, X-rays)


OBJECTIVE: To analyze the initial five years experience of the new heart transplant program of Coimbra University Hospitals. METHODS: Between November 2003 aid December 2008, 132 patients were transplanted, with a mean age of 52.0 years (range 3-71 years), of whom 98 were male (74%). Half of the patients had dilated cardiomyopathy and 33% ischemic cardiomyopathy. The mean age of donors was 31.7 years and 102 were male (77%). Donor hearts were harvested at a distance in 62% of cases. There was a gender mismatch between donor and recipient (F:M) in 19% of cases and ABO blood type disparity (not identical but compatible) in 11%. In all cases we used the technique of total transplantation with bicaval anastomosis, modified in this center. Mean ischemia time was 88.9 +/- 32.2 minutes. All patients received induction therapy with basiliximab and methylprednisolone. RESULTS: Six patients (4.5%) died within 30 days or during hospitalization, due to graft failure in four and hyperacute rejection in two. Two patients required prolonged ventilation, ten (8%) required inotropic support for more than 48 hours, and four required pacemaker implantation. Mean hospital stay was 15.6 +/- 15.2 days (median 13 days). Ninety percent of patients (116/129) were maintained on triple immunosuppressive therapy, including cyclosporine, the remainder receiving tacrolimus. In 23 patients it was necessary to change the immunosuppressive regimen due to renal and/or tumoral complications, or humoral rejection. All patients are followed regularly in the Surgical Center. Thirteen patients (10%) died late of cancer (6 patients), infection (4 patients), and pancreatitis, pulmonary hypertension and suicide (one patient each). Twenty-two patients (17%) had 25 episodes of cellular rejection (> or = 2R), with clinical consequences in only one case, and five had humoral rejection (3.9%). No patients died of late rejection, but there is evidence of mild graft vascular disease in one. Actuarial survival (Kaplan-Meier) at one and five years was 90% and 82%, respectively. CONCLUSION: In this initial series of five years we obtained results equivalent to or bette than those in centers with wider and longer experience, aided by self-correction arising from our own experience. This program has increased the rate of cardiac transplantation in Portugal to above the European average. Language: pt


We consider the problem of low-rank tensor decomposition of incomplete tensors that has applications in many data analysis problems, such as recommender systems, signal processing, machine learning, and image inpainting. In this paper, we focus on nonnegative tensor completion via low-rank Tucker decomposition for dealing with it. The specialty of our model is that the ranks of nonnegative Tucker decomposition are no longer constants, while they all become a part of the decisions to be optimized. Our solving approach is based on the penalty method and blocks coordinate descent method with prox-linear updates for regularized multiconvex optimization. We demonstrate the convergence of our algorithm. The numerical results on the three image datasets show that the proposed algorithm offers competitive performance compared with other existing algorithms even though the data is highly sparse.


This study determined obstetric physiotherapists' perceptions about major obstacles to and methods of motivation for successful breast-feeding by means of the Friedman non-parametric procedure for the two-way analysis of variance. Three categories of obstacles were identified: maternal obstacles, health professionals and society. Maternal obstacles mentioned most were insufficient motivation (25%) and knowledge (24%), anxiety (14%), fatigue (14%), and employment (14%). Obstacles related to health professionals included tack of support for mothers (20%), inappropriate lactation management (19%), lack of knowledge (15%), negative attitudes (5%) and staff shortages (5%). With regard to society, lack of support (27%) and life-styles (29%) were identified as significant obstacles. The two most significantly important methods of motivation were information and education (53%) and contact with other breast-feeders (27%). It is concluded that breast-feeding education efforts can be improved by identifying obstacles to breast-feeding and methods of motivation and that the Friedman test may be a statistical procedure to consider for determining priorities.


Abstract Although apparently preferred by farmers to direct hedging as a forward pricing mechanism, forward contracting has received little attention in the literature dealing with optimal forward pricing levels. An often-cited reason for producer preference for forward contracting is the absence of basis risks under that forward pricing alternative. This paper presents models of optimal forward contracting and hedging under price and yield uncertainty within a mean-variance framework. The results indicate that basis certainty does not explain preferences for forward contracting.


A Dissertation
Submitted to University of Gezira in partial fulfillment of theReguirement for the Award of the Degree of Master of Science
In
Community Health Nursing
Department of Nursing
Faculty of Applied Medical sciences 2016


We present Iterative Vision-and-Language Navigation (IVLN), a paradigm for evaluating language-guided agents navigating in a persistent environment over time. Existing Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN) benchmarks erase the agent's memory at the beginning of every episode, testing the ability to perform cold-start navigation with no prior information. However, deployed robots occupy the same environment for long periods of time. The IVLN paradigm addresses this disparity by training and evaluating VLN agents that maintain memory across tours of scenes that consist of up to 100 ordered instruction-following Room-to-Room (R2R) episodes, each defined by an individual language instruction and a target path. We present discrete and continuous Iterative Room-to-Room (IR2R) benchmarks comprising about 400 tours each in 80 indoor scenes. We find that extending the implicit memory of high-performing transformer VLN agents is not sufficient for IVLN, but agents that build maps can benefit from environment persistence, motivating a renewed focus on map-building agents in VLN.


Compression of the trachea and esophagus by vascular anomalies of the aortic arch and its branches may be a threat to life in infancy. The significance of the so-called vascular ring, long recognized as a cause of obstruction of the trachea and esophagus in early life, assumed new importance in 1945 when the operation by Gross 1 placed this entity among the surgically correctable congenital lesions of the great vessels. Since that time, experience with the operative treatment of these anomalies has been accumulated. 2-4 In the normal 12-mm human embryo, the aortic trunk divides into a left and a right arch. These arches pass on either side of the trachea and esophagus and rejoin to form a single descending dorsal aorta. Normally, a process of absorption or resolution takes place in the right arch distal to the right subclavian, leaving the remaining portion of the right arch to become


Motivated by energy based analyses for descent methods in the Euclidean setting, we investigate a generalisation of such analyses for descent methods over Riemannian manifolds. In doing so, we find that it is possible to derive curvature-free guarantees for such descent methods. This also enables us to give the first known guarantees for a Riemannian cubic-regularised Newton algorithm over $g$-convex functions, which extends the guarantees by Agarwal et al [2021] for an adaptive Riemannian cubic-regularised Newton algorithm over general non-convex functions. This analysis leads us to study acceleration of Riemannian gradient descent in the $g$-convex setting, and we improve on an existing result by Alimisis et al [2021], albeit with a curvature-dependent rate. Finally, extending the analysis by Ahn and Sra [2020], we attempt to provide some sufficient conditions for the acceleration of Riemannian descent methods in the strongly geodesically convex setting.


Background The Lyon Consensus classification confirms or rules out gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The refractory symptoms of patients with GERD taking proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are challenging in clinical practice. Salivary pepsin concentration was proposed as a diagnostic biomarker for GERD. We aimed to determine the diagnostic value of salivary pepsin concentration for patients with conclusive GERD, based on the Lyon classification, and the correlation of salivary pepsin concentration with parameters of high-resolution manometry and 24-h multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH in patients with PPI-refractory symptoms. Material/Methods Saliva samples obtained from 130 patients who were suspicious for GERD and had PPI-refractory symptoms were used for pepsin determination using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. All patients underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, high-resolution manometry, 24-h multichannel intraluminal impedance, and pH recording and were classified as conclusive GERD, inconclusive GERD, and evidence against GERD groups according to Lyon classification. Results Salivary pepsin concentration was 8.2 ng/mL (3.8–17.8 ng/mL), 4.0 ng/mL (2.3–6.1 ng/mL), and 2.4 ng/mL (2.2–3.1 ng/mL) in conclusive GERD, inconclusive GERD, and evidence against GERD groups, respectively (P<0.001), and had a negative correlation with distal mean nocturnal baseline impedance and positive correlations with acid exposure time, total number of reflux events, and esophagogastric junction type. The area under the ROC curve of salivary pepsin for conclusive GERD was 0.76 (0.68–0.84), with a sensitivity of 76.36% and a specificity of 63.41% for conclusive GERD diagnosis at a cut-off value of 4.21 ng/mL. Conclusions Salivary pepsin test had moderate diagnostic value for conclusive GERD by Lyon classification in patients with PPI-refractory symptoms.


This paper presents a novel feedback-control law for coordinating the motion of multiple holonomic mobile robots to capture/enclose a target by making troop formations. This motion coordination is a cooperative behavior for security against invaders in surveillance areas. Each robot in this control law has its own coordinate system and it senses a target/invader, other robots and obstacles, to achieve this cooperative behavior without making any collision. Although there is no centralized controller and each robot has local feedback that is relative-position feedback, all the robots are asymptotically stabilized, and they make formations enclosing a target. Each robot especially has a vector referred to as a "formation vector," and the formations are controllable by the vectors. As for determining the formation vectors, we use a reactive-control framework in which robots have some reactions heuristically designed according to this cooperative behavior. Therefore, this robotic system is a hybrid system that consists of a feedback-control law and a reactive-control framework. The validity of this hybrid system is supported by computer simulations.


The idea of integrating symbolic and sub-symbolic approaches to make intelligent systems (IS) understandable and explainable is at the core of new fields such as neuro-symbolic computing (NSC). This work lays under the umbrella of NSC, and aims at a twofold objective. First, we present a set of guidelines aimed at building explainable IS, which leverage on logic induction and constraints to integrate symbolic and sub-symbolic approaches. Then, we reify the proposed guidelines into a case study to show their effectiveness and potential, presenting a prototype built on the top of some NSC technologies.