BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) have increased risk of adverse events after hospitalization. At our institution, LEP families did not routinely receive translated discharge instructions in their preferred language. Our objective for this study was to increase the percentage of patients with LEP on the hospital medicine (HM) service receiving translated discharge instructions from 12% to 80%.

METHODS
Following the Model for Improvement, we convened an interdisciplinary team that included HM providers, pediatric residents, language access services staff, and nurses to design and test interventions aimed at key drivers through multiple plan-do-study-act cycles. Interventions addressed the translation request process, care team education, standardizing discharge instructions for common conditions, and identification and mitigation of failures. We used established rules for analyzing statistical process control charts to evaluate the percentage of patients with translated discharge instructions for all languages and for Spanish.

RESULTS
During the study period, 540 patients with LEP were discharged from the HM service. Spanish was the preferred language for 66% of patients with LEP. The percentage of patients with LEP who received translated discharge instructions increased from 12% to 50% in 3 months and to 77% in 18 months. For patients whose preferred language was Spanish, the percentage increased from 16% to 69% in 4 months and to 96% in 18 months.

CONCLUSIONS
Interventions targeting knowledge of the translation process and standardized Spanish discharge instructions were associated with an increased percentage of families receiving translated discharge instructions. Future work will be used to assess the impact of these interventions on postdischarge disparities, including emergency department revisits and readmissions.


This paper first provides a brief review of trends in public transport demand from 1980 to 2010 in 16 countries in Europe, North America, and Australia. The focus, however, is on a detailed analysis of public transport demand in Germany and the USA, using uniquely comparable national travel surveys from 2001/2002 and 2008/2009 for both countries. Public transport has been far more successful in Germany than in the USA, with much greater growth in overall passenger volumes and trips per capita. Even controlling for differences between the countries in demographics, socio-economics, and land use, logistic regressions show that Germans are five times as likely as Americans to use public transport. Moreover, public transport in Germany attracts a much broader cross-section of society and for a greater diversity of trip purposes. The success of German public transport is due to a coordinated package of mutually supportive policies that include the following: (1) more and better service, (2) attractive fares and convenient ticketing, (3) full multimodal and regional integration, (4) high taxes and restrictions on car use, and (5) land-use policies that promote compact, mixed-use developments. It is the integrated package of complementary policies that explains why public transport in Germany can compete so well with the private car, even among affluent households. Conversely, it is the lack of complementary policies that explains the continuing struggle of public transport in the USA.


This paper studies the effect of SNAP benefits on Food Away From Home (FAFH) expenditure. The study contributes to a sparse amount of literature that examines where SNAP recipients spend their benefits. A causal link has been shown to exist in recent literature between FAFH and obesity which makes this paper timely and relevant. This study makes a theoretical contribution to SNAP-related literature by incorporating household food security status as a determinant of consumption decisions. Empirical estimation is conducted by comparing the consumption patterns of SNAP participants relative to SNAP-eligible non-participants. The results show that SNAP participation significantly decreases FAFH consumption and that this effect is substantially different for households of different food security levels. SNAP AND OBESITY: A TEST OF THE SUBSTITUTION EFFECT 3


Service-oriented computing has emerged as a new software development paradigm that enables implementation of Web accessible software systems that are composed of distributed services which interact with each other via exchanging messages. Modeling and analysis of interactions among services is a crucial problem in this domain. Interactions among a set of services that participate in a service composition can be described from a global point of view as a choreography. Choreographies can be specified using specification languages such as Web Services Choreography Description Language (WS-CDL) and visualized using graphical formalisms such as collaboration diagrams. In this paper, we present an encoding of collaboration diagrams into the LOTOS process algebra for choreography analysis. This encoding allows us to (1) check the temporal properties of choreographies using a LOTOS verification tool set called the Construction and Analysis of Distributed Processes (CADP) toolbox, (2) check the realizability of choreographies for both synchronous communication and bounded asynchronous communication, and (3) automate the peer generation process. Realizability indicates whether peers can be generated from a given choreography specification in such a way that the interactions of the generated peers exactly match the choreography specification. If a collaboration diagram is unrealizable, our approach extends the peer generation process by adding extra communication that guarantees that the peers behave according to the choreography specification.


Most of the application of active control theory to the control of civil engineering structures were based on a trial and error method, optimal control method, and modal control method. In this paper, the pole assignment method and its application to the control of a long span bridge under a deterministic moving load are shown. Although the pole assignment method is similar in concept to the modal control method, the former provides a more general and systematic design procedure available for a system of any order and any number of measurements.


As an art installation showed at Houtan station of Shanghai Metro Line7 and 2010 Shanghai World Expo Museum, "smart suspension ball" system displayed the rational sense of form and order of the controlling. The article focused on how to use appropriate fuzzy strategy to make the movements of the art installation more accurate under detailed experimental data. Another point of the article is to consider how to make this art installation to be a product with network, being combined and modular after upgrading the hardware and software of the installation. The performance of this upgraded product will bring more beautiful visual effects of controlling and technique. It will also be a successful case of integrating of science and technology into product designing for development of creative industries in China.


This paper proposes a simple and universal architecture for designing efficient modified Booth multipliers modulo (2/sup n/+1). The proposed architecture is comprehensive, providing modulo (2/sup n/+1) multipliers with similar performance and cost both for the ordinary and for the diminished-1 number representations. The performance and the efficiency of the proposed multipliers are evaluated and compared with the earlier fastest modulo (2/sup n/+1) multipliers, based on a simple gate-count and gate-delay model and on experimental results obtained from CMOS implementations. These results show that the proposed approach leads on average to approximately 10% faster multipliers than the fastest known structures for the diminished-1 representation based on the modified Booth recoding. Moreover, they also show that the proposed architecture is the only one taking advantage of this recoding to obtain faster multipliers with a significant reduction in hardware. With the used figures of merit, the proposed diminished-1 multipliers are on average 10% and 25% more efficient than the known most efficient modulo (2/sup n/+1) multipliers for Booth recoded and nonrecoded multipliers, respectively.


Several prominent studies have shown that the imbalanced on-screen exposure of observable phenotypic traits like gender and skin-tone in movies, TV shows, live telecasts, and other visual media can reinforce gender and racial stereotypes in society. Researchers and human rights organizations alike have long been calling to make media producers more aware of such stereotypes. While awareness among media producers is growing, balancing the presence of different phenotypes in a video requires substantial manual effort and can typically only be done in the post-production phase. The task becomes even more challenging in the case of a live telecast where video producers must make instantaneous decisions with no post-production phase to refine or revert a decision. In this paper, we propose Screen-Balancer, an interactive tool that assists media producers in balancing the presence of different phenotypes in a live telecast. The design of Screen-Balancer is informed by a field study conducted in a professional live studio. Screen-Balancer analyzes the facial features of the actors to determine phenotypic traits using facial detection packages; it then facilitates real-time visual feedback for interactive moderation of gender and skin-tone distributions. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we conducted a user study with 20 participants and asked them to compose live telecasts from a set of video streams simulating different camera angles, and featuring several male and female actors with different skin-tones. The study revealed that the participants were able to reduce the difference of screen times of male and female actors by 43%, and that of light-skinned and dark-skinned actors by 44%, thus showing the promise and potential of using such a tool in commercial production systems.


The 16 kDa Clara cell protein (CC16), an abundant component of airway secretions, has recently been proposed in humans as a pulmonary marker measurable not only in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) but also in serum. The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes and determinants of CC16 concentrations in these fluids in normal rats and rats with lung injury. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were given a single i.p. injection of arachis oil (n=20) or chemicals in arachis oil (n=10) that mainly damage Clara cells (4-ipomeanol (IPO) 8 mg x kg(-1) and methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT) 5 mg x kg(-1)) or endothelial cells (alpha-naphthylthiourea (ANTU) 5 mg x kg(-1)). CC16 concentration (mean+/-sD in microg x L(-1)), measured by a sensitive latex immunoassay, was significantly reduced in BALF of all treated groups (IPO 380+/-100; MMT 730+/-200; ANTU 1,070+/-200; controls 1,700+/-470). The same pattern of decrease was observed in the labelling of Clara cells with an anti-CC16 antiserum as well as in the CC16 messenger ribonucleic acid levels assessed by Northern enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In serum, by contrast, CC16 was significantly increased in all treated groups (IPO 31+/-7; MMT 22+/-12; ANTU 52+/-24; controls 15+/-6). This rise of CC16 in serum was associated with an elevation of albumin in BALF which is an index of increased bronchoalveolar/blood barrier permeability. In conclusion, lung injury induces a decrease of the 16 kDa Clara cell protein in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid owing to a reduced production by damaged Clara cells, and an increase in serum protein levels resulting from its enhanced leakage across the bronchoalveolar/blood barrier. This study provides new insights into the understanding of the changes of lung secretory proteins in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and serum.


Background We hypothesize that in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the circulating Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains would have acquired resistance mechanisms to ciprofloxacin since the availability of the antibiotic under the form of a generic drug formulation in 2012. Methods We conducted a retrospective study (2012–2017) using data collected at the Centre Pasteur du Cameroun. Antimicrobial susceptibility results of N. gonorrhoeae isolates were retrieved from the laboratory information system and the laboratory worksheets. We included results of the disk method for tetracycline, azithromycin, spectinomycin and the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) obtained with the E-test method for penicillin, ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin. Data on the beta-lactamase activity was included, if available. European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) breakpoints were applied. Results Over the years N. gonorrhoeae isolates showed resistance towards all tested antibiotics: the MICs of ciprofloxacin shifted to higher concentrations (with MIC90% of 6 mg/l in 2013 to 32 mg/l in 2017) and 84% of the tested strains were resistant in 2017; resistance to penicillin was highest in 2016 (91%) and overall mainly plasmid mediated; the highest MIC values of 1 and 1.5 mg/l for ceftriaxone were detected in 2017 in 2 isolates; a total of 7 and 8 isolates resistant to ceftriaxone and spectinomycin, respectively, were detected over the time period; 7% of the isolates was resistant to azithromycin in both 2013 and 2015; a high percentage (mean: 59%) of resistance to tetracycline was observed over the whole period. Overall, 42% of the isolates were resistant to three or more antimicrobials. Conclusion A sharp increase in ciprofloxacin resistance of N. gonorrhoeae was detected, requiring the revision of the current Cameroonian treatment guidelines recommending ciprofloxacin. In addition, multidrug resistant N. gonorrhoeae strains are present in Yaoundé, Cameroon. A national surveillance program to monitor the antimicrobial susceptibility at national level should be installed and supported. Disclosure No significant relationships.


Cancer of the mouth begins in the oral cavity which includes: lips, jugal mucosa, teeth, gums, the first two-thirds of the tongue, floor of mouth, hard palate and retromolar trigone. Radiation therapy is a method capable of destroying tumor cells, employing a beam of ionizing radiation, seeking to eradicate all tumor cells with the least possible damage to the surrounding healthy cells at the expense of which the regenerated area will be regenerated. The objective of the present literature review was to report the main pathologies related to the performance of radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer. We selected articles published in the years from 1978 to 2017. The response of the tissues to radiation depends on several factors, such as the sensitivity of the tumor to radiation, its location and oxygenation, as well as the quality and quantity of radiation, in addition to the total time given. The oral complications of radiotherapy of head and neck neoplasms are common because they are rapidly renewing cells suffering greater action of the radiation agents, and can compromise the quality of life of the patient, besides negatively affecting the course of the cancer treatment until its suspension. Adverse reactions to radiation therapy are classified as acute, which occur during treatment or up to three months after the end, and late, which may manifest several months or years after the end of treatment. Oral mucositis is a clinically important and sometimes dose-limiting complication of cancer therapy. Mucositis lesions can be painful, affect nutrition and quality of life, and have a significant economic impact. Protocols for the treatment of the adverse effects of radiotherapy in the stomatognathic system are the responsibility of the dental surgeon. These include symptomatic relief, systemic medicines, physiotherapy, accumulating and oral lubricants, excellent oral hygiene and diet of certain types of food.


Steganography refers to the art of concealing secret messages within multiple media carriers so that an eavesdropper is unable to detect the presence and content of the hidden messages. In this paper, we firstly propose a novel key-dependent steganographic scheme that achieves steganographic objectives with adversarial training. Symmetric (secret-key) and Asymmetric (public-key) steganographic scheme are separately proposed and each scheme is successfully designed and implemented. We show that these encodings produced by our scheme improve the invisibility by 20% than previous deep-leanring-based work, and further that perform competitively remarkable undetectability 25% better than classic steganographic algorithms. Finally, we simulated our scheme in a real situation where the decoder achieved an accuracy of more than 98% of the original message.


BACKGROUND
In light of the evidence for brain white matter (WM) abnormalities in schizophrenia, study of normal WM maturation in adolescence may provide critical insights relevant to the neurodevelopment of the disorder. Voxel-wise diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies have consistently demonstrated increases in fractional anisotropy (FA), a putative measure of WM integrity, from childhood into adolescence. However, the WM tracts that show FA increases have been variable across studies. Here, we aimed to assess which WM tracts show the most pronounced changes across adolescence.

METHODS
DTI was performed in 78 healthy subjects aged 8-21 years, and voxel-wise analysis conducted using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). In addition, we performed the first meta-analysis of TBSS studies on WM development in adolescence.

RESULTS
In our sample, we observed bilateral increases in FA with age, which were most significant in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and anterior thalamic radiation. These findings were confirmed by the meta-analysis, and FA increase in the bilateral SLF was the most consistent finding across studies. Moreover, in our sample, FA of the bilateral SLF showed a positive association with verbal working memory performance and partially mediated increases in verbal fluency as a function of increasing age.

CONCLUSIONS
These data highlight increasing connectivity in the SLF during adolescence. In light of evidence for compromised SLF integrity in high-risk and first-episode patients, these data suggest that abnormal maturation of the SLF during adolescence may be a key target in the neurodevelopment of schizophrenia.


Direct drive wind power system need full-scale high power converter, such as flying capacitor multilevel converter. On the realization of high power electronic equipment, an important problem is that the working frequency of high power devices is too low to apply excellent modulated technique such as PWM. In large-power equipment, the switching frequency of power electronics devices is such low that good control performance can't be obtained with a single converter. In order to overcome this problem, Carrier phase-shifted SPWM technique (CPS-SPWM) has been researched. Reactive power compensation and harmonic reduction are two relevant research problems that exist in wind power system. With the advancement of modern power electronics technology in both circuits and devices, new and better solutions are being proposed and applied to solve these two problems. To compensate reactive power, a flying capacitor type multilevel inverters with a Carrier Phase-Shifted SPWM(CPS-SPWM) switching scheme is proposed. All this verified by simulation and experiment.


This volume features definitions and explanations for approximately 900 terms from crime lingo and mafia jargon. A guide to the language of the underworld, this dictionary is filled with the words that wiseguys and other criminals use to describe themselves, their associates, their crimes and their actions. Some of the terms are widely used outside of "mobspeak", while others are used almost exclusively in the context of criminal and Mafia activity. Without glorifying the criminality of American organized crime, this book defines the language spoken by real-life criminals. Through the words they use, the book provides fascinating insight into the cold, vicious mentality that governs the criminal underworld. Examined here in great detail is the richly flavoured and idiomatic style of speech that is linked to a life of crime based on treachery, violence, survival and acquiring wealth at any cost.


Despite dramatic advances on a global scale in the scientific fields that underlie pharmaceutical innovation, the literature suggests that returns on investment in pharmaceutical R&D have not kept pace. Further, some argue that for the last 50 years advances in drug and vaccine development have plateaued. In the face of serious challenges, such as increasing antibiotic resistance, the threat of global pandemics such as Ebola, aging populations, increasing healthcare costs, and a general lack of access to medicines by many in developing regions, this paper argues that the current paradigm of pharmaceutical R&D is not able to address these problems adequately. Probabilistic innovation theory predicts how the convergence of technologies and methods such as expert crowdsourced R&D may ultimately contribute to real-time problem-solving. These potentialities are described as a new paradigm in R&D. Such a paradigm might be uniquely suited to an industry that has perhaps moved beyond small molecule R&D into a new era of complex protein-based R&D associated with an almost infinite 'problem space' that is dependent on economies of scale in R&D efforts. This paper therefore offers a perspective on these challenges, and provides certain arguments in support of novel, technologically enabled approaches to scientific problem-solving.


Until the past decade, therapeutic options for unresectable and/or metastatic renal cell carcinoma were limited. Renal cell carcinoma is generally resistant to conventional chemotherapy, and only a small percentage of patients with renal cell carcinoma benefit from cytokine treatment. Since 2005, the advances in target-based therapy and immunotherapy modalities have created a paradigm shift in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma. Herein, we review the most up-to-date practices and emerging therapies for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and focus on the threrapy caused side-effects and side-effect management. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(38): 1488-1502.


New York State has long been recognized for its leading edge in the production of Concord and Niagara grapes for juice products. More recently, New York has experienced great growth in its wine related industry. With 33,000 acres of grapes under production, New York ranks second to only California in wine production. The number of wineries has increased rapidly in the past 20 years, from approximately 20 to over 125 today. In 1976, the Farm Winery Act was first passed, resulting in explosive growth of the wine and grape industry and the development of numerous farm wineries. The moderate climates of the Finger Lakes area, the Lake Erie escarpment, the Hudson River Valley and Long Island simulate some of the best grape production regions in France and Germany. Pioneers of the grape growing industry in New York worked diligently to introduce classic Old World style grape cultivars such as Riesling, Chardonnay and most recently Pinot Noir. The microclimates encountered in this diverse state have supported the production of high quality Vitis vinifera cultivars and today winemakers on Long Island, in the Hudson Valley, the Finger Lakes and along Lake Erie are winning international wine competitions and gaining some market share. New York is starting to show that it can produce excellent wines in various regions around the state. New York State has a variable climate in each of these regions and in fact, this microclimate, its soil, and viticulture, or terroir, is thought to impart very specific and characteristic qualities to the wine products produced in each of these regions. The climate, mineral soils, sunlight and water availability of the Finger Lakes Region are in fact, reminiscent of the conditions observed in Burgundy France, the home of the popular and complex grape, the Pinot Noir.


Every aspect of oil and gas operations poses significant negative impacts on the environment in varying levels, these environmental impacts have economic and public health consequences on the indigenes of the operation locality. Produced water discharge is one of such aspects of the upstream oil and gas operation whose potential for environmental degradation has necessitated both local and international regulations for its governance. This research focuses on the environmental assessment of heavy metal pollution on marine sediments receiving treated produced water in Delta state, Nigeria. Sediment samples were obtained from produced water discharge area at various distances from the disposal point. Heavy metals (Cadmium, Zinc, Iron, Lead, Chromium, Vanadium, Barium, Nickel and Manganese) concentrations in the sediment were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry method. In the sediment, manganese, nickel, chromium, lead, cadmium and zinc were detected in all the locations and showed no significant difference across the various locations. Barium and vanadium were detected in some location although no statistical difference was established across the locations. Iron concentration showed significant difference across the various locations. The results of heavy metals contamination factor in marine sediments ranged from low contamination to very high contamination (CF<1; 3 ≤ CF ≥ 6). High contamination values were recorded for vanadium (Location SD16, 21 and 22) and barium locations (SD8 and 21). The enrichment factor of heavy metals ranged from minimal to moderate, significant and very high enrichment. Barium, Nickel and Manganese showed the highest variation in enrichment factor. Other than cadmium and barium that showed moderate risk (40 ≤ Er <80) and very high risk (Er ≥ 320) at some locations respectively, the Ecological Risk Index of heavy metals based on the criteria for risk assessment showed low risk (Er<40) for most of the locations.

 Key words: Assessment, environmental impact, produced water, pollution, heavy metal, contamination, sediments.


The paper presents a method connecting medical databases to a medical decision system, and describes a service created to extract the necessary information that is transferred based on standards. The medical decision can be improved based on many inputs from different medical locations. The developed solution is described for a concrete case concerning the management for chronic pelvic pain, based on the information retrieved from diverse healthcare databases.


The representation of quantum states via phase-space functions constitutes an intuitive technique to characterize light. However, the reconstruction of such distributions is challenging as it demands specific types of detectors and detailed models thereof to account for their particular properties and imperfections. To overcome these obstacles, we derive and implement a measurement scheme that enables a reconstruction of phase-space distributions for arbitrary states whose functionality does not depend on the knowledge of the detectors, thus defining the notion of detector-agnostic phase-space distributions. Our theory presents a generalization of well-known phase-space quasiprobability distributions, such as the Wigner function. We implement our measurement protocol, using state-of-the-art transition-edge sensors without performing a detector characterization. Based on our approach, we reveal the characteristic features of heralded single- and two-photon states in phase space and certify their nonclassicality with high statistical significance.


This collection of essays aims to mark a place for American philosophy as it moves into the twenty-first century. Taking their cue from the work of Peirce, James, Santayana, Dewey, Mead, Buchler, and others, the contributors assess and employ philosophy as an activity taking place within experience and culture. Within the broad background of the American tradition, the essays reveal a variety of approaches to the transition in which American philosophy is currently engaged. Some of the pieces argue from an historical dialogue with the tradition, some are more polemically involved with American philosophy's current status among the contemporary philosophical schools,and still others seek to reveal the possibilities for the future of American philosophy. In thus addressing past, present, and future, the pieces, taken together, outline a trajectory for American philosophy that reinvents its importance from a new angle of vision.


Objectives To assess the effect of sustained release symptomatic drugs chondroitin sulfate (CS) + glucosamine hydrochloride (GH) on progression of knee OA in pts with <5 years disease duration during the 5year follow-up period (FUP). Methods This 5-year study included 52 female-patients with primary knee OA (ACR criteria), disease duration did not exceed 5 yrs (mean age–59,1±8,9). On each pts the individual file including 200 parameters was filled. Diagnostic modalities used in each patient included plain radiography of knee joints (gonarthrosis stage was classified using Kellgren J.- Lawrence J. scale), DEXA subchondral portions of the hip and tibia, ultrasound (US) and MRI examination of knee joints. First OA stage was documented in 22 (42,3%)pts, 2-nd - in 24 (46,2%), 3d- in 6 (11,5%). During 5 years of FUP 31 (60%) pts were administered the combined CS+GH regimen for more than 6 months a year. OA progression was documented based on radiographic criteria. Results During the 5 year FUP radiographic progression (upgrade in radiographic stage) of knee OA was documented in 14 pts (Group 1 - with OA progression), while in 38 pts radiographic stage remained unchanged (Group 2 - without progression). Patients from both groups were comparable in terms of age and disease duration (p>0,05). Although, pts from Group 1 with OA progression had more intense knee pain when walking: 60,4±18,3 vs 48,7±17,8mm, p=0,04; and higher BMI values: 34,5±4,6 vs 28,9±4,9 kg/m2, p=0,001; US-findings based higher rate of synovitis:57,1% vs 18,4%, OR=5,9, 95% CI 1,6–22,5, p=0,009; bone marrow edema in medial tibia aspect 64,3% vs 13,2%, OR=11,9, 95% CI 2,8–50,3, p=0,0006 based on MRI findings. In pts with OA progression DEXA examination identified significantly higher absolute BMD values in the medial condyle of the tibia (0,9 (0,8–1,2) vs 0,8 (0,7–0,8) g/cm2, p=0,001) as compared to pts from Group 2. Re-examination in 5yrs showed that statistically significant differences between the two groups still remained. Analysis of 5year therapy revealed, that the majority of pts without OA progression (68,4%) were taking combined CS+GH regimens for more than 6 months a year during 5-year FUP, while only 35,7% of pts who progressed (OR=4,3, 95% CI 1,1–16,3, p=0,03) managed to adhere to this regimen. Discriminant analysis showed that 5-year intake of combined CS+GH therapy for more than 6 months a year should be considered as a predictor of decreased risk of disease progression, while on the contrary, such symptoms as synovitis, bone marrow edema, and high BMD values in the medial condyle of the tibia should be viewed as predictors and risk factors for knee OA progression in pts with <5 years disease duration. Based on identified factors and their coefficients the authors designed a model (with area under the ROC curve equal to 0,93), allowing to predict the future course of the disease in an individual patient with high accuracy, i.e. 85,7% sensitivity and 84,2% specificity. Conclusions Use of combined CS+GH regimens for more than 6 months a year during 5 years is an important factor, decelerating the progression of knee OA in pts with <5 years disease duration by the factor of 4. While synovitis, bone marrow edema, and high BMD values in the medial condyle of the tibia are responsible for further OA progression on this group of pts. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Military bases that have been used for weapon-testing and training usually are con taminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO). These sites can be returned to public use only after UXO remediation. The cleaning-up procedure is usually very expensive and time-consuming. This demands statistical tools to provide more effective sampling strat egy and to characterize the UXO distribution. Based on the physical characteristics of UXO deposition, we adopt a simplified Neyman-Scott process to model the UXO dis tribution. A line transect survey is used to collect data on one coordinate of individual object locations. Two-stage (global and local) sampling strategy is applied to screen the contaminated site. In the global sampling, the estimators of the cluster intensity, mean cluster size and cluster dispersion are provided. The theoretical variance estima tors of all the cluster parameters are also given. Simulation studies show that all the parameter estimates perform well and their theoretical variance estimates are reason ably close to their corresponding sample variances. In the local sampling, an inclusion region for covering all the unobserved objects in a cluster is proposed. Its asymptotic coverage property is given and proved. Simulation studies show the actual coverage of the inclusion region is very close to the nominal level.


Circulating O-glycoproteins shed from cancer cells represent important serum biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. We have recently shown that selective detection of cancer-associated aberrant glycoforms of circulating O-glycoprotein biomarkers can increase specificity of cancer biomarker assays. However, the current knowledge of secreted and circulating O-glycoproteins is limited. Here, we used the COSMC KO "SimpleCell" (SC) strategy to characterize the O-glycoproteome of two gastric cancer SimpleCell lines (AGS, MKN45) as well as a gastric cell line (KATO III) which naturally expresses at least partially truncated O-glycans. Overall, we identified 499 O-glycoproteins and 1236 O-glycosites in gastric cancer SimpleCells, and a total 47 O-glycoproteins and 73 O-glycosites in the KATO III cell line. We next modified the glycoproteomic strategy to apply it to pools of sera from gastric cancer and healthy individuals to identify circulating O-glycoproteins with the STn glycoform. We identified 37 O-glycoproteins in the pool of cancer sera, and only nine of these were also found in sera from healthy individuals. Two identified candidate O-glycoprotein biomarkers (CD44 and GalNAc-T5) circulating with the STn glycoform were further validated as being expressed in gastric cancer tissue. A proximity ligation assay was used to show that CD44 was expressed with the STn glycoform in gastric cancer tissues. The study provides a discovery strategy for aberrantly glycosylated O-glycoproteins and a set of O-glycoprotein candidates with biomarker potential in gastric cancer.


Joint segmentation of image sets has great importance for object recognition, image classification, and image retrieval. In this paper, we aim to jointly segment a set of images starting from a small number of labeled images or none at all. To allow the images to share segmentation information with each other, we build a network that contains segmented as well as unsegmented images, and extract functional maps between connected image pairs based on image appearance features. These functional maps act as general property transporters between the images and, in particular, are used to transfer segmentations. We define and operate in a reduced functional space optimized so that the functional maps approximately satisfy cycle-consistency under composition in the network. A joint optimization framework is proposed to simultaneously generate all segmentation functions over the images so that they both align with local segmentation cues in each particular image, and agree with each other under network transportation. This formulation allows us to extract segmentations even with no training data, but can also exploit such data when available. The collective effect of the joint processing using functional maps leads to accurate information sharing among images and yields superior segmentation results, as shown on the iCoseg, MSRC, and PASCAL data sets.


The maxim that the federal government is a government of enumerated powers can be understood as a "continuity tender": not a principle with practical consequences for governance, but a ritual statement with which practitioners identify themselves with a history from which they descend. This interpretation makes sense of the longstanding paradox whereby courts recite the enumeration principle but give it virtually no practical effect. On this understanding, the enumerated-powers maxim is analogous to the clause that Parliament still uses to open enacted statutes: "Be it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty…" That text might imply that the Queen is a source of legislative authority, but there is no practical sense in which legislation depends upon her. Similarly, it might misunderstand the American system to think that Congress is in practice, or ought in practice to be, limited by its enumerated powers (as opposed to by the political process and by affirmative constitutional prohibitions) — even though we continue to repeat the traditional statement. One important difference between the two cases, however, is that in the British system there is no controversy about whether the Queen should enjoy legislative power. In the American system, where there is serious disagreement about whether the enumerated powers of Congress must be limiting, it is necessary to bring the ritual-continuity aspect of the maxim more clearly into view, thus explaining why we could be attached to the maxim even if it need do no important practical work in the operations of governance.


A model of propositional-logic reasoning proposed by M. D. S. Braine, B. J. Reiser, and B. Rumain (1984) claims that inferences such as "p or q; not p //. q" are made spontaneously by readers at the moment both premises are available. This claim is inconsistent with some evidence in the text-processing literature that suggests that only those inferences necessary for textual coherence are made spontaneously. In the present study, participants read stories in which a logical inference was not necessary to maintain textual coherence, and inference making was assessed with on-line probes. Two experiments tested logical forms central to Braine et al.'s model, and both indicated that participants were making the logical inferences. Two further experiments replicated this result with stories that did not begin with thematic titles. These findings support Braine et al.'s prediction that some propositional-logic inferences are made routinely in texts that do not require them for coherence.


We propose an approach for on-line detection of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and estimation of their relative positions and velocities in the 3D environment from a single moving camera in the context of sense and avoid systems. This problem is challenging both from a detection point of view, as there are no markers on the targets available, and from a tracking perspective, due to misdetection and false positives. Furthermore, the methods need to be computationally light, despite the complexity of computer vision algorithms, to be used on UAVs with limited payload. To address these issues we propose a multi-staged framework that incorporates fast object detection using an AdaBoost-based approach, coupled with an on-line visual-based tracking algorithm and a recent sensor fusion and state estimation method. Our framework allows for achieving real-time performance with accurate object detection and tracking without any need of markers and customized, high-performing hardware resources.


The characterization of an Applied Materials 7600 silicon epi reactor using a reactor analysis system is described. By analyzing gaseous impurities such as oxygen, moisture (H/sub 2/O), and particulates, contaminations introduced by machine design and operation are shown to far outweigh the impurities contained in the inlet materials. The actual testing and analysis involves production epi systems at the materials wafer fab at Harris Semiconductor in Palm Bay, Florida. A case study is presented which shows how, through systematic use of the Linde reactor analysis, contamination levels can be reduced by varying operating parameters such as load time, temperature and housing purge flow rate. Epitaxial film defects and process yield are significantly improved.<<ETX>>


Objective: Emotional and cognitive disturbances are common complications in Parkinson's disease (PD). N400 is an event related potential (ERP) strongly linked to lexical-semantic processing and has demonstrated alterations in amplitude and latency when PD patients performed semantic priming tasks. The present study investigated the role of N400 in an automatic affective priming paradigm in PD. Other ERP components relevant to emotion processing were also examined. Method: Twenty-two PD patients and 17 healthy adults performed an automatic affective priming task while ERPs were recorded using 128 channels. Prime–target word pairs of negative or neutral valence were presented at a stimulus onset asynchrony of 250 ms. Participants were asked to evaluate the valence of the target word by button press. Results: A larger N400 amplitude for incongruent compared with congruent neutral targets was observed at right central and parietal regions and did not differ between PD and controls. PD and controls also displayed larger P300 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes for negative compared with neutral targets at central parietal and right frontal regions. In contrast, whereas controls showed a larger slow negative wave (SNW) for negative targets compared with neutral targets at left frontal and left central regions, PD group demonstrated a significant reduction in SNW amplitude difference at the left central region. Conclusion: N400 is intact in PD when processing evaluative judgments of emotional words. P300 and LPP were also intact in PD. The altered left central SNW in PD suggests an ERP marker for emotional dysfunction in PD.


This edition has been prepared as a basic text for beginning students in clinical chemistry and for laboratory technicians with little or no formal training. In the first section of the book, the author has attempted to provide a very brief and simplified source of miscellaneous information relevant to basic chemistry and laboratory principles. As do other authors who present this limited type of review section, Annino encountered problems of content, organization, and continuity of the discussions; but, in general, the product adequately suited his purpose. The major portion of the book is concerned with methods. The author has carefully selected those procedures which have been employed by many experienced chemists and that comprehend a variety of the techniques used by laboratory personnel. It is emphasized that "this text is not intended as a reference book of methods." In presenting a particular test, Annino generally discusses what should be considered


In 47 patients during 1985-1997 years period the complex haemodynamical investigations before the operation and in 8-12 months after it were performed: in 24--distal splenorenal shunt was performed and in 23--nonselective portocaval shunt. After performance of shunting operation the volumetric speed of the blood flow had lowered together with pressure in v.porta. After the nonselective shunting performance the significantly more pronounced change of these indexes was noted, comparing with such after the selective anastomosis formation. The portal blood flow lowering had promoted the arterial hepatic blood flow increase, showing compensatory-adaptational reaction, directed for the common hepatic blood flow preservation.


Purpose. Research on real-life suspect interviews shows that disclosure of evidence is a very common tactic and that it occurs in all phases of the interview. It is therefore remarkable that there is hardly any research on the effectiveness of different disclosure tactics. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of three different disclosure tactics: presenting the evidence early and two versions of the Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) technique.

Methods. For the SUE-Basic technique (SUE-B), the evidence was disclosed late in the interview. For the SUE-Incremental technique (SUE-I), we used a stepwise disclosure tactic derived from the so-called Evidence Framing Matrix. The tactic consists of revealing evidence of increasing strength and precision. A mock-theft scenario was employed with 195 participants who were randomly allocated to one of six conditions: guilty or innocent suspects were interviewed with one of the three techniques. Two measures of inconsistency were used as dependent variables: statement-evidence inconsistency and the newly developed within-statement inconsistency.

Results. By interviewing with SUE-I, strong cues to deception were elicited, especially for the statement-evidence inconsistency variable. For the SUE-B, significant but smaller differences between guilty and innocent suspects were obtained.

Conclusions. We found that both when and how the evidence was disclosed moderated the effectiveness of disclosure. With respect to when, it was more effective to disclose the evidence late (vs. early), and with respect to how, it was more effective to disclose the evidence in a stepwise (vs. direct) manner. The tactical aspects of evidence disclosure are discussed.


Adhesive bonding is a high-speed fastening technique which is suitable for joining advanced lightweight sheet materials that are dissimilar, coated and hard to weld. Major advances have been made in recent years in adhesive bonding technique. Latest literature relating to finite element analysis (FEA) of adhesively bonded single-lap joints (SLJs) is reviewed in this paper. The recent development in FEA of SLJs is described with particular reference to three major factors that influence the success of adhesive bonding technique: failure mechanism, environmental effects and mechanical behavior. The main FE methods used in FEA of SLJs are discussed and illustrated with brief case studies from the literature. Areas where further useful progress can be made are also identified.


A novel approach is proposed for generating compact dynamic thermal models of packages, independent of boundary conditions. This approach is based on the novel definition of Robin's boundary condition independent dynamic thermal network and on the application of a novel multivariate moment matching method. The resulting compact thermal models are more accurate than compact models obtained by means of previous methods.


Before placing a software system into production, it is necessary to guarantee it provides users with a certain level of Quality-of-Service. Intensive performance testing is then necessary to achieve such a level and the tests require an isolated computing environment. Virtualization can therefore play an important role for saving energy costs by reducing the number of servers required to run performance tests and for allowing performance isolation when executing multiple tests in the same computing infrastructure. Load generation is an important component in performance testing as it simulates users interacting with the target application. This paper presents our experience in using a virtualized environment for load generation aimed at performance testing. We measured several performance metrics and varied system load, number of virtual machines per physical resource, and the CPU pinning schema for comparison of virtual and physical machines. The two main findings from our experiments are that physical machines produced steadier and faster response times under heavy load and that the pinning schema is an important aspect when setting up a virtualized environment for load generation.


The novel coronavirus disease 19 (Covid-19) which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been a pandemic across the world, which necessitate the need for the antiviral drug discovery. One of the potential protein targets for coronavirus treatment is RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. It is the key enzyme in the viral replication machinery, and it does not exist in human beings, therefore its targeting has been considered as a strategic approach. Here we describe the identification of potential hits from Indonesian Herbal and ZINC databases. The pharmacophore modeling was employed followed by molecular docking and dynamics simulation for 40 ns. 151 and 14480 hit molecules were retrieved from Indonesian herbal and ZINC databases, respectively. Three hits that were selected based on the structural analysis were stable during 40 ns, while binding energy prediction further implied that ZINC1529045114, ZINC169730811, and 9-Ribosyl-trans-zeatin had tighter binding affinities compared to Remdesivir. The ZINC169730811 had the strongest affinity toward RdRp compared to the other two hits including Remdesivir and its binding was corroborated by electrostatic, van der Waals, and nonpolar contribution for solvation energies. The present study offers three hits showing tighter binding to RdRp based on MM-PBSA binding energy prediction for further experimental verification.


To improve the English proficiency of college students, this paper attempts to promote autonomous English learning among these students using artificial intel-ligence technology. Specifically, the principles, features and application fields of artificial intelligence were introduced in details, and the requirements, structure, database and processes of autonomous English learning systems were discussed at length. On this basis, the backpropagation (BP) neural network, a typical artifi-cial intelligence technique, was selected to design the modules of the autonomous English learning system for college students. The proposed system was then im-plemented in integrated open environment of Visual Studio, the architecture of the browser/server system and the SQL Server database on the Windows platform. The results show that the proposed system provides college students with intelli-gent and open self-evaluation tests and effective learning feedbacks. The research findings shed new light on improving the English learning of college students and reliving the pressure on college English teachers.


molecular levels. It is published 12 times a year (monthly) by the American Physiological Society, 9650 Rockville cardiovascular function at all levels of organization ranging from the intact animal to the cellular, subcellular, and physiology of the heart, blood vessels, and lymphatics, including experimental and theoretical studies of publishes original investigations on the


Abstract. During the first half of 20th century, the dominant global tectonics model based on Earth contraction had increasing problems accommodating new geological evidence, with the result that alternative geodynamic theories were investigated. Due to the level of scientific knowledge and the limited amount of data available in many scientific disciplines at the time, not only was contractionism considered a valid scientific theory but the debate also included expansionism, mobilism on a fixed-dimension planet, or various combinations of these geodynamic hypotheses. Geologists and physicists generally accepted that planets could change their dimensions, although the change of volume was generally believed to happen because of a contraction, not an expansion. Constant generation of new matter in the universe was a possibility accepted by science, as it was the variation in the cosmological constants. Continental drift, instead, was a more heterodox theory, requiring a larger effort from the geoscientists to be accepted. The new geological data collected in the following decades, an improved knowledge of the physical processes, the increased resolution and penetration of geophysical tools, and the sensitivity of measurements in physics decreased the uncertainty level in many fields of science. Theorists now had less freedom for speculation because their theories had to accommodate more data, and more limiting conditions to respect. This explains the rapid replacement of contracting Earth, expanding Earth, and continental drift theories by plate tectonics once the symmetrical oceanic magnetic striping was discovered, because none of the previous models could explain and incorporate the new oceanographic and geophysical data. Expansionism could survive after the introduction of plate tectonics because its proponents have increasingly detached their theory from reality by systematically rejecting or overlooking any contrary evidence, and selectively picking only the data that support expansion. Moreover, the proponents continue to suggest imaginative physical mechanisms to explain expansion, claiming that scientific knowledge is partial, and the many inconsistencies of their theory are just minor problems in the face of the plain evidence of expansion. According to the expansionists, scientists should just wait for some revolutionary discovery in fundamental physics that will explain all the unsolved mysteries of Earth expansion. The history of the expanding-Earth theory is an example of how falsified scientific hypotheses can survive their own failure, gradually shifting towards and beyond the limits of scientific investigation until they become merely pseudoscientific beliefs.


Abstract Sistrurus miliarius frequently bites humans in the southeastern United States. We used a large population of S. miliarius in central Florida to investigate the importance of several factors on the defensive behavior of this species. Upon detection of a snake, we tapped the snout of the snake with a gloved hand. We recorded whether the snake struck or fled. Our large sample size (N = 336) allowed us to make strong conclusions regarding the defensive behavior of this rattlesnake species. Overall, only 27 snakes (8%) bit the glove indicating that this species is rather nonaggressive. Initial posture was the only factor that influenced striking behavior; uncoiled snakes struck significantly more than coiled snakes. Fleeing behavior was affected by three variables: sex; whether the snake was about to shed; and initial posture. Females fled more often than males, as did snakes about to shed. Initial posture is the only factor that affected both response variables, and uncoiled individuals were more likely to flee than coiled snakes.


Time-gated x-ray tomography with scatter reduction is demonstrated using a laser-produced plasma as an ultrashort-pulse x-ray source in combination with a time-resolving streak-camera detector. Backprojections of a phantom imbedded in 9 cm of water show an effective 50% increase in contrast when scattered x-ray quanta (being delayed in time) are suppressed by gating on the prompt, nonscattered photons. Implications for future volumetric tomography, in particular concerning possible dose reductions, are discussed.


Abstract This paper argues that dialogue, as a processual tool, is sometimes not enough to solve deep-seated power-relations in the policy design of school reforms. We show this through a case study of a comprehensive school reform in Denmark that has lasted from 2011 until 2020. An active policy entrepreneur, Antorini, the Danish Minister of Education, tried to design a policy process that included a broad coalition in parliament and aimed to include the teachers as professionals. Since the teachers' union opposed the effort to change the collective wage agreement prior to the reform, the reform has remained controversial. Power and deep-seated interests blocked the dialogue. We discuss the reform's development inspired by an analytical reform policy framework by Patashnik. The lessons learned for other countries are that the power resources that policy makers and professionals possess needs to be acknowledged openly, and that dialogue therefore doesn't always work for school reforms.


Dopamine agonists (DAs, especially cabergoline) are recommended as first-line treatment in patients with prolactin-secreting pituitary adenomas, to reduce hormone secretion and tumor size. Pituitary surgery, suggested in nonresponsive patients, cannot achieve a gross total resection or is not feasible in some cases. Temozolomide (TMZ) has been proposed in patients with aggressive pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs) who do not respond to conventional treatments. We present a 47-year-old man with a giant (70×51×64 mm) prolactin-secreting PitNET. Cabergoline treatment (at first 1.5 mg/week, and then increased to 3.5 mg/week after 3 months) achieved prolactin suppression; however, magnetic resonance revealed a stable mass. After explanation of surgical complications, the patient rejected the procedure. Therefore, a primary neoadjuvant cytoreductive TMZ treatment was discussed during a meeting of the Pituitary Multidisciplinary Team, and added to cabergoline. After 13 cycles of TMZ (1 year of treatment), we observed dramatic reduction of the PitNET (from 18 cm3 of adenoma to 6 cm3 of necrotic tissue). MRI performed 4, 12, and 18 months after TMZ discontinuation revealed a stable residual PitNET, and 1.5 mg/week of cabergoline has been continued until today. Recently, the criteria for developing Pituitary Tumors Centers of Excellence have been proposed, indicating that a multidisciplinary team is the best care for patients. Surgery, rejected by the patient, could only achieve a partial resection; therefore, we decided to combine TMZ and cabergoline. An early initiation of TMZ could be considered in selected cases, especially when surgery could be only partially effective.


The paper deals with the concepts of model-based control and trajectory planning intended for industrial parallel robots. These robots are characterized by very good dynamical properties arisen from small number of moving masses in comparison with conventional configurations. In the paper, multi-level (hierarchical) control will be investigated. It can be specified as a model-based control providing positional and speed loops with addition of fast low-level current-loop control. As a suitable representative of model-based control, predictive control is considered. Described concept can offer more possibilities to manage the control process than usual cascade control. Finally, the paper outlines two different concepts of trajectory planning. The first concept considers only pure geometrical features (curve-based planning) without relation to the real robots. The second concept conversely takes into account the dynamical features of the real robot with initial and final points (point-to-point planning).


Image restoration tasks demand a complex balance between spatial details and high-level contextualized information while recovering images. In this paper, we propose a novel synergistic design that can optimally balance these competing goals. Our main proposal is a multi-stage architecture, that progressively learns restoration functions for the degraded inputs, thereby breaking down the overall recovery process into more manageable steps. Specifically, our model first learns the contextualized features using encoder-decoder architectures and later combines them with a high-resolution branch that retains local information. At each stage, we introduce a novel per-pixel adaptive design that leverages in-situ supervised attention to reweight the local features. A key ingredient in such a multi-stage architecture is the information exchange between different stages. To this end, we propose a two-faceted approach where the information is not only exchanged sequentially from early to late stages, but lateral connections between feature processing blocks also exist to avoid any loss of information. The resulting tightly interlinked multi-stage architecture, named as MPRNet, delivers strong performance gains on ten datasets across a range of tasks including image deraining, deblurring, and denoising. The source code and pre-trained models are available at https://github.com/swz30/MPRNet.


Seismic tomography reveals garnet-rich crust and mantle lithosphere descending into the upper mantle beneath the southeastern Sierra Nevada. The descending lithosphere consists of two layers: an iron-rich eclogite above a magnesium-rich garnet peridotite. These results place descending eclogite above and east of high P wave speed material previously imaged beneath the southern Great Valley, suggesting a previously unsuspected coherence in the lithospheric removal process.


The investigation of interrelationships between the phospholipides of various microorganisms (33 strains of corynebacteria, mycobacteria and staphylococci) using crossed antibody neutralization reactions with phospholipide antigenic erythrocyte diagnostic was used for the assessment of the degree of antigenic propinquity and antigenic differences between the phospholipides of bacteria of the same species, genus, and of different genera. The role of the determinants of the corresponding (their own) and "foreign" genera in the antigenic differences between the phospholipides of the microorganisms investigated was established. On the basis of the results obtained the conclusion has been drawn that the method of assessment of antigenic interrelationships between phospholipides can be used for the study of some taxonomic problems.


Diagnoses of learning disability have real-life impact, in terms of service delivery. Currently, whether or not a person meets the diagnostic criteria depends on having an impairment of intellectual functioning, typically measured as an IQ below 70, along with a significant impairment of adaptive or social functioning. If over this IQ threshold, an individual may not get access to the resources they need even if it is abundantly clear that cannot cope without help. How reliable and valid is the current cut-off point? Do we need to move to a definition of learning disability based on clinical judgement rather than IQ score?


Out-of-vocabulary words are still a challenge in cross-lingual Natural Language Processing tasks, for which transliteration from source to target language or script is one of the solutions. In this study, we collect a personal name dataset in 445 Wikidata languages (37 scripts), train Transformer-based multilingual transliteration models on 6 high- and 4 less-resourced languages, compare them with bilingual models from (Merhav and Ash, 2018) and determine that multilingual models perform better for less-resourced languages. We discover that intrinsic evaluation, i.e comparison to a single gold standard, might not be appropriate in the task of transliteration due to its high variability. For this reason, we propose using extrinsic evaluation of transliteration via the cross-lingual named entity list search task (e.g. personal name search in contacts list). Our code and datasets are publicly available online.


This study, based on sexual script theory, assessed ambivalence in the decision to have sexual intercourse for the first time in 687 adolescents. On average, adolescents showed moderate levels of ambivalence. Younger adolescents, students from the highest school track, adolescents with less positive body image, those with higher love attitudes, those who did not take the initiative to have intercourse, and those feeling pressured to have sex showed higher levels of ambivalence during their decisions. Higher levels of decisional ambivalence about having intercourse were associated with a later age at the time of first intercourse and with a lower probability of contraceptive use. This study concludes that some levels of ambivalence are common in young people's decisions about having coitus as they have to negotiate contradictory sexual scripts, beliefs, and needs.


Pompe disease (PD) is a monogenic disorder caused by mutations in the acid alpha-glucosidase gene (Gaa). GAA is a lysosomal enzyme essential for the degradation of glycogen. Deficiency of GAA results in a severe, systemic disorder that, in its most severe form, can be fatal. About a decade ago, the prognosis of PD has changed dramatically with the marketing authorization of an enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) based on recombinant GAA. Despite the breakthrough nature of ERT, long-term follow-up of both infantile and late-onset Pompe disease patients (IOPD and LOPD, respectively), revealed several limitations of the approach. In recent years several investigational therapies for PD have entered preclinical and clinical development, with a few next generation ERTs entering late-stage clinical development. Gene therapy holds the potential to change dramatically the way we treat PD, based on the ability to express the Gaa gene long-term, ideally driving enhanced therapeutic efficacy compared to ERT. Several gene therapy approaches to PD have been tested in preclinical animal models, with a handful of early phase clinical trials started or about to start. The complexity of PD and of the endpoints used to measure efficacy of investigational treatments remains a challenge, however the hope is for a future with more therapeutic options for both IOPD and LOPD patients.


As far today's demand is to manufacture a compact car so there is an urgent need to design an effective heat exchanger. In this paper the effect of fluid on pipe heat exchanger on overall heat transfer coefficient is studied. The overall heat transfer coefficient is studied for pipe heat exchanger with different mass flow rate 1 Lit/hr, 2 Lit/hr and 3 Lit/hr coolant flow Lit/hr @ same surface heating on pipe heat exchanger. Pipe tube heat exchangers are common and vital components in many energy systems. Pipe tube heat exchangers are widely used in several domains such as heating, ventilating, refrigeration and air conditioning systems A fluid fin performance is commonly expressed in terms of pipe tube heat transfer. This case is the one experimental performance on Pipe Tube Heat exchanger for finding Heat Transfer Co-efficient of fluid because this corresponds to the maximum driving potential (temperature difference) for convection heat transfer. The research work summarized in this presents a combined analytical, experimental and numerical investigation of Overall heat transfer coefficient of coolant as water by use of pipe tube heat exchanger force convection. The results for the fluid on pipe tube heat transfer were compared with simulation of pipe heat exchanger by software Ansys 14.1. The experimental system is for investigation for Heat transfer co-efficient of fluid as water from the experiment pipe tube heat exchanger gives the heat transfer coefficient 401.9212W/mK.and by software simulation its heat transfer co-efficient valid of 383.73W/mK.


Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for tactical environments have been considered as the fundamentals for realizing the Future Combat System (FCS) supporting Network-Centric Warfare (NCW). Much research related to tactical WSN architecture has been conducted. However, a research about randomly distributed WSNs for military tactical scenarios considering functionalities from bootstrap to data transmission has not been considered yet. In this paper, we describe a 6LoWPAN (IPv6 over low-power wireless personal area networks)-based military WSN architecture for remote wide areas of specific tactical interests in which sensor nodes are randomly distributed. The network architecture is designed based on tactical WSN requirements for the target application scenario and key functionalities for satisfying these requirements, such as self-organization, address auto-configuration, hierarchical multi-hop routing protocol, and header compression.


Polypeptoid-coated surfaces and many surface-grafted hydrophilic polymer brushes have been proven efficient in antifouling-the prevention of nonspecific biomolecular adsorption and cell attachment. Protein adsorption, in particular, is known to mediate subsequent cell-surface interactions. However, the detailed antifouling mechanism of polypeptoid and other polymer brush coatings at the molecular level is not well understood. Moreover, most adsorption studies focus only on measuring a single adsorbed mass value, and few techniques are capable of characterizing the hydrated in situ layer structure of either the antifouling coating or adsorbed proteins. In this study, interfacial assembly of polypeptoid brushes with different chain lengths has been investigated in situ using neutron reflection (NR). Consistent with past simulation results, NR revealed a common two-step structure for grafted polypeptoids consisting of a dense inner region that included a mussel adhesive-inspired oligopeptide for grafting polypeptoid chains and a highly hydrated upper region with very low polymer density (molecular brush). Protein adsorption was studied with human serum albumin (HSA) and fibrinogen (FIB), two common serum proteins of different sizes but similar isoelectric points (IEPs). In contrast to controls, we observed higher resistance by grafted polypeptoid against adsorption of the larger FIB, especially for longer chain lengths. Changing the pH to close to the IEPs of the proteins, which generally promotes adsorption, also did not significantly affect the antifouling effect against FIB, which was corroborated by atomic force microscopy imaging. Moreover, NR enabled characterization of the in situ hydrated layer structures of the polypeptoids together with proteins adsorbed under selected conditions. While adsorption on bare SiO2 controls resulted in surface-induced protein denaturation, this was not observed on polypeptoids. Our current results therefore highlight the detailed in situ view that NR may provide for characterizing protein adsorption on polymer brushes as well as the excellent antifouling behavior of polypeptoids.


We used submerged paleoshorelines as strain markers to investigate Holocene and late Pleistocene vertical tectonic movement at the intersection of the offshore Santa Cruz–Catalina Ridge with the southern boundary of the Western Transverse Ranges, within the California Continental Borderland. Past submerged shoreline positions were identified using high-resolution multibeam bathymetry, side-scan sonar, submersible observations, and the presence of intertidal and subtidal invertebrate fossils. Numerous accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14 C ages of shells from these paleoshorelines were found to be between ~27,000 yr radiocarbon (RC) and 11,500 yr before present, indicative of shoreline colonization during and following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), establishing these paleoshorelines as a usable datum for measuring vertical change since this time. Removal of the nontectonic component of vertical change using an ice-volume-equivalent eustatic sea-level compilation indicates between 20 and 45 m of uplift of the eastern part of the Northern Channel Islands block since the LGM lowstand, resulting in an uplift rate of 1.50 ± 0.59 mm/yr over the last 23 k.y. This rate closely matches uplift predicted by published slip rates for the Channel Islands thrust, which underlies the Northern Channel Islands platform. Results from post-LGM shoreline features on Pilgrim Banks are somewhat more ambiguous. Submarine paleoshoreline uplift, together with the extensive upper-crustal fold-thrust style of deformation, illustrates the transpressional interaction of the Borderland and the Western Transverse Ranges blocks where the Santa Cruz–Catalina Ridge and northern Channel Islands intersect.


Dental guards are an airway adjunct recommended for patients at risk for dental injury during airway instrumentation; however, reportedly only 2% of anesthesiologists use dental guards during intubation. In this case report, a 64-year-old patient was admitted for a right retromastoid craniectomy with microvascular decompression of the fifth cranial nerve. The patient had crowns on all her maxillary teeth. The anesthesia team, which consisted of a student anesthetist, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, and anesthesiologist, planned to prevent dental damage through the use of a dental guard (Bay Medical, Clearwater, Fla). Prior to intubation a dental guard was inserted on the upper teeth. Induction, intubation, and surgery were uneventful, but in the recovery area the patient complained of a sore throat. After transfer to the intensive care unit, the patient continued to complain of secretions and sore throat and was noted to have hoarseness. When a Yankauer suction catheter was inserted, the dental guard was discovered in the patient's mouth. Apparently during the busy sequence of events following intubation, the dental guard was overlooked and was displaced into the posterior oropharynx. Recommendations for the proper use of dental guards are needed to avoid complications; however, there is a scarcity of information available in the conventional anesthesia literature regarding this intubation adjunct. We recommend careful documentation, clear communication with all team members, and attention to avoid displacement during subsequent airway manipulation.


In this paper, we present PCT-Net, a simple and general image harmonization method that can be easily applied to images at full-resolution. The key idea is to learn a parameter network that uses downsampled input images to predict the parameters for pixel-wise color transforms (PCTs) which are applied to each pixel in the full-resolution image. We show that affine color transforms are both efficient and effective, resulting in state-of-the-art harmonization results. Moreover, we explore both CNNs and Transformers as the parameter network, and show that Transformers lead to better results. We evaluate the proposed method on the public full-resolution iHarmony4 dataset, which is comprised of four datasets, and show a reduction of the foreground MSE (fMSE) and MSE values by more than 20% and an increase of the PSNR value by 1.4dB, while keeping the architecture light-weight. In a user study with 20 people, we show that the method achieves a higher B-T score than two other recent methods.


Most vehicles use the controller area network bus for communication between their components. Attackers who have already penetrated the in-vehicle network often utilize this bus in order to take control of safety-relevant components of the vehicle. Such targeted attack scenarios are often hard to detect by network intrusion detection systems because the specific payload is usually not contained within their training data sets. In this work, we describe an intrusion detection system that uses decision trees that have been modelled through genetic programming. We evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this approach compared to artificial neural networks and rule-based approaches. For this, we model and simulate specific targeted attacks as well as several types of intrusions described in the literature. The results show that the genetic programming approach is well suited to identify intrusions with respect to complex relationships between sensor values which we consider important for the classification of specific targeted attacks. However, the system is less efficient for the classification of other types of attacks which are better identified by the alternative methods in our evaluation. Further research could thus consider hybrid approaches.


Introduction Disease surveillance is a critical component in the control and elimination of vaccine preventable diseases. The Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunization strives to have a sensitive surveillance system within the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) framework. We analyzed measles surveillance data to determine the effectiveness of the measles case-based surveillance system and estimate its positive predictive value in order to inform policy and practice. Methods An IDSR alert was defined as ≥1 suspected measles case reported by a district in a week, through the electronic Health Management Information System. We defined an alert in the measles case-based surveillance system (CBS) as ≥1 suspected measles case with a blood sample collected for confirmation during the corresponding week in a particular district. Effectiveness of CBS was defined as having ≥80% of IDSR alerts with a blood sample collected for laboratory confirmation. Positive predictive value was defined as the proportion of measles case-patients who also had a positive measles serological result (IgM +). We reviewed case-based surveillance data with laboratory confirmation and measles surveillance data from the electronic Health Management Information System from 2012–2015. Results A total of 6,974 suspected measles case-persons were investigated by the measles case-based surveillance between 2012 and 2015. Of these, 943 (14%) were measles specific IgM positive. The median age of measles case-persons between 2013 and 2015 was 4.0 years. Between 2013 and 2015, 72% of the IDSR alerts reported in the electronic Health Management Information System, had blood samples collected for laboratory confirmation. This was however less than the WHO recommended standard of ≥80%. The PPV of CBS between 2013 and 2015 was 8.6%. Conclusion In conclusion, the effectiveness of measles case-based surveillance was sub-optimal, while the PPV showed that true measles cases have significantly reduced in Uganda. We recommended strengthening of case-based surveillance to ensure that all suspected measles cases have blood samples collected for laboratory confirmation to improve detection and ensure elimination by 2020.


A major breakthrough in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection had been the approval of nucleoside and nucleotide analogues (NUCs), which inhibit the reverse transcriptase and, thereby, dramatically suppress HBV DNA. To date, five NUCs are approved for the treatment of hepatitis B, with tenofovir and entecavir considered as first-line therapy.1 Treatment with tenofovir or entecavir leads to viral suppression below the limit of detection in almost 100% of adherent patients.1 This is associated with regression of fibrosis or even cirrhosis.2 ,3 Furthermore, some studies suggest a lowered incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with long-term NUC treatment. However, a significant risk for HCC development remains despite low HBV DNA, especially in patients with cirrhosis.4 Data from the REVEAL study suggest that higher HBsAg in low viremic patients is associated with an increased risk for HCC, underlining the importance of HBsAg as a complement to HBV DNA in risk stratification.5 One important limitation of NUC therapy is that treatment duration is indefinite in most cases. Guidelines suggest that NUCs can only safely be stopped 12 months after anti-HBe seroconversion in HBeAg-positive patients, or if HBsAg seroclearance is achieved.1 However, relapse after anti-HBe seroconversion can be frequent, and limited data exist if NUC-induced HBsAg seroclearance is stable and associated with an improved outcome.1 So far, only reports on spontaneous or interferon α (IFN)-induced HBsAg …


Short-term antioxidant activity (AA) and long-term antioxidative persistence (AP) of protein and oil fractions extracted from two cultivars of cotton, namely PIMA 3.79 056-7900 (Gossypium barbadense) and TM1 123-1452 (G. hirsutum) were investigated. This was based on their efficacy to scavenge peroxyl and alkoxyl radicals generated in-vitro by pyrolysis of 2,2'-Azobis(2-methylpropionamidine) dihydrochloride. Luminal induced chemiluminescence resulting from unquenched radicals was used to monitor the relative changes in such efficiency in real time. Results showed significantly greater (P<0.05) AA and AP of protein and oil extracts from both the cultivars compared to the control. Unlike the proteins, the oil extracts did not exhibit a significant difference among themselves regarding AA.They also showed a considerable deterioration in their AP. Such decline in the antioxidative efficacy of the hydrophobic non-protenaceous ether extractfrom cottonseeds has not been reported before.


. Traditionally, drought effects in Mexico have been attended through governmental reactive efforts directed to provide water and food, to assure health protection, and to restore economic impact once the phenomena occurred. The Mexican Government through National Water Commission (CONAGUA, for its acronym in Spanish), interested in changing the paradigm for preventive actions to cope with droughts in Mexico in the past, decided to launch in 2013 the National Program Against Drought (PRONACOSE, for its acronym in Spanish) and created the Intersecretarial Commission on Droughts and Floods (CIASI, for its acronym in Spanish) to take charge of coordinating, implementing and following-up of the PRONACOSE. This program has its main focus on reducing vulnerability through the implementation of planned preventive actions under a comprehensive and participative approach. As key part of the program, Programmes of Preventive and Mitigation Drought Measures (PMPMS, for its acronym in Spanish) for each one of the 26 river basin councils established in the country and for the principal cities of Mexico were developed. These programmes include the measures that can be implemented within the river basin councils and the cities to cope with drought in three ways: before the phenomenon occurs (strategic measures), when it is starting (tactical measures) or when it is already happening (emergency measures). Also, since 2014, the National Meteorological Service (SMN, for its acronym in Spanish) releases timely alerts and monitors the evolution of the drought including affected areas and level of severity of the phenomenon at a basin, state and municipality level. It is noteworthy that in all these activities the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA, for its acronym in Spanish) has played an important role, as this institute has provided the necessary technical support for the designing and implementation of the PRONACOSE. It is concluded that drought risk cannot be fully eliminated, nevertheless the actions that are implemented as part of this program are useful to mitigate its effects.


Author(s): Berg, William J. | Abstract: Starch-gel electrophoresis was used to obtain allozyme data from 114 populations of rainbow-series trout. Seventy-three alleles were segregating at 24 genetic loci. An additional seven loci were monomorphic in all populations. Eight genetically discrete intraspecific population-groups were identified and formal nomenclatural recognition of their subspecific status was suggested. The widespread coastal rainbow trout subspecies, Parasalmo gairdnerii gairdnerii was found to have higher levels of genetic variability than seen in most salmonid species. A substantial proportion, 86.8%, of the total heterozygosity was ascribed to within population variation. Between population genetic identity estimates were high and only weakly correlated with geographic proximity. Historical rates of gene flow among coastal rainbow trout populations was estimated to be high, at least 1.7 migrants per population per generation. Seven populations were distinguished by unique alleles, analysis of which indicate that these populations may have recently been isolated from other coastal rainbow trout populations.A few headwater streams in Baja California del Norte' comprise the very restricted range of the San Pedro Martir trout. Closely related to but distinct from coastal rainbow trout, P. g. nelsoni are easily separated from all other Parasalmo taxa on the basis of a unique creatine kinase allele. In Northern California and Nevada, throughout the Pacific Northwest east of the Cascade Mountains are found redband trout, previously considered a single taxon defined by symplesiomorphic characters. Genetic data delineated three groups: inland redband trout, P. g. gibbsii; McCloud River redband trout, P.g. newberrii; and Goose Lake redband trout, P.G. ssp. Each redband trout was distinguished quantitatively by between taxa genetic distance estimates and qualitatively on the basis of characteristic alleles. Endemic to the Kern River basin are three rainbow-series trout taxa each diagnosed by characteristic alleles: Volcano Creek golden trout, P. g. aquabonita; Little Kern River golden trout, P. g. whitei; and Kern River rainbow trout, P. g. qilberti. Both golden trout taxa exhibited relative genetic paucity. Genetic evidence suggests a testable hypothesis of a hybrid origin for Kern River rainbow trout.


A high-voltage normally-off AlGaN/GaN hybrid-gate HEMT (HG-HEMT) with high current-density and low on-resistance on Si substrate is fabricated. The proposed device features a hybrid-gate consisting of a short E-mode gate and a long D-mode gate. In the off-state, the short E-mode gate confirms the normally-off operation, while the D-mode gate can clamp the channel potential at a low drain voltage, which delivers high blocking capability. In the on-state, the short E-mode channel and the D-mode channel providing lower channel resistance facilitate high on-current or low on-resistance. Therefore, the HG-HEMT achieves a high breakdown voltage and low on-resistance simultaneously. Compared with the conventional device, the HG-HEMT is shown to deliver comparable breakdown voltage while featuring 62% lower on-resistance.


ABSTRACT Objectives: To compare the choroidal thickness in eyes of diabetic patients with eyes of age matched controls using optical coherence tomography in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This Cross sectional study was conducted at the Department of Ophthalmology, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Karachi, for six months from13thJanuary 2020 to13thJuly 2020. The study group comprised of 44 patients with 88 eyes. Patients who fulfill the inclusion criteria that is age ranging from 35 to 80years, either gender, known case of diabetes mellitus and having any type of diabetic retinopathy (HbA1c >7), non-diabetic healthy individuals (HbA1c < 7) and those giving informed consent were included in the study. However, patients having active ocular infections, history of myocardial infarction, stroke, uveitis, any ocular surgery, lasers, intravitreal injections, poor fundus view and not giving consent were excluded. A pre-designed proforma was filled. A baseline ocular examination was performed and choroidal thickness was assessed from retinal pigment epithelium to choroid sclera junction in diabetic and healthy participants of the study group using high resolution Swept source OCT (DRI-OCT-2 Triton; Topcon). Results: The average age of the patients was 39.41±15.95 years. According to our study mean central subfoveal choroidal thickness in diabetic eyes was 268.5 ± 66.22 (95% CI 240 – 297) and in non-diabetic healthy participants it was 339.3 ± 71.49 (95% CI 308 – 369) with a p-value of 0.001. However, average choroidal thickness was 261.8 ± 61.93 (95% CI 235 – 288) and 336.0 ± 74.35 (95% CI 304 – 367) in diabetic and non-diabetic healthy population with a p-value of 0.001. Choroidal thickness comparison between gender in diabetic and non-diabetic population also showed similar trend. Conclusion: In this study, mean central choroidal thickness as well as average choroidal thickness was significantly reduced in eyes having diabetic retinopathy as compared to participants with non-diabetic healthy eyes. These findings indicate that changes in choroid may be a probable route in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy.


The modern system of international relations is undergoing the most profound changes since the time of its birth amid the wreckage of World War II and its conclusion. The ongoing changes fundamentally affect the interests and influence of all the members of the international community, first and foremost the Russian Federation and the United States. After the end of World War II and up to the mid-1980s, the bilateral relations of the USSR and the United States basically defined the direction and the hue of international relations. The end of wartime cooperation and alliance marked the beginning of the confrontational politics of the cold war between Washington and Moscow, which served as the basis for a prolonged conflict between the superpowers in the global arena. This period was characterized by the heated struggle between the USSR and the United States to strengthen their influence in the postwar world. This struggle between two socioeconomic, political, and ideological systems led at times to nearly disastrous crises. The global split between two opposing poles and enemy camps represented a serious threat to the security of the planet. At the same time, however, the division of the world into two opposing camps provided a certain stability in international relations. The period from 1945 to the mid-1980s clearly demonstrated that only through dialogue and the pursuit of constant contacts between the leaders of the superpowers--and not through the use or threat of use of force--can the problems facing both powers be solved. However--and this we must emphasize--the possibility of a successful and effective dialogue depended directly on the level of might, influence, and authority of the superpowers. The parity of the two superpowers always served as the basis for negotiations on problems--most importantly the most dangerous and threatening ones--and for the long-term development of international relations. The postwar period clearly demonstrated that the maintenance of peace was closely linked to the correlation of forces. Before World War II, the course of international relations was determined largely by the Western powers, and the USSR had but a minor role. But after the war, Soviet power reached parity with that of the Western powers. As a consequence of the superpower struggle, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in April 1949 between the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Luxembourg, joined later by Turkey, Greece (1952), and West Germany (1955). The NATO military bloc was created to exert military and political pressure on the Soviet Union and its partners. NATO's Original Mission During the formation of the Atlantic alliance, NATO leaders repeatedly emphasized the organization's "purely defensive" character, oriented toward restraining the "threat of Communist aggression."(1) The treaty begins with the expression, "The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations."(2) Many articles of the NATO treaty refer to the UN and its charter. However, attempts at American domination over the resolution of international issues were already then distinctly evident. Article 3 of the NATO document states that NATO members, "separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid, will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack." However, the military obligations of the member-states were defined in article 5, which grants full liberty to the United States to decide at its own discretion when to act in case of an armed conflict.(3) Dean Acheson, who was secretary of state during the creation of NATO, underscored in a radio address broadcast 18 May 1949 that the treaty "does not mean that the United States will automatically enter into an armed conflict during an attack against a NATO member-state. …


Continuing professional development (CPD) has been studied from various perspectives and within a variety of professional disciplines. Academics in the natural sciences in higher education have, however, not been the focal point in these studies as they practise on the interface of different professions. They are a unique group that practise and develop their occupation within the educational sphere, whilst their expertise lies within the scientific domain. A qualitative study amongst lecturers in the natural sciences at Stellenbosch University was conducted to investigate the conceptualisation of CPD within this professional sector. The article focuses on what it means to be a professional for university lecturers in the natural sciences. The article furthermore reports on the need for, and the purpose of CPD in this sector of higher education.


Fluorescent lamps are one of the most modern light sources. They can be connected to the 230Vac supply without a transformer. To operate them, an inductor and starter are required only. The main disadvantage of this type of light source is the emitted audible noise of a frequency of 100Hz. For this phenomenon the inductor is responsible. Electromagnetic forces and magnetostriction are acting on the body of the device causing the sound emission. Here, the audible noise problem is investigated with respect to different ferromagnetic materials and the range of applied flux densities inside the iron core.


The hypothesis that the neuromuscular blocking potency of pancuronium and vecuronium depends on the two acetylcholine moieties present at positions 3 and 17 was tested in cats by examining the neuromuscular profile of several desacetoxy analogues. Blockade of sciatic nerve-induced contraction of the tibialis and soleus muscles, as well as the effects on vagal-induced bradycardia and on sympathetically induced contractions of the nictitating membrane, were studied. The bis-desacetoxy analogue of pancuronium (ORG 7931) was one-fifth as potent as the parent compound as a neuromuscular blocking drug and as a vagolytic agent, but the neuromuscular block was faster in onset and shorter in duration than that produced by pancuronium. The desacetoxy analogues of vecuronium (ORG 8730 and ORG 8764) also were less potent neuromuscular blocking drugs, and, in addition, produced more vagal block than did vecuronium itself. The neuromuscular block produced by these desacetoxy analogues was of more rapid onset and shorter duration than that produced by vecuronium. The results thus showed that the greater neuromuscular blocking potency of pancuronium and vecuronium is lost after removal of one or both of the acetylcholine moieties. An analysis of the relationship between neuromuscular blocking dose and duration of action revealed that it was reciprocal, and it is suggested that a nondepolarizing equivalent of suxamethonium, when discovered, may necessarily be a drug of relatively low potency.


ABSTRACT The current cycle of global warming has contracted some range restricted species while concurrently expanding the range of more adaptable species. Sabal minor is a member of Arecaceae, the palm family, and is confined to lower latitudes in both western hemispheres. Latitudinal limitation of S. minor is believed to be related to low temperature intolerance. However the exact mechanism remains elusive. In this study reproductive fecundity of anthropogenically introduced populations in southern Virginia Beach, Virginia, was evaluated. Diaspore viability, approximated by floatability of fruits, was used to evaluate distribution by hydrochory. This study also documents a previously unidentified condition of fungal mass growth around the fruits of S. minor during buoyancy testing and suggests some areas for additional investigation.


Background: There is a perceived lack of knowledge among nurses when it comes to identifying women suffering from intimate partner violence (IPV).Aim: The aim of this study is to highlight nurses' experiences in the identification of women who are victims of IPV.Method: The study is a literature overview containing both qualitative and quantitative research articles. Nine articles, four qualitative and five quantitative, were analyzed according to Friberg's (2012b) method.Results: This study shows two themes: flaws and strengths; with five sub themes; lack of education, lack of guidelines, stereotyping, confidence in the nurse-patient relationship and intuition.Conclusion: Conclusions were that nurses are lacking education in how to identify a patient woman who is suffering from IPV. Lack of guidelines concerning IPV was also a problem for many nurses. Many nurses also were stereotyping women suffering from IPV. A confidence building nurse-patient relationship was seen by many nurses as something positive in the identification of IPV. Intuition was something that many nurses used in the identification of IPV.


As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads globally, and its vaccine or drug is yet to be developed, many countries worldwide now resort to social distancing policies as effective non-pharmaceutical interventions. However, its effectiveness varies from country to country, and the factors responsible for such variations are not yet known. In this study, preliminary analysis of the international comparison of behavior changes that accompany social distancing policies is conducted using Google Community Mobility Reports, wherein ratios of behavior changes with social distance policy in 131 countries around the world are published. When these changes are analyzed using the generalized linear mixed model, it shows that the status of the infection spread and policy implementation uniformly influence behavior restrictions across every country. Furthermore, it suggests that the differences in the key contents of the social distancing policies and the socioeconomic status of each country may influence the ratio of behavior changes.