As the greatest medical and socioeconomic problem in developing countries, stroke is the second or third leading cause of death in China and worldwide. In adult organisms suffering from stroke, transplanted stem cell has the ability to repair damaged tissues by regenerating autologous cells, while ginsenoside Rg1 could promote proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. Although obvious anti-stroke effects of ginsenoside Rg1 and transplanted stem cells have been verified in publications, the mechanism exploration remained challenging. Our study was carried out to investigate the synergistic effects of ginsenoside Rg1 and neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation on MCAO rats with a 1H NMR-based non-targeted metabolomics methods to identify potential biomarkers and protein targets and discover the potential mechanism. NSCs transplantation after MCAO combined with ginsenoside Rg1 administration could significantly improve the cerebral infract and neurological deficits. The treatment significant intervened the levels of ten metabolites, and perturbed energy metabolism, amino acids metabolism and lipids metabolism. And 11 enzymes were identified and verified as the targets of NSCs transplantation and ginsenoside Rg1 administration on MCAO rats. Our findings helped to improve the anti-stroke mechanism of NSCs transplantation and ginsenoside Rg1 and supply a theory basis for the combined research of stem cell and Chinese medicine in future.


Sepsis is the most common cause of neonatal mortality. As per National Neonatal Perinatal Database (NNPD) 2002-2003, the incidence of neonatal sepsis in India was 30 per 1000 live birth. It is 3% among intramural babies and 39.7% among extramural admissions. The early manifestations of neonatal sepsis are vague and ill-defined. Novel approaches in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis include heart rate analysis on ECG or colorimetric analysis of skin color. Although blood culture is the gold standard for the diagnosis of sepsis, culture reports would be available only after 48-72 hours. In this era of multidrug resistance, it is mandatory to avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics to treat noninfected infants. Thus, rapid diagnostic test(s) that differentiate infected from non-infected infants, particularly in the early newborn period, that include Interleukien-6 (IL-6), neutrophil CD64 index, procalcitonin and nucleated RBC count, have the potential to make a significant impact on neonatal care. The aim of this review is to specify the diagnostic criteria, treatment guidelines and a summary of the newer diagnostic tests of sepsis. KEY WORDS: Sepsis; Intramural; Extramural; Multidrug resistance


We analyze the impact of funding costs and margin requirements on index options traded on the CBOE. Assuming differential borrowing and lending rates, we derive no-arbitrage bounds for European options. We show that funding costs and the CBOE's margin requirements lead to a price increase, which translates into skew and smile patterns for implied volatility curves even under constant volatilities. Empirical tests confirm that our model-implied slopes have significant statistical power in explaining the slopes observed in the market. Hence, at least in part, funding costs and collateral requirements offer an institutional explanation of the volatility smile phenomenon.


The greatest contributor of CO2 emissions in the average American household is personal transportation. Because transportation is inherently a mobile activity, mobile devices are well suited to sense and provide feedback about these activities. In this paper, we explore the use of personal ambient displays on mobile phones to give users feedback about sensed and self-reported transportation behaviors. We first present results from a set of formative studies exploring our respondents' existing transportation routines, willingness to engage in and maintain green transportation behavior, and reactions to early mobile phone "green" application design concepts. We then describe the results of a 3-week field study (N=13) of the UbiGreen Transportation Display prototype, a mobile phone application that semi-automatically senses and reveals information about transportation behavior. Our contributions include a working system for semi-automatically tracking transit activity, a visual design capable of engaging users in the goal of increasing green transportation, and the results of our studies, which have implications for the design of future green applications.


A rotary airlock valve is a widely used device in material handling processes. It can be applied to the conveying of pyrolyzing wood chips into pyrolysis ovens for wood vinegar production. In a pyrolysis process, the process conducted in a closed system, under limited amount of air and high temperature conditions, and then a rotary airlock valve is provided for conveying pyrolyzing wood chips to be pyrolyzed. This research aims to design and develop a rotary airlock valve to achieve a uniform feed and an airlock operation (feeding without leaking), and consequently to improve its performance, for using in continuous pyrolysis process, in which a continuous material feeding is required. Due to the better airlock the better pyrolysis product yields. The rotary airlock valve is designed by concept of minimum clearance between the blade tips and the housing, along with using a rotor with the adjustable and replaceable blade tips mounted on blades welded to a rotor shaft, and a packing seal, in the closed rotor, and thus minimize leakage. According to the airlock performance test results of the developed rotary airlock valve, its performance improved approximately 60% when compared to the conventional counterpart. In this paper, conclusions for future research are described.


The Oak Ridge Reservation Hydrology and Geology Study (ORRHAGS) Groundwater Data Base has been compiled to consolidate groundwater data from the three US Department of Energy facilities located on the Oak Ridge Reservation: the Oak Ridge K-25 Site, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant. Each of these facilities maintains its own groundwater and well construction data bases. Data were extracted from the existing data bases, converted to a consistent format, and integrated into the ORRHAGS Groundwater Data Base structures. This data base dictionary describes the data contained in the ORRHAGS Groundwater Data Base and contains information on data base structure, conventions, contents, and use.


Increased exposition to blue light may induce many changes in cell behavior and significantly affect the critical characteristics of cells. Here we show that multimodal holographic microscopy (MHM) within advanced image analysis is capable of correctly distinguishing between changes in cell motility, cell dry mass, cell density, and cell death induced by blue light. We focused on the effect of blue light with a wavelength of 485 nm on morphological and dynamical parameters of four cell lines, malignant PC-3, A2780, G361 cell lines, and the benign PNT1A cell line. We used MHM with blue light doses 24 mJ/cm2, 208 mJ/cm2 and two kinds of expositions (500 and 1000 ms) to acquire real-time quantitative phase information about cellular parameters. It has been shown that specific doses of the blue light significantly influence cell motility, cell dry mass and cell density. These changes were often specific for the malignant status of tested cells. Blue light dose 208 mJ/cm2 × 1000 ms affected malignant cell motility but did not change the motility of benign cell line PNT1A. This light dose also significantly decreased proliferation activity in all tested cell lines but was not so deleterious for benign cell line PNT1A as for malignant cells. Light dose 208 mJ/cm2 × 1000 ms oppositely affected cell mass in A2780 and PC-3 cells and induced different types of cell death in A2780 and G361 cell lines. Cells obtained the least damage on lower doses of light with shorter time of exposition.


Stated key words after the abstract section in research articles are among those lines of inquiry which have received less attention in Applied Linguists (AL) studies. In this paper, the researcher explored the distribution of stated key terms and expressions as used by 73 researchers in AL domains in both local (NOORMAGZ) and global database publishers (SAGE, ELEVIRE, SINCENCE DIRECT) Those Scimago journal lists, which were abstracted in Thomson Reuters Web of Science [WoS] journals were precisely screened in terms of their compatibility with title vs. topic match index as well as their position in the research articles throughout the whole sampled research papers including Introduction, Review of Literature, Method, Results & Discussion (IRMRD) to explore authors' tendencies towards art-based utilization of key word selection/assignment for research writing aims. The results over title-topic match indicated that at least one or two stated key words significantly appeared in the title of research paper within both local and global databases with the higher preference for keyword-title match among Iranian researchers. Regarding the most probable positions in the sampled research articles, gained data in this research could not significantly show any differences between local and global researchers. Possible implications were discussed in the light of critical, art-based approaches for key word elaboration/explanation in English Language Teaching (ELT) and AL research.


Changepoint analysis is a well established area of statistical research, but in the context of spatio-temporal point processes it is as yet relatively unexplored. Some substantial differences with regard to standard changepoint analysis have to be taken into account: firstly, at every time point the datum is an irregular pattern of points; secondly, in real situations issues of spatial dependence between points and temporal dependence within time segments raise. Our motivating example consists of data concerning the monitoring and recovery of radioactive particles from Sandside beach, North of Scotland; there have been two major changes in the equipment used to detect the particles, representing known potential changepoints in the number of retrieved particles. In addition, offshore particle retrieval campaigns are believed may reduce the particle intensity onshore with an unknown temporal lag; in this latter case, the problem concerns multiple unknown changepoints. We therefore propose a Bayesian approach for detecting multiple changepoints in the intensity function of a spatio-temporal point process, allowing for spatial and temporal dependence within segments. We use Log-Gaussian Cox Processes, a very flexible class of models suitable for environmental applications that can be implemented using integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA), a computationally efficient alternative to Monte Carlo Markov Chain methods for approximating the posterior distribution of the parameters. Once the posterior curve is obtained, we propose a few methods for detecting significant change points. We present a simulation study, which consists in generating spatio-temporal point pattern series under several scenarios; the performance of the methods is assessed in terms of type I and II errors, detected changepoint locations and accuracy of the segment intensity estimates. We finally apply the above methods to the motivating dataset and find good and sensible results about the presence and quality of changes in the process.


Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) is a genetic disorder at chromosome 11p15 that leads to increased activity of insulin-like growth factor-2 (IGF2) and reduced activity, with no active copy of the inhibitor of cell proliferation, CDKN1C, resulting in excessive growth and increased risk of tumour formation. Isolated cases of patients with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and pheochromocytoma are reported in the literature; however, none have described a molecular or cytogenetic evaluation for associated genetic abnormalities. We present a case of an adolescent female with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome who developed recurrent, bilateral, and metastatic pheochromocytoma despite low-risk histopathology. Genotyping studies, which evaluated for genetic predisposition to pheochromocytoma or paraganglioma (PHEO/PGL), including the PGLNext sequencing panel of 12 associated genes, and a whole genome comparative genome hybridization microarray, were performed. Genomic studies were unexpectedly negative. Additionally, the histopathology of the PHEO/PGL of our patient had low-risk features, which is unusual in cases of metastases, occurring in less than 4% of cases.1 This case suggests that the BWS in itself could predispose to formation of a PHEO/PGL phenotype with aggressive behaviour. The following manuscript summarizes the case report, reviews pertinent literature, and proposes a possible mechanism for this association.


A novel mobile peer-to-peer (MP2P) in cellular networks is presented in this paper. The proposed architecture is based on session initiation protocol (SIP) that is part of the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) in the third-generation mobile cellular networks. In this architecture, P2P control messages are transported in SIP messages, so called P2PoverSIP. By way of SIP, the operators can have control on security, group management, mobility and chargeability. We describe the target architecture for IMS network. The performance of the architecture is analyzed mathematically and simulated by programming.


In agricultural lands, the loss of NH 3 from surface-applied urea and micronutrient deficiencies are the two most common problems, which can be solved by using coated urea with micronutrients and biodegradable natural materials. These coatings can improve the nutrient status in the soil and simultaneously reduce nitrogen loss from urea. To control ammonia loss and urea's hydrolysis process, two laboratory studies were conducted to compare the effects of using coated urea with that of using only urea. Both studies consisted of consecutive incubation experiments that were conducted on the same Typic Paleudult soil (Serdang Series). Eight treatments (labeled as Urea, UPS1, UPS2, UPS3, UAG1%, UAG2%, UG1% and UG2%) in study 1 and six treatments (labeled U, UPSCu, UAGCu, UGCu, UCu, and UCuZn) in study 2 were prepared and used to determine the effects of various concentrations of natural materials and the inhibitory effects of micronutrients on both ammonia loss and the hydrolysis process. The NH 3 loss was measured by forced draft techniques; the soil's exchangeable ammonium, available nitrate and urea-N were determined by using standard procedures. The outcomes of the study did not show any significant difference among various concentrations of natural material. Coated urea treatments significantly reduced ammonia loss by 30 to 40% in study 1 and by 40 to 67% in study 2 in comparison to urea alone. The same observation was made with respect to urea hydrolysis. All of the coated urea treatments significantly slowed down the hydrolysis process in comparison to urea. The outcomes of the study may improve urea fertilizer by reducing the loss of NH 3 volatilization. Key words: Biodegradable polymers, coated urea, CuSO 4 , NH 3 volatilization loss, urease inhibitor, urea.


© 2015 British Ecological Society. Agriculture now constitutes 40-50% of terrestrial land use globally. By enhancing habitat suitability and connectivity, restoration within agricultural landscapes could have a major influence on biodiversity conservation. However, habitat management within intensive agricultural landscapes may primarily boost abundances of common, highly mobile generalists, rather than vulnerable or endangered species. We studied pollinator community response to small-scale habitat restoration in the intensively farmed Central Valley of California to determine whether restoration could also promote more specialized, less common and/or less mobile species. Composition of pollinator communities was assessed in five experimental and 10 control (unrestored) sites before and after restoration of native plant hedgerows over an 8-year period, using a before-after control-impact design. We characterized bee and fly species based on functional response traits [floral specialization, habitat specialization, abundance, body size and sociality (bees only)] known to influence the response to habitat change. We modelled how species occurrences changed with habitat restoration over time as modulated by their response traits. We found that hedgerows not only significantly enhanced occurrences of native bee and syrphid fly species, but that as hedgerows matured, they had a greater positive effect on species that were more specialized in floral and nesting resources and smaller (less mobile). Synthesis and applications. Unlike previous studies that suggest habitat restoration in agricultural landscapes only benefits mobile, generalist species, our results suggest that small-scale habitat restoration can promote species whose traits likely render them particularly vulnerable to habitat degradation. Thus, even within highly intensive agricultural landscapes, small-scale habitat restoration can be a conservation management tool. However, tailoring habitat enhancements to promote certain species or guilds may be critical for their success as a conservation intervention in agricultural landscapes. Unlike previous studies that suggest habitat restoration in agricultural landscapes only benefits mobile, generalist species, our results suggest that small-scale habitat restoration can promote species whose traits likely render them particularly vulnerable to habitat degradation. Thus, even within highly intensive agricultural landscapes, small-scale habitat restoration can be a conservation management tool. However, tailoring habitat enhancements to promote certain species or guilds may be critical for their success as a conservation intervention in agricultural landscapes.


This study was carried out to analyze vegetation and soil characteristic, and ordination of Scrophularia takesimensis population, Ulleung Island. The Scrophularia takesimensis population was classified into Aster spathulifolius for. oharai dominant population, Vitis amurensis dominant population and Scrophularia takesimensis typical population. The Scrophularia takesimensis population was located in elevation of 1m to 6m, in Ulleung Island. In the study sites, soil organic matter, nitrogen, available phosphorous, exchangeable potassium, exchangeable calcium, exchangeable magnesium and exchangeable sodium concentration, and cation exchange capacity, and soil pH were 9.1~19.1%, 0.19~0.52%, 87.1~196.7mg/kg, 2.0~2.8cmol+/kg, 5.4~5.9cmol+/kg, 5.9~8.8cmol+/kg, 4.4~4.8cmol+/kg, 20.3~ 26.7cmol+/kg, and 6.8~8.0, respectively. The Vitis amurensis dominant population was mainly found in the high percentage of total nitrogen, organic matter, CEC in comparison with Aster spathulifolius for. oharai dominant population.


Currently, there is no effective therapy for estrogen independent breast cancer. MDA-MB-231 is an estrogen receptor negative highly invasive human breast cancer cell line and has been used as a relevant model system to evaluate drugs with chemopreventive potential against highly invasive breast cancer phenotypes. Epidemiological studies though inconclusive have shown that consumption of Green Tea Polyphenols (GTP) reduces the incidence and progression of breast cancer. Green tea is an important source of antioxidants that may be useful for chemoprevention of cancer. Recently published preclinical study from our lab suggested that GTP and EGCG treatment inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of MDA-MB-231. In this study, we have evaluated apoptotic and anti-invasive activity of green tea polyphenols(GTP) and its principal constituent Epigallocatechin gallate(EGCG) in MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell line. In in-vitro human breast cancer model, EGCG and GTP induced apoptosis and significantly decreased invasion of breast cancer cells. Western blotting of MDA-MB-231 cell lysates from EGCG and GTP treated and untreated control revealed an increase in bax, reduction in bcl2 and PARP cleavage. Quantitative fluorescence labeling resulted in a 24-28% reduction in invasion through matrigel by EGCG and 15-23% reduction by GTP in a dose dependent manner. Focussed microarray analysis and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and zymogram analysis revealed inhibition of MMP-9 expression by polyphenol treatment. Furthermore, AKT was found to be inhibited both at the RNA and protein level by polyphenol treatment. Moreover EGCG and GTP decreased AKT phosphorylation as found out by western blotting for Phospho-AKT(Ser-473). Beta-catenin level was found to be decreased both in cytoplasm and nucleus. For the first time we report the connection of betacatenin and AKT modulation by GTP and EGCG as a possible mechanism for the induction of apoptosis in human breast cancer cells and also inhibition in their invasive capacity.


Etherification using allyl alcohol to produce allyl ether via dehydration is a fundamental technique for producing fine chemicals that can be applied to electronic devices. We demonstrate a sustainable method to synthesize allyl ethers from allyl alcohol with various alcohols up to a 91% yield, with water as the sole by-product. In this reaction, the active catalyst is gradually generated as the reaction proceeds through the simple mixing of TiO2 and MoO3. The dispersion of MoO3 on the spent catalyst has been observed by XRD, HAADF-STEM, and STEM-EDS mapping. This catalyst shows excellent catalytic activity by virtue of the highly dispersed nature of MoO3 supported on TiO2, which is reusable at least five times. According to a mechanistic study including the measurement of XPS of MoO3 on TiO2 and control experiments using SiO2 and Al2O3 supports, the suitable reducibility of MoO3 to coordinate the allyl moiety on TiO2 seems to be a key factor for high-yielding syntheses of various allyl ethers even under heterogeneous reaction conditions. The reaction mechanism is considered to be as follows: σ-allyl species are formed from dehydration of the allyl alcohol, followed by a nucleophilic attack by another alcohol against the σ-allyl carbon to give allyl ethers. The developed catalytic system should be suitable for easily handled syntheses of allyl ethers due to the employment of commercially available MoO3 and TiO2 with halide- and organic solvent-free reaction conditions.


The interrelationships between upstream supplier firms and downstream customer firms—popularly referred to as supply-chain relationships—constitute one of the most important linkages in the economy. Suppliers not only provide production inputs for their customers but, increasingly, also engage in R&D and innovation activity that is beneficial to the customers. Yet, the high degree of relationship specificity that such activities involve, and the difficulty of writing complete contracts, expose suppliers to potential hold-up problems. Mechanisms that mitigate opportunism have implications for the origins of such relationships, firm boundary, and organizational structure. Smaller supplier firms benefit from relationships with large customer firms in many ways, such as knowledge sharing, operational efficiency, insulation from competition, and reputation in capital markets. However, customer bargaining power, undiversified customer base, and innovation strategy also expose suppliers to disruption risk. Relationship specificity of investment, customer bargaining power, and customer concentration associated with a less diversified customer base have important consequences for financing decisions of suppliers and customers, such as capital structure choice and the provision and role of trade credit. Changes in the risk of disruption (e.g., bankruptcy filings, takeover activity, and credit market shocks) have spillover effects along the supply chain. The correlation of economic fundamentals of suppliers and customers and the co-attention that they receive from market participants translate to return predictability (with implications for trading strategies), information diffusion along the supply chain, and stock-price informativeness of supply-chain partners.


A digital-signal-processing technique is presented that can compensate for the frequency-independent inphase/quadrature (I/Q) mismatch and dc offset in zero-intermediate-frequency direct-conversion receivers. The proposed compensator consists of dc offset and I/Q mismatch estimators followed by a dc offset canceller and self-image suppressor. The estimators are nondata-aided (NDA) schemes that are derived by assuming that the desired signal is a random variable having an arbitrary circular symmetric distribution. The Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) for NDA estimation are derived, and the characteristics of the estimators are analyzed in terms of mean-square errors. In particular, it is shown that for white Gaussian distributed signals, the accuracy of the estimates approaches the CRLBs as the number of observed samples increases. The characteristics of the proposed method as well as the validity of the analytical results are demonstrated through computer simulation.


The European XFEL project is under construction at DESY in Germany. The superconducting XFEL linac is supplied by the XFEL helium refrigerator plant. This plant consists of two existing refrigerators, which were in service for the HERA storage ring until 2007. Since the XFEL linear accelerator requires cryogenic cooling at 2K, the existing cryogenic infrastructure had to be modified. Two of the three existing HERA helium refrigerators were required to cover the design heat load of the XFEL-linac. The refrigerator infrastructure was extended by a 2 K cooling loop, whose main component consists of a string of four cold compressors generating approximately 1.7 kW isothermal cooling capacity at 2K. The step by step commissioning and extension of the accelerator as well as the future upgrade option of the heat load demanded an extremely high turn down ability, a particular challenge for 2K cold compressor strings. The commissioning of the helium refrigerator infrastructure is underway and should be completed soon. The current status of this project, commissioning results and particular challenges are presented.


ABSTRACT Kim, S.D.; Lee, H.J., and Jun, K.W., 2020. The impact and occurrence of sediment-mixture flow due to Cyclone Winston in the coast of Fiji Island, South Pacific. In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 1460–1466. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Recently, global warming led to climate changes which contributed to more frequent occurrences of super cyclones on the global scale. Due to intense tropical depressions, heavy rainfall caused sediment transportation within sloped, mountainous terrains, bringing about large-scale damage of lives and properties. In particular, Fiji Island, located in the South Pacific, experienced a Category 5 tropical cyclone called Winston. As a result, more than 150,000 tons of debris was produced and more than 40% of the total population were gravely impacted. Disasters due to sediment-mixture flow are difficult to predict due to its inhomogeneous and irregular nature in terms of space and time. Therefore, combinations of various countermeasures are needed for proper protection against sediment-mixture flow. Proper understanding of sediment-mixture flow mechanism and behaviour provides a systematic means to tackle this issue. The study focuses on Fiji's Viti Levu Island as it experienced a cyclone disaster most recently. The characteristics of sediment-mixture flow along the seaside are analysed. The equations for mass conservation, momentum conservation, fine sediment, coarse sediment serve as the foundation. The liquid-solid mixture dynamic sets up the numerical model through the governing equation; the numerical model is performed using the finite difference method, represented by the elapse of time. The analysis of the results show that upstream displays an increase in water discharge and water depth, and erosion occurs more than deposition. The downstream, on the other hand, flow out along the seaside, running off a significant portion of sediments to other neighbouring seasides.


Studies document that in wartime, states often employ maternal imagery and mobilize women as mothers.Yet we know relatively little about when and why states and their opposition do so. This study seeks to build theory for this phenomenon through frame analysis of the Nicaraguan Contra War. The author proposes that maternal framing, aimed at mothers as well as a broader national and international audience, benefits militaries in at least three ways: (1) channeling maternal grievances, (2) disseminating propaganda through "apolitical" mothers, and (3) evoking emotions and sympathy nationally and internationally. This study furthermore explores three underexamined features of both gendered studies of war and frame analysis: (1) It applies frame theory to states, (2) it develops our understanding of crossnational gendered framing strategies, and (3) it introduces gender framing to the study of war.


This paper brings together several important recent strands in the energy security literature and evaluates their contributions. It does not survey the literature, because others have already provided excellent reviews and raised important reservations about how governments implement the security principle. Improving oil security in this paper refers to reducing an oil-importing country's reliance on insecure sources of foreign oil. The paper begins by discussing when private markets may fail to provide appropriate signals for economic efficiency and public policy might be considered. Next, it reviews a recent effort to estimate the benefits of limiting U.S. oil imports, based upon the externalities discussed in the previous section. The following section presents the key results from an effort to estimate the risks of another oil disruption over the next ten years. This study uses risk analysis techniques to elicit probabilities from leading geopolitical and oil security experts. Finally, the paper discusses why recent oil price trends are unlikely to create the same economic dislocations experienced by Western economies in the past. Oil price disruptions, however, are likely to produce price shocks that could be much more damaging, depending upon the underlying inflationary expectations at the time of a disruption.


The arc-arc collision model is often applied to the evolution of Archean greenstone belts. This model predicts concordant stratigraphic relations among the various lithologies evolving generally from komatiitic-tholeiitic affinities toward calc-alkalic affinities. New geological data from the Malartic composite block of the Abitibi greenstone belt indicate that this volcanic pile, rather than representing a conformable sequence, is composed of four distinct mafic lithotectonic domains that are overlain by a calc-alkalic sequence. The mafic domains are thought to be examples of accreted Archean oceanic plateau material that were deformed during their collage state. The younger calc-alkalic sequence represents extension-related volcanism that erupted through the ac- creted and deformed plateau material, possibly as a consequence of ridge subduction in a regime of oblique convergence. The relations described here may represent a common feature of Archean terranes.


There have been widespread assumptions across the globe that the root cause of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria is religious rather than socio-economic. An investigation into this dichotomy allowed this study to fully demonstrate that the root cause of Boko Haram's terrorist actions emanates from the non-fulfilment of socio-economic goals that are prompted by the violation of fundamental human rights, corruption, poverty, unconstitutional and undemocratic practices in the northern part of the Nigerian state. To achieve its aim of establishing the root cause of the terrorism crisis in the latter country, the study critically appraised the socio-economic context of the insurgency by adopting one-on-one in-depth interviews involving forty (40) participants to interrogate the phenomenon. Empirical evidence from the study demonstrated that the evolution of Boko Haram terrorism was a response to socio-economic phlebotomy, political and moral putrescence and the dehumanization of people that stem from a combination of decades of mismanagement and pervasive corruption by various Nigerian leaders. The study concludes that, as long as the endemic socio-economic problems caused by global capitalism vis-a-vis unequal hegemonic power exchange as expressed in socio-political, ethno-religious and cultural forms persist in the Nigerian society, the terrorism insurgency will recur and remain an inevitable enterprise and indeed a normal social reaction to every undesirable state of affairs. Based on the findings, the study urges the need for the amelioration of the conditions of the vast majority of the Nigerian populace by making socio-economic facilities available to them through the political state.


Despite commercial availability since the 1950's, silicon strain sensors have not experienced the same success as other microdevices, such as accelerometers, pressure sensors, and inkjet heads. Strain sensors measure mechanical deformation and could be used in many structural components, improving safety, controls, and manufacturing tolerances. This thesis examines major strain sensing techniques and highlights both advantages and disadvantages of each. MEMS resonant strain gauges are identified to have superior performance over many traditional strain gauges in terms of sensitivity, resolution, stability, and size. To use these gauges, additional issues such as harsh environment survivability, strain transfer, temperature stability, and encapsulation must be solved, as detailed in this thesis.Concerning harsh environment survivability, this work presents a MEMS resonant strain gauge fabricated from silicon carbide, which operates at 600dC, and has been tested to 64,000 G, while still resolving 0.01 microstrain in a 10 kHz bandwidth. Specific details on how to create harsh environment testing equipment are presented. Additionally, this original work identifies a unique temperature stability method based on purposely mismatched device and substrate layers. Full analytical equations are presented, and experimental confirmation of the scheme shows that temperature stability is improved from 23 ppm/dC to 3.6 ppm/dC. All MEMS devices are created on flat substrates, which are useful when integrating electronics, but can be difficult to use when measuring strain in structural components, especially round objects. Furthermore, no work has been presented for gauges operating at high strain. To address this issue, this thesis contains the first demonstration of a MEMS resonant strain gauge operating at 1000 microstrain on a static automobile halfshaft. Details on joining the substrate to the circular halfshaft are presented, as well as how to treat the issue of strain transfer. To protect the device, encapsulation is designed specifically to not change the strain sensitivity of the gauge. The encapsulation utilizes directional ion beam sputtering, which is experimentally shown to deposit spatially confined, extremely thin material through the release holes. Typical depositions were nanometers in thickness (<0.5% of deposited material) and on the order of tens to hundreds of femtograms.


Assessing food intake is a challenge for researchers given the inherent complexity of the issue. One of the methods used in epidemiological studies is the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The scope of this paper was to identify studies that developed and/or validated the FFQ in Brazil, analyzing the methods used and the main results of the validation. The PubMed, LILACS and SciELO databases were researched for studies published prior to 2013 on the development and validation of the FFQ in Brazil. These studies were analyzed according to: i) the main methodological characteristics of the elaboration/validation process of the questionnaires; ii) the key results related to validation. Forty-one studies were assessed: 6 on the development of the FFQ; 18 on the development and validation of the FFQ; 17 on the validation of the FFQ. There were inter-regional differences in the publications and methodological differences in the elaboration and validation of the FFQ. Adults and adolescents were the groups most covered for the validation of the FFQ, though specific studies for children < 5 years of age were not found. The methodological rigor and statistical results guarantee the suitability of the validation of the FFQ for the target populations, with high correlations for energy, carbohydrates, fibers, calcium and vitamin C.


Abstract Organisations are increasingly investing in complex technological innovations such as enterprise information systems with the aim of improving the operations of the business, and in this way gaining competitive advantage. However, the implementation of technological innovations tends to have an excessive focus on either technology innovation effectiveness (also known as system effectiveness), or the resulting operational effectiveness; focusing on either one of them is detrimental to the long-term enterprise benefits through failure to achieve the real value of technological innovations. The lack of research on the dimensions and performance objectives that organisations must be focusing on is the main reason for this misalignment. This research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative, three-stage methodological approach. Initial findings suggest that factors such as quality of information from technology innovation effectiveness, and quality and speed from operational effectiveness are important and significantly well correlated factors that promote the alignment between technology innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness.


Functional coating materials have found broad technological applications in diverse fields. Despite recent advances, few coating materials simultaneously achieve robustness and substrate independence while still retaining the capacity for genetically encodable functionalities. Here, we report Escherichia coli biofilm-inspired protein nanofiber coatings that simultaneously exhibit substrate independence, resistance to organic solvents, and programmable functionalities. The intrinsic surface adherence of CsgA amyloid proteins, along with a benign solution-based fabrication approach, facilitates forming nanofiber coatings on virtually any surface with varied compositions, sizes, shapes, and structures. In addition, the typical amyloid structures endow the nanofiber coatings with outstanding robustness. On the basis of their genetically engineerable functionality, our nanofiber coatings can also seamlessly participate in functionalization processes, including gold enhancement, diverse protein conjugations, and DNA binding, thus enabling a variety of proof-of-concept applications, including electronic devices, enzyme immobilization, and microfluidic bacterial sensors. We envision that our coatings can drive advances in electronics, biocatalysis, particle engineering, and biomedicine.


In this paper we propose a method to model speaker and session variability and able to generate likelihood ratios using neural networks in an end-to-end phrase dependent speaker verification system. As in Joint Factor Analysis, the model uses tied hidden variables to model speaker and session variability and a MAP adaptation of some of the parameters of the model. In the training procedure our method jointly estimates the network parameters and the values of the speaker and channel hidden variables. This is done in a two-step backpropagation algorithm, first the network weights and factor loading matrices are updated and then the hidden variables, whose gradients are calculated by aggregating the corresponding speaker or session frames, since these hidden variables are tied. The last layer of the network is defined as a linear regression probabilistic model whose inputs are the previous layer outputs. This choice has the advantage that it produces likelihoods and additionally it can be adapted during the enrolment using MAP without the need of a gradient optimization. The decisions are made based on the ratio of the output likelihoods of two neural network models, speaker adapted and universal background model. The method was evaluated on the RSR2015 database.


Symbiotic N(2) fixation has a variable effect on the (15)N abundance of different parts of legumes. Increases in fixation result in (15)N enrichment of nodules, while decreases, in combination with an increased uptake of mineral N, result in (15)N depletion of the root system. The difference between soybean shoot and below-ground delta(15)N (Deltadelta(15)N=delta(15)N(shoot)-delta(15)N(belowground)) was assessed in hydroponic culture over a range of rates of supply of mineral N. The fractional contribution of N(2) fixation to N uptake (%Ndfa) was determined using the natural abundance (NA) technique with ryegrass as a reference plant. Deltadelta(15)N and %Ndfa were highly correlated, and the relationship was tested using the same soybean cultivar grown in pots in N-rich soil. Estimates of %Ndfa derived from the NA method and from the Deltadelta(15)N approach yielded near-identical values. A literature survey showed similar relationships between %Ndfa and Deltadelta(15)N with different growth stages of soybeans grown under glasshouse and field conditions, different cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) cultivars in the field, and tagasaste (Chamaecytisus proliferus) in hydroponic culture. Possible confounding and species-specific (either plant or Rhizobium spp.) influences are discussed. The difference in delta(15)N signatures between nodulated roots and shoots is confirmed as a robust means of quantifying %Ndfa: it is independent of reference plants and offers the possibility of estimating %Ndfa in soils where the isotope composition of mineral N closely matches that of atmospheric N(2).


We present the linear-linear (LL) basis functions to improve the accuracy of the magnetic-field integral equation (MFIE) and the combined-field integral equation (CFIE) for three-dimensional electromagnetic scattering problems involving closed conductors. We consider the solutions of relatively large scattering problems by employing the multilevel fast multipole algorithm. Accuracy problems of MFIE and CFIE arising from their implementations with the conventional Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) basis functions can be mitigated by using the LL functions for discretization. This is achieved without increasing the computational requirements and with only minor modifications in the existing codes based on the RWG functions


This chapter presents the results of IR spectroscopic studies of radiation-stimulated heterogeneous processes of adsorption, radiation-chemical decomposition (radiolysis) of hydrocarbons on the metal surface, and radiative hydrogenation of these surfaces under the action of gamma radiation. It deals with the spectrokinetic regularities, their features, and the mechanisms of radiation-stimulated adsorption and radiolysis of hydrocarbons in heterogeneous metal-hydrocarbon systems, in particular in heterogeneous Al (Be)-n-hexane systems, using reflection-absorption IR spectroscopy (IRRAS). The role of intermediate surface-active decomposition products in the process of heterogeneous radiolysis of hydrocarbons is discussed, as well as the influence of the surface relief of the metal in the dynamics of the change in the decomposition process on the rate of formation and the yield of final products of radiolysis.


Objective: The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for bleeding complications in patients who receive Venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis with fondaparinux (FPX) after colorectal cancer surgery. Methods: Records of 546 patients who underwent VTE prophylaxis with intermittent pneumatic compression and FPX after colorectal cancer surgery between January 2009 and May 2014 were reviewed. Patient characteristics, surgical procedures, and patient laboratory data were examined to identify risk factors for bleeding complications using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Results: We reviewed the records of 324 males and 222 females. Median age and BMI were 68.5 years and 22.7 kg/m2, respectively. The number of laparoscopic surgeries was 366. Median operative time and blood loss were 188.5 min and 20 ml, respectively. The incidence (%) of bleeding events was 5.3%. In univariate analysis, age ≥80 years, BMI ≥25.0 kg/m2, hypertension, and antithrombotic therapy were associated with a significantly higher incidence of bleeding events. Multivariate analysis identified age ≥80 years (odds ratio 5.814; 95% confidence interval 2.502-13.278) as an independent risk factor. Conclusion: Age ≥80 is a risk factor for bleeding in patients who receive FPX for VTE prophylaxis after colorectal cancer surgery.


A kappa-carrageenase was isolated from the cell-free medium of cultured Pseudomonas carrageenovora. From dodecylsulphate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, a single protein (identified as the kappa-carrageenase) was detected in the medium. Activity against nominal carrageenan types and inspection of the products indicate the enzyme to be a kappa-carrageenase. Purification is described here by ammonium sulphate precipitation and subsequent CM-Sepharose CL-6B ion-exchange chromatography. Molecular weight was estimated as 35,000 by dodecylsulphate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Products of degradation were analysed by gel filtration, spectrophotometric assays and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance. These results are consistent with the product of limit digest being neocarrabiose 4-O-sulphate.


With the continuous shrinkage of feature size in semiconductor devices, the accurate and reliable metrology of these devices has become very challenging. One aspect of metrology which has posed many challenges for integrated circuits (IC) fabrication is sidewall roughness characterization. Although, sidewall roughness is one of the most critical factors that needs to be characterized and well controlled, currently there is no existing technology that can measure the sidewall roughness well. Here, we present a new 3D metrology Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) capable of high resolution sidewall roughness measurements with improved repeatability and accuracy.


The transformation of the centrally-controlled economy into the market one and also the attempt to join the European integration structures have initiated many problems to be tackled within the development of regions. The change of Slovak social and economic structures has had a huge impact on the initial economic regional structures. The paper objectives are to identify and assess the changes in the economic structure of the Trencin Region and its rural and transition areas. The changes in the economic structure are assessed through an absolute and relative number of employees in the economic sectors (land management, industries, civil engineering, trade and other sectors), through the number of enterprises and businesses based in the region, through the business activity encoding in itself the dynamic growth of enterprises and businesses. The impact of changes in the economic structure and business activities on the social and economic development is assessed through basic indicators such as number of unemployed people, the unemployment rate and the GDP per capita. The methodology of analysis, synthesis, benchmarking and shift-share analysis are employed to recognize the changes in the economic structure. In line with the goal of the paper it has been found that within the rural and transition areas in the Trencin region, the changes are differentiated in factors and in the results in the development as well. The results show the sectors where jobs are created. The number of businesses was increasing in the period when the research was carried out, the indices of the business activity in rural and transition areas were becoming equal slowly. The disparity between the GDP per capita created in the Trencin Region and the average Slovak GDP has grown. The Trencin Region has had the tendency to stay behind in the economic development. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.19.2.5082


Edward Stuart Mucklow ("Ted") was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on 24 January 1932, son of Drs Stuart and Alex Mucklow, and was educated at Cheltenham Junior School, Radley College, Exeter College, Oxford, and University College Hospital Medical School, London, where he was awarded a Goldsmid Entrance Scholarship. He took BA in physiology in 1954 at Oxford, and qualified BM BCh (Oxon) from UCH in December 1957. After house jobs in surgery and medicine at UCH, he was appointed ship's surgeon to the cable ship CS Ocean Layer on a Brazilian cable laying expedition—a great adventure. He returned to further posts at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, and UCH before being called up for national service for two years. Ted was posted as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps to the depot and TE at Church Crookham, near Aldershot, where he had experience of general practice and captained RAMC teams in a variety of sports.

After this he went to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, where he met his wife, …


The aim of the current study was to evaluate primary (human bronchial epithelial cells, HBEC) and non-primary (Calu-3, BEAS-2B, BEAS-2B R1) bronchial epithelial cell culture systems as air-liquid interface- (ALI-) differentiated models for asthma research. Ability to differentiate into goblet (MUC5AC+) and ciliated (β-Tubulin IV+) cells was evaluated by confocal imaging and qPCR. Expression of tight junction/adhesion proteins (ZO-1, E-Cadherin) and development of transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) were assessed. Primary cells showed localised MUC5AC, β-Tubulin IV, ZO-1, and E-Cadherin and developed TEER with, however, a large degree of inter- and intradonor variation. Calu-3 cells developed a more reproducible TEER and a phenotype similar to primary cells although with diffuse β-Tubulin IV staining. BEAS-2B cells did not differentiate or develop tight junctions. These data highlight the challenges in working with primary cell models and the need for careful characterisation and selection of systems to answer specific research questions.


Surface architectures based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) electrodeposited on gold ultramicroelectrode arrays (UMEAs) and further modified with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of two different thiol molecules were evaluated. The voltammetric behavior of the resulting electrochemical transducer approaches appeared to be fairly different compared to that of SAM-modified UMEAs and microelectrode counterparts. Such behavior indicates that the electrodeposited AuNPs played a key role in the arrangement of the thiolated probes and the electron transfer processes at the transducer solution interface. A detailed description of this phenomenon was carried out with the aim of showing the potential of the presented SAM-AuNP-UMEA based transducer to develop robust biosensor approaches.


ObjectiveTo report the results from one of the eight original U.S. centers performing laparoscopic adjustable silicone gastric banding (LASGB), a new minimally invasive surgical technique for treatment of morbid obesity. Summary Background DataLaparoscopic adjustable silicone gastric banding is under evaluation by the Food & Drug Administration in the United States in an initial cohort of 300 patients. MethodsOf 37 patients undergoing laparoscopic placement of the LASGB device, successful placement occurred in 36 from March 1996 to May 1998. Patients have been followed up for up to 4 years. ResultsFive patients (14%) have been lost to follow-up for more than 2 years but at last available follow-up (3–18 months after surgery) had achieved only 18% (range 5–38%) excess weight loss. African American patients had poor weight loss after LASGB compared with whites. The LASGB devices were removed in 15 (41%) patients 10 days to 42 months after surgery. Four patients underwent simple removal; 11 were converted to gastric bypass. The most common reason for removal was inadequate weight loss in the presence of a functioning band. The primary reasons for removal in others were infection, leakage from the inflatable silicone ring causing inadequate weight loss, or band slippage. The patients with band slippage had concomitant poor weight loss. Bands were removed in two others as a result of symptoms related to esophageal dilatation. In 18 of 25 patients (71%) who underwent preoperative and long-term postoperative contrast evaluation, a significantly increased esophageal diameter developed; of these, 13 (72%) had prominent dysphagia, vomiting, or reflux symptoms. Of the remaining 21 patients with bands, 8 currently desire removal and conversion to gastric bypass for inadequate weight loss. Six of the remaining patients have persistent morbid obesity at least 2 years after surgery but refuse to undergo further surgery or claim to be satisfied with the results. Overall, only four patients achieved a body-mass index of less than 35 and/or at least a 50% reduction in excess weight. Thus, the overall need for band removal and conversion to GBP in this series will ultimately exceed 50%. ConclusionsThe authors did not find LASGB to be an effective procedure for the surgical treatment of morbid obesity. Complications after LASGB include esophageal dilatation, band leakage, infection, erosion, and slippage. Inadequate weight loss is common, particularly in African American patients. More study is required to determine the long-term efficacy of the LASGB


AIM
We investigated the relationship between periodontal disease, a clinical manifestation of periodontal infection, and pre-diabetes.

METHODS
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2009-2010 enrolled 1165 diabetes-free adults (51% female) aged 30-80 years (mean ± SD=50 ± 14) who received a full-mouth periodontal examination and an oral glucose tolerance test. Participants were classified as having none/mild, moderate or severe periodontitis and also according to mean probing depth ≥ 2.19 mm or attachment loss ≥ 1.78 mm, (respective 75th percentiles). Pre-diabetes was defined according to ADA criteria as either: (i) impaired fasting glucose (IFG) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). In multivariable logistic regression models, the odds of IFG and IGT were regressed on levels of periodontitis category.

RESULTS
The odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for having IGT among participants with moderate or severe periodontitis, relative to participants with none/mild periodontitis were 1.07 [0.50, 2.25] and 1.93 [1.18, 3.17], p = 0.02. The ORs for having IFG were 1.14 [0.74, 1.77] and 1.12 [0.58, 2.18], p = 0.84. PD ≥ 75 th percentile was related to a 105% increase in the odds of IGT: OR [95% CI] = 2.05 [1.24, 3.39], p = 0.005.

CONCLUSIONS
Periodontal infection was positively associated with prevalent impaired glucose tolerance in a cross-sectional study among a nationally representative sample.


Abstract . Development of simple classroom demonstration device and software for visualization of structural normal modes is presented. Device is made of parts of old speaker, controlled with personal computer, where the harmonic motion of solenoid is used as an excitation for beam and plate models. Simple code for finite element free vibration analysis of plates is written in Wolfram Mathematica. Good agreement of results and attractive visual patterns of normal modes attracted attention of students. Results are confirmed using modern modal testing methods. Presented approach is complementary to standard teaching of structural dynamics. Key words : engineering education, normal modes, Chladni plate, modal testing, finite element method


Mobile sensor devices offer great opportunities for automatic scene analysis and object recognition. Nowadays a new generation of ranging devices is available, like laser scanners which are small and light weighted. Concerning these improvements specific applications can be tackled. In this contribution we focus on vineyard monitoring for detecting and counting grape berries with a small, lightweight and low cost multi-echo laser scanner. Therefore a Hokuyo UTM-30LX-EW laser range finder is utilized for capturing the data in close range up to 1m. In order to process the data the following methodology is proposed: after smoothing and morphological techniques are applied on the laserscanning intensity and range images the number of visible grape berries is determined from the resulting segments. The approach performs with a detection accuracy of above 84%. The results reveal the high potential of such close range ranging devices for locating and counting grape berries. Thus, the methodology provides practical support for viticulture applications.


In this paper we discuss a novel data compression technique for binary symmetric sources based on the cavity method over GF(q), the Galois Field of order q. We present a scheme of low complexity and near-optimal empirical performance. The compression step is based on a reduction of a sparse low-density parity-check code over GF(q) and is done through the so-called reinforced belief-propagation equations. These reduced codes appear to have a nontrivial geometrical modification of the space of codewords, which makes such compression computationally feasible. The computational complexity is O(dnqlog(2)q) per iteration, where d is the average degree of the check nodes and n is the number of bits. For our code ensemble, decompression can be done in a time linear in the code's length by a simple leaf-removal algorithm.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study is to analyze the outcomes obtained after External-Beam Radiotherapy (3D EBRT)in patients with prostate cancer.

METHODS
The study includes 503 patients (p) treated at the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón in Madrid, diagnosed between 2000-2007, with low, intermediate or high risk prostate cancer (D'Amico risk groups), treated with 3D EBRT. Biochemical recurrence (BR) was defined as nadir +2 following Phoenix's criterion. The median follow-up was 59 months (range 3.4-104.2).

RESULTS
Biochemical relapse-free survival (bRFS) rates at 5 and 8 years were 88 ± 2% and 76 ± 3%, respectively. Multivariate analysis indicated initial PSA (p <0.02), perineural invasion in biopsy specimen (p <0.00), EBRT dose (p = 0.01) and the use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)(p = 0.00) to be independent predictors of relapse. Nadir PSA value <0.3 ng/ml was associated with the best 5-year bRFS (96.6% versus 56.5% if nadir PSA > 1.3 ng/ml). Late urinary and rectal toxicity ≥ 3 was lower than 5%. Active rescue treatment was indicated in 85% of patients. Only 10 patients died of prostate cancer.

CONCLUSION
The biochemical failure rate is determined by classical pretreatment features (initial PSA level, risk group, perineural invasion) and low- dose EBRT (≤ 72 Gy), nadir PSA value and the use of ADT in intermediate and high risk groups.


Literacy teaching and learning and education more generally seem destined to be buffeted by periodic pendulum swings between more and less regulation of curriculum, assessment and teachers' work. Reflecting from a position of seniority, I speculate in this commentary on how the trajectory of progressive and generative theories and practices in literacy education might have been altered if such swings had not been so pervasive over the past several decades. Drawing on insights that have guided my own thirty-plus years of work to advance critically reflective and progressive literacy education, I suggest that greater attention to some wise words from past decades might help today's educators to resist the never-ending pull of the pendulum.


In this paper, a new MAC based approach has been proposed to improve fairness in TCP and UDP flows in VANET. Since TCP has been developed for wired networks, in wireless networks, especially the ones based on IEEE 802.11 standard, it has fairness problems. The common proposed MAC based approaches, using a timer, have only worked on fairness improvement among TCP flows. UDP flows form major parts of network traffics. According to the lack of flow and congestion control mechanisms in UDP traffics, in our proposed approach, both types of traffic have been considered together. We add different amount of delay into packets, based on their types. The simulation results indicate fairness improvement in VANETs. Keywords— VANET, TCP, UDP, MAC, Fairness.


This richly detailed ethnographic work tells the story of a period of deep civil unrest in India . In 1975 Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency which gave her the power to silence opposition through arrests and censorship and to introduce a new program of reform which included the draconian campaigns of slum clearance and family planning. In the capital city of Delhi access to basic civic amenities became dependent on the production of a sterilization certificate. For many of the city's poorest inhabitants whose homes had been demolished, the choice was between sterilization or homelessness. "Unsettling Memories" provides a gripping analysis of how state oppression was orchestrated and experienced in Delhi during the Emergency. Using personal narratives and previously unstudied archival material, it traces the process by which policies were subverted at the local level through a combination of violence, trickery and market forces. It fills a significant gap in the recent political history of India, shedding light on a period many would rather forget. Its documentation and analysis of the relationship between state archives and lived experience is methodologically innovative, charting new ground for anthropologists and political scientists concerned with the role of the state in everyday life.


Improving the professional training of managers in the field of physical education and sports today requires the need to use foreign experience in their preparation, especially for the experience of using cognitive psychology techniques in professional and personal training. The study of international experience training of future managers of physical education and sports is of great importance for the implementation of positive trends in higher education in terms of the quality of their training and the formation of their professional competence. And this requires a critical analysis of the achievements of the educational systems of foreign countries and the adaptation of these achievements to national needs. The relevance of the study of world experience is due to the possibility of using the achievements and practices in the context of the establishment of a new paradigm of professional education for managers of physical education and sports, in which the cognitive-contextual goals of forming the professional competence of these specialists should become priorities. The importance of studying international experience in the application of cognitive teaching methods in the training of managers of physical education and sports is also due to insufficient information on relevant studies conducted in this area. Unfortunately, the study of the individual components of the cognitive-oriented education system in higher education institutions of the world space is characterized by the lack of a holistic view of its functioning in modern conditions.


Aligning Learning Outcomes (LO) to relevant portions of Learning Resources (LR) is necessary to help students quickly navigate within the recommended learning material. In general, the problem can be viewed as finding the relevant sections of a document (LR) that is pertinent to a broad question (LO). In this paper, we introduce the novel problem of aligning LOs (LO is usually a sentence long text) to relevant pages of LRs (LRs are in the form of slide decks). We observe that the set of relevant pages can be composed of multiple chunks (a chunk is a contiguous set of pages) and the same page of an LR might be relevant to multiple LOs. To this end, we develop a novel Lexico-Semantic Spatial approach that captures the lexical, semantic, and spatial aspects of the task, and also alleviates the limited availability of training data. Our approach first identifies the relevancy of a page to an LO by using lexical and semantic features from each page independently. The spatial model at a later stage exploits the dependencies between the sequence of pages in the LR to further improve the alignment task. We empirically establish the importance of the lexical, semantic, and spatial models within the proposed approach. We show that, on average, a student can navigate to a relevant page from the first predicted page by about four clicks within a 38 page slide deck, as compared to two clicks by human experts.


This thesis work proposes the integration of MIMO antenna (i.e., two bowtie dipole antennas) with a fully differential 180o hybrid coupler in the frequency range of 0.7-3 GHz which falls in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band as per the spectrum allocated by International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The applications in this band are Long Term Evolution (LTE), Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), Global Positioning System (GPS), Digital Communication System, Personal Communication System, Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Global star satellite phone downlink and uplink. This thesis introduces a new technique of integrating two bowtie dipole antennas with a fully differential 180o hybrid coupler. The first part is design of bowtie dipole antenna in the desired frequency range of 0.7-3 GHz simulated using Advanced Design System (ADS) 2009 from Agilent Technologies Inc. In the design of bowtie dipole antenna started with a stepwise design with simple dipole antenna followed by parametric study. After literature study on different articles of wideband dipole antennas finally a bowtie dipole antenna was designed which covers the required bandwidth. The second part is to design a differential 180o hybrid coupler in the frequency range of 0.7-3 GHz simulated using ADS. Before implementing the actual differential 180o hybrid coupler started with a design of fundamental single ended 90o coupler followed by single ended 180o coupler and by analyzing the results of both finally differential 180o hybrid coupler was designed and observed the simulated results. The last part of the thesis work is to integrate MIMO antenna with a fully differential 180o hybrid coupler and to compare the results of isolation between antennas with and without coupler. To see in which degree the isolation can be improved by adding an 180o hybrid coupler to the antennas.


The use of phototherapy has become popular and associated with this panorama, we observe the growth of new techniques and uses. Among the most avant-garde we can find transcranial therapies and their use in fields such as psychiatry and neurology, treating in a therapeutic way pathologies such as depression, Alzheimer's, phobias and neurodegenerative diseases. The following article aimed to evaluate all studies related to the topic Transcranial Photobiomodulation in the Treatment of Major Depression, indexed in the base date PubMed. The studies were selected using the descriptors; depression; transcranial; photobiomodulation; infrared light and laser therapy, being limited to articles that used some type of control group within the publication period of 10 years. At the end of the review, the scarce number of articles on the topic was observed, although the results seem promising in the great majority. The following review may also raise data for future discussions on methodological issues involved, such as the lack of studies with large groups as well as the difficulty of performing double-blind studies of enormous scientific importance.


This paper develops a model of unemployment rate dynamics that provides an explanation of persistent cyclical unemployment that does not involve persistent expectational errors or other nonoptimizing behavior. Our results are based on the interaction of search dynamics and inventory adjustments. An important element in these dynamics appears to be heterogeneity in the labor force which can be characterized as consisting of a relatively small group of high turnover individuals who comprise the bulk of normal unemployment and a larger group of low turnover individuals who dominate movements in cyclical unemployment. Our empirical results provide support for this theory as we demonstrate that the appropriately measured probability of becoming employed during a recovery falls relative to normal because of the unusually high proportion of low turnover individuals who have lost "permanent" jobs. As aresult, recovery is much slower than is indicated by normal relationships although each individual is searching optimally.


Study Design Single cohort, descriptive. Objectives To identify how movement kinetics and energetics alterations in chronic ankle instability (CAI) differ between genders. Background The chronic nature of ankle instability has been reported across genders, however, it is unclear how/if gender affects lower extremity landing/cutting biomechanics in CAI. Methods and Measures 100 CAI (M=54, F=46; 22±2 years, 174±9 cm, 72±14 kg, 82%±9% FAAM-ADL, 62%±13% FAAM-Sport, 3.6±1.2 MAII, 4.3±3 ankle sprains) and 100 matched controls (M=54, F=46; 22±3 years, 172±13 cm, 72±18 kg, 100% FAAM-ADL, 100% FAAM-Sport, 0 MAII, 0 ankle sprain) performed five trials of jump landing/cutting (maximum vertical forward jump, landing on the test leg only, and immediate 90° side-cutting). A functional data analysis (α=0.05) was used to detect a group ×gender interaction for joint moment (Nm/kg) and power (W/kg) across the entire ground contact time (0%=initial contact, 50%=peak flexion, 100%=toe off) during jump landing/cutting. If 95% confidence intervals did not cross the zero, significant differences existed. Results No maximum vertical jump height differences were observed within genders, between groups (p>0.05). Several group ×gender interactions were observed: males in the CAI group had reduced plantarflexion moment (46%–84% of stance), increased knee extension moment (0%–17% of stance), reduced hip extension moment (0%–6% of stance) and increased hip extension moment (9%–15% of stance). Males in the CAI group also showed reduced eccentric ankle power (12%–16% of stance), reduced concentric ankle power (77%–90% of stance), and increased knee (3%–16% of stance) and hip eccentric power (4%–12% of stance). Conclusions Both males and females in the CAI group demonstrated altered kinetic and energetic patterns relative to the control group, and more between-group alterations were observed in males relative to females. Males with CAI appeared to use an interlimb reweighting strategy from distal to proximal joints, which may be due to greater sensorimotor dysfunction.


In addition to a discussion of questions surrounding whether to withhold or withdraw curative treatments, When Treatment Fails explores the crucial concerns of those medical practitioners who care for dying children: education and training, relation with one another, communicating with patients and families, and finally, coping and moving on. Ultimately, the threads connecting these themes are the great costs and rewards of this difficult work, and the lessons that can be drawn from the nitty-gritty experiences of medical practitioners who struggle to find the balance between trying to defeat death and trying to provide comfort.


The regions in a country respond differently to monetary shocks. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of monetary shocks on employment in regions with non-systematic mechanism of monetary transmission. To achieve this purpose, we used TVP-FAVAR approach to describe monetary shocks in the thirty provinces over 1384:1- 1394:4. The results show that there are different responses to monetary shocks in Iranian provinces. Also, the response of each province is different in terms of time, and the economic conditions play main roles in response of province to monetary shocks. The findings of this paper represent evidences of asymmetric effects of monetary policies in Iranian regions. We suggest the central bank should consider the regional differences in policy making


The transmission of quantum states in the anisotropic Heisenberg XXZ chain model with three-spin exchange interaction is studied. The average fidelity is used to evaluate the state transfer. It is found out that quantum communication can be enhanced by the anisotropic coupling and multiple spin interaction. Such spin model can reduce the time required for the perfect state transmission where the fidelity is unity. The maximally entangled Bell states can be generated and separated from the whole quantum systems.


The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes several provisions that aim to improve prevailing deficiencies in the nation's long-term care system. But just how effective is the ACA likely to be in addressing these challenges? Will it result in meaningful or marginal reform? This special issue of Journal of Aging & Social Policy seeks to answer these questions. The most prominent long-term care provision is the now-suspended Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act. Others include incentives and options for expanding home- and community-based care, a number of research and demonstration projects in the areas of chronic care coordination and the dually eligible, and nursing home quality reforms. There are also elements that seek to improve workforce recruitment and retention, in addition to benefit improvements and spending reductions under Medicare. This article reviews the basic problems plaguing the long-term care sector and the provisions within the ACA meant to address them. It also includes a brief overview of issue content.


Abstract : The purposes of US Army Order of Battle 1919 1941 are threefold. The first is to fill a void in the published record of US Army units documented by Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War published by the Center of Military History and Mr. Shelby L. Stanton s Order of Battle, U.S. Army World War II. The second is to provide Army command historians, unit historians, and other individuals who are trying to research specific unit histories a basic overview of what these units were doing in the interwar period, where the units were located, and who commanded them. The third is to provide a private individual who had a relative who served during this period, and who wishes to know what that service may have consisted of, an account of the major activities in which the relative s unit was involved. The scope of the work covers units from the size of separate battalions from all arms and services to field armies, as well as the actual order of battle of each as applicable.


The presence of (partially) automated vehicles on the roads presents an opportunity to compensate the unstable behavior of conventional vehicles. Vehicles subject to perturbations should: 1) recover their equilibrium speed and 2) react not to propagate but absorb perturbations. In this paper, we start with considering vehicle systems consisting of heterogeneous vehicles updating their dynamics according to realistic behavioral car-following models. Definitions of all types of stability that are of interest in the vehicle system, namely, input-output stability, scalability, weak and strict string stability, are introduced based on recent studies. Then, frequency domain linear stability analyses are conducted after linearization of the modeled system of vehicles, leading to conditions for input-output stability, strict and weak string stability over the behavioral parameters of the system, for finite and infinite systems of homogeneous and heterogeneous vehicles. This provides a solid basis that was missing for car-following model-based control design in mixed traffic systems where only a proportion of vehicles can be controlled. After visualization of the theoretical results in simulation, we formulate an optimization strategy with linear matrix inequality constraints to tune the behavioral parameters of the automated vehicles in order to maximize the  $\mathcal {L}_\infty $  string stability of the mixed traffic flow while considering the comfort of automated driving. The optimization strategy systematically leads to increased traffic flow stability. We show that very few automated vehicles are required to prevent the propagation of realistic disturbances.


Background— Several cardiac ion channel genes have been implicated in monogenic traits with a high risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). Mutations or rare variants in these genes have been proposed as potential contributors to more common forms of SCD, but this hypothesis has not been assessed systematically. Methods and Results— We directly sequenced the entire coding region and splice junctions of 5 cardiac ion channel genes, SCN5A, KCNQ1, KCNH2, KCNE1, and KCNE2, in 113 SCD cases from 2 large prospective cohorts of women (Nurses' Health Study) and men (Health Professional Follow-Up Study). Controls from the same population were then screened for the presence of mutations or rare variants identified in cases, and sequence variants without prior functional data were expressed in Xenopus oocytes to assess their biophysical consequences. No mutations or rare variants were identified in any of the 53 subjects who were men. In contrast, in 6 of 60 women (10%), we identified 5 rare missense variants in SCN5A that either had been associated previously with long-QT syndrome (A572D and G615E), had been reported to alter sodium channel function (F2004L), or had not been reported previously in control populations (A572F and W1205C). Of the 4 variants without prior functional data, 3 variants were located in the I-II linker (A572D, A572F, and G615E), and all resulted in significantly shorter recovery times from inactivation. When compared with 733 control samples from the same population, the overall frequency of these rare variants in SCN5A was significantly higher in the SCD cases (6/60, 10.0%) than in controls (12/733, 1.6%; P=0.001). Conclusion— Functionally significant mutations and rare variants in SCN5A may contribute to SCD risk among women.


BACKGROUND
Adjuvant systemic treatment for patients with isolated locoregional recurrence (ILRR) of breast cancer is based on a single reported randomized trial. The trial, conducted by the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research, compared tamoxifen (TAM) with observation after complete excision of the ILRR and proper radiotherapy. We performed a definitive analysis of treatment outcome at >11 years of follow-up, after the majority of the patients had a subsequent event of interest. Patient and methods One hundred and sixty-seven patients with 'good-risk' characteristics of disease were randomized. 'Good-risk' was defined as estrogen receptor expression in the ILRR, or having a disease-free interval of >12 months and a recurrence consisting of three or less tumor nodules, each </=3 cm in diameter. Seventy-nine percent of the patients were postmenopausal at randomization.

RESULTS
The median follow-up time of the surviving patients was 11.6 years. The median post ILRR disease-free survival (DFS) was 6.5 years with TAM and 2.7 years with observation (P = 0.053). The difference was mainly due to reduction of further local relapses (P = 0.011). In postmenopausal patients, TAM led to an increase of DFS from 33% to 61% (P = 0.006). In premenopausal women, 5-year DFS was 60%, independent of TAM medication. For the whole study population, the median post-recurrence overall survival (OS) was 11.2 and 11.5 years in the observation and the TAM group, respectively; premenopausal patients experienced a 5-year OS of 90% for observation compared with 67% for TAM (P = 0.175), while the respective figures for postmenopausal patients were both 75%.

CONCLUSIONS
These definitive results confirmed that TAM significantly improves the post-recurrence DFS of patients after local treatment for ILRR. This beneficial effect does not translate into a detectable OS advantage.


Abstract. The present paper aims to analyze the implications of school educational environment on learning at primary school children. The theoretical frame of the research was the functionalist-systemic paradigm of Talcott Parsons (1902-1979). Within this frame, according to the sociologist's explanations, a social system exists in the conditions in which it manages to satisfy the individual's needs to adapt to the environment, and the creation of the social identity depends on the manner in which the individual internalizes the exterior environment so that to ensure his success for normal social integration and functioning. In Parsons' opinion, the school, regarded as social system, must answer the following functional imperatives: the children's adaptation to the institutional environment, attaining the educational objectives, the socio-educational integration, the acceptation and support for cultural values, the stimulation of motivation for learning. The specific objectives of the research were: identification of the level of importance as perceived by the children regarding the actions developed in school, on individual plan, in order to support the school success (OS1); identification of the level of importance as perceived by the teachers regarding the collective educational actions developed for increasing the school success (OS2). Methodology. The research is of standard type: qualitative and quantitative. The results were measured with a Likert type scale and the data interpretation was accomplished based on the interpretations obtained by using a Nice &Gaps type bidimensional matrix. The results of the research have led to the following conclusion : the quality of the institutional educational environment conditions in a great measure the individual school success. This aspect is justified in the context of a direct correlation between the individual factors and the school's functional and structural capacity.


OBJECTIVE
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in Britain, and its prevention is a priority. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have an increased risk of CVD, and management of modifiable classical risk factors requires a programme with patient education at its heart. Before a programme for RA patients is implemented, it is important to explore the perceptions of patients and relevant healthcare professionals and consider how these could influence the subsequent content, timing and delivery of such education. Here, we assess healthcare professionals' perceptions.

METHODS
Qualitative focus group methodology was adopted. Four group meetings of healthcare professionals were held using a semi-structured interview schedule. The focus group transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

RESULTS
Three superordinate themes emerged: professional determinations about people with RA, including their perceptions about patients' priorities and motivations; communication about CVD risk, including what should be communicated, how, to whom and when; and responsibility for CVD management, referring to patients and the healthcare community.

CONCLUSIONS
Although healthcare professionals agree that it is important to convey the increased CVD risk to patients with RA, there is concern they may be less proactive in promoting risk management strategies. There was uncertainty about the best time to discuss CVD with RA patients. Maintaining a close relationship between primary and secondary care was thought to be important, with all healthcare professionals 'singing from the same hymn sheet'. These findings can inform the development of novel education material to fulfil a currently unmet clinical need.


Derrick is the basic equipment during drilling, fatigue and failure are the problems that effect drilling efficiency, the strong vibration of derrick is the main reason that caused derrick failure. The various kinds of vibration of drilling derrick are analyzed in this paper. The model of derrick JJ60/38-W is set up, the phenomena of vibration of derrick are studied, and the vibration state behaves many dynamic situations under the bad condition, including axial, lateral, torsional vibration. These vibrations are studied; the rule of various kinds of vibration is obtained. The modal vibration and harmonic vibration are analyzed, the situation of harmonic vibration of different nodes of derrick are obtained. The software ANSYS is applied in this paper, the result can be used for the actual drill case.


The contribution of this study to the theoretical knowledge is that it compares between volleyball vertical jumps (VJ) without reference to the ball, to volleyball VJ with reference to the ball. This comparison was made possible, for the first time, by the VERT Wearable Jump Monitor (Mayfonk Athletic, Florida, USA), that enables to measure any VJ, anywhere on volleyball court, for up to eight volleyball players at once. This study was conducted at the end of the data collection of the study "The effect of repeated performances of yo-yo intermittent endurance test/run level 1 (YYIE1) preceding to an immediate VJ training, on chronic enhancement of VJ among volleyball players" (intervention program). The study did not find difference between volleyball block jump with or without reference to the ball. However, it found that volleyball attack jump without reference to the ball, was significantly higher than volleyball attack jump with reference to the ball. In addition, the study found that volleyball players that underwent an intervention program for VJ enhancement demonstrated significantly higher volleyball VJ, in all four parameters, than volleyball players that did not undergo this program. The originality of the VJ training in the intervention program was that each volleyball player was required to jump eighty VJs to the maximum height she or he could. This in order to create stimulation for VJ enhancement. The VERT system could supply the data, regarding to VJ height, for the researchers and for each one of the players simultaneously, for up to eight players at once.


This is a study of the use of the present perfect and the preterite in the Spanish of Lima, Peru. It explores whether specific linguistic factors, such as situation type, temporal adverbials and type of speech, as well as social factors, such as age, gender and social stratum have an effect on the use of these verb forms. It also aims to find out whether the frequency of the preterite is increasing or not through time, and whether there is evidence of a change in progress. The study also discusses the extent to which the distribution of the preterite and the present perfect in the Limeno variety reflects a process of dialect and language contact. This is an experimental study that uses a questionnaire as a data-collecting instrument, created with the purpose of comparing the same linguistic context and tense choice. This study involves sixty-four participants, all of them Limeno Spanish monolinguals. Results show a significant effect of the linguistic factors on the selection of the preterite and the present perfect, as well as of their interactions with social factors. They also give evidence of different patterns of tense choice according to social to strata, which seem to be linked to language contact. Results also provide evidence of the interface between lexical properties and the grammatical categories of external aspect and tense, thus giving information about how the language components interact, and indirectly supporting a modular approach to the study of language.


Vitamin D and its derivatives (deltanoids) are potent regulators of cell proliferation and differentiation. Targeted production of proteolytic enzymes like serine proteases and metalloproteinases is an important part of the invasive process of cancer cells. Treatment with 1a25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1a,25(OH)2D3] decreases the invasive properties of breast carcinoma cells. Here we have analyzed the effects of 1a,25(OH)2D3 and its synthetic analogues on the secretion and cell surface association of the components of the plasminogen activator (PA) system and on the secretion of certain matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their inhibitors in MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma cells. Deltanoids were able to decrease the secretion of urokinase PA and tissue-type PA activity in a dose-dependent manner and to increase PA inhibitor 1 secretion, leading to reduced total PA activity. CB1093 was the most potent analogue, effective at concentrations several logarithms lower than 1a,25(OH)2D3. Transient transfection of different urokinase PA promoter reporter constructs to HT-1080 fibrosarcoma indicator cells indicated that vitamin Dresponsive sequences were located between nucleotides 22350 and 21870 in the 5* region of the promoter. Treatment of MDA-MB-231 cells with 1a,25(OH)2D3 or other deltanoids also resulted in decreased MMP-9 levels in association with increased tissue inhibitor of MMP 1 activity. Membrane-type 1-MMP expression or proteolytic processing were not appreciably affected by deltanoids. Vitamin D and its analogues caused a decrease in Matrigel invasion assays of MDA-MB-231 cells. Cancer cell invasion is associated with coordinated secretion of proteolytic enzymes and their inhibitors. Vitamin D and its derivatives can evidently influence invasive processes by two means: (a) decreasing the expression and activity of cell invasion-associated serine proteases and metalloproteinases; and (b) inducing their inhibitors.


Abstract. It has been found that pick-up ions at their dynamical incorporation into the solar wind modify the original conditions of the asymptotic solar wind plasma flow. In this respect, it has meanwhile been revealed in many papers that these type of solar wind modifications, i.e. deceleration and decrease of effective Mach number, are not only due to the pick-up ion loading effects, but also to the action of pick-up ion pressure gradients. Up to now only the effects of radial pick-up ion pressure gradients were considered, however, analogously but latitudinal pressure gradients also appear to be important. Here we study the effects of radial and latitudinal pick-up ion pressure gradients, occurring especially during solar minimum conditions at mid-latitude regions where slow solar wind streams change to fast solar wind streams. First, we give estimates of the latitudinal wind components connected with these gradients, and then after revealing its importance, present a more quantitative calculation of solar wind velocity and density perturbations resulting from these pressure forces. It is shown that the relative density perturbations near and in the ecliptic increase with radial distance and thus may well explain the measured non-spherically symmetric density decrease with distance. We also show that the solar wind decelerations actually seen with Voyager-1/2 are in conciliation with interstellar hydrogen densities of n H∞ ≥0.1cm -3 , in contrast to earlier claims for n H∞ =0.05cm -3 .


Objective To implement a curriculum using simulation and skills training to augment a Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) rotation within a pediatric clerkship. Background PEM faculty are often challenged with a high learner to teacher ratio in a chaotic clinical setting. This challenge was heightened when our pediatric clerkship's traditional 1-week PEM rotation (consisting of 4 students completing four 8-hour ED shifts/week) expanded to 8 students every 2 weeks. We sought to meet this challenge by integrating simulation-based education into the rotation. Methods Clerkship students from March to June 2012 completed our traditional rotation. Students between July and October 2012 completed the new PEM-SIM curriculum with 19 hours ED shifts/week and 16 hours/week of simulation/skills training. Pre/post-tests evaluated 1) medical management/procedural comfort (five-point Likert scale); and 2) PEM knowledge (15 multiple-choice questions). Results One hundred and nine students completed the study (48 traditional, 61 PEM-SIM). Improvement in comfort was significantly higher for the PEM-SIM group than the traditional group for 6 of 8 (75%) medical management items (p<0.05) and 3 of 7 (43%) procedures, including fracture splinting, lumbar puncture, and abscess incision/drainage (p<0.05). PEM-SIM students had significantly more improvement in mean knowledge compared to the traditional group (p<0.001). Conclusions We have successfully integrated 16 hours/week of faculty-facilitated simulation-based education into a PEM rotation within our clerkship. This curriculum is beneficial in clinical settings with high learner to teacher ratios and when patient care experiences alone are insufficient for all students to meet rotation objectives.


Background: In most cases of pulmonary or pleural post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) complications, surgical interventions are performed to treat these complications, but the method of the surgery and its outcome in these patients is not clearly defined. We present 40 patients with pulmonary and pleural complications after COVID-19 who required surgical intervention. Patients and Methods: In this case series, patients' data were prospectively collected from April to August 2022 at Masih Daneshvari Hospital. Inclusion criteria were patients with COVID-19 who were referred to the thoracic surgery department because of pleural effusion, pneumothorax, empyema, infected or non-infected pneumatocele, and lung cavity with suspected fungal infections. The required intervention for each patient was assessed. Results: Patients' mean age was 49.21 ± 11.5 (30-69 years). Nine patients (22.5%) were female. Pure pleural effusion was reported in five (12.5 %), pneumothorax in eight (20%), empyema in 29 (72.5%), and infected pneumatocele in two patients (5%). Twelve patients had bronchial fistulas that were clarified at the time of surgery that needed repair after resection. In 13 patients (32.5%) because of pleural effusion or pneumothorax, a chest tube was inserted and after two weeks lungs were fully expanded. All patients with pneumothorax were managed by chest tube initially but in the presence of continuous air leakage and non-expanding lungs surgical thoracotomy or video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) were considered for correction. In 10 patients who required thoracotomy, the chest tube was necessary for more than one month. In most of the patients, there were small cystic lesions or peripheral bronchopleural fistula. In 17 (42.5%) cases of empyema, necrotic pneumonia was documented and eight patients (20%) had aspergillus infection in the pathology report and two patients had a pulmonary abscess. Conclusions: Pleural COVID-19 complications can be treated with conventional surgical methods such as chest tube insertion, and debridement of infected tissue with no mortality and further complications.


Background: Limited studies have examined the contribution of lifestyle behaviors to dietary quality among individuals with and without type 2 diabetes. Objective: To examine the relationship between selected lifestyle behaviors independently, and in combination with other lifestyle behaviors, and dietary quality by diabetes status. Methods: This study used a representative sample of U.S. adults 20+ years of age (n = 4097) using NHANES 20072010. Six individual lifestyle behaviors were selected as main exposure variables: Self-reported alcohol consumption, sleep adequacy, on a special diet, supplement intake, smoking status, and physical activity. Total HEI-2010 and the AHEI-2010 were used as measures of dietary quality and were calculated using data from the first 24-hour dietary recall. Multivariable Linear Regression was used to examine relationships among lifestyle behaviors independently, and in combination with total HEI-2010 and AHEI-2010 scores, after adjusting for demographic and health characteristics. Results: Selected lifestyle behaviors independently, and in combination, were significantly associated with total HEI2010 and AHEI-2010 scores by diabetes status (p < 0.05). Diabetics were more likely to report being on a special diet, taking dietary supplements, and not drinking alcohol but were less likely to report getting adequate sleep and meeting physical activity guidelines. Results indicate that being on a special diet and taking dietary supplements had the highest coefficient in relation to dietary quality for diabetics [total HEI-2010 score: β = 5.08, p = 0.0011 for on a special diet, total AHEI-2010 score: β = 3.89, p = 0.0019 for supplement intake]. However, the coefficients of the combined Lifestyle Behaviors score in relation to dietary quality were fairly similar for diabetics and prediabetics (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Diabetics did better on several of the lifestyle indicators and had higher HEI-2010 and AHEI-2010 scores, suggesting that diabetic education and nutrition counseling may have influence on their behavior.


In a follow-up of 43 private psychiatric patients referred for open bimedial prefrontal lobotomies between 1948 and 1970, patients were rated by personal interviews and review of medical records for symptom improvement and organic brain syndromes. Initial diagnoses were obsessive-compulsive neurotic (27), hypochondriacal neurotic (five), manic-deprresive (depressed) (one), and schizophrenic (ten). All had been severely impaired by illness intractable to extensive previous treatment. Thirty-five were found to be virtually free of symptoms that prompted operation, six had some improvement, and two were unimproved. Six had moderate to severe organic brain syndromes; three had seizure disorders necessitating treatment; and 17 incurred substantial weight gains. Best results were for hypochondriacal and obsessive-compulsive neurotic patients with phobic symptoms: poorest results were for paranoid schizophrenic subjects. This study was undertaken to provide some increment of data that could aid ongoing efforts to evaluate the consequences of this treatment.