Publicly available internal tobacco industry documents were analyzed to answer the following questions regarding menthol's role in nicotine dependence: 1) What are the addiction and exposure measures and what are their relationships to menthol cigarette use? 2) Do menthol smokers show different signs or levels of nicotine dependence compared to non-menthol smokers? 3) Does menthol affect cigarette consumption (cigarettes per day) and do menthol smokers smoke more or fewer cigarettes per day compared to non-menthol smokers? 4) What is menthols' effect on nicotine metabolism (i.e. glucuronide formation) and do menthol smokers experience different nicotine exposure and/or altered nicotine metabolism as compared to nonmenthol smokers? (i.e. serum cotinine levels) 5) Does menthol have an effect on nicotine delivery? 6) Does menthol alter the addictiveness of smoking through sensory stimulation? Tobacco industry documents reveal at least two important reasons for menthol's use in cigarettes. A final collection of 309 documents was analyzed for this report, of which 72 were deemed relevant to one or more of the research questions and cited in this paper. Our analyses of these documents indicate 1) menthol is used in cigarettes to override the harsh taste of tobacco; 2) menthol has physiological effects, and it synergistically interacts with nicotine; 3) menthol makes low tar, low nicotine tobacco products that would otherwise be tasteless and unsatisfactory acceptable to smokers. Tobacco manufacturers manipulated menthol levels to produce tobacco products that would be easier to consume, especially for new and inexperienced smokers.


In this work we describe the realization of monometallic nanostructures by two simple electrodeposition steps. The surface of the modified electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscopy that confirms a homogeneous deposition of Pt nanospheres decorated with Pt nanoflowers. The so obtained nanostructured sensor exhibited good amperometric response towards hydrogen peroxide sensing at +0.30 V vs Ag|AgCl|Cl-. Therefore, it is especially useful toward glucose detection with reduced interferences. Glucose oxidase was immobilized onto the nanostructured surface by cross-linking with glutaraldehyde and the biosensor was characterized by chronoamperometric method in phosphate buffer. The biosensor showed a sensitivity of 29 ± 2 μA/(mM cm2). Measurements in cell media reveal that the Pt-Pt hybrid nanostructures are promising for real-time glucose monitoring in real biosample.


Ecological trait diversity metrics have been used to highlight the impacts of agriculture. Such metrics can also be used to include human nutrition—an important dimension of human well-being—into assessments of agroecosystem function and services. Although crop yield is a common agroecosystem metric, it does not capture the multiple ways in which agriculture impacts people and the environment.
Given that nutrient composition of crops is a set of functional traits, I apply a suite of functional diversity metrics—functional divergence, richness, evenness and dispersion—to crop production data from south-eastern Senegal. I also propose a new nutritional diversity metric—potential nutrient adequacy—to assess nutritional outcomes of different agricultural systems.
I demonstrate high variability in nutritional diversity and potential adequacy among households and administrative departments in south-eastern Senegal. I show that most households produce nutritionally similar crops, rather than crops with high nutritional diversity. As a result, most households currently do not produce enough nutrients to meet minimal nutritional requirements.
Using a scenario approach, I show that intensifying yields of staple crops and diversifying production to include non-staples can increase nutritional production and the potential to meet nutritional needs. I further show that a combination of intensification and diversification is needed to meet the need for a diverse group of nutrients.
Policy implications. I develop a new metric that indicates the potential for a food system to meet the nutritional requirements of a population. This tool will allow practitioners to assess the nutritional adequacy of a food system and to design food systems that optimize nutritional outcomes. Application of this metric to different production scenarios showed that combining yield intensification with crop diversification is important to meeting full nutritional targets for smallholder agriculture. There is a broader need for incorporating other social and socio-ecological traits into trait-based assessments of agroecosystems.


This article provides an analysis of company exit tax regimes with a particular focus on the recent ECJ decision in Commission v. Denmark (C-261/11). The author outlines the acceptable scope of exit tax regimes for companies, analyses unresolved issues, which include the length of deferral, guarantees for deferred exit taxes and interest charges levied on deferred exit taxes and examines the EU compatibility of the proposed Danish exit tax regime.


We describe a system for large-scale audiovisual translation and dubbing, which translates videos from one language to another. The source language's speech content is transcribed to text, translated, and automatically synthesized into target language speech using the original speaker's voice. The visual content is translated by synthesizing lip movements for the speaker to match the translated audio, creating a seamless audiovisual experience in the target language. The audio and visual translation subsystems each contain a large-scale generic synthesis model trained on thousands of hours of data in the corresponding domain. These generic models are fine-tuned to a specific speaker before translation, either using an auxiliary corpus of data from the target speaker, or using the video to be translated itself as the input to the fine-tuning process. This report gives an architectural overview of the full system, as well as an in-depth discussion of the video dubbing component. The role of the audio and text components in relation to the full system is outlined, but their design is not discussed in detail. Translated and dubbed demo videos generated using our system can be viewed at this https URL


Megatrends are long-term, ubiquitous, global and robust transformations influencing the developments of business, environment, economy, society, cultures and citizens' lives on a local and global scale. There is an important grey literature focusing on these megatrends and their impacts. However, this analysis is often not territorialized, despite the gradient of consequences that megatrends might have at the regional level. This working paper proposes a methodological approach combining qualitative insights (in-cluding foresight scenarios) and quantitative data to regionalize the impacts of a series of megatrends and types of impacts. This approach is then applied to a sample of megatrends and types of impacts at the EU level. Findings suggest that the megatrends' impacts are not place-neutral in the EU context and that patterns of the most/least affected regions depend on the individual megatrend. Indeed, different patterns can be observed (e.g., North/South, East/West, urban/non-urban, quasi-homogeneous impacts), often in opposite directions for different megatrends. Moreover, the regional level of development cannot be used as a reliable predictor of the impacts, as the correlation may be positive, negative or even inexistent depending on the megatrend. This paper proposes a methodology to assess the economic impacts of megatrends at the level of regions, that is flexible enough to account for a diversity of impacts and compatible with credible scenarios explaining how these impacts might materialize. The developed methodology is then applied at the level of EU regions to a sample of megatrends that are commonly addressed in the literature, namely: assessment


Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe psychiatric illness that is characterized by intrusive and senseless thoughts and impulses (obsessions) and by repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Family, twin, and segregation studies support the presence of both genetic and environmental susceptibility factors, and the only published genome scan for OCD identified a candidate region on 9p24 at marker D9S288 that met criteria for suggestive significance (Hanna et al. 2002). In an attempt to replicate this finding, we genotyped 50 pedigrees with OCD, using microsatellite markers spanning the 9p24 candidate region, and analyzed the data, using parametric and nonparametric linkage analyses under both a narrow phenotype model (DSM-IV OCD definite; 41 affected sib pairs) and a broad phenotype model (DSM-IV OCD definite and probable; 50 affected sib pairs). Similar to what was described by Hanna et al. (2002), our strongest findings came with the dominant parameters and the narrow phenotype model: the parametric signal peaked at marker D9S1792 with an HLOD of 2.26 ( alpha =0.59), and the nonparametric linkage signal (NPL) peaked at marker D9S1813 with an NPL of 2.52 (P=.006). These findings are striking in that D9S1813 and D9S1792 lie within 0.5 cM (<350 kb) of the original 9p24 linkage signal at D9S288; furthermore, pedigree-based association analyses also implicated the 9p24 candidate region by identifying two markers (D9S288 and GATA62F03) with modest evidence (P=.046 and .02, respectively) for association.


One of the key concepts in network science is network centrality. Centrality seeks to provide the answer to the question of who (or what) is important in a network depending on the underlying process forming the network and the empirical phenomenon in question. In a nutshell, an actor in a network is more central if they have better relations, where the definition of better relations depends on the conceptualization of structural importance. Applications of centrality can be found in any field where networks arise. In social networks, we may simply be interested in finding the most popular user. In bioinformatics, centrality is used to detect essential proteins in protein-protein interaction networks (Jeong et al., 2001). Even in sports, centrality is applied to rank athletes or teams (Radicchi, 2011). A myriad of indices have been proposed, all with differing interpretations of what constitutes a central position within a network. Although netrankr offers this traditional approach to network centrality, its main focus lies on alternative assessments of centrality based on partial and probabilistic rankings in networks.


The development of new modes of diagnosis and targeted therapy for lung cancer is dependent on the identification of unique cell surface features on cancer cells and isolation of reagents that bind with high affinity and specificity to these biomarkers. We recently isolated a 20-mer peptide which binds to the lung adenocarcinoma cell line, H2009, from a phage-displayed peptide library. We show here that the cellular receptor for this peptide, TP H2009.1, is the uniquely expressed integrin, alphavbeta6, and the peptide binding to lung cancer cell lines correlates to integrin expression. The peptide is able to mediate cell-specific uptake of a fluorescent nanoparticle via this receptor. Expression of alphavbeta6 was assessed on 311 human lung cancer samples. The expression of this integrin is widespread in early-stage nonsmall cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Log-rank test and Cox regression analyses show that expression of this integrin is significantly associated with poor patient outcome. Preferential expression is observed in the tumors compared with the surrounding normal lung tissue. Our data indicate that alphavbeta6 is a prognostic biomarker for NSCLC and may serve as a receptor for targeted therapies. Thus, cell-specific peptides isolated from phage biopanning can be used for the discovery of cell surface biomarkers, emphasizing the utility of peptide libraries to probe the surface of a cell.


OBJECTIVE
The authors report their experience with biliary tract stones in adult and pediatric heart transplant patients, and review the current literature relative to this problem.

SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA
Prior studies in adults have noted that heart transplant patients frequently have cholelithiasis, but offer no consensus about treatment strategy. Few studies exist for pediatric heart transplant patients. A higher rate of hemolysis and cyclosporine-induced changes in bile metabolism may contribute to lithogenesis in this population.

METHODS
A chart review was conducted for 211 patients who had heart transplants between January 1988 and September 1994 to determine prevalence of biliary tract stones, management strategies used, and outcome.

RESULTS
Of 175 long-term heart transplant survivors, 52 (29.7%) had stones detected: 32.8% of adults (47/143) and 15.6% of children (5/32). The majority of patients (31) were diagnosed 4 months (mean) after transplantation; cholelithiasis developed in 10 of these patients (32%) within 11 months (median) after a negative ultrasound. Symptoms developed in 45% of patients. All patients underwent either elective (36) or urgent (6) cholecystectomy via an open (32) or laparoscopic (10) approach, or endoscopy for common bile duct stones (2). There were no deaths or complications during a follow-up period of up to 7 years.

CONCLUSION
Heart transplant patients have a high prevalence of symptomatic biliary tract stone disease. They can be treated safely via an open or laparoscopic approach after transplantation. The authors recommend routine gallbladder ultrasound screening and elective cholecystectomy in the post-transplant period if stones are detected.


In this brief essay I would like to pursue the notion that in the world of books we may be able to observe the clash between publishers catering to conventional reading and buying habits, and the expectations of readers who don't consider themselves bound by the traditions and customs of the field. If asked, these readers might confess to regarding the traditions and customs of the book trade as antiquated, and no longer relevant in today's world of instant and constant access to information, and certainly not applicable to them. Publishers have had to adjust their practices to the unfamiliar expectations of a new reading public many times in the history of the book. These changing expectations have concerned both the content (the 'what') and the form (the 'how') of reading. The mentality in the publishing industry is obviously going to have to reflect all the various mentalities that consumers display, including this pervasive but elusive online mentality. If the analysis I presented in this essay is in any way correct, it follows that there is a need for the book industry, and especially trade publishing to do market research. We clearly cannot speak of a reading crisis, with probably more written information being produced and consumed than ever before in history. But it does appear that a buying crisis is looming in the book industry. The sort of market research that is called for is not the sort that individual publishers should or can perform; it is the sort that policy makers, educationalists, and the book industry need to engage in collectively. For surely it makes sense to find out what various identifiable segments of the market would like to read, and how they would like to access their reading, and how much and how they would be prepared to pay for it.


As other faiths have done, wherever Muslims went they established communities and designed and built religious facilities for congregational prayers. Muslim communities in Western cultures constitute a clientele for mosque architecture that did not exist before the 1950s. During the early 1960s significant numbers of Muslims immigrated to Europe and North America. In the mid-'60s they felt the need to express their presence by erecting mosques. The mosque in a non-Muslim setting became a symbol, a point of reference that provides an umbrella under which people of a common belief can unite and interact. It is a catalyst for developing community spirit, promotes collective strength, and imbibes values that pertain to human behavior and code of conduct. In Europe and North American, Muslim communities are minorities in predominately Christian and non-Muslim cultures whose great churches, temples, and synagogues date back to several centuries. Mosques are perceived as non-verbal statements that convey environmental messages of presence. They differ dramatically from mosques built by communities in Muslim countries for everyday use. This is evident in early mosques built in London, Paris, Hamburg, and Washington, and later in New Mexico, Indiana, and Toronto.


Tris-dipicolinate lanthanide complex, Na3.[Ln(DPA)3], where DPA stands for pyridine-2,6 dicarboxylate, was used to obtain derivative crystals of hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL). Derivative crystals were prepared by co-crystallization using conditions close to those leading to the native tetragonal HEWL crystals by adding in the crystallization drops solutions of Ce or Lu complexes to a final concentration of 50-100 mM. The crystals, belonging to a new monoclinic form of lysozyme, space group C2, were diffracting to a resolution never achieved with lysozyme crystals. Diffraction data for the Ce and Lu derivative crystals were recorded to resolutions of 0.80 and 0.85 Å, respectively. Taking advantage of the anomalous signal of Lu (f'' = 7.8 e at λ = 0.85 Å), experimental phases were determined by the SAD method using the program SHARP [1]. Most of the atoms in the structure could be individually observed in the experimental electron-density map, similar in quality to the final 2Fo-Fc map.


On helically-cut strips of rabbit mesenteric artery contracted with phenylephrine, histamine in the presence of mepyramine caused a partial relaxation at 42 degrees C which was potentiated by reducing the temperature to 25 degrees C. However, under the same conditions, the selective H2 agonist, dimaprit, caused a smaller partial relaxation not enhanced by cooling the strips. Neither changing the temperature range (to 38 degrees and 22 degrees C), deleting the H1 blocker, nor substitution of another H1 blocker (pyribenzamine) resulted in an enhanced relation to dimaprit in the cold. Prior reserpinization of the rabbit did not abolish the cooling-enhanced relaxation to histamine, but did abolish the reversal of relaxation observed at high (10(-3) M) histamine concentrations. Metiamide (3 X 10(-4) M) blocked both histamine (H2)- and dimaprit-induced relaxations more effectively in cooled strips. Thus the H2 receptor activity observed in cooled strips differs in selectivity for the two agonists and antagonist from that observed at normal temperature.


This article examines the political economy of for-profit international development contracting and its growing convergence with private military contracting. It attempts a genealogy of contemporary for-profit development contracting, underlining how the ability of for-profit development firms to leverage their simultaneous integration into the global corporate-financial architecture and the global development regime has been central to their spectacular growth. The article maps specific modalities and opportunity structures — contracting vehicles and procurement practices; the politics of the market structure; the contract culture and vendorism; shared circuitries of knowledge and power — which are enabling for-profit contractors to consolidate their influence over the international development regime. It also traces the blurring of boundaries between development and security and how this is shaped and used by development contractors and private military firms alike. The author highlights how a combination of corporate diversification and mergers and acquisitions has paved the way for a market-led development-security assemblage and the birth of the 'private military-development corporation', which profits equally from war, peace, reconstruction and development. The study focuses largely on the USA and UK owing to the scale of their international development regimes and for-profit development markets.


Takaful business in Malaysia is governed by Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 which provides for the regulations of Takaful and other Islamic finance related business in Malaysia. However, the Act itself is not comprehensive and is relying on many other established Acts that mostly based on the principles of English Common Law. Hence, this paper will evaluate the Islamic ruling of applying the Common Law in the Act based on the Islamic doctrine al-'Urf. The analysis finds that the application of the Common Law in Islamic Financial Services Act is generally permissible provided that the rules do not contradict with any existing Islamic texts.


Mutants of a catalytically inactive variant of Proteinase 3 (PR3)—iPR3-Val103 possessing a Ser195Ala mutation relative to wild-type PR3-Val103—offer insights into how autoantigen PR3 interacts with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs) in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and whether such interactions can be interrupted. Here we report that iHm5-Val103, a triple mutant of iPR3-Val103, bound a monoclonal antibody (moANCA518) from a GPA patient on an epitope remote from the mutation sites, whereas the corresponding epitope of iPR3-Val103 was latent to moANCA518. Simulated B-factor analysis revealed that the binding of moANCA518 to iHm5-Val103 was due to increased main-chain flexibility of the latent epitope caused by remote mutations, suggesting rigidification of epitopes with therapeutics to alter pathogenic PR3•ANCA interactions as new GPA treatments.


Background:Insulin-like growth factor-1 and serum albumin levels can be used as markers of nutritional status. Although both of these markers are influenced by protein intake, several researches showed conflicting results about correlation between albumin and IGF-1. Study in centenarian found no correlation between albumin and IGF-1, while other studies which used different patients showed association between them. This study was conducted to confirm whether there was an association between IGF-1 and serum albumin levels, especially in hospitalized elderly malnourished patients in acute ward before discharged.

Method : This was a cross-sectional study performed on 55 hospitalized elderly patients aged 60 years and above with malnutrition. Patients were examined for their nutritional status with the criteria based on Mini Nutritional Assessment. Patients were also measured for their IGF-1 and serum albumin levels.

Results: Fifty-five elderly patients with malnutrition, a male to female ratio of 31:69, and a mean age of 72.62 (8.85) years were enrolled in the study. The mean of IGF-1 level was 62.25 (22.89) ng/mL and the mean of serum albumin level was 3.26 (0.69) g/dL. The correlation coefficient between IGF-1 and albumin was 0.44 (p 0.001), and -0.43 between IGF-1 and age (p 0.001). There was no relationship between albumin and age.


This editorial describes the process of periodic evaluation by CAPES, based on commercial indices proposed by companies such as the ISI FI by Thomson Reuters and SCImago by Scopus and public indices as proposed by SciELO and other freely calculated indices based on Google Scholar and investigates the impact position of the journal Ambiente & Agua compared with journals from the SciELO base. Results show that Ambiente & Agua is in the right path in the search for quality. Its editorial board strongly recommends that Brazilian public scientific agencies consider tools that are cost free and have large coverage for impact evaluation to allow the impact assessment of a range of emerging journals in a common and wide basis for all scientific journals.


In this work, coefficients of a high-pass analog filter transfer function are optimized with evolutionary algorithms. The aim is to approximate transfer characteristic obtained with coefficients optimized with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithms to ideal high-pass fitler characteristic. Simulation results show that approximation errors obtained with evolutionary methods in short computation time is less than traditional methods.


The number of territories of waders were counted in an area of 460 km2 around 56°37'N; 14°20'E. The most important breeding sites for waders were closely monitored in several years, 1969–1981 and again 2015–2018. Most species declined strongly, with the exception of Charadrius dubius which colonized exploited peat bogs without vegetation and open man-made gravel surfaces. Some mires were drained in the first study period, which can explain up to 20% of recorded population declines of some species (Pluvialis apricaria, Numenius arquata, Tringa glareola). Other likely causes are earlier hay harvest and with different methods. Abandonment of cattle grazing of pastures on many small farms also occurred between the study periods. Several wader species forage on wet pastures. Predation on small young of waders may have increased. The crane Grus grus has increased dramatically in the study area and small young of waders most likely is part of the food of cranes. Changes at foraging sites during migration and in winter may be contributing causes of wader declines as well as climate change.


The 2000 presidential election was a disaster for the legitimacy of the electoral process in America, leaving lasting impressions on citizens' attitudes and behaviors regarding campaigns and elections. This dissertation has two main goals. The first is to discover the determinants of attitudes about election fairness in the United States. In broad terms, this is an exploration of the variables that influence attitudes about controversial moments in American politics. More specifically, the emphasis is on the comparative importance of procedural concerns, partisan interest, and ideological differences in determining attitudes about the fairness of American elections. Second, I investigate the effect of different kinds of procedural problems in elections on political attitudes and behaviors. Variables of interest include trust in government, political efficacy, interest and participation in campaign activity. This study focuses on attitudes and behaviors related to the 2000 presidential election, and to a lesser extent, subsequent elections in 2002 and 2004. It also provides original experimental data that involves hypothetical election scenarios, with variation in procedural problems and election outcomes.The decline in trust in government and political participation widely noted by scholars in recent years suggests that perceptions of procedural problems and self-interested political actors may play a part in public disillusionment with government and democratic processes. Overall, then, this dissertation is a study of the consequences of watershed events in American politics on faith and engagement in the political process.


SDBS modified graphene was prepared by electrochemical method using Sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) as electrolyte and graphite rod as electrode. The anode graphite rod was corroded and deposited at the bottom of the electrolyte solution. The obtained graphene was characterized by Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR). AFM images indicated that most of the layers had the thickness of less than 2 nm, suggesting the fromation of single layer of graphene. The resulting graphene showed very good dispersion stability both in water and in organic solvents (ethanol, acetone).


The research for the innovative training model is meaningful, because it is the key of vocational college service for regional economic development, foster high-quality practical and technical talents. The research for the cooperation of college and factory can create sustainable training development environment, and increasing the effectiveness of training. At the same time, the constructive proposal of teacher groups' mutual recruitment and communication can solve the contradiction of training organization's structure. In the end, the research has highly feasibility due to it focuses on profits, responsibility, and management mechanism between colleges and enterprises.


The present work concerns the turbulent flow inside a rotor-stator cavity with superimposed throughflow. The authors focused their analysis on a simple two-faced disk cavity, without shrouds, with interdisk-spacing sufficiently large so that the boundary layers developed on each disk are separated and the flow is turbulent. In such a system, the solid body rotation of the core predicted by Batchelor can develop. The evolution of the core-swirl ratio of the rotating fluid with an outward throughflow is studied by applying a classical experimental correlation, inserted in a one-dimensional (1D) in-house developed code. Results are compared to those predicted by CFD computations. Due to the discrepancies revealed, the authors provided a correction of the experimental correlation, based on CFD computation. Results thus obtained are finally in good agreement with CFD predictions.


In this paper we study bipartite, first order-networks where the nodes take on leader or follower roles. In particular, we let the leaders' positions be static and assume that they are only intermittently visible to the followers. This is an assumption that is inspired by the way female silkworm moths only intermittently release pheromones to be detected by the males. The main result in this paper states that if the followers execute the linear agreement protocol, they will converge to the convex hull spanned by the leaders (may they be visible or not).


Over the past half-century, Eric Voegelin has produced a demanding body of writing on the philosophy of history and the history of political theory since antiquity. This is the first full-scale treatment of his inquiry into the reality of man's political existence. It includes close readings of the texts, with Voegelin's own comments on them interspersed, offering a thorough explication of the philosopher's quest. Incorporating an "Autobiographical Memoir" prepared in collaboration with Voegelin especially for the volume, Ellis Sandoz interweaves the events of this great thinker's life with the philosophical inquiry to which that life has been devoted. Among the uniquely engaging biographical subjects covered are Voegelin's reminiscences of his involvement with such seminal minds as Max Weber, and with Karl Kraus, Hans Kelsen, and other lights of Vienna's intellectual community of the 1920s and 1930s; a full discussion of his early responses to national socialism and his escape from the Anschluss in 1938; and a summary of his early years in America, with particular attention to the years at Louisiana State University with Cleanth Brooks, Robert Penn Warren, and Robert Heilman. Carefully analyzing Voegelin's contribution to our understanding of ourselves, Sandoz convincingly argues that Voegelin's achievement is revolutionary. He emphasizes the common sense running through Voegelin's thought, and reveals how Voegelin reached a new analysis of reality and provides us with a new science of human affairs. Sandoz does not reveal the "truth to end the quest for truth," but shows how such "stop history" answers are defective. Exploring the meaning of that "first truth" as it has been intellectually and spiritually unraveled by one of our century's leading thinkers, Voegelinian Revolution shows anyone interested in politics and human affairs how to follow Voegelin's path. This book will be of interest to historians, political theorists, students of philosophy and religion, and educated readers concerned about the plight of American/Western civilization and looking for a new view on our current "crisis."


STUDY OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of gabapentin enacarbil (GEn) 1200 mg or 600 mg compared with placebo in subjects with moderate-to-severe primary restless legs syndrome (RLS).

METHODS
This 12-week, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study randomized subjects (1:1:1) to GEn 1200 mg, 600 mg, or placebo. Co-primary endpoints: mean change from baseline in International Restless Legs Scale (IRLS) total score and proportion of responders (rated as "very much" or "much" improved) on the investigator-rated Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scale (CGI-I) at Week 12 LOCF for GEn 1200 mg compared with placebo. Secondary endpoints included GEn 600 mg compared with placebo on the IRLS and CGI-I at Week 12 LOCF and subjective measures for sleep. Safety and tolerability assessments included adverse events.

RESULTS
325 subjects were randomized (GEn 1200 mg = 113; 600 mg = 115; placebo = 97). GEn 1200 mg significantly improved mean [SD] IRLS total score at Week 12 LOCF (baseline: 23.2 [5.32]; Week 12: 10.2 [8.03]) compared with placebo (baseline: 23.8 [4.58]; Week 12: 14.0 [7.87]; adjusted mean treatment difference [AMTD]: -3.5; p = 0.0015), and significantly more GEn 1200 mg-treated (77.5%) than placebo-treated (44.8%) subjects were CGI-I responders (p < 0.0001). Similar significant results were observed with GEn 600 mg for IRLS (AMTD: -4.3; p < 0.0001) and CGI-I (72.8% compared with 44.8%; p < 0.0001). GEn also significantly improved sleep outcomes (Post-Sleep Questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Diary and Medical Outcomes Sleep Scale) compared with placebo. The most commonly reported adverse events were somnolence (GEn 1200 mg = 18.0%; 600 mg = 21.7%; placebo = 2.1%) and dizziness (GEn 1200 mg = 24.3%; 600 mg = 10.4%; placebo = 5.2%). Dizziness increased with increased dose and led to discontinuation in 2 subjects (GEn 1200 mg, n = 1; GEn 600 mg, n = 1). Somnolence led to discontinuation in 3 subjects (GEn 600 mg).

CONCLUSIONS
GEn 1200 mg and 600 mg significantly improve RLS symptoms and sleep disturbance compared with placebo and are generally well tolerated.


Summary In this overview of research on the two environmental weeds bitou bush (Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata (DC.) T.Norl.) and boneseed (C.m. subsp. monilifera (L.) Norl.), I list some of the more significant milestones in previous research as I perceive them before assessing the effectiveness of some present research. Throughout, I emphasize the importance of understanding the ecology of these two subspecies in southern Africa (their region of origin), especially as it relates to their management in southern Australia using biological agents. Further quantifi cation of the impacts of bitou bush and boneseed in reducing native biodiversity will be necessary information for the future, especially for boneseed. For more effective management of the weeds, it will be necessary to continue to exclude entry to Australia and New Zealand of the other four subspecies of Chrysanthemoides monilifera known from southern Africa. An optimal combination of agents for biological control of boneseed in southern Australia and New Zealand is also called for, as is the smarter re-vegetation of areas on which bitou bush and boneseed have been weakened by on-going management. The positive roles of bitou bush and boneseed in stabilizing dunes and in providing early winter food for some migrating native birds will become more signifi cant as these re-vegetation programs progress. Other impacts, either positive or neutral, on different groups of species and ecological processes must also be addressed before an integrated management system can be formulated to further reduce the negative impacts on coastal ecosystems of these two weeds of Australasian signifi cance.


The newsletter for the University of North Texas College of Music includes information about the faculty, staff, alumni, and activities of the College of Music.


This study investigated the reasons why the resident-participants of Brgy. Pena, Brgy. Malayog, Brgy. Cagmanipis Sur and Brgy. Cagmanipis Norte speak Cebuano. The researcher used narrative research design wherein, in-depth interviews were conducted to the participants of the barangays. Significant reasons revealed that the first settlers of the barangays originally came from Cebu and Masbate. The original settlers who came from Cebu and Masbate were Cebuano speakers in nature and this is due to the primary livelihood which is fishing. Further, the participants have strong language preservation and maintenance towards Cebuano language and a strong indicator of this is they are active speakers of their language. Hence, the participants positively see their language as their tool to communicate even with the majority speakers as they perceived their language not as a hindrance in participating in communication settings even with the Waray-Waray Speakers. Lastly, there is a precise establishment of habitual language use in a contact situation despite of contact with majority language speakers.


Abstract : While this contract was awarded in January 2015, it was finally approved in April 2016. Thus, all activities described in this Annual Report correspond to activities performed between April and September 2016.Despite these challenges, the project is now well underway and on track. A summary of accomplishments to date include: HRPO approval, Chart reviews to identify eligible subjects for this study at UCSF and Mt Sinai, Clinical evaluation and invitations to participate, mailing kits have been designed, prepared and started to being distributed to eligible participants, bacterial DNA is being purified from stool samples, quality control is being performed and Tob1/2D2 mice are currently being derived germ-free. These activities encompass most of the items described in the original SOW. Finally, while expenses have been posted according to the delayed start, the project is financially on track.


As an important cis-regulatory element, a promoter plays a key role in plant gene expression and regulation, and has been widely used in plant genetic engineering. The fatty acid elongase 1 (FAE1) promoter was isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana. Sequence analysis showed that the FAE1 promoter contains two Skn-1 motifs, one O2-site, and one G-box, which play important roles in controlling seed-preferred expression. Stearoyl-acyl carrier protein desaturase (SAD) catalyzes the conversion of stearic to oleic acid. 23 FAE1pro:GUS and 31 FAE1pro:SAD transgenic lines were obtained and confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In the FAE1pro:GUS transgenic lines, β-glucuronidase (GUS) staining was observed in immature leaves, young stems, flowers, and pods, indicating that FAE1 promoter is highly active in these tissues. Real-time PCR revealed that the FAE1 promoter-driven maize SAD gene was highly expressed in the seeds, followed by the pods and flowers; however, its expression level was low in the roots, stems, and leaves. Stearic acid and long-chain saturated fatty acid contents of seeds were significantly decreased; further, the ratio of total saturated fatty acids to unsaturated fatty acids was also reduced. These results indicate that FAE1 promoter is ideal for genetic engineering to improve seed oil composition.


ABSTRACT This paper investigates the process of taste transformation in body-centered consumption fields and the role of the body in this process. Although previous studies have investigated taste acquisition, the body is still commonly understood only as the enactor of the practices in this process. By analyzing the context of healthy living, this study identifies the body as a lived-in trigger of taste transformation and the main place where change unfolds. It demonstrates how, after taste transformation, the body becomes a lived-in enactor of practices that display mastery of the tenets of a taste regime but is still captured in normative systems that animate the desire for change. The findings reveal that the body is both situated in normative beauty systems and an embodied enactor of practices and that by unveiling its dual role, it allows individuals to navigate distinction-over and distinction-between.


Anti-exceptionalism about logic is the Quinean view that logical theories have no special epistemological status, in particular, they are not self-evident or justified a priori. Instead, logical theories are continuous with scientific theories, and knowledge about logic is as hard-earned as knowledge of physics, economics, and chemistry. Once we reject apriorism about logic, however, we need an alternative account of how logical theories are justified and revised. A number of authors have recently argued that logical theories are justified by abductive argument (e.g. Gillian Russell, Graham Priest, Timothy Williamson). This paper explores one crucial question about the abductive strategy: what counts as evidence for a logical theory? I develop three accounts of evidential confirmation that an anti-exceptionalist can accept: (1) intuitions about validity, (2) the Quine-Williamson account, and (3) indispensability arguments. I argue, against the received view, that none of the evidential sources support classical logic.


Lonicera japonica (Honeysuckle) Thunb. (Caprifoliaceae) is one of the oldest medicinal plants in known history. Sometimes referred to woodbine was once used widely to treat urinary complaints, asthma etc. Lonicera japonica is an ingredient of herbal tea and has been known thousands of years for its cooling and detoxification effects. According to the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, honeysuckle is taken orally for digestive disorders, enteritis, dysentery, urinary disorders, headache, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, malignant tumors etc. The objective of the present study is to identify the phytochemical constituents of Lonicera japonica in order to understand the nature of the principle components responsible for its medicinal property. Gas chromatography/Mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) system was employed to provide a rapid method to make characterization of the bioactive compounds present in the hydroethanolic extract from Lonicera japonica Flowers. Ethanolic extract of flower oil of Lonicera japonica evidenced the presence of multiple components in the extract. The structures of thirty seven compounds found in the hydroethanolic flower oil were suggested mainly by MS data, reference compounds and available mass spectra data in the literature. Flavanoids, alkaloids, phenolic acids, terpenes and steroids were found as the main constituents.


During the first decade of the 21st century most of Alaska experienced a cooling shift, modifying the long-term warming trend, which has been about twice the global change up to this time. All of Alaska cooled with the exception of Northern Regions. This trend was caused by a change in sign of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), which became dominantly negative, weakening the Aleutian Low. This weakening results in less relatively warm air being advected from the Northern Pacific. This transport is especially important in winter when the solar radiation is weak. It is during this period that the strongest cooling was observed. In addition, the cooling was especially pronounced in Western Alaska, closest to the area of the center of the Aleutian Low. The changes seen in the reanalyzed data were confirmed from surface observations, both in the decrease of the North-South atmospheric pressure gradient, as well as the decrease in the mean wind speeds for stations located in the Bering Sea area.


The interaction of lanthanum(III) with the catecholamines adrenaline (AD), noradrenaline (NAD), and dopamine (DP) has been investigated by potentiometric and spectrophotometric methods at 298.15 K in an I = 0.2 M KCl ionic medium. The protonation constants for the ligands and the stability constants of the La(III) complexes are calculated from the potentiometric data using "BEST" software. The LaHL and La(HL)2 complexes are reported in 1:1 and 1:2 molar ratios from the potentiometric and spectrophotometric data. The species distribution diagrams were also calculated. In all of the catecholamine systems, the coordination of the ligands to La(III) occurs via the phenolate sites (O; OH), but one of the phenolate protons does not dissociate. With respect to the ligands, the stability constants of the La(III) complexes decrease in the following order: dopamine > adrenaline > noradrenaline. The stability constants of these lanthanum(III) complexes are lower than the analogous Y(III) complexes due to the lower i...


We analysed migration strategies of the Osprey Pandion haliaetus on the poorly studied Eastern European–East African flyway. Four adult birds were equipped with GPS-based satellite-transmitters or data-loggers in their breeding sites in Estonia (north-eastern Europe) and tracked to their wintering grounds in Africa and back, during up to six migration cycles. Departure times, migration routes, as well as wintering and stopover sites varied remarkably between individuals but not much between years. Stopovers (2–30 days) were made mostly in Europe and less in the Middle East (Turkey) and north-eastern Africa (Egypt). The Ospreys did not avoid flying long distances over the sea, and the sea was crossed four times during the night. The current study adds to current knowledge on Osprey migration and should help to concentrate actions on protecting important flyways and stopover locations.


This article makes an original contribution to the literature on the developing area of private enforcement of EU competition law. It delivers a significant, rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the transposition across a broad selection of Member States (MS) of a major EU Directive introduced with the aim of harmonizing and facilitating competition law damages actions across the EU. It looks at the implementation of the Directive 2014/104/EU in sixteen MS. It analyses the solutions followed by each of those MS in addressing the various issues raised by the Directive (liability and compensation, joint liability, statute of limitations, quantification of harm, passing-on defence and indirect purchasers claims, access to evidence and collective redress).


Purpose of review This review looks at the acute effects of magnetic stimulation on urodynamic parameters and reviews the data on its use in the management of urinary incontinence. Recent findings Reported cure rates for stress incontinence immediately after a course of perineal magnetic stimulation range from 12.5 to 52.9% with good improvement occurring in 32% to 41%. However the effect seems temporary and dependent on the number of sessions. Sacral and pelvic floor magnetic stimulation have also been shown to increase cystometric capacity, inhibit detrusor overactivity and resolve overactive bladder symptoms acutely. Persistence of this effect with symptomatic improvement one week after sacral magnetic stimulation has been demonstrated. How magnetic stimulation suppresses detrusor contraction is not known. Prospective trials with the Neocontrol chair (Neotonus Inc, Marietta, Georgia, USA) also showed symptomatic improvement in 71 to 87% in the short term. However, the longer term data appear mixed. Summary Overall, the data available vary too much in terms of treatment protocols, patient mix and symptom severity to determine which group of patients might benefit most and what the optimal stimulation parameters are for each condition. Mean reductions in leak parameters, although statistically significant, may not always be clinically satisfactory. The beneficial effects also appear to be temporary and continuous treatment will probably be required. Further trials are needed to determine the optimum stimulation protocols for different situations and to compare magnetic stimulation with other forms of conservative pelvic floor therapy.


René de Challant, whose holdings ranged from northwestern Italy to the Alps and over the mountains into what is today western Switzerland and eastern France, was an Italian and transregional dynast. The spatially dispersed kind of lordship that he practiced and his lifetime of service to the house of Savoy, especially in the context of the Italian Wars, show how the Sabaudian lands, neighboring Alpine states, and even regions further afield were tied to the history of the Italian Renaissance. Situating René de Challant on the edge of the Italian Renaissance helps us to understand noble kin relations, political networks, finances, and lordship with more precision. A spatially inflected analysis of René's life brings to light several themes related to transregional lordship that have been obscured due to the traditional tendencies of Renaissance studies. It uncovers an 'Italy' whose boundaries extend not just into the Mediterranean, but into regions beyond the Alps.


Thermal expansion and hot deformation are two phenomena causing dimensional errors in investment casting. This error occurs in dimensions between the die and wax pattern. Therefore, the wax's thermo-physical and thermo-mechanical properties, the metal die features, and the process parameters affect the dimensions of the wax pattern. Some important effective process parameters are the injection temperature, die temperature, and holding time. In this paper, the effect of injection parameters on the dimensional accuracy of the wax model created by a metallic die is studied. The Taguchi formulation based on the design of experiments is applied to obtain the optimum condition in achieving the best dimensional accuracy. The studied specimen has an "F" shape with 10 dimensions. The root mean square (RMS) of dimensional differences is considered for accuracy analysis. The results show that if the injection temperature, injection pressure, and holding time are considered as 80oC, 20 bar, and 2.5 min, respectively, the best accuracy may be achieved.


Botryococcene biosynthesis is thought to resemble that of squalene, a metabolite essential for sterol metabolism in all eukaryotes. Squalene arises from an initial condensation of two molecules of farnesyl diphosphate (FPP) to form presqualene diphosphate (PSPP), which then undergoes a reductive rearrangement to form squalene. In principle, botryococcene could arise from an alternative rearrangement of the presqualene intermediate. Because of these proposed similarities, we predicted that a botryococcene synthase would resemble squalene synthase and hence isolated squalene synthase-like genes from Botryococcus braunii race B. While B. braunii does harbor at least one typical squalene synthase, none of the other three squalene synthase-like (SSL) genes encodes for botryococcene biosynthesis directly. SSL-1 catalyzes the biosynthesis of PSPP and SSL-2 the biosynthesis of bisfarnesyl ether, while SSL-3 does not appear able to directly utilize FPP as a substrate. However, when combinations of the synthase-like enzymes were mixed together, in vivo and in vitro, robust botryococcene (SSL-1+SSL-3) or squalene biosynthesis (SSL1+SSL-2) was observed. These findings were unexpected because squalene synthase, an ancient and likely progenitor to the other Botryococcus triterpene synthases, catalyzes a two-step reaction within a single enzyme unit without intermediate release, yet in B. braunii, these activities appear to have separated and evolved interdependently for specialized triterpene oil production greater than 500 MYA. Coexpression of the SSL-1 and SSL-3 genes in different configurations, as independent genes, as gene fusions, or targeted to intracellular membranes, also demonstrate the potential for engineering even greater efficiencies of botryococcene biosynthesis.


Background We examined the effectiveness of a structured collaboration in general practice between a practice nurse, a peer health educator, the general practitioner (GP) and a GP assistant in providing intensified preventive care for patients at high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Design A randomized controlled trial in three healthcare centres (18 GPs) in deprived neighbourhoods of two major Dutch cities. Methods Two hundred seventy-five high-risk patients (30-70 years) from various ethnic groups were randomized to intervention (n = 137) or usual care group (n = 138). We determined group differences in outcomes [10-year absolute risk (Framingham risk equation), blood pressure, lipids and body mass index] at 12-month follow-up. Results The 10-year absolute risk was reduced by 1.76% (standard error: 0.81) in intervention and by 2.27% (standard error: 0.69) in usual care group; the difference in mean change was 0.88% [95% confidence interval: −1.16 to 2.93]. In both groups significant reductions were observed in the following individual risk factors: total cholesterol, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, with no relevance between group differences. Conclusion The cardiovascular risk profile of intervention and control patients improved after 1-year follow-up. However, no extra effect of the structured preventive care on the risk for cardiovascular diseases was achieved. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil 15:488-493© 2008 The European Society of Cardiology


Examines the recent research on advertising in mainland China over the 1979‐1998 period. Suggests that findings show a sustained effort in academic research/publications on advertising in China is in the early stage of its development and whilst many areas have been researched, there are many more yet to be touched. Concludes that the research is seldom based on established theoretical or conceptual framework and the research methods and types of analysis used have not been very advanced when compared to general advertising research.


In the United States, pancreatic cancer is characterized by a low 5‐yr survival rate of approximately 6%, fewer than 10% of patients diagnosed with localized disease and thus candidates for "curative" surgical resection, increasing incidence and few established risk factors. Similar statistics are observed for other industrialized nations. With new evidence to suggest that pancreatic cancer develops over a number of years, markers that can better identify high risk patients and are applicable to earlier diagnosis hold promise for improving these dire statistics. Obesity is one of the few modifiable risk factors that has been associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer and also is related to increased risk of diabetes, a condition that in turn has been associated with pancreatic cancer development. Given recent data that nearly 70% of United States adults are overweight or obese, a clarification of the complex association between obesity and pancreatic cancer may disclose targets for prevention and intervention to decrease incidence and improve prognosis of this highly fatal disease. An overview of the current epidemiology and hypothesized biological mechanisms involved in the obesity‐pancreatic cancer association are presented. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Olfactory groove meningiomas compromise approximately 8-18% of intracranial meningiomas and harbor frequently large sizes when diagnosticated. We report 13 consecutive cases operated on Hospital Sao Paulo and Hospital Professor Edmundo Vasconcelos between 1995 and 2003. These patients were retrospectively studied regarding clinical preservation, surgical results and complications. The patients underwent uni or bifrontal craniotomies. There were nine complete resections including duramater and infiltrate bone and four patients with tumor removal and duramater coagulation. One patient died on post-operative period due to brain infarction and three patients had cerebrospinal fluid fistula that resolved. There were no symptomatic recurrence on the follow-up period of 3.3 years(range 11 m to 8 years). With current microsurgical techniques, these tumors can be resected safely with low morbidity.


BACKGROUND The use of laser photocoagulation with sparing of foveal photoreceptors to control exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with subfoveal involvement was investigated. METHODS Patients with exudative AMD and visual acuity of 20/100 or worse were treated with foveal-sparing laser photocoagulation. The full extent of the choroidal neovascular membrane was treated with laser photocoagulation in addition to any associated retinal pigment epithelial detachment, with sparing of the foveal avascular zone. Three cases in which visual acuity improved dramatically are presented. RESULTS Laser photocoagulation resulted in control of the exudative process in all patients. The three patients whose cases are presented had dramatic visual improvement. CONCLUSION Foveal-sparing laser photocoagulation is an alternative treatment modality in patients with exudative AMD involving the fovea. The definitive value of this treatment modality can only be determined by a prospective, randomized, clinical trial.


The modification of a commercial nanofiltration (NF) membrane (TFC‐S) with shape‐persistent dendritic molecules is reported. Amphiphilic aromatic polyamide dendrimers (G1–G3) are synthesized via a divergent approach and used for membrane active layer modification by direct percolation. The permeate samples collected from the percolation experiments are analyzed by UV‐visible spectroscopy to monitor the influence of dendrimer generations on percolation behavior and active layer modification. Further characterization of modified membranes by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and atomic force microscopy techniques reveals a relatively low‐level accumulation of dendrimers inside the original TFC‐S NF membrane active layer and subsequent formation of a coating of pure aramide dendrimers on top of the active layer. A PES‐PVA ultrafiltration membrane is used as a control membrane support (without an NF active layer) showing that structural compatibility between the dendrimers and support plays an important role in the membrane modification process. The performance of the modified TFC‐S membrane is evaluated on the basis of the rejection abilities for a variety of water contaminants having a range of molecular size and chemistry. As the water flux is inversely proportional to the thickness of the active layer, the amount of dendrimers deposited for specific contaminants are optimized to improve the solute rejection while maintaining high water flux.


The purposes of this study were to improve knowledge of regional vegetation patterns of C3 and C4 plants in the North American Great Plains and to use δ 13 C methodology and long-term research sites to determine contributions of small-grain crops to total soil organic carbon (SOC) now present. Archived and recent soil samples were used. Detailed soil sampling was in 1993 at long-term sites near Akron, CO, and Sidney, NE. After soil sieving, drying, and deliming, SOC and δ 13 C were determined using an automated C/N analyzer interfaced to an isotope-ratio mass spectrometer. Yield records from long-term experimental sites were used to estimate the amount of C3 plant residue C returned to the soil. Results from δ 13 C analyses of soils from near Waldheim, Saskatchewan, to Big Springs, TX, showed a strong north to south decrease in SOC derived from C 3 plants and a corresponding increase from C4 plants. The δ 13 C analyses gave evidence that C3 plant residue C (possibly from shrubs) is increasing at the Big Springs, TX, and Lawton, OK, sites. Also, δ 13 C analyses of subsoil and topsoil layers shows evidence of a regional shift to more C3 species, possibly because of a cooler climate during the past few hundreds to thousands of years. Data from long-term research sites indicate that the efficiency of incorporation of small-grain crop residue C was about 5.4% during 84 yr at Akron, CO, and about 10.5% during 20 yr at Sidney, NE. The 14 C age of the SOC at 0- to 10-cm depth was 193 yr and at 30 to 45 cm was 4000 yr; 14 C age of nonhydrolyzable C was 2000 and 7000 yr for these same two respective depths. Natural partitioning of the 13 C isotope by the photosynthetic pathways of C 3 and C4 plants provides a potentially powerful tool to study SOC dynamics at both regional and local scales.


The Notch ligands Dll1 and Dll3 are coexpressed in the presomitic mesoderm of mouse embryos. Despite their coexpression, mutations in Dll1 and Dll3 cause strikingly different defects. To determine if there is any functional equivalence, we replaced Dll1 with Dll3 in mice. Dll3 does not compensate for Dll1; DLL1 activates Notch in Drosophila wing discs, but DLL3 does not. We do not observe evidence for antagonism between DLL1 and DLL3, or repression of Notch activity in mice or Drosophila. In vitro analyses show that differences in various domains of DLL1 and DLL3 individually contribute to their biochemical nonequivalence. In contrast to endogenous DLL1 located on the surface of presomitic mesoderm cells, we find endogenous DLL3 predominantly in the Golgi apparatus. Our data demonstrate distinct in vivo functions for DLL1 and DLL3. They suggest that DLL3 does not antagonize DLL1 in the presomitic mesoderm and warrant further analyses of potential physiological functions of DLL3 in the Golgi network.


INTRODUCTION
obesity in childhood is predictive of obesity in adulthood and it is associated with adverse health effect apparent since childhood; however, the joint assessment of obesity and adverse events among children in clinical settings is unusual.

OBJECTIVES
to assess the association of overweight and obesity, abdominal obesity, and excess body fat with systolic [SBP] and diastolic [DBP] blood pressure, lipid profile and glucose levels; and to identify the best anthropometric indicator of such events.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
we conducted a cross-sectional study in a sample of 412 schoolchildren. The presence of overweight and obesity, abdominal obesity and excess body fat was determined among all participants; levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, high and low density lipoproteins, and glucose were measured in a subsample (n = 133). The associations of interest were assessed using adjusted linear and logistic regression models.

RESULTS
33% of the children were overweight or obese. Overall, overweight, obesity, abdominal obesity, and excess body fat were associated with elevated SBP and DBP and with a lipid profile and glucose levels that could indicate health risks among these children. Overweight and obesity were the best predictors of such events.

CONCLUSIONS
among these school-aged children, we observed that obesity was associated with high odds of having adverse health outcomes such as high blood pressure, lipids and glucose. Such adverse events can be predicted by the presence of obesity measured by BMI, which is a noninvasive, inexpensive and easy to implement measure.


Abstract. The scintillation data (S4-index) at the L-band frequency of 1.575GHz, recorded from a total of 18 GPS receivers installed at different locations in India under the GAGAN project, have provided us with a unique opportunity, for the first time in the Indian region, to make a simultaneous study of spatio-temporal and intensity characteristics of the trans-ionospheric scintillations during the 18-month, low sunspot activity (LSSA) period from January 2004 to July 2005. During this period, the occurrence of scintillations is found to be maximum around the pre-midnight hours of equinox months, with very little activity during the post-midnight hours. No significant scintillation activity is observed during the summer and winter months of the period of observation. The intensity (S4 index) of the scintillation activity is stronger around the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) region in the geographic latitude range of 15° to 25° N in the Indian region. These scintillations are often accompanied by the TEC depletions with durations ranging from 5 to 25 min and magnitudes from 5 to 15 TEC units which affect the positional accuracy of the GPS by 1 to 3 m. Further, during the intense scintillation events (S4>0.45≈10 dB), the GPS receiver is found to lose its lock for a short duration of 1 to 4 min, increasing the error bounds effecting the integrity of the SBAS operation. During the present period of study, a total of 395 loss of lock events are observed in the Indian EIA region; this number is likely to increase during the high sunspot activity (HSSA) period, creating more adverse conditions for the trans-ionospheric communications and the GPS-based navigation systems.


This paper introduces a statistical model to estimate and evaluate the predictability of the response of wheat yield to extreme temperature exposures and rainfall during the three phases of wheat grain production (vegetative, reproductive and grain filling) in northwestern (NW) Victoria, Australia. Unlike crop models which rely on functions developed from field experiments, we use observed data on annual wheat yields from 44 farms in the region over a period of 26 years (1993-2018). We find that the one-way fixed effects panel data model tends to outperform competing models in the out-of-sample prediction of future yields. We detect as positive drivers of NW Victorian wheat yield growth, exposure to moderate temperatures in all the three phases of the wheat production and total rainfall in the first two phases of the growing season. Providing adequate soil moisture, January-March rainfall also was found to be a positive driver of yields. Conversely, exposure to freezing temperatures during the vegetative and reproductive phases as well as to extreme high temperatures in all three phases of wheat production constitute negative drivers of NW Victorian wheat yields. The reproductive phase appears to be the most sensitive to climate variability, with adverse extreme heat and frost having sizeable negative impacts on yields. These negative effects are partially offset by increased rainfall in the same phase of wheat production. Moreover, we compare yield predictions by our statistical model to yield potentials calculated by APSIM. The gaps can be used to make recommendations on some adaptation opportunities available to farmers in the NW Victoria region.


LTE is well on its way to becoming the primary cellular standard, due to its performance and low cost. Over the next decade we will become dependent on LTE, which is why we must ensure it is secure and available when we need it. Unfortunately, like any wireless technology, disruption through radio jamming is possible. This paper investigates the extent to which LTE is vulnerable to intentional jamming, by analyzing the components of the LTE downlink and uplink signals. The LTE physical layer consists of several physical channels and signals, most of which are vital to the operation of the link. By taking into account the density of these physical channels and signals with respect to the entire frame, as well as the modulation and coding schemes involved, we come up with a series of vulnerability metrics in the form of jammer to signal ratios. The "weakest links" of the LTE signals are then identified, and used to establish the overall vulnerability of LTE to hostile interference.


Abstract Context: The American Diabetes Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology recommend that a dilated eye examination be performed on patients with diabetes mellitus during an initial assessment and at least annually there-after. Objectives: (1) To determine the extent to which patients with diabetes mellitus are aware that their condition can lead to ocular problems; (2) to determine the percentage of patients with diabetes mellitus who receive annual dilated eye examinations; (3) to discover reasons why patients with diabetes mellitus may not receive annual dilated eye examinations; and (4) to raise awareness among patients with diabetes mellitus of the importance of controlling their condition and of receiving frequent dilated eye examinations. Methods: A 9-question oral survey of individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus was administered in 2 clinical medical settings and 1 community setting in Harrison County, West Virginia, between April 7, 2007, and May 15, 2007. Questions covered participant knowledge of diabetes mellitus complications, frequency of receiving eye examinations, and other aspects of diabetes mellitus. Responses were statistically analyzed for correlations between participant knowledge and receiving eye examinations in the past year. Results: A total of 147 individuals with diabetes mellitus participated in the survey. Among the various conditions that diabetes mellitus can lead to, the surveyed individuals were most aware that diabetes mellitus can lead to eye disease, followed by kidney problems, ulcers, and heart problems. Approximately 70% of survey respondents received a dilated eye examination in the past year. The most common reasons given by the 30% of respondents who did not receive an eye examination were—in order of frequency—procrastination, having never been told it was necessary, and financial issues. Conclusion: Roughly 1 of every 4 surveyed patients with diabetes mellitus in this West Virginia study who did not receive an annual dilated eye examination was not aware of the need to do so. As osteopathic physicians, we can do more to optimize compliance with current recommendations for good health by continually educating our patients with diabetes mellitus about the need for eye examinations.


As the fusion community becomes more interconnected and problems become more complex, very close collaborative efforts are expected. This requires internetworking various codes, comparing solutions from multiple solvers, and sharing of data and data analysis tools. However, the data formats and data analysis tools used in fusion and plasma simulations are highly heterogeneous. Imposing one standard data format and one type of tools is unrealistic due to historical and practical reasons. In this paper, we propose to create the Fusion Simulation Markup Language or FSML - an XML based system for describing and accessing fusion and plasma physics simulation data of various formats used in the community. The system consists of syntactic and semantic metadata organized in specialized XML schemas and APIs written for accessing data from major data analysis and visualization tools. We present the preliminary results in formulation the FSML schema and APIs in AVS/Express modules, and demonstrate their application for two large three-dimension fusion simulation codes M3D and NIMROD. The results show that FSML schema and the set of tools developed provide a strong initial momentum and technology for the community effort to enhance data exchange and interoperability of analysis tools.


Encouraging disposal of unused prescription medications through the establishment of community-based prescription drug disposal programs is one prevention strategy that has been used by local communities to combat nonmedical prescription drug use (NMPDU) and associated consequences. The premise is that disposal programs (i.e., drop-boxes and take-back events) provide opportunities for community members to dispose of their unused or expired prescription drugs, ultimately reducing their availability for nonmedical use. While drop-boxes have been growing in popularity since their introduction in the early 2010s, the extent of their implementation and associated community characteristics had not been assessed. The first objective of this dissertation was to address this gap in knowledge by examining the diffusion of drop-boxes and community characteristics associated with drop-box implementation. Between 2007 and 2016, 311 drop-boxes had been implemented in North Carolina (NC), and 91 out of 100 NC counties had at least one drop-box. The majority of drop-boxes were located at law enforcement agencies but the number of drop-boxes installed in pharmacies had increased in recent years. Counties with a higher percentage of whites and college educated residents, a substance abuse prevention coalition, higher rates of controlled medications (i.e., prescription drugs with abuse potential) dispensed, higher prescription opioid overdose rates, and counties considered to be Appalachian were more likely to be early implementers of drop-boxes. Prescription drug disposal programs are primary prevention strategies intended to prevent initiation of NMPDU among adolescents by reducing the availability of prescription drugs in the home. While several studies have examined self-reported disposal of unused prescription drugs, none have specifically examined disposal of unused medications by parents of adolescents. The second objective of this dissertation was to examine prescription drug disposal by parents of adolescents. Among 2,300 parents residing in a household prescribed a controlled medication in the past year, only 33.9% disposed of unused medications. Of these, 9.8% used a take-back event, 10.0% a drop-box, 12.8% flushed the medication in a toilet, and 15.0% threw the medication in the trash within the past year (disposal practices were not mutually exclusive). Use of prescription drug disposal programs was associated with awareness of these programs, receiving a prescription for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and permissiveness of underage drinking parties. Being a grandparent raising a grandchild, permissiveness of underage drinking parties, and being prescribed pain relievers or medications for ADHD were associated with awareness of prescription drug disposal programs. Additional research is needed as disposal programs continue to be implemented, especially drop-boxes at pharmacies. It will be important to study the diffusion of drop-boxes at pharmacies, motivations for- and barriers to implementation, and utilization (e.g., quantity of controlled medications disposed) in order to assess the impact of location on the effectiveness of prescription drug disposal programs. Given that awareness of disposal programs is related to utilization, developing and implementing effective awareness campaigns should be a priority of both research and practice. Despite being implemented in practice for at least 10 years (according to my findings) the research on prescription drug disposal programs is limited but increasing. It is imperative that researchers and practitioners work together to improve, implement, and evaluate this strategy within the context of a comprehensive approach to address NMPDU and associated consequences.


Several previous studies have demonstrated that both partially purified and recombinant alpha-interferons (alpha-IFNs) have high response rates in advanced hairy cell leukemia. However, the optimal dose and duration of therapy have not yet been defined. In this study, 90 patients were randomized after 12 months of IFN alfa-2b therapy with a standard dose of 2 X 10(6) U/m2 sc three times weekly to either no further therapy or an additional 6 months of therapy (18 mo total). There was no significant difference in the peripheral blood cell counts between the two groups (when analyzed) dating from the end of IFN therapy rather than from the time of randomization. Eighteen evaluable patients relapsed and were re-treated with IFN: 11 in the no-further-therapy group and 7 in the treated group. No patient was resistant to re-treatment with IFN. There was a significantly greater incidence of fatigue in the treated group (44% vs. 21%; P = .02) during the first 6 postrandomization months. We conclude that the duration of IFN therapy does not influence the clinical course after therapy is discontinued, but responses are maintained while patients receive therapy. However, because of a high incidence of fatigue with prolonged therapy and the ability to reinduce a second response, we recommend that IFN therapy be discontinued after 12 months in asymptomatic patients.


The "yellow peril" is one of the most long-standing and pervasive racist ideas in Western culture - indeed, this book traces its history to the Enlightenment era. Yet while Fu Manchu evokes a fading historical memory, yellow peril ideology persists, animating, for example, campaign commercials from the 2012 presidential election. Yellow Peril! is the first comprehensive repository of anti-Asian images and writing, pop culture artifacts and political polemic. Written by two leading scholars and replete with paintings, photographs and images drawn from dime novels, posters, comics, theatrical productions, movies, polemical and pseudo-scholarly literature, and other pop culture ephemera, this book is both a unique and fascinating archive and a modern analysis of this crucial historical formation.


Contagious ecthyma (CE) is a debilitating disease of sheep, goats and other ruminants caused by Orf virus (ORFV). Suspected outbreaks of CE were reported in three flocks of goats in Jos-South, Plateau State, Nigeria with proliferative lesions on the muzzle, oral commissures, perineal area and legs. Scab samples were collected from all the flocks and the affected animals placed on antibiotics. The samples collected were homogenized and the DNA extracted using QIAamp ® DNA Mini kit (QIAGEN, Hilden Germany). The extracted DNA was subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplifying two gene fragments: A32L and B2L of the ORFV. Two flocks were West African Dwarf (WAD) breed of goats with 100% morbidity and 100% mortality recorded, while the third flock was Kano Brown breed with 6.7% morbidity and no mortality. A32L and B2L fragments of the ORFV genome was amplified by PCR from samples collected from the flocks. Contagious ecthyma was therefore confirmed based on classical clinical presentations and laboratory confirmation by PCR. Amplification of A32L and B2L gene fragments of the ORFV and 100% mortality in WAD breed of goats is the first report in Nigeria associated with CE. Further studies should be carried out to understand the role of breed, the epidemiology and economic impact of CE in Nigeria for the utilization of an appropriate control strategy. Keywords: A32L gene, B2L gene, Contagious ecthyma, Goat, Orf virus, polymerase chain reaction, Nigeria


Ferromagnetic bulk glassy alloys were synthesized in a variety of alloy systems by the copper mold casting process for the last five years after 1995. Their typical alloy systems are classified into five groups, i.e., (1) Fe-(Al, Ga)-(P, C, B) and Fe-Ga-(P, C, B), (2) (Nd, Pr)-Fe-(Al, Si), (3) Fe-(Zr,Hf,Nb)-B, (4) Fe-Co-Ln-B, and (5) Fe-(Cr, Mo)-B-C. The Fe-based glassy alloys exhibit a large supercooled liquid region exceeding 50 K before crystallization and the largest value reaches approximately 100 K. The maximum sample thickness of glass formation in the alloy systems belonging to the groups (1) to (5) is about 3 mm, 12 mm, 6 mm, 1 mm and 3 mm, respectively. These bulk glassy alloys exhibit good soft magnetic properties with a maximum saturation magnetization of 1.3 T and low coercive forces below 5 A/m except for hard magnetic properties only for the Nd- or Pr-based alloys. In addition, the application of the consolidation technique using the viscous flow phenomenon to the Fe-(Al, Ga)-(P,C, B) alloys caused the formation of fully dense bulk glassy alloys with rather good soft magnetic properties, e.g., 1.2T for saturation magnetization, 10 A/m for coercive force, 9000 for maximum permeability and 0.1 1 W/kg at 50 Hz for core loss. The combination of good magnetic properties, high glass-forming ability and good workability into a bulk form is promising the future development as a new type of magnetic material.


INTRODUCTION
Proper nutrition is critical for maximizing brain function and enhancing learning. There is accumulating evidence that early malnutrition, marked by stunting, is associated with long-term deficits in cognitive and academic performance, even when social and psychological differences are controlled. All over the world, children living without permanent parental care are at a heightened risk for under-nutrition, putting their health and development in great jeopardy.

AIM
To assess the nutritional and cognitive status in institutionalized orphans which might help to formulate effective interventions for improving the nutritional status of vulnerable children in future.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This cross-sectional, study included 70 children (35 orphans and 35 non-orphans). Their anthropometric measurements (height, weight, and BMI) were measured and cognition was assessed using subsets of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R): Block design and Digit span. The data obtained was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis.

RESULTS
18.57% (13) of children had stunting, 15.71% (11) had wasting, 22.86% (16) were underweight, and 17.14% (12) showed thinness. Mean±SD of Block design in non-orphans was significantly higher compared to orphans (p-value 0·05). Mean±SD of Digit span in non-orphans was significantly higher compared to orphans (p-value 0·000). For Block design, there was moderate positive correlation with nutritional status based on Z-scores (p-value <0·05). Digit span also showed moderate positive correlation (p-value <0·05).

CONCLUSION
The results of our study indicate that children in orphanages have high rates of both malnutrition and cognitive delay compared to the non-orphans and there was a direct correlation between both the variables. If orphanages are here to stay as a last resort for children deprived of a family there is an urgent need to improve the institutional environment in order to foster the development of millions of children in orphanages around the world.


The reasons for three heterogeneity of tropomyosin melting curves are considered. It is shown that this phenomenon is due to the molecular heterogeneity of the preparation. Different states of the SH-groups as well as the different stability of molecule regions. The melting curves of alpha-tropomyosin and two of its fragments are obtained. The thermodynamic parameters stabilizing their helical structure are determined. The existence of a thermodynamical transition at 31 degrees C is shown for alpha-tropomyosin leading to the loss of the ability of the molecule to form supra-molecular structures.


Modeling virtual buildings is an essential task in the city planning domain whereas several aspects have essential influence. Planners have to deal with different types of potentially multiform datasets; moreover they have to consider certain guidelines and constraints that are imposed on the development areas to which buildings are related. The planning process can be divided into different subtasks with varying requirements regarding the interaction techniques that are used for their accomplishment. To incorporate these aspects multiple view systems have proven enormous potential in order to provide efficient user interfaces. In this paper, we present strategies for modeling virtual building entities via a multiple view system as part of a 3D decision support system that enables the intuitive generation and evaluation of building proposals. City planners have been involved in the design process of the system, in particular the multiple view concepts. Therefore each view of the system, which visualizes different aspects concerning the underlying models, meets the demands of city planners. Furthermore, we present both coupled and uncoupled interaction techniques between different views with respect to requirements of the city planning domain


Numerical and experimental procedures are presented in this work in order to study the vibration behavior of switched reluctance motors (SRM). Experimental modal analysis and finite element methods (FEM) are used to determine the mode shapes and natural frequencies of the motor mechanical structure. The forces acting on the stator are evaluated by means of a local force density method. The results show that a 2D model is sufficient for analyzing mechanical vibrations in SRM created by electromagnetic phenomena.


In a Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS), power loss due to an eddy current on the metal vacuum chamber would cause heating of the vacuum chamber. It is important to study the effect for estimating eddy current induced power loss and temperature growth. Analytical formulas for eddy current power loss for various types of vacuum chambers are derived for dipole and quadrupole repectively. By using the prototype of dipole of CSNS/RCS, an experiment was done to test the analytical formula. The derived formulas were applied to calculating the eddy current power loss on some special structures of an RCS vacuum chamber.


The article concerns problems of electromagnetic compatibility of contemporary IT devices. Particular attention was paid to undesirable emissions, which are by products generated unintentionally during realization of basic functions of device. In the article the methodology of measuring conducted emission on supply terminals of IT devices according to the PN-EN 55022:2006 standard in the frequency range from 0,15MHz to 30MHz has been presented as well as the methodology of measuring radiated emissivity of IT devices in accordance with the norm: PN-EN 55022:2006 in the frequency range from 30MHz to 6000MHz. Also the results of measurements conducted on particular number of central processing units have been demonstrated along with keyboards and mice produced in the years 2007 – 2009 and next their analysis has been made.


In this paper the mathematical formalism enabling us to include defects of thin films into the formulae expressing their optical quantities is presented. The attention is devoted to the defects consisting in boundary roughness and inhomogeneity corresponding to the refractive index profile. This mathematical formalism is based on 2x2 matrix algebra. The Rayleigh-Rice theory (RRT) is used for describing boundary roughness. The refractive index profile is included into the matrix formalism by means a special procedure based on combination of the Drude and Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin-Jeffries (WKBJ) approximations. The mathematical formalism is applied for the optical characterization of thin films of TiO2 and As-S chalcogenides. Using this formalism the experimental data corresponding to the ellipsometric quantities, reflectance measured from the ambient side, reflectance measured from the substrate side and transmittance are treated. The corrections of the systematic errors connected with the reflection accessory of the spectrometer used is carried out using the special procedure.


Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has reached a pandemic level. Very recently, I reported a significantly higher prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in severe COVID-19 as compared with non-severe COVID-19 by the meta-analysis. Considering that both diabetes and hypertension are risk factors for atherosclerosis, I further studied the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in COVID-19 and found a significantly higher prevalence of CVD in severe patients than in non-severe patients. I speculate that the pre-existing vascular damage is associated with severity of COVID-19. A recent study showed that obese patients with COVID-19, despite their younger age, required more frequently assisted ventilation and access to intensive care units than normal weight patients. I thought that if the reason that COVID-19 is likely to become severe in obese people could be elucidated, the mechanism for aggravation of COVID-19 would be understood. As a result of considering a model of aggravation in obese people, I came up with the notion that pre-existing risk factors in obese people such as their vascular high-affinity for SARS-CoV-2, pro-inflammatory and pro-coagulant state and endothelial dysfunction may be likely to induce the development of "systemic severe coagulopathic vasculitis (SSCV)" in obese people. I believe that SSCV may largely contribute to the development of severe COVID-19. Here, I will describe the points of action of drugs for treating COVID-19 by using the SSCV model. J Endocrinol Metab. 2020;10(3-4):57-59 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem659


The culinary industry has become a creative zone, with revered chefs from all around the world producing magnificently innovative plating designs that have, along with wide critical acclaim, also unintentionally birthed equally expensive and often rather impressively imitated culinary knockoffs. The laborious task that is the designing and plating of a beautifully presented dish has often come to result in the dish's plating becoming the restaurant's unique selling point, with its market tending to associate the dish exclusively with its source-restaurant/chef. Herein emerges the need for an evaluation of existing intellectual property law regimes to examine whether their protective ambit may be extended to include innovation food plating designs, to ascertain legality of similar/identical reproductions emerging from other commercial kitchens. In this paper, I have restricted the discussion to an investigation of the protection offered to chefs for the presentation and appearance of their dishes exclusively to trade dress law under the USA's Lanham Act.


The effect of an arbitrary nonlinear operation on the data input to the weight update equation in the LMS adaptive algorithm is investigated for a Gaussian data model. Exact difference equations are derived for the weight first and second moments that include the effects of an arbitrary nonlinear operation on the data sequence. The difference equations are used to obtain expressions for the transient behavior of the mean-square error. The mean-square error is minimized over the choice of nonlinearity for a fixed transient behavior. The best choice of nonlinearity is shown exactly to be of the form (x/1 + bx2) when the input data are white. For an arbitrary data covariance matrix, the optimum nonlinearity is shown to be linear when the product of the algorithm step size and input power is much less than unity.


To study the blade-wake interaction of vertical axis tidal turbine (VATT),particles were placed in the flow field to trace blade wake during numerical simulation. Numerical simulations were conducted utilizing Euler-Lagrange model. In the simulations, the continuous phase was solved by Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stocks(RANS) equation combined with SST turbulence model and the particle trajectories of the dispersed phase were determined by momentum equation. Numerical results of predicting instantaneous blade forces and blade wakes showed good agreement with the test data. The model was also compared with previous classic free vortex model (V-DART), vortex method combined with finite element analysis (FEVDTM) and 2-D vortex panel model (VPM2D). It showed that the present model was much better than the former.


: By means of spectrofluorometry porphyrins can be assayed directly in body fluids without extraction. Rapid diagnosis of various primary and secondary porphyrinemias can be made based upon such fluorometric measurements. Fluorometric methods can also provide information about porphyrin binding sites that is useful in understanding porphyrin transport and clearance. Free erythrocyte protoporphyrin produced in the circulating red cells of lead intoxicated Mallard ducks rapidly diffuses from those cells.


Human performance often depends on the wearing comfort of the clothing system under challenging climatic conditions. This has led researchers to explore various approaches to improving wearing comfort and trying to understand thermophysiological processes.The field of thermophysiology is most important in Sporttech, Medtech, and Protech applications, where clothing system performance is especially critical. We, the RespothermTex team, have conducted research concerning microclimate conditions and using thermoresponsive polymers to automatize the transport of warmth and humidity through a clothing system. This technology opens the possibilities for smart multifunctional clothing systems.


A method is presented that makes it possible to embed a subgroup separable superintegrable system into an infinite family of systems that are integrable and exactly-solvable. It is shown that in two dimensional Euclidean or pseudo-Euclidean spaces the method also preserves superintegrability. Two infinite families of classical and quantum superintegrable systems are obtained in two-dimensional pseudo-Euclidean space whose classical trajectories and quantum eigenfunctions are investigated. In particular, the wave-functions are expressed in terms of Laguerre and generalized Bessel polynomials.


Technical efficiency, the ratio of physical inputs to outputs, is a popular means of assessing agricultural performance. Benchmarking of these efficiencies is a fundamental tool for the farming industry. More sophisticated techniques have been developed recently which offer a greater degree of complexity for measuring technical efficiency. This paper adopts a parametric approach, referred to as stochastic production frontiers (SPF), to study three major sectors the Scottish agricultural economy, namely i) cereals, ii) dairy, and iii) sheep, over the period 1989 to 2004.


Aim was to develop a user-friendly method for creating parametric maps that would provide a comprehensible visualization and allow immediate quantification of radiomics features. For this, a self-explanatory graphical user interface was designed, and for the proof of concept, maps were created for CT and MR images and features were compared to those from conventional extractions. Especially first-order features were concordant between maps and conventional extractions, some even across all examples. Potential clinical applications were tested on CT and MR images for the differentiation of pulmonary lesions. In these sample applications, maps of Skewness enhanced the differentiation of non-malignant lesions and non-small lung carcinoma manifestations on CT images and maps of Variance enhanced the differentiation of pulmonary lymphoma manifestations and fungal infiltrates on MR images. This new and simple method for creating parametric maps makes radiomics features visually perceivable, allows direct feature quantification by placing a region of interest, can improve the assessment of radiological images and, furthermore, can increase the use of radiomics in clinical routine.


Abstract The WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet) Divide deep ice core was recently completed to a total depth of 3405 m, ending 50 m above the bed. Investigation of the visual stratigraphy and grain characteristics indicates that the ice column at the drilling location is undisturbed by any large-scale overturning or discontinuity. The climate record developed from this core is therefore likely to be continuous and robust. Measured grain-growth rates, recrystallization characteristics, and grain-size response at climate transitions fit within current understanding. Significant impurity control on grain size is indicated from correlation analysis between impurity loading and grain size. Bubble-number densities and bubble sizes and shapes are presented through the full extent of the bubbly ice. Where bubble elongation is observed, the direction of elongation is preferentially parallel to the trace of the basal (0001) plane. Preferred crystallographic orientation of grains is present in the shallowest samples measured, and increases with depth, progressing to a vertical-girdle pattern that tightens to a vertical single-maximum fabric. This single-maximum fabric switches into multiple maxima as the grain size increases rapidly in the deepest, warmest ice. A strong dependence of the fabric on the impurity-mediated grain size is apparent in the deepest samples.


Two ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) heating schemes proposed for the half-field operation phase of ITER in hydrogen plasmas—fundamental H majority and second harmonic 3He ICRF heating—were recently investigated in JET. Although the same magnetic field and RF frequencies (f ≈ 42 MHz and f ≈ 52 MHz, respectively) were used, the density and particularly the plasma temperature were lower than those expected in the initial phase of ITER. Unlike for the well-performing H minority heating scheme to be used in 4He plasmas, modest heating efficiencies (η = Pabsorbed/Plaunched < 40%) with dominant electron heating were found in both H plasma scenarios studied, and enhanced plasma–wall interaction manifested by high radiation losses and relatively large impurity content in the plasma was observed. This effect was stronger in the 3He ICRF heating case than in the H majority heating experiments and it was verified that concentrations as high as ∼20% are necessary to observe significant ion heating in this case. The RF acceleration of the heated ions was modest in both cases, although a small fraction of the 3He ions reached about 260 keV in the second harmonic 3He heating experiments when 5 MW of ICRF power was applied. Considerable RF acceleration of deuterium beam ions was also observed in some discharges of the 3He heating experiments (where both the second and third harmonic ion cyclotron resonance layers of the D ions are inside the plasma) whilst it was practically absent in the majority hydrogen heating scenario. While hints of improved RF heating efficiency as a function of the plasma temperature and plasma dilution (with 4He) were confirmed in the H majority case, the 3He concentration was the main handle on the heating efficiency in the second harmonic 3He heating scenario.


This paper describes the production of chars from loquat stones in a tube furnace at carbonization temperatures of 600°C, 700°C, and 800°C in a nitrogen flow at a heating rate of 10°C/min. The physical and chemical structures of the stones and chars were investigated by FTIR spectrometer, X-ray diffractometer, and SEM, as well as the combustion reaction and kinetic parameters based on the TG-DTG graphs obtained by thermogravimetric analysis. The combustion reaction was carried out at a heating rate 10°C/min and an oxygen flow rate of 50 ml/min up to 700°C. The kinetic parameters were calculated using the methods by Arrhenius; Coats and Redfern; Horowitz and Metzger; and Ingraham and Marier.