Objective: Clinicians encounter patients who report experiencing hearing difficulty (HD) even when audiometric thresholds fall within normal limits. When there is no evidence of audiometric hearing loss, it generates debate over possible biomedical and psychosocial etiologies. It is possible that self-reported HDs relate to variables within and/or outside the scope of audiology. The purpose of this study is to identify how often, on a population basis, people with normal audiometric thresholds self-report HD and to identify factors associated with such HDs. Design: This was a cross-sectional investigation of participants in the Beaver Dam Offspring Study. HD was defined as a self-reported HD on a four-item scale despite having pure-tone audiometric thresholds within normal limits (<20 dB HL0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 kHz bilaterally, at each frequency). Distortion product otoacoustic emissions and word-recognition performance in quiet and with competing messages were also analyzed. In addition to hearing assessments, relevant factors such as sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, environmental exposures, medical history, health-related quality of life, and symptoms of neurological disorders were also examined as possible risk factors. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression was used to probe symptoms associated with depression, and the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36 mental score was used to quantify psychological stress and social and role disability due to emotional problems. The Visual Function Questionnaire-25 and contrast sensitivity test were used to query vision difficulties. Results: Of the 2783 participants, 686 participants had normal audiometric thresholds. An additional grouping variable was created based on the available scores of HD (four self-report questions), which reduced the total dataset to n = 682 (age range, 21–67 years). The percentage of individuals with normal audiometric thresholds who self-reported HD was 12.0% (82 of 682). The prevalence in the entire cohort was therefore 2.9% (82 of 2783). Performance on audiological tests (distortion product otoacoustic emissions and word-recognition tests) did not differ between the group self-reporting HD and the group reporting no HD. A multivariable model controlling for age and sex identified the following risk factors for HD: lower incomes (odds ratio [OR] $50,000+ = 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.30–1.00), noise exposure through loud hobbies (OR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.15–1.90), or firearms (OR = 2.07, 95% CI = 1.04–4.16). People reporting HD were more likely to have seen a doctor for hearing loss (OR = 12.93, 95% CI = 3.86–43.33) and report symptoms associated with depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression [OR = 2.39, 95% CI = 1.03–5.54]), vision difficulties (Visual Function Questionnaire-25 [OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.89–0.97]), and neuropathy (e.g., numbness, tingling, and loss of sensation [OR = 1.98, 95% CI = 1.14–3.44]). Conclusions: The authors used a population approach to identify the prevalence and risk factors associated with self-reported HD among people who perform within normal limits on common clinical tests of auditory function. The percentage of individuals with normal audiometric thresholds who self-reported HD was 12.0%, resulting in an overall prevalence of 2.9%. Auditory and nonauditory risk factors were identified, therefore suggesting that future directions aimed at assessing, preventing, and managing these types of HDs might benefit from information outside the traditional scope of audiology.


Background: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in incidence and cause of death in the United States. The current treatment modalities include chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Many people are genetically predisposed for colon cancer through mutations in genes such as adenomatous polyposis coli (APC).  While the absence of APC causes aberrant Wnt/Beta catenin signaling, the APC mutations are found in more than 80% of colorectal tumors.  γ-Mangostin is a major bioactive compound present in Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) which possess significant anti-cancer activity. Herein, we investigated the effects of γ -Mangostin on colon cancer growth and elucidated its mechanistic action through Wnt signaling pathway. Methods: HCT116, SW480 and RKO cell lines were used in the study. The effects of γ-Mangostin on cell proliferation were assessed by hexosaminidase and clonogenicity assays. Effects of γ-Mangostin on apoptosis were evaluated by cell cycle and western blot analysis. Moreover the effect of γ-Mangostin on colonosphere formation was also evaluated. Furthermore, the effect of γ-Mangostin on Wnt signaling proteins was evaluated by western blot analysis. The in vivo anti-cancer effect of γ -Mangostin was investigated on the HCT116 subcutaneous tumor xenograft model implanted in five-week-old male athymic nude mice. Further, the effect of γ -Mangostin was assessed by the specific marker expression in tissue samples by western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. Results: γ-Mangostin treatment resulted in a dose and time dependent inhibition of proliferation and colony formation in all the three cell lines. Treatment also induced colon cancer cells to undergo G0/G1 and S-phase arrest. Apoptosis was confirmed by increased levels of Bax/Bcl2 ratio, coupled with a reduction in cyclin D1. γ -Mangostin significantly reduced the number and size of colonospheres. Moreover, γ-Mangostin treatment decreased the expression of Wnt signaling proteins, which suggest that γ-Mangostin inhibits the colon cancer growth through Wnt signaling pathway. To determine the effect of γ-Mangostin on tumor growth in vivo, nude mice harboring HCT116 tumor xenografts in their flanks were administered with 5mg/Kg γ-Mangostin intraperitoneally for 21 days. γ-Mangostin treatment significantly reduced the tumor growth, with notably lower tumor volume and weight. Western blot and immunohistochemistry analyses revealed significant decrease in the expression of Wnt signaling proteins. Conclusion: Together, these data suggest that γ-Mangostin inhibits colon cancer growth through Wnt signaling pathway. γ-Mangostin may be a potential therapeutic agent for colon cancer. Citation Format: Balaji Krishnamachary, Dharmalingam Subramaniam, Thomas Attard, Seth Septer, Shrikant Anant. γ-Mangostin, a natural xanthone derivative targets Wnt signaling pathway in colon cancer cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5175. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5175


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
The Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) improves glucose control in majority of patients with type 2 diabetes. However, a minority group of individuals develop a life-threatening complication of hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia. The goal of this review is to identify underlying mechanisms by which RYGB cause hypoglycemia and describe pathogenesis-driven strategies to diagnose and treat this condition.

RECENT FINDINGS
Gastric bypass leads to higher and earlier peak levels of glucose and lower nadir glucose after eating along with larger insulin and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) secretion, resetting the balance between glucose appearance and clearance after this procedure. These weight-loss independent glycemic effects of RYGB have been attributed to changes in ingested glucose appearance as a result of rapid nutrient emptying from stomach pouch to the intestine and increased glucose clearance as a result of prandial hyperinsulinemia. The exaggerated effect of RYGB on postmeal glucose metabolism is a syndrome of postprandial hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia manifesting in a group of individuals several years after this surgery. Affected patients have larger systemic appearance of ingested glucose and greater postmeal secretion of insulin and GLP-1 compared to those with history of RYGB without symptomatic hypoglycemia. Current evidence supporting a multifactorial model of glucose dysregulation among patients with hypoglycemia will be highlighted in this review.

SUMMARY
Hypoglycemia after RYGB is a life-threatening condition and likely represents the extreme glycemic phenotype of this procedure. Diagnosis is challenging and treatment options are limited.


Food chain systems (FCSs), which begin in agricultural production and end in consumption and waste disposal, play a significant role in China's rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This article uses scenario analysis to show China's potential trajectories to a low‐carbon FCS. Between 1996 and 2010, the GHG footprint of China's FCSs increased from 1,308 to 1,618 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2‐eq), although the emissions intensity of all food categories, except for aquatic food, recorded steep declines. We project three scenarios to 2050 based on historical trends and plausible shifts in policies and environmental conditions: reference scenario; technology improvement scenario; and low GHG emissions scenario. The reference scenario is based on existing trends and exhibits a large growth in GHG emissions, increasing from 1,585 Mt CO2‐eq in 2010 to 2,505 Mt CO2‐eq in 2050. In the technology improvement scenario, emissions growth is driven by rising food demand, but that growth will be counterbalanced by gains in agricultural technology, causing GHG emissions to fall to 1,413 Mt CO2‐eq by 2050. Combining technology improvement with the shift to healthier dietary patterns, GHG emissions in the low GHG emissions scenario will decline to 946 Mt CO2‐eq in 2050, a drop of 41.5% compared with the level in 2010. We argue that these are realistic projections and are indeed indicative of China's overall strategy for low‐carbon development. Improving agricultural technology and shifting to a more balanced diet could significantly reduce the GHG footprint of China's FCSs. Furthermore, the transition to a low‐carbon FCS has potential cobenefits for land sustainability and public health.


The authors studied the effect of electric potential arising on the plastic surface upon the blood clotting process. The study was performed according to the Breddin method. The study concerned fluorosilicone rubber, fluoroplast, polyester, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride with various surface potentials. The authors found that the negatively charged blood platelets adhere to negatively charged plastic surfaces only to a low extent and undergo no disintegration and agglomeration. To the surfaces of the same plastics being electrically neutral, only small aggregates of blood platelets adhere. On the other hand, on the positively charged surfaces the accumulation of blood platelets takes place with concurrent aggregation and disintegration, thus initiating the thrombus formation. The authors observed the intensity of these changes using blood platelet adhesion index and fluorescence microscope.


Background: Patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia (type 1) often present with multiple pancreatic endocrine tumours, such as insulinomas. A major difficulty in the surgical treatment of such patients is identifying which tumours are functionally active and therefore need to be resected for a cure. The objective of this study was to develop a rapid insulin assay that could be used intraoperatively for identifying insulinomas from pancreatic aspirates. Methods: By reducing the incubation time and by increasing the sample volume, a rapid insulin assay was developed on the IMx analyser. This was used to measure insulin from tissue aspirates collected from suspected insulinomas under ultrasound guidance. Results: The rapid insulin assay (y) could be performed in 14 min and showed a good correlation with the standard IMx (x) insulin assay (y=0·808x+0·04; r 2=0·986). Using the rapid insulin assay on pancreatic tissue aspirates, insulinomas could be readily distinguished from normal pancreatic tissue or from non-functional adenomas based on a marked increase in insulin content. Conclusion: In summary, a new rapid assay for insulin is described that compares favourably to the standard IMx insulin assay and can potentially be used intraoperatively on pancreatic aspirates for identifying functionally active insulinomas.


Concrete is the basic material of infrastructures since it is cost-effective, efficiently produced and strong. Despite its popularity, under service-loads the concrete matrix suffers from flaws that can be crucial for its durability. To overcome the shortcoming in durability, concrete is traditionally reinforced by steel or its mixture is modified by introducing additives that enrich the autogenous crack closure. Nowadays, an alternative solution is proposed namely autonomous healing. Repair polymer agent is encapsulated into tubes and embedded into concrete during mixture. The tubes break as soon as a crack wider than 100 μm is propagated across them. Only at this moment, the agent is released and polymerized. The crack void is sealed and repaired (mechanical features restored as well). The previous years, researchers at the Dept. Mechanics of Materials and Constructions, VUB have studied the mechanical performance of newly developed healing systems and evaluated their repair efficiency. In this study, an additional benefit of autonomous healing is assessed: the short or long tubes contribute as local reinforcement of concrete under tensile load and enhance the fracture toughness. The energy release rate and other fracture mechanics parameters are measured for plain concrete beams tested under three-point bending. The reference case (concrete carrying no healing system) is compared to cases at which different encapsulation systems are applied. Additionally, the study of fracture is correlated to the findings of inspection with different non-destructive techniques. The effect of tubes design (geometry, shape, material) on the fracture toughness is studied leading to the most promising healing system.


Fram Strait sea-ice sediments (SIS) contain on average more than 94% silt and clay. Both fractions were compared with bottom deposits of the Kara and Laptev seas to identify shelf sources of fine-grained Arctic SIS. Based on silt granulometry and clay mineral assemblages we determined Fram Strait SIS provinces. Western Fram Strait SIS has medium to fine silt compositions, whereas eastern Fram Strait SIS is enriched in fine silt. Western Fram Strait SIS clays (low smectite/high illite) were statistically grouped with eastern Laptev shelf deposits, and are similar to East Siberian and North American shelf sources. Eastern Fram Strait SIS clays (high smectite/low illite) cluster with shelf deposits of the western Laptev Sea and the Kara Sea. We conclude that western Fram Strait pack ice consisted of a mixture of floes from the Laptev Sea and sources farther to the east during the 1997 and 1999 sampling periods. Eastern Fram Strait ice originated from sources towards the Kara Sea. There was an average annual flux of ca. 158 Tg (Mt) SIS export through Fram Strait during the late 1990s. We expect no qualitative changes in the SIS entrainment process ("suspension freezing") with decreasing Arctic ice cover, although the process may increase through larger fetch. SIS incorporation and flux will be enhanced with increasing shelf open water during winter freezing, and with the current acceleration of the Transpolar Drift, but we speculate that the transport of SIS towards Fram Strait will be seasonally truncated with the onset of ice-free summers in the Arctic Ocean.


BACKGROUND
Failure of implantation and conception may result from an inability of the blastocyst to escape from its outer coat, know as the zona pellucida. In vitro culture conditions and/or advancing maternal age may alter the architecture of the zona pellucida and result in hatching difficulties. Artificial disruption of this coat is known as assisted hatching (AH) has been proposed as a method of improving the success of assisted conception.

OBJECTIVES
To determine whether assisted hatching (AH) of embryos facilitates live births and clinical pregnancy and whether it impacts on negative outcomes (such as multiple pregnancy and miscarriage).

SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane Menstrual Disorders and Subfertility Group trials register (1 June 2005), the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2005), MEDLINE (1996 to June 2003), EMBASE (1980 to June 2005) and reference lists of articles. Authors were contacted for missing and/or unpublished data.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Trials were identified and independently screened by two reviewers. Randomised controlled trials of AH (mechanical, chemical or laser disruption of the zona pellucida prior to embryo replacement) versus no AH that reported live birth, clinical pregnancy or implantation rates were included.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Qualitative assessments and data extraction were performed independently by two reviewers. Outcomes were extracted as rates and combined using random effects meta-analysis, sensitivity analysis, sub grouping and meta-regression where appropriate.

MAIN RESULTS
Twenty-three randomised controlled trials consisting of 2668 women reported on 849 pregnancy outcomes. There was no significant difference in the odds of live births in the AH compared with control groups (6 RCTs; OR 1.19 95% CI 0.81 to 1.73; 163 births from 516 women). Women undergoing assisted hatching were significantly more likely to achieve clinical pregnancy (23 RCTs, OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.57). Miscarriage rates per woman were similar in both groups (12 RCTs OR 1.23 (95% CI 0.73 to 2.05). Multiple pregnancy rates per woman was increased in women who were randomised to AH compared with control women (9 RCTs OR 1.83 (95% CI 1.19 to 2.83). The improvement in clinical pregnancy rate means for a clinic with a success rate of 25% could anticipate improving the CPR to between 28 and 39%, all things being equal. The trials provided insufficient data to investigate the impact of assisted hatching on several important outcomes, including monozygotic twinning, embryo damage, congenital and chromosomal abnormalities, and in vitro blastocyst development.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Despite significantly improved odds of clinical pregnancy, there is insufficient evidence to determine any effect of AH on live birth rates. The increased multiple pregnancy rate is of concern although it likely that with a policy of single embryo transfer this may be lowered. Currently, there is insufficient evidence to recommend assisted hatching.


The main aim of this report is to track reading gains achieved by targeted 2019 students at Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec). Tracking is required by the Wintec LN Policy (Revised, 2018) to ensure we meet Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) funding requirements. We generated a composite data set, applying the multi-year testing requirement referred to by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC, 2012, 2017a, b) as the sequence concept. To compare initial and progress reading assessment scores, we manually set up a multivariate layout. We report on learners' step-based progress to exemption levels for reading. Of the targeted reading cohort (N=557), 40.4% of learners (n=225) progressed to exemption level (step 4 or higher). We used cross-tabulations to report on reading progress by ethnicity, school/centre of study at the institute and enrolment type. To establish whether learners achieved statistically significant gain in reading, we used a matched-pairs t-test to compare initial and progress scale scores for the full cohort. To complete the picture, we replicated TEC's (2012) algorithm for calculating gain to illustrate that these results under-reported learners' reading progress.
Our findings showed that the full cohort achieved reading levels at or above the Tertiary Education Commission's (TEC's) targets (TEC, 2015). We replicated past reports (Greyling, 2017; Greyling & Ahmad, 2019) showing that the TEC's LNAT algorithm under-reported progress. Instead, we argued, cross-tabulations of initial and progress step scores provided a far more positive account of students' reading progress. Our findings also showed that Pasifika learners performed at levels significantly below those of other ethnicities. Waikato Trades Academy (WTA) and Māori and Pasifika Trades Training (MPTT) students performed at lower levels than other groups yet achieved significant progress. We concluded that current LN practices continued to yield consistent and positive results. Outcomes could be improved by pursuing a more joined-up system of teaching, learning and support as suggested in the report on the 2018 cohort's progress (Greyling & Ahmad, 2019). Specific attention has to be paid to
• Pasifika ways of being, doing and learning to improve outcomes for them following a collaborative approach with stakeholders responsible for teaching, learning and support.
• Waikato Trades Academy (WTA) and Māori and Pasifika Trades Training (MPTT) who have performed at levels slightly below other enrolment types, specifically to improve the proportions of learners who achieve exemption-level scores.


Exploiting the deep high-resolution imaging of all five CANDELS fields, and accurate redshift information provided by 3D-HST, we investigate the relation between structure and stellar populations for a mass-selected sample of 6764 galaxies above 1010 M☉, spanning the redshift range 0.5 < z < 2.5. For the first time, we fit two-dimensional models comprising a single Sérsic fit and two-component (i.e., bulge + disk) decompositions not only to the H-band light distributions, but also to the stellar mass maps reconstructed from resolved stellar population modeling. We confirm that the increased bulge prominence among quiescent galaxies, as reported previously based on rest-optical observations, remains in place when considering the distributions of stellar mass. Moreover, we observe an increase of the typical Sérsic index and bulge-to-total ratio (with median B/T reaching 40%–50%) among star-forming galaxies above 1011 M☉. Given that quenching for these most massive systems is likely to be imminent, our findings suggest that significant bulge growth precedes a departure from the star-forming main sequence. We demonstrate that the bulge mass (and ideally knowledge of the bulge and total mass) is a more reliable predictor of the star-forming versus quiescent state of a galaxy than the total stellar mass. The same trends are predicted by the state-of-the-art, semi-analytic model by Somerville et al. In this model, bulges and black holes grow hand in hand through merging and/or disk instabilities, and feedback from active galactic nuclei shuts off star formation. Further observations will be required to pin down star formation quenching mechanisms, but our results imply that they must be internal to the galaxies and closely associated with bulge growth.


Today's movements away from authoritarian leadership emphasizes team development. People are experiencing with a leadership that empowers, rather than a leadership that is, itself, powerful. But how do you become a leader who empowers others? What are the characteristics of "best leaders"? From listening skills to getting feedback and including people in the process of change, effective leaders help others move towards the goal, ultimately thinking, "We did this ourselves."


This article reports on recent searches for single-top-quark production by the CDF collaboration at the Tevatron using a data set that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 955 fb^-1. Three different analyses techniques are employed, one using likelihood discriminants, one neural networks and one matrix elements. The sensitivity to single-top production at the rate predicted by the standard model ranges from 2.1 to 2.6 sigma. While the first two analyses observe a deficit of single-top like events compared to the expectation, the matrix element method observes an excess corresponding to a background fluctuation of 2.3 sigma. The null results of the likelihood and neural network analyses translate in upper limits on the cross section of 2.6 pb for the t-channel production mode and 3.7 pb for the s-channel mode at the 95% C.L. The matrix element result corresponds to a measurement of 2.7^{+1.5}_{-1.3} pb for the combined t- and s-channel single-top cross section. In addition, CDF has searched for non-standard model production of single-top-quarks via the s-channel exchange of a heavy W' boson. No signal of this process is found resulting in lower mass limits of 760 GeV/c^2 in case the mass of the right-handed neutrino is smaller than the mass of the right-handed W' or 790 GeV/c^2 in the opposite case.


When Canada created a Dominion Parks Branch in 1911, it became the first country in the world to establish an agency devoted to managing its national parks. Over the past century this agency, now Parks Canada, has been at the centre of important debates about the place of nature in Canadian nationhood and relationships between Canada's diverse ecosystems and its communities. Today, Parks Canada manages over forty parks and reserves totalling over 200,000 square kilometres and featuring a dazzling variety of landscapes, and is recognized as a global leader in the environmental challenges of protected places. Its history is a rich repository of experience, of lessons learned critical for making informed decisions about how to sustain the environmental and social health of our national parks. (Source: University of Calgary Press )


ABSTRACT Background: Research suggests dissociation and insecure attachment serve as explanatory mechanisms in the pathway from childhood trauma to paranoia. However, past work has not examined these mechanisms concurrently in nonclinical populations. Objective: The current study sought to examine dissociation and insecure attachment as parallel mediators of the association between childhood emotional abuse and paranoid traits. Furthermore, a serial mediation model with insecure attachment preceding dissociation in the explanatory pathway was explored. Methods: Eighty-nine nonclinically ascertained young adults were assessed for childhood emotional abuse, dissociation, attachment styles, and paranoid traits. Parallel and serial mediation models were tested. Results: The association of childhood emotional abuse with both interview-based and self-reported paranoid traits was significantly mediated by dissociation and preoccupied attachment. Fearful attachment was a significant mediator in the model for self-reported paranoid traits. No evidence for a serial mediation effect was found. Conclusions: The present findings extend support for dissociation and attachment insecurity as mechanisms underlying the link between childhood emotional maltreatment and paranoid traits. Longitudinal research is needed to inform whether insecure attachment contributes to dissociation along the pathways to paranoid traits. HIGHLIGHTS Dissociation and insecure attachment mediate the effect of childhood emotional abuse on paranoid traits. Research on etiological trajectories in nonclinical cohorts may offer valuable insights into the traumagenic model of paranoia.


Results: All of the ten fetuses who underwent postnatal renal function tests had grade 3 or 4 hydronephrosis in postnatal ultrasonography. Six of them needed surgical correction. Relative kidney volume does not correlate well with relative kidney function (Pearson correlation coefficient r 0.195). Conclusion: This preliminary study demonstrated that relative kidney parenchymal volume measured by antenatal 3D ultrasonography provide no relation with postnatal kidney relative function.


This study describes sedimentation associated with the tsunami generated by the Lisbon earthquake of ad 1755. It is argued here that the tsunami deposited a sand sheet across the Lagoa dos Salgados (central Algarve, Portugal), that is intercalated with late-Holocene estuarine/lagoonal sediments. A wide range of proxies (sedimentological, exoscopic and palaeontological) are used to establish the provenance of the sandy material as well as to constrain the age of the deposit. Stratigraphic criteria are used to distinguish the uniqueness of the event layer. Exoscopic and textural analysis suggest that the source of the event deposit is mainly the dune, beach and underlying layer. Micropalaentological analysis (Foraminifera) indicates a conspicuous increase in diversity and dominance of marine species within the event sediment sheet. The spatial characteristics of the tsunami layer suggests that the barrier prevented widespread overtopping by the incoming tsunami allowing inference of c. 10 m as maximum height at the coast; they also indicate the inlet as the preferential route for both water and sediment transported inland. Dating results (14C, 210Pb and 137Cs) allow extrapolation of an age of deposition compatible with the ad 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami, the most devastating event that affected this coastal area in historical times. Correlations with similar deposits detected in nearby lowlands strengthen the argument that the tsunami sediment layer represents a marker horizon in the coastal stratigraphy along the Portuguese Algarve coast. The stratigraphic uniqueness of this event might have implications in the establishment of millennial scale recurrence intervals for this type of high-energy marine inundation.


Currently, the sodium-ion battery is one of the hottest topics in the field of battery research. For practical application, however, high tap density, which is a key point of electrode materials, has always been ignored in previous studies. Here, we present the fabrication of a NASICON-type Na3V2(PO4)2F3@C/CNT composite cathode with a high tap density of 1.2 g cm−3 for high power and long lifespan sodium-ion batteries. The spherical NVPF@C/CNTs synthesized through a spray drying method are composed of micron-sized primary particles dispersed within the intertwined carbon nanotube matrix. The CNT framework not only provides an efficient electrical highway between primary particles, but also forms a stable mechanical backbone for secondary particles. The initial discharge capacity of NVPF@C/CNTs is about 113 mA h g−1 at a current density of 1C, and the cell retains 98.2% after 300 cycles. Besides, a high rate capacity of 85 mA h g−1 has been achieved at 30C. We believe that our work presented here will be favorable for accelerating the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries.


The early warning system for agricultural products quantity security requires storing and analyzing massive agricultural data. These data is of huge amount, heterogeneous, and has a wide-ranging source, thus the system should have an effective data collection mechanism. Based on all these requirements, how to construct an efficient early warning system has become a primary problem. In this paper, we focused our research on the architecture of the early warning system, and divided the system into application system, data collection system, and persistence system. Then we put forward reasonable architecture for each of them based on Web service and data warehouse. Finally, we emphasized on the discussion on the process of acquiring data from ministries based on the use of Web service adaptation technology. The proposed architectures are with fine flexibility and robustness, so they could be effectively used on the construction of the early warning system.


Abstract The state of Arkansas enjoys the advantages of its unique central location in the nation, excellent naturalsurroundings, low cost of living, and one of the best business climates in the southern United States. It ishome to several of the largest corporations in the world. Over the period 1980-2000, there was tremen-dous growth in the state's economy. However, the growth was confined to specific regions that led to sev-eral socio-economic issues adversely affecting the state. To better understand the components and varia-tions in economic growth, a county-wise shift-share analysis was conducted. Employment, a good indica-tor of economic growth, was used to analyze the changes in the local economic structure of the 75 coun-ties in the state. Findings suggest that while services and retail trade continue to grow, manufacturing andthe state/local government continue to be important employers for the state. Farm employment continuesto decline, although farm-related manufacturing and services are becoming more important. This reportprovides a sectoral analysis of employment changes within the counties and is a potential point of refer-ence for both government and industry engaged in community-level policy making and investment.


Coarse cereals such as pearl millet and sorghum, the hardiest and least risky cereals, are mainly grown in India's arid and semi-arid regions. These crops possess high nutritive and fodder value and are primarily consumed by their producers. On the supply side, there has been a large shift in the area under cultivation to rice and wheat and other commercial crops. On the demand side, the distribution of rice and wheat at subsidised prices through the public distribution system has led to a fall in the consumption of sorghum and millets. The decline in cultivated area could result in a problem for the livestock sector in many regions. It is crucial that the sorghum and millet sector be supported by strong government policies and programmes for food, fodder, and better nutrition through value addition and demand creation.


In the era of customer-driven and digitalized businesses, the construction industry has still demonstrated inadequate performance development. This research aims to disentangle the industry's current problems and present justified paths toward sustainable improvement. Following the design science research approach, the paper develops a conceptual framework about the path toward the systemic transformation of the construction industry. We first argue how current efforts to improve construction system are often limited to changes in sub-systems, namely in a) products, b) processes, c) organizing and people, d) information systems, or e) value creation models, therefore lacking a systemic approach needed for significant and sustainable improvements. We then propose a framework that underlines the need to simultaneously develop all the identified five sub-systems to achieve successful transformation. Three cases are presented as partial solutions to such systemic innovations. The paper provides new insights into how a systemic approach could be utilized when transforming the construction industry. More specifically, takt production is identified as one key driver for systemic change. The theoretical contribution lies in the identified five sub-systems and their parallel development as a source for sustainable transformation. However, the paper is conceptual and limited to three partial cases. More empirical research is needed to validate the framework and to specify the most effective transformation paths.


B cell development requires the ordered rearrangement of Ig genes encoding H and L chain proteins that assemble into BCRs or Abs capable of recognizing specific Ags. Igκ rearrangement is promoted by chromatin accessibility and by relative abundance of RAG1/2 proteins. Expression of the E26 transformation-specific transcription factor Spi-C is activated in response to dsDNA double-stranded breaks in small pre-B cells to negatively regulate pre-BCR signaling and Igκ rearrangement. However, it is not clear if Spi-C regulates Igκ rearrangement through transcription or by controlling RAG expression. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of Spi-C negative regulation of Igκ L chain rearrangement. Using an inducible expression system in a pre-B cell line, we found that Spi-C negatively regulated Igκ rearrangement, Igκ transcript levels, and Rag1 transcript levels. We found that Igκ and Rag1 transcript levels were increased in small pre-B cells from Spic-/- mice. In contrast, Igκ and Rag1 transcript levels were activated by PU.1 and were decreased in small pre-B cells from PU.1-deficient mice. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis, we identified an interaction site for PU.1 and Spi-C located in the Rag1 promoter region. These results suggest that Spi-C and PU.1 counterregulate Igκ transcription and Rag1 transcription to effect Igκ recombination in small pre-B cells.


Smoking is a way of preserving the fish which, after previous salting, are processed with organic components contained in the smoke during incomplete combustion (pyrolysis) of wood. Smoke contains volatile aromatic substances that gives specific features to meat (attractive appearance, color, taste, smell) and have a bactericidal effect. Smoked fish is tasty and nutritious product, ready for use without or with further cooking or processing. Besides useful, smoke contains harmful substances that have carcinogenic properties. Quality of smoked fish depends on many factors such as: type of fish, diet, condition and treatment before smoking (fresh, frozen), the method of salting, heat treatment, the way of smoking etc. Depending on the temperature of smoking chamber, smoking can be: cold, warm and hot, and depending on the environment in which smoking is conducted there are different smoking ways: smoking with smoke, smoking without smoke and mixed smoking. When smoking with smoke, fish is processed in a smoke-air mixture, which is forrmed during the direct combustion of wood. Smoking without smoke is processing fish with smoke preparations obtained by smoke or its components. Fish smoked with smoke preparations does not contain harmful components, because smoke preparations were previously purified from these substances. Liquid smoke (smoke aqueous solution), which is sufficiently studied, available and has minimal potential toxicity, attracts more attention today.


Advances in high-performance computer resources and exploitation of high-density terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data allow for reconstruction of close-to-reality 3D forest scenes for use in canopy radiative transfer models. Consequently, our main objectives were (i) to reconstruct 3D representation of Norway spruce (Picea abies) trees by deriving distribution of woody and foliage elements from TLS and field structure data and (ii) to use the reconstructed 3D spruce representations for evaluation of the effects of canopy structure on forest reflectance simulated in the Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer (DART) model. Data for this study were combined from two spruce research sites located in the mountainous areas of the Czech Republic. The canopy structure effects on simulated top-of-canopy reflectance were evaluated for four scenarios (10 × 10 m scenes with 10 trees), ranging from geometrically simple to highly detailed architectures. First scenario A used predefined simple tree crown shapes filled with a turbid medium with simplified trunks and branches. Other three scenarios used the reconstructed 3D spruce representations with B detailed needle shoots transformed into turbid medium, C with simplified shoots retained as facets, and D with detailed needle shoots retained as facets D. For the first time, we demonstrated the capability of the DART model to simulate reflectance of complex coniferous forest scenes up to the level of a single needle (scenario D). Simulated bidirectional reflectance factors extracted for each scenario were compared with actual airborne hyperspectral and space-borne Sentinel-2 MSI reflectance data. Scenario A yielded the largest differences from the remote sensing observations, mainly in the visible and NIR regions, whereas scenarios B, C, and D produced similar results revealing a good agreement with the remote sensing data. When judging the computational requirements for reflectance simulations in DART, scenario B can be considered as most operational spruce forest representation, because the transformation of 3D shoots in turbid medium reduces considerably the simulation time and hardware requirements.


On April 29, 1991, there was an earthquake in northern Georgia, Caucasus, its magnitude by Richter scale being Ms = 6.9. Several buildings having architectural and historic importance including the synagogue in Oni were damaged by the earthquake. The synagogue was completed in 1895. It is a rectangular symmetrical structure (18.5 14.9 m) built of local stone, its maximum height being 15 m. The distance from the synagogue to the earthquake epicentre was 25 to 30 km. The earthquake caused substantial damage to the synagogue building. Cracks developed in all bearing elements, such as arches, the shell, walls, and in the drum. Some structures, mainly console structures, collapsed. Preserving architectural-historical monuments in their original state is one of the responsibilities of a civilized society. Retrofitting of these structures was completed two years later. Permanent conservation was aimed primarily at strengthening walls, arches, corner vaults, portico, stele, sculptures, drum, etc. On September 8, 2009, there was another earthquake in northern Georgia. The magnitude in the earthquake epicentre which was 12 km from Oni was 6.2. The building of the synagogue in Oni survived this earthquake without any substantial damage caused. It has proved the effectiveness of the strengthening works in these buildings performed by us. In this paper we analyze the seismic behaviour of the synagogue in Oni before and after its strengthening. The seismic behaviour of the building was investigated using FEM. The results of such an analysis given here correspond closely enough to the behaviour of the building during the earthquake. We developed and applied an original method of expert estimation of the earthquake resistance of buildings. Methods and


The present paper deals with the plant megafossil assemblage from the Maitur Formation, the lower part of Panchet Group of rocks, unconformably overlain by coal bearing Raniganj Formation in Raniganj Coalfield, West Bengal. The plant fossils are collected from two localities exposed in Nonia Nala Section near Asansol, Burdwan District, West Bengal. The assemblages are represented by the typical elements of Glossopteris flora, viz. Trizygia speciosa, Neomariopteris hughesii. N. lobifolia, Dichotomopteris lindleyii, D. ovata, Glossopteris indica, G. tenuifolia, G. emarginata, G. angustifolia. G conspicua, G. intermedia, G. retifera, G. gopadensis, G. taeniensis, Glossopteris sp. cf. G. dhenkanalensis, one new species G. burdwanensis sp. nov., glossopterid scale-leaves and seed-like body.
The age of Maitur Formation has been assigned to Early Triassic but the plant fossil assemblages are comparable with the Late Permian plant fossils of Kamthi, Pachhwara and Bijori formations in having narrow leaf forms of Glossopteris. The investigation supports the view that there is no floral break at the Raniganj-Panchet Boundary and flora of Maitur Formation in all probability represents the ultimate stage of Glossopteris flora in Raniganj Coalfield before the onset of Early Triassic Dicroidium flora in Deoli/Hirapur Formation belonging to upper part of Panchet Sequence in Raniganj Coalfield, West Bengal.


Traditionally the sliding window (SW) has been employed in vertex-based operational rate distortion (ORD) optimal shape coding algorithms to ensure consistent distortion (quality) measurement and improve computational efficiency. It also regulates the memory requirements for an encoder design enabling regular, symmetrical hardware implementations. This paper presents a series of new enhancements to existing techniques for determining the best SW-length within a rate-distortion (RD) framework, and analyses the nexus between SW-length and storage for ORD hardware realizations. In addition, it presents an efficient bit-allocation strategy for managing multiple shapes together with a generalized adaptive SW scheme which integrates localized curvature information (cornerity) on contour points with a bi-directional spatial distance, to afford a superior and more pragmatic SW design compared with existing adaptive SW solutions which are based on only cornerity values. Experimental results consistently corroborate the effectiveness of these new strategies.


In this study, we compared the differences and similarities between the Korean food culture and the Vietnamese food culture by surveying food resources and researching the process of Korean food being accepted into Vietnam. We suggest countermeasures for advancing Korean food into Vietnam. We conducted in-depth interviews regarding Korean food with Vietnamese food specialists who ate Korean food. As a result, Vietnamese foodies eagerly recognized that the most representative thing about Korean food was the special properties of its various and affluent side dishes. They were also aware of kimchi, made of various vegetables and condiments, as an excellent side dish compared to the Vietnamese who's staple is boiled rice. Furthermore, the flavor of Korean food was preferred by the Vietnamese who were familiar with foods such as Neue-ok-mom or fermented seafood. It was thought that the new food could be eaten with many vegetables. The specialists replied that the most typical functional property of Korean food was health. The acceptance process of Korean food into Vietnam was based on the acculturation theory. That made the Vietnamese easily experienced strange culture in the case of propagation by whom have already experienced, through the selective filter steps by various images of Korea, and made them accept the Korean food through temporary choose and acceptance step such as recommendations by friends. Globalization strategies for Korean food proposed by the Vietnamese foodies were public relations marketing in voluntary contact environments, distinguishing traditional Korean foods through research and development, and globalization by diversifying the Korean restaurant concept.


The influence of araT on the synthesis of HSV of types I and z including a T K ( ) variant, on the activity of the dThd and the dCyd kinases and on the incorporation of radioactivity into insoluble or soluble material after infection was studied. AraT inhibited different parameters of the replication of a T K ( ) variant; it is possibly phosphorylated by enzymes other than the deoxypyrimidine kinase and therefore it is less selectively phosphorylated than dThd. The mode of action of araT on herpes replication must be studied in more detail.


Asynchronous Backtracking is the standard search procedure for distributed constraint reasoning. It requires a total ordering on the agents. All polynomial space algorithms proposed so far to improve Asynchronous Backtracking by reordering agents during search only allow a limited amount of reordering. In this paper, we propose Agile-ABT, a search procedure that is able to change the ordering of agents more than previous approaches. This is done via the original notion of termination value, a vector of stamps labelling the new orders exchanged by agents during search. In Agile-ABT, agents can reorder themselves as much as they want as long as the termination value decreases as the search progresses. Our experiments show the good performance of Agile-ABT when compared to other dynamic reordering techniques.


Two perspectives predict how organizational performance influences illegal action. First, poor performance creates tension, leading decision makers to repair the gap through any means necessary. However, strong performance also bolsters risky behavior, possibly leading to violations. To integrate these perspectives, I suggest that performance evaluation provides only the motive to commit illegal action and that decision makers also require an opportunity to do so. I extend organizational learning theory by suggesting that managers in organizations performing far from expectations may evaluate information about the potential success of illegal acts, and I examine whether they use this information to time violations.


PURPOSE: To evaluate the social profile and work habits in patients with Chagas' disease. METHODS: We studied 284 ambulatory patients age ranged 21 to 74 years, female (62.3%) and married people (71.8%) divided according to their activities in three groups: active workers--121 (42.7%); under social security--93 (32.8%); housewives--61 (21.4%); unemployed people--9 (3.1%). RESULTS: The majority of them were in stage II of Chagas' disease, 123 (43.3%) for both sexes. Migratory characteristics in this population was observed, with the search for work as the main reason for this. The level of education was low, considerably affecting the kind of profession. CONCLUSION: Patients with Chagas' disease are originally from the rural area and migrate to urban area in order to improve economic conditions. They show unfavourable social conditions, with inadequate level of education and lack of professional gratifications.


Inputs to molecular pathways that are the backbone of cellular activity drive the cell to certain outcomes and phenotypes. Here, we investigated proteins that topologically controlled different human pathways represented as independent molecular interaction networks, suggesting that a minority of proteins control a high number of pathways and vice versa. Transcending different topological levels, proteins that controlled a large number of pathways also controlled a network of interactions when all pathways were combined. Furthermore, control proteins that were robust when interactions were rewired or inverted also increasingly controlled an increasing number of pathways. As for functional characteristics, such control proteins were enriched with regulatory and signaling genes, disease genes and drug targets. Focusing on evolutionary characteristics, proteins that controlled different pathways had a penchant to be evolutionarily conserved as equal counterparts in other organisms, indicating the fundamental role that control analysis of pathways plays for our understanding of regulation, disease and evolution.


Regional metamorphism of upper-greenschist to epidote-amphibolite facies produced variations of olivine and chrome spinel textures and compositions within the East Dover ultramafic bodies that can be attributed to differing intensities of recrystallization of the ultramafic rocks. Olivine shows a progressive change from highly strained grains in the least recrystallized rocks to relatively strain-free grains in the most recrystallized rocks. Fo content of olivine bears a direct relationship to texture: with increase in degree of recrystallization, olivine changes composition from Fo 90 to Fo 97 . Chrome spinel grains are ubiquitously rimmed by opaque spinels. Variations in thickness of these rims and shape of the translucent chrome spinel cores occur in a regular manner. Thickest rims occur around the most anhedral cores, and these are found in the most strongly recrystallized rocks. Euhedral chrome spinels with thin opaque spinel rims are found in the least recrystallized rocks. With increasing recrystallization, Mg/(Mg + Fe) and A1/(A1 + Cr) ratios increase in the spinel cores. Zones of intensity of recrystallization indicated by both olivine and spinel textures and compositions are geographically concentric with the map outlines of the ultramafic bodies. Observed textural and compositional variations suggest a reaction involving simultaneous serpentinization and recrystallization of olivine in the presence of an oxidizing fluid. Partial buffering of this fluid (which originated in the country rocks) and subsequent development of a substantial f o 2 gradient between the margins and cores of the larger ultramafic bodies resulted in a more nearly complete reaction at the margins than in the cores of the bodies. This reaction need not have occurred as a single event, and equilibrium was only maintained on the scale of hand specimens ( f o 2 , olivine composition) to fractions of mineral grains (spinel composition).


A s evolutionary principles would predict, the development of multicellular organisms with specialized cells has lead to highly complex, but efficient, compartmentalization (separate organ systems) for select processes. This expanded developmental organization has allowed specialized activities to increase, as is most evident with the nervous system. However, along with increased structural adaptation of an organ for a particular function, which improves upon an organism's adjustment to its environment, comes inter-organ dependency. The immune system also has been expanded in its specialization to assist with this interdependency. Immune cells and their factors (e.g., antibodies and cytokines) are critical for the homeostasis of each organ and maintenance of health.


Abstract LPS directly disrupts EC barrier function in vitro and in vivo. This barrier dysfunction has been reported to occur in EC derived from both the macro- and microvasculature of varying species, including humans. Unlike other EC responses, LPS-induced loss of endothelial barrier function is protein-synthesis independent. In fact, protein synthesis inhibition enhances the LPS effect. The lipid A moiety is responsible for LPS-induced activation of the non-CD14-bearing EC, and agents that bind to and neutralize this highly conserved portion of the LPS molecule can crossprotect against EC barrier dysfunction elicited by LPS derived from diverse species of Gram-negative bacteria. Although the presentation of LPS to CD14-bearing cells such as macrophages and monocytes has been well characterized, far less is known about the interactions of LPS with the non-CD14-bearing EC. An EC receptor involved in LPS binding and cellular activation has yet to be identified. The presence of the accessory molecules, LBP and sCD14, are prerequisite to LPS-induced activation of EC at clinically relevant LPS concentrations. As with monocytes and macrophages, the CD14 dependence of LPS-induced endothelial barrier dysfunction can be overcome with high concentrations of LPS. In the absence of LBP and sCD14, a 200,000-fold increase in LPS concentration is required to elicit the same increments in EC monolayer permeability relative to when these accessory molecules are present. Within 30 minutes after LPS exposure, PTK activation is observed. PTK inhibition blocks LPS-induced EC actin depolymerization and endothelial barrier dysfunction which are seen only after a > or = 2-hour stimulus-to-response lag time. Furthermore this LPS-induced actin depolymerization is a prerequisite to opening up the paracellular pathway and loss of monolayer integrity. Interestingly LPS-induced increments in transendothelial 14C-BSA flux and EC detachment parallel caspase-mediated cleavage of ZA and FA proteins that participate in cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion. The cleavage of the ZA components, beta- and gamma-catenin, does not affect their ability to bind the transmembrane protein, cadherin, or the actin-binding protein, alpha-catenin, suggesting that the linkage of the ZA to the actin cytoskeleton remains intact. LPS-induced cleavage of the FA protein, FAK, leads to dissociation of its catalytic domain from paxillin substrate and decreased paxillin phosphotyrosine content. Caspase inhibition protects against LPS-provoked apoptosis, cleavage of adherens junction proteins, paxillin dephosphorylation, cell-shape changes, and EC detachment. In contrast it fails to block LPS-induced increments in transendothelial 14C-BSA flux. PTK inhibition, which does protect against increased transendothelial 14C-BSA flux, does not block LPS-induced proteolytic cleavage events and only partially inhibits EC detachment. These findings suggest that the EC detachment and endothelial barrier dysfunction elicited by LPS are mediated through distinct pathways (Fig. 6). Much of the work to date has focused on LPS interactions with mCD14-bearing cells, such as monocytes and macrophages, which are central to the inflammatory response elicited by endotoxin. EC, which line the vasculature, are one of the first host tissue barriers to encounter circulating LPS. Because damage to the endothelium is known to contribute to the development of multiorgan failure, including ARDS, understanding LPS-induced EC dysfunction in the setting of Gram-negative septicemia has clear pathophysiologic implications. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)


A number of lipophilic 14-substituted derivatives of doxorubicin were synthesized through conjugation of doxorubicin-14-hemisuccinate with different fatty amines or tetradecanol to enhance the lipophilicity, cellular uptake, and cellular retention for sustained anticancer activity. The conjugates inhibited the cell proliferation of human leukemia (CCRF-CEM, 69-76%), colon adenocarcinoma (HT-29, 60-77%), and breast adenocarcinoma (MDA-MB-361, 66-71%) cells at a concentration of 1 μM after 96-120 h of incubation. The N-tetradecylamido derivative of doxorubicin 14-succinate (10) exhibited consistently comparable antiproliferative activity to doxorubicin in a time-dependent manner (IC(50) = 77 nM in CCRF-CEM cells). Flow cytometry analysis showed a 3-fold more cellular uptake of 10 than doxorubicin in SK-OV-3 cells. Confocal microscopy revealed that the conjugate was distributed in cytoplasmic and perinuclear areas during the first 1 h of incubation and slowly relocalized in the nucleus after 24 h. The cellular hydrolysis study showed that 98% of compound 10 was hydrolyzed intracellularly within 48 h and released doxorubicin.


REGARDLESS of the surgical method employed to obtain an arthrodesis, whether by an intra-articular or an extra-articular attempt or a combination of both, it is often difficult to decide clinically that firm lasting bony union has occurred. One may at operation employ careful paring away of cartilage surface with exposure of freshened bone, apposing surfaces in light contact or assuring kissing coaptation by fixation with screw, nail, bone transplant or any other method. Some surgeons do not stop to turn the head of the femur out of the hip joint to pare the cartilage and trim the fibrous capsule but simply ignore this step and rely on close fixed approximation to the acetabular surface by metal pin or screw driven well into the ilium. Drs. Dickson and Diveley, of Kansas City, now add high oblique trochanteric osteotomy held by pin and angled plate to correct axial support and insure bony


A method simulating the formation of densely cross-linked polymeric networks was developed that incorporates both intramolecular as well as intermolecular interactions and the subsequent effects they have on the end network structure. The all-atom nature of the model allows for the simulation of network formation in a variety of conditions including differing solvent qualities, presence of inert species, as well as nonlocal effects such as polymerization in the presence of a template molecule. We employed an all-atom kinetic gelation technique that utilized an off-lattice approach that tracked the position and interaction of all atoms throughout the simulation. This model was then used to study the formation of polymeric networks capable of recognizing and binding a specific molecule out of a host of competing species. Simulation of the imprinted network formation was done using the all-atom kinetic gelation framework, which helped identify the interactions central to recognition. These results were verif...


We re-examine the way in which Bogoliubov's theory of a dilute Bose gas at $T=0$ has been extended to describe the statistical mechanics of interacting bosons at finite temperature. We show explicitly that the field-theoretic calculation of the grand partition function in this formulation amounts to a canonical trace over the eigenfunctions of the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian at fixed total number of bosons $N$, and that the additional trace over $N$ that is required in the grand-canonical formalism is never carried out. This implies that what usually passes as the grand-canonical treatment of the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian is not quite grand-canonical, and is in fact a canonical one. We also show that the discontinuity in the condensate density predicted by previous formulations of this theory as the temperature $T$ goes past the critical transition temperature $T_c$ is a direct consequence of an inappropriate generalization of the Bogoliubov prescription to finite temperatures, and that this discontinuity disappears when this prescription is either used as a zero temperature approximation or avoided altogether. Armed with the above findings, we reformulate the statistical mechanics of interacting bosons in the canonical ensemble and derive the thermodynamics of the system. We then show how the canonical treatment can be used to setup a truly grand-canonical description of the statistical mechanics of a weakly interacting Bose gas where the average number of bosons in the system varies with temperature, unlike existing formulations where the total number of bosons $N$ is taken to be a constant that does not depend on $T$. Consequences on the physics of interacting bosons are briefly discussed.


Summary Two groups of children with Perthes' disease, randomized according to their source of referral, were treated by bed rest and skin traction, followed by either use of a weight-relieving caliper or a proximal femoral varus osteotomy. The outcome was similar in both groups and could be predicted more effectively by the arthrographic shape of the femoral head at presentation than by the Catterall grouping. The principal influences were the age of the child when treated and the sphericity of the femoral head. Walking speed at time of review was related to the height of the child and, at this age, was not affected by the shape of the healed femoral head.


The study investigated twenty-two particulate dust samples from ten different departments and a control site at Funtua textile limited, Katsina, Nigeria for total concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Pbusing Atomic Absorption spectrometry. The physicochemical parameters such as pH, Electrical conductivity (EC (μScm), ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N (%), nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N (%), organic matter (OM (%) and chloride (Cl(mg/kg) contents were also investigated in the dust particulate samples using standard analytical methods. The levels of the analysed parameters in the samples were compared with those of world health organization (WHO) in order to draw a meaningful conclusion. The mean concentrations of heavy metals in the particulates dust were in the ranges of; Cd: 0.02 ± 0.00 (S1& O1) to 0.15 ± 0.17 (E1), Cr: BDL (W2) to 174.30 ± 9.79 (E1), Cu: 0.18 ± 0.08 (O1) to 356.68 ± 33.57 (E1), Ni: 0.09 ± 0.04 (O1) to 3.44 ± 0.12 (E1) and Pb: 0.14 ± 0.04 (S2) to 5.09 ± 0.06 (W2) mgkg, respectively. The ranges of 5.235 ±0.021(O2) to 4.750±0.354(E2), BDL to 0.032 ±0.004 (S1), BDL (W2) to 0.011 ± 0.001 (G, S1), 0.640 ± 0.028 (C) to 89.240 ± 1.131 (W2) and 0.30 ±0.001 (O1) to 12.70±0.424 mg/kg (E2) pH, EC (μScm), NH4-N (%), NO3-N (%),OM (%) and Cl (mg/kg), respectively. The levels of the analysed metals in the dust particulate samples within the industry were higher than those in the control site and those of the European commission (2005) tolerable limit which clearly shows that the industry contributes immensely in polluting the immediate environment.


: Forty-three patients with disseminated refractory malignancies each received an individually specified combination of either Adriamycin (n = 24) or mitomycin-C (n = 19) conjugated to a cocktail of murine monoclonal antibodies (mAb). Cancers were typed with both immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry using a panel of antibodies. Cocktails of up to six antibodies were selected based on total binding of greater than 80% of the malignant cells in the biopsy specimen. These mAb cocktails were then drug conjugated, safety tested, and administered intravenously. The Adriamycin immunoconjugates were well tolerated in 22/24 patients, with 17/24 having significant side effects. Fever, chills, pruritus, and skin rash were by far the most common transitory reactions. All were well controlled with premedication. A total of up to 1 g Adriamycin and 5 g mAb were administered to each patient. The limiting factor appeared to be a variable dissociation of active Adriamycin from the antibody that unpredictably caused hemopoietic depression. Similar findings were noted among 19 patients treated with mitomycin-C conjugates. Thrombocytopenia at a 60-mg dose of mitomycin-C in this schedule was dose limiting. Serological evidence suggested that the development of an immunoglobulin M antibody specific against the mouse mAb had the specificity and sensitivity to predict clinical reactions. These antibodies were quantitatively less in mitomycin-C-treated patients. Selected patients were retreated. One patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia was treated on three occasions with regression of peripheral lymph nodes. Two patients with breast carcinoma had definite improvement in ulcerating skin lesions, and two patients with tongue carcinoma had shrinkage of their lesions. No responses were seen with mitomycin-C conjugates but binding was noted to tumors. Drug-induced colitis was seen at higher doses with some binding of these conjugates to normal colon epithelium. This study demonstrated the feasibility of preparing individually specified drug immunoconjugate cocktails for patients with refractory malignancies. Cocktail formulation and antibody delivery to the tumor in vivo was accomplished. There was limited antigenic drift among various biopsies within the same patient over time. The major technical hurdle continues to be the selection of effective drug conjugation methods to optimally bind drugs to mAbs for targeted cancer therapy.


The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) has been thriving over the last couple years. As computing systems have become more ubiquitous due to the reduced prices of chips and sensors, the proliferation of mobile devices and sensors has created opportunities for context-aware applications. Previously, we have built Cacophony, a network of peer-to-peer nodes where each Cacophony node (C-Node) is capable of monitoring, reasoning about, and providing real-time prediction of a specified set of sensors in the wild. However, making meaning out of data from sensors and aggregating data from other C-Nodes can be difficult. A robust system is necessary for C-Nodes to deal with unavailable nodes and communicate with other online nodes in a peer-to-peer network.In this thesis, I propose a new communication model for sensors on the basis of sociological theories. I have developed a group status system to examine people's mental process of building awareness of their friends' daily trends of life and have conducted two pilot studies to gain a deeper understanding of computer-mediated communication behaviors. In the pilot studies, participants are required to report their statuses and guess their friends' via their smartphones every three hours from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. Through follow-up semi-structured interviews with the participants, we uncover their rationale for the status they reported and their behaviors in computer-mediated communication by drawing on social exchange theory and social penetration theory. The results give new insights into communication behaviors between humans and help us establish a different communication model for C-Nodes, as human communication in a (social) network can provide a template for how C-Nodes interact in a peer-to-peer computer network.


The education of students with special needs in an inclusive environment is becoming more widespread throughout the world. Similarly, in Turkey, the inclusion of students with disabilities has also improved. However, current statistical trends and developments within inclusive education are not well known. The purpose of this study is to provide a statistical analysis of special education data, which were obtained from the Ministry of National Education of Turkey. The findings indicate that some statistical components of special education are missing from most official publications of educational statistics and the number of students and the proportions of special education categories in inclusive education vary from year to year. However, in Turkey, the percentage of students in inclusive education, of all students with special needs, is higher than many European countries. The results show that the number of students with special needs, as well as students in inclusive education, has rapidly increased. Turkey needs to focus on improving the schooling rate of students with special needs, and the quality and variety of special education services within inclusive education.


Nearly every star known to host planets will become a white dwarf, and nearly 100 planet-hosts are now known to be accompanied by binary stellar companions. Here, we determine how a binary companion triggers instability in otherwise unconditionally stable single-star two-planet systems during the giant branch and white dwarf phases of the planet host. We perform about 700 full-lifetime (14 Gyr) simulations with A0 and F0 primary stars and secondary K2 companions, and identify the critical binary distance within which instability is triggered at any point during stellar evolution. We estimate this distance to be about seven times the outer planet separation, for circular binaries. Our results help characterize the fates of planetary systems, and in particular which ones might yield architectures that are conducive to generating observable heavy metal pollution in white dwarf atmospheres.


A small and medium enterprise using ERP system as an example, this paper analyzes its business processes to reengine critical business processes more likely to have errors for the necessity and urgency of process reengineering. The use of AHP identifies weights of evaluation indexes determining whether the critical business processes are error-prone and using the improved flow prioritization matrix method prioritizes business processes. Select the first five business processes as the critical business processes, and choose the first two critical business processes as examples to reengine with the cause-effect analysis method.


What brings us the proenvironmental behavior? What lies behind people's behavior in daily life? This paper is intended to analyze and discuss how the environment-oriented norm is developed and transmitted in daily life focusing on household waste disposal. Waste management companies in Finland have unique environmental policies which are intended to instill the environmentally friendly awareness into local residents by collaborative environmental activities based on environmental communication. For the purpose of obtaining the qualitative data, the participant observation was conducted in Finland. Following the results, this paper suggests the significance of the collaborative environmental activities based on environmental communication in order to transmit the environment-oriented norm.


A variety of mechanisms for deuteron production in relativistic nuclear collisions are considered. These include the coalescence model, the sudden approximation model, and the static thermal model. A new model based on time dependent perturbation theory is presented. A solution of the rate equations for a hydrodynamically expanding fireball suggests that chemical equilibrium might be achieved in central collisions. Emphasis is placed on the physical assumptions of the various models, their limitations, and their subtly different predictions. Of some importance is the effect of impact parameter averaging which, when written in terms of the usual power law relationship, introduces the necessity for measuring various two particle correlation functions to check the self-consistency of these models.NUCLEAR REACTIONS Relativistic heavy ions, models for deuteron production $p\ensuremath{-}n$ correlations.


The transformer is the hard core of the switch phase-sensitive circuit of the equipment. According to the basic failure rate model and working failure rate model of the national standards, the transformer working reliabilities are analyzed under different working conditions and environments. Based on this, the reliability analyses of the redundancy structures of the switch phase-sensitive circuit are done, and the comparisons and analysis of the results are done, and the useful conclusions for design and engineering are presented.


The emergence of ambient-assisted living (AAL) tools is a blessing for the human society, nowadays, with the innovative smart sensors and mobile technologies. These ICT-based products, services and systems are increasing the quality of life, autonomy, participation in social life, skills and employability of older adults, and reducing the costs of health and social care. Moreover, monitoring the daily routines and activities of elderly people and thus help them to avoid being unwell subside the load on the patient monitoring. In this paper we propose and design a system which includes smart sensors and mobile technologies to monitor daily routines of elderly people and to report the career any atypical event. Our designed AAL Communication system not only provides efficient monitoring services but also opens new commercial opportunities through the use of information and communication technology. In addition, the proposed system is robust, economical, and secured.


While chronic disease is viewed by some as the 'healthcare challenge of this century', and academics and practitioners around the world extol the virtues of chronic care management programmes, we are still a long way from fully specifying the causal connections that are needed to design and implement them successfully. Whilst the factors that are important in such systems of care are well articulated in the literature, it is less clear what the relationships between them are, and it is unclear how those factors can be implemented in a way that retains the integrity of the system they are a part of. The result is that despite strong clinical and management support, progress in implementing such programmes is slow.
The goals of this research are therefore to:• develop a better understanding of the system of causality underpinning the key factors known to be important in implementing new models of chronic health care management,• understand how context influences this system, and• use the answers to the above questions to provide a model of implementation that can inform both theory and practiceThe research uses in-depth interviews with seven clinical, management and policy leaders within the New Zealand health system to develop a 'theory of implementation' that is described using System Dynamics. The research uses the cognitive mapping method to elicit the key concepts in the 'expert' theories by analysing both the individual maps and a composite map developed by combining data from all seven interviews. The cognitive maps are then used to inform the development of a causal loop diagram that depicts the key causal connections that are seen to be important in implementing such programmes and provides the basis for a simulation model.
The findings from this research fall into two groups. The first group are findings that relate directly to the challenge of implementing programmes to improve care for people with chronic conditions. Within this group are findings that emphasise the importance of clinicians' self-efficacy, the paradox that striving to implement best practice may, in some contexts, decrease performance and the acknowledgement that implementation will always be a 'local affair'. The second group of findings relate to the process of implementation research. The world of implementation is a world of multiple, interacting variables that change over time and this research provides an approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data, that can be used in other contexts where the interest is in understanding how innovative ideas are implemented in practice.
The research has therefore some implications for the practice of implementing new health innovations in primary care and provides a set of heuristics to inform such endeavours. The research also describes an approach for those who want to conduct research into the complex world of practice, by exploring the dynamics of many interacting factors, rather than isolating individual factors from each other and the context within which they exist.


We report on the discovery of periodic coronal rain in an off-limb sequence of Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly images. The showers are co-spatial and in phase with periodic (6.6 hr) intensity pulsations of coronal loops of the sort described by Auchère et al. and Froment et al. These new observations make possible a unified description of both phenomena. Coronal rain and periodic intensity pulsations of loops are two manifestations of the same physical process: evaporation/condensation cycles resulting from a state of thermal nonequilibrium. The fluctuations around coronal temperatures produce the intensity pulsations of loops, and rain falls along their legs if thermal runaway cools the periodic condensations down and below transition-region temperatures. This scenario is in line with the predictions of numerical models of quasi-steadily and footpoint heated loops. The presence of coronal rain—albeit non-periodic—in several other structures within the studied field of view implies that this type of heating is at play on a large scale.


In an endoscopically performed conjunctivodacryocystorhinostomy, insertion of a Jones glass tube can be difficult if the nasal end of the tube draws soft tissue around the tunnel in front of the tube. A urologic Tiemann catheter has been used for Jones tube placement in 44 cases since 2001. The tube is put in the lumen end of the catheter, the tip of which is bulbous and gradually tapered in its diameter. The catheter can be easily inserted into the tunnel and pulled out of the nose with forceps, leaving the glass tube in the tunnel.


An approach for building reconstruction based on fused information extracted from different data sources, namely LIDAR data (light detection and ranging) and aerial imagery, is proposed. The building reconstruction is performed within the scope of a general surface estimation process. This surface estimation aims at generating a DTM including buildings and vegetation removed. The buildings are reconstructed by applying polyhedral models. Thus a large variety of building types can be described with the only limitation, that the roof surface consists of planes.


Thermal stress caused by extreme temperatures, wind and rain, negatively affects profitability of sheep production due to increased maintenance requirements causing a reduction in weight gain and the efficiency of feed utilisation. The purpose of this paper was to explore the capacity of a bioeconomic model to evaluate biological and economic implications of thermal stress on feedlot lamb production. It was expected that strategies aimed at reducing thermal stress of lambs would lead to improvements in growth rates and feed conversion efficiency, and subsequent economic net benefits. The findings from the model indicated that reducing thermal stress on the lamb all had positive effects on growth rates. Treatments involving shelter and increased fleece length reduced the energy needed to maintain a constant body temperature leading to higher energy availability for growth. Simulating near ideal environmental conditions by providing shelter in the feedlot and having fleece length at 40 mm enabled an almost constant growth rate throughout the year indicating that thermal stress was almost completely alleviated. Based on the assumptions used for this paper and depending on fleece length, it would be rational for a producer with an annual turnover of 5,000 feedlot sheep to spend between $29,000 and $53,000 on a shelter. Being a simulation model, there are an infinite number of assumptions that could be made to derive results and hence the results presented in this paper provide examples of those that can be generated by the model. While results from the model showed that environmental factors affect lamb production in accordance with the literature, further model development would be useful as additional biological equations become available.


Potential of zero charge (PZC) is an important reference for understanding the interface charge and structure at a given potential, and its difference from the work function of metal surface (ΦM) is defined as the Volta potential difference (ΔΦ). In this work, we model 11 metal/water interfaces with ab initio molecular dynamics. Interestingly, we find ΔΦ is linearly correlated with the adsorption energy of water (Eads) on the metal surface. It is revealed that the size of Eads directly determines the coverage of chemisorbed water on the metal surface and accordingly affects the interface potential change caused by electron redistribution (ΔΦel). Moreover, ΔΦ is dominated by the electronic component ΔΦel with little orientational dipole contributing, which explains the linear correlation between ΔΦ and Eads. Finally, it is expected that this correlation can be helpful for effectively estimating the ΔΦel and PZC of other metal surfaces in the future work.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to use nearly a century's worth of gang research to inform us about modern terrorist groups, specifically the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Design/methodology/approach

A case study approach is employed, comparing and contrasting the competing theoretical frameworks of gangs and terrorist organisations to understand group structure, demographics, patterns of behaviour (e.g. territoriality, strategic, and instrumental violence), goals, and membership patterns of ISIS.

Findings

The qualitative differences of ISIS make them more comparable to street gangs than other terrorist groups.

Practical implications

ISIS, while being qualitatively different from other terrorist groups, actually has many similarities with street gangs allowing for the adaptation of effective gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies. This paper highlights how the expansive literature on street gangs is able to inform practical interventions to directly target ISIS and deradicalise potential recruits. By introducing a gang-terror nexus on the crime-terror continuum, this paper provides a useful perspective on the decentralised but dynamic nature of modern era insurgencies. This paper urges similar case studies of terrorist organisations to determine the extent to which they conform to street gang characteristics.

Originality/value

Terrorist groups are often compared to street gangs, yet it has not been until the last few years that gang researchers (Curry, 2011; Decker and Pyrooz, 2011, 2015a, b) have begun to compare and contrast these two deviant group archetypes. The goal of this paper is to use nearly a hundred years of gang research to better equip scholars and practitioners with a broader understanding of terrorism and insurgency in the era of globalisation by presenting a case study of ISIS using a street gang perspective.


In January of 2001, El Salvador adopted the U.S. dollar as its currency, going through a full dollarization process that fixed the exchange rate at 8.75 colones (El Salvador's former currency) per U.S. dollar and that took the colon out of circulation. Dollarization was expected to increase trade and attract international investment among other benefits. Later, in 2005, El Salvador signed CAFTA-DR which is a bilateral trade agreement between the United States and five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. CAFTA-DR was also expected to increase trade, especially exports to the United States, El Salvador's main commercial partner. Although several studies were conducted to evaluate the potential benefits of these two events on El Salvador's Trade flows, studies evaluating the actual impact of these events are very limited. To evaluate the actual impact of these two events on trade flows we estimate two gravity models (one for imports and one for exports) using panel data on trade flows between El Salvador and 13 other countries between 1994 to 2012. Our preliminary results suggest that dollarization and CAFTA-DR did not have a major effect on El Salvador's bilateral trade.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of erythromycin lactobionate (ERY) on ileocecocolic myoelectric activity and passage of radiolabeled markers from the cecum.

ANIMALS
6 healthy adult ponies.

PROCEDURE
After a 12-hour nonfeeding period, 370 MBq of technetium 99m-labeled sulfur colloid in egg albumen and 37 MBq of indium 111-labeled diethyltriaminepentaacetic acid in 60 ml of water were administered directly into the cecal apex. The following drug concentrations were tested: ERY, 0.01, 0.10, 1.0, and 10.0 mg/kg of body weight; ERY, 0.10 mg/kg bolus; and saline (0.9% NaCl) solution, 10 ml. All treatments, with the exception of the 0.10-mg/kg bolus and saline solution, were infusions administered i.v. during a 60-minute period in a randomized complete block design. Each treatment was administered 2 times/pony. Dual-phase scintigraphic images were obtained, and the best-fit function was determined for each study, using data from the right side. Myoelectric data were collected before and after each treatment and analyzed for spike burst rate, relative activity, and burst duration.

RESULTS
The time to 50% emptying (t50) after ERY administration was dose dependent, and all treatments, with the exception of the 0.01-mg/kg infusion, resulted in a significantly shorter t50 than that observed after saline administration (230.2 +/- 17.12 minutes). The shortest t50 was observed after the 1.0 mg/kg dosage of ERY (76.9 +/- 22.0 minutes). Although not significantly different, the t50 and beta were shorter (108.6 +/- 25.9 minutes) and steeper after a bolus dose of 0.10 mg/kg of ERY than after infusion at the same dosage (131.1 +/- 18.7 minutes).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
ERY may be a useful prokinetic for prevention or treatment of cecal motility dysfunction. The ability of ERY to evoke a similar response during the early postanesthetic or postoperative period remains to be determined.


Abstract Many disabled people in Britain have experienced profound challenges brought about by a government policy programme characterised by 'austerity'. Drawing on the work of Fraser and Polanyi, this article explores new ways in which disability studies can become theoretically orientated to the task of explaining and challenging what has become an issue of overbearing importance for many disabled people. It is argued that Fraser's notion of bivalency encapsulates the combination of cultural and economic challenges which characterise 'disablist austerity'. Fraser's development of Polanyi's work is used to argue that disability studies should be orientated to large-scale economic challenges as well as cultural and discursive concerns that are more often the object of study in the field.


The recent evidence from literature testify to functional asymmetry of the structures belonging to the limbic system: hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus. Predominant activation of the right hippocampus and right amygdala during perception and memorizing of visual picturesque images and solving the tasks provoking emotional stress, apparently, concerns the functional specialization of the right hemisphere in general. The leading role of the left hypothalamus in provocation of food, sexual, and defensive responses was experimentally verified. This finding is in line with the functional role of the left hemisphere in genesis of motivational states.


IgA deficiency is among the most common primary immune deficiency known. Its prevalence, ranging from 1/324-1/1850, depends upon the study group geographic location and its ethnicity. IgA deficiency is commonly associated with other immune defects such as IgG2, and IgG4 deficiency. In addition, ataxia telangiectasia has been associated with IgA deficiency as well. The clinical significans of IgA deficiency is presently unclear. However, increased susceptibility to atopy, autoimmunity, infections and cancer has been reported. Furthermore, majority of these diseases are bound to the mucosal surfaces; the organ where IgA is thought to have its most protective role. Recent studies focusing on the genealogy of primary IgA deficiency have found linkages to chromosome 6, 14, 18 and 22. In addition, a link to certain HLA haplotypes has been reported. Thus, further studies into the immunogenetics of IgA deficiency are needed, particularly focusing upon the question why some individuals with IgA deficiency are prone to diseases whereas others are not. In this article some of these questions are addressed, and the current literature on the topic reviewed.


As binding sites of the alpha-amino butyric acid receptor complexes benzodiazepine-receptors offer a possibility to enhance hyperpolarization-based inhibition by allosteric modulation. Most of the hypnotic drugs are compounds that bind to benzodiazepine receptors. The effects of these drugs are usually characterized at a descriptive level, without deliberation of the basic processes involved in sleep regulation. This review follows the analysis of hypnotic's effect from a perspective of homeostatic, circadian, ultradian and microstructural regulation of sleep. In contrast to their expected effect benzodiazepines produce a decrease in most of the markers of homeostatic sleep regulation. Ligands with non-benzodiazepine structure (cyclopyrrolones, imidazopyridines, pyrazolopyrimidines) have a permissive or even stimulating effect in some measures of homeostatic sleep regulation. Some benzodiazepines have marked chronobiotic effects, while others interfere with circadian rhythms. The non- benzodiazepine-type hypnotics are mostly free of chronobiotic effects, although zaleplon may increase melatonin release. Given their acute hypothermic effect all hypnotic sedatives mimic the circadian signal of sleep initiation. Ultradian sleep regulation is largely unaffected by hypnotics. The microstructure of sleep as quantified by arousal instability is a sensitive measure of the effect of most of the hypnotics. Hypnotic sedatives decrease arousal instability. Zolpidem has the strongest effects in microstructural terms.


Naturally occurring antisperm-antibodies (ASA) exert an impairment to fertility, which is related to the extent of sperm autoimmunisation. It determines the degree of the interfering effect on sperm penetration through the cervical mucus independently from the antigenic specificity of ASA. Whether or to what extent an ASA-interfering effect occurs, in each individual patient, downwards from the impairment of cervical mucus penetration is still hard to establish. The main reasons are the inability of current diagnostic tests to determine the antigenic specificity of ASA and to quantify the antibody density on the sperm surface, the main determinants of the ASA-impairment at level of sperm/oocyte interaction. The current empirical treatment strategy (intrauterine insemination as first line-treatment) would give way to a more rational one, with the development of tests detecting ASA directed against defined fertilisation-related antigens.

Key Concepts:

Immunological infertility refers to couple infertility due to antisperm-antibodies (ASA) occurring in the male or female partner.

Antisperm-antibodies (ASA) exert an impairment to fertility, which is related to the extent of sperm-immunisation.

The impairment of sperm penetration through the cervical mucus represents the primary mechanism of ASA interference with fertility.

An ASA interference at the level of gamete interaction can occur or not, depending on the relevance of the specific antigens, targeted by natural ASA in each individual patient, to the fertilisation process.

Keywords:

antisperm-antibodies (ASA);
immunological infertility;
fertilisation;
sperm-immunisation;
cervical-mucus interaction


BACK IN THE UNDERWORLD HE TRIED TO LEAVE BEHIND Haunted by the memory of his wife's murder and his father's untimely death, ex-New Orleans cop Dave Robicheaux spends his days in a fish-and-tackle business. But when an old friend makes a surprise appearance, Robicheaux finds himself thrust back into the violent world of Mafia goons and wily federal agents. From the Louisiana bayou to Montana's tribal lands, Robicheaux is running from the bottle, a homicide rap, a professional killer and the demons of his past. Rich with fascinating characters and dramatic plot twists, the audio debut of James Lee Burke and his Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux recalls the best of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe -- tough, complex and thoroughly entertaining.


SummaryAphonoascus fulvescens was isolated from lesions resembling a dermatophyte infection in a 45-year-old woman who had used steroid cream for several months to treat a dermatosis of the neck. Treatment with griseofulvin and tolnaftate cured the lesions in 6 weeks. The microscopic characteristics of the isolate and its size differed slightly from those described by several other authors, and bore a closer resemblance to isolates previously described from Australia and New Guinea.


Cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoprotein levels were assayed in serum of 152 children and teenagers with IDDM and in 228 non-diabetic siblings. A poor control of diabetes, reflected by high levels of glycosylated hemoglobin and/or high fasting blood glucose, was associated with statistically significant increases in total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides, and a reduction in HDL-cholesterol. Mean total cholesterol levels in diabetic patients (171 +/- 33 mg/dL for males and 199 +/- 53 mg/dL for females) were statistically higher than those in their siblings (158 +/- 30 mg/dL and 164 +/- 33 mg/dL respectively). The prevalence of hypercholesterolemia (HC) and hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) were higher in the diabetic patients but statistically significant exclusively in females (prevalences of 40% vs 12% for HC and 30% vs 9% for HTG with a p value < 0.005). The diabetic patients in good metabolic control had similar lipid levels to those of their non-diabetic siblings. These data support the hypothesis that poor control of blood glucose is associated with atherogenic lipid profiles. The prevalence of hypercholesterolemia is impressively high in our diabetic population and indicates that all IDDM patients should have a serum lipid and lipoprotein analysis done annually; blood glucose control and dietary guidelines should be improved in these cases.


U-Nets are a go-to, state-of-the-art neural architecture across numerous tasks for continuous signals on a square such as images and Partial Differential Equations (PDE), however their design and architecture is understudied. In this paper, we provide a framework for designing and analysing general U-Net architectures. We present theoretical results which characterise the role of the encoder and decoder in a U-Net, their high-resolution scaling limits and their conjugacy to ResNets via preconditioning. We propose Multi-ResNets, U-Nets with a simplified, wavelet-based encoder without learnable parameters. Further, we show how to design novel U-Net architectures which encode function constraints, natural bases, or the geometry of the data. In diffusion models, our framework enables us to identify that high-frequency information is dominated by noise exponentially faster, and show how U-Nets with average pooling exploit this. In our experiments, we demonstrate how Multi-ResNets achieve competitive and often superior performance compared to classical U-Nets in image segmentation, PDE surrogate modelling, and generative modelling with diffusion models. Our U-Net framework paves the way to study the theoretical properties of U-Nets and design natural, scalable neural architectures for a multitude of problems beyond the square.


Motorcycle accidents are becoming a public health problem in developing world. The objective of this paper was to assess the factors related to morbidity and mortality among victims of motorcycle accidents in a trauma center. An analysis of 9,734 medical records of patients hospitalized for external causes at the Regional Emergency and Trauma Hospital of Campina Grande, Paraiba, Brazil, from January to December 2009 was done. The cases of accidents with motorcycles accounted for 20.8% of all hospital care, mostly affecting men (85.8%) aged 21-29 years old (33.9%). Legs and feet (55.2%) and arms and hands (26.9%) were the most affected parts of the body. There was significant association between the occurrence of motorcycle accident and injuries on the face (p = 0.001), the chest (p < 0.001), arms and hands (p = 0.004) and legs and feet (p < 0.001). Multiple lesions were present in 40.4% of the cases; and the majority (80.6%) involved fractures. Amputation and functional impairment were observed in 15.3% and 4.3% of the victims, respectively. Vascular lesions in the lower limbs had a 3.5 times higher chance of occurrence among injured motorcyclists. Fatal accidents accounted for 1.3% of the injured victims. In conclusion, motorcycle accidents affect men, predominantly, most of them being young, causing fractures and multiple lesions, mainly in the lower limbs. There is need for greater incentive to actions concerning traffic safety education focusing on motorcyclists, as well as greater control by competent authorities as regards to the use of motorcycles in the country.


W. E. Moerner, the Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistry and professor, by courtesy, of Applied Physics at Stanford University, conducts research in physical chemistry of single molecules, biophysics, nanoparticle trapping, and nanophotonics. He earned three bachelor's degrees from Washington University in 1975 and master's and doctoral degrees from Cornell University in 1978 and 1982. From 1981 to 1995, he was a research staff member at IBM, receiving two IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards. He was Professor and Distinguished Chair in Physical Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, from 1995 to 1998, the year he joined the Stanford faculty.

Moerner received the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Eric Betzig and Stefan Hell, for their development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy.