The quadriceps femoris is the most voluminous muscle of the human body.From a sporting point of view, it is an extraordinarily important muscle, but due to the stress it receives, it is often subject to trauma. The quadriceps is essential for daily activities, such as climbing stairs or getting up from the chair. Quadriceps can become a diagnostic tool in some pathological conditions, studying the intrinsic adaptations of muscle tissue. Some flaps of muscle tissue can be used to repair parts of the skull or other contractile districts.Recent information on the function and anatomy of this muscle will improve the understanding of the functional coordination between the different vasti and allow implementation of a clinical and rehabilitative approach. Its functions affect the knee joint, hip joint, posture, walking, and the relationship between the pelvis and the spine.


Objective. Accelerated atherosclerosis is a major cause of death in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), yet little is known about the effect of socioeconomic status. We investigated whether education or income levels are associated with cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes in SLE. Methods. Our study involved a longitudinal cohort of all patients with SLE enrolled in the Hopkins Lupus Cohort from 1987 through September 2011. Socioeconomic status was measured by education level (≥ 12 years or < 12) and income tertiles (> $60,000, $25,000–$60,000, or < $25,000). Results. A total of 1752 patients with SLE were followed prospectively every 3 months. There were 1052 whites and 700 African Americans. Current smoking, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus were more common in African Americans (p < 0.01 for all), but there was no statistical difference in the frequency of myocardial infarction or stroke. In multivariate analyses stratified by ethnicity, low income was strongly associated with most traditional cardiovascular risk factors in whites, but only with smoking and diabetes in African Americans. In whites, low income increased the risk of both myocardial infarction (OR 3.24, 95% CI 1.41–7.45, p = 0.006) and stroke (OR 2.85, 95% CI 1.56–5.21, p = 0.001); in African Americans, these relationships were not seen. Low education, in contrast, was associated with smoking in both ethnic groups. Conclusion. Low income, not low education, is the socioeconomic status variable associated with cardiovascular risk factors and events. This association is most clearly demonstrable in whites.


The seismic stacking velocity data in the Great Australian Bight are a useful dataset for calculating depths and sediment thicknesses. This work compares these data with P-wave velocities from sonobuoys and sonic logs from wells, and on this basis a depth overestimate of at least 15% can be expected from the depths derived from stacking velocities. Megasequence boundary depths are calculated for the Ceduna Terrace to further illustrate data quality. The database makes available the unfiltered stacking velocities using conventional and horizon-consistent formats.


E- Learning techniques have emerged as powerful tools for distance learning applications used by learning institutions like universities that offer distance learning solutions to the public. For e-learning tools to work efficiently, it is of major importance to have the possibility to measure in a real time all the performances of the information and communication technology systems involved (servers, databases, connections etc). Such an approach makes solving potential problems much easier, by diagnosing and treating the causes in a short time so that the users of the system are minimally affected.
Among the parameters of modern e- learning systems that have to be continuously monitored are the content usage, database usage, disk usage, communication bandwidth occupied, web host latency, web page hit number per month, CPU utilization per application server, total number of users etc.
The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of e- learning systems monitoring by taking as an example the Black Board learning platform used by a university with a considerable number of students. By analyzing the above mentioned parameters for the given learning platform, system administrators can solve problems efficiently and can even anticipate future issues by taking into account the current parameters. For example, by observing an increase in the disk space usage for the past period of time, the disk space can be better dimensioned to avoid future problems. The presented case study e- learning platform offers the possibility to visually interpret the parameters that are monitored, over a longer time frame, being an advantage over other parameter monitoring methods.


Attempts were made to induce smooth muscle antibody (SMA) in rats by various procedures causing cell necrosis. Ligation of a liver lobe and cryosurgical damage to a liver lobe both resulted in subsequent appearance of SMA, provided the damage tissue was not removed. Transfer of the damaged liver tissue to the peritoneal cavity of a normal rat did not result in SMA production in the recipient. The SMA produced showed anti-actin and anti-heavy meromyosin specificity. Damage induced by hepatotoxic agents failed to give rise to SMA.


A study of the different stages of the electroless deposition of copper on carbon nano fibers activated firstly by a chemical treatment of the carbon nano fiber and secondly by a two-step method has been performed from both a chemical and a morphological point of view. The combination of XPS measurements and scanning electron microscopy imaging has allowed optimizing the 2 different stage conditions. On a first hand, the different oxide concentration and treatment time of the carbon nano fibers and on a second hand the different conditions of the sensibilisation (Sn bath), activation (Pd bath) and coating (Cu bath) have ben studied. The control of the homogeneity and thickness of copper thin films on carbon nano fiber can be obtained and further more sintered in order to obtain fully dense materials.


As a consequence of wide range estimation of people to be displaced by 2050 because of climate change, one of the policies options is international security. However, the policymakers are far from being completely understood the complex process of climate change and migration (Upadhyay et al., 2015: 411). The combination of intellectual engagement is needed to put the issue concerning expertise to interface between science and politics (Hukkinen, 2016). This thesis explored how policy experts envision the relationship between climate change and human migration. The policy experts were nominated by structured expert nominee process. They were from the research partners of the two Ministries within the area of climate change and human migration. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with the policy experts. Besides, fourteen documents were analyzed from national and European research institutes. A qualitative data analysis shows that the policy experts reach a consensus that defining climate refugee remains impossible. Indeed, it is complicated to identify environmental from other factors of migration. In other words, the policy experts criticize the large estimation of refugees. Thus, the policy experts conceive climate change to be not a threat to our national borders and question the international security.


Equilibrium climate sensitivity measures the long-term response of surface temperature to changes in atmospheric CO2. The range of climate sensitivities in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report is unchanged from that published almost 30 years earlier in the Charney Report. We conduct perfect model experiments using an energy balance model to study the rate at which uncertainties might be reduced by observation of global temperature and ocean heat uptake. We find that a climate sensitivity of 1.5◦C can be statistically distinguished from 3◦C by 2030, 3◦C from 4.5◦C by 2040, and 4.5◦C from 6◦C by 2065. Learning rates are slowest in the scenarios of greatest concern (high sensitivities), due to a longer ocean response time, which may have bearing on wait-and-see versus precautionary mitigation policies. Learning rates are optimistic in presuming the availability of whole ocean heat data but pessimistic by using simple aggregated metrics and model physics.


'This Moment Here' is an installation, first shown in a solo exhibition at BLOCspace, Sheffield (2008). It was shown again in 2009 in a group exhibition entitled, 'Tier-Perspektiven (Animal Perspectives)' at the Georg-Kolbe-Museum in Berlin. This installation is part of Brown's long-standing research into the use of anthropomorphism in children's narratives to deliver and make palatable stark messages about the human condition. Parallels can be seen with children's fiction, in which animals are often employed as metaphors for aspects of human experience in order to distance the audience from the horror of death, violence and destruction.

The installation includes three pieces:

• The first piece combined a large helium-filled inflatable black cloud with a small white, mounted mouse in the warehouse-like space of the gallery.
• The second placed a white mounted mouse in front of an industrial roller.
• The third element was a limited edition artist's publication entitled 'Some Things That Fell'.

A huge black cloud hovers in an empty industrial building above a tiny white mouse. Another mouse stands frozen to the spot in front of a hulking piece of machinery. This is a roller, a machine used to flatten road surfaces. The helium-filled black cloud acts as a harbinger of doom occupying and trapped within an enclosed space. It is reminiscent of the kind of black clouds found in cartoons such as "Peanuts" or "Tom & Jerry".

One strong influence for the confrontation between the roller and the mouse, is the iconic image of the "lone rebel" standing in front of a line of tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests of June 5th 1989. This is a defining moment in time, a frozen moment where the outcome is not clear. Brown's use of taxidermy is a longstanding feature in her work and it is featured here in the white mouse. She says she is drawn to taxidermy "not because it symbolizes death, but because it is death". Brown is fascinated by the filmic freeze frame and she sees taxidermy as a form of 3d freezeframe. This is evident here in two pieces of work that depict moments frozen in time.


As a systems engineering, the primary factor of building energy-saving is determined, and the essential factor's reciprocity is researched, and then, divides the multi-essential factors into the tower system hierarchical structure for solving matter about the single index evaluation formed synthesis results of multi index. Mathematical model of tower appraisal system, with multi-index, is established based on the system theory and the analytic hierarchy method. And the evaluation model established is applied to the actual construction to carry on the multi-index comprehensive quantification evaluation to confirm model being feasibility and the validity.


A supervised classification method combining Tasseled Cap Transformation (TCT) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) for Landsat TM imagery data is proposed in this paper. The spectral dimensionality of the imagery data is firstly reduced by TCT into the Brightness Component (TCTB) and Greenness Component (TCTG) and Wetness Component (TCTW), then the transformed data is inputted into Support Vector Machine and classified into water, wetland, shrub and grass land, farmland and town or bare land. The present results show that compared to SVM classification of the original six bands of Landsat TM imagery data, the classification method of combining TCT with SVM has a high accuracy.


Concentrations of organic pollutants in the air and in precipitation have been measured at Enewetak Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. These data from a site removed from industrial and human activity indicate the present concentrations of synthetic organic pollutants in the atmosphere and establish the long-range atmospheric transport of organic pollutants to remote marine areas. Hexachlorobenzene and hexachlorocyclohexane isomers are present in the remote marine atmosphere. Polychlorobiphenyls, total DDT, dieldrin, chlordane, and two phthalate ester plasticizers were also found in the samples. The concentrations of pollutants in the atmosphere remote from continental sources are good measures of the minimum concentrations of air pollutants on Earth.


ABSTRACT Genes encoding SHV-1 and SHV-2 were sequenced by different methods. Nucleotide sequencing of the coding strand by standard dideoxy-chain termination methods resulted in errors in the interpretation of the nucleotide sequence and the derived amino acid sequence in two main regions which corresponded to nucleotide and amino acid changes that had been reported previously. The automated thermal cycling method was clearly superior and consistently resulted in the correct sequences for these genes.


Although not generally accorded primary consideration during armed conflict, a vast number of provisions aimed at protecting the natural environment in times of war exist under international law. This article critically and comprehensively examines the challenges presented in terms of liability and redress for damage caused to the natural environment during armed conflict.

In particular, the effectiveness of the various principles and rules that grant general, specific and indirect protection to the natural environment during warfare, coupled with the liability regimes established under the applicable international instruments, are scrutinised critically.

The article argues that most international instruments dealing specifically with the means and methods of warfare, reveal serious inadequacies, and that some establish no liability regime whatsoever. Those instruments that do, however, contain a liability regime, reveal serious flaws to the degree that not all categories of armed conflict are attended to and only criminal sanctions (with no civil liability) are envisaged, coupled with the significant failure to extend liability to States Parties. Some international instruments fail to provide adequate mechanisms for legal redress or in instances where redress is provided, the mechanisms are flawed. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that customary international law has not yet developed to the degree that both adequate and comprehensive protection is available to protect the natural environment during armed conflict, irrespective of the nature of the conflict.

This article therefore considers critically the adoption of an entirely new convention expressly intended to address all instances of environmental damage during (or as a consequence of) armed conflict, and concludes that such a step is preferred to the mere amendment of existing provisions or possibly even the drafting of yet another protocol to the four Geneva Conventions.


The spectral radiance factor and thereby the appearance of fluorescing material is known to depend strongly on the spectral power distribution (SPD) of the illumination in the fluorophore's excitation wavelength band. The present work demonstrates the impact of the SPD in the fluorescence emission band on the total radiance factor. The total radiance factor of a fluorescing paper is measured in three different illuminations. The presence of peaks in the SPD of fluorescent light tubes dramatically decreases the luminescent radiance factor. This effect will impact the appearance of fluorescing media under illuminations with large variation in SPD, which includes recent LED illuminations.


This paper introduces a framework designed to accurately predict piecewise linear mappings of arbitrary meshes via a neural network, enabling training and evaluating over heterogeneous collections of meshes that do not share a triangulation, as well as producing highly detail-preserving maps whose accuracy exceeds current state of the art. The framework is based on reducing the neural aspect to a prediction of a matrix for a single given point, conditioned on a global shape descriptor. The field of matrices is then projected onto the tangent bundle of the given mesh, and used as candidate jacobians for the predicted map. The map is computed by a standard Poisson solve, implemented as a differentiable layer with cached pre-factorization for efficient training. This construction is agnostic to the triangulation of the input, thereby enabling applications on datasets with varying triangulations. At the same time, by operating in the intrinsic gradient domain of each individual mesh, it allows the framework to predict highly-accurate mappings. We validate these properties by conducting experiments over a broad range of scenarios, from semantic ones such as morphing, registration, and deformation transfer, to optimization-based ones, such as emulating elastic deformations and contact correction, as well as being the first work, to our knowledge, to tackle the task of learning to compute UV parameterizations of arbitrary meshes. The results exhibit the high accuracy of the method as well as its versatility, as it is readily applied to the above scenarios without any changes to the framework.


This paper investigates the surface texture evolution during α−γ−α phase transformation. After austenite annealing of the cold rolled sheets a weak texture was formed at the surface of ultra low carbon steel alloyed with Mn and Al. This texture consists of <100>//ND and <110>//ND fiber orientations with an intensity of approximately 2 X random. This surface texture is confined to a mono-layer of surface grains which are in direct contact with the metal/vapour interface. In order to interpret this surface effect, two alternative mechanisms were considered: (i) one assumption attributes the occurrence of the specific surface texture to the minimization of the outer surface energy and (ii) according to an alternative hypothesis the release of elastic work parallel to ND in the surface area is responsible for the observed surface fibers. After analyzing the experimental data it is concluded that the evidence in support of hypothesis (i) is the more convincing in this experiment.


This study represents an application of probabilistic neural networks along with multi resolution wavelet analysis, and principal components analysis to an induction motor which was applied to an accelerated aging process according to IEEE standard test procedures. In this manner, the algorithm first applies a multiresolution wavelet analysis to the vibration signals with Shannon entropy to calculate the feature vectors Then, principal components analysis is applied to the feature vectors, reducing the dimensionality for the condition monitoring classification that is to be made by the probabilistic neural networks. The application results show extremely high success rate, thus the study is vital in the scope of reliability.


Stories of predatory lending practices and the reckless destruction of the environment by greedy corporations dominate the news, suggesting that, in business, ethics and profit are incompatible pursuits. Yet some of the worst lenders are now bankrupt, and Toyota has enjoyed phenomenal success by positioning itself as the green car company par excellence. These trends suggest that antisocial corporate behavior has its costs, especially in terms of the stock market, which penalizes companies that have poor environmental track records and rewards more socially conscious brands.

 The political context of our economy is rapidly changing, particularly in regard to incentives that operate outside the marketplace in a strict and narrow sense and involve interactions between corporations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), activist groups, regulatory bodies, consumers, and civil society. These interactions can significantly color a corporation's alternatives, making socially or environmentally harmful behavior much less attractive. British Petroleum, for example, has voluntarily reduced its greenhouse gas emissions over the past ten years, Starbucks, has changed the environmental impact of its coffee production, and Nike and other footwear and textile makers now monitor the labor conditions of their subcontractors.

 When Principles Pay jumps headfirst into this engaging and vital issue, asking whether profit maximization and the generation of value for shareholders is compatible with policies that support social and environmental goals. Geoffrey Heal presents a comprehensive examination of how social and environmental performance affects a corporation's profitability and how the stock market reacts to a firm's social and environmental behavior. He looks at socially responsible investment (SRI), reviewing the evolution of the SRI industry and the quality of its returns. He also draws on studies conducted in a wide range of industries, from financials and pharmaceuticals to Wal-Mart and Monsanto, and focuses on the actions of corporations in poor countries. In conclusion, Heal analyzes how social and environmental performance fits into accounting and corporate strategy, presenting an executive perspective on the best way to develop and implement these aspects of a corporation's behavior.


The purpose of this study is revealing how 'GAME ADDCTION' becomes a discourse. With this study we can find that 'GAME ADDICTION' is tool for restricting 'ABNORMAL'. In conclusion , 'GAME ADDICTION' was born in Korea at 1990, and become a discourse with 'STARCRAFT sensation' and 'PCbang'. Social organizations used game addiction discourse from 1999 to 2004. And psychiatry started ruling game addiction discourse from 2005. Now psychiatry is using game addiction to expand their power into home. These processes resembles Foucault,M.`s "LES ANORMAUX". And many things prove that psychiatry acts just like what that did at Foucault`s 19c. We have to aware what is going on in Korea about game addiction and need to study on psychiatry`s actions.


High precision micro screws have been widely required for the fastening parts of electronic storage devices. Teeth's forming of the micro screw is generally utilized by a cold thread rolling process with a flat die. This process for micro sized parts has some difficulties such as the design of die shape, alignment between dies, and process managements. In this paper, it is focused on the effect of the alignment between dies and material, and process parameters in simulation. The investigated parameters are the friction coefficient and the relative position between stationary and moving dies using a numerical simulation. The simulations provide that the shear friction factor of 0.9 is proper for preventing slip between dies and raw material and the relative position of two dies has to be set to the half length of the pitch for maintaining the continuous thread profiles. The deformed shapes of the pitch part and the top part of threads can be demonstrated the feature of experimental result. The folding phenomenon appeared at the top part of threads, which seemed to be induced by a lack of the metal flow under micro sized deformation.


Case report: We present the case of a 9 year old boy with Pitt-Hopkins syndrome who had severe attacks of hyperventilation followed by apnea and syncope while awake. These episodes occurred on a daily basis. A magnetic resonance scan of the brain at the age of 4 years showed a normal aspect of the brain stem and cerebellum. Figure 1 shows serious oxygen desaturation and hypocapnia.

![Figure][1]

Figure 1

In view of the hyperventilation, we started the patient on 250 mg of acetazolamide once daily. The patient was reevaluated one and a half month later. The clinical picture was markedly improved: long lasting apneas and episodes of syncope were no longer observed. A blood gas showed a pH of 7.35 with a pCO2 of 32.9 mmHg and a base excess of -6.5 mmol/L. Polygraphic monitoring showed the presence of several short central apneas but with preserved oxygen saturation and a more stable CO2 curve.

Discussion: Pitt-Hopkins syndrome is due to de novo mutations at the TCF4 locus and is characterised by distinct facial features, mental retardation and episodic hyperventilation with apnea while awake. Both the pathogenesis of these hyperventilation episodes as its treatment are unknown. This is the first report on the positive effect of acetazolamide on daytime hyperventilation and apnea in this syndrome. In this view; it would also be interesting to study the effects of acetazolamide in patients with similar syndromes including Rett and Joubert syndrome.

 [1]: pending:yes


Objective The cerebellum should be involved in providing temporal computations in motor production. The inability to compute time differences would affect time-related tasks. However, the cerebellar role in proprioception to control precise movement performance is still contradictory. The aim of the study was to investigate the characteristics of performance of the rapid terminal movements in patients with cerebellar ataxia. Ataxia of these patients had been identified as "pure" spinocerebellar ataxia. Method Movement performance was compared in six patients and six healthy subjects. Movements were performed from the initial to the target position, with the movement length of 40 degree in the elbow flexion. First, motor threshold of the motor cortex was determined. TMS was then applied with the double-cone coil right of the inion, in the two experimental conditions: stimulus was applied with the strength of 5% below the established motor threshold, at the moment of computer generated tone command to start the flexion movement, or stimulus was applied 20 ms before the GO signal, with the same strength. Two additional conditions were also tested: TM stimulus was applied with the strength of 30% above the motor threshold at the moment of movement start, and at 20 ms before movement start. Results Results point toward extension of the performed movement when stimulus was applied 20 ms before the movement start. Patients show tendency to lengthen their movements, and therefore accuracy of the movements deteriorate. Length of the movements was also prolonged in the conditions where stronger stimulus was applied, but accuracy was less affected with increase in the stimulus strength. Conclusion Accuracy of the movements was affected when the stimulus was applied in the phase of the movement preparation. Disturbance of the preparatory processes to establish correct movement pattern appear to be important even in the patients with pure cerebellar ataxia.


Eradication of pathogenic bacteria from important part of our life such as dental tools, foods and wounds is necessary. Based on the effect of natural selection, these bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. In some cases such as the section where burnt are treated in the hospital, we observe high rate of mortality as well as high numbers of resistant bacteria. In order to solve these problems, electrical stimulation (ES) is proposed. This has being shown to be an effective method. One of the reasons why it works could be due to the bacteria static property of electrical stimulation. So, more studies must be done so as to reach optimum voltage and currents. The test media were Muller-Hinton agar and eosin methylene blue (EMB) agar. In this research Pseudomonas aeruginosa which was isolated from patients wounds was examined with levels of alternating and direct current (AC and DC) electrical stimulation (1.5V, 3.5V, 5.5V and 10V) to see if these currents could inhibit P. aeruginosa growth in vitro. The experiment was performed in two forms: The first was carried out immediately while the second was carried out 19 h after being cultured. Different patterns of zone of inhibition were observed in the two forms of our research. AC current had low inhibitive effect on P. aeruginosa s growth. Anode and cathode showed different zone of inhibition, in each of the forms and media. The maximum inhibition zone (22 mm) was observed around cathode in 3.5 V direct current which was immediately used in the media. Direct current significantly inhibits growth of P. aeruginosa. Based on other studies on different bacterial species, ES can be applied to sterilization and controlling of superficial infections like in burnt patients.


We discuss the design of Netposse, a tool that matches people in online communities based on their intellectual and professional interests. We frame the motivation of this tool around current research on how learners can leverage social communities for maximum benefit. Given this literature, we present a design for Netposse that mines data from existing web assets and matches people according to their areas of expertise. In addition to matching individuals, such a system serves the purpose of query answering as well: it allows users to search and identify others in the community whose background qualifies them to provide advice on a user's topic of interest.


With the rising obesity and the increasing age of the population, a large proportion of patients who undergo Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) are obese. Knowing the health risks associated with obesity, it is important to determine if the outcomes of a TKA is compromised in obese patients.
Significant discrepancies in the findings of previous studies assessing the effect of body mass index (BMI) on TKA outcomes were observed in a literature review, thus making it difficult to confirm an effect of obesity measured as BMI on the outcomes after TKA. This thesis comprises two studies which further explored the effects of BMI and other body composition measures on the outcome of TKA.
1. The aim of a retrospective epidemiological study was to assess the effect of BMI on patient reported outcomes after TKA.
2. The aim of the prospective cohort study was to assess the effect of body composition, measured by waist circumference (WC), waist to hip ratio (WHR), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), ultrasonography (US) and BMI, on patient reported outcomes after TKA.
It was concluded from these two studies that group division of obesity based on the classification of BMI greater or less than 30 kg/m2 could not identify an effect of obesity on outcomes. However, on using BMI as a continuous variable, an adverse effect of BMI on knee function and overall physical health was evident for higher BMI ranges. Body composition measures of BIA and US did not detect an effect of obesity for any outcomes. Effect of obesity detected by BMI and WC was similar.
The negative association of BMI and outcomes observed was very weak across BMI ranges of 25-30 kg/m2and a significant association was achieved due to poorer patient reported physical function (indicated by Short Form 12 and Oxford Knee Score questionnaires) in some cases with very high BMI values (> 40 kg/m2). In addition to this finding, the lack of group difference when outcomes were evaluated across a BMI of 30 kg/m2in the two studies and the disparity between studies in the results when using a BMI classification of 30 kg/m2 supported the conclusion that a BMI classification across a cut-off value of 30 kg/m2 does not predict a poor result in obese after TKA.
However, because of the limited number of highly obese (> 35kg/m2) participants in both studies of the thesis and often in previous studies, no definite conclusions regarding the effect of higher obesity levels on the outcome of TKR can be drawn from the studies in this thesis. Adequately powered future studies with more morbidly obese participants could give more definitive answers to the effect of BMI and other measures of body composition on outcomes following TKA.


Article Info Background: Information about the refugees' experiences in the health care system is needed to improve the quality of health care delivered. This study aimed to investigate the experiences of Communication Apprehension (CA) and Fear of Physician (FoP) in the Afghan refugee women referred to the Iranian health care clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020 in Rafsanjan, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted between March-July 2020, two hundred forty Afghan women in Rafsanjan, Iran, were selected using convenience sampling. Data collection included the demographic, Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24: score range of 24-120), and Fear of Physician (FoP: score range of 5-20) questionnaires. Data were analyzed using an Independent t-test, as well as ANOVA, Chi-square, and Fisher exact tests. The significance level was p<0.05. Results: The mean age of the participants was 28.81 ± 7.21 years old, and their ages ranged from 16 to 60; further, 97.9% of them were married. Based on the results, the overall mean score of PRCA was 67.07±15.68. Moderate to severe communication apprehension was revealed in 199 participants (82.9%), while 235 participants (97.9%) had moderate to severe fear of physician. Conclusion: Although many factors could contribute to CA and FoP, as the COVID pandemic had just spread and fear of this unknown virus was at its very peak during this study, the researchers assume that the high rate of CA and FoP level could be related to the COVID pandemic. It is suggested that educational workshops should be held for medical care providers to prevent further communication problems.


Many lung diseases, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), display significant regional heterogeneity, with patches of severely injured tissue adjacent to apparently healthy tissue. Current mouse models that aim to mimic ARDS generally produce diffuse injuries that cannot reproducibly generate ARDS's regional heterogeneity. This deficiency prevents the evaluation of how well therapeutic agents reach the most injured regions, and precludes many regenerative medicine studies, since it is not possible to know which apparently healing regions suffered severe injury initially. Finally, these diffuse injury models must be mild to allow for survival, as their diffuse nature does not allow for residual healthy lung to keep an animal alive long enough for many drug and regenerative medicine studies. To solve all of these deficiencies of current animal models, we have created a simple and reproducible technique to selectively induce lung injury in specific areas of the lung. Our technique, catheter-in-catheter selective lung injury (CICSLI), involves guiding an inner catheter to a particular area of the lung and delivering an injurious agent mixed with nanoparticles (fluorescently and/or radioactively labeled) that can be used to track the location and extent of where the initial injury was, days later. Further, we demonstrate that CICSLI can produce a more severe injury than diffuse models, yet has much higher survival since CICSLI intentionally leaves undamaged lung regions. Collectively, these attributes of CICSLI will allow better study of how drugs act within heterogeneous lung pathologies and how regeneration occurs in severely damaged lung tissue, thereby aiding the development of new therapies for ARDS and other lung diseases.


Purpose: Prior work has drawn consistent conclusions about systematic racial disparities in the allocation of high-quality teachers in US public schools, such as classrooms with more students of color having teachers with fewer credentials and less experience. However, these fixed characteristics of teachers are only proxies for the quality of teaching, which may vary within teacher by the different classrooms they teach. Research Methods/Approach: Using data from the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project, we consider various sources of within-teacher, across-classroom variation of teaching effectiveness using a teacher fixed-effects modeling approach and highlight those that may, on average, disadvantage youth of color. Findings: We find that (1) about half of the variation in classroom teaching efficacy is within teachers, (2) classrooms taught by the same teacher with higher percentages of Black and Latinx students receive lower quality of teaching, and (3) these patterns are consistent across teacher racial/ethnic groups. A number of plausible explanations of this association are considered, including rater biases on observational measures and differences in teaching practices; we also consider how these variations differ by teacher race. Implications: Our findings highlight the importance of teachers' in-classroom practices, not simply their credentials, in educational research, policy, and practice targeted at reducing racial inequality.


Neurons in the mammalian visual cortex have been found to respond to second-order features which are not defined by changes in luminance over the retina (Albright, 1992; Zhou & Baker, 1993, 1994, 1996; Mareschal & Baker, 1998a,b). The detection of these stimuli is most often accounted for by a separate nonlinear processing stream, acting in parallel to the linear stream in the visual system. Here we examine the two-dimensional spatial properties of these nonlinear neurons in area 18 using envelope stimuli, which consist of a high spatial-frequency carrier whose contrast is modulated by a low spatial-frequency envelope. These stimuli would fail to elicit a response in a conventional linear neuron because they are designed to contain no spatial-frequency components overlapping the neuron's luminance defined passband. We measured neurons' responses to these stimuli as a function of both the relative spatial frequencies and relative orientations of the carrier and envelope. Neurons' responses to envelope stimuli were narrowband to the carrier spatial frequency, with optimal values ranging from 8- to 30-fold higher than the envelope spatial frequencies. Neurons' responses to the envelope stimuli were strongly dependent on the orientation of the envelope and less so on the orientation of the carrier. Although the selectivity to the carrier orientation was broader, neurons' responses were clearly tuned, suggesting that the source of nonlinear input is cortical. There was no fixed relationship between the optimal carrier and envelope spatial frequencies or orientations, such that nonlinear neurons responding to these stimuli could perhaps respond to a variety of stimuli defined by changes in scale or orientation.


With the use of industrialised construction increasing, Buro Happold (BH) commissioned this research as part of on-going initiatives to address the lack of efficiency in design and construction. The research considers two major case studies where modularisation has been used to minimise complexity and increase standardisation. Referred to in this thesis as construction product prototypes and building design prototypes , the two studies examine firstly the product development of an Intermodal Steel Building Unit (ISBU) used in multi-storey construction and secondly a modular station pre-design used and repeated on four station buildings. The ISBU is based on a standard ISO dry-freight container and its use in modular construction maximises the use of factory based off-site methods (OSM); this should improve consistency of product outcome with minimised impact on site. Very little academic work has been published on ISBU modular construction. The research therefore looks in detail at the process of ISBU modular product development and its engineering performance. It also compares production and procurement of the units on supplier-driven accommodation buildings in comparison to similar but non-modular client-led projects. Using multiple stages of project team interviews and project document analysis, the research data is coded, measured and analysed to describe the processes of product and design prototyping. The research demonstrates that the ISBU product was developed and refined through several major building projects and has reasonable engineering performance characteristics but may be more suited to temporary buildings. The principle of modular pre-designs as found in stations has benefits for rationalising the design process and simplifying and internalising complexities of construction. The research considers solutions for problems that are ill defined and a design process that is difficult to assimilate. This part of the research uses models for framing and problem/solution co-evolution to solve problems of ill definition and linear/non-linear design processes by building on Gero s (1990) design prototyping theory model. Modularisation of the station designs was successful in reducing design effort and allowed a repeatable pre-design to be refined, but the design team struggled with the bespoke nature of the project designs. The comparison of case study data to models for manufacturing, procurement and design prototype development has led to a better understanding as to how these designs were achieved and how these same approaches could be applied in future.


In 1995 the World Trade Organization's TRIPS Agreement came into effect, extending minimum standards of protection to intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the European Union (EU) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States. The article sets out the problems of harmonization resulting from the grafting of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) onto the legal framework of GCC States. Despite the presence of the GCC Customs Union, its individual countries have witnessed varying degrees of TRIPS-acquiescence. This includes varying degrees of effectiveness with border measures as a means of combating the transportation of counterfeit goods. The article provides a discussion on why effective protection and enforcement of IP laws are necessary to prevent counterfeiting in the GCC States, drawing on the laws of the European Union for comparative purposes. Furthermore, the article considers how border control functions as an important means of enforcement in fighting against the expanding transit of counterfeit goods.


OBJECTIVE
Lactoferrin is an iron-binding protein with antimicrobial properties. This study was undertaken to determine whether amniotic fluid concentrations of this protein change with gestational age, infection, labor, and rupture of membranes.

STUDY DESIGN
This cross-sectional study included women who underwent transabdominal amniocentesis (n = 268) in the following groups: (1) mid trimester of pregnancy; (2) preterm labor who delivered at term, preterm labor who delivered preterm with intra-amniotic infection, and preterm labor who delivered preterm without intra-amniotic infection; (3) preterm premature rupture of membranes in the presence or absence of intra-amniotic infection; (4) term with intact membranes not in labor, in labor, and in labor with intra-amniotic infection; and (5) premature rupture of membranes at term not in labor. In addition, lactoferrin concentrations were determined in maternal plasma and cord blood of patients at term not in labor. Lactoferrin concentration was measured with an immunoassay.

RESULTS
(1) Lactoferrin was detectable in 85.4% (229/268) of amniotic fluid samples, not detectable in all fluid obtained in the mid trimester, and detectable in all maternal and cord plasma samples. (2) The concentration of lactoferrin increased with advancing gestational age (r = 0.68; P <.0001). (3) Intra-amniotic infection was associated with significant increases in amniotic fluid lactoferrin concentrations in patients with preterm labor (no intra-amniotic infection median, 1641.2 ng/mL; range, <1.24-35,090.0 ng/mL; vs intra-amniotic infection median, 3833.6 ng/mL; range, 746.0-47,020.0 ng/mL; P <.001), term labor (no intra-amniotic infection median, 2085.8 ng/mL; range, 425.0-23,230.0 ng/mL; vs intra-amniotic infection median, 5627.0 ng/mL; range, <1.24-19,220.0 ng/mL; P <. 001), and preterm premature rupture of membranes (no intra-amniotic infection median, 2190 ng/mL; range, <1.24-7456.1 ng/mL; vs intra-amniotic infection median, 3449.3 ng/mL; range, <1.24-83,600. 0; P <.01). (4) Spontaneous labor at term but not preterm was associated with a significant decrease in amniotic fluid lactoferrin concentration (P <.05). (5) Spontaneous term parturition was associated with a significant increase in umbilical cord plasma lactoferrin concentration (P <.005).

CONCLUSION
(1) Intra-amniotic infection was consistently associated with dramatically increased concentrations of lactoferrin in amniotic fluid. (2) Term parturition was associated with a significant increase in lactoferrin concentration in the fetal compartment (umbilical cord blood) and a decrease in the amniotic compartment. We propose that lactoferrin is part of the repertoire of host defense mechanisms against intra-amniotic infection.


: Essential differences in the intensity of collective immunity to poliomyelitis in the donors of Moscow and Kaluga were established. To find out the nature of high characteristics of collective immunity to poliovirus, types 1 and 2, in the donors of Kaluga, strain-specific antibodies to wild and vaccine polioviruses were studied. In a considerable number of donors strain-specific antibodies to poliovirus, types 1 and 2, were detected. This made it possible to presume a sufficiently wide circulation of these viruses among the population of the city in the middle of the 20th century and, as a consequence, high level of collective immunity appeared. Strain-specific antibodies to poliovirus of type 3 were rarely detected. This made it possible to suggest that the circulation of viruses of this type among the population was limited. Immunity to viruses of this type was due only to immunization. For this reason the characteristics of collective immunity in the donors of Moscow and Kaluga coincided. The detection of strain-specific antibodies to poliomyelitis virus allowed to retrospectively form the opinion of the spread and time of the circulation of wild poliomyelitis viruses in the population.


Ammonium vanadium oxide (NH4V4O10) was adopted as an efficient and high-capacity cathode for Ca-ion batteries. The conventional hydrothermal process allowed an NH4V4O10 cathode to exhibit an initial capacity of 125 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1. However, the process led to a size range of hundreds of nanometers to a few microns, which limited the electrochemical performance. Accordingly, we created uniform rod-like NH4V4O10 particles approximately 100 nm in breadth by adding the surfactant sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate as a soft template during the sample preparation. The addition of the surfactant not only reduced the crystal size but also generated an Na-doping effect; as a result, it increased the proportion of V4+/V5+ active sites. The Na-doped NH4V4O10 electrode delivered an initial capacity of 150 mA h g−1 and maintained the capacity by demonstrating coulombic efficiencies of 90–95% without notable fading after 100 cycles in a three-electrode system. Moreover, the material produced via the new route required less time to be activated before reaching the highest-capacity state. Ex situ X-ray diffraction analysis indicated the formation of new phases during the migration of Ca ions, and the small change in the lattice plane suggested that NH4V4O10 can exhibit stable electrochemical performance during prolonged cycling. Finally, a full-cell study demonstrated that the Na-doped NH4V4O10 electrode delivered a maximum discharging capacity of 75 mA h g−1 with both high coulombic efficiency (∼80%) and ∼100% capacity retention for 100 cycles.


It is well known that the history of gas turbine engines has been characterized by a very clear trend toward higher and higher operating temperatures, a growth which in the past 40 years has progressed at the impressive pace of approximately 13°C/year. Expected improvements in blade cooling techniques and advancements in materials indicate that this tendency is going to last for long time, leading to firing temperatures of over 1500°C within the next two decades.This paper investigates the impact of such temperature increase on optimal cycle arrangements and on ultimate performance improvements achievable by future advanced gas/steam cycles for large-scale power generation.Performance predictions have been carried out by a modified, improved version of a computer code originally devised and calibrated for "1990 state-of-the-art" gas/steam cycles. The range of performances to be expected in the next decades has been delimited by considering various scenarios of cooling technology and materials, including the extreme situations of adiabatic expansion and stoichiometric combustion.The results of parametric thermodynamic analyses of several cycle configurations are presented for a number of technological scenarios, including cycles with intercooling and reheat. A specific section discusses how the optimum configuration of the bottoming steam cycle changes to keep up with exhaust gas temperature increases.Calculations show that, under plausible assumptions on future technology advancements, within two decades the proper selection of plant configuration and operating parameters can yield net efficiencies of over 60%.Copyright © 1993 by ASME


Grasslands cover one-third of the agricultural area in Germany and play an important economic role by providing fodder for livestock. In addition, they fulfill important ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, water purification, and the provision of habitats. These ecosystem services usually depend on the grassland management. In central Europe, grasslands are grazed and/or mown, whereby the management type and intensity vary in space and time. Spatial information on the mowing timing and frequency on larger scales are usually not available but would be required in order to assess the ecosystem services, species composition, and grassland yields. Time series of high-resolution satellite remote sensing data can be used to analyze the temporal and spatial dynamics of grasslands. Within this study, we aim to overcome the drawbacks identified by previous studies, such as optical data availability and the lack of comprehensive reference data, by testing the time series of various Sentinel-2 (S2) and Sentinal-1 (S1) parameters and combinations of them in order to detect mowing events in Germany in 2019. We developed a threshold-based algorithm by using information from a comprehensive reference dataset of heterogeneously managed grassland parcels in Germany, obtained by RGB cameras. The developed approach using the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) derived from S2 led to a successful mowing event detection in Germany (60.3% of mowing events detected, F1-Score = 0.64). However, events shortly before, during, or shortly after cloud gaps were missed and in regions with lower S2 orbit coverage fewer mowing events were detected. Therefore, S1-based backscatter, InSAR, and PolSAR features were investigated during S2 data gaps. From these, the PolSAR entropy detected mowing events most reliably. For a focus region, we tested an integrated approach by combining S2 and S1 parameters. This approach detected additional mowing events, but also led to many false positive events, resulting in a reduction in the F1-Score (from 0.65 of S2 to 0.61 of S2 + S1 for the focus region). According to our analysis, a majority of grasslands in Germany are only mown zero to two times (around 84%) and are probably additionally used for grazing. A small proportion is mown more often than four times (3%). Regions with a generally higher grassland mowing frequency are located in southern, south-eastern, and northern Germany.


Gas sensor based on point contact tungsten trioxide (WO3) was prepared by in-situ induction-heating thermal oxidation of tungsten filaments. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were employed to analyze the phase and the morphology of the fabricated thin films. The results showed that the WO3 films exhibited a monoclinic phase and were composed of hierarchical micro and nano crystals. The NO2 (1-8 ppm) sensing properties of the point contact sensors based on Pure and Au-sputtering doped (2.5 at%) WO3 films were investigated. The results showed that the gas sensing properties of the Au (2.5 at%) doped WO3 sensors were superior to those of the undoped. The obtained point contact WO3 sensor exhibited the maximum NO2 gas response at 100°C.


Background and Purpose: Aim of this work was to use the different stages of Hydroides elegans life-cycle for toxicity and settlement tests. In this perspective the influence of some cultural parameters (temperature and food) on larval growth and the importance of a substrate pre-treatment for the settlement of competent larvae (metatrochophores) have been investigated. Materials and Methods: Trochophores, obtained through artificial fertilization, were reared at 20° and 25 °C and fed with three species ofplanktonic unicellular algae, Pavlovaluthen Droop, Isochrysis galbana Parke and Tetraselmis suecicaKylin Butcher, until the three setigers metatrochopore stage was achieved. Periodical measurements of larvae collected from the different groups allowed us to determine different growth rates. Then, competent larvae were added to replicate Petri dishes, previously subjected to different biofilm treatment (Sea Water Biofilm and Algal Biofilm), in order to check their settlement behaviour. The same kind of substrata treatment were utilised in a settlement test to asses the efficacy of experimental an tifouling booster biocide. Results and Conclusions: Larvae reared at 20 °C, fed with Pavlova luthen have been the most reliable in terms of stage homogeneity and have shown the highest growth rate. The settlement behaviour of competent larvae is deeply influenced by the presence of biofilm and the biofilm obtained by immersion in natural unfiltered sea water attract a greater number of larvae than the other; moreover significant differences in antifouling performance, expressed as settlement percentage, have been observed between substrata biofilmed in different ways.


Abstract COVID-19 has led to a great deal of general suffering and an increased prevalence of psychiatric illness worldwide. Within the area of psychosis-risk syndromes, a highly heterogeneous clinical population, the picture is quite nuanced as the social restrictions resulting from the pandemic have reduced stress for some and increased it for others. Further, a number of pandemic-related societal and cultural changes have obfuscated the diagnostic and treatment landscape in this area as well. In this opinion article, we describe several prototypical cases, representative of presentations seen in our clinical high-risk (CHR) research programs. The cases highlight considerable clinical variability and, in addition, speak to the current complexities faced by diagnosticians and treatment providers. In addition to discussing these issues, this piece introduces potential solutions highlighting the promise of incorporating data-driven strategies to identify more homogenous CHR subtypes and employ precision medicine.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present the Monte Carlo (MC) method augmented by the B1 spectrum to generate few-group diffusion theory constants, to assess their qualification in terms of the core depletion analysis, and thus to validate the MC method implemented into the Seoul National University MC code, McCARD, as a few-group diffusion theory constant generator. To do so, two-step core neutronics analyses are conducted for two types of power reactors, pressurized water reactors and very high temperature gas-cooled reactors, by the McCARD/MASTER code system in which McCARD is used as a MC few-group constant generation code and MASTER as a deterministic core analysis code. The two-step calculations for the effective multiplication factors and assembly power distributions of the two types of power reactor cores by McCARD/MASTER are compared with the reference calculations from McCARD, the nuclear design report, or measurements. By showing excellent agreement between McCARD/MASTER and the reference neutronics analyses for the two types of power reactors, it is concluded that the MC method implemented in McCARD can generate few-group diffusion theory constants that are well qualified for high-accuracy two-step core neutronics calculations.


The potential rapid growth of paid ridesharing services brings a marketplace to utilize the empty seats in commuting vehicles. Yet few studies of morning commute have included paid ridesharing in their analysis. This research formulates a continuous-time dynamic ridesharing problem for a single bottleneck in the morning commute. Travelers' choice of departure-time and ridesharing mode as groups with heterogeneous values of travel time. Parking is introduced in our analysis for system optimum from the perspective of the system management, where the parking charge is shared among the driver and passengers in a same vehicle. Dynamic parking pricing strategies to achieve the system optimum with no queues at the bottleneck is then derived. The morning commute problem is then converted into a differential complementarity system (DCS), so that the discretized problem can be solved numerically. It is found that in the ridesharing scenario, the travel time can be a piecewise linear function for each early and late arrival time segment of every heterogeneous group, and the corresponding demand rate is a piecewise step function for each group. Such performance is much more complicated, compared to the linear travel time function and constant demand rate for each arrival time segment in solo driver scenario in the literature. The analysis and numerical results further show that under different ridesharing payment policies, the system performances, such as group-specific costs, vehicle-miles-traveled, vehicle-hours-traveled, total costs, would be quite different, which suggests that the ridesharing payment policies should be properly designed to achieve the social, economical and environmental goals.


Late cardiac complications may arise after left-breast radiation therapy. Deep-inspiration breath hold (DIBH) allows reduction of the irradiated heart volume at the same time as it reduces tumor bed motion and increases lung sparing. In the present study, we have evaluated the improvement in reproducibility and stability of the DIBH for left-breast-cancer treatment when visual coaching is provided with the aid of 3D video surface imaging and video goggles. Five left-breast-cancer patients and fifteen healthy volunteers were asked to perform a series of DIBHs without and with visual coaching. Reproducibility and stability of DIBH were measured for each individual with and without visual coaching. The average reproducibility and stability changed from 2.1 mm and 1.5 mm, respectively, without visual feedback to 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm with visual feedback, showing a significant statistical difference (p < 0.001 for reproducibility, p < 0.01 for stability). Significant changes (>2 mm) in reproducibility and stability were observed in 35% and 15% of the subjects, respectively. The average chest wall excursion of the DIBH with respect to the free breathing preceding the DIBH was found to be 11.3 mm. The reproducibility and stability of the DIBH improve significantly from the visual coaching provided to the patient, especially in those patients with poor reproducibility and stability.


We present a Very Large Telescope/Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) survey of lensed high-redshift galaxies behind the z = 0.77 cluster RCS 0224−0002. We study the detailed internal properties of a highly magnified (μ ∼ 29) z = 4.88 galaxy seen through the cluster. We detect widespread nebular C IV λλ1548,1551 Å emission from this galaxy as well as a bright Lyα halo with a spatially uniform wind and absorption profile across 12 kpc in the image plane. Blueshifted highand low-ionization interstellar absorption indicate the presence of a high-velocity outflow ( v ∼ 300 km s−1) from the galaxy. Unlike similar observations of galaxies at z ∼ 2 − 3, the Lyα emission from the halo emerges close to the systemic velocity – an order of magnitude lower in velocity offset than predicted in 'shell'-like outflow models. To explain these observations, we favour a model of an outflow with a strong velocity gradient, which changes the effective column density seen by the Lyα photons. We also search for high-redshift Lyα emitters and identify 14 candidates between z = 4.8 − 6.6, including an overdensity at z = 4.88, of which only one has a detected counterpart in Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys+Wide Field Camera 3 imaging.


The inhibiting effects of several phenol compounds on electron transfer in the respiratory chain of submitochondrial particles were studied. It was shown that the terminal part of the succinate dehydrogenase complex contains a site, which specifically binds the negatively charged phenols (e. g. pentachlorophenol, 2,4-dibromophenol, 2-methoxy-4,6-dibromophenol). The efficiency of the inhibitor anion binding by this site is increased 12-fold after introduction of a methoxy-group into the o-position of 2,4-dibromophenol. Since this site binds both methoxy- and negatively charged phenol groups, it can also act as a possible site of ubisemiquinone interaction with succinate dehydrogenase. Based on the structural similiarity of the b-c1 complex inhibitors, e. g. antimycin, o-hydroxybenzoic acid amides, 2-hydroxy-3-alkyl-1,4-quinones, and ubisemiquinone, an assumption has been made on possible ubisemiquinone binding between cytochromes b and c1. A structural analysis of phenols inhibiting succinate dehydrogenase and the b-c1 complex revealed that in the region between cytochromes b and c1 there act only the inhimitors which contain: a) a negatively charged phenol group; b) a group comprising a heteroatom with an undepleted electron pair and which can act as a ligand, and c) a hydrophobic residue.


This paper uses the results of river suspended sediment flux (SSF) analysis to propose a new hydrological method for quantitatively estimating the river bed and drainage basin (sheet erosion, rill and gully erosion) components of total erosion intensity in river basins. The suggested method is based on the establishment of the functional power connection between mean monthly water discharges (WD, Qi) and suspended sediment fluxes (ri) calculated for the low-water-discharge phases of a river's hydrological regime in various (on mean annual water discharges) years: ri = a×Qi ì (where a, ì are some empirical coefficients), and further extrapolation of this connection for other phases of the hydrological regime. Thus, the extrapolation allows us to calculate (in a longterm annual SSF) the proportions of sediments originating in river beds and drainage basins. The proposed method is tested using a long-term (not less than 10 years) series of observations for WD and SSF of 124 chiefly small and midsize rivers of the EastEuropean plain, the Urals, the Eastern Carpathians, the Ciscaucasia and the Caucasus, and Central Asian mountains, containing data on the mean monthly values of WD and SSF. The paper also compares the method with other methods for estimating the components of erosion intensity and SSF.


In earthquakes recorded at moderate distances it lias been ohservedthat S phase appears first as SII, folloived some 10 to 14 seconds laterby SV. The object of tliis paper is to try to decide ichether doublerefraction is likely to be the explanation of tliis jilwnomenon.A simpie model to consider ivould be a « transversely isotropie »material, symmetrical about the radiai direction. Formulae for thevelocities of SII and SV waves are available; tliese velocities dependon the angle that the ray makes ivi t li the norma!. It is unlikely thatthe Eartli could be as markedly anisotropie as the minerai beryl, whichis transversely isotropie; aceordingly, this material, of ivhich the fi veclastic constants are knoivn is taken as an extreme example, andthe velocities of SH and SV for different angles of incidence are« scaled down » so as to match the velocity of distortional ivaves ingranite. It is then possible to calcitiate the difference in the timo takenby ivaves from one point of the surface of the Earth to anotlier pointon the surface according as the S wave in the surface layer is of SHor SV type.


In this study we focus on adding wireless intelligence to machines and systems to be used in production applications. The key enabling technologies of piloted mechatronic systems were RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) and WSAN (Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network). This work is mainly done in a project "Ubiquitous Computing in Maintenance Using Sensors and RFID Tags". There were several industrial partners in the project. The main goal is to develop solutions that are suitable for industry. Several systems piloted in harsh industrial environments are considered in the paper.


Abstract This study presents alternative cracking shear strength equations for slender reinforced concrete (RC) beams without stirrups. More than 80 data has been obtained from existing sources of RC beam shear test results covering a wide range of beam properties and test methods. The proposed cracking shear strength equations are applied to existing test data for normal strength concrete (NSC) and high‐strength concrete (HSC) slender beams and the results are compared with those predicted by the ACI 318 equations. It can be also noted that the test results are in better agreement with proposed cracking shear strengths. However, because the test data for high‐strength concrete members are very limited, further research is required to verify these equations.


Froggatt, P. (1970).Brit. J. industr. Med.,27, 211-224. Short-term absence from industry. II. Temporal variation and inter-association with other recorded factors. This paper (a) extends the previous analysis (Froggatt, 1970b) of short-term absence from work among groups of male and female industrial personnel and clerks in government service, and (b) studies other recorded variables, particularly lateness, long-term sickness absence, and passes from work both `medical' and `works'. Multiple regression shows one-day absences to be generally associated with two-day absences, lateness, and medical passes but independent of works passes and long-term sickness absence; and two-day absences to be generally associated with one-day absences and long-term sickness absence but not with lateness or passes from work. Higher order correlations show lateness and works passes, medical passes and works passes, and lateness and age to be (weakly) associated, the last negatively. Irrespective of season, one-day absences were consistently most prevalent on Monday and least so on Friday, with a subsidiary peak for the male groups on Wednesday; two-day absences - as measured by the day each absence starts - were consistently most prevalent on Monday and least so on Thursday (Friday was omitted) and during the summer months. Medical passes were generally independent of the day of the week and the period of the year; lateness was greatest on Friday and during the winter, though the increase was slight; but works passes were relatively prevalent on Friday. Correlation and regression show the association between numbers of one-day absences taken in two periods of time (each one year) to be marked (r = 0·5 to 0·7), unaffected by transforming to normal functions, and explicable on a linear hypothesis, but the value of r to increase as the periods of time increase and to decrease as the interval between the periods of time lengthens. Similar analyses for two-day absences show r = 0·25 to 0·55, acceptance of a linear hypothesis, and a suggestion that the value of r may increase as the periods of time increase and as the interval between them shortens. More limited examination shows corresponding values of r (for contiguous years) to be of the order 0·25 for medical passes, 0·60 for works passes, but > 0·80 for lateness. Values of r between each of these factors in turn for all possible pairs of days of the week are reasonably consistent and show r of the order 0·35 for one-day absences, 0·25 for medical passes, 0·40 for works passes, and 0·80 for lateness (values for two-day absences are irregular and in the range 0 to 0·4). The consistency of lateness experience over days and years is very marked, the correlations being among the highest recorded for any event involving human behaviour. The importance and application of the findings are briefly discussed; detailed consideration is reserved for the third and last paper.


Objectives Statutory educational attainment measures are rarely used as health study outcomes, but Key Stage 1 (KS1) data formed secondary outcomes in the long-term follow-up to age 7 years of the ORACLE II trial of antibiotic use in preterm babies. This paper describes the approach, compares different approaches to analysis of the KS1 data and compares use of summary KS1 (level) data with use of individual question scores. Participants 3394 children born to women in the ORACLE Children Study and resident in England at age 7. Methods Analysis of educational achievement measured by national end of KS1 data (KS1) using Poisson regression modelling and anchoring of the KS1 data using external standards. Results KS1 summary level data were obtained for 3239 (95%) eligible children; raw individual question scores were obtained for 1899 (54%). Use of individual question scores where available did not change the conclusion of no evidence of treatment effects based on summary KS1 outcome data. Conclusions When accessible for medical research purposes, routinely collected educational outcome data may have advantages of low cost and standardised definition. Here, summary scores lead to similar conclusions to raw (individual question) scores and so are attractive and cost-effective alternatives.


Abstract. The increasing vulnerability of coastal mega-cities to storm surge inundation means both infrastructure and populations are subject to significant threat. Planning for further urban development should include consideration of the changing circumstances in coastal cities to ensure a sustainable future. A sustainable urban plan relies on well preparedness and prediction of future climate change and multiple natural hazards. In light of these needs for urban planning, this paper develops a general method to simulate typhoon generated storm surge at the meso-scale (1–100 km in length). Meso-scale simulation provides a general approach that could be implemented to fulfil the purpose of planning, and has relatively low requirements for computation time and data, while still providing reasonable accuracy. The case study of Shanghai was chosen to implement this method. The meso-scale simulated results of two historical typhoons not only provides a realistic result at the city level, but is also suitable for implementing a large amount of simulations for future scenario studies. The method is generally applicable to all coastal cities around the world to examine the effect of future climate change on typhoon generated storm surge, even where historical observed data are inadequate or not available.


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This thesis deals with upgrading: a process of learning and knowledge sourcing in order to generate value added. We analyse how upgrading takes place across various organisational configurations: formal collaboration, clusters, projects, and events. Moreover, we investigate the process of upgrading within, as well as between, different spatial scales, and analyse the role of different actors, upgrading mechanisms, and the symbolic and synthetic knowledge bases. We study the upgrading process in a number of empirical case studies of the Chinese automotive industry.

We find that in addition to upgrading in formal collaboration – through joint-ventures in particular – upgrading also takes place in other organisational configurations. We unveil that clusters and events are of particular importance for upgrading via 'monitoring' and 'buzz'. Hereby, we stress the critical role of event organisers as 'temporary cluster managers', acting as a bridge between the global and Chinese automotive industry. We also show the importance of the project configuration which crosses over other organisational configurations, and upgrading in projects takes place via nearly all upgrading mechanisms. In addition, we provide new empirical evidence for the importance of physical co-presence of different specialists in the automotive industry on the (temporary) local scale to enable non-verbal communication, while on the other hand, we demonstrate that upgrading of the synthetic and symbolic knowledge bases has a global dimension as well.


This paper describes a new method for music onset detection. The novelty of the approach consists mainly of two elements: the time-frequency processing and the detection stages. The resonator time frequency image (RTFI) is the basic time-frequency analysis tool. The time-frequency processing part is in charge of transforming the RTFI energy spectrum into more natural energy- change and pitch-change cues that are then used as input elements for the detection of music onsets by detection tools. Two detection algorithms have been developed: an energy-based algorithm and a pitch-based one. The energy-based detection algorithm exploits energy-change cues and performs particularly well for the detection of hard onsets. The pitch-based algorithm successfully exploits stable pitch cues for the onset detection in polyphonic music, and achieves much better performances than the energy-based algorithm when applied to the detection of soft onsets. Results for both the energy-based and pitch-based detection algorithms have been obtained on a large music dataset.


Our paper (Ghosh and Paden, "Nonlinear repetitive control", IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr., vol. 45, p. 949-54, 2000) proves Theorem 1, which establishes conditions for the stability of the nonlinear repetitive control system, and Proposition 2, which goes on to establish bounds on the steady-state error signals. These are correct as stated as they apply to repetitive controllers with a finite number of oscillators in their internal model. An issue correctly raised in the commentary (Lucibello, "Comments on 'Nonlinear repetitive control'", IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr., vol. 48, p. 1470-1, 2003) is that the conditions of Proposition 2 might be difficult to meet when the number of oscillators is large. This observation does not challenge the veracity of the proposition, but is certainly insightful. In our introductory comments of Section 11, we attempt, and fail, to make a qualitative connection to the pure time delay type repetitive control. The following statement is incorrect and should be deleted from our paper: "This justifies the fact that in the limit N /spl rarr/ /spl infin/, the above model of the repetitive controller, works as well as the ideal model in achieving perfect tracking for typical reference signals".


Abstract:  Two sibling male castrated gray wolves (Canis lupus) developed acute onset right forelimb lameness, one at 8 and the other at 11 yr of age. In both cases, the right carpus was swollen, carpal hyperextension was notable, and the wolves exhibited significant intermittent lameness of the affected limb. Radiographs revealed right accessory carpal bone luxation in both cases, with type III fracture of the accessory carpal bone in one wolf. Although carpal bone luxation in domestic dogs is frequently treated surgically, conservative medical management resolved the lameness in both wolves with no further complications.


Introduction: Scholarship and research are important aspects of orthopaedic surgery training. Many orthopaedic surgery residency programs have developed dedicated research curricula, often culminating in a capstone thesis project with the intended goal of peer-reviewed publication. However, data on the success of these programs are scarce. The purpose of the current study was to determine the success rate and time to publication of resident research thesis projects at our own institution while evaluating factors associated with these outcomes. Methods: Resident research thesis projects performed over the past 15 years were aggregated and reviewed. Additional data regarding the projects and former trainees who performed them were collected using public resources which included measures of current academic aptitude (i.e., H-index and number of publications) as well as project and publication characteristics. Cox and linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the relation between numerous predictor variables and the success and time to publication. All analyses were conducted at the 95% confidence interval (CI) level. Results: Sixty-eight (n = 68; 83%) resident research thesis projects were published an average of 2,582.8 days, or roughly 7 years from the start of their residency training. Graduate adjusted H-index was associated with increased success and decreased time to publication (hazard ratio 1.183 [95% CI: 1.059-1.322], p = 0.003). A lower journal impact factor was associated with taking significantly shorter time to reach publication (F(1,66) = 7.839, p = 0.007; Β1 = 146.45, p = 0.007). Study type (clinical vs. laboratory), posttraining practice setting (academic vs. private), and whether the research topic was within the same area of the trainee's matched fellowship(s) did not predict publication success. Discussion/Conclusion: Over the past 15 years, 83% of orthopaedic resident research thesis projects at our institution were published. A higher adjusted H-index was associated with greater completion and faster timing to publication. A lower journal impact factor was also associated with quicker publication. These data highlight the publication metrics of a formalized resident research program and identify factors associated with success and timing of publication.


Electrical energy consumers are demanding better customer service, higher power quality, higher energy measurement accuracy and more timely data. Utility companies all over the world are being forced to find solutions giving greater information on the population's power consumption. The Automatic Meter Reading system (AMR) is one of the ways in which utilities are go-getting to achieve these goals. Power lines are one of the communication mediums used in the AMR system. However, power lines are a hostile communication environment. This paper describes a prototype for AMR system using power lines showing performance and reliability tests. The measurements are carried out on a sample of Egypt's low voltage network.


Randomized comparison data on the efficacy and safety of deferasirox for myocardial iron removal in transfusion dependent patients are lacking. CORDELIA was a prospective, randomized comparison of deferasirox (target dose 40 mg/kg per day) vs subcutaneous deferoxamine (50-60 mg/kg per day for 5-7 days/week) for myocardial iron removal in 197 β-thalassemia major patients with myocardial siderosis (T2* 6-20 milliseconds) and no signs of cardiac dysfunction (mean age, 19.8 years). Primary objective was to demonstrate noninferiority of deferasirox for myocardial iron removal, assessed by changes in myocardial T2* after 1 year using a per-protocol analysis. Geometric mean (Gmean) myocardial T2* improved with deferasirox from 11.2 milliseconds at baseline to 12.6 milliseconds at 1 year (Gmeans ratio, 1.12) and with deferoxamine (11.6 milliseconds to 12.3 milliseconds; Gmeans ratio, 1.07). The between-arm Gmeans ratio was 1.056 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.998, 1.133). The lower 95% CI boundary was greater than the prespecified margin of 0.9, establishing noninferiority of deferasirox vs deferoxamine (P = .057 for superiority of deferasirox). Left ventricular ejection fraction remained stable in both arms. Frequency of drug-related adverse events was comparable between deferasirox (35.4%) and deferoxamine (30.8%). CORDELIA demonstrated the noninferiority of deferasirox compared with deferoxamine for myocardial iron removal. This trial is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00600938.


For a century and a half (1830-1980), working time in France has been constructed as a collective norm, a measure of stability around what might be called a standard by an anchoring of rules in labour law, and the creation of special inspectors charged with overseeing the implementation of these regulations in business. The four main components of the working time standard temporal order are: a standard or social norm (covering weekly and daily rest times and holiday entitlements), state intervention as a normative power, the common rule creates collective recipients, highly developed sanctions. The 1980s saw a revision of this conception of time and was characterized by the abandonment of the traditional scheme of collective bargaining around the limitation of working hours, which was abandoned by unions, employers and by public policies in favour of the logic of production and their extensions through various methods of temporal flexibility. The mid of the 1990 added a more individualized approach by a state driven initiative to implement times saving accounts in companies. These new instruments lead to "face to face" negotiations between various actors and set new standards in the way of dealing with working time. What is the content of this new direction? Is state power being replaced by local and individual negotiations? What are the foundations and the aims of these new arrangements?


The work described here shows the complexity of GTPase signalling in an apparently simple organism Dictyostelium discoideum. Ras Guanine nucleotide exchange factor RasGEF Q is one out of at least 25 RasGEFs in D. discoideum. Here we show that it specifically regulates myosin II functions by regulating myosin phosphorylation. RasGEF Q activates the Ras isoform RasB upon stimulation with cAMP. Activated RasB can directly or indirectly activate Myosin Heavy chain kinase A (MHCK A) which then phosphorylates the myosin II heavy chain. Phosphorylated myosin II cannot assemble into filaments and is thus a non-functional form. Furthermore, a DEP domain in RasGEF Q appears to be critical for activating RasGEF Q by release from an autoinhibited state. Studies on the multidomain Rac Guanine nucleotide exchange factor GxcDD show that it is required for the early phases of development in chemotactic migration and streaming behaviour. The characterization of its single domains revealed that the CH domain (Calponin homology domain) of GxcDD functions as a membrane association domain, the RhoGEF domain can physically interact with a subset of Rac GTPases and the ArfGAP-PH tandem accumulates in cortical regions of the cell and in phagosomes. Our results also suggest that a conformational change is required for activation of GxcDD, which would be important for its downstream signaling. Studies on the IQGAP related protein GAPA showed that it associates with two actin-corsslinking protein, namely Filamin and Cortexillin I. GAPA is required for cytokinesis and localizes to the cleavage furrow during cytokinesis in a cortexillin I dependent way. We also observed that GAPA is required for proper phototaxis as is its binding partner Filamin.


Non renewable energy sources have been diminishing in the recent times. Renewable energy is abundant in nature, but the use of it is very low. Lowering the energy consumption and using renewable energy, thereby decreasing the use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy would have a positive impact on our environment. The use of solar energy as an alternate resource is discussed in this research. The solar water heater is tested for its recovery rates, under normal solar radiation in static testing. The effect of solar radiation in increasing the temperature of water is studied and discussed. The solar water heater is then brought in series with an electric hot water tank, used in residential purposes. The energy consumption by the hot water tank is first calculated, by testing the recovery rates of the hot water tank. The hot water tank is then supplied with solar heated water and the recovery rates of the hot water tank are calculated. The energy consumption is calculated and the cost analysis is done in both the cases. The values of the energy consumed by the hot water tank with the use of electricity and solar heated water are compared. The DAQ system acts as an interface between the solar water heater and the hot water tank, which records and monitors the temperature data using thermocouples. The DC/AC adapter clamp and the multi meter, record the current usage by the hot water tank.


Wireless sensor network (WSN) is increasingly being used in a variety of applications which include habitat monitoring, smart health care system, building automation, to name a few. Many approaches were developed for all protocol layers, but an energy-efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) layer remains a key design challenge. MAC with scheduled based architecture provides greater advantage over other designs, such as contentionbased and frequency division multiple access (FDMA), in terms of minimizing packet collision, overhearing, idle listening, and over emitting. Reliable and energy efficient data transmission are required to prolong the network lifetime. This paper presents the testbed development of an enhanced lightweight medium access (eL-MAC) protocol which introduces distributed time slot assignment and slotting communication mechanism. Therefore, with eL-MAC, idle listening, overhearing and hidden terminal will be eliminated where nodes transmit in its own time slot and sleep in other time slot if there is no activity. This will reduce energy consumption as nodes are active when transmitting and receiving and idle only in the beacon session. The testbed developed consists of 9 TelosB sensor nodes programmed with TinyOS. NesC programming language was used to implement the protocols in the WSN module. Experimental results were compared to the results obtained from simulation. As expected, there is a slight degradation in throughput and packet received ratio in the experiment but is consistent for all values. This concludes that the developed testbed reflects the eLMAC protocol and has been successfully implemented. Keywords-component; Medium Access Layer (MAC), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Contention-based MAC, Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), Distributed time slot assignment.


In this commentary I identify and discuss aspects of public drinking that appear to be similar for current public drinking, early modern Germany (Kiimin) and 18th-century Paris (Brennan). Establishing common features of public drinking over time and place may help to provide a better understanding of the relationship between public drinking and societal harms and benefits.The commerce of public drinkingAlthough much of the study of public drinking focuses on the drinking environment rather than on the commercial aspects, the existence of bars, clubs, pubs and taverns has to do with the potential to make money from the sale of alcohol. This commercial aspect differentiates drinking in public houses from drinking at parties or with friends or family in at least two important ways. First, as noted by Babor et al. (2003), alcohol is "No Ordinary Commodity"-it is an intoxicant and an addictive substance. Accordingly, the sale of alcohol for on-premise consumption involves dealing with intoxicated behavior. second, sale of alcohol has the potential to promote and reinforce addiction and overconsumption. In unregulated markets and with sufficient affluence, the sale of alcohol may lead to the proliferation and expansion of public drinking to an extent that has a negative impact on the overall community. Thus, as noted by Kiimin, even in the early modern period issues arose relating to the commerce of public drinking, such as outlet density, location, and hours of sale-issues that continue to be of concern for public policy and prevention in current times (see Babor et al., 2003).Public houses, social problems and regulationsBoth Brennan and Kiimin describe a number of problems related to drinking in public houses, most notably violence and public disorder, but also negative economic consequences for families of drinkers and negative health consequences for the drinker. Research suggests that the link between drinking in public drinking establishments and problems continues to the present day (Lang et al., 1995; Single & Wortley, 1993). As an example of social problems associated with public drinking, Brennan describes how the public nature of cafes and taverns allowed criminal and undesirable elements to gather and pursue "disorders." This parallels the attraction of the criminal element to public drinking establishments noted in the past decade. For example, Morris (1998) described a UK city that was the target of "a well-organised criminal operation in which a registered security firm took control of a large section of the door supervisor market in the city through intimidation and bribery" in order to "facilitate and dominate drug dealing" (p. v). In another city described in this report, criminal groups did not take over the door security per se, but used intimidation and violence to ensure that those staffing the doors did not interfere with the drug trade. Although most drinking establishments both currently and in the period described by Brennan are not centers for crime and violence, the existence of this association seems to be a recurring theme for public houses over time.Both Brennan and Kiimin describe a broader social context for public drinking that includes the critical factor of defining public houses as appropriate targets for policing and regulation. Interestingly, as described by Brennan, it was the association of public drinking and crime that attracted the attention of the police and led them to assert jurisdiction over public drinking establishments as public places. Brennan also goes on to describe how legal differentiation between public and private domains became defined in terms of policing and regulation. Similarly, Kumin describes the regulation of who could and who could not operate a public house in the form of early versions of "licensing"-that is, the rotation system for operating public houses in Canstein and the election of publicans in the Bernese Oberland. This control by licensing of public houses seen in the early modern period is taken for granted today in many countries. …


In this paper, we propose the design of low-cost highly integrated microwave filters for future wireless homenetworks, within set-top-box. In this work, microwave filters for WiFi communications have been designed using low-cost planar technologies. These designs are now improved in terms of performances (mainly in terms of selectivity) exploiting either resistive cross-couplings (concept of lossy filters) or mixing technologies for increasing the average unloaded Q (inverse concept).


Poverty in Greater Toronto Area suburbs is growing at an alarming rate, particularly in the wake of the 2008 recession. One associated outcome is a dramatic increase in residents' use of food banks. Suburban planning and design makes car ownership necessary to navigate these areas. How, then, do low-income residents address the barrier of transportation when accessing a food bank if they do not have a car? The investigation used qualitative research including a literature review, collection and analysis of data on food banks in the GTA, and interviews with food bank managers and front line workers. The results revealed that reduced access to a car, hours of operation of food banks, and the cultural difference between food bank users and donors in the suburbs are key areas for both long term and short term strategies that could ease the burden of transportation for food bank participants.


X-ray crystallography has been central in determining structure-function relationships for biomacromolecules, such as nucleic acids and proteins, leading to a greater understanding of biochemical processes. The major barriers to nucleic acid structure determination by X-ray crystallography are the processes of crystallization and phasing. One strategy to overcome the latter challenge involves replacement of oxygen with selenium in a nucleotide. In the past two decades, selenium has been incorporated into oligonucleotides at many different sites, each with their specific advantages and limitations. Preparation of selenium modified nucleic acids often requires the multi-step synthesis of specialized phosphoramidites incorporated into oligonucleotides by solid-phase synthesis. It would be desirable to simplify the synthetic process to prepare these selenium containing oligonucleotides, which may result in their greater accessibility for crystallographers engaged in the determination of high resolution structural studies of nucleic acid structures.
In one approach, a simplified, greener and more versatile methodology to incorporate selenium into a solid support-bound oligonucleotide at the O-4 position of thymidine was explored. A range of reaction and deprotection conditions were evaluated, with promise of this approach demonstrated when selenium incorporation was attempted at a 5'-end residue of an oligonucleotide, followed by deprotection using a sterically hindered base. Another approach investigated the preparation of an oligonucleotide with 2'-deoxy-6-selenoinosine, a derivative of interest which was inspired by the base pairing properties of 2'-deoxyinsoine towards other nucleobases. In the isolation and purification of this oligonucleotide, it was observed that the major product obtained was a non-complementary homodimer oligonucleotide connected by an interstrand diselenide bridge. Conditions to remove this cross-link were evaluated and expand the potential of selenium modified nucleic acids beyond X-ray crystallography for applications as a responsive nanomaterial.


Inflammation accelerates the progression of atherosclerosis. Sirolimus, a potent immunosuppressive agent, has been shown with pleiotropic antiatherosclerotic effects. This study was to explore potential anti-atherosclerotic mechanisms of Sirolimus using cell culture studies and apolipoprotein E knockout (apoE KO) mice under inflammatory stress. Results showed that Sirolimus decreased cholesterol accumulation caused by inflammatory stress in human vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), macrophages, and human hepatoblastoma cell line (HepG2). Sirolimus decreased formation of atherosclerotic plaques in the aortas of inflamed apoE KO mice. Sirolimus inhibited the mRNA expression of sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) cleavage activating protein (SCAP) and SREBP-2, and decreased translocation of SCAP/SREBP-2 complex from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to Golgi in VSMCs and HepG2 cells in the presence of IL-1 3, thereby overriding IL-lp induced transcription of LDL receptor (LDLr) and 3-hydroxy-3-methyglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGR). Insulin induced gene-1 (Insig-1) is a retention factor of SCAP in the ER and modulates HMGR degradation at posttranscriptional level. Interestingly, Sirolimus accelerated HMGR degradation by up-regulating Insig-1 expression in VSMCs. Sirolimus also reversed the reduction of cholesterol efflux induced by inflammatory stress through ATP-binding cassette transporter Al (ABCA1) mediated pathway. This was mediated by increasing the gene and protein expression of ABCA1, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-a (PPARa), and liver X receptor-a (LXRa) both in vitro and in vivo studies. Sirolimus also directly inhibited the production of inflammatory cytokines shown in our experiments. Taken together, both in vivo and in vitro findings demonstrated that Sirolimus ameliorated cholesterol homeostasis disrupted by inflammatory stress, which was through multiple pathways. Sirolimus down-regulated LDLr-mediated cholesterol influx, down-regulated HMGR-mediated cholesterol biosynthesis, and up-regulated ABCA1 -mediated cholesterol efflux. Furthermore, Sirolimus inhibited the production of inflammatory cytokines. Our studies for the first time indicate that Sirolimus has very pronounced anti-inflammatory properties and highly beneficial anti-atherosclerosis effects expressed through rebalancing disrupted intracellular cholesterol homeostasis involving various molecular mechanisms.


The popularity of virtual reality headsets have been rapidly increasing. With this technology, students can efficiently interact with the course content and learn the material faster than the traditional methodologies. In addition to this benefit, virtual reality devices also draw the attention of young generation and this helps to the widespread use of this technology among students. In this study, we investigate the use of virtual reality on the performance of computer engineering bachelor science (BS) students within the scope of Data Structures course and develop a software‐intensive system called "Virtual Reality Enhanced Interactive Teaching Environment" (VR‐ENITE). Specifically, we focus on the sorting algorithms such as selection sort, bubble sort, insertions sort, and merge sort which are relatively hard to be understood by the BS students at first glance. For the evaluation of VR‐ENITE, students were divided into two groups: a group which uses VR‐ENITE in addition to the traditional teaching material and the control group which utilizes from only the traditional material. In order to evaluate the performance of these two groups having 36 students in total, a multiple choice exam was delivered to all of them. According to the test results, students who used the VR‐ENITE system got 12% more successful results in average than the students who are in the control group. This study experimentally shows that VR‐ENITE which is based on virtual reality technology is effective for teaching software engineering courses and it has assistive capabilities for traditional teaching approaches.