: Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1, HTLV-I, was the first human oncogenic retrovirus to be isolated in 1978. HTLV-I has previously been called Human T-cell leukaemia virus or Human T-cell lymphoma virus type I. HTLV-I infection is endemic in southwestern Japan, the Caribbean basin, and parts of South America and Africa. HTLV-I is aetiologically associated with adult T-cell leukaemia lymphoma and tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP), also known as HTLV-I-associated myelopathy. HTLV-II was isolated in 1982 and is endemic among some north American Indians. HTLV-II has not been clearly linked to any specific disease. Both viruses are found worldwide, particularly among intravenous drug users (IVDU), and have also been found in blood donors in USA and Europe. HTLV-I/II are transmitted by the same routes as HIV-1: blood-borne via blood transfusions and among IVDUs by sharing contaminated needles, and by mother-to-child transmission, primarily through breast feeding. HTLV-I/II infections are also sexually transmitted and can be transmitted in utero, though less efficiently than HIV-1. The diagnosis of HTLV-I/II infections is based on the detection of antibody to the virus. Due to the high degree of cross reactivity between HTLV-I and HTLV-II, it is difficult by serology to discriminate between the two viruses. Less than 5% of individuals infected with HTLV-I develop symptoms after a latent period, which can last from a few years to several decades. No specific treatment of adult T-cell leukaemia or tropical spastic paraparesis is currently available and no vaccine has yet been developed.


[1] We present a new focal mechanism stress inversion technique to produce regional-scale models of stress orientation containing the minimum complexity necessary to fit the data. Current practice is to divide a region into small subareas and to independently fit a stress tensor to the focal mechanisms of each subarea. This procedure may lead to apparent spatial variability that is actually an artifact of overfitting noisy data or nonuniquely fitting data that does not completely constrain the stress tensor. To remove these artifacts while retaining any stress variations that are strongly required by the data, we devise a damped inversion method to simultaneously invert for stress in all subareas while minimizing the difference in stress between adjacent subareas. This method is conceptually similar to other geophysical inverse techniques that incorporate damping, such as seismic tomography. In checkerboard tests, the damped inversion removes the stress rotation artifacts exhibited by an undamped inversion, while resolving sharper true stress rotations than a simple smoothed model or a moving-window inversion. We show an example of a spatially damped stress field for southern California. The methodology can also be used to study temporal stress changes, and an example for the Coalinga, California, aftershock sequence is shown. We recommend use of the damped inversion technique for any study examining spatial or temporal variations in the stress field.


The most effective way to control tetanus (caused by Clostridium tetani) is immunization with tetanus toxoid vaccine. However, the production of tetanus vaccine is a complex process including growth of bacteria, harvesting of toxin, and then conversion of that toxin into potent toxoid vaccine. During production, purification of vaccine either at toxin stage or at toxoid stage is essential. In the present study, effect of purification using ultrafiltration at toxin stage was evaluated on four commercial batches of tetanus vaccine in terms of antigenic content (lf/ml), purity in terms of protein nitrogen, antigenic potential by minimum lethal dose and potential efficacy by maximal toxic value. The standard reference methods as per the WHO manual for the production and quality control of tetanus vaccine were followed. A significant increase in the antigenic content, purity, antigenic potential, and potential efficacy of all four batches was observed after ultrafiltration. The results indicate that ultrafiltration before detoxification is an effective method of tetanus toxin purification. It simultaneously increase the quality of the toxin along with the removal of contaminating agents, which otherwise results in adverse effects during use.


Much has been written in the last ten years about how the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components would revolutionize the aerospace industry avionics, communication, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) as well as global air traffic management (GATM). Civil aviation authorities around the world have been faced with numerous requests to certify aircraft containing increasing percentages of COTS components, much of it never designed or intended for use in the safety critical environment of an aircraft. Product service history is one method for demonstrating that such software is acceptable for use. In theory, product service history would seem to be a fairly simple concept, both to understand and to apply. However, in practice, such use has proven extremely problematic, as questions of how to measure the historic performance and the relevance of the provided data have surfaced. This paper elaborates a research effort funded by the United States Federal Aviation Administration to collect, analyze, and synthesize what is known and understood about applying product service history. The effort is limited to the topic of software product service history as applied in the certification of airborne systems and equipment.


Abstract Middleware for integration of applications have to be the principle pillar in the architecture of interoperable information systems that processes data in the heterogeneous military network environment. The proposed integration middleware — the Unified Adaptive Application Interface (UNIE) Integration Broker — as the basic integration and interoperability element of military systems, shall provide an adaptive interconnection with the heterogeneous network environment (HNE), based on the unified data and information base (UDIB). Keywords: Data integration, middleware, military, network centric.


This article describes a general framework for designing purely functional datatypes that automatically satisfy given size or structural constraints. Using the framework we develop implementations of diierent matrix types (for example, square matrices) and implementations of several tree types (for example, Braun trees and 2-3 trees). Consider representing square n n matrices. The usual representation using lists of lists fails to meet the structural constraints: there is no way to ensure that the outer list and the inner lists have the same length. The main idea of our approach is to solve in a rst step a related, but simpler problem, namely to generate the multiset of all square numbers. In order to describe this multiset we employ recursion equations involving nite multisets, multiset union, addition and multiplication lifted to multisets. In a second step we mechanically derive datatype deenitions from these recursion equations, which enforce thèsquareness' constraint. The transformation makes essential use of polymorphic types. Die ganze Zahl schuf der liebe Gott, alles Ubrige ist Menschenwerk.


This series of articles explores modern picture books to see how they get children thinking and talking about text, and to see how they convey their 'deep reading secrets' to the reader – this month, looking.


It is well accepted that basic protection against common cyber threats is important, so it is recommended to have antivirus (AV). However, what price do users pay in terms of performance and other usability factors? Although it is important for security researchers and system developers to understand how exactly the AV impacts the whole system, in this study the authors take the approach of tracing operating system (OS) events. The authors' goal is to shed some light on this. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to present an OS-aware approach to analyse and reason about AV performance impact. The authors' results show that the main reason for performance degradation in the tasks the authors tested with AV software is that they mainly spend the extra time waiting on events. Sometimes AV does cause some central processing unit overhead, but events such as hard page faults (i.e. those that require disk accesses) are the main contributing factor to AV overhead. Owing to the AV's intrusive behaviour, the tasks in the authors' experiments are caused to create more file input/output operations, page faults, system calls and threads than they normally do without AV installed.


Data dissemination is an important application in vehicular networks. We observe that messages in vehicular networks are usually subject to both time and space constraints, and therefore should be disseminated during a specified duration and within a specific coverage. Since vehicles are moving in and out of a region, dis-semination of a message should be repeated to achieve reliability. However, the reliable dissemination for some messages might be at the cost of unreliable or even no chance of dissemination for other messages, which raises tradeoffs between reliability and fairness. In this paper, we study the scheduling of data dis-semination in vehicular networks with mesh infrastructure. Firstly, we propose performance metrics for both reliability and fairness. Factors on both the time and space dimensions are incorporated in the reliability met-ric and the fairness in both network-wide and Mesh Roadside Unit-wise (MRU-wise) senses are considered in the fairness metric. Secondly, we propose several scheduling algorithms: one reliability-oriented algorithm, one fairness-oriented algorithm and three hybrid schemes. Finally, we perform extensive evaluation work to quantitatively analyze different scheduling algorithms. Our evaluation results show that 1) hybrid schemes outperform reliability-oriented and fairness-oriented algorithms in the sense of overall efficiency and 2) dif-ferent algorithms have quite different characteristics on reliability and fairness.


Background: This study aimed to assess the learning curve in laparoscopic right hemicolectomy and compare the long-term oncologic outcomes of the learning curve period. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 97 patients who underwent a laparoscopic right hemicolectomy by a single surgeon between July 2006 and January 2009. Among them, 87 patients, excluding patients with stage IV (n=10) disease, were evaluated for long-term oncologic outcomes. They were divided into 2 phases: phase 1 (the learning curve period) and phase 2 (the expert period). The cumulative sum method was used for estimating the learning curve. Results: The learning curve was determined at the 42nd case. Patient characteristics and postoperative clinicopathologic outcomes were similar in both groups except for the operation time (212.5±65.0 min vs. 146.4±37.1 min; P<0.001) and length of stay (10.7±5.4 d vs. 8.4±2.9 d; P=0.015). The 5-year overall survival rates were similar in both groups throughout all stages. The 5-year disease-free survival rate of stage III disease in phase 2 (85%) was better than that of phase 1 (53.3%; P=0.046). Conclusions: Laparoscopic right hemicolectomy during the learning curve period showed acceptable clinicopathologic outcomes. However, the 5-year disease-free survival rate was compromised in patients with stage III disease in phase I.


Background Shoulder pain related to the long head of the biceps tendon (LHBT) tendinopathy can be debilitating and difficult to treat especially in athletes who often elect for surgical intervention. Conservative management is recommended but there are limited established guidelines on the physical therapy (PT) management of the condition. Hypothesis/Purpose The purpose of this study was to establish consensus on conservative, non-surgical physical therapy interventions for individuals with LHBT tendinopathy using the Delphi method approach. Study Design Delphi Study Methods Through an iterative process, experts in the PT field rated their agreement with a list of proposed treatment interventions and suggested additional interventions during each round. Agreement was measured using a four-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics including median and percentage agreement were used to measure agreement. Data analysis at the end of Round III produced, by consensus, a list of PT interventions recommended for the management of individuals with LHBT tendinopathy. Consensus was defined as an a priori cutoff of ≥75% agreement. Results The respondent group included 29 international experts in the PT management of individuals with shoulder pain. At the conclusion of the study 61 interventions were designated as recommended based on consensus amongst experts and 9 interventions were not recommended based on the same criteria, 15 interventions did not achieve consensus. Conclusion There is a lack of well-defined, PT interventions used to treat LHBT tendinopathy. Expert respondents reached consensus on multimodal interventions including exercise, manual therapy and patient education to manage LHBT tendinopathy. Level of Evidence 5


In an overarching sense this chapter examines the central themes of sport event management before specifically applying these to the Gulf region. Indeed in the latter part of this chapter these issues are profiled through their role in establishing the favourable international profile currently being experienced by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to event management, nor a step-by-step approach about how to successfully stage a major sporting event. Instead it draws the reader's attention to a fundamental need to understand the different types of sporting events that exist, their strategic value, in both an economic and sporting sense, and how the wider global positioning of a specific country or city can be enhanced through its effective engagement with certain sports events. The latter part of the chapter details a series of sporting events that take place on an annual basis in the UAE and explains how by doing so they serve an important role in embellishing that country's image as an evolving international business, tourist and leisure destination.


This paper deals with communication across functional and cultural borders in product development in an alliance context. It shows how the multiple levels of co-ordination in an alliance increase complexity. Product development takes place in meetings in a nexus of meetings. Communication is studied by the use of video. Sequences from such recordings are played back to participants who assist in the interpretation of communicative situations. It was found that participants tend to become myopic in their attributions of implications of behaviour in meetings, which hampers communication efficiency. It is suggested that Complexity Theory provides an explanation and that a solution can be sought in feedback of video sequences and reflection on communication problems.


This paper demonstrates a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based mechanism for identification of low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies such as LoRA, Sigfox, and IEEE 802.15.4g. Since the technologies operate in unlicensed bands and can interfere with each other, it becomes essential to identify technologies (or interference in general) so that the impact of interference can be minimized by better managing the spectrum. Contrary to the traditional rule-based identification mechanisms, we use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for identification, which do not require any domain expertise. We demonstrate two types of CNN based classifiers: (i) CNN based on raw IQ samples, and (ii) CNN based on Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), which give classification accuracies close to 95% and 98%, respectively. In addition, an online video is created for demonstrating the process [1].


A mechanical pressure injection technique has been developed to fabricate uniform metallic nanowires in the pores of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. The AAO template was prepared from general purity aluminum by a two-step anodization followed by heat treatment to achieve highly ordered nanochannels. The nanowires were fabricated by an injection process using a hydraulic pressure method. A mold containing the AAO template and a metal foil was placed inside a vacuum chamber and heated up to the melting temperature of the given metal using a hot plate. The hot chamber was then removed from the hot plate and pressure was applied on the melt through the sliding column of the chamber, using a hydraulic jack to impregnate the molten metal into the nanochannels of the AAO. The nanowires were found to be dense and continuous with uniform diameter throughout their length. Diffraction experiment in the transmission electron microscope revealed that individual nanowires are single crystalline. This paper will present the fabrication process of the AAO template, and the fabrication of Bi nanowires as well as their characterization conducted using SEM, TEM, XRD and DSC.Copyright © 2006 by ASME


Exchange and reciprocity are central concepts in all forms of human society. Based on a system of mutual obligation, they denote any activity in which valuables are circulated between individuals or groups of people. In the religious sphere they include the transfer of both material and immaterial goods between human and spiritual beings. As outlined by Marcel Mauss in his Essai sur le don, the classic work on the total system of reciprocity, such exchange is governed by the principle of the gift entailing the counter-gift.


Professionals are being expected to function in a progressively complex environment in all fields (Twale & Kochan, 2000). Technology plays a significant role in this challenge (Diem, 2002; Karlen, 2001), particularly for educational leaders (Mendis, 2002). Teaching and leading have become increasingly multifaceted art forms with the advent of learning technologies. University and school faculty are being expected to design, deliver, and assess successful online courses (Fuks, Gerosa, & de Lucena, 2002; Mendis, 2002), often without the necessary training and support (Walker, 2002). As face-to-face contact becomes reduced through online environments, effective communication becomes essential and barriers more pronounced (e.g., Creanor, 2002). It is important to note that distance education studies have associated high-quality interaction with satisfaction for remote learners (e.g., Sorensen & Baylen, 2000). The results that this study shares provide support for this important finding in the context of doctoral learning.


Abstract: Games are no longer just for fun; they offer potentially powerful learning environments. Today's students have grown up with computer games. In addition, their constant exposure to the Internet and other digital media has shaped how they receive information and how they learn. There are many attributes of games that make them pedagogically sound learning environments. An increasing number of faculty are using games as enhancements to the traditional learning environment with encouraging results. While the interactivity and engagement of games are highly positive a number of questions remain about how games will be developed, deployed and accepted in higher education. Invited Commentary: Mason, R. (2004) Commentary on: Oblinger, D. (2004). The Next Generation of Educational Engagement. [PDF] Editors: Terry Anderson and Denise Whitelock.


Proposed paper is a part of a research to develop a convenient method for continuous monitoring of blood pressure by non-invasive and non-oscillometric way. The method is based on a presumption that there is a singular relationship between the velocity of pulse wave and blood pressure for a person. The detection of the velocity of pulse wave is based on the registration of the mechanical movements of blood vessel's walls and computing the time delay in different regions of the human body using an ECG as a reference signal. Additional information about the blood pressure evaluation is gotten from the photoplethysmographic (PPG) channel. Used optical method, which is able to detect pulsation profiles of the blood vessels, is based on the self-mixing that occurs in the diode laser cavity when the radiation, scattered back by the skin into the laser, interferes with the field inside it and causes the changes of the laser pump current. National Instruments software LabView for Windows is used for output signal digitalization and processing purposes.


For a bivariate time series ((Xi ,Yi))i=1,...,n, we want to detect whether the correlation between Xi and Yi stays constant for all i = 1,...n. We propose a nonparametric change-point test statistic based on Kendall's tau. The asymptotic distribution under the null hypothesis of no change follows from a new U-statistic invariance principle for dependent processes. Assuming a single change-point, we show that the location of the change-point is consistently estimated. Kendall's tau possesses a high efficiency at the normal distribution, as compared to the normal maximum likelihood estimator, Pearson's moment correlation. Contrary to Pearson's correlation coefficient, it shows no loss in efficiency at heavy-tailed distributions, and is therefore particularly suited for financial data, where heavy tails are common. We assume the data ((Xi ,Yi))i=1,...,n to be stationary and P-near epoch dependent on an absolutely regular process. The P-near epoch dependence condition constitutes a generalization of the usually considered Lp-near epoch dependence allowing for arbitrarily heavy-tailed data. We investigate the test numerically, compare it to previous proposals, and illustrate its application with two real-life data examples.


Orthoferrites are a class of magnetic materials with a magnetic ordering temperature above 600 K, predom-inant G -type antiferromagnetic ordering of the Fe-spin system and, depending on the rare-earth ion, a spin reorientation of the Fe spin taking place at lower temperatures. DyFeO 3 is of particular interest since the spin reorientation is classified as a Morin transition with the transition temperature depending strongly on the Dy-Fe interaction. Here, we report a detailed study of the magnetic and structural properties of microcrystalline DyFeO 3 powder and bulk single crystal using neutron diffraction and magnetometry between 1.5 and 450 K. We find that, while the magnetic properties of the single crystal are largely as expected, the powder shows strongly modified magnetic properties, including a modified spin reorientation and a smaller Dy-Fe interaction energy of the order of 10 μ eV. Subtle structural differences between powder and single crystal show that they belong to distinct magnetic space groups. In addition, the Dy ordering at 2 K in the powder is incommensurate, with a modulation vector of 0.0173(5) c ∗ , corresponding to a periodicity of ∼ 58 unit cells.


On August 19, 2016, selected Clovis artifacts from the Gault site (41BL323) were scanned in advance of a large collaborative research project. These data were collected using a NextEngineHD running ScanStudioHD Pro, and were post-processed in Geomagic Design X 2016.0.1. All data associated with this project have been made publicly available (open access) and are accessible in Zenodo under a Creative Commons license, where they can be downloaded for use in additional projects and learning activities. These data have the capacity to augment a variety of research designs spanning the digital humanities, applications of geometric morphometrics, and many others. Additionally, these scans will augment a wide range of comparative research topics throughout the Americas and beyond. Reuse potential is significant.


Introduction Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) has a high mortality rate in the environment where we practice. There is lack of contemporal autopsy studies describing causes of death among SCD patients at our centre. Methods This is a retrospective study of SCD patients who died between January 1991 and December 2008 and that had autopsy examination to confirm the cause of death in a Nigerian teaching hospital. The clinical data, including the age, gender, Hb genotype, and the major autopsy findings and cause of death were obtained for each patient from the complete autopsy reports that included histopathological examination. Multiple causes of death were entertained. Results A total of 52 autopsies were performed. The mean age at death was 21.3 years (range, 1-47 years) and a male/female ratio of 1.3:1. HbS+C patients lived longer than HbS patients (21.0 years Vs 24.0 years) and peak mortality was in the 2nd and 3rd decades of life. The commonest causes of death as a single entity or in combination included infections in 78% of cases, fatal thrombotic/embolic events (37%) making acute chest syndrome a leading cause of death. This was followed closely by anemia alone or in combination with acute sequestration crises in 31% of patients. Conclusion Infections are the commonest causes of death in Nigerian SCD patients, efforts to reduce infection especially early in life through prophylaxis or vaccination will impact on the overall survival of these patients.


With the end of the Cold War, political actors that act on the global stage have a tendency
to develop a cosmopolitan identity – a collective identity for the global era. Hence, Beck and
Grande (2007) observe that the European Union has developed into a Cosmopolitan
Europe. Delanty (2012) argues that a cosmopolitan imagination has come to define Europe
today, that is, a critical attitude to the social world in Europe. Cosmopolitan identities of
global players do not develop in void or spontaneously but are made. While in the modern
era, states made nations in nation-building trajectories, via state-based education systems.
In the global era, world powers like the EU, make cosmopolitan identities in world-building
trajectories, typically via higher education systems. In the EU, higher education, in particular
the Bologna Process (1999), can be considered as a major engine in the making of a
cosmopolitan identity for the EU. The Bologna process shoes how European policy makers
contribute to the establishment of a cosmopolitan identity by shaping a world paradigm
within EU policies. Reflexivity is typically considered a key element in such education
systems, as this type of rationality is needed to make sense of the complexity of a
globalizing Europe. The European media, European newspapers in particular, it is
assumed, perceive and popularize Europe's cosmopolitan identity to wider audiences.
Hence the media can be understood, - like higher education systems - as popularizers of
the cosmopolitan European identity. Consequently, the identity as constructed in higher
education is communicated to its readership by press reports. Not only Europe, or the EU, has redeveloped its collective identity in the global era,
but also the People's Republic of China (hereafter: China) has come to play a central role
on the global stage since the end of the Cold War and has reconstructed its collective
identity. Some scholars have recognized that China in spite of its communist party rule is
developing a cosmopolitan identity that Urry (2010) calls a Cosmopolitan China. Also
China's cosmopolitan identity is constructed via education systems, in particular via the
National Entrance Exam called Gaokao, is a producer of a Chinese cosmopolitan identity –
a cosmopolitanism that may well be different from European cosmopolitanism. As in
Europe, Chinese media sources perceive and popularize this identity to their audiences.
In this thesis, I seek to investigate, via a content analysis, how European and
Chinese newspapers discuss the making of the cosmopolitan identities via the Bologna
Process and Gaokao. The aim of the thesis is to find out to what extent European and
Chinese newspaper articles present their education systems as being a cosmopolitan
Europe and a cosmopolitan China as envisioned by scholars like Beck and Grande and
Urry. Also, this thesis seeks to detect differences between European cosmopolitanism and
Chinese cosmopolitanism, as expressed in newspaper discussions of Bologna and
Gaokao.


EFFECT OF SUPPORT COMPLIANCE ON THE RESONANT BEHAVIOR OF MICROCANTILEVER-BASED SENSORS IN VISCOUS FLUIDS Rabin Maharjan, B.E., M.S. Marquette University, 2013 Resonant microcantilevers are often considered for use in chemical sensing and biosensing applications. However, when excited in the conventional transverse flexural mode, their performance in liquids is severely compromised. Theoretical and experimental studies have shown that the detrimental effects of the liquid may be mitigated by operating the microcantilever in lateral flexure, especially for microbeams having smaller length-to-width (L/b) ratios. However, for these most promising geometries the predictions of existing models tend to diverge from experimental data for resonant frequency (fres) and quality factor (Q). A likely reason for these discrepancies is support compliance, which has been neglected in existing models. Thus, the derivation of an analytical model for the lateral-mode dynamic response of a microcantilever in a viscous fluid, including the effects of support compliance, is warranted and is the focus of this dissertation. Analytical solutions for natural frequency and Q are first obtained for the freevibration case, followed by solutions for the forced-vibration response when the cantilever is excited by an imposed harmonic relative rotation near the support (simulating electrothermal actuation). Values of fres and Q are extracted from the response spectra for the tip deflection and the bending strain near the support. The support compliance (required as model input) is analytically related to device dimensions by employing dimensional analysis and 3-D FEA. The analytical results for the resonant characteristics are also related to sensor performance metrics (sensitivity and limit of detection), thus permitting one to exploit the potential of lateral-mode microcantileverbased liquid-phase sensors. The impact of support compliance, fluid resistance, and beam dimensions on the freeand forced-vibration response are explored, as are the differences associated with the two output signals. Comparisons of results with experimental data show a marked improvement over the previous rigid-support models for smaller L/b values. For the practical ranges of parameters considered the model indicates that, at smaller L/b values, support compliance may reduce Q by up to ~14% and fres and mass sensitivity (Sm) by up to ~21%. Conversely, for L/b>15 the support compliance effects are no more than 2% on Q and 4% on fres and Sm.


Our goal for this study was to attempt to develop a computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) method for classification of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with atrophic image features derived from specific anatomical regions in three-dimensional (3-D) T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images. Specific regions related to the cerebral atrophy of AD were white matter and gray matter regions, and CSF regions in this study. Cerebral cortical gray matter regions were determined by extracting a brain and white matter regions based on a level set based method, whose speed function depended on gradient vectors in an original image and pixel values in grown regions. The CSF regions in cerebral sulci and lateral ventricles were extracted by wrapping the brain tightly with a zero level set determined from a level set function. Volumes of the specific regions and the cortical thickness were determined as atrophic image features. Average cortical thickness was calculated in 32 subregions, which were obtained by dividing each brain region. Finally, AD patients were classified by using a support vector machine, which was trained by the image features of AD and non-AD cases. We applied our CAD method to MR images of whole brains obtained from 29 clinically diagnosed AD cases and 25 non-AD cases. As a result, the area under a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve obtained by our computerized method was 0.901 based on a leave-one-out test in identification of AD cases among 54 cases including 8 AD patients at early stages. The accuracy for discrimination between 29 AD patients and 25 non-AD subjects was 0.840, which was determined at the point where the sensitivity was the same as the specificity on the ROC curve. This result showed that our CAD method based on atrophic image features may be promising for detecting AD patients by using 3-D MR images.


Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) elements have had a growing popularity in recent years due to i.e. low carbon footprint, low weight and efficient construction time. However, the elements are sensitive to moisture and prone to organic growth if not treated properly or if used incorrectly. Roof slabs are particularly exposed, as they have a large area of exposure and the horizontal orientation doesn't allow rainwater run-off. The efforts made to protect CLT-roofing elements by Norwegian contractors vary widely, as there are few guidelines and little long-term experience. A field study of CLT-roofs on existing buildings was conducted to investigate the conditions after some years in service. The study includes inspection and moisture measurements of CLT elements from the exterior side in 10 building projects 1-9 years old from two regions of Norway. The contractor of each project was interviewed in order to assess the extent of climate exposure and protection measures during construction. The results indicate a correlation between water content, building age and exposure level during construction. There is a clear indication that the drying time for built-in moisture in CLT roof constructions are slow. Keeping built-in moisture to a minimum is therefore paramount.


The yield of soybean in the Philippines is significantly low. Presoaking is one of the seed priming techniques to improve seed quality. This study aimed to determine the effects of selected fermented plant extracts and commercial organic fertilizer on germination and vigor of soybean seeds. The seeds presoaked in organic agriculture inputs such as ipil ipil FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice), squash FFJ (Fermented Fruit Juice), commercial organic fertilizer (PSPLOF), and water (control). The seeds were then subjected to seed quality tests to evaluate germination and vigor. Ipil ipil FPJ and squash FFJ significantly improved the percentage germination, first count, vigor index, seedling growth, and seedling emergence. Commercial fertilizer showed poor results in seed germination and vigor tests. Seeds soaked in water showed high percentage germination but have poor vigor. Data were arranged in factorial in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The initial seed quality results revealed significantly poor germination and vigor. Therefore, presoaking of soybean seeds in ipil ipil FPJ and squash FFJ is recommended to improve the germination and vigor of soybean seeds. The results could be useful to reduce the cost of soybean production and to enhance the yield of soybean.


Inviting children to adopt a Protagonist role regarding technology has recently become advocated. Such a role embraces the original political participatory design (PD) agenda and aims at empowerment of children through design and making. However, so far the literature is limited in exploring the adoption of this role by children. While studies have reported experiences of engaging children in design and making activities, in-depth inquiries on children's experiences and challenges involved are lacking. We also maintain that the PD community has so far neglected education of children - in participation, design and technology - as our task and duty. This study reports findings from a design and making project aiming at empowerment of children, carried out in school context. We show that adopting the Protagonist role is not easy and there is a lot of variety between children. We present children's experiences and reflect on the challenges involved in progressing towards Protagonist role adoption.


A 25-year-old woman presented in the third trimester of pregnancy with severe abdominal pain in the lower right abdominal quadrant. Differential diagnosis included urolithiasis, adnexal torsion and appendicitis. A definitive diagnosis could not be made based on clinical and laboratory examination. Ultrasonography revealed a 3-cm cyst in the lower right abdomen, which was considered unlikely to cause abdominal pain. During laparotomy, adnexal torsion was found, which was deemed to be the cause of the abdominal pain. The twisted portion was uncoiled and the dark-coloured cyst was extirpated. The cyst was determined to be a cystic adenoma. Adnexal torsion is rarely caused by cysts smaller than 5 cm, especially in the third trimester. Emergency laparoscopyllaparotomy should be performed if adnexal torsion is suspected to confirm the diagnosis and uncoil the twist to prevent ovarian damage. Adnexal torsion should be considered in the differential diagnosis of acute abdominal pain in the third trimester of pregnancy.


Palladium-catalysed cross-coupling reactions are routinely used in the synthesis of important organic and organometallic compounds, including advanced materials and natural products. Industry and academia depend heavily on these ubiquitous transformations. Their success is quite remarkable, but not without their share of problematic and sometimes unusual observations, which continue to probe our fundamental understanding of these reactions. Through an identification of side-reactions, our train of thought of a well-known reaction can be challenged. In this review we identify exemplary processes and show how they have been exploited in synthetic chemistry. A deeper insight into well-established processes is provided, which alerts us to new synthetic transformations. On one hand, it is of significant interest to understand how to minimise unwanted reactions and their side-products, but on the other, one can seek to exploit such reaction pathways and develop new synthetic methodologies. Either way, synthetic chemists only stand to benefit from such findings, which, more often than not, stimulate further research into this ever-expanding field. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009)


HLA-B27 is known for its strong association with inflammatory spondyloarthropathies (SpA), a group of rheumatic diseases. Apart from playing its role in the onset of these inflammatory diseases, HLA-827 is so ubiquitous in the world that the carrying of this gene must have also have an advantage. There are some indications that a beneficial effect can be found as a less severe course of viral infections among B27-carriers. The literature on this subject was reviewed and revealed a favorable course of infection with influenza virus, herpes simplex type 2 virus, Epstein-Barr virus and, even more interesting, a protective effect of HLA-B27 in the progression of HIV infections. The course of HIV infection differs among individuals and is thought to be partly related to host-factor variability, reflecting broad genetic heterogeneity. The polymorphic human leukocyte antigens (HLA) are herein analyzed intensively with respect to this relationship. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses, activated by HLA antigen presentation, are implicated in the control of HIV replication. An immunological explanation for the protective role for HLA B27 in HIV disease is that B27+ patients have a specific and strong CTL response against the p24 epitope, a conservative HIV protein that does not easily mutate. Some HLA genes seen in long-term non-progressors (LTNP) (>10 years disease free) are associated with a favorable prognosis. One of the alleles found predominantly in LTNPs is HLA-B27. More genetic factors seem to influence disease progression in HIV infections. Therefore, it would be interesting to further explore the influence of the genetic make up of these HIV-infected individuals. Knowledge of the immunogenetic profile might give clues for the individual course of the HIV infection, may influence the development of drug-resistant viruses and will possibly lead to a tailored therapeutic strategy in HIV-infected persons.


To enable realistic shape (e.g. pose and expression) transfer, existing face reenactment methods rely on a set of target faces for learning subject-specific traits. However, in real-world scenario end-users often only have one target face at hand, rendering existing methods inapplicable. In this work, we bridge this gap by proposing a novel one-shot face reenactment learning framework. Our key insight is that the one-shot learner should be able to disentangle and compose appearance and shape information for effective modeling. Specifically, the target face appearance and the source face shape are first projected into latent spaces with their corresponding encoders. Then these two latent spaces are associated by learning a shared decoder that aggregates multi-level features to produce the final reenactment results. To further improve the synthesizing quality on mustache and hair regions, we additionally propose FusionNet which combines the strengths of our learned decoder and the traditional warping method. Extensive experiments show that our one-shot face reenactment system achieves superior transfer fidelity as well as identity preserving capability than alternatives. More remarkably, our approach trained with only one target image per subject achieves competitive results to those using a set of target images, demonstrating the practical merit of this work. Code, models and an additional set of reenacted faces have been publicly released at the project page.


Summary A rapid new immunochromatographic test (ICT malaria P.f/P.v) for diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum and P.vivax was evaluated against thick blood smears in forest villages of Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, where both Plasmodium falciparum and P.vivax are prevalent. 344 symptomatic patients (Gond ethnic tribe) in five villages were screened by field staff of the Malaria Research Centre in October 1999. For P.falciparum, the ICT was 97.5% sensitive and 88% specific, with a positive predictive value (PPV) of 87.6% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 97.6%. For P.vivax the sensitivity was only 72%, the specificity 99%, with a PPV of 92% and an NPV of 96%. Although a negative test result was inadequate to exclude parasitaemia ≤ 300/μl for P.falciparum and ≤ 1500/μl for P.vivax, the test is potentially useful in remote areas.


The construction of time-domain solutions by the superposition of modes is explained for the general case, which may not have any symmetry in the lines or terminations. This simplified method requires that the logic-gate terminal impedances be approximated by linear effective resistances that can be adequately determined by SPICE analysis of the actual logic gates. Several examples of results of crosstalk calculations made by the simplified method are presented and compared with corresponding results obtained using the SPICE transmission-line methods of Tripathi and Rettig (IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-33, no.12, p.1513-18, 1985) along with full SPICE models of the logic gates. The simplified approach is shown to give satisfactory agreement for most purposes. >


Coaching classes for academic subjects are old phenomenon in Bangladesh, there is a huge number of students go to coaching centers for learning English as second language (L2) because coaching centres use different teaching methods that help students to understand the language (L2) better. The aim of this thesis is to study the positive and negative effects of coaching classes on English language learning in secondary education (from class 6 class 12) as being L2. The data collected from various schools and coaching centres for English language of Dhaka through a number of questionnaires to collect their opinions from students, teachers and parents, and by means of class room (both school and coaching) observation concerning the problems faced by English language learners. And classroom observation was done successfully to find out where there was any lacking in English teaching or not. The findings from the survey show that secondary school level students are satisfied with the English lessons that provided coaching centres. Both teachers and students agreed that students are more likely to have coaching classes than paying attention to regular classroom studies. But learners should not fully depend on coaching centres. Students, parents and teachers should understand why students need extra care for learning English Language and how he/she can get benefits fully from those private classes known as coaching centres. So, Bangladesh government should raise awareness about it. Table of


In their natural habitat, mice interact and communicate to regulate major functions, such as reproduction, group coordination, and protection. Nevertheless, little is currently known about their spontaneous emission of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), despite their broad use as a phenotypic marker in mouse models of neuropsychiatric disorders. Here, we investigated mouse spontaneous communication by coupling automatic recording, segmentation, and analysis of USVs to the tracking of complex behaviors. We continuously recorded undisturbed same-sex pairs of C57BL/6J males and females at 5 weeks and 3 and 7 months of age over three days. Males emitted only a few short USVs, mainly when isolated from their conspecific, whereas females emitted a high number of USVs, especially when engaged in intense dynamic social interactions. The context-specific use of call types and acoustic variations emerged with increasing age. The emission of USVs also reflected a high level of excitement in social interactions. Finally, mice lacking Shank3, a synaptic protein associated with autism, displayed atypical USV usage and acoustic structure, which did not appear in classical protocols, highlighting the importance of studying spontaneous communication. The methods are freely available for the research community (https://usv.pasteur.cloud).


Background: Crataegus (Rosaceae) genus comprises more than 200 species worldwide but few species have been used medicinally. In the Mediterranean region, the predominant species of this genus is C. oxyacantha syn. Monogyna (known as Hawthorn) which is protective against the treatment of mild heart diseases. Methods: The leaves were collected at three different stages (vegetative, flowering and fruiting). The aim of this work was to determine total phenol, flavonoid, flavon and flavonol contents, as well as antioxidant activity of hawthorn leaves aqueous extracts. Chemical determinations were carried out using spectrophotometric methods, whereas antioxidant activity was assessed according to 1,1 diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl( DPPH), iron chelating ability and reducing power. Results: Total phenol content varied from 96.75 to 168.92 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/100 g of dry weight; flavonoids ranged from 3.9 ± 1.51 to 16.35 ± 2.51 mg of quercetin equivalent (QE)/100 g of dry weight from the extract of leaves at flowering, vegetative and fruiting stages respectively; and the flavons and flavonols ranged from 26.36 ± 1.02 to 40.16 ± 1.95 mg of quercetin equivalent (QE)/100 g of dry weight. The leaves extract at flowering stage showed high scavenging activity against the free radical DPPH with an IC50 value of 45.23 ± 0.07 µg/ml. The leaves extract from all the stages exhibited low ferrous chelating activity and reducing power activity (IC50 between 262.26 ± 1.32 and 506.04 ± 1.95 µg/ml) compared to BHA (IC50 41.41 ± 0.51 µg/ml).


The human brain is an incredible system which can process, store, and transfer information with high speed and volume. Inspired by such system, engineers and scientists are cooperating to construct a digital brain with these characteristics. The brain is composed by billions of neurons which can be modeled by mathematical equations. The first step to reach that goal is to be able to construct these neuron models in real time. The Inferior Olive (IO) model is a selected model to achieve the real time simulation of a large neuron network. The model is quite complex with three compartments which are based on the Hodgkin Huxley model. Although the Hodgkin Huxley model is considered as the most biological plausible model, it has quite high complexity. The three compartments also make the model become even more computationally intensive. A CPU platform takes a long time to simulate such a complex model. Besides, FPGA platform does not handle effectively floating point operations. With GPU's capability of high performance computing and floating point operations, GPU platform promises to facilitate computational intensive applications successfully. In this thesis, two GPU platforms of the two latest Nvidia GPU architectures are used to simulate the IO model in a network setting. The performance is improved significantly on both platforms in comparison with that on the CPU platform. The speed-up of double precision simulation is 68.1 and 21.0 on Tesla C2075 and GeForce GT640, respectively. The single precision simulation is nearly twice faster than the double precision simulation. The performance of the GeForce GT640 platform is 67% less than that on the Tesla C2075 platfom, while the cost efficiency on the GeForce GT640 is eight times higher than that on the Tesla C2075 platform. The real time execution is achieved with approximately 256 neural cells. In conclusion, the Tesla C2075 platform is essential for double precision simulation and the GeForce GT640 platform is more suitable for reducing execution time of single precision simulation.


The use of the physical linear characteristic of the modified equation of fluid motion allowed the authors to develop a novel numerical algorithm to solve advanced flow problems with reduced computational effort. The applied algorithm simplifies the velocity iteration procedure during the solver execution. The goal of the current paper is to describe an in-depth study of this numerical implementation of the modified equation of fluid motion for incompressible flow. The application of the developed solver is discussed for rotor–stator interaction in a radial pump. The results are evaluated by the numerical results from the Navier–Stokes solver and measurement data. The comparisons indicate that the developed solver, requires about 60% the computation time of the Navier–Stokes solver, and it produces physically reasonable results validated by measurement data.


Parkinsonism occurs in a variety of disorders, involving the central nervous system. The basic pathology in this disorder is the destruction of the pigmented neuronal pathway of the brain stem. The major site of damage is the nigrostriatal pathway. There is associated cytoplasmic neuronal changes, the most specific is the formation of an intracytoplasmic inclusion body, the Lewy body. This varies from other forms of neurofibrillary degeneration. Other neuropathological changes which may be age related are also found. This paper is an overview of the idiopathic Parkinson's disease.


Abstract. The high-resolution multiproxy study of the Adriatic marine core MD 90-917 provides new insights to reconstruct vegetation and regional climate changes over the southcentral Mediterranean during the Younger Dryas (YD) and Holocene. Pollen records show the rapid forest colonization of the Italian and Balkan borderlands and the gradual installation of the Mediterranean association during the Holocene. Quantitative estimates based on pollen data provide Holocene precipitations and temperatures in the Adriatic Sea using a multi-method approach. Clay mineral ratios from the same core reflect the relative contributions of riverine (illite and smectite) and eolian (kaolinite) contributions to the site, and thus act as an additional proxy with which to evaluate precipitation changes in the Holocene. Vegetation climate reconstructions show the response to the Preboreal oscillation (PBO), most likely driven by changes in temperature and seasonal precipitation, which is linked to increasing river inputs from Adriatic rivers recorded by increase in clay mineral contribution to marine sediments. Pollen-inferred temperature declines during the early–mid Holocene, then increases during the mid–late Holocene, similar to southwestern Mediterranean climatic patterns during the Holocene. Several short vegetation and climatic events appear in the record, indicating the sensitivity of vegetation in the region to millennial-scale variability. Reconstructed summer precipitation shows a regional maximum (170–200 mm) between 8000 and 7000 similar to the general pattern across southern Europe. Two important shifts in vegetation occur at 7700 cal yr BP (calendar years before present) and between 7500 and 7000 cal yr BP and are correlated with increased river inputs around the Adriatic Basin respectively from the northern (7700 event) and from the central Adriatic borderlands (7500–7000 event). During the mid-Holocene, the wet summers lead to permanent moisture all year resulting in a homogeneous seasonal precipitation regime. After 6000 cal yr BP, summer precipitation decreases towards present-day values while winter precipitation rises regularly showing the setting up of Mediterranean climate conditions. Multiproxy evidence from core MD 90-917 provides a deeper understanding of the role of precipitation and particularly the seasonality of precipitation in mediating vegetation change in the central Mediterranean during the Holocene.


We have developed a simple, yet effective scheme to derive volumetric soil moisture (VSM) using infrared (IR) land surface emissivity retrieved from satellite measured IR spectral radiance. This novel scheme is applied to a 10-year period of global IR emissivity data retrieved from MetOp-A Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) measurements. The VSM calculated from these IR emissivity data (denoted as IR-VSM) is compared with that routinely retrieved from satellite microwave (MW) multi-sensor measurements (denoted as MW-VSM). Monthly-mean spatially-gridded climatology datasets are then generated to demonstrate VSM spatial variation as well as its seasonal-cycle and inter-annual variability. Positive agreement is shown to exist between IRand MW-VSM. The relationship between soil moisture and surface skin temperature, as well as the skin temperature diurnal difference (denoted as dTs), were examined globally using the land surface skin temperature (denoted as Ts) retrieved from the same measurements of IASI. We are able to draw the conclusion that both skin temperature and skin temperature diurnal differences follow an inverse relationship with soil moisture.


Impact behavior of sandwich panels with auxetic and hexagonal honeycomb cores are investigated experimentally and numerically. Re-entrant and anti-tetrachiral geometries are considered for auxetic cores. In the experimental side of the study, auxetic and honeycomb cores are produced using a 3D printer. The sandwich panels are then produced by attaching aluminium face sheets and cores. The impact tests are performed using a particle impact test system. The numerical analyses are achieved by using LSDYNA finite element software. The deformation results are compared and the effect of having different type of core is evaluated.


Two cases of craniopharyngioma with intratumoral hemorrhage are reported. A 22-year-old male was admitted with meningitis. Lumbar tapping was performed twice. He subsequently developed reduced visual acuity and field deterioration due to intratumoral hemorrhage from an intra- and suprasellar tumor. He underwent emergency craniotomy and total extirpation of the tumor. A 29-year-old female underwent partial extirpation of an intra- and suprasellar cystic tumor via transsphenoidal surgery. Two months after the first operation, she suffered intratumoral hemorrhage necessitating emergency surgery and subsequent gamma-knife therapy. The histological diagnosis was craniopharyngioma in both cases. Hemorrhage is extremely rare in craniopharyngiomas and difficult to discriminate from that in pituitary adenoma, but both diseases require decompression by clot extirpation.


The excessive activation of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)/nitric oxide (NO) pathway has been proposed to be involved in the neuropathology of various neurodegenerative disorders. In this study, NO was found to mediate glutamate-induced excitotoxicity in primary cultured neurons. Compared with the NO synthase (NOS) inhibitor, NG-monomethyl-l-arginine (l-NMMA), and the NMDAR antagonist memantine, bis(7)-tacrine was found to be more potent in reducing NO-mediated excitotoxicity and the release of NO caused by glutamate. Moreover, like l-NMMA but not like 5H-dibenzo[a,d]cyclohepten-5,10-imine (MK-801) and memantine, bis(7)-tacrine showed greater neuroprotection and inhibition on NO release when neurons were pretreated for a prolonged time between 0 and 24 h and remained quite potent even when neurons were post-treated 1 h after the glutamate challenge. Bis(7)-tacrine was additionally found to be as moderately potent as memantine in competing with [3H]MK-801, inhibiting NMDA-evoked currents and reducing glutamate-triggered calcium influx, which eventually reduced neuronal NOS activity. More importantly, at neuroprotective concentrations, bis(7)-tacrine substantially reversed the overactivation of neuronal NOS caused by glutamate without interfering with the basal activity of NOS. Furthermore, in vitro pattern analysis demonstrated that bis(7)-tacrine competitively inhibited both purified neuronal and inducible NOS with IC50 values at 2.9 and 9.3 μM but not endothelial NOS. This result was further supported by molecular docking simulations that showed hydrophobic interactions between bis(7)-tacrine and three NOS isozymes. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that the substantial neuroprotection against glutamate by bis(7)-tacrine might be mediated synergistically through the moderate blockade of NMDAR and selective inhibition of neuronal NOS.


Objective: Porphyromonas gingivalis has been shown to accelerate atherosclerotic lesion development in atherosclerotic apo E-deficient mice. Here, we investigated whether repeated P. gingivalis injection affected the inflammatory and atherosclerotic responses of C57BL/6 mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Materials and methods: Eight-week-old C57BL/6 mice fed either HFD or a regular chow diet (RD) were inoculated intravenously with P. gingivalis or phosphate-buffered saline three times per week for 10 weeks and sacrificed at 19 weeks of age. Atheromatous lesions in the proximal aorta of each animal were analyzed histomorphometrically, and the serum cytokine and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were determined. Results: Long-term HFD feeding as compared to RD feeding led to a slight increase in atheromatous lesions in the aortic sinus as well as increases in the levels of serum monocyte chemoattractant protein 1. Further, P. gingivalis injection significantly enhanced the formation of atherosclerotic plaque, and increased CRP and inflammatory cytokine levels, in mice fed the HFD, although no further increase in LDL was observed. Conclusion: These results suggest that bacteremia-induced by repeated injection with P. gingivalis accelerates atherosclerosis in normal C57BL/6 mice by initiating inflammation, and is therefore implicated in chronic infection-related pathogenicity.


This study focused on the quality of life experienced by persons with severe mental illness (SMI). Previous studies indicate the need for a multi-dimensional approach to the study of quality of life and its subjective indicators. For the SMI, attention should be paid not only to the direct and intentional effects of interventions, but also to the indirect and unintentional effects, both negative and positive. Hence, a global evaluation of individuals within this group is indicated. A multitrait-multimethod approach to construct validation using confirmatory factor analysis was employed. The hypothesized factors were modeled as multiple traits and the multiple perspectives of the respondents (i.e. patient, case manager, family member) were multiple methods. A total of 265 severely mentally ill adults served by a network of agencies in four cities were randomly sampled. The sample was approximately 50% male and 50% female, ages ranged from 19-78 years. DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v1i2_johnson


Cervical cancer kills about 270 000 women every year. (1) It has been called "a case study in health equity" because most (85%) of these deaths occur in the developing world. In large part, this inequity is due to the lack of cervical cancer screening programmes in those countries--the same programmes that are taken for granted in Australia, Europe and the United States of America. And since cervical cancer affects relatively young women (mortality rates climb as women enter their forties), it results in many lost years of life--2.7 million age-weighted years of life were lost to the disease in the year 2000. (2) The biggest impacts of cervical cancer are on poverty, education, and gender equity--the first three Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Many of those who die are bread-winners and caretakers of both children and elders. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa women head one-third of all households and in Botswana, over half of the children who have lost a parent are being cared for by grandmothers women also at risk of cervical cancer. (3,4) The fabric of the family and the community is weakened significantly when these women die. This is especially true in communities also ravaged by the loss of working adults to HIV/AIDS. In addition to the emotional trauma, cervical cancer deaths have significant economic costs over the short- and long-term (though these are seldom considered when calculating the financial burden of disease). Family members may lose work opportunities and can incur overwhelming medical costs while caring for women with cancer. (5) Reduction in family income resulting from the death of a working-age adult can force remaining family decision-makers to prioritize immediate needs (food and shelter) over investment in human capital (e.g. education). As poverty increases, more children (especially girls) may be kept out of school for lack of school fees, books, or uniforms, but also so that they can contribute to family income through work. Cervical cancer can impact education in other ways as well, such as when schools lose experienced teachers to the disease. The differential economic and social impact on women and girls makes it more difficult to achieve gender equity. Finally, it should be noted that lower levels of female education are linked to decreased maternal and infant health--the focus of two other MDGs. Developing successful cervical cancer screening and human papilloma-virus (HPV) vaccination programmes opens the door to many other interventions including, for older women, opportunities to screen for other cancers and reproductive problems, and for school-age girls and boys, deworming; treatment for schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, filariasis and trachoma; iron and/or iodine supplementation; distribution of bed nets to prevent malaria; hand washing, anti-tobacco and anti-drug education; nutritional supplementation; body-awareness education; and guidance on life choice decision-making and sexual health. …


Allen and Engert report on recent research at the Bank of Canada on various aspects of efficiency in the Canadian banking industry. This research suggests that, overall, Canadian banks appear to be relatively efficient producers of financial services and they do not exercise monopoly or collusive-oligopoly power. The authors note the value of continuing to investigate opportunities to improve efficiency and competition in financial services in Canada.


Objective. The purpose of this presentation is to review the sonographic spectrum of disease entities evaluated by right upper quadrant (RUQ) sonography on an emergent basis. Methods. Right upper quadrant sonography was performed on an emergent basis in patients who came to the emergency department with signs and symptoms suspicious for or simulating acute cholecystitis or diseases of the liver and biliary tree. Results. A wide gamut of acute and chronic cholecystitis and diseases of the liver and biliary tree were visualized on RUQ sonography. Several other entities in addition to hepatic and biliary disease were also suspected on sonography and further evaluated by computed tomography. Conclusions. Right upper quadrant sonography is the first line of imaging in patients with signs and symptoms of hepatic, gallbladder, or biliary disease as well as RUQ pain. Patient triage or additional imaging may be obtained on the basis of emergent RUQ sonographic findings.


In 2009, Deakin University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong trailed the use of Web 2.0 technologies to enhance learning outcomes in a third year architectural design studio that was modelled on the Virtual Design Studios (VDS) of past decades. The studio developed the VDS further by integrating a social learning environment into the blended learning experience. The Web 2.0 VDS utilised the social networking sites Ning.com, YouTube and Skype; various 3D modelling and videoand/or image-processing software; plus chat-software. These were used in combination to deliver lectures, communicate learning goals, disseminate learning resources, submit work, and provide feedback and comments on various design works in assessing students' outcomes. This paper centres on issues of learning and teaching associated with the development of a Social Network VDS (SNVDS).


The evaluation of network performance under real application loads is carried out by detailed time-intensive and resource-intensive simulations. Moreover, the use of ILP (instruction-level parallel) processors in cc-NUMA (cache-coherent non-uniform memory access) architectures introduces non-deterministic memory accesses; the resulting parallel system must be modeled by a detailed execution-driven simulation, further increasing the evaluation cost. This paper introduces a simulation methodology, based on network traces, to estimate the impact that a given network has on the execution time of parallel applications. This methodology allows the study of the network design space with a level of accuracy close to that of execution-driven simulations but with much shorter simulation times. The network trace, extracted from an execution-driven simulation, is processed to substitute the temporal dependencies produced by the simulated network with an estimation of the message dependencies caused by both the application and the applied cache-coherent protocol. This methodology has been tested on two direct networks, with 16 and 64 nodes respectively, running the FFT and Radix applications of the SPLASH2 suite. The trace-driven simulation is 3 to 4 times faster than the execution-driven one, with an average error of 4% in the total execution time.


This article explores the way in which ethnically diverse societies govern their public sphere. It shows that the public sphere in multiethnic societies is an arena of conflict where cultural and ideological contest or negotiation among a variety of groups takes place. Drawing from Nigeria's experience, the article examines the conflict management arrangement devised to regulate hostile inter-group relations in the public sphere. It identifies power-sharing as the most fundamental conflict management strategy adopted to govern Nigeria's public sphere. The article argues that although power-sharing features as the most acceptable modality for moderating inter-group conflicts in Nigeria, its usefulness is limited by the fact that it widens the asymmetrical and oligarchic power of the dominant groups and hampers the growth of democracy.


Pelvic actinomycosis associated with the use of an intrauterine device (IUD) is a recently recognized combination. The usual manifestation of the disease are those of mild pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in a woman who uses an IUD. The disease is easily recognized on Papanicolaou-stained cervicovaginal smears. Early treatment involves removal of the IUD and administration of penicillin. Rarely, the disease may be serious and may require drainage of intra-abdominal abscesses, hysterectomy with salpingo-oophorectomy, or both. The second known death from pelvic actinomycosis associated with use of an IUD is reported.


: The thiazolidinedione class peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR γ ) agonists are restricted in clinical use as antidiabetic agents because of side effects such as edema, weight gain, and heart failure. The single and selective agonism of PPAR γ is the main cause of these side effects. Multitargeted PPAR α / γ / δ pan agonist development is the hot topic in the antidiabetic drug research field. In order to identify PPAR α / γ / δ pan agonists, a compound database was established by core hopping of rosiglitazone, which was then docked into a PPAR α / γ / δ active site to screen out a number of candidate compounds with a higher docking score and better interaction with the active site. Further, absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity prediction was done to give eight compounds. Molecular dynamics simulation of the representative Cpd#1 showed more favorable binding conformation for PPARs receptor than the original ligand. Cpd#1 could act as a PPAR α / γ / δ pan agonist for novel antidiabetic drug research.


17beta-estradiol (E(2)) binds estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) in MCF-7 cells and increases cell proliferation and survival through induction or repression of multiple genes. ESR1 interactions with DNA-bound specificity protein (SP) transcription factors is a nonclassical genomic estrogenic pathway and the role of SP transcription factors in mediating hormone-dependent activation or repression of genes in MCF-7 cells was investigated by microarrays and RNA interference. MCF-7 cells were transfected with a nonspecific oligonucleotide or a cocktail of small inhibitory RNAs (iSP), which knockdown SP1, SP3, and SP4 proteins, and treated with dimethylsulfoxide or 10 nM E(2) for 6 h. E(2) induced 62 and repressed 134 genes and the induction or repression was reversed in approximately 62% of the genes in cells transfected with iSP (ESR1/SP dependent), whereas hormonal activation or repression of the remaining genes was unaffected by iSP (SP independent). Analysis of the ESR1/SP-dependent and SP-independent genes showed minimal overlap with respect to the GO terms (functional processes) in genes induced or repressed, suggesting that the different genomic pathways may contribute independently to the hormone-induced phenotype in MCF-7 cells.


Most advanced unsupervised anomaly detection (UAD) methods rely on modeling feature representations of frozen encoder networks pre-trained on large-scale datasets, e.g. ImageNet. However, the features extracted from the encoders that are borrowed from natural image domains coincide little with the features required in the target UAD domain, such as industrial inspection and medical imaging. In this paper, we propose a novel epistemic UAD method, namely ReContrast, which optimizes the entire network to reduce biases towards the pre-trained image domain and orients the network in the target domain. We start with a feature reconstruction approach that detects anomalies from errors. Essentially, the elements of contrastive learning are elegantly embedded in feature reconstruction to prevent the network from training instability, pattern collapse, and identical shortcut, while simultaneously optimizing both the encoder and decoder on the target domain. To demonstrate our transfer ability on various image domains, we conduct extensive experiments across two popular industrial defect detection benchmarks and three medical image UAD tasks, which shows our superiority over current state-of-the-art methods.


PURPOSE
To assess the expression of PD-L1 on human uveal melanomas and its potential to suppress T-cell function.

METHODS
A panel of primary and metastatic uveal melanoma cell lines was evaluated for PD-L1 expression by RT-PCR and flow cytometric analysis. Uveal melanoma-containing eyes were examined for PD-L1 expression by immunohistochemistry. PD-L1 function was tested by coculturing IFN-gamma-pretreated uveal melanoma cells with activated Jurkat T cells for 48 hours and assessing T-cell production of IL-2 by ELISA.

RESULTS
Five of the nine primary and one of the five metastatic uveal melanoma cell lines tested constitutively expressed PD-L1 protein at various levels. However, all primary and metastatic uveal melanoma cell lines upregulated PD-L1 expression after stimulation with IFN-gamma. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that PD-L1 was not expressed by primary uveal melanomas in situ. IL-2 production by activated Jurkat T cells was decreased significantly when the cells were cocultured with IFN-gamma-pretreated uveal melanoma cells. More than 70% of IL-2 production was restored by addition of either anti-PD-L1 or anti-PD-1 antibody to the coculture assays (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Expression of PD-L1 by uveal melanoma cells regulates T-cell function by suppressing IL-2 production. The results imply that the presence of IFN-gamma in the tumor local microenvironment promotes upregulation of PD-L1 expression by uveal melanoma, which may, in part, promote immune escape by impairing T-cell function. The selective blockade of PD-L1 is a potential strategy in T-cell-based immunotherapy for uveal melanoma.


Coordination polymer- or metal–organic framework (CP/MOF)-derived metal oxides with diverse morphologies and microporous structures have shown potential applications in heterogeneous catalysis. In this study, porous CuO nanofibers were successfully synthesized by thermal treatment of a copper-based coordination polymer nanofiber (Cu(L-aspartic acid)·x(H2O), Cu-Asp) at different temperatures in a muffle furnace. The as-obtained CuO-T (T = 400, 500, and 600 °C) nanofibers comprised many inhomogeneous nanoparticles and inherited the fiber shape from the Cu-Asp precursor. The photocatalytic properties of the CuO-T nanofibers were tested towards a rhodamine B (RhB) solution in the presence of H2O2 under visible light irradiation. Experimental results reveal that the porous CuO-500 nanofibers show remarkably high photocatalytic activity, and the degradation rate reaches 96% within 160 min. The excellent photocatalytic performance of porous CuO-500 nanofibers can be ascribed to the porous structure, which causes low mass transport limitation and allows the dye molecules to easily access the photocatalytic active sites. Moreover, the CuO-500 nanofibers exhibit remarkably high photochemical stability. Furthermore, the possible photodegradation mechanism for the RhB dye using CuO-500 nanofibers is proposed based on the analysis of the involved active species. The results show that holes (h+) play a predominant role in the RhB oxidation process.


This document describes how to use PCP to retrieve the identity of a
host behind a NAT. Two use cases are discussed and the PCP
applicability is analyzed. This document extends PCP with a new OpCode
called QUERY Opcode. The proposed mechanism is valid for all NAT
flavors including NAT44, NAT64 or NPTv6.


Background: Two-dimensional contrast radiography is the current standard for investigating the vascular anatomy of surgical flaps. The microvascular anatomy of the perforator flap, however, is limited conceptually by representation in two dimensions. Static three-dimensional computed tomographic angiography enables vascular anatomy to be evaluated in the coronal, axial, and sagittal planes, and dynamic four-dimensional computed tomographic angiography allows the vascular filling of a perforator flap to be visualized over short time intervals in three dimensions. Methods: An anatomical study was performed using 11 fresh adult cadavers acquired through the Willed Body Program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas, Texas. Four male and seven female cadavers were included in the study. Perforator flaps harvested included the following: anterolateral thigh, deep inferior epigastric perforator, superior gluteal artery perforator, inferior gluteal artery perforator, thoracodorsal artery perforator, anteromedial thigh, and dorsal intercostal artery perforator. Conclusions: Novel techniques for acquiring both static and dynamic three-dimensional images of macrovascular and microvascular perforator flap anatomy using computed tomographic angiography have been described. This methodology has also allowed the sequential investigation of adjacent vascular territories. This can provide a better understanding of how perforator flaps and the skin are perfused and may aid in the future design of new flaps.


The capability of exploiting the electronic charge and spin properties simultaneously in a single material has made diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) remarkable in the field of spintronics. We report the designing of DMS based on zinc-blend ZnO doped with Cr impurity. The full potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbital FP-L(APW+lo) method in density functional theory (DFT) has been adapted to carry out these investigations. For treatment of exchange and correlation energy, generalized gradient approximations have been used. Introducing Cr atoms in the matrix of ZnO has induced strong magnetic moment with ferromagnetic ordering at stable ground state. Cr:ZnO was found to favor the short range magnetic interaction that reflect tendency of Cr clustering. The electronic structure of ZnO is strongly influenced in the presence of Cr impurity atoms where impurity bands appear in the band gap. Keywords—ZnO, Density functional theory, Diluted magnetic semiconductors, Ferromagnetic materials, FP-L(APW+lo).


We present a numerical and analytical study of incompressible homogeneous conducting fluids using a helical Fourier representation. We analytically study both small- and large-scale dynamo properties, as well as the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity, in the most general minimal subset of interacting velocity and magnetic fields on a closed Fourier triad. We mainly focus on the dependency of magnetic field growth as a function of the distribution of kinetic and magnetic helicities among the three interacting wavenumbers. By combining direct numerical simulations of the full magnetohydrodynamics equations with the helical Fourier decomposition, we numerically confirm that in the kinematic dynamo regime the system develops a large-scale magnetic helicity with opposite sign compared to the small-scale kinetic helicity, a sort of triad-by-triad α-effect in Fourier space. Concerning the small-scale perturbations, we predict theoretically and confirm numerically that the largest instability is achived for the magnetic component with the same helicity of the flow, in agreement with the Stretch–Twist–Fold mechanism. Vice versa, in the presence of Lorentz feedback on the velocity, we find that the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity is mostly local if magnetic and kinetic helicities have opposite signs, while it is more nonlocal and more intense if they have the same sign, as predicted by the analytical approach. Our analytical and numerical results further demonstrate the potential of the helical Fourier decomposition to elucidate the entangled dynamics of magnetic and kinetic helicities both in fully developed turbulence and in laminar flows.


A new visual servo control system under microscope was introduced based on the research of image-based computer visual control system, including the installation and calibration of camera, deduction of the image Jacobian and the algorithm of controlling and so on. The experiments of motion controlling and positioning showed that one pixel about 2.97μm can be reached easily in single axes under 5× eyepiece and under the same condition a 400μm micro shaft was assembled into a micro-gear with 415μm inner bore. Knowing from the control algorithm, the accuracy of the system is independent on errors in the robot kinematics or the camera calibration. The research results indicate that this method is a full closed-loop visual servo control system with a high reliability and simple control algorithm and it can be used in microassembly system.


Background: For many years, research and practice have noted the impact of the heterogeneous nature of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD also known as language impairment or specific language impairment) on diagnosis and assessment. Recent research suggests the disorder is not restricted to the language domain and against this background, the challenge for the practitioner is to provide accurate assessment and effective therapy. The speech and language therapist (SLT) aims to support the child and their carers to achieve the best outcomes. However, little is known about the experiences of the SLT in the assessment process, in contrast to other childhood disorders, yet their expertise is central in the assessment and diagnosis of children with language disorder. The overall aims of the research were; firstly, to understand the issues in the diagnosis and assessment of children with language impairment and to synthesize the knowledge of SLTs working directly with children in this field; secondly, to investigate whether executive function abilities (i.e. inhibition and prospective memory) may be impaired in children at risk of developing DLD in the preschool period and thirdly, to investigate whether executive function tests correlate with a test of nonword repetition suitable for use with bilingual children. Study 1 aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of speech and language therapists involved in the assessment and diagnosis of children with DLD including the linguistic and nonlinguistic aspects of the disorder. Three focus groups were used to provide a credible and rich description of the experiences of SLTs involved in the assessment of DLD. The analysis of the data showed three main themes relating to the SLTs' experience in assessment and diagnosis of DLD. These themes were the participants' experiences of the barriers to early referral, factors in assessment and the concerns over continued future support. These findings informed the design of Study 2 which compared the inhibition abilities of typically developing preschool children, with monolingual preschool children and bilingual preschool children who had already been referred to specialist language units and were therefore classed as "at risk" of developing DLD. Three inhibition tasks were used (motor inhibition, verbal inhibition and self-control) along with a prospective memory task and a nonword repetition test. The results indicated that children deemed "at risk" of DLD performed significantly worse than typically developing children on all tasks. Correlational analysis revealed significant relationships between the nonword repetition test and inhibition in the typically developing group but different relationships were seen in the "at risk" groups. For the monolingual at risk group the association was with nonword repetition and verbal


This study aims to improve the people development pillar in the World Class Manufacturing (WCM) area and was developed during an internship in the CNH Industrial company. The focus was on the analysis of the tools and performance indicators used in the pillar to identify the current gaps and create a global system to eliminate them, standardize the processes and improve the results in all the plants worldwide.The method utilized was the analysis of the current structure of the competence model, radar chart and trainings inside the company, comparison with the literature and discussions with members of the area. After that, it was defined a set of requirements that a people development global system should have to support the area and cover the identified gaps, and, together with the information technology area, it was developed the system.The main points considered were the competence model, focus of the author internship activity (create a well-defined set of competences and its description), the radar chart and the trainings. Regarding the radar chart, the objective was to guarantee the correct input of data in this instrument utilized to identify the differences between the competence actual knowledge level and its target. For the trainings, the focus was on improving the organization of the lessons organized with the objective to eliminate the gaps between the actual and target knowledge gaps. The system was developed focusing on generating outputs to improve the performance indicators of the area, and in having a visual representation of the data. To guarantee the correct implementation of the system worldwide, an action plan was developed including the main activities to teach the workers the system functionalities and reduce the human and system risks.


We present an experimental and computational investigation of mixing of a viscoelastic fluid in two-dimensional time-periodic flows generated in an eccentric cylindrical geometry. The objective of the study is to investigate the impact of fluid elasticity on the morphological structures produced by the advection of passive tracers in chaotic flows. The relevant dimensionless numbers that quantify the rheological differences with respect to the Newtonian fluid are the Deborah number (De), defined as the ratio of the fluid timescale to the flow timescale, and the Weissenberg number (We), defined as the product of the fluid timescale and the mean shear rate. The effects of elasticity are investigated in the limit of slow flows, De ≈ 0 and We < 0.1. The experimental window of We is limited to Newtonian behaviour on the low end and the transition to three-dimensional flow on the high end; experiments show that this window is small, 0.02 < We < 0.1. Typical values of the Reynolds number and the Strouhal number are O(0.001) and O(0.1), respectively. Results from experiments with a constant-viscosity elastic fluid and computations using the upper-convected Maxwell constitutive equation are presented. Even though the streamlines for the elastic flow are nearly indistinguishable from the Newtonian flow, small deviations in the velocity field produce large effects on chaotically advected patterns. Elasticity affects both the asymptotic coverage of a dyed passive tracer and the rate at which the tracer is stretched. In all cases the tracer undergoes exponential stretching, but on a longer timescale as the elasticity increases. According to flow conditions, elasticity might increase or decrease the degree of regularity; however, island symmetry does not seem to be affected. Similar phenomena are observed in both the experiments and computations; therefore, an analysis of the chaotic dynamics of the periodic flow using numerical techniques is possible.


Yanbu Industrial City (YIC) is known as a new, modern, and heavy industrial urbanization. For that reason the need for new urban water sustainability is probably more evident than in other cities. YIC has been a utility island, self- contained and unconnected to any regional power or water systems. Water sustainability has become a top policy discussion to maintain or enhance all natural and urban elements' growth without compromising the future. YIC where urban areas, their economies and industries are expected to grow rapidly over the next few decades and where natural resource use and environmental quality are already raising grave concerns. Fortunately, Royal Commission Leaders have responded to the challenge by making urban water sustainability development a high priority. The Royal Commission at Yanbu has addressed and overcome many challenges to balance the never ending water sustainability by implementing the integration of all aspects of infrastructure work including: water desalination and distribution, seawater cooling, wastewater treatment industrial sewer), reclaimed water network (fire fighting), sanitary wastewater treatment, irrigation water network and environmental monitoring programs which include ambient monitoring which helps to ensure industries' compliance with environmental regulations and standards, and provides baseline data for use in trend predictions and planning strategies. In addition to ambient monitoring which covers meteorology; air, ground-water, seawater quality; marine and terrestrial ecosystems. YIC's goal of urban water sustainability is to "meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."


Abstract Artificial ventilation is a cornerstone of basic life support-cardiopulmonary resuscitation (BLS-CPR). Recent data corroborate clinical studies performed in the 1950s and 1960s, suggesting a need to change the present American Heart Association standards for artificial ventilation. These studies show that gastric insufflation followed by regurgitation and pulmonary aspiration are a major hazard of artificial ventilation with an unprotected airway. Present BLS-CPR standards require that ventilation be performed rapidly between external chest compressions or with incremental breaths. These methods of ventilation predispose the victim to gastric insufflation. Alternative methods of ventilation with longer inspiratory time and thus lower flow rate and peak inspiratory pressure are suggested. Additionally, rescue personnel, particularly EMTs and paramedics, should be taught how to apply cricoid pressure to prevent gastric insufflation in victims with an unprotected airway.


A new laboratory test for evaluating the tracking and erosion performance of HV outdoor polymeric insulating materials is described. The materials evaluated include various formulations of HTV (high temperature vulcanized) silicone rubber and polyolefin polymers. The test is based on combining some features of the ASTM D2132 DF (dust and fog) test and the ASTM D2303 IP (inclined plane) test. The new test employs IP test geometry, IP test equipment, and IP specimen plaques. The plaque is coated with a mixture of clay and salt similar to the contaminant of the DF test and identical to the contaminant used in the IEC clean fog test to rate ceramic insulators for use in contaminated environments. A liquid contaminant with a conductivity similar to that of the DF test is applied to the test specimen in the same way as in the IP test. Data collected from the field on the maximum concentration of insoluble and soluble ionic materials on surfaces of contaminated insulators which have been for 21 years in contaminated regions, provide a basis for choosing the minimum concentration of the solid contaminant to apply to the specimens. This choice also serves to define, at least tentatively, the geographical area where the results of this test have significance. It is expected that this test could be used also for screening materials and obtaining a relative ranking of the tracking and erosion resistance of various materials. Measurements of the leakage current via a computerized data acquisition system, and the discharge activity with a high speed camera were performed, and have resulted in a better understanding of the onset of material degradation.


ABSTRACT Salmonella enterica is an animal and zoonotic pathogen of worldwide importance and may be classified into serovars differing in virulence and host range. We sequenced and annotated the genomes of serovar Typhimurium, Choleraesuis, Dublin, and Gallinarum strains of defined virulence in each of three food-producing animal hosts. This provides valuable measures of intraserovar diversity and opportunities to formally link genotypes to phenotypes in target animals.


The author sketches the development of the relationship between art and aesthetics in the recent past. As his starting point, he takes the position that artists established in the sixties in relation to philosophical aesthetics. In his view 1980 represented a historical threshold as concerns transformations both in art and its philosophy. He then discusses three theories of art and aesthetics – Nicolas Bourriaud's "relational aesthetics" from the nineties, Jacques Rancière's aesthetic project from the following decade, and the very recent "theory of contemporary art" developed by Terry Smith. In author's opinion, these three aesthetic or art theories not only disprove the pervasive opinion that contemporary aesthetics understood as philosophy of art is once more separated from contemporary art and the art world, but also manifest their factual import and impact in contemporary discussions on art.


The objective of this paper is self-supervised learning of video object segmentation. We develop a unified framework which simultaneously models cross-frame dense correspondence for locally discriminative feature learning and embeds object-level context for target-mask decoding. As a result, it is able to directly learn to perform mask-guided sequential segmentation from unlabeled videos, in contrast to previous efforts usually relying on an oblique solution - cheaply "copying" labels according to pixel-wise correlations. Concretely, our algorithm alternates between i) clustering video pixels for creating pseudo segmentation labels ex nihilo; and ii) utilizing the pseudo labels to learn mask encoding and decoding for VOS. Unsupervised correspondence learning is further incorporated into this self-taught, mask embedding scheme, so as to ensure the generic nature of the learnt representation and avoid cluster degeneracy. Our algorithm sets state-of-the-arts on two standard benchmarks (i.e., DAVIS17 and YouTube-VOS), narrowing the gap between self- and fully-supervised VOS, in terms of both performance and network architecture design.


Experimental investigations carried out on a single-cylinder four-stroke motorcycle spark ignition engine operating on gasoline and natural gas are reported in the present paper when compressed natural gas (CNG) and hydrogen were used as fuel. The investigations were carried out by mixing a small percentage of hydrogen (5 to 30%) with CNG and supplied to the engine. Hydrogen and CNG were mixed in a developed mixer and supplied through the inlet manifold system. Performance and emission tests carried on the engine with this system showed a considerable improvement in power output and in thermal efficiency as well as reduction in brake specific energy consumption (BSEC), hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. Power loss associated with CNG utilization had improved with the addition of hydrogen fuel (20-30%) was observed. The combustion analysis was carried out for different rates of hydrogen addition. The rapid rate of burning of CNG-air mixture with the addition of hydrogen showed higher energy release rate, leading to higher cylinder pressures. Hydrogen blended with CNG enabled leaner operation and showed an improvement in BMEP and environmental benefit.

 Key words: Hydrogen, CNG, CO emissions, spark engine, fuel mixer


The study of an ancient Egyptian mummified head with a prosthetic nose in the Anthropological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, raised historical, cultural and medical questions. The cultural and legal implications of a missing nose is discussed from several points of view in various cultures. The article deals with the significance of the nose in ancient Egypt and elsewhere, the possible reasons of its lack, the history of rhinoplasty and reconstructive surgery concerning the nose and the prosthesis. Cases from ancient Egypt explained in the Smith papyrus (cases 11.-14.), in India described in the Susrata Samhita and later, and in Europe from the Middle Ages to modern history are reviewed


ABSTRACT We report on the fabrication of AqpZ immobilized flat sheet membranes. The effects of interfacial polymerization conditions as well as proteoliposome concentration were evaluated. Commercial AqpZ were used as positive control for cloned AqpZ. Specific permeate flux of membranes at higher proteoliposome concentrations increased up to 25 times higher than thin film composite membranes; however; MgSO4 rejection is lowered almost to 1.5%. FTIR and SEM confirm immobilization of proteoliposomes. Thermal analysis showed that increasing proteoliposome concentration has no positive effect on the incorporation of proteoliposomes into polyamide structures. On the contrary, at lower proteoliposome concentrations, incorporation of proteoliposomes was found better. When combined membrane performances were compared in terms of specific permeate flux; MgSO4 and humic rejection and flux recovery after humic acid filtration, the performance of cloned AqpZ incorporated membranes (having 0.1 mg/mL proteoliposome concentration and polyamide formed with 2 min piperazine reaction time) improved 1.7 times regarding TFC membranes. According to the results, increasing proteoliposome concentration did not improve nanofiltration membrane performance. On the contrary, lower proteoliposome concentrations were found to be more effective in increasing membrane performance. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


. This paper describes the development of a general-purpose automatic speech recognition system for Lithuanian. The system is capable of performing both the transcription of user submitted audio recordings and real-time speech-to- text conversion. The comparative evaluation results prove that the presented system outperforms all other ASR systems for the Lithuanian language. The system also includes number and date normalization and is paired with an automatic punctuation restoration model that achieves state-of-the-art results for the Lithuanian lan- guage. Importantly, the system is publicly available to any Lithuanian speaker for testing via its web-page and mobile application.