The effect of a falling plasma glucose concentration, from one hyperglycemic to another lower, yet still hyperglycemic, level, on the release of counterregulatory hormones was examined in nine diabetic subjects. The fasting plasma glucose concentration (201 ± 22 mg/dl) was lowered at the rate of 2.3 ± 0.3 mg/min with an exogenous insulin infusion and maintained between 100 and 110 mg/dl for an additional 60 min employing the glucose clamp technique. During the phase of rapidly falling glucose concentration, or shortly thereafter while the plasma glucose was being maintained at or above 100 mg/dl, eight of nine diabetics released growth hormone, five of nine released cortisol, six of nine released epinephrine, and five of nine released norepinephrine. No subject demonstrated any increase in plasma glucagon. One subject experienced a frank hypoglycemic reaction when her plasma glucose concentration had decreased to 149 mg/dl. In contrast, control subjects did not demonstrate the release of any counterregulatory hormones despite a similar rate of decline in plasma glucose concentration. These results indicate that diabetic subjects with fasting hyperglycemia have an upward resetting of the glucostat at which counterregulatory hormones are released and provide direct support for the clinical observation of hypoglycemic reactions in some diabetics with "normal" or high plasma glucose concentrations.


It is a decade since the last review article on otolaryngology in this Journal. In that time there have been significant advances in the practice of an ever-changing specialty which originally started off as a surgical specialty designed to drain abscesses from the bony boxes in the head, namely the mastoids and the sinuses. It is impossible, in an article like this, to do anything other than superficially indicate the changes but a list of further reading is given for each section.


By means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) the structure of chemically ordered regions in Zr-doped Pb(Mg1∕3Ta2∕3)O3 has been studied. Large coherent ordered domains were obtained by the addition of 5mol%PbZrO3. The results obtained by conventional, analytical, and high-resolution TEM are consistent with the random-site description of the B-site order, the so-called random-layer model. Image simulations showed that a careful selection of the imaging conditions for high resolution transmission electron microscopy is necessary in order to determine the different B-site occupancies. By comparison of simulated with experimental images it was possible to directly distinguish between the different ordering models.


The COVID-19 pandemic has increased adoption of remote assessments in clinical research. However, longstanding stereotypes persist regarding older adults' technology familiarity and their willingness to participate in technology-enabled remote studies. We examined the validity of these stereotypes using a novel technology familiarity assessment (n = 342) and with a critical evaluation of participation factors from an intensive smartphone study of cognition in older adults (n = 445). The technology assessment revealed that older age was strongly associated with less technology familiarity, less frequent engagement with technology, and higher difficulty ratings. Despite this, the majority (86.5%) of older adults elected to participate in the smartphone study and showed exceptional adherence (85.7%). Furthermore, among those enrolled, neither technology familiarity, knowledge, perceived difficulty, nor gender, race, or education were associated with adherence. These results suggest that while older adults remain significantly less familiar with technology than younger generations, with thoughtful study planning that emphasizes participant support and user-centered design, they are willing and capable participants in technology-enabled studies. And once enrolled, they are remarkably adherent.


Contrary to Samuel Williston's description of the ALI's formal restatement of contract law as merely presenting the law "as it is, not as a new law," the doctrine of promissory estoppel set forth in Section 90 thereof does not represent an ancient principle of contract law. Rather, it constitutes a relatively recent and largely artificial innovation by Williston and his colleague Arthur Corbin. To overcome potential objections to such novelty, Williston and Corbin advocated for their new doctrine on the basis of specific claims of historical authority therefor. In particular, they asserted that promissory estoppel was doctrinally and philosophically consonant with the origins of English contract law during the Middle Ages. Those claims are not well-founded.Specifically, Williston, Corbin and other proponents of promissory estoppel have focused on the fact that during the period from roughly 1350 to 1600 litigants and courts incrementally turned for the enforcement of contract to the tort writ of trespass on the case sounding in assumpsit in substitution for the use of well-established, preexisting contractual writs. Yet these proponents of promissory estoppel have ignored the underlying reasons for, and limitations of, that historical development. Contrary to their implication, there occurred no fundamental doctrinal rejection of preexisting contract law, to which the doctrine of promissory estoppel would have been wholly alien. Rather, this circumvention of the preexisting contractual writs by means of assumpsit came to pass as the direct result of specific jurisdictional and procedural limitations that had hobbled the use of those contractual writs.Moreover, and critically, both prior to and during the period of this creative extension of assumpsit the fundamental principle of reciprocity in contract was repeatedly asserted by the courts and commentators. The major extension of assumpsit in the mid-1500s into the realm of the principal preexisting contractual writ for informal contracts, debt upon contract, was temporally coupled with and limited by this principle, which came to be expressed as the doctrine of consideration. Promissory estoppel, which rejects at its core the principle of reciprocity in contract, is antithetical to this history.


(Abstract) The recent development of the impulse/summation approach for efficient B-spline computation in the discrete domain should increase the use of B-splines in many applications. Because we show here how the impulse/summation approach can also be used for constructing polynomials, the approach with a search table approach for the inverse square root operation allows an efficient shading algorithm for rendering an image in a computer graphics system. The approach reduces the number of multiplies and makes it possible for the entire rendering process to be implemented using an integer processor. In many applications, Chebyshev approximation with polynomials and splines is useful in representing a stream of data or a function. Because the impulse/summation approach is developed for discrete systems, some aspects of traditional continuous approximation are not applicable. For example, the lack of the continuity concept in the discrete domain affects the definition of the local extrema of a function. Thus, the method of finding the extrema must be changed. Both forward differences and backward differences must be checked to find extrema instead of using the first derivative in the continuous domain approximation. Polynomial Chebyshev approximation in the discrete domain, just as in the continuous domain, forms a Chebyshev system. Therefore, the Chebyshev approximation process always produces a unique best approximation. Because of the non-linearity of free knot polynomial spline systems, there may be more than one best solution and the convexity of the solution space cannot be guaranteed. Thus, a Reméz Exchange Algorithm may not produce an optimal approximation. However, we show that the discrete polynomial splines approximate a function using a smaller number of parameters (for a similar minimax error) than the discrete polynomials do. Also, the discrete polynomial spline requires much less computation and hardware than the discrete polynomial for curve generation when we use the impulse/summation approach. This is demonstrated using two approximated FIR filter implementations. iii Dedication This disseration is dedicated to my late mother, Young Ryun Choi. iv Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Leonard A. Ferrari, for his guidance at each stage of this work, financial support through the years and thorough editing of the manuscript. In many ways, I am indebted to him. I would also like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee, Professor A. VanLandingham, for their valuable comments and suggestions. I am indebted to Dr. Dal Y. Ohm, who gave me job to pass …


Photon emission intensities of radionuclides, i.e. the number of emitted photons per decay, are the single most important decay data when the photon spectrometry technique is employed in ionizing radiation metrology. However, their precise measurement is problematic because they are usually determined by photon spectrometry with spectrometers having a detection efficiency calibrated with x-ray and γ-ray emission intensities from other radionuclides. Therefore, these intensities are ultimately interdependent and correlated to some extent. A novel method was applied to determine the photon intensities of α-emitting radionuclides by measuring the ratio between the rate of photons in the full energy peaks and the rate of detected α-particles with the same detection set-up. Thus, there is no need to calibrate the detection efficiency and to standardize calibration sources by primary methods. The main condition to reach low uncertainties is to have a spectrometer with an intrinsic detection efficiency close to unity for the measured photons and α-particles. This condition was fulfilled by a metallic magnetic calorimeter (MMC) with an intrinsic efficiency of around 99% between 5 keV and 25 keV. In addition, the MMC provides an ultra-high energy resolution of 28 eV (full width at half maximum), facilitating the processing of the spectrum. The method was applied to determine L x-ray emission intensities from the decay of 241Am(α) → 237Np emitted between 11.9 keV and 22.4 keV. A total L x-ray emission intensity of 37.90 (12) per 100 disintegrations was obtained; the value agrees well with previous measurements and has a lower uncertainty. The uncertainties of the L x-ray groups Lα, Lηβ and Lγ were improved by a factor of two. Moreover, due to the high-energy resolution of 28 eV, a detailed set of 33 L x-ray emission intensities are provided.


The University of Queensland's (UQ) Geothermal Centre (QGECE) has developed an innovative new cooling tower technology to reduce water consumption and the cost of generating electricity in regional Australia. Remote Australian communities need cost effective small scale power generation options [1, 2]. Small scale thermal power plants (1-10 MW) using renewable sources (geothermal, biomass and solar thermal) could meet this need [2], and these technologies require cooling towers that work efficiently at small scale without consuming excessive amounts of water. The QGECE has developed a polymer-steel cooling tower that has a flexible design allowing operation across the range of dry, wet, and hybrid cooling modes. This tower has a modular construction that is easily deployable to remote sites and dramatically cheaper than concrete cooling towers, particularly at small scales. The demonstration unit, built at the UQ Gatton Campus is large enough to contribute to the efficient supply of power for up to 1000 people. The QGECE hybrid cooling tower at Gatton is a world first research facility with profound implications for power generation.


Zinsser's Microbiology has a long and venerable history; I am sure that many physicians reading this review learned their basic microbiology from this textbook. The present edition is the 15th and is intended primarily for medical students working within the framework of a modern core curriculum. I found the overall quality of the book uneven. Many of the sections are extremely illuminating and informative and can stand by themselves as definitive references. Unfortunately, there are other sections that contain information not consonant with most modern thought and that may mislead the student. At particular fault in these sections are the areas dealing with the application of basic microbiological information to the clinical situation. For example, the following statements appear: "The streptococci are important in rheumatic fever and rheumatoid arthritis, but the exact mechanism by which they produce these diseases in man has not been established" (p 377); "If allergy to


Silicon carbide Double-Implanted Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (DIMOSFETs) were fabricated on 4H-SiC (000-1) carbon face. The DIMOSFETs were characterized from room temperature to 250°C. At room temperature, they showed a specific on-resistance of 4.9 mΩcm2 at a gate bias of 20 V and a drain voltage of 1.0 V. The specific on-resistance taken at a drain current (Id) of 260 A/cm2 was 5.0 mΩcm2. The blocking voltage of this device was higher than 1360 V at room temperature. At 250°C, the specific on-resistance increased from 5.0 mΩcm2 to 12.5 mΩcm2 and the threshold voltage determined at Id = 26 mA/cm2 decreased from 5.5 V to 4.3 V.


The aim of this study was to contribute to the teaching of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in high schools. The study was done from the research knowledge about STDs of 61 students from two schools of Rio Claro SP, Brazil: A state and a private school, through a questionnaire (pre-test) and an interview with two biology professors, and each one from each school. The results indicated that, in general, the students in the private school had more knowledge about the subject. The public school students showed more problems with knowledge about the symptoms of STDs. In those two schools, the knowledge on the subject proved to be generic and superficial. According to the biology teachers, both of them teach about the content, and the teaching material contains themes of sexuality and STDs. From these results, an intervention was developed with students, using methods such as group dynamics and lecture dialogued lessons. After the intervention, there was an increase in the percentage of correct answers for the students of both schools (post-test) which shows that it was effective. We conclude that this work has achieved the objective of clarifying the theme to the students, but lack the schools a better dialogue with them for the planning of this content, since, although it is foreseen the your teaching, you're not going on an apprenticeship.


Wear analysis of total joint replacements is an important means in determining failure mechanisms and improving longevity of these devices. In developing such joints the industry standard wear measurement methodology is to use gravimetric methods only. This method can introduce significant errors to the wear measurement when there is material transfer from the metal component to the plastic component or when trying to consider the effects of fluid uptake into the ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) counterface. It is also impossible to accurately measure a cemented component throughout a test by using purely gravimetric means for similar reasons. Consequently there is a need for an alternative measurement method that accounts for this factor. The purpose of the present study is to establish the effectiveness of the CMM technique for assessing volumetric material loss during simulated life testing of a replacement knee joint. In this study a standard design total knee replacement joint was chosen and samples were tested in a knee simulator to simulate 5 years worth of wear from walking. At the start of the test the bearing surface was scanned and digitised into CAD data, by use of a CMM, to use as a baseline comparator. Further measurements were then taken at various points throughout the test and compared with simultaneously taken gravimetric data. The implications of the results are discussed here in terms of assessment of joint functionality and development of standardised CMM based product standards.


Mutation rates of microsatellites vary greatly among loci. The causes of this heterogeneity remain largely enigmatic yet are crucial for understanding numerous human neurological diseases and genetic instability in cancer. In this first genome-wide study, the relative contributions of intrinsic features and regional genomic factors to the variation in mutability among orthologous human-chimpanzee microsatellites are investigated with resampling and regression techniques. As a result, we uncover the intricacies of microsatellite mutagenesis as follows. First, intrinsic features (repeat number, length, and motif size), which all influence the probability and rate of slippage, are the strongest predictors of mutability. Second, mutability increases nonuniformly with length, suggesting that processes additional to slippage, such as faulty repair, contribute to mutations. Third, mutability varies among microsatellites with different motif composition likely due to dissimilarities in secondary DNA structure formed by their slippage intermediates. Fourth, mutability of mononucleotide microsatellites is impacted by their location on sex chromosomes vs. autosomes and inside vs. outside of Alu repeats, the former confirming the importance of replication and the latter suggesting a role for gene conversion. Fifth, transcription status and location in a particular isochore do not influence microsatellite mutability. Sixth, compared with intrinsic features, regional genomic factors have only minor effects. Finally, our regression models explain approximately 90% of variation in microsatellite mutability and can generate useful predictions for the studies of human diseases, forensics, and conservation genetics.


Discussion | Our findings demonstrate that use of episiotomy declined over time, possibly reflecting adoption of recommendations. The analysis demonstrated substantial between-hospital variation in episiotomy not accounted for by demographic, obstetric, and hospital characteristics. In addition, demographic and hospital factors, such as insurance, race, rurality, and hospital teaching status, were associated with the episiotomy rate. These observations suggest nonmedical factors are related to use of episiotomy. Even though our study benefits from the inclusion of a large sample, we recognize important limitations. Claims data are used primarily for billing purposes, and so there is the possibility episiotomy use was not captured in a small number of patients. Second, hospitals included in the analysis may not be representative of all hospitals in the United States. Third, some demographic variables such as nulliparity may be undercoded. Fourth, confounding by unmeasured medical risk factors is possible. Further strategies are needed to enhance adherence to evidence-based recommendations.


Achieving optimal behavior requires animals to flexibly retrieve prior knowledge. Here, we show that adult newborn granule cells (anbGCs) mediate emotional state–dependent adaptability of memory retrieval. We find that acute social reward (aSR) enhances memory retrieval by increasing the reactivation of engram cells, while acute social stress (aSS) weakens retrieval and reduces the reactivation. Such bidirectional regulation relies on the activation of distinct populations of anbGCs by aSR and aSS, triggering opposing modifications of dDG activity, which is sufficient to regulate and predict the performance of memory retrieval. Concordantly, in emotional disorder models, aSR-dependent memory adaptability is impaired, while the effect of aSS remains intact. Together, our data revealed that anbGCs mediate adaptability of memory retrieval, allowing animals to flexibly retrieve memory according to the current emotional state, and suggested the essential roles of anbGCs in translating emotional information to the regulation of memory expression.


Objective: To determine the demographic, environmental and behavioral factors leading to diarrhea in children up to 2 years of age.Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional study.Place and Duration of Study: Children out patient department of a tertiary care hospital in Rawalpindi city, from Feb 2016 to Jul 2016.Material and Methods: Two hundred and sixty four children who had diarrhea in last two weeks were included using non-probability consecutive sampling. A structured pilot tested questionnaire was used to interview mothers of the respective children after informed consent. Questionnaire was designed to collect information regarding various demographic, environmental and behavioral characteristics. Statistical Package for SocialSciences (SPSS) version 20 was used for data entry and analysis. A p-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant, after applying Chi Square test.Results: Mean age of the participants' mothers was 31.53 ± 6.58 years. Mean age of the children was 10.29 ± 4.24 months with highest number of children, 169 (64%) in age group 7-11 months. Males children were 152 (57.6%) and females were 112 (42.4%). Among them only 40 (15.2%) children were exclusively breast fed for six months. Most common combination was breast milk and cow's milk 97 (36.7%). Feeding bottle was used by 252 (95.6%) mothers. Hand washing with soap after toilet use was practiced by 158 (58.9%) mothers, before preparing food by 180 (68.2%) mothers and before feeding child by 156 (59.1%) mothers. As per Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) schedule only 166 (70.8%) of the total 235 eligible children were vaccinated against measles.There was statistically significant difference between mothers' education and exclusive breast feeding and hand washing practices (p=0.001).Conclusion: The study showed that diarrhea was most commonly found in children in age group 7-11 months, i.e. at the time of weaning. Water boiling for domestic and cooking purpose was not practiced by most mothers. Mostof the children in the study sample were not exclusively breast fed. Similarly children were mostly bottle fed and bottle was not washed and boiled before use. Vaccination for measles was not achieved by all participant children as per EPI schedule


Abstract Carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) cannot be definitively identified without laboratory spectra. Several techniques, including matrix isolation, cavity ringdown spectroscopy, resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization, and ion trapping, have been used to measure the electronic spectra of carbon chains and their derivatives. The gas-phase laboratory spectra could then be compared to the astronomical data of known DIBs. The choice of molecules studied in the gas phase depends on the presence of strong electronic transitions at optical wavelengths, the lifetimes of excited electronic states, and chemical feasibility in diffuse astrophysical environments. Collisional-radiative rate models have also be used in conjunction with laboratory spectra to predict absorption profiles under interstellar conditions.


This review aims to provide overall aspects of the history, biology, chemistry and the total synthesis of Aflavinines. The origin of this molecule traced back from the isolation and structural elucidation by Clardy and co-workers in 1980 [Tetrahed. Lett. 1980;21:243246]. Most of the previously published total syntheses were covered in a brief summary and the key points of each work are highlighted. Moreover, various antiinsectant and antiviral Aflavinines congener are presented. This review is almost the first in Aflavinine topics covering all aspects in brief, to the best of our knowledge.


Existing knowledge distillation methods focus on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), where the input samples like images lie in a grid domain, and have largely overlooked graph convolutional networks (GCN) that handle non-grid data. In this paper, we propose to our best knowledge the first dedicated approach to distilling knowledge from a pre-trained GCN model. To enable the knowledge transfer from the teacher GCN to the student, we propose a local structure preserving module that explicitly accounts for the topological semantics of the teacher. In this module, the local structure information from both the teacher and the student are extracted as distributions, and hence minimizing the distance between these distributions enables topology-aware knowledge transfer from the teacher, yielding a compact yet high-performance student model. Moreover, the proposed approach is readily extendable to dynamic graph models, where the input graphs for the teacher and the student may differ. We evaluate the proposed method on two different datasets using GCN models of different architectures, and demonstrate that our method achieves the state-of-the-art knowledge distillation performance for GCN models.


New polymeric phthalocyanine moieties (M = 2H, Zn, Ni, Cu, and Co) were synthesized via polytetracyclomerization reaction of o-bis[3-(3,4-dicyanophenoxy)propyloxy]benzene (3), which can be obtained by the reaction of 4-nitrophthalonitrile with o-bis[(3-hydroxypropyl)oxy]benzene. Aggregation and disaggregation behavior of the polymeric phthalocyanine (5) was studied with some alkali and earth alkali metal cations. Measured intrinsic viscosities of the polymeric phthalocyanines exhibited a substantial decreasing tendency with dilution of the solution. Thermogravimetric analysis was performed under air by using DSC and DTG/TGA techniques and indicated that these polymers have good thermal stability. AC and DC electrical conductivities of the polymeric phthalocyanines were investigated in the frequency range 100 Hz--1 MHz within the temperature range 298--343 K. AC/DC conductivities of the samples were found to be between 10-5 and 10-7 S cm-1 at ambient temperature under argon atmosphere. The structures of new synthesized compounds were characterized by using microanalysis; various spectroscopic methods such as UV-Vis, FT-IR, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR spectroscopy; and MS spectra.


presents a text which has been largely rewritten and considerably enlarged. In particular the chapters on the geographical approach, and on the proto-historic era, particularly of the Indus valley and Baluchistan, deserve mention, together with an important essay upon the correlation of archaeology and tradition (Appendix I) which carries the author up to the problems of synthesizing the archaeology of the early historic period with textual and other traditions. Professor Subbarao's terminological framework for Indian prehistory is clearly gaining ground and appears to coincide well with the considerable new material which has come to light in recent years. I should like to express my support. The value of this book for the student, who wishes to keep abreast of the many new developments in the field and to learn how each new discovery may be fitted into our rapidly expanding picture of India's past, is obvious. We hope that when, as he no doubt must, Professor Subbarao prepares a third edition, it may not only include notice of new researches, but also provide us with an equally profound advance in the interpretation of all he has seen. For, as I said in my earlier notice, it is only when the archaeologist can show us the steps by which his dry ' cultures ' lead us into the living civilization of India, that he can succeed in catching hold of the imagination of the reading public and in justifying his labours in their eyes.


The Oil & Gas industry and environmental agencies around the world are working to find solutions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A comprehensive study by the US EPA found that emissions from compressor stations, blow down and purge, accounted for 97.7 Bscf or just over 31% of the total methane emissions attributed to the Natural Gas industry. [1] With methane (CH4) having 25 times the impact on global warming compared to carbon dioxide (CO2), and global legislation like the Regulations Respecting Reduction in the Release of Methane and Certain Volatile Organic Compounds Upstream Oil and Gas Sector (or also called Canadian Methane Rule) and regional methane reduction regulations, developing solutions to further mitigate methane emissions from process gas vents and centrifugal gas compressor seals becomes necessary as the industry moves towards near-zero targets.
 This paper addresses the design requirements and selection of a process gas vent recapture system and primary dry seal vent recapture system. In addition, this paper will review the design consideration during the design phase to the data collected during site operation.


This paper describes a multi-agent approach to the integration of product design, manufacturability analysis, process planning, and assembly in a distributed manner. The objective is to develop a distributed concurrent engineering system to allow geographically dispersed entities to work cooperatively towards overall system goals. The proposed model considers constraints and requirements from the different product development cycles in the early development phases and fully supports the concept of design-for-manufacturability. This methodology uses conflict resolution (CR) techniques and design-improvement suggestions to refine the initial product design. The model comprises six service agents, a console agent and a facilitator agent. Each service agent is used to model different product development phases, and the console agent acts as an interacting interface between designers and the system, while the facilitator is responsible for the decomposition and dispatch of tasks, and solving conflicts of poor designs. The implementation methodology provides an effective way of enabling heterogeneous legacy software tools in communicating and coordinating with others over the Web through the use of Java-based agent wrapping techniques.


The decreasing number of students who are engaged in science learning has been recognised as a problem. The pre-conditions of engagement and actual engagement were examined using a novel research method to obtain detailed information on Finnish students' engagement in different situations and to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon. The study's participants consisted of 68 students (31 girls, 37 boys) from 9th grade and 67 students (46 girls, 21 boys) from 1st grade in upper secondary school. The research aimed to answer the following question: How does Finnish students' engagement occur in exact and life science lessons? Participants received smartphones equipped with a smartphone application that included an experience sampling method questionnaire. The smartphones were programmed to emit a signal during every science lesson and otherwise randomly during the day (from 8 am to 8 pm). The results reveal that situation and grade had significant effects on students' pre-conditions of engagement and actual engagement. Our results also show that girls had the highest interest in life science lessons and boys in exact science lessons.


Concentrated preparations of staphylococcal delta-hemolysin were obtained by growing selected hemolytic colonies from the 146P strain of Staphylococcus aureus on dialysis membranes laid over Brain Liver Heart agar plates at 37 C for 20 hr under 10% CO(2) and harvesting the growth from five such membranes in 1.0 ml of deionized distilled water. Incubation in a humid environment facilitated this harvesting procedure. Incubation longer than 40 hr or incubation under CO(2) higher than 10 to 20% gave lower yields of delta-lysin. Addition of a sugar, fermented by the organisms, resulted in lower yields of delta-hemolysin. Agar, although separated from the growing cells by the dialysis membrane, did potentiate delta-hemolysin production. Addition of 0.1% agar to the inoculum further enhanced this potentiation. delta-Hemolysin produced in broth or semisolid cultures was excessively diluted with the media. Dialysis membranes prevented this dilution and thus yielded concentrated preparations of delta-hemolysin.


The reaction between [Zn(tu)(4)]Cl-2 and the appropriate sodium dicarboxylate has been shown to give the coordination polymers [Zn(tu)(2)(mu-succinate)](n), (7), [Zn(tu)(2)(mu-itaconate)](n) (8), [Zn(tu)(2)(mu-ethylmalonate)](n) (9), [Zn(tu)(2)(mu-1,3-phenylene-diacetate)], (10) and {[Zn(tu)(2)(mu-mesaconate)].2H(2)O}(n) (11), all of which have been crystallographically characterised. The crystal structures of 7-9 demonstrate that these compounds form helical structures in which the dicarboxylates adopt conformations with the relative positions of the carboxylate groups similar to those in constrained anions such as phthalate. The role of the chloride counterion in the starting material has been explored by investigating the reactions of [Zn(tu)(4)](NO3)(2) with a range of dicarboxylates. Although in the majority of cases the counterion was shown to have no effect, in the case of fumarate, a hydrated coordination polymer {[Zn(tu)(2)(mu-fumarate)].2H(2)O}(n) (12) was observed in addition to the anhydrous product [Zn(tu)(2)(mu-fumarate)](n) (1), which was formed as the sole product from [Zn(tu)(4)]Cl-2. Thermo gravimetric analyses are reported for compounds 1-12. The compounds {[Zn(tu)(2)(mu-isophthalate)].H2O}(n) 3 and 12 lose their included water before 140degreesC, whereas the compounds {[Zn(tu)(2)(mu-maleate).-H2O}(n) 6 and 11 only lose their water molecules at higher temperatures with the onset of decomposition. This difference in behaviour can be related to the structural role of the water molecules. ((C) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2004).


Optimizing the direct-writing of viscoelastic liquids requires an understanding of the governing physics during jet and droplet formation. In this article, we study the effect of the distance between the donor and acceptor surfaces and identify a unique deposition-on-contact regime associated with viscoelasticity. For a given laser pulse energy, depending on the liquid film thickness, rheological properties, and the distance between the liquid film and the acceptor surface, the resulting jet can result in either a rapid deposition of a small volume or the formation of a liquid bridge that delays the breakup of the liquid filament and can result in deposition of multiple droplets. By adjusting the gap distance between the donor and acceptor surfaces, we show that it is possible to obtain single drop depositions via deposition-on-contact from viscoelastic liquids. Using dimensionless parameters, we present criteria that can be used to predict the different regimes observed in the experiments.


Agile methods are currently the dominant way of software development. This thesis presents the main principles of agile software development with emphasis on the method Scrum and some of the group techniques for software estimation. Planning poker is the most often used technique for estimating the size of user stories, but lately Team estimation game has been gaining popularity too, so emphasis was put on these two. An accuracy analysis of user story estimates based on data, collected during a study that was carried out at Software Engineering course in year 2014/15, was performed. Design of the study and the process of collecting the data is described. The data was analysed using appropriate statistical methods and the results were explained in detail. The goal of the thesis was to find out how final estimates obtained through Planning poker differ from the statistical combination of the estimates obtained during the first round of the process and whether there is a statistically important difference between the estimates obtained through Planning poker and those obtained through TEG. Our analysis showed that Planning poker decreased the over-optimism present in the statistical combination of initial estimates. However, the size of effect was very small. Estimates obtained through TEG were even less optimistic than those obtained through Planning poker. Accuracy analysis of estimates showed no statistically significant difference.


This thesis includes reading the chosen artworks as a visual interpretation of the written mythological birth of Venus by the sea. Reading the selected painting as visual novels, the pictorial symbolism helps prove or disprove the true theme of the Venus. The writer bases her theory on the inclusion of mythological symbols that represent the Venus Anadyomene; scallop shell, dolphins, Aros, dove, sparrow, girdle, mirror, myrtle, and roses. The comparison of various artists" interpretations of this theme and the symbols they use to recognize the Venus as such is a substantial part of the research. The writer concludes in this thesis that the chosen art pieces are or are not a Venus Anadyomene, and in fact just a female nude entitled and themed fallaciously for an allure or ambiance. Through extensive research in the mythological symbolism of the Goddess of Love, the above-mentioned symbols used by various artists across several eras prove the Venus a true character of mythological history. Description: Thesis (M.A.) – University of Wisconsin, Superior, 2011. 30 leaves.


Programs that control early lineage fate decisions and transitions from embryonic to adult human cell types during development are poorly understood. Using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), in the present study, we reveal reduction of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling correlates to developmental progression of hematopoiesis throughout human ontogeny. Both chemical- and gene-targeting–mediated inactivation of Hh signaling augmented hematopoietic fate and initiated transitions from embryonic to adult hematopoiesis, as measured by globin regulation in hPSCs. Inhibition of the Hh pathway resulted in truncation of Gli3 to its repressor, Gli3R, and was shown to be necessary and sufficient for initiating this transition. Our results reveal an unprecedented role for Hh signaling in the regulation of adult hematopoietic specification, thereby demonstrating the ability to modulate the default embryonic programs of hPSCs.


Wireless technology has been extensively used in every branch of life relating to internet usage. The AP acts as a central transmitter and receiver of wireless radio signals, which then usually connects to a hub, switch, or router via a wired network. Increasing the number of Wi-Fi access points provides network redundancy, better range, support for fast roaming and increased overall network-capacity by using more channels or by defining smaller cells. It has become so simple that any compatible device can connect to the Internet via a WLAN network and a wireless access point (AP). For that, in enterprise environment Wi-Fi system gets the priority for accessing the Internet. Enterprise environment is necessarily dependent on multiple access points (APs) because there is significant number of users and wide area to be covered efficiently. Often, it happens that a wireless device connected to a particular Access Point (AP) and accessing internet with that network, gets signal from other APs of neighborhood. And it is observed that at some point some neighborhood AP's signal strength is stronger than the signal strength of the AP it is connected to, and the device can get better Internet performance from the neighbor APs than its own Home AP. For this situation, or situation like this, it can be technologically and economically beneficial use any of neighbor networks. So, we developed an algorithm of two parts and created an application with that algorithm to allow the user to use AP from neighborhood with better internet performance. Index Terms — Wi-Fi, Access Point, AP, Signal Strength, Channel, Frequency, Bandwidth, Home, Neighbor, Algorithm, Access, Android Smart Phone, Control, Security, Better Network, Switching, Buffer.


BACKGROUND: This study aimed to examine the association of state and trait anxiety with fear of childbirth to explore whether there was any support for the hypothesis that state and trait anxiety are risk factors for the fear of childbirth or not. METHODS: In this prospective study, 156 pregnant women referred to the health centers of Qom. The study samples selected using simple random sampling method. Anxiety and fear of the childbirth in nulliparous women were measured using Spielberger's state-trait anxiety inventory and childbirth attitudes questionnaire (CAQ) at gestational age of 28 and 38 weeks respectively. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation, t-test, logistic regression and software SPSS16. RESULTS: Pearson correlation test indicated a positive and statistically significant association between fear of childbirth scores and state and trait anxiety (p < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that state and trait anxiety at gestational age of week 28th increased the risk of fear of childbirth (odds ratio [OR] 2.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.69-4.35) (p = 0.03) ([OR] 2.8, 95% [CI] 1.17-6.80) (p = 0.02) respectively. It also indicated that state and trait anxiety increased the risk of fear of childbirth at gestational age of week 38th ([OR] 2.7, 95% [CI] 1.03-6.80) and ([OR] 5.4, 95% [CI] 1.75-16.76) (p = 0.04) (p = 0.003) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results support this possibility that state and trait anxiety could be considered as risk factors for the fear of childbirth. Hence, considering other included biological and medical factors, measurement and control of psychological factors in pregnancy is recommended.


Polymer electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell is an electrochemical device producing electricity by the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen without combustion. PEM fuel cell stack is provided with an appropriate clamping torque to prevent leakage of reactant gases and to minimize the contact resistance between gas diffusion media (GDL) and bipolar plates. GDL porous structure and gas permeability is directly affected by the compaction pressure which, consequently, drastically change the fuel cell performance. Various efforts were made to determine the optimal compaction pressure and pressure distributions through simulations and experimentation. Lower compaction pressure results in increase of contact resistance and also chances of leakage. On the other hand, higher compaction pressure decreases the contact resistance but also narrows down the diffusion path for mass transfer from gas channels to the catalyst layers, consequently, lowering cell performance. The optimal cell performance is related to the gasket thickness and compression pressure on GDL. Every stack has a unique assembly pressure due to differences in fuel cell components material and stack design. Therefore, there is still need to determine the optimal torque value for getting the optimal cell performance. This study has been carried out in continuation of development of Air breathing PEM fuel cell for small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) application. Compaction pressure at minimum contact resistance was determined and clamping torque value was calculated accordingly. Single cell performance tests were performed at five different clamping torque values i.e 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 N m, for achieving optimal cell performance. Clamping pressure distribution tests were also performed at these torque values to verify uniform pressure distribution at optimal torque value. Experimental and theoretical results were compared for making inferences about optimal cell performance. A clamping torque value of 1.5 N m was determined experimentally to be the best for getting optimal performance as well as uniform pressure distribution for this specific fuel cell.


Consumers have increasing, but highly variable, interest in sustainability attributes of food, including ethical aspects, such as animal welfare. We explored market opportunities for animal-friendly cow's milk based on segmentation (cluster) analysis. Flemish survey participants ( n = 787) were clustered ( n = 6) based on their intention to purchase (IP) animal-friendly milk, and their evaluation of cows' welfare state (EV). Three market opportunity segments were derived from clusters and labelled as "high", "moderate" and "limited". Only 8% of the participants belong to the "high market opportunities" segment, characterized by a high IP and a low EV. The "limited" segment (44%) indicated a neutral to low IP and a positive EV. The "moderate" segment (48%) had a moderately positive IP and positive/negative EV. Reported willingness to pay, interest in information about the state of animal welfare and importance of the product attribute "animal welfare" differed among segments and were strongly related to IP. Most promising selling propositions about animal-friendly milk were related to pasture access. The high degree of differentiation within the Flemish milk market reveals market opportunities for animal-friendly milk, but for an effective market share increase supply of animal-friendly products needs to get more aligned with the heterogeneous demand.


An alternative device for the immobilization of the hind limb of the rat was developed to study the effects of chronic disuse on the soleus and tibialis anterior muscles, maintained for 3 weeks in the shortening and the stretching positions, respectively. The proposed device is made of steel mesh and cotton materials, and has some advantages when compared to cast or plaster cast: it is cheaper, lighter (12 g or 4% of the body weight of the rat) and the same unit can be easily adjusted and used several times in the same animal or in animals of similar size. Immobilization is also useful to restrain the movements of the hip, knee, and ankle joints. Male rats (291 +/- 35 g and aged 14 +/- 2 weeks) were used to develop and test the model. The soleus muscle of 18 rats was maintained in a shortened position for 21 consecutive days and lost 19 +/- 7% of its length (P = 0.008) and 44 +/- 6% of its weight (P = 0.002) compared to the contralateral intact muscle. No difference (P = 0.67) was found in the stretched tibialis anterior of the same hind limb when compared to the contralateral muscle. No ulcer, sore or foot swelling was observed in the animals. Immobilization was effective in producing chronic muscle disuse in the hind limbs of rats and is an acceptable alternative to the traditional methods of immobilization such as cast or plaster cast.


BACKGROUND
Occupational blood and body fluid exposures (OBBFEs) are one of the biological risks run by health professionals, especially in hospitals.

OBJECTIVE
The objectives of this study were to assess the occurrence and reporting of occupational blood and body fluid exposures (OBBFEs) in university hospital medical staff and to investigate factors associated to declared OBBFE and factors associated to reported OBBFE.

METHODS
A self-administered questionnaire has been e-mailed to all junior and senior medical staff in four university hospital centers in one administrative region of France in 2017.

RESULTS
292 of the 1,228 respondents declared at least one OBBFE. More than two-thirds (70.2%) were under-reporters and more than half (53.8%) non-reporters. Younger subjects, surgical specialties and other associated work accidents were risk factors for OBBFE. Considering the reporting procedure too complex was a risk factor for underreporting.

CONCLUSIONS
Underreporting by hospital medical staff was a persistent phenomenon, with a high rate. The OBBFE reporting procedure needs rethinking.


Evidence based practice (EBP) is a system of applying the most current and valid high quality evidence to support clinical decision making in a healthcare setting. In the twenty five years since its inception, EBP has become the accepted benchmark for excellence in healthcare. Although the system emerged within the biomedical sciences, in the years since EBP has become normative across all healthcare modalities from dentistry, allied health to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Practicing evidence based medicine within any modality potentially offers the patient the best available care based on high quality evidence. Yet it is the nature of the evidence that provokes some questions about the suitability of EBP across all modalities of healthcare. The meta analysis of randomized controlled trial (RCT) stands at the pinnacle of the hierarchy of evidence in EBP. This forms a challenge to CAM due to the difficulty in reducing the elementals of a holistic naturopathic assessment of a patient into an answerable question to be tested within a RCT. On one level this makes EBP paradigmatically incompatible with CAM, yet on another level it presents the opportunity to redefine the parameters of what is considered high level evidence. EBP has become a tool, and at times a weapon wielded by governments and health insurance companies to direct healthcare funding and policy. The implications of the nature of accepted evidence are becoming far reaching. The pursuit of the best available healthcare for each individual is the focus of EBP. However, the injudicious use of this system to direct health policy is fraught with biomedical bias and dominance. This issue raises the challenge to CAM to present high level evidence according to the rules of evidence, or face the annihilation of centuries of empirical knowledge.


This paper presents optimal hollow sphere shapes in a biaxial hollow slab. To derive optimal hollow shapes, numerical simulations using nonlinear Finite Element Methods were executed by the nonlinear finite element program 'LUSAS'. Recently, various types of slab systems which can reduce self-weight of slabs have been studied as the height and width of building structures rapidly increase. A biaxial hollow slab system is widely known as one of the effective slab system which can reduce self-weight of slab. A biaxial hollow slab has hollow spheres within slab in order to reduce self-weight of slab. Because of reducing self-weight of slab by hollow spheres, size of vertical elements like walls and columns can be smaller and slabs span can be longer. A capacity of biaxial hollow slabs is influenced by the shape and volume of hollow spheres. Therefore, in this study, several biaxial hollow slabs which have different shapes of hollow spheres were analyzed by using the finite element method program in order to derive optimal hollow sphere shapes.


The total surface current velocity (TSCV)—the horizontal vector quantity that advects seawater—is an essential climate variable, with few observations available today. The TSCV can be derived from the phase speed of surface gravity waves, and the estimates of the phase speeds of different wavelengths could give a measure of the vertical shear. Here, we combine 10-m resolution Level-1C of the Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument, acquired with time lags up to 1 s, and numerical simulation of these images. Retrieving the near-surface shear requires a specific attention to waves in opposing directions when estimating a single-phase speed from the phase difference in an image pair. Opposing waves lead to errors in phase speeds that are most frequent for shorter wavelengths. We propose an alternative method using a least squares fit of the current speed and amplitudes of waves in opposing directions to the observed complex amplitudes of a sequence of three images. When applied to Sentinel-2, this method generally provides more noisy estimate of the current. A byproduct of this analysis is the "opposition spectrum" which is a key quantity in the sources of microseisms and microbaroms. For future possible sensors, the retrieval of TSCV and shear can benefit from increased time lags, resolution, and exposure time of acquisition. These findings should allow new investigations of near-surface


Given that the financial cost of shielding PET/CT suites can be substantial, it has become increasingly important to be able to accurately assess the thickness of shielding required for barriers and whether it is necessary to extend such shielding all the way to the ceiling. The overall shielding requirement for a PET/CT installation must take into account both 511 keV gamma ray emissions from PET scans and lower energy x-ray scatter from CT scans. This paper deals with the overall impact of emissions from both modalities. Radiation exposure from both scatter over shielding barriers as well as transmission through these barriers is taken into account. A series of simulations of the dose received by a person positioned behind a shielding barrier in a typical PET/CT scanning suite were carried out using both Monte Carlo and analytical models. The transmission through lead barriers was found to be very dependent on the geometry of the radiation source and the resulting energy spectrum of the emitted radiation. The transmission from a patient source was found to be around half of that from a small vial and also half of that reported previously using parallel beams of mono-energetic radiation. For PET emissions, the dose from scatter over the barrier at waist height is relatively small but may have to be taken into account if the design dose limit is low. Shielding from floor to ceiling is probably not warranted in most instances for PET gamma emissions; in PET/CT installations, however, a thinner layer of shielding may need to extend to the ceiling of the imaging room to limit x-ray scatter over the wall from the CT unit.


Nitrate leaching is a major issue in many cultivated soils. Models that predict the major processes involved at the field scale could be used to test and improve management practices. This study aims to evaluate a simple transfer function approach to predict nitrate leaching in sandy soils. A convective lognormal transfer (CLT) function is convoluted with functional equations simulating N mineralization, plant N uptake, N fertilizer dissolution, and nitrification at the soil surface to predict solute concentrations under potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) fields as a function of drainage water. Using this approach, nitrate flux concentrations measured in drainable lysimeters (1-m soil depth) were reasonably predicted from 29 Apr. 1996 to 3 Dec. 1996. With average application rates of 16.9 g m(-2) of N fertilizer in potato crops, mean nitrate-leaching losses measured under potato were 8.5 g N m(-2). Tuber N uptake averaged 9.7 g N m(-2) and soil mineral N at start (spring) and end (fall) of N mass balance averaged 1.7 and 4.5 g N m(-2), respectively. Soil N mineralization was estimated by difference (4.3 g N m(-2) on average) and was small compared with N fertilization. Small nitrate flux concentrations at the beginning of the cropping season (May) resulted mainly from initial soil nitrate concentrations. Measured and predicted nitrate flux concentrations significantly increased at mid-season (July-August) following important drainage events coupled with complete dissolution and nitrification of N fertilizers, and declining N uptake by potato plants. Decreases in nitrate concentrations before the end of year (November-December) underlined the predominant effect of N fertilizers applied for the most part at planting acting as a pulse input of solute.


In this paper, we present a fully integrated lab-on-a-chip and associated instrument for the detection of bacteria from liquid samples. The system conducts bacterial lysis, nucleic acid isolation and concentration, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and end-point fluorescent detection. To enable truly low-cost manufacture of the single-use disposable chip, we designed the plastic chip in a planar format without any active components to be amenable to injection molding and utilized a novel porous polymer monolith (PPM) embedded with silica that has been shown to lyse bacteria and isolate the nucleic acids from clinical samples (M. D. Kulinski, M. Mahalanabis, S. Gillers, J. Y. Zhang, S. Singh and C. M. Klapperich, Biomed. Microdevices, 2009, 11, 671-678).(1) The chip is made of Zeonex(R), a thermoplastic with a high melting temperature to allow PCR, good UV transmissibility for UV-curing of the PPM, and low auto-fluorescence for fluorescence detection of the amplicon. We have built a prototype instrument to automate control of the fluids, temperature cycling, and optical detection with the capability of accommodating various chip designs. To enable fluid control without including valves or pumps on the chip, we utilized a remote valve switching technique. To allow fluid flow rate changes on the valveless chip, we incorporated speed changing fluid reservoirs. The PCR thermal cycling was achieved with a ceramic heater and air cooling, while end-point fluorescence detection was accomplished with an optical spectrometer; all integrated in the instrument. The chip seamlessly and automatically is mated to the instrument through an interface block that presses against the chip. The interface block aligns and ensures good contact of the chip to the temperature controlled region and the optics. The integrated functionality of the chip was demonstrated using Bacillus subtilis as a model bacterial target. A Taqman assay was employed on-chip to detect the isolated bacterial DNA.


The relative importance of personal attitudes toward losing weight and the social pressures for weight loss in determining intentions to lose weight was compared for locus of control internals and externals who valued health and/or physical appearance highly. Findings consistent with the hypothesized differential importance of these two predictors of behavior intention for individuals designated internal and external by a behavior-specific locus of control scale are presented. Theoretical and practical applications of the findings are discussed.


Understanding changes to the mass of the polar ice sheets is of crucial scientific and socioeconomic importance due to their effect on the wider Earth system and potential to contribute to future sea level rise. On monthly to multi-decadal timescales, there is much uncertainty around the extent to which the non-stationary, non-linear responses of the ice sheets interact through the atmosphere-ocean climate. We test and quantify the nature of non-stationarity and inter-dependence between ice mass balance time series for Greenland, West and East Antarctica using a multi-cointegration vector autoregression model, which has been used to show equivalence between simple climate models and emulations of complex physical processes. We focus on three alternative specifications by comparing I(2) models of cumulative ice mass balance with an I(1) model of the ice mass balance, exploring the model dynamics, and evaluating the out-of-sample forecasts against satellite observations. Our results support the I(2) model with a bipolar relationship between Greenland and West Antarctica and provide some of the first empirical evidence of tipping-points in the recent observed record. Long-term projections indicate that there is considerable risk of Greenland contributing more to sea level rise than under the IPCC's extreme climate change scenario.


Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology known for supporting the educational process at different levels, and that is complemented and enhanced nowadays with the increased use of mobile devices. In this sense, some barriers have been identified both in practice and in the literature that minimize the development of mobile applications with this technology, mainly at the levels of elementary school and high school; one of them is 3D modeling, which may take longer and, at the same time, become a challenging process at that educational level. To address this concern, we have designed a method aimed at users with low digital knowledge, and it is complemented with a series of recommendations that allow the use of the photogrammetry technique to generate three-dimensional models in an easy, affordable, and low-cost way. To validate the method, a co-creation team of teachers and tenth-grade students was created and given the task of building 3D objects for three mobile applications developed around different subjects. Subsequently, the evaluation was carried out from two perspectives: a) the co-creation group analyzed the quality of each of the objects generated, b) the applications were evaluated by a group of experts on the subject, taking into account their performance according to usability heuristics. It was a case study where the students also participated in the evaluation of an application. When following the proposed method, the quality and results of the applications evidenced a promising future for developments in the educational field, even for other levels of study.


Purpose There is increasing evidence that immunologic mechanisms play a role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. A high incidence of infection with Candida albicans in women with endometriosis has been reported. There is evidence to suggest that C. albicans may contribute to the pathogenesis of endometriosis possibly by modulating cytokine production. Methods Endometrial tissue was obtained from eight women attending Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for laparoscopic sterilization or investigation of infertility (n=7 patients without endometriosis, n= 1 patient with endometriosis). Culture of endometrial cells with inactivated Candida/Candida product was performed. The endometrial tissue was processed using a number of different assays including Ki-67 cell proliferation assay, DELFIA Ki-67 assay, MTT cell viability assay, and BrdU incorporation proliferation assay. Results The results from seven women without endometriosis showed that Candida product significantly (P<0.01) reduced both cell viability and cell proliferation in the presence and absence of estradiol. The effects of Candida product on endometrial cells from the patient with endometriosis differed from the average effect on seven women without endometriosis: stimulation of cell viability in the presence of estradiol and suppression of cell proliferation only at the highest dose. In terms of the effects of inactivated Candida, there was a reduction in cell viability by up to 60% (unlike in the normal women), but an increase in cell proliferation of cells both in the presence and absence of estradiol. Conclusions Our preliminary observations suggest that C. albicans may stimulate cell proliferation of endometrial cells from women with endometriosis whilst it seems to have an opposite effect on cells from women with no endometriosis. Caution must be exercised in the interpretation of the latter data since only one woman with endometriosis was included, but the results suggest there may be differences in the way in which Candida product and inactivated Candida affect endometrial cell viability and proliferation between women with and without endometriosis.


Qian Song Honggang Pang Lei Qi Chen Liang Tuo Wang Wei Wang Ruichun Li 1Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710061, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Peripheral Vascular Disease, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710061, People's Republic of China Background: MicroRNAs have been recently reported to play an important role in tumorigenesis and progression in several forms of tumors. Previous studies have shown that microRNA-622 (miR-622) was associated with glioma proliferation and invasion. However, the clinical significance of miR-622 in glioma has not been elucidated. The aim of our study was to investigate the clinical values of miR-622, as well as investigate the potential molecular mechanisms in glioma. Materials and methods: qRT-PCR and Western blot analysis were used to analyze the expression of miR-622 and ZEB2, respectively. Kaplan–Meier analysis and Cox's proportional hazards model were used in survival analysis. MTT assay, wound healing assay, transwell assay and flow cytometry analysis were carried out to detect the impact of miR-622 on glioma cell proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis. Results: Our result indicated that miR-622 expression was greatly decreased in glioma tissues and cell lines and the downregulation of miR-622 was significantly associated with the advanced pathological grade and low Karnofsky performance score of glioma. In addition, Kaplan–Meier curves with log-rank analysis revealed a close correlation between downregulation of miR-622 expression and low overall survival rate in glioma patients. Furthermore, Cox regression analysis demonstrated that downregulated miR-622 could be considered as an independent poor prognostic indicator in glioma patients. Finally, our findings demonstrated that miR-622 overexpression remarkably suppressed glioma cell proliferation, migration and invasion, while facilitated apoptosis by suppressing ZEB2 in vitro. Conclusion: Our study suggested that miR-622 may be identified as a valuable prognostic biomarker and a promising therapeutic target for glioma patients.


Global warming in response to accumulation of human‐induced greenhouse gases inside the atmosphere has already caused several visible consequences, among them increase of the Earth's mean temperature and ocean heat content, melting of glaciers, and loss of ice from the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets. Ocean warming and land ice melt in turn are causing sea level to rise. Sea level rise and its impacts on coastal zones have become a question of growing interest in the scientific community, as well as in the media and public. In this review paper, we summarize the most up‐to‐date knowledge about sea level rise and its causes, highlighting the regional variability that superimposes the global mean rise. We also present sea level projections for the 21st century under different warming scenarios. We next address the issue of the sea level rise impacts. We question whether there is already observational evidence of coastal impacts of sea level rise and highlight the fact that results differ from one location to another. This suggests that the response of coastal systems to sea level rise is highly dependent on local natural and human settings. We finally show that in spite of remaining uncertainties about future sea levels and related impacts, it becomes possible to provide preliminary assessment of regional impacts of sea level rise.


Escherichia coli O157:H7 is an emerging public health concern in most countries of the world. E. coli O157:H7 was known to be a human pathogen for nearly 24 years. EHEC O157 infection is estimated to be the fourth most costly food borne disease in Canada and USA, not counting the cost of possible litigation. E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella are the leading causes of produce related outbreaks, accounting for 20 and 30% respectively. The authority of the Federal Meat Inspection Act, FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) declared Escherichia coli O157:H7, an adulterant in raw ground beef and enforced "zero tolerance" (USDA-FSIS, 17 December 1998). Because of the severity of these illnesses and the apparent low infective dose (less than 10 cells), Escherichia coli O157:H7 is considered one of the most serious of known food borne pathogens. Escherichia coli O157:H7 is mainly pathogenic to human but in cattle and other animals, it did not induce any clinical disease except diarrhea. So, these animals act as carriers to Escherichia coli O157:H7. The majority transmission is through eating of undercooked contaminated ground meat and consumption of raw milk, raw vegetables, fruits contaminated by water, cheese, curd and also through consumption of sprouts, lettuce and juice. The conventional isolation procedure includes growth in enrichment broth like modified EC (E. coli) broth or modified tryptic soy broth (mTSB) Since the infection primarily occurs via faeco-oral route, the preventive measures include food hygiene measures like proper cooking of meat, consumption of pasteurized milk, washing fruits and vegetables especially those to be eaten raw and drinking chlorine treated water and personnel hygiene measures like washing hands after toilet visits.


Stem cell transplant recipients (SCTR) are imperiled to increased risks after SARS-CoV2 infection, supporting the need for effective vaccination strategies for this vulnerable group. With respect to pediatric patients, data on immunogenicity of SARS-CoV2 mRNA-based vaccination is limited. We therefore comprehensively examined specific humoral, B- and T cell responses in a cohort of 2-19 year old SCTR after the second and third vaccine dose. Only after booster vaccination, transplant recipients reached similar levels of vaccine-specific IgG, IgA and neutralizing antibodies against omicron variant as age-matched controls. Although frequencies of SARS-CoV2 specific B cells increased after the third dose, they were still fourfold reduced in patients compared to controls. Overall, the majority of individuals enrolled mounted SARS-CoV2 Spike protein-specific CD4+ T helper cell responses with patients showing significantly higher portions than controls after the third dose. With respect to functionality, however, SCTR were characterized by reduced frequencies of specific interferon gamma producing CD4+ T cells, along with an increase in IL-2 producers. In summary, our data identify distinct quantitative and qualitative impairments within the SARS-CoV2 vaccination specific B- and CD4+ T cell compartments. More importantly, humoral analyses highlight the need for a booster vaccination of SCTR particularly for development of neutralizing antibodies.


ABSTRACT Recent research by economists has shown that deindustrialization is more severe in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America than it ever was in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Nevertheless, most research on deindustrialization is focused on the former centres of Fordist manufacturing in the industrial heartlands of the North Atlantic. In short, there is a mismatch between where deindustrialization is researched and where it is occurring, and the objective of this paper is to shift the geographical focus of research on deindustrialization to the Global South. Case studies from Argentina, India, Tanzania and Turkey demonstrate the variegated nature of deindustrialization beyond the North Atlantic. In the process, it is demonstrated that cities in the Global South can inform wider theoretical discussions on the impacts of deindustrialization at the urban scale.


We consider a system with precoding in the half duplex Decode-Forward (DF) relay networks, where multiple antennas are adopted at the source, the destination and the relay. Based on the channel state information (CSI), a few feedback bits are fed back from the destination to the source and the relay to select the source and the relay precoders. A suboptimal precoder selection criterion for the symbol vector error minimization and an optimal precoder selection criterion for the capacity maximization are proposed for the practical situation where relays are placed between the source and the destination. We analyze the diversity performance of the criteria and show that the full diversity is achieved when the rank one precoder sets span the vector channel space formed by the transmit antennas of the source and the those of the relay.


Home Based Enterprise (HBE) is a residential use combining the functions of a private residence and also a function of economic activity on it. Home Based Enterprise (HBE) is important at a time when formal wages diminish or cease and enterprise are started at the only place available-the house. The advantages of HBE include the ability to maintain an enterprise at little overhead cost, to make use of home based resources, especially space and utility concessions. Home Based Enterprise (HBE) is not a new phenomenon in Indonesia, nor any other developing country. Surabaya has a home-based Kampung, one of which is Kampung Tempe which is located in Tenggilis Kauman street. It is one of the Kampungs with the biggest Soybean Cake Industry in the city of Surabaya. Soybean Cake Industry has been existed since the Dutch era in 1938 and carried on from generation to generation. Kampung Tempe does not only make soybean cake industry, but there is also processing of soybean cake made by mothers. Soybean Cake Industry's products have been able to supply out of Surabaya and for this case usually it is not sold in units. This business is done at home by dividing the proportion of houses to live and also as a workplace. One of the concepts that can be offered is the development of HBE-based settlements that are sophisticated. In this study the paradigm of post-positivism research is naturalistic, and the method is qualitative descriptive with a technique of collecting data in the form of interview, observation and literature study as supporting data. The analysis technique used is Transect-map to identify the characteristics of Settlements (Kampung Tempe), Triangulation and SWOT is applied to formulate the development strategy of Kampung Tempe settlement through the sustainable HBE approach. The result of this research is the development strategy for settlement of Kampung Tempe through the continuous HBE approach with improving the quality of settlements: (non decent houses improvement, street quality improvement, improvement of drainage quality and procurement of WWTP for home based activities, institutional : (coaching by the government and educational institutions), social culture: (development of the next generation of kampung tempe and empowerment of communities around kampung tempe to realize social sustainability), supporting facilities and infrastructure: (procurement of WWTP for home based enterprises (HBE) and relocate and find new wells for home based enterprise (HBE)) and sustainable development principles : (procurement regulation regarding development of sustainable based facilities and infrastructure, procurement of environmentally friendly home based enterprise (HBE) and utilizing land to be used for urban farming).


Background: Many women in Asian countries chase larger and brighter eyes, but to most Asian people only double eye plasty and epicanthoplasty is not enough. As a result, aesthetic lateral canthoplasty, another procedure to lengthen the palpebral fissure, is becoming more and more popular. However, the current procedure of aesthetic lateral canthoplasty has many potential complications, restricting the wide application of this procedure. Methods: Here, the authors developed a minimally invasive method through gray line split and canthopexy to achieve lateral canthoplasty. Eighty-seven patients from February 2013 to January 2016 were included and had the procedure. The lengthen of the palpebral fissure was measured and photographs were also taken before the surgery and in the follow-up periods. Besides, the complications related to this procedure were also investigated. Results: The authors have performed aesthetic lateral canthoplasty in 87 patients, almost all of the follow-up patients have satisfactory results with a lengthen of palpebral fissure ranging from 2.3 to 4.2 mm. Through the long-term follow-up the authors found the lengthen of the palpebral fissure is stable. No serious complications like lacrimal system fistula or hypertrophic scars emerged except 1 patient with conjunctival exposure. Conclusions: Through this gray line split method, the authors can acquire larger and brighter eyes without serious complications. The authors think that this is a good method and worthy of promotion.


How is beauty embodied? According to the viewpoint of embodied cognition, the aesthetic processing of words or pictographs has roots in their referential archetypes. Four experiments tested whether the beauty of referential archetypes was routinely activated during the explicit and implicit aesthetic evaluations of the font structures of concrete Chinese words and pictographs in congruent or incongruent font colour. Results showed font structures of simplified Chinese words and pictographs were judged to be more beautiful when they referred to beautiful archetypes; and this pattern was reversed when they referred to ugly archetypes. Moreover, judgement was facilitated when font colour was congruent for Chinese words and pictographs referred to beautiful archetypes. For those referred to ugly archetypes, judgement was inhibited in congruent font colour but facilitated in incongruent font colour, suggesting aesthetic perceptions of the font structures of Chinese words and pictographs were derived from their referential natural objects. The spontaneous generation hypothesis of beauty is proposed to account for these findings.


We present here new transmission spectra of the hot Jupiter HD-189733b using the SpeX instrument on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. We obtained two nights of observations where we recorded the primary transit of the planet in the J-, H- and K-bands simultaneously, covering a spectral range from 0.94 to 2.42 {\mu}m. We used Fourier analysis and other de-trending techniques validated previously on other datasets to clean the data. We tested the statistical significance of our results by calculating the auto-correlation function, and we found that, after the detrending, auto-correlative noise is diminished at most frequencies. Additionally, we repeated our analysis on the out-of-transit data only, showing that the residual telluric contamination is well within the error bars. While these techniques are very efficient when multiple nights of observations are combined together, our results prove that even one good night of observations is enough to provide statistically meaningful data. Our observed spectra are consistent with space-based data recorded in the same wavelength interval by multiple instruments, indicating that ground-based facilities are becoming a viable and complementary option to spaceborne observatories. The best fit to the features in our data was obtained with water vapor. Our error bars are not small enough to address the presence of additional molecules, however by combining the information contained in other datasets with our results, it is possible to explain all the available observations with a modelled atmospheric spectrum containing water vapor, methane, carbon monoxide and hazes/clouds.


Wavelet transforms enable us to represent signals with a high degree of scarcity. Wavelet thresholding is a signal estimation technique that exploits the capabilities of wavelet transform for signal denoising. The aim of this paper is to study various thresholding techniques such as Sure Shrink, Visu-Shrink and Bayes Shrink and determine the best one for image denoising. This paper presents an overview of various threshold methods for image denoising. Wavelet transform based denoising techniques are of greater interest because of their performance over Fourier and other spatial domain techniques. Selection of optimal threshold is crucial since threshold value governs the performance of denoising algorithms. Hence it is required to tune the threshold parameter for better PSNR values. In this paper, we present various wavelet based shrinkage methods for optimal threshold selection for noise removal. © 2013 Elixir All rights Reserved. ARTICLE INF O Articl e h istory: Received: 6 January 2013; Received in revised form: 17 June 2013; Accepted: 27 June 2013;


The purpose of this article is to formulate a numerical general equilibrium model of the Swedish economy, and to use the model for a quantitative evaluation of the pattern of comparative advantages. The model is essentially a Leontief type of input-output model, extended with linear demand functions for final commodities, foreign trade activities and capacity and resource constraints. Due to the linearity the model can easily be reformulated and solved as a quadratic programming model. The evaluation of the pattern of comparative advantages of the Swedish economy is carried out as an analysis of the choice between inport and domestic production in a temporary equilibrium framework with exogenously given world market prices, exports and domestic production capacities.


The research found the alternative optical properties of the firefly eye from its crystalline cone. The eye of the firefly has the periodic indices of refraction and configuration of 190 parabolic layers as a one-dimensional photonic crystal on the optical axis treated ommatidium of the firefly. The paper performed anatomy of the firefly eye to reveal the structural compound eye of the firefly and simulated a dioptric portion of the firefly eye. The results realized the behavior of the visual output according to the optical raytracing by using geometric optics. The research applied the transfer matrix to observe the transmission efficiency and found that there exists the filtering capability on the optical axis. Based on the incident of collimating light, the efficiency of the superposition eye is higher than that of the apposition eye, by more 900 times.


Over the past 20 years there have been significant advances in our understanding of how synchronised neural oscillations relate to cognitive and motor processes both in health and in neurological disease. Oscillations can be considered from the point of view of being the observations of the latent dynamical properties of interacting populations of neurones. With this in mind it becomes evident that their study may inform about underlying functional architectures and principles governing motor and cognitive control. Cortico-basal-ganglia circuits are canonical feedback loops between cortical and sub-cortical structures, with well-defined anatomy which makes them ideal for the study of oscillatory phenomena. Moreover, these circuits are known to play crucial roles in motor and cognitive processes such that impairments of their normative function may lead to neurological disease states. In this thesis I focus on insights about oscillatory function from cortical-basal ganglia recordings in Parkinson's disease. I will present evidence from studies showing that the roles of beta (15-30 Hz) and gamma (60–90 Hz) oscillatory activities in motor control are intricately linked to task specific cognitive-motor demands. Furthermore, the timing of activities within these frequency bands relative to movement reveals how distinct spectral phenomena may relate to distinct aspects of cognitive and motor processing. An intricately related aim of this thesis is to begin to establish how the preferred frequencies of interaction and the topographies of long range oscillatory networks within cortico-basal-ganglia loops relate to specific clinical symptoms. In this regard, I will present data revealing the modulation of cortico-basal ganglia coupling by movement, and Parkinson's disease therapies such as levodopa and Deep Brain Simulation (DBS). Novel methodological developments that facilitate such insights are presented. Finally I discuss how these insights contribute to existing understanding of the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease, in addition to suggesting novel future therapeutic strategies for DBS.


Site closure for soil vacuum extraction (SVE) application typically requires attainment or specified soil concentration standards based on the premise that mass flux from the vadose zone to ground water not result in levels exceeding maximum contaminant levels (MCLs). Unfortunately, realization of MCLs in ground water may not be attainable at many sites. This results in soil remediation efforts that may be in excess of what is necessary for future protection of ground water and soil remediation goals which often cannot be achieved within a reasonable time period. Soil venting practitioners have attempted to circumvent these problems by basing closure on some predefined percent total mass removal, or an approach to a vapor concentration asymptote. These approaches, however, are subjective and influenced by venting design. We propose an alternative strategy based on evaluation of five components: (1) site characterization, (2) design. (3) performance monitoring, (4) rule‐limited vapor transport, and (5) mass flux to and from ground water. Demonstration of closure is dependent on satisfactory assessment of all five components. The focus of this paper is to support mass flux evaluation. We present a plan based on monitoring of three subsurface zones and develop an analytical one‐dimensional vertical flux model we term VFLUX. VFLUX is a significant improvement over the well‐known numerical one‐dimensional model. VLEACH, which is often used for estimation of mass flux to ground water, because it allows for the presence of nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) in soil, degradation, and a lime‐dependent boundary condition at the water table inter‐face. The time‐dependent boundary condition is the center‐piece of our mass flux approach because it dynamically links performance of ground water remediation lo SVE closure. Progress or lack of progress in ground water remediation results in either increasingly or decreasingly stringent closure requirements, respectively.


This Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM) process is usually used to cut the materials which are difficult to cut by conventional machining processes. In this work, controlled depth milling (CDM) is done using AWJM. This work primarily focuses on controlling the abrasive flow rate to reduce the time for machining the component. Here, an experimental setup is made with a modified attachment for abrasive feed system to machine stainless steel. The work also investigates the surface morphology, tolerance on depth of machining and surface waviness for the modified setup. With change in mass flow rate of abrasive, the traverse speed may also be altered and its effects on the machining time are controlled. This work also employs Non-destructive Testing (NDT) method i.e. ultrasonic flaw detector to find out internal defects and cracks in the milled material.


The QZ algorithm for computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix pencil $A - \lambda B$ requires that the matrices first be reduced to Hessenberg-triangular (HT) form. The current method of choice for HT reduction relies entirely on Givens rotations regrouped and accumulated into small dense matrices which are subsequently applied using matrix multiplication routines. A non-vanishing fraction of the total flop count must nevertheless still be performed as sequences of overlapping Givens rotations alternately applied from the left and from the right. The many data dependencies associated with this computational pattern leads to inefficient use of the processor and poor scalability.
In this paper, we therefore introduce a fundamentally different approach that relies entirely on (large) Householder reflectors partially accumulated into block reflectors, by using (compact) WY representations. Even though the new algorithm requires more floating point operations than the state of the art algorithm, extensive experiments on both real and synthetic data indicate that it is still competitive, even in a sequential setting. The new algorithm is conjectured to have better parallel scalability, an idea which is partially supported by early small-scale experiments using multi-threaded BLAS. The design and evaluation of a parallel formulation is future work.


Thapelo, Mametja The adoption of digital technologies by women-owned tourism micro enterprises. Winner –University of Johannesburg VYT local competition (2021) Transcript:

Digitalisation is the method of arranging social life and
businesses around digital tools. Digitalisation has allowed both small and
large businesses to attract wide markets. Travelers used to spend days making
reservations for travel and accommodation. Nowadays, digital technology has
made it possible for tourists to travel and book accommodation in real-time
with little effort. Tourists are now more encouraged than ever to travel
because of the huge range of tourist information. However, the emergence of
COVID-19 has interrupted global travel and forced many businesses to close. But
there is hope that digitalisation will revive the industry. Therefore, the
purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which women-owned tourism
micro enterprises have adopted digital technologies. The study also seeks to
explore the limiting and enabling conditions of adopting such technologies.
Women make up 70 percent of the tourism labour in South Africa and majority own
tourism micro enterprises. As such understanding their participation in the
digitalisation of tourism is key to unlocking their opportunities in the
mainstream tourism economy.


Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) is a disease that impacts cellular homeostasis. CVI may occur with a valvular destruction process known as venous reflux or valvular incompetence. One of the cellular processes that may be triggered as a consequence of these events is the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which may trigger the production of different cellular markers and cell damage processes, such as lipid peroxidation. Therefore, the present study performed an observational, analytical, and prospective cohort study by reviewing 110 patients with CVI, and the activities and plasma levels of iNOS, eNOS, NOX1, and NOX2 were determined using immunohistochemistry and RT-qPCR. Lipid peroxidation (MDA) was also measured. Patients were distributed according to the presence or absence of valvular incompetence-venous reflux, which was diagnosed clinically as the absence of venous reflux (NR = 29) or presence of venous reflux (R = 81). Each group was divided according to age, with a cutoff point of fifty years (NR < 50 = 13, NR ≥ 50 = 16, R < 50 = 32, and R ≥ 50 = 49). The results showed that R patients exhibited significantly increased plasma MDA levels, and R < 50 patients exhibited the highest statistically significant increase. iNOS, NOX1, and NOX2 exhibited the highest gene and protein expression in R patients. The increased expression was maintained in the R < 50 patients. Our data suggest that young patients with valvular incompetence (venous reflux) show higher levels of lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress, which reflects the characteristics of an aged patient.


Many archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists and historians have postulated that the spread of Lron Age (IA) Bantu speaking cultures south of the Sahara was associated with the displacement or absorption of Later Stone Age (LSA) autochthonous populations. The 1A Bantu speaking cultures are suggested to have practiced agropastoralism and metal-working while LSA groups were hunter-gatherers. Recently however some scholars have raised questions about the general applicability of the displacement/absorption models to explain cultural developments in sub-Saharan Africa. It is on this basis that archaeological investigation was launched in the Pahi division of Kondoa district in central Tanzania where interaction between LSA and IA cultures took place. The Pahi research had three main goals, namely to establish the Pahi LSA and IA cultural sequences, to investigate social and economic interaction between the LSA and IA and to ascertain the role of LSA people in the later development of settled societies in central Tanzania. The research involved extensive systematic land walkover and shovel test pits (STPs) survey followed by intensive trench excavation of recovered sites. The sequence of archaeological remains from the Pahi STP survey strongly supported those of trench excavations. Results from both STPs and trench excavations indicated that lower Pahi stratigraphic sequences consisted of exclusively LSA cultural materials while upper levels consisted of both LSA and IA artifacts. The Pahi LSA cultures dated to 2500 +40 BP and probably survived until 1030 + 40 BP when IA cultures became incorporated into the LSA. Despite the early adoption of IA (from IA agropastoralists) by the local LSA populations, lithic production continued to be practiced along with iron-working until recent times when the former was abandoned. The widespread and continuous distribution of lithic and iron-working remains over the Pahi landscape and the entire upper Pahi stratigraphical sequence suggests that LSA peoples were not replaced by IA agropastoralists after the adoption of IA cultures circa 1030 ? 40 BP. Instead, they incorporated IA cultural elements into their LSA culture. These findings call into question earlier assumptions, generally applied to sub-Saharan Africa, that LSA peoples were replaced or absorbed by IA agropastoralists.


In this paper, we present a compliant six-axis sensor for total ground reaction measurement, the calibration methodology, and preliminary data. The sensor is intended for gait analysis and is designed to have minimal effect on natural gait. A triaxial optical force sensor is combined with an array of pressure sensing films to form a wearable compliant six-axis force/moment sensor. Two sensor units were developed for the toe and heel and used in two types of experiments: stepping on the sensors that are mounted on the ground and attaching the sensors under the shoe while walking. The data from the sensors are compared with measurements obtained from a standard force plate. The deflections induced by the sensor compliance exhibit a slight nonlinear force–deflection relation. Regardless of the nonlinear effects, the sensor is accurately calibrated with a linear least squares method. To see how well these nonlinearities could be calibrated for, a nonlinear calibration with a neural network was used. For the sensors attached to the floor, a linear calibration achieved an RMSE of 4.49% while the neural network achieves 2.68%. For the wearable sensor, the linear calibration RMSE was 9.39% and the neural network RMSE was 5.21%. When the orientation data of the sensors (measured by a motion capture system) were added as an input to the neural network calibration, the RMSE was reduced to 3.25%.


This book was born with the vocation of being a tool for the training of engineers in continuum mechanics. In fact, it is the fruit of the experience in teaching this discipline during many years at the Civil Engineering School of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC/BarcelonaTech), both in undergraduate degrees (Civil Engineering and Geological Engineering) and postgraduate degrees (Master and PhD courses). Unlike other introductory texts to the mechanics of continuous media, the work presented here is specifically aimed at engineering students. We try to maintain a proper balance between the rigor of the mathematical formulation used and the clarity of the physical principles addressed, although always putting the former at the service of the latter. In this sense, the essential vector and tensor operations use simultaneously the indicial notation (more useful for rigorous mathematical proof) and the compact notation (which allows for a better understanding of the physics of the problem). However, as the text progresses, there is a clear trend towards compact notation in an attempt to focus the reader's attention on the physical component of continuum mechanics. The text content is intentionally divided into two specific parts, which are presented sequentially. The first part (Chapters 1-5) introduces fundamental and descriptive aspects common to all continuous media (motion, deformation, stress and conservation-balance equations). In the second (Chapters 6 to 11), specific families of the continuous medium are studied, such as solids and fluids, in an approach that starts with the corresponding constitutive equation and ends with the classical formulations of solid mechanics (elastic-linear and elasto-plastic) and fluid mechanics (laminar regime). Finally, a brief incursion into the variational principles (principle of virtual work and minimization of potential energy) is attempted, to provide the initial ingredients needed to solve continuum mechanics problems using numerical methods. This structure allows the use of this text for teaching purposes both in a single course of about 100 teaching hours or as two different courses: the first based on the first five chapters dedicated to the introduction of the fundamentals of continuum mechanics and, the second specifically dedicated to solid and fluid mechanics. The theoretical part in every chapter is followed by a number of solved problems and proposed exercises so as to help the reader in the understanding and consolidation of those theoretical aspects.


Background/Aims Recent genome-wide analyses have provided strong evidence concerning adverse events caused by thiopurine drugs such as azathioprine (AZA) and 6-mercaptopurine. The strong associations identified between NUDT15 p.Arg139Cys and thiopurine-induced leukopenia and severe hair loss have been studied and confirmed over the last 2 years. However, other coding variants, including NUDT15 p.Val18_Val19insGlyVal, NUDT15 p.Val18Ile, and FTO p.Ala134Thr, and a noncoding variation in RUNX1 (rs2834826) remain to be examined in detail in this respect. Therefore, we investigated the correlation between these adverse events and the 5 recently identified variants mentioned above among Japanese patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Methods One hundred sixty thiopurine-treated patients with IBD were enrolled. Genotyping was performed using TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assays or Sanger sequencing. Results None of the 5 variants were associated with gastrointestinal intolerance to AZA. However, NUDT15 p.Arg139Cys was significantly associated with the interval between initiation and discontinuation of AZA among patients with gastrointestinal intolerance. This variant was strongly associated with early (<8 weeks) and late (≥8 weeks) leukopenia and severe hair loss. Moreover, it correlated with the interval between initiation of thiopurine therapy and leukopenia occurrence, and average thiopurine dose. NUDT15 p.Val18_Val19insGlyVal, NUDT15 p.Val18Ile, FTO p.Ala134Thr, and RUNX1 rs2834826 exhibited no significant relationship with the adverse events examined. Conclusions Of the 5 variants investigated, NUDT15 p.Arg139Cys had the strongest impact on thiopurine-induced leukopenia and severe hair loss; therefore, its genotyping should be prioritized over that of other variants in efforts to predict these adverse events in Japanese patients with IBD.