The masticatory function is one of the most complex neuropsychological mechanisms in human motor performance and it depends on several factors, such as bite force, muscle coordination, morphology, and number of teeth in occlusion. Purpose: to evaluate the influence of different rehabilitation treatments such as complete and partial dentures, masticatory forces, and the dynamics of mandibular elevator muscles. Material and Methods: the maximum bite force (force transducer) and electrical activity (superficial electromyography) associated with the masseter and temporal muscles were quantified. These factors were evaluated at rest position and isometric contraction. The data were subjected to descriptive statistics and compared based on the experimental groups, through ANOVA and Tukey's tests. Results: for bite force, the ANOVA test showed statistical difference between groups and Tukey's test showed that the force measured in the removable partial dentures group was 44.75% lower than that of the control group, while for complete denture wearers, there was a reduction of 74.4% in bite force in relation to the control group. For electromyographic activity, there was no statistical difference between groups. Pearson's correlation test (α=5%) showed positive correlation between the variables of bite force and electromyographic activity only for the control group. Conclusion: it was concluded that the loss of dental elements and their replacement with either partial or complete dentures has a great influence on bite force and electromyographic activity of the masseter and temporal muscles.


Microscopic and macroscopic structures of accessory adrenal nodules in Caspian miniature horses (5 males and 5 females) were studied. The accessory adrenal nodules were round or oval and yellow to red. Their maximum diameters varied from 0.1 to 0.5 cm. These nodules were found near the kidneys and adrenal glands, but they were in close contact with the adrenal gland. The accessory adrenal nodules were similar to the adrenal cortex microscopically, and from the outer layer to the inner layer they contained glomerulosa, intermedia, and fasciculata. The adrenal nodules were surrounded by a capsule of collagenous dense connective tissue as well.


This study proposes a soft switched Output Current Sourcing (OCS) grid connected inverter that applies a high frequency isolation transformer. Current sourcing at the output implies that, ideally, the injected current will be independent on the load voltage. The current injected to the line is controlled by varying the switching frequency and dithering at low currents. The system does not require the sensing of the output current or even the line voltage - except for synchronization. This is in contrast to the conventional voltage sourcing inverters where the small disturbance at the line voltage may lead to current run away and consequently a tight current feedback loop must be applied. The proposed topology and several proposed control approaches were analyzed and verified by simulations and by experiments. The simulation and experimental results confirm the theoretical analysis and show that the proposed inverter can be operated with no sensing of the line current or voltage.


In this thesis work the feasibility of using open source OpenFOAM software as a solver part for Computation Fluid Dynamics in Volvo Technology is studied. Since the structure of the case in OpenFOAM is rather complex, one of the main purposes of this thesis work was also to make the process of using OpenFOAM as user-friendly as possible. The general conclusion that can be drawn from this work is that a very streamlined workflow can be, and has been, designed and created.


The paper discuss the innovative patterns such as subtraction, multiplication, division, task unification and attribute dependency change for evaluating the software architecture to identify the risk factor, check all the quality attributes have been addressed in the software. Architecture evaluation for a system can be done by using an approach called Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM). The achievement of quality attributes such as maintainability, reusability, extensibility, scalability and Stake Holders Expects (SHE) are not fulfilled in ATAM approach. We have proposed a method called Enhanced Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (EATAM) by combining the innovative patterns and the ATAM for the evaluation of the software architecture would result in better solutions. The innovative patterns are therefore useful not for categorizing new software ideas but also for generating them.


Extant literature on professional services firms in general, and on the Big Four accounting firms in particular, consistently shows that these firms are in a state of institutional flux. In turn, it has been argued that new types of professionals are emerging within this context. Adopting a sociological perspective inspired by the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) this article unpicks the meaning of success within the Big Four via an exploration of who makes partner. Specifically, the paper reports upon a qualitative study undertaken with partners and other senior accountants in three Big Four firms between December 2010 and September 2012. The findings of the study are four-fold: firstly, it is shown that, although Big Four partners might be thought of as belonging to the upper echelons of society, making partner is open to individuals from modest family backgrounds; secondly, partners draw sharp distinctions between themselves and those just below partner level in terms of what each is capable of, implying that different types of professional exist at different levels within the Big Four; thirdly, partners embody entrepreneurialism and a concern for revenue generation more than they embody technical expertise; and, fourthly, the requirements for making partner today are different from the criteria that previous generations of partners were subject to. Finally, a key insight of this paper is that the central distinguishing features of successful professionals in the Big Four are tied to commercialism.


We present four studies that illustrate the use of DNA microarrays for the detection and subsequent genotyping of waterborne pathogens. A genotyping array targeting four virulence factor genes in enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) was tested. The arrays were clearly able to differentiate between E. coli O157:H7 genotypes and E. coli O91:H2. Non-pathogenic E. coli and non-target organisms were not detected on this array. In the second study, an hsp70 gene single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array for specific Cryptosporidium parvum detection was constructed to differentiate between principle genotypes. SNPs, and hence differences between genotypes, were easily detected on this type of array. In the third study an array for Helicobacter pylori was tested for simultaneous SNP discrimination and presence or absence of virulence factor genes. Results from this study showed that both SNP discrimination for some conserved genes, and the presence or absence of virulence factor genes was possible. In the fourth study, multiplexing was achieved by direct hybridization and detection of mRNA to the array. For highly expressed genes, visible signal was detected at 312.5 ng of total RNA, indicating that these new methods may have sufficient environmental sensitivity without the need to perform PCR.


The practice of collecting photographs of refugees in 'coffeetable books' is a practice of framing and thus inflecting the meanings of those images. The 'refugee coffee-table books' discussed here each approach their topic with a particular style and emphasis. Nonetheless, while some individual images offer productive readings which challenge stereotypes of refugees, the format of the collections and the accompanying written text work to produce spectacle rather than empathy in that they implicitly propagate a world view divided along imperialist lines, in which the audience is expected to occupy the position of privileged viewing agent while refugees are positioned as viewed objects.


Introduction:
 Early epidemiological studies of U.S. patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have suggested a possible association between ABO/Rh blood group phenotype and both susceptibility and severity of COVID-19 infection. Given the remarkable heterogeneity of the host inflammatory response in this viral syndrome and the widespread expression of ABO/Rh antigens on vascular and alveolar endothelial cells, it is biologically plausible that certain blood group phenotypes, with their unique repertoire of anti-A and/or anti-B antibodies, may differentially augment the host-pathogen response. We conducted a retrospective review of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 within our regional healthcare network in San Diego County to identify an association between ABO/Rh blood group type and the severity of infection.
 Methods:
 All patients hospitalized at one of five Scripps Health hospitals in San Diego County from March 1, 2020 to July 30, 2020 with a PCR confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 and blood type on record were included in the initial analysis (n = 316). Demographic, laboratory and clinical data were extracted from the electronic medical record and included age, ethnicity, BMI, sex, medications, co-morbidities and admission white blood cell and lymphocyte count, hemoglobin, platelets, ESR, CRP and D-dimer. Outcomes of interest included length of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation need, and mortality. Significant associations between each parameter of interest and blood group type were determined using either linear or logistic regression analysis. To address potential confounding variables, an adjusted multivariate model accounting for potential significant (p< 0.1) predictors of each outcome on univariate analysis, in addition to blood type groups, was conducted to further refine any associations. The study was approved by the Scripps Health Institutional Review Board.
 Results:
 316 patients met inclusion criteria for analysis. Hospitalized COVID patients were predominantly male, obese (BMI 30.6) and were an average age of 63 years. Almost 70% of patients hospitalized were Hispanic. 57.0% of patients were blood type O, 30.4% were type A, 3.8% were type B and 8.9% were type AB. 7% were Rh negative. Median length of hospital stay was 16.5±14.7 days, 59% were admitted to the ICU, 37% were intubated, and 27% died. Further relevant laboratory values on admission, co-morbidities, and medications administered during hospitalization are summarized in Table 1. Blood type, with or without adjusting for other clinical variables, was not predictive of length of hospital stay, ICU admission, or intubation during the hospitalization. Type B blood alone was associated with decreased odds of death (OR: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.06-0.85, p<0.05), though this effect was not seen after adjusting for significant confounding variables (OR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.08-1.43, p>0.18).
 Conclusion:
 In this large, multi-hospital, retrospective analysis of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in San Diego County, there was a low relative percentage of Rh negative blood type and type B blood compared to historical population averages. Blood type was not determined to be independently associated with hospital length of stay, mechanical ventilation, ICU admission or death. ABO/Rh blood typing appears to have a limited prognostic role in COVID-19 severity of hospitalized patients, though further analysis of the protective effects of type B and/or Rh negative blood type may be warranted in a larger sample.

 Disclosures
 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


ABSTRACT As the axis powers were denied access to data from international weather stations under allied control, soon after the outbreak of World War II Germany had to establish her own network of manned and automatic weather stations throughout the north Atlantic. These operations were primarily run by the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe. In Greenland, several manned weather stations were established by the former. The two most successful of those were Holzauge and Bassgeiger in Northeast Greenland, each in operation for almost an entire year in 1942–1943 and 1943–1944 respectively. The allied forces, in return, had established the North-East Greenland Sledge Patrol in 1941, in order to defend the Northeast Greenland coast against German activities. In 2007 and 2008, archaeologists and historians from the National Museum of Denmark investigated the remains of the allied station at Eskimonæs on Clavering Ø (Clavering Island) and the German station Holzauge at Hansa Bugt on Sabine Ø (Sabine Island).


3-Hydroxybiphenyl has been identified as a metabolite of biphenyl incubated with liver microsomes. Liver microsomes from hamster, mouse, and rabbit form 3-hydroxybiphenyl as well as 2-hydroxybiphenyl and 4-hydroxybiphenyl. The ratio of 2-hydroxybiphenyl to 3-hydroxybiphenyl is about 2:l with hamster and rabbit microsomes and 1:l with mouse microsomes. The major metabolite in all three species is 4-hydroxybiphenyl, but its relative amount also depends upon the species. Control rat liver microsomal hydroxylation of biphenyl yields 4-hydroxybiphenyl almost exclusively. 3-Methylcholanthrene or β-napthoflavone treatment of rats preferentially induces 2-hydroxybiphenyl formation, whereas increased amounts of 3- and 4-hydroxybiphenyl are formed after administration of phenobarbital. These results indicate that 3-hydroxybiphenyl is formed by a pathway different from that of either 2- or 4-hydroxybiphenyl. The existence of isotope effects for 3-hydroxybiphenyl formation but not for 2- or 4-hydroxybiphenyl formation from perdeuterobiphenyl suggests that this hydroxylation occurs at least partially via a direct hydroxylation pathway. In addition to the monohydroxylated products of biphenyl, the microsomal oxidation of biphenyl yields the catechol, 3,4-dihydroxybiphenyl. This same catechol is produced by the hydroxylation of either 3- or 4-hydroxybiphenyl. Studies with 18O suggest that 3,4-dihydroxybiphenyl is formed from biphenyl via two consecutive hydroxylations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors thank Dr. Donald Jerina of the National Institutes of Health for encouraging us to extend his earlier work on the isotope effects in the hydroxylation of biphenyl, since the work which he and his co-workers performed some years ago was hampered by the lack of suitable analytical procedures at that time. The authors are indebted to Mr. Gary Whitaker for expert technical assistance throughout the course of these studies.


The red sea urchin fishery has a long harvest and management history along the Northeastern Pacific coast. In Mexico, it has been commercially harvested since 1972, and although it is one of the most important fisheries in Baja California, efforts to assess the condition and dynamics of harvestable stocks have been focused on certain harvested areas with scarce fisheries independent data. Additionally, the analysis of yearly information for small geographic areas has obscured the actual status of harvested populations. This study aims to re-assess population trends, fishing effort, and catches, incorporating all available information from the last 19 years. Information was grouped based on 14 landing sites along Baja California's Pacific coast. Length based virtual population analysis (LVPA) was implemented to estimate site-specific catch rates and densities. Red sea urchin catches/landings varied widely within and between areas. Population density was below 1 urchin m–2 in most of the sites, and was composed of higher recruits and juvenile densities that may partially mitigate for fishery removals. LVPA produced biomass estimations that double previous estimates. We suggest that the model parameters used in previous estimations might not reflect key biological traits of the red sea urchin, failing to reproduce population trends accurately. Results from this study allowed identifying the specific sites where population attributes (biomass, densities), fishery data (catch, effort), and the combination of both (Kobe plots), suggest that urchin populations may need attention. New management measures must be adopted: maximum legal size of 110 mm, improvement on fishery logs and analysis, continuous fishery independent surveys to track changes in the population that might not be so apparent when observing only catch/biomass data. Reinforce the under legal size management strategy, since results suggest that sites with high abundances of small urchins can support higher catches.


The origins of the globalization debate introduced the term Americanization, along with its close corollary Westernization, but our picture of global culture has become more complex over the past two decades. Some of the most popular American brands worldwide, including Budweiser, Purina, Thinkpad, 7-Eleven, Vaseline, Alka-Seltzer, Lucky Strike, Ben & Jerry's, Firestone, Hellmann's, and Chrysler, have been sold to foreign companies. Alongside these economic changes, the proportion of ethnic minorities in United States continues to grow each year, suggesting a changing dynamic in economic and cultural terms.
Advertising management theory suggests that advertising reflects the values of society, but also influences cultural values in a recursive formulation. It is a well- established practice to investigate cultural values through adverts in order to explore changes within societies. In cross-cultural advertising research there are many studies that investigate the changes of values in emerging markets, or compare these markets with American markets. Such research is enacted under the broad critical rubric that Western countries exercise the power to change the attitudes, behaviours and habits of people in non-Western countries in pursuit of wider markets for their own products and services. On the other hand, there are few longitudinal studies that explore changes in those values over the long term and there is little or no research on exploring the changes of American values in the longer term and the possible effects of globalization on the United States.
The aim of this study is to explore the changes of American values expressed through advertising over a 40-year period between 1965-2005, and to investigate the levels of influence by globalization and global culture.
Using Pollay's (1983) value coding procedure, this study analyses 433 magazine advertisements that appeared over the 40-year period, published in 1965, 1985 and 2005 using a content analysis technique. Pollay's values are categorized by Geert Hofstede's (2001) cultural dimensions: individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity-femininity. The data is collected from American general interest magazines in three different categories: services, personal hygiene, and food and beverages. Native English speakers raised in the United States worked independently to code the data.


This guide summarizes UB Libraries' local map holdings, and provides an extensive list of digitized maps for the region, as well as additional sources. Please note this consolidates two local map guides previously hosted on the UB Libraries' website.


Anonymous questionnaire data will be collected before, during and after completion of the MBSR course. These data will be used by student teams to evaluate the impact of MBSR on multiple outcomes. Groups will prepare a written report and present their findings to the class at the end of the semester. This seminar examines current global public health issues, governance and decision-making challenges for the 21st Century across developing, transitioning, and developed countries. Topics of discussion include new actors for world health in the era of globalization; linking human development, poverty and health inequities; social, cultural and ethical considerations for health planning; role of industry, trade and public health; evidence based research for improved global health initiatives; foreign policy and health security challenges associated with emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases and public and private partnerships in global health. Open only to EPH majors. The course will provide students with an overview of the epidemiology of major vector-borne diseases in the U.S. (e.g., Lyme Disease, West Nile Virus) and globally (e.g., malaria, dengue, filariasis, leishmaniasis, and other arboviruses), field and lab-based methodologies for vector studies to incriminate vector species and assess transmission dynamics, vector and disease surveillance, and "cutting-edge" vector control technology. A major focus will be on the ecology of vectors in their local environments and how transmission dynamics are affected by changes in land use, urbanization, and climate. Students will learn about new WHO-approved strategies for integrated Vector Management (IVM) and how they are applicable for the prevention and control of all vector-borne diseases. mortality, disease of metabolic syndrome and climate change, cardiopulmonary, allergy and immunology disease due to bioaerosols and air pollution. Addressing the public health challenges of the 21st century will require public health leaders to be facile in leading change efforts (on the individual, organizational and system levels) and multi-stakeholder collaborations for measurable results. This transition course at the end of the MD/MPH second year will prepare MD/MPH students for their more advanced experiences in community and public health in the third and fourth years. The objective of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to develop essential skills in leading change in public health while linking their academic work in epidemiology and public health for real world application in public health practice. Students will receive didactic presentations on topics such as leading change, mobilizing multi-stakeholder leaders for aligned action, interest-based negotiation, leading from the middle, leveraging conflict to advance adaptive challenges, communicating /framing your message(s), systems change, as well as lectures on health disparities and the social determinants of health. These lectures will be integrated with interactive discussions and hands-on small group exercises to explore how practitioners can translate public health and community knowledge into sustainable solutions. Leading Change in Population Health— Moving From Talk to Action will provide students with 21st-century leadership skills that prepare them to tackle public health issues in our society from the most simple to very complex. Participants will be challenged to think differently on many levels (systems thinking, interplay between relationships and results, etc.) and prepare them to be agents of change for future generations. mediated environmental conditions. The course objectives are to (1) understand general principles of toxicology, (2) understand biophysiological responses to climate, weather and weather anomalies, (3) develop an understanding of and skills in in-vitro and in-vivo experimental designs to assess toxicity of climate, and (4) characterize and quantify biophysiological responses in response to the trends and anomalies of weather and climate. research proposal development. The course has two intended audiences. PhD students or early career researchers and advanced master's students wish to add depth to their understanding of some of the fundamental issues in epidemiology. Doctoral students in epidemiology take this course to fulfill one of the "research method courses" for the PhD in Epidemiology degree. Students who are not in the PhD in Epidemiology program and who wish to take this course require instructor's evaluations (pre-test) and permission. currently enrolled in


OBJECTIVE
To determine if preoperative heparin therapy causes an increase in the incidence of intraoperative heparin resistance by reducing the concentration of antithrombin in plasma.

DESIGN
Prospective laboratory investigation of clinical samples.

SETTING
Public tertiary care hospital and public pathology service.

PARTICIPANTS
Forty-six patients undergoing cardiac surgery involving cardiopulmonary bypass.

INTERVENTIONS
Fourteen patients received preoperative heparin therapy (POHI group) and 32 patients were controls (CONT group).

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
The concentration of antithrombin, activated coagulation time (ACT), and clinical parameters were measured at intervals. More POHI patients had on-bypass heparin resistance than CONT (43% and 3%, respectively, p < 0.01). The POHI group had a lower concentration of antithrombin than the CONT group before (80.9% and 92.6%, respectively, p < 0.01) and while on cardiopulmonary bypass (51.6% and 57.5%, respectively, p = 0.04). Comparison of heparin-resistant and heparin-responsive POHI patients showed that the concentration of antithrombin did not differ before bypass (82.4% and 79.8%, respectively, p = 0.53) or during bypass (51.8% and 51.4%, respectively, p = 0.91). In fact, antithrombin concentrations were slightly higher in the heparin-resistant POHI patients (not significant). POHI patients received more heparin than CONT patients (medians 787 U/kg and 600 U/kg, respectively, p = 0.01) and were transfused with more fresh frozen plasma on bypass (p = 0.03).

CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative heparin causes an increased incidence of heparin resistance and reduced antithrombin concentrations. However, heparin resistance was not causally related to reduced antithrombin because antithrombin concentrations were not different between heparin-resistant and heparin-responsive patients in the POHI group.


Weexamine the effect of electoral institutions on two important features of representation that are often studied separately: policy responsiveness and the quality of legislators. Theoretically, we show that while a proportional electoral system is better than a majoritarian one at representing popular preferences in some contexts, this advantage can come at the price of undermining the selection of good politicians. To empirically assess the relevance of this trade-off, we analyze an unusually controlled electoral reform in Switzerland early in the twentieth century. To account for endogeneity, we exploit variation in the intensive margin of the reform, which introduced proportional representation, based on administrative constraints and data on voter preferences. A difference-in-difference analysis finds that higher reform intensity increases the policy congruence between legislators and the electorate and reduces legislative effort. Contemporary evidence from the European Parliament supports this conclusion.


Abstract: Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is one of the most common causes of death and hospitalization among patients with a sickle hemoglobinopathy. The clinical presentation is characterized by the appearance of a new infiltrate on a chest radiograph, with 1 or more new symptoms, including fever, cough, chest pain, and dyspnea. Additional findings include leukocytosis, hypoxemia, and auscultatory signs of consolidation. The differential diagnosis includes pneumonia, pulmonary infarction, fat embolism syndrome, pulmonary edema, and bone infarction. Treatment of ACS involves supportive care, empiric antibiotic therapy, and red blood cell transfusion when indicated. The decision of whether to use simple or exchange transfusions depends on the severity of illness and the risk of acute respiratory failure. Currently, hydroxyurea is the only FDA-approved drug designated as a preventive therapy. (J Respir Dis. 2005;26(12):529-534)


Sediments in deep water basins often include turbidites that record sediment input from adjacent continental margins. In seismically active areas, where turbidity currents are triggered by earthquakes, the basinal turbidite sequence may thus contain a record of palaeoseismicity, which can be used to infer the frequency of earthquakes affecting the margins of the basin. This is particularly useful where large earthquakes have a recurrence interval than is greater than the historical record. However, turbidity currents can be triggered by several processes, and it is often difficult to trace individual turbidites to their precise source areas and to assign a definite trigger to a particular turbidite. Here, we demonstrate that turbidites emplaced at ∼6600 and ∼8300 Cal yr BP in the Tagus Abyssal Plain, off Portugal, correlate with erosional hiatuses in two submarine canyons on the continental margin. The turbidites are sourced from simultaneous landsliding in both canyons, requiring regional triggers interpreted as earthquakes. An earthquake recurrence interval for the continental margin of ∼4000 years is estimated by extrapolation to deeper turbidites in the basin sequence. However, the example of the 1755 earthquake, which caused widespread devastation in southwest Iberia, shows that palaeoseismic interpretations must be made with caution. The 1755 earthquake had a magnitude >8.5 and yet the associated turbidite in the abyssal plain is typically ∼5 cm thick, while older turbidites can be >1 m thick. Given the large 1755 earthquake magnitude, the difference in turbidite thickness is unlikely to be related to the relative size of triggering earthquakes. Instead, we suggest that the offshore location of the 1755 earthquake, coupled with low sedimentation rates during the Holocene, may have limited the size of the associated turbidite.


The aim of this article is to study how a new uniform for health care professionals in a Danish region came into being as a negotiation between a number of heterogeneous actors who fundamentally influenced the final design. The crux of this type of design is formed by conflicting demands: that the garment should be able to accommodate the user's bodily existence and that it must be adapted to the lean and rational maintenance processes of modern day health care. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, the article explores the complex interplay between the different actors involved in the design process and discusses the uniform as a design product that combines the meticulous functional analysis of industrial design with concerns about self-presentation and identity of fashion and dress.


The kidney (11-HSD2 or 11-HSDK) isozyme of 11ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase confers specificity for aldosterone on mineralocorticoid receptors in target tissues. In rodent kidney, this isozyme is expressed mainly in cortical collecting ducts and is undetectable in proximal tubules. Using mouse M-1 and rabbit RCD cortical collecting duct cells, we analyzed the 5′-flanking region of the human HSD11K gene encoding this enzyme in an attempt to identify transcriptional regulatory elements responsible for gene expression in the kidney. M-1 and RCD cells had high levels of NAD+ dependent 11-HSD activity with corticosterone as the substrate. Luciferase reporter constructs containing 1785 or 327 nucleotides (nt) upstream of the initiator ATG codon were expressed at similar levels in each cell line, but deletion to 167 nt almost completely abolished expression in both cell types. This region is GC-rich and contain Sp1 binding sites. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays of the region containing the putative Sp1 sites showed several DNA-protein complexes in both the cell types. Mutations of the Sp1 sites decreased transcriptional activity in M-1 cells; however, these mutations had a marginal effect in the RCD cells. These results suggest that elements controlling renal cell type expression are located in the proximal 327 nucleotides of the 5′ flanking region of HSD11K.


This paper examines the tension between ICT users and legitimate authority in a network society. To explore this tension, this study reports a case study in the setting of a Taiwanese Christian church, particularly how the church authority was affected by the adoption of new technology. Drawing from a circuits of power perspective, the result of this study reveals that the intertwined relationship among information technology, social structure and users during the process of technology adoption and assimilation. The findings indicate that the implementation of Internet technologies in the church has challenged the traditional role of authority and distorted the power of information flow among stakeholders in the church. Our work shed light on how Internet technologies shape, and are shaped by the membership and belief in the context of religion.


Introduction Despite the ever-increasing popularity of bicycle racing, the high perceived risk of acute injuries and the recent media attention, studies of acute injuries in road cyclists are rather scarce. The goal of this study is to evaluate the incidence, aetiology and patterns of acute injuries in non-professional competitive road cyclists during cycling races in Flanders. Material and methods All acute injuries that occurred during competition in Flanders in 2002 and 2012, collected in the injury registry, were analysed. The incidence, injury rate, diagnosis, circumstances and level of performance were evaluated. Results A total of 777 documented reports of accidents (1230 injuries) were retrieved for the years 2002 and 2012. There was no significant difference between incidence and injury rate between 2002 and 2012. There was a strong significant difference in the incidence between the different levels of performance in both seasons. Severe injuries were seen in 29.5% in 2002 and in 30.1% in 2012. The most common location of a severe injury was the hand. Collision with another rider was the most common cause of injury. Conclusions Almost 1 out of 6 non-professional competitive road cyclists had an accident during cycling races in 2002 and 2012 in Flanders and collision with other riders was the most important cause of a crash. The most common lesion was abrasion, but almost one out of three riders had a severe injury.


This work aims to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs used for the management of chronic viral hepatitis in the three major university hospitals in Abidjan. This is a retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study of 203 patients investigated for treatment protocols, patient parameters before and after treatment. It emerged that treatment with pegylated Interferon alpha 2a resulted in a significant decrease in viremia for an average treatment duration of 48 weeks in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B; on the one hand, the combination of Ribavirin + pegylated Interferon alpha 2a, Ribavirin + Sofosbuvir and Daclatasvir + Sofosbuvir provided cure in patients with chronic viral hepatitis C for an average duration of treatment of 12 to 24 weeks. However, the cure of patients with chronic viral hepatitis C was mostly clinical. The examinations that could attest to the healing were not performed by most of the patients, due to the high costs of virologic and enzymatic ones. These results constitute an important database for the therapeutic survey of people with chronic viral hepatitis in Cote d'Ivoire and an additional argument to accelerate the general subvention for the management of these viral diseases.

 Key words: Viral hepatitis B-C-D, antiviral drugs, virologic markers, enzymatic markers.


The loss analysis of a switched capacitor converter (SCC) with a boost reactor is discussed in this paper. The proposed SCC can deliver an output voltage independent from the circuit structure comparing to other voltage control methods. The main feature of this circuit is that most of the energy for the boost up function is transferred from a flying capacitor which results the inductance of the input reactor can be reduced. The reactor size of the proposed SCC is smaller than that of the conventional boost converters. A 1000 W 3-level SCC prototype has been built and tested. The efficiency of 97.8% is achieved at 1000 W when the boost up ratio is three times. Moreover, the loss analysis shows the main loss of the proposed SCC is the diode conduction loss.


The greater sciatic notch (GSN) is one of the most important and frequently used characteristics for determining the sex of skeletons, but objective assessment of this characteristic is not without its difficulties. We tested the robustness of GSN sex classification on the basis of geometric morphometrics (GM) and support vector machines (SVM), using two different population samples. Using photographs, the shape of the GSN in 229 samples from two assemblages (documented collections of a Euroamerican population from the Maxwell Museum, University of New Mexico, and a Hispanic population from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City) was segmented automatically and evaluated using six curve representations. The optimal dimensionality for each representation was determined by finding the best sex classification. The classification accuracy of the six curve representations in our study was similar but the highest and concurrently homologous cross-validated accuracy of 92% was achieved for a pooled sample using Fourier coefficient and Legendre polynomial methods. The success rate of our classification was influenced by the number of semilandmarks or coefficients and was only slightly affected by GSN marginal point positions. The intrapopulation variability of the female GSN shape was significantly lower compared with the male variability, possibly as a consequence of the intense selection pressure associated with reproduction. Males were misclassified more often than females. Our results show that by using a suitable GSN curve representation, a GM approach, and SVM analysis, it is possible to obtain a robust separation between the sexes that is stable for a multipopulation sample.


This work summarizes the outcome of recent research by the authors on modeling the formation of seam welds in aluminum extrusion and on evaluating the related mechanical properties on the final products. A profile with a seam weld in the middle section was produced with different die designs in order to investigate the relation between die design and local welding parameters, such as contact pressure, temperature, time of contact, strain and strain rate paths. The local welding conditions were evaluated by complete thermo-mechanical 3D FEM simulation of the processes. Specimens were extracted from the profiles and tensile tested, the resulting mechanical properties being discussed with respect to the local welding conditions. The possibility to adopt criteria for assessing the welding quality is discussed, together with the effect of high speed damage cracking.


Drugs of abuse regulate the transcription factor cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) in striatal regions, including the nucleus accumbens (NAc). To explore how regulation of CREB in the NAc affects behavior, we used herpes simplex virus (HSV) vectors to elevate CREB expression in this region or to overexpress a dominant-negative mutant CREB (mCREB) that blocks CREB function. Rats treated with HSV-mCREB in place conditioning studies spent more time in environments associated with cocaine, indicating increased cocaine reward. Conversely, rats treated with HSV-CREB spent less time in cocaine-associated environments, indicating increased cocaine aversion. Studies in which drug–environment pairings were varied to coincide with either the early or late effects of cocaine suggest that CREB-associated place aversions reflect increased cocaine withdrawal. Because cocaine withdrawal can be accompanied by symptoms of depression, we examined how altered CREB function in the NAc affects behavior in the forced swim test (FST). Elevated CREB expression increased immobility in the FST, an effect that is opposite to that caused by standard antidepressants and is consistent with a link between CREB and dysphoria. Conversely, overexpression of mCREB decreased immobility, an effect similar to that caused by antidepressants. Moreover, the κ opioid receptor antagonistnor-Binaltorphimine decreased immobility in HSV-CREB- and HSV-mCREB-treated rats, suggesting that CREB-mediated induction of dynorphin (an endogenous κ receptor ligand) contributes to immobility behavior in the FST. Exposure to the FST itself dramatically increased CREB function in the NAc. These findings raise the possibility that CREB-mediated transcription within the NAc regulates dysphoric states.


Micellization is the most important property of surface agents. It plays an important role in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products. The surfactants have many applications in industry, agriculture, mining and oil recovery with functional properties as wetting, foaming and emulsifier in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. The micellization parameters of surfactants help the manufacture of pharmaceutical products to be appropriate and stable. Therefore, in this study, Polyoxyethylene lauryl ether (C12E23), Polyoxyethylene (10) cetyl ether (C16E10) and Polyoxyethylene (20) cetyl ether (C16E20) were chosen as the nonionic surfactants to examine the effect of temperature variation (10-80(°)C) on the Critical Micelle Concentration (CMC). The measurement of surface tension was done by a Du Nöuys ring method. The value of CMC was obtained from the surface tension vs. surfactant concentration curve. Since the temperature was increased, the CMC initially decreased and then increased for each surfactant because the formation of the hydrogen bond is harder in the high temperatures. The surface tension γCMC for all three surfactant solutions decreased monotonically as the temperature increased. δG(°)m, ΔH(°)m and ΔS°m as the thermodynamic parameters of micellization, were also estimated and analyzed. The ΔG(°)m was decreased (10-80(°)C) if the temperature was increased. The entropy and enthalpy correlation of micellization showed a significant linearity. For C12E23, C16E20 and C16 E10, the compensation temperature (Tc) was obtained 309.5, 313.2 and 314.4 K, respectively. The calculated thermodynamic parameters showed that the entropy influenced on the micellization process at lower temperature, but it affected by enthalpy when temperature was increased.


The time-dependent elimination kinetics of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) has been associated with autoinduction of its metabolism and has led to the hypothesis that rapid development of acquired clinical resistance to ATRA may be prevented by coadministration of metabolic inhibitors. This study in rats was performed to investigate the pharmacokinetics and onset of time-dependent elimination of ATRA, with the purpose of establishing an animal model suitable for in vivo preclinical studies of compounds capable of inhibiting ATRA metabolism. After the intravenous (IV) bolus administration of single doses of ATRA (1.60 mg kg(-1) and 0.40 mg kg(-1)), the plasma concentration-time curves showed an accelerated decline at 180 minutes after dosing. The plasma clearance (Cl) of ATRA, determined after IV administration of a second dose (1.60 mg kg(-1)), at 180 minutes was greater than Cl after a single dose, thus indicating the existence of a time-dependent elimination process detectable 180 minutes after administration of the first dose. Such time-dependent elimination was confirmed by means of an IV constant-rate infusion of 0.48 mg h(-1) kg(-1) of ATRA during 10 hours. Peak plasma ATRA concentration was achieved at 180 minutes, after which the plasma concentration decreased to reach a much lower apparent steady-state drug concentration at 420 minutes. The area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) obtained after oral administration of a second ATRA dose (1.60 mg kg(-1)) was approximately 8% of the AUC obtained after a single oral dose; consistent with a time-dependent increase in the elimination of ATRA, as was observed after IV administration.


Continuity in power supply for the consumers is a permanent concern from the utilities, pursued with the development of technological solutions in order to improve the performance of network restoration conditions. Using remotely controlled switches corresponds to one possible approach to reach such an improvement and gives some convenient remote resources, such as the fault detect, isolation, and transfer loads. This paper presents a methodology implemented in a computer programming language for allocation of these devices in electric distribution systems based on the analytic hierarchical process (AHP) method. The main contributions focus on considering the impact of installing remotely controlled switches in the reliability indices and the AHP decision-making algorithm for the switches allocation. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated with case studies involving actual systems of the AES Sul utility located in Southern Brazil.


This paper studies the principal aspects of meter of three traditional Kakataibo chants (a Panoan group of Peruvian Amazonia). Regarding meter, Kakataibo chants exhibit patterns relevant for the cross-linguistic study of line and meter typology. I describe the Kakataibo system of versification as a quantitative meter that counts an exact number of moras and regulates the distribution of these by imposing grouping restrictions; also, it establishes weight differences between light, heavy and superheavy syllables, and vowel lengthening plays an important role for meter purposes. In addition, the average duration of lines tends to last less than three seconds and decreases progressively during performance.


The attractiveness of new omega-3 (ω-3) polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) monoglycerides (MAGs) lies in the amphiphilic nature and the beneficial health effects as PUFA precursors in various disorders including cancer, pulmonary hypertension, and inflammatory diseases. For exploring the potential therapeutic applications of these new amphiphilic lipids, particularly as main lipid constituents in the development of nanocarriers for delivery of drugs and PUFAs, it is of paramount importance to gain insight into their self-assembly behavior on exposure to excess water. This work describes the structural characteristics of self-assemblies based on two newly synthesized MAGs, namely docosahexaenoic acid (MAG-DHA) and docosapentaenoic acid (MAG-DPA) monoglycerides, on exposure to excess water. We found that both lipids tend to form a dominant inverse hexagonal (H2) phase in excess water at 25 °C and a temperature-triggered structural transition to an inverse micellar solution (L2 phase) is detected similar to that recently reported (A. Yaghmur et al., Langmuir, 2017, 33, 14045-14057) for eicosapentaenoic acid monoglyceride (MAG-EPA). An experimental SAXS structural evaluation study on the temperature-dependent behavior of these new monoglycerides is provided, and the effects of unsaturation degree and fatty acyl chain length on the self-assembled structural features in excess water and on the H2-L2 phase transition temperature are discussed. In addition, hexosomes stabilized by using the triblock copolymer F127 and the food-grade emulsifier citrem were investigated to gain insights into the effects of stabilizer and temperature on the internal nanostructure. These nanoparticles are attractive for use in the development of nanocarriers for delivering drugs and/or nutritional compounds as the beneficial health effects of ω-3 PUFA monoglycerides can be combined with those of loaded therapeutic agents or nutraceuticals.


Two field studies were conducted at the Multipurpose Crop Nursery research field of the University of Education, Winneba, Mampong-Ashanti in the Forest-Savannatransitionzone of Ghana from September-December, 2009 and April-July, 2010, respectively to determine the effects of various rates of Lumax 537.5 SE herbicide on maize growth and yield. The experimental design used was a randomized complete block with four replicates. The treatments were Lumax 537.5 SE at rates 2, 4, 6, and 8l/ha and Hoe-weeded with Unweeded treatment as control. The maize cultivar, Akposoe was used. Differences in percentage of crop establishment among treatments were not significant in both the years. However, 4l, 6l, 8l Lumax/ha and Hoe-weeded treatments produced similarly taller maize plants from 6 to 8 weeks after planting (WAP) with greater leaf area index at 6 WAP and shoot dry matter at 6 WAP and harvest than 2l Lumax/ha and Unweeded control in both years. Differences in 100-seed weight and grain yield of maize among Hoe-weeded and Lumax at 4l/ha, 6l/ha and 8l/ha treatments were not significant during both cropping seasons. The results clearly Original Research Article Anorvey et al.; IJPSS, 21(2): 1-11, 2018; Article no.IJPSS.38795 2 indicated that the use of 4l Lumax 537.5 SE/ha produced similar maize growth and yields as the higher use rates of 6l Lumax/ha and 8l Lumax/ha and therefore can be recommended for adoption across the transitional agro-ecological zone of Ghana.


ABSTRACT Research question: To which extent do Disabled Supporter Associations (DSAs) contribute to improve access of fans with disabilities to football? This research question addresses two interrelated gaps: the lack of attention to supporters in European policies on inclusion in and through sport, and the excessive focus on physical barriers over other dimensions of access in both policy and research on disability and sport. Research methods: The study uses visual auto-ethnography. Seven disabled supporters, members of three different DSAs at football clubs in England, took part in the study. They were asked to take photographs of their life as a supporter over a period of eight weeks, and were interviewed at the end to discuss and clarify the meaning of the pictures. Results and findings: Attention to physical spaces is not enough to ensure inclusivity in the stands. Further dimensions need attention by clubs, including knowledge, relationships and participation, and power of advocacy. DSAs have the potential to play a pivotal role in helping clubs improving their provisions for disabled fans, since they act as both a social forum and point of contact for clubs, but they are hampered for their lack or resources and clubs' almost exclusive focus on physical access. Nind and Seale's multi-dimensional model of access for the disabled is one useful way of interpreting these results. Implications: Conceptual understandings of access and inclusion can be broadened by using Nind and Seale's model. Policies addressing inclusion in football should focus not only on those doing sport, but also on those spectating.


Recent experience and developments on drought knowledge are encouraging modern societies to shift from a traditional crisis-based management to a risk management approach. In southern Portugal, new EU legislation (and namely the Water Framework Directive) has set the framework for several policies and juridical tools covering drought and water scarcity issues, now driven by the principles of integrated and sustainable use of water resources. This paper aims to assess the role and effectiveness of all major legal tools covering drought risk management and drought impact mitigation, as well as their level of integration and coordination. The tools currently enforced in the region that were thoroughly analysed were the National Water Plan, two River Basin Plans (Guadiana River and Algarve Streams), the 1998 PortugueseSpanish Convention on the use of shared waters, the ad-hoc Commission for Drought 2005, and several activity regulations, namely on domestic water supply and agricultural irrigation. Results point out the dispersion and lack of coordination within this wide range of legal instruments, especially under scarcity conditions as occurred in 2004 and 2005, calling for improved linkages between such tools under an integrated regional drought plan. Such plan should be consistent with the Water Framework Directive, integrating resources, policies and institutions, and elaborated in close collaboration with the neighbouring Iberian water regions.


The service-oriented approach is known to be adequate for building distributed applications for mobile ad hoc networks, and a number of successful research works using this approach in routed MANETs have already been conducted. Yet, providing support for service-oriented applications poses specific problems in disconnected MANETs where end-to-end connectivity is not guaranteed. This paper presents a prototype Java middleware support for delay- tolerant service provision in disconnected MANETs. It first describes the lower layer of this middleware, which implements a protocol for document dissemination that leverages on delay-tolerant, opportunistic and content-based communication. It then explains how service discovery and service invocation mechanisms can be implemented on top of this protocol. Finally, simulation results are presented, which show that this approach gives good results compared with an alternative approach that consists in exploiting single-hop interactions between service providers and service clients.


Grand Prix cars are the fastest circuit racing cars in production, a large part of this is due to the high downforce generated by the car's aerodynamic surfaces, in excess of the car's own weight above 150kph. It is well known that a race-car operating in the wake of an upstream vehicle experiences a reduction of aerodynamic drag, and a corresponding increase of ultimate straight line speed. There is also a loss of aerodynamic downforce, predominately from surfaces acting on the front axle. The effect of the reduced downforce is an increase of lap-time and degraded handling characteristics, thereby reducing tyre life and the ability to follow the lead car or affect an overtake.

The wake of a generic Formula 1 car is shown to be characterized by a counter-rotating vortex pair, with centreline up-wash and a region of total pressure deficit, which is predominately a dynamic pressure deficit, with Cpo < 0. The streamwise vorticity is dominated by the tip vortex pair emanating from the rear wing, which merges with other vortices, forming a coherent structure by just half a car length behind the rear of the car. The vortices have an influence on the location and strength of the total pressure deficit, sweeping the loss to the centreline, and upwards to surround the vortex cores, forming a 'mushroom' shaped wake.

The effect of an upstream vehicle wake has been measured in the wind tunnel and computationally, with downforce and drag losses of up to 67% and 29% respectively. The use of a short axial length bluff-bodied wake generator allows for a longer axial separation to be achieved with a complete downstream vehicle, in a conventional length wind tunnel working section, without further compromising the downstream model scale.

The sensitivity of the downstream car to the various salient flow features in the upstream wake have been investigated using the method of imposing the wake on the inlet of a CFD simulation. Imposing the wake has meant that the wake can be altered without the need to modify the upstream vehicle surfaces. The key wake feature has been shown to be the axial velocity deficit, which accounts for up to 90% of the downforce loss experienced by the following vehicle. While secondary flows in the wake do result in downforce loss for the following vehicle, they are also beneficial in diverting the dynamic pressure deficit over the following vehicle, thereby introducing higher energy flow onto the following vehicle.


In this paper, cross‐optimization of accuracy, latency, and energy in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) through infection spreading is investigated. Our solution is based on a dual‐layer architecture for efficient data harvesting in a WSN, in which, the lower layer sensors are equipped with a novel adaptive data propagation method inspired by infection spreading and the upper layer consists of randomly roaming data harvesting agents. The proposed infection spreading mechanisms, namely random infection (RI) and linear infection (LI), are implemented at the lower layer. The entire sensor field is dynamically separated into several busy areas (BA) and quiet areas (QA). According to the BA or QA classification, the level of importance is defined, on which, the optimal number of infections for a particular observation is evaluated. Therefore, the accessed probability for observations with a relatively higher importance level is adaptively increased. The proposed mechanisms add further value to the data harvesting operation by compensating for its potential lack of coverage due to random mobility and tolerable delay, thus a relatively higher accuracy and latency requirements can be guaranteed for the optimization of energy consumption in a dynamically changing environment. Further, with the cost of processing simple location information, LI is proved to outperform RI. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


produced by the form of bias suggested. Also, as control subjects experience some level of environmental tobacco smoke23 our estimates of risk could be conservative. Mr Lee misunderstands our use of urinary cotinine concentrations in passive smokers. We were using published data to establish whether our study had sufficient statistical power to detect the size of risk that might be expected among passive smokers. IfMr Lee is correct and urinary cotinine concentrations are equivalent to a lower dose than assumed then our decision not to rely solely on statistical significance as evidence of a genuine effect was definitely correct. Ours was a cohort study of a general population and was not subject to the biases associated with a case-control design. In addition, subjects reported their own smoking histories, and environmental exposure was based on record linkage of cohabitees, thereby avoiding the need to rely on self reporting of passive exposure. Our observations on lung cancer may be based on only nine deaths but are consistent with the result of a meta-analysis2 combining 13 separate studies, which concluded that breathing other people's tobacco smoke causes lung cancer. The importance of our study lies in the estimates of risk for ischaemic heart disease (based on 84 deaths), all causes of death related to smoking (175 deaths), mortality from all causes (263 deaths), respiratory symptoms (292 cases), and cardiovascular symptoms (117 cases). The consistent increase in risks for such a wide variety of health outcomes from an unbiased prospective cohort study together with a dose-response relation in passive smokers strongly suggests that there is now a case to be answered against passive smoking that extends beyond the causation of lung cancer. DAVID J HOLE CHARLES R GILLIS


The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the relation between management accounting information and control system design and environmental uncertainty i.e. intensity of competition. This study empirically tests the association between the types of competitive intensity and the investment in integrated cost management systems. The investment of cost management systems is measured using a comprehensive set of cost management practices across the value chain. These systems are tested as integrated strategies i.e. either upstream focussed or downstream focussed. Based on a sample of 77 responses from a survey of Australian manufacturing and service organisations, the study demonstrates that the association between the level of integrated cost management system investment and the individual intensity of competition dimensions of purchase and marketing for upstream-focussed systems whereas downstream-focussed systems are associated with the individual dimensions of price, technical personnel and purchase competitive intensities. This study is one of a limited number that provide evidence of (i) the importance of controlling for the type of competition in the design of management accounting information and control systems, specifically for cost management systems; and (ii) provides a comprehensive examination of cost management practice investment and integration across the value chain.


© www.appliedradiology.com April 2017 The role of MRI in the evaluation of adrenal lesions has evolved tremendously over the last twenty years. This is due primarily to the modality's inherent tissue characterizing ability, but also to a variety of accelerated pulse sequences which confer some advantages over other imaging modalities used for adrenal imaging. MRI's absence of ionizing radiation is additionally beneficial, particularly in young patients or in those undergoing repeated imaging. The detection of incidental adrenal lesions has increased with the widespread use of cross-sectional imaging.1,2 Incidental adrenal nodules are present in approximately 5% of all abdominal CT examinations in patients with no known malignancy or endocrine abnormality.3,4 The incidence increases to between 9% and 13% in patients imaged for a known malignancy.3 Up to 27% of oncology patients will have microscopic adrenal metastases and approximately 50% of imaging-detected adrenal lesions in cancer patients will represent metastatic disease.5-8 Accurate characterization of adrenal lesions in patients with a known primary malignancy is extremely relevant in clinical practice.9 For example, an isolated ipsilateral adrenal metastasis in a patient with resectable, primary, nonsmall cell lung carcinoma is treated as localized disease. In such a patient, resection of an isolated adrenal metastasis has been demonstrated to extend disease-free survival. 10


Our paper contributes to the common ownership debate by empirically assessing the link between common ownership and profitability as a proxy for market competition. Rather than focusing on single industries, as most related studies do, we assess the common ownership hypothesis in the aggregate, using a panel of about 3,000 U.S. firms in about 200 industries over a 21-year period. We hypothesize that if anticompetitive effects due to common ownership were present within individual industries, then the same anticompetitive outcomes should be observed when the data is expanded to cover all industries and over an extended period of time. We explore the statistical relationship between our chosen measure of common ownership and profitability across multiple model specifications, such as (1) two alternative econometric models, (2) different sets of control variables, (3) different time periods, and (4) four variations of MHHIΔ. We do not find conclusive evidence that common ownership is associated with industry-level profit margins.


Summary Matrix γ-carboxyglutamate (Gla) protein (MGP) is a potent local inhibitor of cardiovascular calcification and accumulates at areas of calcification in its uncarboxylated form (ucMGP). We previously found significantly lower circulating ucMGP levels in patients with a high vascular calcification burden. Here we report on the potential of circulating ucMGP to serve as a biomarker for vascular calcification in haemodialysis (HD) patients. Circulating ucMGP levels were measured with an ELISA-based assay in 40 HD patients who underwent multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) scanning to quantify the extent of coronary artery calcification (CAC). The mean ucMGP level in HD patients (193 ± 65 nM) was significantly lower as compared to apparently healthy subjects of the same age (441 ± 97 nM; p < 0.001) and patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) without CAC (560 ± 140 nM; p < 0.001). Additionally, ucMGP levels correlated inversely with CAC scores (r = –0.41; p = 0.009), and this correlation persisted after adjustment for age, dialysis vintage and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP). Since circulating ucMGP levels are significantly and inversely correlated with the extent of CAC in HD patients, ucMGP may become a tool for identifying HD patients with a high probability of cardiovascular calcification.


ABSTRACT Treatment with proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) might be associated with neuropsychological side effects. We examined the association between use of PPIs and depressive symptoms in an elderly population. Mood was assessed by the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) in all 344 inhabitants of Tuscania (Italy) aged 75 years and over, without exclusion criteria; depression was defined by a GDS score ≥11. Use of PPIs was associated with a higher GDS score in linear regression analysis (B = 2.43; 95% CI = 0.49–4.38; p = 0.014) after adjusting; also, use of PPIs was associated with increased adjusted probability of depression in logistic regression (OR = 2.38; 95% CI = 1.02–5.58; p = 0.045). Higher PPIs dosages were associated with increased probability of depression (p for trend = 0.014). This association was independent of the diagnosis of peptic disease, as well as the use of antidepressant medications. No association was found between use of H2-blockers or antacids and the GDS score. Calculation of the population attributable risk indicated that 14% of depression cases could be avoided by withdrawal of PPIs. Use of PPIs might represent a frequent cause of depression in older populations; thus, mood should be routinely assessed in elderly patients on PPIs.


The relationship between fractal dimension of fine aggregates and the chloride resistance of concrete was investigated in this study. Both concrete and mortar specimens were cast. Concrete specimens were in the same mix design as the mortar specimens except for the coarse aggregates. The specimens were divided into different groups based on the gradation of the fine aggregates. The chloride resistances of concrete specimens were tested by using the rapid chloride migration method. The results indicate that high volume fractal dimensions of fine aggregates have positive impacts on the chloride resistance of concrete. The simplified calculating formulas were proposed.


Cyclophosphamide is an alkylating agent used to treat malignancies and immune-mediated inflammatory non-malignant processes such as lupus nephritis and immune-mediated neuropathies. It has been studied as a treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) for the past 30 years and is used by physicians in selected cases of progressive or worsening MS. Review of published reports suggests that it is efficacious in cases of worsening MS that have an inflammatory component as evidenced by relapses and/or gadolinium (Gd)-enhancing lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or in patients in earlier stages of disease where inflammation predominates over degenerative processes in the central nervous system (CNS). There is no evidence of efficacy in primary progressive MS or later stages of secondary progressive MS. Although a general immunosuppressant that affects both T- and B-cell function, cyclophosphamide has selective immune effects in MS by suppressing IL-12 and Th1-type responses and enhancing Th2/Th3 responses (IL-4, IL-10, TGF-beta; eosinophils in peripheral blood). Side effects include nausea, alopecia, infertility, bladder toxicity and risk of malignancy. The most commonly used regimens involve every 4- to 8-week outpatient IV pulse therapy given with or without corticosteroids and are usually well-tolerated by patients. Cyclophosphamide is currently used in patients whose disease is not controlled by beta-interferon or glatiramer acetate and those with rapidly worsening MS.


Background: There are two principles of operative technique for the treatment of acromioclavicular dislocation. One is transarticular of the acromioclavicular fixation of the acromioclavicular joint and the other is coracoclavicular fixation. Both two techniques may or may not include ligamentous repaired. However, both techniques have many complications.   Objective: To present a new operative technique which based on extensive studying of anatomy of this particular area. This technique is open reduction and transfixation the lateral end of clavicle to the base of acromion process with single malleolar screw and washer. Study Design:  Case report.  Setting:  Orthopedics department, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University. Results: The reliability technique was presented by using the aiming device for directing the drill from the clavicle to scapular spine. This technique was done in one patient. This technique provides the ritid and stable fixation of the joint, therefore, the patient can move his shoulder immediately after operation.  Conclusion: The new operative technique for acromioclavicular joint dislocation has been presented.


Drain bias induced threshold voltage variation in short channel polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are investigated, combining experimental measurements and two-dimensional numerical simulations. We show that drain induced barrier lowering and floating body effects, induced by impact ionization, are the main causes of such variations. Field enhanced mechanisms, causing leakage current, tend to mitigate the effect of impact ionization, since they provide an enhanced recombination rate in the high field region. This result is in contrast to what is suggested for silicon-on-insulator devices and also applied to polysilicon TFTs, where leakage current is assumed to contribute to floating body effects.Drain bias induced threshold voltage variation in short channel polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are investigated, combining experimental measurements and two-dimensional numerical simulations. We show that drain induced barrier lowering and floating body effects, induced by impact ionization, are the main causes of such variations. Field enhanced mechanisms, causing leakage current, tend to mitigate the effect of impact ionization, since they provide an enhanced recombination rate in the high field region. This result is in contrast to what is suggested for silicon-on-insulator devices and also applied to polysilicon TFTs, where leakage current is assumed to contribute to floating body effects.


A finite element approach is proposed for the acoustic analysis of automotive silencers including a perforated duct with uniform axial mean flow and an outer chamber with heterogeneous absorbent material. This material can be characterized by means of its equivalent acoustic properties, considered coordinate-dependent via the introduction of a heterogeneous bulk density, and the corresponding material airflow resistivity variations. An approach has been implemented to solve the pressure wave equation for a nonmoving heterogeneous medium, associated with the problem of sound propagation in the outer chamber. On the other hand, the governing equation in the central duct has been solved in terms of the acoustic velocity potential considering the presence of a moving medium. The coupling between both regions and the corresponding acoustic fields has been carried out by means of a perforated duct and its acoustic impedance, adapted here to include absorbent material heterogeneities and mean flow effects simultaneously. It has been found that bulk density heterogeneities have a considerable influence on the silencer transmission loss.


Intake of sugar containing drinks can aid performance in long aerobic exercise sessions. On the other hand, the effects on shorter sessions are less well characterized. The present study examined whether an effect could be seen in a shorter session when a nutraceutical beverage of carbohydrates (glucose, isomaltose, waxy maize) were combined with a small amount of protein plus nutritional antioxidants (� -carotene, vitamin C and vitamin E). Recreationally trained, young adults performed two aerobic exercise testings, 4 weeks apart (3 mile run time + distance in 25 minutes of stationary biking + a 90 second step test). At the second testing, subjects drank 6.5 oz of either placebo (N=20) or the nutraceutical beverage (N=20) before and after the run, and midway through the cycling. Neither beverage affected run time but the nutraceutical beverage increased biking distance and step number (p < 0.001 for bike distance, p < 0.01 for steps, paired t-test). The changes for each of the latter two assessments differed significantly between beverages (p < 0.01, unpaired t-test). In conclusion, acute use of a nutritional drink improved performance in middle + later stages of aerobic exercise lasting under 1 hour. Future work can establish an optimal ingredient mix.


by Emma Kostopolus This thesis examines how applying gamification (the practice of using games and game-based mechanics) in the composition classroom can help foster a safe environment for expression for members of the LGBT community. Role-playing games (RPGs) – both video games and classic tabletop games – allow players to create distinct, unique characters in a game-world that is entirely separate from their real-world identities. While acting as these characters, queer players can experiment with and express facets of their gender and sexual identities in a safe and nonjudgmental space, something that they may not be able to do in their real lives. By turning the composition classroom into a gamified experience with role-playing elements, teachers will be creating safer spaces for students from marginalized communities to share their experiences. Since unhindered expression is extremely important to the writing process, making sure that the composition classroom is a place where all students can freely discuss and share ideas will not only help queer students find acceptance within academia, but improve the overall quality of instruction and increase the potential for learning and student growth. USING ROLE-PLAYING GAMIFICATION TO CREATE SAFE SPACES FOR LGBT STUDENTS IN THE COMPOSITION CLASSROOM


Two methods are proposed for the computation of friction factors of commercial pipes. The first method applies the mean value of the zero velocity point (MZVP) to a theoretical friction factor equation, and the other directly computes the mean friction factor (MFF) by averaging the friction factor of both the smooth and rough walls while considering their relative contribution. The MFF method is preferred, because it is simple but covers all the flow characteristics of commercial pipes. Both MFF and MZVP methods consider two parts of a wall with different roughness heights: One part is rough and the other is smooth. A regression analysis was performed to determine optimum values of the roughness height and probability of encountering each part, using several sets of field data, including galvanized iron, wrought iron, cast iron, concrete, riveted steel, and concrete. The analysis showed that both the roughness height and the relative contribution of the rough part are strongly dependent on the pipe diameter. The MFF method gave an average error of less than 3%, whereas the traditional Colebrook-White equation gave an average error of more than 11% when compared with Colebrook's data.


Purpose – A huge amount of data are produced in the agriculture sector. Due to the huge number of these datasets it is necessary to use data analysis techniques in order to comprehend the data and extract useful information. The purpose of this paper is to measure, archetype and mine olea europaea production data. Design/methodology/approach – This work applies three different data mining techniques to data about Olea europaea var. media oblonga from the island of Thassos, at the northern part of Greece. The data were from 1,063 farmers from three different municipalities of Thassos, namely Kallirachi, Limenaria and Prinos and concerned the year 2010. They were analysed using the classification algorithm OneR, the clustering algorithm k-means and the association rule mining algorithm, Apriori from the WEKA data mining package. Also, new measures which quantify the performance of the productions of olives and oil are applied. Finally, archetypal analysis is applied in order to distinguish the most typical/stereotype farms for each region and describe their specific characteristics. Findings – The results indicate that organic cultivation could improve the production of olives and olive oil. Furthermore, the climate differences among the three municipalities seems to be a factor involved in production efficacy. Originality/value – It is the first time that data from the island of Thassos have been analysed systematically using a variety of data mining methods. Also, the measures proposed in the paper in order to analyse the data are new. Furthermore, archetypal analysis is proposed as a method to extract sterotypes/representative farms from the dataset.


Fisheries management is potentially a short-term measure for reducing floodplain fisheries degradation. This objective can only be achieved if adequate measures to improve fishery governance and ecosystem conservation are taken. The monitoring of fisheries management is likely to be important for understanding the effectiveness of local rules and the impacts on aquatic biodiversity. Given that monitoring is the periodic assessment of fish stock characteristics regarding reference data, adopting tools and procedures for monitoring at different scales is a challenging task. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have enabled local communities to gather data on key resources in a cost-effective way. This article presents a community-based monitoring of fisheries based of smartphones that supports the annual fishing quotas and legal harvest permits procedures. The precision of community-based monitoring data is assessed and a model to integrate these data into a large-scale monitoring scheme examined. Data collection performance was evaluated at communities in the Kaxinawa Nova Olinda Indigenous Territory, in the State of Acre, where fishery management was monitored. The results indicate that voluntary collectors are able to provide data with precision comparable with government agency measurements, but at lower cost.


PRL secretion is inhibited by dopamine (DA) input from two systems: the tuberoinfundibular (TIDA) with terminals in the median eminence, and the tuberohypophyseal (THDA) with terminals in the posterior pituitary. The aims of this study were 1) to determine the effects of pituitary stalk section (SS), which prevents DA input from the TIDA neurons, on PRL release, and 2) to assess if the anterior pituitary receives any DA input after SS. Ovariectomized rats were subjected to SS or sham surgery. Jugular blood was collected on the day of surgery (day 0) and for 6 days thereafter and was analyzed for PRL by RIA. DA concentration in the posterior pituitary was determined by HPLC. Unexpectedly, SS caused only a 2- to 3-fold initial rise in plasma PRL on day 0. This was followed by a gradual rise to 4-, 6-, and 8-fold above control levels on days 2, 4, and 6, respectively, without a further increase by 2 weeks. During this time, DA concentrations in the posterior pituitary progressively declined to 66%, 28%, and 6% of control values on days 1, 2, and 6 after SS, respectively. In the second experiment, intact and SS rats were treated with the DA receptor antagonist haloperidol. Haloperidol induced a dramatic 30- to 40-fold increase in plasma PRL in intact rats. Haloperidol induced a 3-fold rise in plasma PRL on day 1 after SS and a transient 2.5-fold rise on day 2. On day 6 after SS, when DA in the posterior pituitary was barely detectable, haloperidol failed to increase PRL secretion. The DA agonist apomorphine caused similar inhibitions of PRL release on days 1 and 6 after SS. Injections of TRH stimulated PRL secretion equally well in intact and SS rats. We conclude that SS does not induce refractoriness to PRL secretagogues or a dysfunction of the anterior pituitary DA receptors. The immediate rise in PRL after SS is modest because the anterior pituitary still receives DA input from the posterior pituitary. A gradual exhaustion of posterior pituitary DA, caused by the disconnection of the THDA terminals from their perikarya, leads to the progressive rise in plasma PRL levels. The DA input affecting PRL release is derived exclusively from the TIDA and THDA neurons, but their relative contributions are yet unknown.


The traditional virtual machine (VM) building and and deployment process is centered around the virtual machine hard disk image. The packages comprising the VM operating system are carefully selected, hard disk images are built for a variety of different hypervisors, and images have to be distributed and decompressed in order to instantiate a virtual machine. Within the HEP community, the CernVM File System (CernVM-FS) has been established in order to decouple the distribution from the experiment software from the building and distribution of the VM hard disk images. We show how to get rid of such pre-built hard disk images altogether. Due to the high requirements on POSIX compliance imposed by HEP application software, CernVM-FS can also be used to host and boot a Linux operating system. This allows the use of a tiny bootable CD image that comprises only a Linux kernel while the rest of the operating system is provided on demand by CernVM-FS. This approach speeds up the initial instantiation time and reduces virtual machine image sizes by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, security updates can be distributed instantaneously through CernVM-FS. By leveraging the fact that CernVM-FS is a versioning file system, a historic analysis environment can be easily re-spawned by selecting the corresponding CernVM-FS file system snapshot.


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and Practice of Modem Textual Criticism (Eng. tr. Erroll F. Rhodes, Brill/Eerdmans [1987], Gu75/$34, pp. xviii + 338, ISBN 90-04-08367-7/0-8028-3620-8) contains a history of printed editions of the Greek New Testament: this is followed by a description of the transmission of the text and by lists of extant mss. A short section on the early versions precedes chapter v: 'Introduction to the use of the modern editions'


Thin film components for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have been investigated in this thesis. This work focuses on electrolyte materials such as samarium doped ceria (SDC) and cathode materials including neodymium barium cobalt oxide (NBCO) and barium calcium yttrium iron oxide.

Single layer growth of NBCO or SDC is achieved on single crystal strontium titanate (001) before these materials were grown via pulsed laser deposition as a bi-layer and multilayers. Ordered NBCO required deposition at 850°C, whereas it was found that the SDC grew with a lower surface roughness at lower temperatures of around 650°C. The motivation was to investigate how the conductivity is affected by the interfaces between these layers, as motivated by previous studies of yttrium stabilised zirconia (YSZ) with strontium titanate (STO). NBCO was found to be unstable at the temperatures required for AC impedance measurements. From the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) data there is likely migration of Nd into the SDC layers. The interfaces are also less sharp for the multilayer films deposited at the higher temperature for the SDC growth. However, in all cases the SDC growth appears more favourable in the TEM when compared to the NBCO, with some regions even showing Co-metal and fluorite structures potentially attributed to Co-Ox where we would expect to see the perovskite block.

Thin films of barium calcium yttrium iron oxide were grown on single crystal strontium titanate (001). The material is a candidate cathode for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and in the intermediate temperature (IT) region at 600°C the in-plane AC conductivity of the thin film is found to be 30.0Scm-1, significantly enhanced over 3.5Scm-1 found for the polycrystalline form. This is assigned to reduction of the grain boundary density and alignment of the planes predicted to have the highest electronic and ionic conductivities. The symmetry of the film appears to be tetragonal within the resolution of the measurements employed, as opposed to the orthorhombic symmetry of the bulk phase, which may be attributed to the in-plane structural match between the cubic STO substrate and the grown layer.

Three potential geometries investigating both single and double-sided growth for measuring the area specific resistance of thin films are discussed and an experimental prototype constructed and tested.


We have known for many years that estrogen is more than the female hormone. It is essential in the male gonads, and in both sexes, estrogen has functions in the skeleton and central nervous system, on behavior, and in the cardiovascular and immune systems. An important aspect of the discovery of estrogen receptor (ER) beta is that the diverse functions of estrogen can now be divided into those mediated by ERalpha and those mediated by ERbeta. Pharmacological exploitation of this division of the labors of estrogen is facilitated by the ligand-binding specificity and selective tissue distribution of the two ERs. Because the ligand binding domains of ERalpha and ERbeta are significantly different from each other, selective ligands can be (and have been) developed to target the estrogenic pathway that is malfunctioning, without interfering with the other estrogen-regulated pathways. Because of the absence of ERbeta from the adult pituitary and endometrium, ERbeta agonists can be used to target ERbeta with no risk of adverse effects from chemical castration and uterine cancer. Some of the diseases in which there is hope that ERbeta agonists will be of benefit are prostate cancer, autoimmune diseases, colon cancer, malignancies of the immune system, and neurodegeneration.


This Article examines 4,668 Oklahoma homicide cases with an identified suspect that occurred during a twenty-three year period between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 2012. Among these, we identified 153 cases that ended with a death sentence. Overall we found that while the defendant's race did not correlate with a death sentence, there was a strong correlation with the race of the victim, with cases with white victims significantly more likely to end with a death sentence than cases with non-white victims. Homicides with female victims were also more likely to result in a death sentence than other cases. We then examined whether the homicide included multiple victims and/or additional felony circumstances, and coded each case to indicate whether it included zero, one, or two of these "additional legally relevant factors." Using logistic regression analysis, where the effects of each predictor variable can be isolated, the data indicate that 1) having a white female victim, 2) having a white male victim, 3) having a female victim from a minority race or ethnicity, 4) having one additional legally relevant factor, and 5) having two additional legally relevant factors present are statistically significant predictors of a death sentence. Overall, the data show that the odds of a death sentence for those with white female victims are 9.59 times higher than in cases with minority male victims. The odds of a death sentence for those with white male victims are 3.22 times higher than the odds of a death sentence with minority male victims. Finally, the odds of a death sentence for those with minority female victims are 8.68 times higher than the odds of a death sentence with minority male victims. All these race/gender effects are net of our two control variables (multiple murder victims and the presence of additional felony circumstances).


BACKGROUND
The need for mental health care among children and adolescents in Iran, as in other low and middle income countries (LAMIC) remains mostly unmet. In this paper, we sought to provide an overview of the extent of unmet need and mental health services in Iran. We also aimed to propose approaches to address this gap.

METHOD
We reviewed the published epidemiologic studies of child and adolescent mental and behavioral health problems in Iran. We also examined the current status of child mental health services and the gaps between current needs and available services based on published literature that included papers published in scientific journals, as well as governmental and other administrative reports. The contextual issues relevant to child mental health care were also explored, as well as the possibilities to introduce new or scale up promising services.

RESULTS
Child and adolescent mental and behavioral health problems are highly prevalent in Iran. Different studies have estimated that 16.7% to 36.4% of children and adolescents suffer from one or more mental health problems. However, there is a serious scarcity of resources to meet this need. Available services are delivered by independent public organizations (e.g., Ministry of Health, Welfare Organization, and Ministry of Education) or private sector with inefficient communication and collaboration among them and no mandatory national mental health policy. Available specialized child and adolescent services are mostly confined to small inpatient units and university outpatient facilities in larger cities, and there is a scarce evidence for  the effectiveness of the available services.

CONCLUSIONS
Expansion of primary care's role in timely detection and management of child and adolescent mental health problems, implementation of task-shifting and -sharing initiatives, as well as improved collaboration among responsible governmental and non-governmental sectors are some of the most promising future venues to improve mental health care for the Iranian youth.


Macular corneal dystrophy (MCD) is an autosomal recessive disease featured by bilateral progressive stromal clouding and loss of vision, consequently necessitating corneal transplantation. Variants in CHST6 gene have been recognized as the most critical genetic components in MCD. Although many CHST6 variants have been described until now, the detailed mechanisms underlying MCD are still far from understood. In this study, we integrated all the reported CHST6 variants described in 408 MCD cases, and performed a comprehensive evaluation to better illustrate the causality of these variants. The results showed that majority of these variants (165 out of 181) could be classified as pathogenic or likely pathogenic. Interestingly, we also identified several disease causal variants with ethnic specificity. In addition, the results underscored the strong correlation between mutant frequency and residue conservation in the general population (Spearman's correlation coefficient = -0.311, P = 1.20E-05), thus providing potential candidate targets for further genetic manipulation. The current study highlighted the demand of further functional investigations to evaluate the causality of CHST6 variants, so as to promote earlier accurate diagnosis of MCD and future development of potential targets for genetic therapy.


Abstract
Cross neutralization and precipitin tests were performed with coral snake venoms and rabbit antisera against five venoms to determine the most suitable venoms for producing a polyvalent antivenin useful in treating persons bitten by coral snakes. Antisera were produced against Micrurus species M. fulvius, M. frontalis, M. spixii, M. carinicauda, and M. nigrocinctus venom but not against M. mipartitus venom. The latter was the only venom not neutralized by heterologous antisera. M. spixii venom was neutralized by all antisera. Anti-M. frontalis serum neutralized more heterologous (M. spixii) venom than homologous (M. frontalis) venom. The cross reactions suggest that some venom antigens that elicit precipitating and neutralizing antibodies may be distinct. M. frontalis venom produced the most cross-reactive neutralizing antibody, having neutralized five of six venoms. Of the venoms tested, M. frontalis venom would be most suitable for use in the production of a polyvalent coral snake antivenin.


We address quantum invisibility in the context of electronics in nanoscale quantum structures. In analogy with metamaterials, we use the freedom of design that quantum corrals provide and show that quantum mechanical objects can be hidden inside the corral, with respect to inelastic electron scattering spectroscopy in combination with scanning tunneling microscopy, and we propose a design strategy. A simple illustration of the invisibility is given in terms of an elliptic quantum corral containing a molecule, with a local vibrational mode, at one of the foci. Our work has implications to quantum information technology and presents new tools for nonlocal quantum detection and distinguishing between different molecules.


For my most recent, and likely final, foray into the Killed at Gettysburgdigital project, I delved into the story of Major Benjamin Watkins Leigh, Adjutant for "Alleghany" Johnson's Division. This has certainly been a departure from my previous projects, Private Hannibal Howell of the 76th New York Infantry and Private James Bedell of the 7th Michigan Cavalry. Rather than examining unknown stories of Union privates, I worked to narrate the life and death of a Confederate officer. This was certainly a challenge, both because I lacked familiarity with Confederate primary sources and because of my inherent Unionist biases. I decided that the best way for me to approach the topic was to research someone with clear causes that motivated him as he joined the Confederate army. This way I wouldn't need to presume his motivation and would instead be able to be fairly confident about why he chose to serve. Leigh's immense wealth, familial upbringing by a father who was a vocal defender of slavery, and ownership of dozens of human beings makes it painfully clear that he understood the cause of the Confederacy to be the cause of furthering slavery. [excerpt]


The covariance matrix plays an important role in statistical inference, yet modeling a covariance matrix is often a difficult task in practice due to its dimensionality and the non-negative definite constraint. In order to model a co- variance matrix effectively, it is typically broken down into components based on modeling considerations or mathematical convenience. Decompositions that have received recent research attention include variance components, spectral decompo- sition, Cholesky decomposition, and matrix logarithm. In this paper we study a statistically motivated decomposition which appears to be relatively unexplored for the purpose of modeling. We model a covariance matrix in terms of its correspond- ing standard deviations and correlation matrix. We discuss two general modeling situations where this approach is useful: shrinkage estimation of regression co- efficients, and a general location-scale model for both categorical and continuous variables. We present some simple choices for priors in terms of standard deviations and the correlation matrix, and describe a straightforward computational strategy for obtaining the posterior of the covariance matrix. We apply our method to real and simulated data sets in the context of shrinkage estimation.


AIM
The objective of the study was the investigation of anticancer activity of aconitine-containing herbal extract BC1 against two tumor strains with different metastatic potency: strongly metastatic Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) and its weakly metastatic counterpart (LLC-R9).

RESULTS
It was shown that low proliferative activity and high metastatic potential of LLC correlated with high refractoriness of this tumor to BC1 action, while significant inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis by BC1 were observed against actively proliferating and weakly metastatic LLC-R9. Maximal antitumor activity of BC1 (> 70% of inhibition of primary tumor growth) and antimetastatic action (88% of metastatic inhibition) were observed at the dose of MTD/20. High efficacy of BC1 against LLC-R9 was shown to be accompanied by 2-fold increase of apoptosis rate predominantly in diploid cells.

CONCLUSIONS
The obtained results showed the ability of aconitine-containing herbal extract BC1 to inhibit growth of primary tumor and metastases of actively proliferating and weakly metastatic variant of Lewis lung carcinoma.


Electron–hole pair separation and photocurrent conversion at two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) hybrid interfaces are important for achieving high performance, self-powered optoelectronic devices such as photodetectors. In this regard, herein, we designed and demonstrated a graphene/silicon (Gr/Si) (2D/3D) van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure for high-performance photodetectors, where graphene acts as an efficient carrier collector and Si as a photon absorption layer. The Gr/Si heterojunction exhibits superior Schottky diode characteristics with a barrier height of 0.76 eV and shows good performance as a self-powered detector, responding to 532 nm at zero bias. The self-powered photodetector functions under the mechanism of photovoltaic effect and exhibits responsivity as high as 510 mA W−1 with a photo switching ratio of 105 and a response time of 130 μs. The high-performance vdW heterostructure photodetector demonstrated herein is attributed to the Schottky barrier that effectively prolongs the lifetime of photo-excited carriers, resulting in fast separation and transport of photoexcited carriers. The self-powered photodetector with superior light harvesting and carrier transport behaviour is expected to open a window for the technological implementation of Si-based monolithic optoelectronic devices.


Simulation has played an important role along the years to predict systems' behaviour before their deployment. In the case of self-organising mechatronic systems simulation tools can help researchers and practitioners understanding the full potential of the solution as well as its underlying limitations. Self-organising mechatronic systems have passed a feasibility study and presented promising results. However they are rarely explored in industry in part due to the lack of methods to support their design and configuration and the difficulty to predict the systems' behaviour before their deployment. Given the cost and development time associated with building self-organising mechatronic systems this research problem has been left quite unattended. In this article we present a tool that enables the creation and simulation of Evolvable Production Systems and their self-organising behaviour. The generated operational results can posteriorly be used to analyse the suitability of different design and configuration alternatives for different product types and volumes.