Aim Culture is becoming increasingly important in relation to end of life (EoL) care in a context of globalization, migration and European integration. We explore and compare socio-cultural issues that shape EoL care in seven European countries and critically appraise the existing research evidence on cultural issues in EoL care generated in the different countries. Methods We scoped the literature for Germany, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Portugal, carrying out electronic searches in 16 international and country-specific databases and handsearches in 17 journals, bibliographies of relevant papers and webpages. We analysed the literature which was unearthed, in its entirety and by type (reviews, original studies, opinion pieces) and conducted quantitative analyses for each country and across countries. Qualitative techniques generated themes and sub-themes. Results A total of 868 papers were reviewed. The following themes facilitated cross-country comparison: setting, caregivers, communication, medical EoL decisions, minority ethnic groups, and knowledge, attitudes and values of death and care. The frequencies of themes varied considerably between countries. Sub-themes reflected issues characteristic for specific countries (e.g. culture-specific disclosure in the southern European countries). The work from the seven European countries concentrates on cultural traditions and identities, and there was almost no evidence on ethnic minorities. Conclusion This scoping review is the first comparative exploration of the cultural differences in the understanding of EoL care in these countries. The diverse body of evidence that was identified on socio-cultural issues in EoL care, reflects clearly distinguishable national cultures of EoL care, with differences in meaning, priorities, and expertise in each country. The diverse ways that EoL care is understood and practised forms a necessary part of what constitutes best evidence for the improvement of EoL care in the future.


Local fiscal autonomy is the extent to which local governments rely on locally raised revenues for funding (rather than receiving transfers from federal or provincial governments) and on their ability to set their own tax rates. A comparison of Toronto, London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Tokyo, and New York reveals that municipal expenditure responsibilities differ among the eight cities; municipal taxes (including local taxes and shared taxes) per capita differ; and, not surprisingly, the extent of local fiscal autonomy also differs. Benefits of tax autonomy include greater efficiency and accountability in the public sector. Tax autonomy gives voters some ability to decide on tax levels and, in that way, taxpayers are more aware of public-service outcomes. Moreover, for these eight cities, there appears to be a relationship between dependence on own-source revenues and the size of the metropolitan economy, with a couple of exceptions. Toronto is less dependent on intergovernmental transfers than many other major cities but, with the exception of London, it has fewer tax options than the other cities. New York is less reliant on state transfers and can levy many different taxes, although the City still needs state permission to implement some new taxes. Tokyo and Paris rely heavily on own–source revenues, but may not have much control over their tax sources. Frankfurt and Berlin have access to more tax sources than many of the other cities, but a portion of these are shared taxes over which they have no tax rate–setting ability. Madrid relies relatively heavily on property taxes but also shares in revenues from the personal income tax, value-added tax, and selected excise taxes. Canadian cities rely largely on the property tax and, although it is a good tax for local governments, it does not grow as the economy grows; it is also highly visible and politically contentious. Moreover, it is not the most appropriate tax to pay for social services or social housing. A mix of taxes would give large Canadian cities more fiscal autonomy, the flexibility to be internationally competitive, and the ability to respond to changing economic and political conditions.


: Ovarian choriocarcinoma from the germ cells is a very rare malignant neoplasia. About the pure form, very few cases have been reported in medical literature. Ovarian choriocarcinoma may originate in three modalities. As primary choriocarcinoma associated to ovarian pregnancy, 2. As a metastatic ovarian carcinoma, from other organs, mainly the uterus, 3. As a primary tumour of germ cells with differentiation to trophoblastic structures. The latter grows in girls or in adult woman, generally young, where necessarily pregnancy has to be excluded. A case is presented of a 21 years old woman, treated at Hospital General "Dr. Miguel Silva", Morelia, Mich. single, without sexual life, with an abdomino-pelvic tumor of 24 cm, from the right ovary and adhered to ascending colon. Beta subunity of chorionic gonadotrophin was 200,000 mUI/ml of blood plasma. At laparotomy a right ovarian tumour, with infiltration to ascending colon, was found; this required total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and right hemicolectomy. After surgery the patient received chemotherapy with cisplatin, bleomicin and vinblastine. After the third treatment cycle and at three months, chorionic gonadotropin became negative; and at four years follow up residual tumoural activity is absent. Largest mortality with these tumors appears during early post-operative stage and it is atributed to the tumour itself or to post-operative complications. If the patient survives this stage and with a good chemotherapeutic program, survival and even complete cure, occurs.


In this note we expose some surprising connections between string theory and statistical inference. We consider a large collective of agents sweeping out a family of nearby statistical models for an M-dimensional manifold of statistical fitting parameters. When the agents making nearby inferences align along a d-dimensional grid, we find that the pooled probability that the collective reaches a correct inference is the partition function of a non-linear sigma model in d dimensions. Stability under perturbations to the original inference scheme requires the agents of the collective to distribute along two dimensions. Conformal invariance of the sigma model corresponds to the condition of a stable inference scheme, directly leading to the Einstein field equations for classical gravity. By summing over all possible arrangements of the agents in the collective, we reach a string theory. We also use this perspective to quantify how much an observer can hope to learn about the internal geometry of a superstring compactification. Finally, we present some brief speculative remarks on applications to the AdS/CFT correspondence and Lorentzian signature spacetimes.


In this study, we modified the previously proposed X2CT-GAN to build a 2Dto3D-GAN of the spine. This study also incorporated the radiologist's perspective in the adjustment of input signals to prove the feasibility of the automatic production of three-dimensional (3D) structures of the spine from simulated bi-planar two-dimensional (2D) X-ray images. Data from 1012 computed tomography (CT) studies of 984 patients were retrospectively collected. We tested this model under different dataset sizes (333, 666, and 1012) with different bone signal conditions to observe the training performance. A 10-fold cross-validation and five metrics—Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) value, Jaccard similarity coefficient (JSC), overlap volume (OV), and structural similarity index (SSIM)—were applied for model evaluation. The optimal mean values for DSC, JSC, OV, SSIM_anteroposterior (AP), and SSIM_Lateral (Lat) were 0.8192, 0.6984, 0.8624, 0.9261, and 0.9242, respectively. There was a significant improvement in the training performance under empirically enhanced bone signal conditions and with increasing training dataset sizes. These results demonstrate the potential of the clinical implantation of GAN for automatic production of 3D spine images from 2D images. This prototype model can serve as a foundation in future studies applying transfer learning for the development of advanced medical diagnostic techniques.


Staphylococcus aureus reference strains, producing A, B, C, and D enterotoxins, were individually or as mixture inoculated at the rate of 10 5 cfu/mL into 10 herby cheese samples, experimentally produced from pasteurised or raw milk. The growth rates and enterotoxin production abilities of the strains were examined during the 90 d ripening period. During the ripening, S. aureus, aerobic mesophilic and lactic acid bacteria, aw, pH, acidity, salt levels, and A, B, C, and D enterotoxins were examined at 11 different periods. The level of S. aureus in cheese samples produced from pasteurised milk decreased regularly after 15 d, and on the 90 th d was reduced to log 2 cfu/g. In cheese made from raw milk, the S. aureus levels at the beginning of the ripening period increased up to 10 7 cfu/g, and then decreased to the starting level on the 90 th d of the ripening. Throughout the ripening period, enterotoxin A was observed in the curd stage in pasteurised cheese samples inoculated individually with toxin A producing strain. Enterotoxins A, B, C, and D were observed on the third day in pasteurised mixed cheese inoculated with the mixture of S. aureus strains. Enterotoxin C was observed in cheese inoculated with toxin C producing strain on the 15 th d. No enterotoxin was observed in cheese samples made from the raw milk during the processing until the end of the ripening period, and the pH levels did not drop compared to those of pasteurised cheeses.


Abstract In this article, we propose a two-way multinomial logistic model for recommender systems for categorical ratings. Specifically, we treat the possible ratings as mutually exclusive events, whose probability is determined by the latent factor of the users and the items through a two-way multinomial logistic function. The proposed method has a compatibility with categorical ratings and the advantage of incorporating both the covariate information and the latent factors of the users and items uniformly. We show numerically that the proposed method performs consistently better than five commonly used collaborative filtering methods, namely, the restricted singular value decomposition, the soft-impute matrix completion method, the regression-based latent factor models, the restricted Boltzmann machine, and the group-specific recommender system on various simulation setups and on MovieLens data. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


PI 3-kinase is a frequently mutated oncogene. Along with the phosphatase PTEN, numerous receptor tyrosine kinases, and Akt, the PI 3-kinase pathway is among the most frequently activated in cancer. The H1047R mutation of PIK3CA is a representative gain-of-function mutation in the PI 3-kinase pathway and is transforming in both chicken fibroblasts and mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Recently, a knock-in of this mutation has been made in the normal human mammary epithelial cell line, MCF-10A. Here, H1047R confers growth factor independence, but does enable the knock-in cells to grow in soft agar or to form xenografts in mice. We have investigated this knock-in cell line and the parental MCF-10A by both deep sequencing and proteomics to determine the transcriptional and translational changes induced by PIK3CA-H1047R. We can confirm that the only coding mutation introduced into the MCF-10A cell line is PIK3CA-H1047R. Surprisingly, this single base mutation induces changes in the expression of thousands of transcripts and proteins. Despite rapid proliferation and growth factor independence, H1047R also induces a decrease in cell cycle genes including Cyclin A2 and Cyclin D2. The decrease in these genes may be the cause of an observed decrease in S and G2 phase cells as compared with the parental MCF-10A cell line. The parental cells overexpress MYC, however this overexpression is lost upon H1047R expression. Inhibition of PI 3-kinase with small molecule compounds that are selective for p110α or affect all isoforms of p110 as well as inhibition of mTOR do not restore the expression of c-MYC. This suggests that long-term activation of the PI 3-kinase pathway can result in changes to the gene expression landscape which no longer depend upon the PI 3-kinase pathway. Finally, H104R causes changes in 3D cell culture morphology. Both MCF-10A and the H1047R knock-in form acinar structures with hollow lumen when grown on reduced growth factor Matrigel substrates. However, if these cultures are treated with IGF1, the MCF-10A cells retain their acinar structures while, H1047R form branching tube-like structures which invade into Matrigel. The formation of these structures can be inhibited by the introduction of GDC-0941, a pan-PI3K inhibitor. IGF1 has no effect upon cell proliferation or migration in 2D cell culture systems. In summary, the H1047R mutation of PIK3CA while possessing a single catalytic activity can lead to a diverse range of phenotypes beyond growth factor independence. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01 CA078230 and R21 AG039716 (JRH and PKV), P30 NS057096 and P41 RR011823 (LL and JRY). This is abstract 24060 of The Scripps Research Institute. Citation Format: Jonathan R. Hart, Yaoyang Zhang, Lujian Liao, Lisa Du, John R. Yates, III, Peter K. Vogt. Butterfly effect in cancer: How a PI3-kinase mutation remodels the cell. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Targeting the PI3K-mTOR Network in Cancer; Sep 14-17, 2014; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2015;14(7 Suppl):Abstract nr A28.


Introduction. Basal cell cancer (BCC) accounts for up to 80 % of all types of non-melanoma skin cancers. In 97 % of cases, BCC develops on bare facial skin, especially at the nose-forehead border, nose wings, corners of eyes and lips. Surgery can lead to gross cosmetic defects, therefore more and more specialists prefer conservative methods, among which local drug therapy holds a special place. The study objective is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of glyciphon ointment for BCC local treatment as well as the economic costs. Materials and methods. The study included 114 patients who underwent BCC local drug therapy with 30 % Glyciphon ointment, where 111 (97.4 %) patients had primary BCC, and 3 (2.6 %) ones – recurrent BCC. Results. The study recorded 115 cases of use of glyciphon ointment in 114 patients. Doctors were fully satisfied with the treatment results in 101 (88.6 %) cases. In 11 (9.6 %) cases, satisfaction was partial due to severe adverse events (edema and hyperemia of the facial skin, pain), and in 2 (1.7 %) cases the treatment was found unsatisfactory. Eighty-six (93.5 %) patients with adverse events continued Glyciphon ointment therapy. The relapse rate after local drug therapy was 4.4 %, indicating its high efficacy and good tolerance. According to the study, most patients required 1 treatment course with 1 package of Glyciphon. Total cost of the treatment is approximately 17,000 rubles. Total budget expenditures are estimated at 1 billion 190 million rubles. Local BCC therapy with Glyciphon comparing to surgery may save more than 1 billion rubles for the state budget. Conclusion. Local chemotherapy with 30 % Glyciphon ointment is an effective and safe method to treat BCC. Its use increases treatment availability for patients and can significantly reduce federal expenditures.


This article examines Mexico City's typhus epidemic of 1915–16 and makes three central claims. First, the federal response to the outbreak, while laudable in light of the grim circumstances, was disjointed and excessively bureaucratic. Second, the epidemic drew out long-standing stereotypes of poor indigenous populations, leading people to make misguided linkages between the high incidence of typhus within those populations and their supposed moral or intellectual shortcomings. Third, the typhus epidemic prompted fundamental reforms to the nation's public health system. As a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1917, the nation's chief public health officer, general and doctor José María Rodríguez, successfully promoted his vision of a "sanitary dictatorship" that would operate according to strict authoritarian principles for the sake of efficiency. The epidemic thus shaped not only the human experience in that moment but also the course of revolutionary political reform in the years to come.


We report the results of two Chandra ACIS-S observations from February and August 2003 of the highly X-ray variable Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy RX J2217.9–5941. Observations spanning the time from the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) through an ASCA observation in 1998 indicate apparently monotonically decreasing flux by a factor of 30. The Chandra observations reveal increased emission over that seen in ASCA, supporting a persistent variability rather than an X-ray outburst event. However, the cause of the strong X-ray variability remains unclear. Our Chandra observations confirm the steep soft X-ray spectrum in the 0.2-2.0 keV band found during the ROSAT All-Sky Survey observation (α X =2.7). The spectral shape of the source appears to be variable with the spectrum becoming softer when the source becomes fainter. Best fitting models to the data include an absorbed broken power law, a blackbody plus power law, and a power law with partial covering absorption. The latter model suggests a variable partial-covering absorber in the line of sight which can explain in part the variability seen in RX J2217.9–5941. We suggest that there might be a population of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies which are at least at times highly absorbed.


One of the major problems in Mobile Grid environments is the optimal distribution and replication of data files, in order to improve and maintain a high overall throughput of Grid jobs that access files. A data replica replacement algorithm based on value model is proposed and the arithmetic method to calculate replica value is introduced. This algorithm adapts to the high variation environment in Mobile Grid environment. The value of a data replica reflects the usage history of the cache and the variability of it. We construct a data replica value evaluation system which makes those unstable or rarely used replicas first be deleted, when there is not enough storage space during replication. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can obtain better performance for grid tasks to access data replicas.


We have measured the distribution function of the flux decrement D = e−τ caused by Lyα forest absorption from intervening gas in the lines of sight to high redshift QSOs from a sample of seven high resolution QSO spectra obtained with the Keck telescope. The observed flux decrement distribution function (FDDF) is compared to the FDDF from two simulations of the Lyα forest: a ΛCDM model (with Ω =0.4, Λ=0.6) computed with the Eulerian code of Cen & Ostriker, and a standard CDM model (SCDM, with Ω = 1) computed with the SPH code of Hernquist, Katz, & Weinberg. Good agreement is obtained between the shapes of the simulated and observed FDDFs for both simulations after fitting only one free parameter, which controls the mean flux decrement. The difference between the predicted FDDFs from the two simulations is small, and we show that it arises mostly from a different temperature in the low-density gas (caused by different assumptions that were made about the reionization history in the two simulations), rather than differences between the two cosmological models per se, or numerical effects in the two codes which use very different computational methods. A measurement of the parameter μ ∝ Ω2bh /Γ (where Γ is the HI ionization rate due to the ionizing background) is obtained by requiring the mean flux decrement in the simulations to agree with the observed one. Estimating the lower limit Γ > 7× 10 s from the abundance of known QSOs, we derive a lower limit on the baryonic matter density, Ωbh > 0.021(0.017) for the ΛCDM (SCDM) model. The difference between the lower limit inferred from the two models is again due to different temperatures in the low-density gas. We give general analytical arguments for why this lower limit is unlikely to be reduced for any other models of structure formation by gravitational collapse that can explain the observed Lyα forest. The large Ωb we infer is inconsistent with some recent D/H determinations (Rugers & Hogan 1996a,b), favoring a low deuterium abundance as reported by Tytler, Fan & Burles (1996). Adopting a fixed Ωb, the measurement of μ(z) allows a determination of the evolution of the ionizing radiation field with redshift. Our models predict an intensity that is approximately constant with redshift, which is in agreement with the assumption that the ionizing background is produced by known quasars for z < 3, but requires additional sources of ionizing photons at higher redshift given the observed rapid decline of the quasar abundance.


An actinomycete stain 1569 isolated from a Siberian soil sample is described as a representative of a new species, designated as Actinoplanes cyaneus sp. nov. The actinomycete cell wall contains meso-diaminopimelic acid, arabinose, xylose and a non-identified analogue of diaminopimelic acid. The actinomycete forms spherical sporangia with mobile spores. The aerial mycelium is absent. The isolate produces a soluble blue pigment on synthetic media. The pygment investigation showed that it belonged to the group of celicomycin-actinorodine.


We report significant variation in reptile pit-trapping results for eleven survey periods over two and half years for nine sites in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. We collected a total of 51 species and 2868 individual reptiles from a surveying effort of 33264 pit-trap days. Year-to-year variation in relative abundances for particular species was greater than elsewhere reported as being the result of stochastic events such as fires. Seasonal variation in catch rates suggest that to adequately survey an area, pit-trapping programs need to be undertaken in more than one season. This has significant (financial) consequences for mining companies and other industries that employ consultants to undertake terrestrial fauna surveys to describe that component of the biodiversity for an area. Environmental protection agencies need to adjust their guidelines for terrestrial faunal surveys to adequately describe the biodiversity of an area. Our data indicate that before researchers can claim that year-to-year variation in reptile assemblages are due to stochastic events they must account for 'normal' year-to-year variations.


This guide provides an overview of the global need for youth-friendly service provision and key recommendations for developing/strengthening sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services so that providers are better able to engage and retain young people in care. All of the information found in the guide comes from evidence-based best practices in the field of adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. The guide will help you assess your services identify gaps and develop action plans using tools that have been adapted from existing best practices. It also provides three youth-friendly services checklists adapted from existing tools that have been deemed best practices. The checklists can help you evaluate a service at the service delivery site assess the client-provider relationship and measure client satisfaction through talking to youth. Additional resources and links are provided at the back of the guide.


Rechargeable lithium air (Li–air) batteries, especially the non-aqueous type, are considered the most promising energy storage and conversion device candidates for use in future electric vehicle applications due to their ultrahigh energy density. The air cathode has been identified as a key factor affecting the overall performance of Li–air batteries. The current low level performance of air cathodes is the major challenge hindering commercial applications of Li–air batteries. In the past decade, a great many cathode materials, structures and fabrication processes have been developed and investigated with the goal of enhancing cathode performance. This paper reviews, the role of the cathode in non-aqueous Li–air batteries including the cathode reaction mechanisms and the properties and morphologies of cathode materials, followed by approaches to optimize cathode performance. The most recently published global progress and the main achievements in the field of Li–air batteries are also systematically and critically reviewed in terms of cathode materials, structures and fabrication processes, with the objective of providing some state-of-the-art information. Technical challenges are analyzed, and insights into future research directions for overcoming these development challenges of rechargeable non-aqueous Li–air battery cathodes are also identified in this review paper.


The odontogenic keratocyst is a lesion with specific clinical and histopathological aspects. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017 reclassified it from a tumor to a cyst. It is characterized as a cyst of epithelial development of the jaws, arising from the remains of the dental blade. It represents 3 % to 11 % of all odontogenic cysts and 7 to 11 % of cysts of the gnatic bones. It stands out for its aggressive nature and high relapsing potential. Most of the cases are diagnosed in individuals between 10 and 40 years old, with a mild preference for the masculine gender, occurring more in the mandible. Radiographically, it is radiolucent and well delimited, predominantly unilocular, and may cause displacement of adjacent teeth. The present study aims to report a clinical case of a female 25 years old patient, presenting an intra-osseous lesion in the maxilla (posterior , left side), asymptomatic, with a slight increase in intraoral buccal volume, containing the tooth 28, with a diagnostic hypothesis of Odontogenic Keratocyst. The patient was submitted to the surgical decompression treatment, with cystic fluid puncture, biopsy of the lesion and posterior anatomopathological examination. The enucleation of the tumor was performed using LeFort I osteotomy of maxilla and reconstruction with titanium mesh. There is radiographic evidence of bone repair and lesion reduction. The patient is in periodic follow-up of 4 years and does not present clinical and radiographic signs of relapse. Due to the aggressiveness of the odontogenic keratocyst, the relapse rate is high. The knowledge of the techniques recommended for the treatment of Odontogenic Keratocysts and the clinical and radiographic follow-up of the patient demonstrate a gradual decrease of the lumen of the lesion and suggest local bone neoformation, favoring the prognosis of the case.


In the wake of the pandemic, there has been a clear need to understand the "new normal" contexts of teaching and learning and how they affect teacher education. In order to rethink and reimagine teacher education, a priority should be to have a firm grasp on the traits that young people bring with them when they enroll in Education degree programs. In other words, we must understand their distinctive generational traits and how the various crises of recent years have affected them. This paper has three main aims, each of which is addressed in a corresponding section of the article. The first objective is to gain a better understanding of the educational needs and learning styles of this new generation of students and to examine how they are influenced by present-day realities. A second section strives to identify the most prominent challenges that are reshaping teacher education programs on a global scale. The third and final part explores the bidirectional interaction between these two previous variables by examining the educational approaches and methodologies that have been implemented recently in Spain and discussing the extent to which they have been able to meet students' evolving needs. Given that these changes, transformations and pedagogical concerns are observable worldwide, these analyses and reflections are potentially relevant beyond the Spanish context.


Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) deposits of the Viburnum Trend are typically lead dominant (Pb/Zn >5) and occur mainly in the reef-grainstone facies of the upper Bonneterre Dolomite (Cambrian). Recent drilling has encountered economic mineralization within the lower Bonneterre Dolomite of the Brushy Creek mine, more than 30 m below the main ore-bearing horizon of the district. These ores are more zinc and copper rich than typical deposits (Zn/Pb commonly >2 and Cu up to 8 wt %), with notable enrichments in Ni, Co, and Ag. There is pronounced zoning of Ni-Co, Cu, Zn, and Pb with increasing distance above the Lamotte Sandstone. Observations of drill cores and samples from active mine faces, and mineral textural relationships in thin section indicate that the lower ore mineralization contains dominantly early Zn- and Cu-bearing sulfides, which are overprinted by main-stage Pb-Zn mineralization. The lower ores contain multiple generations of chalcopyrite and sphalerite that display frequent breccia textures at the meso- and microscale. This style of breccia is uncommon for the Viburnum Trend and is composed dominantly of sulfides supported by clay (insoluble residue), which are cemented by subsequent generations of sulfides and carbonates, resulting in massive, high-grade ore. Cathodoluminescence microscopy reveals that ore is associated with two generations of dolomite cement that appear to predate the regional dolomite cement associated with main-stage Pb-Zn mineralization in the Viburnum Trend. The stratigraphic position, massive character, metal contents, mineral zoning and textures, and gangue dolomite cements of the orebody are unusual for the Viburnum Trend. Mineralogically and stratigraphically, these ores are more similar to the historically mined ores of the Indian Creek and Fredericktown-Mine La Motte districts to the north and east of the Viburnum Trend. In the Brushy Creek mine, the lower ores are not related to obvious stratigraphic controls, such as pinch-outs of the Lamotte Sandstone against Precambrian knobs, but appear to be localized along early zones of fracture-enhanced porosity and permeability within the Lamotte Sandstone, which promoted extreme dissolution of host rocks at the base of the Bonneterre Dolomite and development of high-grade Cu-(Ni-Co)-Zn-rich ore. The presence of distinct Ni- and Ni-Co-rich areas and the spatial variability of sphalerite types across the orebody indicate that there were likely multiple sites of ore fluid introduction whose influence varied with time during development of the ores.


Background: Supervision of drug affairs is one of the highly important affairs of the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education. This study was to evaluate the pharmacies of Kermanshah City based on the standard of Food and Drug Organization. Methods: This study was a descriptive-analytic one which was carried out on 60 pharmacies in Kermanshah. The evaluative questionnaire developed by Food and Drug organization was used to collect data and its content validity and reliability estimating Cronbach's alpha were confirmed. The data were analyzed descriptively (mean and standard deviation) and inferentially (T-test and Friedman rank sum test) Results: The findings of the study revealed that pharmacy space, prescription status, refrigerated medicinal products, licenses, and general status of pharmacies of Kermanshah are not in parallel with the related standards, but the status of medicine and treatment services, production of synthesis drugs, following the related instructions, warehousing condition, provision of pharmaceutical scientific resources, and interaction with other pharmacy-related organizations matched the standard well. There was also a significant difference between private and public pharmacies. Conclusion: According to the findings of this research study, the status of preparation, storing, and delivery of medicine in Kermanshah is in line with the standards but in some cases there was a relative adaptation. Constant and concise supervision of the Food and Drug Organization, and public and private informing through educational brochures and related workshops for pharmacies' managers and personnel's can promote the current status.


The performance of polymer–fullerene bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells is highly affected by the morphology of the blend film. Though the structure of the BHJ morphology is well-understood, the relationship between relevant material interactions and BHJ morphological evolutions is poorly understood and seldom explored. In this report, we discuss the impact of polymer molecular weight (MW) on thermodynamic and kinetic phenomena which have a drastic influence on the nanoscale BHJ morphology. The blend film comprises a highly aggregating low bandgap diketopyrrolopyrrole-based polymer PDPP3T and the fullerene electron acceptor molecule PC71BM, cast from a 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB) solution with and without the additive 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO). The pair-wise interactions among the components were evaluated by Flory–Huggins interaction parameters (χ). The BHJ blend of PDPP3T and PC71BM exhibited liquid–liquid (L–L) phase separation as a result of strong polymer–fullerene interactions (large χPDPP3T–fullerene) in DCB solution. In contrast, addition of 3% DIO into the DCB solution is found to stimulate polymer aggregation which gives rise to liquid–solid (L–S) phase separation. Large χPDPP3T–fullerene and χPDPP3T–solvent were observed as a result of increasing polymer MW, and these changes promote strong L–L phase separation and polymer aggregation in the blend solution, respectively. The latter interactions have led to low molecular mobility, with an end result of reduced crystallinity and smaller domain size of the BHJ films. The observed dramatic MW-dependent morphological changes were also manifested in solar cell outputs as well as charge carrier dynamics calculated by transient absorption measurements.


Within the physical activity domain the majority of transtheoretical model research has employed a cross sectional research design. While useful for characterizing participants within the various stages of change, it fails to capture the dynamic nature of change. The purpose of the current study was to identify predictors of naturally occurring transitional shift patterns in physical activity behavior observed over six months among 202 university students. The full set of variables from the transtheoretical model as well as exercise METS was examined. Results indicated that stable active participants reported more exercise METs at baseline than both activity adopters and perpetual preparers in multinomial logistic regression analysis (p<.01). Stable active participants were also significantly different in their cognitive process of change scores compared to activity adopters (p<.05). Activity adopters differed from stable active participants in their initial decisional balance scores (p<.05). These findings should help inform theory development and physical activity interventions and programs.


Some real-world decision-making problems require making probabilistic forecasts over multiple steps at once. However, methods for probabilistic forecasting may fail to capture correlations in the underlying time-series that exist over long time horizons as errors accumulate. One such application is with resource scheduling under uncertainty in a grid environment, which requires forecasting electricity demand that is inherently noisy, but often cyclic. In this paper, we introduce the conditional approximate normalizing flow (CANF) to make probabilistic multi-step time-series forecasts when correlations are present over long time horizons. We first demonstrate our method's efficacy on estimating the density of a toy distribution, finding that CANF improves the KL divergence by one-third compared to that of a Gaussian mixture model while still being amenable to explicit conditioning. We then use a publicly available household electricity consumption dataset to showcase the effectiveness of CANF on joint probabilistic multi-step forecasting. Empirical results show that conditional approximate normalizing flows outperform other methods in terms of multi-step forecast accuracy and lead to up to 10x better scheduling decisions. Our implementation is available at https://github.com/sisl/JointDemandForecasting.


We propose a new class of game-theoretic models for network formation in which strategies are not directly related to edge choices, but instead correspond more generally to the exertion of social effort. This differs from existing models in both formulation and results: the observed social network is a byproduct of a more expressive strategic interaction, which can more naturally explain the emergence of complex social structures. Within this framework, we present a natural network formation game in which agent utilities are locally defined and that, despite its simplicity, nevertheless produces a rich class of equilibria that exhibit structural properties commonly observed in social networks – such as triadic closure – that have proved elusive in most existing models. Specifically, we consider a game in which players organize networking events (or gatherings) at a cost that grows with the number of attendees. A gathering's cost is assumed by the organizer but the benefit accrues equally to all attendees: a link is formed between any two players who see each other at more than a certain number r0 of gatherings per time period, whether at gatherings organized by themselves or by third parties. The graph of connections so obtained is the social network of the model. We analyze the Nash equilibria of this game for the case in which each player derives a benefit a > 0 from all her neighbors in the social network and when the costs are linear, i.e., when the cost of a gathering with ` invitees is b + c`, with b > 0 and c > 0. For γ = a/cr0 > 1 and b sufficiently small, all Nash equilibria have the complete graph as their social network; for γ < 1 the Nash equilibria correspond to a rich class of social networks, all of which have substantial clustering in the sense that the clustering coefficient is bounded below by the inverse of the average degree. Many observed social network structures occur as Nash equilibria of this model. In particular, for any degree sequence with finite mean, and not too many vertices of degree one or two, we can construct a Nash equilibrium producing a social network with the given degree sequence. We also briefly discuss generalizations of this model to more complex utility functions and processes by which the resulting social network is formed.


Photoselective vaporization of the prostate using the GreenLight XPS 180W laser system (American Medical Systems, Minnetonka, MN) is associated with reduced operative time and fiber usage compared with the GreenLight HPS 120W while resulting in lower PSA levels 6 months post-procedure.


Background Bone loss is a major public health concern with large proportions of older women experiencing osteoporotic fractures. Previous research has established a relationship between psychosocial stressors and fractures. However, few studies have investigated bone loss as an intermediary in this relationship. This study investigates whether social stress is associated with bone loss during a 6-year period in postmenopausal women. Methods Data from 11 020 postmenopausal women from the USA was used to examine self-reported psychosocial stress in relation to change in bone mineral density (BMD) measured at the femoral neck, lumbar spine and total hip. Linear regression models were used to examine associations between social measures of psychosocial stress (social strain, social functioning and social support) and per cent change in BMD over 6 years. Results High social stress was associated with decreased BMD over 6 years. After adjustment for confounders, each point higher in social strain was associated with 0.082% greater loss of femoral neck BMD, 0.108% greater loss of total hip BMD and 0.069% greater loss of lumbar spine BMD (p<0.05). Low social functioning and low social support were associated with greater decreases in femoral neck BMD, and low social functioning was associated with greater decreases in total hip BMD. Conclusion The findings provide evidence for an association between high social stress and greater bone loss over 6 years of follow-up. In agreement with the prior literature, the findings for social strain and social functioning suggest that poor quality of social relationships may be associated with bone loss in postmenopausal women.


Purpose: To investigate the effect of mebendazole on an in vivo solid tumor model of fibrosarcoma in hamsters. Methods: 24 Syrian golden hamsters of both sexes with the approximate body weight of 100g were randomly distributed in 2 experimental and 2 control groups, with 6 animals in each group. BHK-21/C13 cells (2 x 10) in 1 mL Glasgow Minimum Essential Medium (GMEM) were injected subcutaneously into the back of each animal in 3 groups. The experimental groups were treated with mebendazole (460 mg/kg) via a gastric tube on a daily basis, immediately after tumor inoculation. In addition, one experimental group received deoxycholic acid 20 mg/kg once a day. After 2 weeks, when the tumors were approximately 1 2 cm in the control group, all the animals were sacrificed, and their blood collected for laboratory analysis. The tumors were excised, their weight and diameters measured, and the volumes calculated. The tumor samples were histopathologically assessed and the main organs toxicologically analyzed. Images were taken and processed by an imaging software, and Ki-67-positive cells in the tumor samples were quantified. Results: Mebendazole diminished tumor mitosis from 18.5 ± 3.02 to 13.5 ± 3.45 (p < 0.05), vasculature and tissue penetration, and increased necroses in tumor slices. Tumor volume and weight were insignificantly attenuated. Toxicity was not observed. Conclusion: Mebendazole might be an effective non-toxic agent in sarcoma therapy.


BACKGROUND
In several countries worldwide, school-based human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programs have been successful; however, little research has explored US stakeholders' acceptance toward school-based HPV vaccination programs.

METHODS
A total of 13 focus groups and 12 key informant interviews (N = 117; 85% females; 66% racial/ethnic minority) were conducted with 5 groups of stakeholders: parents of adolescent girls, parents of adolescent boys, adolescent girls, middle school nurses, and middle school administrators throughout the 5 public health regions of New Mexico.

RESULTS
All groups of stakeholders lacked knowledge on HPV and HPV vaccines. Stakeholders were interested in--but apprehensive about--the benefits of HPV vaccination. Despite previous literature showing the benefits of using middle schools as an HPV vaccination site, stakeholders did not deem middle schools as a viable site for vaccination. Nurses reported that using the school as an HPV vaccination site had not occurred to them; parents and adolescents stated they were uncertain about using this type of program. School administrators indicated that they lacked implementation authority.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study uncovered barriers to using middle schools as a site of HPV vaccination. Resources should be directed toward increased support and education for middle school nurses who function as opinion leaders relevant to the uptake of HPV vaccination.


Individuals such as the elderly and disabled frequently have trouble balancing, and therefore have a higher fall risk. A fear of falling can significantly impact mobility, thereby limiting participation in life activities. Balance training programs are often ineffective, because they are not intense enough or related to real life. Our lab has developed a clinic-based intense, engaging multi-directional harnessed balance training program that addresses these concerns. This work describes the process of transitioning the clinic-based training program into a community setting, specifically community gardening. We developed a harness system for a community garden high tunnel with raised beds. We incorporated inexpensive active assist mechanisms to assist standing up. We also equipped the harness system with a wearable sensor system including pressure sensors, a heart rate monitor, and a position motion tracking system. We developed analysis software for the system allowing us to quantify changes in balance. As compared to a non-harnessed environment where falls are possible, we hypothesize that the harness will provide the confidence to practice and thereby develop skill with more challenging balance activities in a reallife environment. We also hypothesize that the active assist mechanism will provide leg strengthening opportunities, further improving balance.


Synthesis and chemical oxidative polymerization of some N-substituted pyrroles ((N-Py)s) were carried out using Clauson-Kaas method and FeCl3 in CHCl3 medium, respectively. The produced polymers, N-(p-benzoic acid)polypyrrole (NpbPPy); N-(o-aminophenyl)polypyrrole (NoaPPy); N-(m-nitrophenyl) polypyrrole (NmnPPy), were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. An enzymatic glucose biosensor is fabricated through immobilizing glucose oxidase (GOX) into N-substitued polypyrrole matrixes. The parameters affecting the fabrication and experimental conditions of biosensors were optimized. The best biosensor results were obtained for NpbPPy matrix. The sensitivity of the proposed biosensor permitted the determination of glucose in the concentration range of 0–9.2 M with a detection limit of 1× 10− 6. The apparent Michaelis–Menten constant (KM app) for the sensor was found to be 25.95 mM.


Introduction: As a whole, the world is experiencing an increase in the intensity and abundance of natural hazards, which it is a major threat to all regions. Basically, natural hazards can be recognized as a potential hazard because of the combination of disasters, vulnerability conditions and inadequate measures to mitigate the negative consequences. In fact, the natural hazard is an unexpected event that disrupts the normal functioning of a society and generally leading to loss of life, livelihoods and damage to the infrastructure of communities. Therefore, take preventive measures and preparedness for these events can greatly reduce costs. For this reason, Emphasis on risk management and to take preventive measures today is one of the most fundamental approaches in the crisis management literature. But the realization of this process, especially in rural communities and the attract of local communities to take precautionary measures, is overshadowed by many factors and obstacles, that the level of local communities' expectations of the government for crisis management and its effects is one of the most important. In communities where the government participates in all levels of risk planning and accountability and the local government has the primary responsibility for emergency response to the hazard, most people believe that "the government must take responsibility of coping with the problems due the risks". Likewise, they expect the government to be prepared and responsive to natural hazards. There is widespread agreement among economists that expectations influence people's behavior and actions. So that even if residents are aware of the environmental risk, they may believe that government planning and preparation is sufficient for risk management. So they do not feel the need to take home preparedness measures.Methodology: the present study analyzes the impact of expectations from the government on the extent of local community interest to take precautionary measures against natural hazards. A descriptive - survey method and a questionnaire were used for this purpose. In this study, the level of analysis is rural and its unit of analysis are rural households. Fazl has been selected as the study area, which is one of the districts of Neyshabur County in Khorasan Razavi province. At first, 15 villages were selected for field study through Formula N0 and then, sample villages were selected based on the location of the villages in the hazardous areas. Research indicators and variables have been compiled according to the theoretical foundations and review of previous studies. Variable of expectations level of local communities about intervention and the role of government in the risk process have been measured the following two types of structural and non-structural approaches and variable of propensity to take preventive measures by local communities have been measured the following economic, social, skill-individual and physical-environmental dimensions. One-sample t-test, Pearson correlation, linear regression test, and one-way ANOVA were used to measure the purpose and data analysis. The present study has applied nature and is a descriptive-analytical research. Results and discussion: According to the results, in the study area the tendency to preventive measures in all economic, social, skill-individual and physical-environmental dimensions is lower than the average level. The level of expectations of the sample communities from the government against risk indicates that these expectations are very high in both structural and non-structural sectors as well as before, during and after the risks. The results of the Pearson correlation test indicate that there is a significant relationship between the two variables of rural expectations of government and the reluctance of local communities to take precautionary measures against natural hazards. On the other hand, the results of the regression test also confirm the variable impact of rural expectations of the government on the reluctance of local communities to take precautionary measures against natural hazards. Based on the results, Willingness to take preventive measures are more prevalent among villagers whose their preferential reaction to risk is based on the documentation and archive of their experience.Conclusion: In general, the emphasis on preventive measures before the occurrence of hazards and to take the process of risk management by local communities is one of the priorities of many governments in the process of risk management. In the meantime, the reliance on the government, or the high level of expectations of the people from government on risk management measures, has led to a significantly decrease in their reluctance and participation in preventive measures. Perhaps this level of expectation from the government about risk management can be largely attributed to the inaccurate timely management of the risk management process by government agencies and crisis management authorities, So that if the costs of rebuilding and repairing the damage are shifted to participatory preventive measures, Increasing the readiness of local communities to deal with the effects of hazards and mitigating the damages, Their level of expectations and views on government duties and the scope of these tasks were made clearer. However, one should not neglect the small villagers' financial ability to preventive measures and the status of supervisory levers. Encouraging people to take precautionary measures and be prepared for natural hazards, existence strict rules for people who have built their homes in hazardous areas, Raising public awareness of preventive measures and preparedness for natural hazards, forming voluntary and mobilizing groups from local communities and training them in emergencies to respond quickly, create funds by local people to raise funds for emergencies, these include suggestions to increase the willingness of local communities to take preventive measures In line reduce public dependence on government action. According to the results, in the study area the tendency to preventive measures in all economic, social, skill-individual and physical-environmental dimensions is lower than the average level.the present study analyzes the impact of expectations from the government on the extent of local community interest to take precautionary measures against natural hazards


Moisture in new homes built in the late 1940's and early 1950's was a significant problem. Few moisture problems in new homes have been reported to us in the past 20 years or so. Home size, family size, life style, thermal protection, double and triple glazing, and vapor barriers all contribute to the turnabout. Moisture conditions in homes were looked into in two studies. In one study, 17 homes in four states were probed in mid-March 1977, when it was expected the moisture content of wood framing members would be at their high or near high due to any moisture condensation in walls. All moisture content levels were found to be well within the acceptable and expected range of equilibrium moisture contents (EMC) for wood framing members (6 to 14 percent) and well below the decay level in wood (20 percent or greater). There was no evidence of past or present water damage in any of these homes. In another study, data were collected for 16 homes in north-central Utah, southern Alabama, northern Ohio, and central Maryland. Measurements were made in each home for approximately 1 week in the summer and 1 week in the winter. All homes had well ventilated attics. Some had attic vapor barriers and others had none. Calculations showed the average absolute humidities in winter in attics for homes with a ceiling vapor barrier were some 19 percent higher than for attics without a ceiling vapor barrier. Much more extensive measurements probably would show no consequential difference in relative humidity in well ventilated attics with homes having a ceiling vapor barrier or those without. In practice, the millions of house years of experience with well ventilated and insulated attics, having no ceiling vapor barrier and no condensation problems, indicates that extremes of temperature, ventilation and lifestyle rarely occur simultaneously and to an extent necessary to produce attic condensation sufficient to cause moisture damage.


Abstract. In the first two parts of this study we have presented a performance analysis of our new Cloud Dynamics and Radiation Database (CDRD) satellite precipitation retrieval algorithm on various convective and stratiform rainfall case studies verified with precision radar ground truth data, and an exposition of the algorithm's detailed design in conjunction with a proof-of-concept analysis vis-a-vis its theoretical underpinnings. In this third part of the study, we present the underlying analysis used to identify what we refer to as the optimal metrological and geophysical tags, which are the optimally effective atmospheric and geographic parameters that are used to refine the selection of candidate microphysical profiles used for the Bayesian retrieval. These tags enable extending beyond the conventional Cloud Radiation Database (CRD) algorithm by invoking meteorological-geophysical guidance, drawn from a simulated database, which affect and are in congruence with the observed precipitation states. This is guidance beyond the restrictive control provided by only simulated radiative transfer equation (RTE) model-derived database brightness temperature (TB) vector proximity information in seeking to relate physically consistent precipitation profile solutions to individual satellite-observed TB vectors. The first two parts of the study have rigorously demonstrated that the optimal tags effectively mitigate against solution ambiguity, where use of only a CRD framework (TB guidance only) leads to pervasive non-uniqueness problems in finding rainfall solutions. Alternatively, a CDRD framework (TB + tag guidance) mitigates against non-uniqueness problems through improved constraints. It remains to show how these optimal tags are identified. By use of three statistical analysis procedures applied to a database from 120 North American atmospheric simulations of precipitating storms (independent of the 60 simulations for the European-Mediterranean basin region used in the Parts 1 and 2 studies), we examine 25 separate dynamical-thermodynamical-hydrological (DST) and geophysical parameters for their relationships to rainfall variables – specifically, surface rain rate and columnar liquid/ice/total water paths of precipitating hydrometeors. The analysis identifies seven optimal parameter tags which exceed all others in the strengths of their correlations to the precipitation variables but also have observational counterparts in the operational global forecast model outputs. The seven optimal tags are (1 and 2) vertical velocities at 700 and 500 hPa; (3) equivalent potential temperature at surface; (4) convective available potential energy; (5) moisture flux 50 hPa above surface; (6) freezing level height; and (7) terrain height, i.e., surface height.


An investigation was carried out to evaluate the effect of different particle size of oil palm Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) and their distribution as new substrate for the production of citric acid through Solid State Bioconversion (SSB) in laboratory scale by Aspergillus niger. The experiment was carried out to observe the productivity of citric acid with different particle size of EFB in 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks. The result obtained through this study showed that the 0.5 mm down graded particle of EFB gave the highest production of citric acid compared to other particle size. The maximum production of citric acid of 131.3 g kg-1-EFB with the production rate of 16.4 g kg-1-day was obtained from EFB with particle size of 0.5 mm after 8 days of bioconversion. Furthermore, the results of particle size distribution show that the well-graded particle size of EFB produced the highest citric acid compared to uniformly-graded and gap-graded particle.


This paper develops a DSGE model in which banks use short-term deposits to provide firms with long-term credit. The demand for long-term credit arises because firms borrow in order to finance their capital stock which they only adjust at infrequent intervals. We show within a real business cycle framework that maturity transformation in the banking sector in general attenuates the output response to a technological shock. Implications of long-term nominal contracts are also examined in a New Keynesian version of the model, where we find that maturity transformation reduces the real effects of a monetary policy shock.


Male mice release luteinizing hormone when exposed for a short time to a female. In this experiment, multiple blood samples were withdrawn by atrial cannulas from tethered males during either continuous or intermittent exposure to nonreceptive females. After an immediate, transient release of luteinizing hormone, continuous exposure to the same female was accompanied by only random, spontaneous elevations in plasma levels of this hormone. Successive presentations of the same female at 2-hour intervals elicited gradually diminishing luteinizing hormone responses. Exposing such unresponsive males to novel, diestrous females, however, dramatically stimulated their release of the hormone. These results demonstrate habituation of a socially induced, neuroendocrine response involving reproductive hormones.


To improve the rolling–sliding contact fatigue strength of a case-carburized steel, the effect of the wear surface morphologies of manganese phosphate (MnP) coated steel and the growth and removal of phosphorus-containing tribofilm on surface-initiated crack formation was investigated. In order to modify the wear surface morphologies, two types of surface textures (ground and shot blasted) were prepared, followed by the MnP coating process. The tribological properties of the coated steel, tribofilm growth and removal, and surface-initiated crack formation were evaluated using a ball-on-disk tribometer with a rolling–sliding mode. The MnP coating on both the ground and shot blasted steel had nearly the same thickness and surface roughness. However, for the ground surface sample, the interface morphology between the coating and steel substrate was more irregular than the shot blasted surface sample, resulting in a larger number of exposed steel areas with smaller sizes after the MnP was almost worn away on tribological tests. During the runningin period, phosphorus-containing tribofilm growth and removal on the smaller exposed steel areas were observed. The surface-initiated crack formation on the smaller exposed steel areas was suppressed compared with larger exposed steel areas.


Innovative work is gradually shifting towards collaborative efforts by larger, multidisciplinary teams, making team efficacy an increasingly important field of study. Researchers in this field have mainly focused on laboratory experiments, which may not fully capture the complex situations that teams encounter in real life. The alternative, field studies, are difficult to maintain and often require significant time to produce results. In this thesis we propose a methodology that bridges the gap between these two settings—the laboratory and the field. By combining a new, affordable electronic badge that captures vocalization data with an innovative setting—the Hackathon—we create a new environment for studying team performance. This methodology reduces the duration and maintenance burden of such studies, and offers new opportunities for examining the effects of interventions on teamwork. The preliminary results from our studies show a variety of individual and team behaviors that can be captured in Hackathons using badges, such as participation, the parity of contribution to group discussions, the level of turn taking, and the frequency and duration of meetings. In a Hackathon, we measure these behaviors throughout the entire life cycle of each team, observe how they change in response to different shocks, and study how well the team members collaborate and perform as a team. Thesis Supervisor: Alex "Sandy" P. Pentland Title: Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences


Image-guided tumor ablation has become increasingly popular in recent years. While various percutaneous ablative techniques currently exist for the treatment but radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is currently the most widely used technique. To perform RFA needle electrode is inserted into tumor and emitted current producing local heat cells of a tumor at temperature above 50–60°C when cells die from protein coagulation and dehydration. Microwave ablation (MWA) is considered often to be capable of effective and controlled heating of large tissue volumes more than RFA. Aim of this study was to test the efficiency of RFA and MWA by numerical two-dimensional modeling of various kinds of microwave and radiofrequency electrodes. It has been developed mathematical model allowing comparing characteristics of heating of a homogeneous tissue by various electrodes. It's recognized time-dependent temperature's fields in tissue and influence of antenna's working part, levels of input power and frequency on process .WA. Comparison .WA and RFA showed that monopolar RFA does not allow to receive volumes of heating inherent .WA. However application of cluster designs RFA allows receiving the results better than .WA.


The Bamum (locally pronounced Pamom) are found in the Western Province of the Republic of Cameroon and occupy principally the Noun Division. The present Bamum population is composed of people from two different backgrounds. The dominant ones are the people of Sudanic origin who broke away from the Tikar, at Rifum and then moved southwards to Njimom, and finally to their present site of settlement. There are also those of Bamileke origin who were found living in the present-day Bamum country and who were conquered and partially assimilated by the Bamum invaders. Foumban,1 the capital of the Bamum Kingdom, is without doubt the cultural showpiece of traditional civilisation in the Republic of Cameroon. Since its foundation, the Bamum Kingdom has gone through an excitingly creative evolution. Bamum is one of the rare African kingdoms to have invented an indigenous writing system of its own, as well as a printing press and a machine for grinding grain. With the advent of colonialism, Bamum was one of the kingdoms in Cameroon that collaborated closely with the German colonisers. In this way, the Bamum were permitted so much autonomy that the incidence of colonialism only slightly upset the traditional structure of the society until 1916 when the French replaced the Germans. The prime objective of this article is to investigate how Islam changed the lifestyle of the Bamum. It also takes a close look at the activities of early Bamum kings, especially the outstanding 4Forka.pmd 17/01/2013, 11:54 69 The African Anthropologist, Vol. 16, Nos. 1&2, 2009 70 achievements of Sultan Njoya and a detailed investigation into the influence of Islam in the Bamum Kingdom. The article argues strongly that Islam has influenced the political, economic, social, religious and cultural life of the Bamum.


We analyzed 342 women who had suspicious breast lumps to determine if preoperative mammography could improve the malignancy yield of biopsy procedures. The number of women with cancer of the breast and false-negative mammogram reports ranged from 11% to 25%, depending on how equivocal mammogram reports were interpreted. Therefore, women with clinically suspicious breast lumps should undergo biopsy regardless of mammographic findings. A significant difference in the mean (+/- SD) predictive value of a positive mammogram existed between women above and below the age of 50 years (80 +/- 8 vs 43 +/- 14) because of the age-specific relative prevalence of benign and malignant disease, and because mammography had difficulty distinguishing between benign and malignant lumps (specificity, 70). Preoperative mammography of women with suspicious breast lumps is indicated to screen for occult carcinoma, to prevent biopsy sampling errors, and to judge the adequacy of lumpectomy if the lesion is malignant.


A home network system guarantees to provide a family with a safe, economical and healthy life, and it services domestic safety, control of instruments, controllable energy and health monitoring by using home appliances. Our studies designed the broadband power line communication (BPLC) home controller which could save much cost at a network infrastructure by using the existing power line at home. The BPLC home controllers could control various domestic appliances such as a digital door-lock, a boiler, an oven and etc., because these controllers had various I/O specifications. We selected the Jini technology surrogate architecture as a home network middleware for our system, this technology was designed to access a home network system without a limitation of the devices. And the client application program of the system managed and monitored the BPLC home controller via Web browser. In this paper we implemented the home security system using the single BPLC home controller.


In multilevel modelling, interest in modeling the nested structure of hierarchical data has been accompanied by increasing attention to different forms of spatial interactions across different levels of the hierarchy. Neglecting such interactions is likely to create problems of inference, which typically assumes independence. In this paper we review approaches to multilevel modelling with spatial effects, and attempt to connect the two literatures, discussing the advantages and limitations of various approaches.


Background: Mental illness constructs are not universal and are likely to be burdened with ethnocentric conceptualization. Different terminology is used to refer to the same aspects of the translation process, making it harder to achieve clarity. Heterogenous focus group discussion is particularly suited for obtaining several perspectives about the same topic. The benefits of heterogenous focus group discussion include gaining insights into people's shared understandings of a concept and the ways in which individuals are influenced by others in a group situation. Objectives: 1) To find out reliability of GMHAT/PC Marathi. 2. To assess the validity of the GMHAT/PC Marathi for the diagnosis of psychiatric illness. Research Design: cross sectional study Sample: Persons aged 15 yrs and above, reporting to psychiatry units. Sample size: 500. Material: Global Mental Health Assessment Tool – Primary care Marathi. Result: The Cronbach's alpha coefficient estimated to 0.854 with the reliability coefficient of r=0.921. The 'k' value is 0.744 which indicates that the tool has good diagnostic accuracy. The overall sensitivity of the tool was found to be 96.51% (CI = 94.21% to 98.08%) (Assumed sensitivity = 90%). The estimated specificity of the tool is 74.75% (CI =65.02% to 82.94%). Conclusion: GMHAT/PC -Marathi is a valid, quick and comprehensive assessment and diagnoses of mental disorders for Marathi speaking people. GMHAT/PC- Marathi in psychiatric settings appears to have very good sensitivity and specificity. The mean duration of the interview was around 13.4 minutes which makes it feasible for routine use in the outpatient departments.


Integration, inclusion, and equity constitute fundamental dimensions of democracy in post-World War II societies and their institutions. The study presented here reports upon the ways in which individuals and institutions both use and account for the roles that technologies, including ICT, play in disabling and enabling access for learning in higher education for all. Technological innovations during the 20th and 21st centuries, including ICT, have been heralded as holding significant promise for revolutionizing issues of access in societal institutions like schools, healthcare services, etc. (at least in the global North). Taking a socially oriented perspective, the study presented in this paper focuses on an ethnographically framed analysis of two datasets that critically explores the role that technologies, including ICT, play in higher education for individuals who are "differently abled" and who constitute a variation on a continuum of capabilities. Functionality as a dimension of everyday life in higher education in the 21st century is explored through the analysis of (i) case studies of two "differently abled" students in Sweden and (ii) current support services at universities in Sweden. The findings make visible the work that institutions and their members do through analyses of the organization of time and space and the use of technologies in institutional settings against the backdrop of individuals' accountings and life trajectories. This study also highlights the relevance of multi-scale data analyses for revisiting the ways in which identity positions become framed or understood within higher education.


Background: Metformin hydrochloride (HCl) is an oral antihyperglycemic drug used in the management of type 2 diabetes. Metformin HCl is not chemically or pharmacologically related to any other classes of oral antihyperglycemic agents and very successfully used as drug of first choice. It has 50-60% oral bioavailability.It is believed to be predominantly absorbed in the upper part of the intestine, and estimated time for its complete absorption is approximately 6 h. Clinical trials with metformin have demonstrated decreased bioavailability at higher doses, suggesting saturable intestinal absorption. There is need and scope to increase oral bioavailability of metformin HCl. These details led to an idea of development of SR tablet with more gastric/duodenum retention and was designed as SR tablet using ion exchange principle in floating, mucoadhesive matrix. Aim: The objective of this research was to formulate floating mucoadhesive tablet of metformin HCl in complex with ion exchange resin, for the therapeutic dose of 250 mg. Materials and Medhods: Metformin HCl being cationic drug can be complexed with cation exchange resin like indion 244.This study began with formulation and optimization of drug-resin complex (DRC). Various parameters like the use of batch and column process, complexation time, temperature, and pH were studied and optimized. DRC was characterized by infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction pattern. The efficient drug loading was evident in a batch process using activated indion 244 with a drug-resin ratio of 1:1. Drug complexation enhanced with pH 3.5, temperature 60°C. Infrared spectroscopy revealed complexation of: −NH group of the drug with −C=O stretching of aryl acids of indion 244. Optimized DRC obtained was amorphous in nature. This DRC was put into tablet which could sustain the release of metformin in the favorable region of gastric pH because of inherent slow release from DRC along with a matrix of hydroxylpropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) K100M and Carbopol 974P. HPMC K100M along with sodium bicarbonate made this tablet float and Carbopol 974P gave the additional property of mucoadhesion. The quantity of carbopol optimized first and quantity of HPMC and carbopol using 32 factorial design. Results: The tablets were evaluated for hardness, thickness, friability, drug content, weight variation, floating lag time, floating time, mucoadhesive strength, and in vitro drug release. Tablets thus formulated (Batch M-3) provided sustained release using floating and mucoadhesion approaches over a period of 12 h. The project is open for in vivo studies. Conclusions: Metformin HCl (250 mg) table as drug resin complex in mucoadhesive floating matrix can provide advantage for early cases of diabetics. Floating mucoadhesive tablet having metformin HCl complexed with indion 244 is not available in the market and not yet reported in research paper as per literature survey. This could be one of the attempts to increase the oral bioavailability of metformin HCl.


There has been considerable growth in the issue of food & beverage safety in Thailand. This is important because the level of satisfaction in food & beverage safety has impacts on travel decision made by foreign tourists. Therefore, this paper was aimed to test if there is any significant gender effect in the level of satisfaction of food & beverage safety made by foreign tourists in Thailand. In addition, this paper utilized the Chi Square test of independent to test if there was an association between gender and sickness because of food and if there was an association between gender and the perception of food safety standard. During January to June, 2012, a total of 400 foreign tourist respondents, 200 male as well as 200 female foreign tourists, were interviewed at the departure lounge at Suvarnabhumi airport, Thailand. The findings revealed the astonishing result that there was no significant effect of gender. Also, there was no significant difference in the association between gender and being sick because of food as well as the association between gender and the perception on the standard of food safety during their trip in Thailand. Keywords—Food & Beverage, Gender Effect, Safety Standard, Satisfaction.


e20001Background: Napabucasin is a first-in-class cancer stemness inhibitor, identified by its ability to inhibit STAT3-driven gene transcription and spherogenesis of cancer stem cells (Li et al PN...


The majority of available text summarization datasets include short-form source documents that lack long-range causal and temporal dependencies, and often contain strong layout and stylistic biases. While relevant, such datasets will offer limited challenges for future generations of text summarization systems. We address these issues by introducing BookSum, a collection of datasets for long-form narrative summarization. Our dataset covers source documents from the literature domain, such as novels, plays and stories, and includes highly abstractive, human written summaries on three levels of granularity of increasing difficulty: paragraph-, chapter-, and book-level. The domain and structure of our dataset poses a unique set of challenges for summarization systems, which include: processing very long documents, non-trivial causal and temporal dependencies, and rich discourse structures. To facilitate future work, we trained and evaluated multiple extractive and abstractive summarization models as baselines for our dataset.


The scope of the article is to present the reflections of professionals from the Mais Médicos Program (More Doctors Program) on the significance of the specialization course in Family Health in terms of professional practice and learning the most important concepts. This is an empirically based qualitative study on the statements recorded in the "Critical reflection on their personal learning process" of the final work of the specialization course at the Federal University of Pelotas. For textual analysis, 101 reports were randomly selected from a total of 1,011 reports completed in seven states of the North, Northeast and South of Brazil from June to December 2015. The initial barriers were overcome with tutor support and team integration, with emphasis on teaching tools for the improvement of clinical practice and strategic organization of work and greater understanding of the public health system. Fostering the learning of the Portuguese language and the exchange of experience in the forums were considered valuable positive aspects. Despite the difficulty in Internet access in some municipalities it reaffirmed the central role of ongoing education and the viability of the problem-solving methodology, even from a distance.


The objective of this study was to measure the relationship between emergency medicine (EM) specialty training and quality measures in the emergency department (ED). Data were gathered from the 2003-2004 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. The outcome was proportion of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), pneumonia (PNA), and long-bone fracture (LBF) who received recommended therapy. These measures were analyzed with respect to EM residency completion. Compared with EDs with more than 80% EM-trained physicians, EDs with fewer than 80% EM-trained physicians had similar rates of aspirin (43% vs 42%) and β-blocker (26% vs 19%) use for AMI, appropriate antibiotics (78% vs 83%) and pulse oximetry (51% vs 55%) for PNA, and analgesia (85% vs 79%) for LBF. Additionally, a composite end point and an adjusted model showed no statistical difference across these measures. The proportion of residency-trained EM physicians did not affect the use of recommended treatment for AMI, PNA, and LBF.


Diet and exercise are primary strategies recommended for the control of the obesity epidemic. Considerable attention is being paid to the effect of both on the immune system. However, little research has been done on the effect of diet, nutrients or exercise on the mucosal immune system. The gastrointestinal tract (gut) is not only responsible for the entry of nutrients into the organism, but also for triggering the primary immune response to orally ingested antigens. The gut-associated lymphoid tissue contains a large amount of immune cells, disseminated all along the intestine in Peyer's patches and lamina propria. Specific nutrients or their combinations, as well as the microflora, are capable of modulating the immune system through cell activation, production of signalling molecules or gene expression. We have observed an increase in T-cells as well as a decrease in B-cells from Peyer's patches, induced by diets high in fats or carbohydrates in Balb/c mice. It has also been demonstrated that exercise modulates the immune system, where moderate levels may improve its function by increasing the proliferation of lymphocytes from various sites, including gut-associated lymphoid tissue, whereas exhaustive acute exercise may cause immunosuppression. High-fat diets combined with exercise are able to induce an increase in CD3+ lymphocytes due to increased CD8+ cells and a decrease in B-cells. Explanations and consequences of the effects of diet and exercise on the gut mucosal immunity are still being explored.


Power consumption and Quality-of-Service are the critical factors when developing resource allocation strategies for wireless networks. In order to minimize total transmission power while meeting the end-to-end outage probability requirement in a distributed MIMO multi-hop network, we will formulate the power allocation task as a convex optimization problem. By using some approximations to the optimization problem, we derive a novel near-optimal power allocation solution with lower complexity for distributed MIMO multi-hop networks. For the network with a large number of relaying nodes per virtual antenna array even a simple closed-form solution can be obtained. The simulation results show that our solution achieves a near-optimal performance.


Article history: Received 1 January 2010 Received in revised form 10 March 2010 Accepted 1 April 2010 Available online 30 April 2010 Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is one of the effective techniques for managing the inventory in supply chain. VMI models have been proven to reduce the cost of inventory compared with traditional economic order quantity method under some conditions such as constant demand and production expenditure. However, the modeling of the VMI problem has never been studied under some realistic assumptions such as price dependent demand. In this paper, three problem formulations are proposed. In the first problem formulation, we study a VMI problem with one buyer and one supplier when demand is considered to be a function of price and price elasticity to demand, and production cost is also a function of demand. The proposed model is formulated and solved in a form of geometric programming. For the second and the third models, we consider VMI problem with two buyers and two suppliers assuming that each buyer centre is relatively close to the other buyer centre. Each supplier has only one product which is different from the product of the other supplier. Two suppliers cooperate in customer relationship management and two buyers cooperate in supplier relationship management as well, so the suppliers send the orders of two buyers by one vehicle, simultaneously. For the third model, an additional assumption which is practically applicable and reasonable is considered. For all the proposed models, the optimal solution is compared with the traditional one. We demonstrate the implementation of our proposed models using some numerical examples. © 2010 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Urinary tract infections (UTIs) arise due to the invasion of pathogenic microorganisms in the urinary tract, resulting in inflammatory reactions in the epithelial linings of the urinary tract. The presence of pathogenic bacteria colonization more than 100,000 microbes of the same strain per milliliter of the urine in two consecutive urine samples is said to be a positive specimen for infection. An electronic search was conducted by using the PubMed database of the library of Unitec Institute of Technology with key research terms "cranberry," "urinary tract infections," and "type 2 diabetes." These specifications resulted in a number of research studies and review articles, but for this literature review, only random controlled trials, comparative studies, pilot studies, and controlled clinical trials were considered. A total of twelve studies were selected for this review, out of which nine were randomized controlled clinical trials, two were co-relational or observational studies, and one was pilot study. The search was not limited to studies on women; rather, an extensive search was carried out in other subpopulations like children, older age-group people, pregnant women, males, and healthy females that were carried out and published between 2008 and 2014. The random controlled trials in the present review provide level 2 evidence, observational studies provide level 4 evidence, and pilot studies provide level 6 evidence. These levels of evidences are mentioned according to the guidelines provided by Polit and Beck.


Background: Antibiotic resistance, a continuous threat to effective prevention and treatment of infections is a common problem the world facing these days. The severity of problem has increased especially in developing countries with self-medication and multiple antibiotics use as main contributing factors.
Objective: To describe the pattern of prescription and antibiotics dispensing from pharmacies along with identification of determinants regarding self-medication of antibiotics among consumers.
Methodology: Cross sectional study design was used. Data was collected from 5 conveniently selected pharmacies in Islamabad & Rawalpindi using a standardized structured questionnaire during evening shift at each pharmacy.
Results: Overall, 525 antibiotics were dispensed to 386 patients or representatives with a total cost of 44174 PKR (approximately $437 USD). About 64.8% (n=250) of the respondents received antibiotics on an official prescription whereas 35.2% (n=136) of the respondents received antibiotics on self-demand or on pharmacist recommendation. Significant association was observed between gender, age, occupation of respondents, cost spent on antibiotics and self-medication.
Conclusion: Antibiotics prescribing and dispensing practices in Islamabad & Rawalpindi are not in complete accordance with the standard guidelines. Antibiotics were frequently prescribed and dispensed through pharmacies of twin cities without official prescriptions. Moreover, higher percentage of antibiotics was dispensed per prescription in majority and people tended more towards self-medication because they found it a cheap solution for their health issues.


The purpose of this thesis is to assess the role played by NGOs related to human rights in Turkey. The reason to choose Turkey as a case study is because Turkey is a developing country and one of the strongest democracies in its region. Despite the fact that there are many arguments about its membership, it is the only Muslim and geographically Oriental country that has been an official candidate for the European Union. Nevertheless, human rights is a conflictual subject in its history and present. The interviews conducted with some national and international NGOs active in the field which put leverage on the state to change restrictive regulations showed that, they are playing important role in the human rights area with their advocacy, service delivery or monitoring missions. However, their relationship with the state and with each other still remains problematic due to an institutional culture which lacks trust and collaborative tendencies. The future of the role that NGOs will play in the area related to human rights will depend on trust building and mutual understanding among civil society, the state and its citizens. A reconciliation process through conflict transformation is needed to reconstruct a healthy relationship. The ongoing negotiation process with the European Union also provides motivation for Turkey to harmonise its value system, legislation and implementation related to human rights.


The effects of pH, luminol myeloperoxidase and hydrogen peroxide concentrations on the intensity of luminol chemiluminescence induced by myeloperoxidase catalysis were investigated. It was found that the intensity of luminescence is proportional to the enzyme concentration (up to 8.10(-8) M) and reaches the saturation level at higher enzyme concentrations. The dependence of chemiluminescence intensity on [H2O2] is bell-shaped: at H2O2 concentrations above 1.10(-4) M the luminescence is inhibited with a maximum at neutral values of pH. Luminol at concentrations above 5.10(-5) M inhibits this process. It was demonstrated that the effects of singlet oxygen, superoxide and hydroxyl radicals on the chemiluminescence reaction are insignificant. Luminol oxidation in the course of the myeloperoxidase reaction is induced by hypochlorite.


The importance of education in disaster risk reduction has been emphasized in several international agendas, frameworks, conferences, as well as UN programs. Chapter 36 of Agenda 21, on "Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training" stated, "Education, including formal education, public awareness and training, should be recognized as a process by which human beings and societies can reach their fullest potential" (UNEP, 1992). Furthermore, the UN/ISDR System Thematic Cluster/Platform on Knowledge and Education argued that "Education for disaster risk reduction is an interactive process of mutual learning among people and institutions. It encompasses far more than formal education at schools and universities, and involves the recognition and use of traditional wisdom and local knowledge for protection from natural hazard" (UN/ISDR, 2005). In the 2006 Review of the Role of Education and Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction, Professor Ben Wisner commented, "Education, knowledge and awareness are critical to building the ability to reduce losses from natural hazards, as well as the capacity to respond to and recover effectively from extreme natural events when they do, inevitably, occur" (Wisner, 2006). The Second Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (2007, India) urged governments to make school safety and the integration of disaster risk reduction into school curricula a priority on the national agenda (UN/ISDR, 2007a). The Third Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (2008, Malaysia) recognized education as an essential contribution to effective implementation of disaster risk reduction and concrete impact in terms of shifts in behaviors at the local level, where communities are most vulnerable to disasters (UN/ISDR, 2008). Last but not least, the UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) program emphasized that "Education is the primary agent of transformation toward sustainable development, increasing people's capacities to transform their visions for society into reality" (UNESCO, 2005a).


: Significant positive effects of 30 kg/ha of sulphur as manifested on yield and yield parameters of garlic were further carried over to following maize crop. Garlic bulb and foliage yield (6.3 and 0.8 t/ha respectively) obtained at 30 kg/ha of sulphur dose was significantly higher over without sulphur (3.7 and 0.5 t/ha respectively) as revealed from two years' pooled data. Similarly number of leaves/plant, weight of cloves/5bulbs and weight/100 cloves at the said sulphur dose significantly increased over without sulphur from 10.5 to 11.9, 98.3 to 141.2 g and from 159 to 217 g in respective manner Increase in grain yield of maize (residual effect) and in the economic yield of the whole cropping sequence (Bulb yield of garlic and grain yield of maize) i.e. direct plus residual effect at 30 kg/ha of sulphur dose over without sulphur was from 28.3 to 47.2 and from 71 to 116 q/ha in respective manner i.e. with significant differences. Sulphur use efficiencies (kg yield/kg sulphur) of these crops at 15, 30 and 45 kg/ha over no sulphur were 57, 43 and 32; 53, 63 and 6 and 160, 150 and 67, all in respective order An optimum sulphur dose of 44.3 kg/ha produced increased bulb yield (over no S) worth Rs 34892 over fertilizer cost giving B:C ratio of 31.5:1. Utilization of sulphur added at 15, 30 and 45 kg/ha rates was 24.1, 19.3 and 15.7% by the garlic crop; and 29.6. 24.5 and 9.02% by the following maize crop, thus, adding up to 54.1, 43.8 and 24.9% by the cropping sequence, all in respective order.


We modelled the power output of a small hydroelectric turbine placed within the descending aorta of a human and plotted this against the age of the individual. We found that the optimal age for energy generation with this model ranges from roughly 62 to 74 years old for a power output range of approximately 1.2 W to 2.9 W, although we suggest that less dangerous methods of power generation are preferable.


Abstract The combination of language policies, the global testing industry, and the role of STEM subjects in school systems have been shown to undermine the inclusion of all pupils, especially with regard to language backgrounds. This lack of inclusion shows signs of developing into a point of systematic exclusion for those students. In this article we will consider the language policies in two national contexts, the Swedish and the Luxembourgish ones, and specifically examine issues of in(ex)clusion in relation to multi-lingualism in STEM teaching. This study analyzes policy documents on (1) inclusion, (2) language use, and (3) STEM teaching at school in the two national contexts, using a methodology that builds on Popkewitz's (2013; 2014) approach to politics of schooling. Our results show, first, that different policies on language and multilingualism become visible in policy documents for primary school teaching in Sweden and Luxembourg. Secondly, this article discusses what impacts these policies may have on matters of inclusion, exclusion, or abjection in STEM teaching contexts at primary schools.


AIMS
In a field study, the effects of treatments of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) in soil, alone and in combination with phosphate fertilizer, were examined on the performance and endophytic microbiota of garden strawberry.

METHODS AND RESULTS
The root and leaf endophytic microbiota of garden strawberries grown in GBH-treated and untreated soil, with and without phosphate fertilizer were analyzed. Next, bioinformatics analysis on the type of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase enzyme was conducted to assess the potential sensitivity of strawberry-associated bacteria and fungi to glyphosate, and to compare the results with field observations. GBH treatments altered the abundance and/or frequency of several operational taxonomic units (OTUs), especially those of root-associated fungi and bacteria. These changes were partly related to their sensitivity to glyphosate. Still, GBH treatments did not shape the overall community structure of strawberry microbiota or affect plant performance. Phosphate fertilizer increased the abundance of both glyphosate-resistant and glyphosate-sensitive bacterial OTUs, regardless of the GBH treatments.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings demonstrate that although the overall community structure of strawberry endophytic microbes is not affected by GBH use, some individual taxa are.


Using a vector Fresnel diffraction propagator we investigate the far-field distributions obtained from guided annular modes with different polarization states. Furthermore we demonstrate that a pure azimuthal polarization transforms into a mainly radial one in the propagation of annular beams with azimuthal mode number higher than 0. This property could enhance the performance of a laser metal-cutting system based on these kind of beams.


Firms in service and make-to-order manufacturing industries often quote lead times and prices to customers. We define uniform quotation mode (UQM) as the strategy where a firm offers a single lead time and price quotation, and differentiated quotation mode (DQM) is where a firm offers a menu of lead times and prices for customers to choose from. Both modes are followed in practice. Firms should determine which is more profitable. We classify customers into two groups: lead time sensitive (LS) and price sensitive (PS). LS customers value lead time reduction more than PS customers. We develop mathematical models of both quotation modes and analyze them to determine the most profitable mode under specified situations as well as the best lead time and price quotations within each mode. We find that DQM is dominated by UQM whenever PS customers have positive utilities from UQM or LS customers have positive utilities from DQM. Otherwise, which quotation mode is better depends on multiple factors, such as customer characteristics (including lead time reduction valuation and product valuation of a customer, and the proportion of LS customers) and production characteristics (including the desired service level and service or production cost).


IL-8 and its polymorphisms are involved in multiple acute and chronic inflammatory processes including pathological changes to surrounding structures of the teeth called periodontal diseases or periodontitis. The aim of this manuscript was to systematically review studies from 2006 to 2021 on IL-8 polymorphisms and their association with periodontitis. Literature analysis was done following the PRISMA protocol guidance using articles not older than 15 years (2006-2021). The search was carried out using PubMed (MEDLINE), ScienceDirect and Wiley Online Library databases. For the focus question, the PICO (population (P), intervention (I), control (C), and outcome (O)) study design protocol was used, and the following question was formulated: are IL-8 gene polymorphisms associated with periodontitis? A total of 2422 articles were found at the beginning of the search. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, screening, and full-text article exclusion with reasons, 31 studies were included in the analysis. In conclusion, IL-8 and its gene polymorphisms are associated with an increased risk of periodontal diseases.