Abstract Background: It is necessary to develop a highly specific and sensitive assay to quantify the exact amount of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in blood of patients with hepatitis C. For this reason, a real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for quantification of HCV RNA in human plasma was developed. Methods: A pair of primers as well as hybridization probes were selected. A real-time RT-PCR was set up and optimized. To establish the sensitivity of the assay, a serial dilution of HCV standards and reference sera, including the six major HCV genotypes, was used. The performance of the assay was evaluated with 191 known HCV-RNA positive and 100 negative samples. Results: The real-time assay had a sensitivity of 50 IU/mL, with a dynamic range of detection between 103 and 106 IU/mL. The coefficients of variation of threshold cycle values in intra- and inter-day-runs were <1.77% and 3.40%, respectively. Measurement of HCV-RNA positive samples yielded reproducible data with 100% specificity. Conclusions: The high sensitivity, simplicity, reproducibility, wide dynamic range, and low cost of this real-time HCV RNA quantification makes this method especially suitable for monitoring viral load during therapy and tailoring of treatment schedules accordingly. Clin Chem Lab Med 2010;48:777–84.


To study delphinid near surface movements and behavior, two L-shaped hydrophone arrays and one vertical hydrophone line array were deployed at shallow depths (<125 m) from the floating instrument platform R/P FLIP, moored northwest of San Clemente Island in the Southern California Bight. A three-dimensional propagation-model based passive acoustic tracking method was developed and used to track a group of five offshore killer whales (Orcinus orca) using their emitted clicks. In addition, killer whale pulsed calls and high-frequency modulated (HFM) signals were localized using other standard techniques. Based on these tracks sound source levels for the killer whales were estimated. The peak to peak source levels for echolocation clicks vary between 170-205 dB re 1 μPa @ 1 m, for HFM calls between 185-193 dB re 1 μPa @ 1 m, and for pulsed calls between 146-158 dB re 1 μPa @ 1 m.


We present a model of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a classical neuropsychological test frequently used to assess deficits in executive functioning. The model is grounded in a cognitive architecture based on the Supervisory System theory of Norman and Shallice (1986) and evaluated against data from control subjects and several groups of neurological patients as reported by Stuss et al. (2000). The model is able to account for control performance across a range of dependent measures. When damaged in theoretically motivated ways it is also able to capture the behaviour of the different patient groups. Specifically, the model supports the association by Shallice et al. (2008) of the function of task-setting to left lateral prefrontal cortex, of the function of attentiveness to inferior medial prefrontal cortex, and of the function of monitoring to right lateral prefrontal cortex. The implication of these results for the supervisory system architecture and the localisation of function within prefrontal cortex are discussed.


India is one of the leading countries in consuming and manufacturing alcoholic beverages in the last few years. Alcohol is one of the major players in contributing an important role in India's economy. Individuals are aware of the fact that advertisement of tobacco, cigarettes, and alcohol is banned in our country, but the leverage has been granted of promoting the brand through surrogate marketing. There are many traditional methods that are still successful in the promotion of alcohol like hoardings and banner, but some modern ways are promotion through social media, ladies' night, etc. This study aims to explore the various promotional practices performed by alcohol companies and analyze the customer attitude towards it. A questionnaire survey was used to collect the customers' primary data by visiting various clubs and bars. The total number of questionnaires that were analyzed is 200 using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The result of SPSS was reviewed based on the hypothesis formed and the relationship is determined between various variables. With the help of results, we connected it to a research model related to consumer attitude. This study concluded that promotional activities play an important role and mostly impact brand awareness. Despite surrogate marketing, the entire liquor bran


The binding of K+ and Ba2+ cations to short poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) chains with ca. 4-25 monomeric units in methanol was studied by determining the effective charge of the polymer through a combination of electrophoretic NMR and diffusion NMR experiments. These cations were previously found to bind to long PEO chains in a similar strong manner. In addition, 1H chemical shift and longitudinal spin relaxation rate changes upon binding were quantified. For both systems, binding was stronger for the short chains than that for the longer chains, which is attributed mainly to interactions between bound ions. For K+ ions, the equilibrium binding constant of a cation to a binding site was measured. For both cations, the binding site was estimated to consist of ca. six monomeric units that coordinated with the respective ions. For the systems with barium, a significant fraction of the bound ions are (BaAnion)+ ion pairs. This leads to a strong anion effect in the effective charge of the oligomers acquired upon barium ion binding. For K+, the coordinating oligomer segment remains rather mobile and individual oligomers exchange rapidly (≪s) between their free and ion-complexing states. In contrast, segmental dynamics slows significantly for the oligomer section that coordinates with the barium species, and for individual oligomers, binding and nonbinding sections do not exchange on the time scale of seconds. Hence, oligomers also exchange slowly (>s) between their free and barium complexing states.


The influence of the post-synthesis adsorption of Co(II) ions on the structural and magnetic properties of maghemite (gamma-Fe2O3) nanoparticles with a mean particle size of about 10 nm has been investigated. It is shown that the step-wise adsorption of Co( II) can controllably increase the blocking temperature, T-B, of the system up to 60 K with respect to that of untreated particles, while neither the particle size nor the particle size distribution are significantly modified. This is accompanied by a four-fold increase in the coercivity, H-C, at low temperatures. Using a selective leaching of the previously adsorbed Co(II) ions the T-B and H-C values of the pristine gamma-Fe2O3 nanoparticles are recovered. Hence, a reversible and controllable tailoring of the magnetic properties (e.g., T-B and H-C) of the gamma-Fe2O3 nanoparticles can be achieved by a simple adsorption and desorption process of Co( II) ions after their synthesis.


The global bioanalytical community increasingly craves scientifically sound practices and guidance where the rationale is given for each requirement. To this end, it is critical to first evaluate all the existing practices and requirements based on scientific findings and critical thinking. Here we are challenging several important common practices in regulated LC-MS bioanalysis, from the requirement of at least six different calibration concentrations, no extrapolation, use of blank and zero standard in each batch, selection of quality controls, to the way matrix effect and dilution integrity are being validated. Both the reasons why these common practices are unnecessary or inadequate and the potential solutions are presented.


With a high-refractive-index mixed-oxide dielectric material of ZrTiO(4) and ZrO(2) [Substance H2 (Sub2) from E. Merck, Darmstadt, Germany], in combination with magnesium flouride (MgF(2)), design optimization and experimental production of low-loss antireflection (AR) coatings are carried out. Design-optimization studies that make use of these materials as constituents of a seven-layer coating system demonstrate that when the useful bandwidth of an AR coating is extended to cover a wider spectral range, the designs are in general found to have increased integrated reflection loss, higher ripple, and increased spectral instability. The experimental studies on Sub2 material show that the films have excellent optical performance over a wider process window, the advantage of which is demonstrated in the production of different AR coatings on a variety of glasses with refractive indices that range from 1.45 to 1.784 and different mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties. The manufacturing process of AR coatings shows a consistency better than 99% with respect to optical properties and durability.


BACKGROUND
Lumbar radicular pain often results from lumbar disc herniation, spinal stenosis, or degenerative spondylolisthesis. Minimally invasive disc decompression procedures, such as nucleo-annuloplasty or epiduroscopic neural decompression by laser, have been devised to treat such pain.

OBJECTIVE
The short-term outcomes of disc decompression by endoscopic epidural laser decompression (EELD) or transforaminal epiduroscopic laser annuloplasty (TELA) were compared in patients with lumbar radicular pain due to disc herniation.

STUDY DESIGN
A randomized, prospective trial.

SETTING
The Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Spine Health Wooridul Hospital in Daegu, Korea.

METHODS
A total of 97 patients were enrolled in this study; 48 patients underwent EELD and 49 underwent TELA. The pain relief was evaluated at baseline and at 1, 3, and 6 months post-procedure via the numeric rating scale (NRS). The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) was recorded at baseline and at the final follow-up. Postoperative wound pain was assessed over a 24-hour period. Complications and side effects were also recorded, as were operative times (from local anesthetic infiltration at entry sites to suturing of skin).

RESULTS
At post-treatment months 1, 3, and 6 the mean pain scores of patients were significantly lower (relative to pre-treatment baseline) regardless of the procedure used. However, the mean pain scores did not differ significantly by procedure (EELD vs TELA). As well, the number of patients who obtained relief from their pain and needed analgesics was not statistically significant. The irrigation volume was significantly higher in the TELA group. Two patients undergoing TELA procedures experienced headache during the procedures; however, no serious complications such as bleeding, dural/neural injuries, or infection were recorded for either group.

LIMITATION
The observed significant reductions in pain (from baseline) lacked secondary outcome substantiation and given the mid follow-up period, no long-term follow-up results were monitored.

CONCLUSION
Both EELD and TELA provide similar outcomes and are reasonable treatment options for carefully selected patients with lower back or radicular pain.

KEY WORDS
Epiduroscopy, laser, annuloplasty, disc, herniation, TELA.


Objectives: to evaluate the efficacy and safety of human immunoglobulin versus plasmapheresis in the management of autoimmune neurologic diseases. Likewise, length of hospital stay and duration of ventilator support were compared.
Methods: Randomized controlled trials and analytical observational studies of more than 10 cases, were reviewed. Cochrane Neuromuscular Disease Group trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, HINARI Ovid, the Database of abstracts of reviews of effectiveness and the Economic evaluation Database were searched as data source. Reference lists were examined for further relevant articles. A random-effect model was used to derive a pooled risk ratio.
Results: 725 articles were found and 27 met the criteria for a population studied of 4717 cases: 14 articles were about Guillain Barre syndrome, 10 of Myasthenia Gravis, one of Sydenham Chorea, one of Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, and one of PANDAS. No evidence was found in favor of any of the two treatments as regards effectiveness (OR 0.94, IC 0.63 – 1.41, p= 0.77) or ventilator support time; IGIV had a significant better safety profile than plasmapheresis (OR 0.70, IC 0.51 – 0.96, p= 0.03) and patients needed less time of hospital stay (p=0.03).
Conclusions: There is no evidence for superiority in the effectiveness of immunoglobulin or plasmapheresis in the management of autoimmune neurologic diseases. Nevertheless, patients treated with immunoglobulin have statistically significant less adverse effects, a shorter hospital stay and a tendency of less ventilator support time. These premises could lead to fewer costs for health services but an economic study should be done.


This thesis describes activities carried out in order to improve a small company's web development process, specifically focusing on the areas of reuse and web accessibility. CACDP are the examinations board for British Sign Language and other related disciplines. Within the domain of web development they have no formal processes and no skills or knowledge with which to improve them. They wish to develop four new web based products, and to apply accessibility guidelines to both these and their existing web site. The areas of web development, process Improvement and reuse are investigated, specifically In relation to their suitability for CACDP, and an action list is drawn up of tasks that will assist them in achieving their aims. A formal process is defined and implemented in an iterative procedure, designed to gradually improve their working practices, and work towards achieving improvements in some of the Key Process Areas of the Capability Maturity Model. Reuse is targeted as a specific way to achieve efficiency within the development, and web accessibility is particularly important to CACDP as they work with many people who are affected by the lack of accessibility. The thesis describes the production of the applications using the defined process, and the problems faced during the implementation. These problems are reviewed and suggested improvements are integrated into the next implementation of the process. This project has resulted in the successful introduction of a formal process for the development of web-based applications. Reuse is now being used within the company to reduce cost and improve productivity. Accessibility standards have been implemented in all products. CACDP have benefited from increased services for their customers, increased profitability, mature development and maintenance procedures, the introduction of a reuse programme for their future development and technical learning and training for their staff.


There is much interest in double rotor electric machines due to their versatile configurations and performance characteristics arising from the flexibility of having a pair of rotors. Double rotor machines show promising application prospects in advanced hybrid electric vehicle powertrains due to the requirement of dual electromechanical ports in such systems. Integrating these powertrain systems with double rotor machines not only brings design freedom in component layout, but also reduces the number of parts and thus improves compactness. The switched reluctance family of double rotor machines offers unique characteristics in terms of simple structure and no permanent magnets and thus is a strong candidate for such applications. By introducing the segmented rotor design to double rotor switched reluctance machines, a unique design with shared stator back-iron is made possible, achieving increased machine compactness. This paper discusses the design, analysis, and experimental validation of a double segmented rotor switched reluctance machine and compares the design against a target double rotor SRM specification.


A smart grid is a widely distributed engineering system with overhead transmission lines. Physical damage to those power lines, from natural calamities or technical failures, will disrupt the functional integrity of the grid. To ensure system recovery, the grid operator must immediately take steps to nullify the impacts. Emerging unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) show great potential to replace traditional human patrols for regularly monitoring critical situations involving the safety of the grid. The critical lines can be monitored by a fleet of UAVs to ensure a continuous resilient surveillance system. The proposed approach first considers the n-1 contingency analysis to find the criticality of a transmission line from its performance index, which is calculated using linear sensitivity factors. We divide a line into smaller segments forming multiple inspection points on the line. Then, we propose a formal framework that verifies whether a given set of UAVs can perform continuous surveillance of the grid satisfying various requirements, particularly the monitoring and resiliency specifications. The verification process ultimately provides a trajectory plan for the UAVs, including the refueling schedules. The resiliency requirement of inspecting a point is expressed in terms of a k-property specifying that if k UAVs fail or compromised still there is a UAV to collect the data at the point within a threshold time, while the points that are under resilient surveillance cover a required percentage of the grid's overall criticality. We evaluate the proposed framework on synthetic data based on various IEEE test bus systems.


Up to this date, no clear common reference system for muscle nomenclature in vertebrates exists due to 1. human medical anatomy dominated traditions, 2. typological, 'box-like' approaches, and 3. simplifications based on the taxonomic and topographical focus of the respective authors. Hence, a large terminological and homologisation confusion in the literature is recognisable, hindering evolutionary and developmental analyses. In this paper, a comprehensive study on the cranial musculature is presented, in which more than 100 references on cranium-associated musculature of turtles were critically reviewed. Following a new traceable approach to muscular terminology, a set of 88 adult 'muscular units' – the smallest parts of macroscopic muscular structures – were identified across turtle species, exemplarily demonstrated in a side-necked turtle. For example, the homology of jaw muscle portions and that of epaxial and hypaxial muscular structures are defined by a comprehensive consideration of criteria such as innervation, spatial characteristics, and ontogeny. Adult muscle arrangement variability among specimens, fusions of muscular units, and drop-like apoptosis are recorded. These phenomena are the result of a fluid pattern formation – first driven by neural crest stream patterning in ontogeny. Considering this fact of ontogeny, a new discussion of the evolutionary history of turtles and of particular cranial structures is possible.


The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has made a serious public health threat worldwide with millions of people at risk in a growing number of countries. Though there are no clinically approved antiviral drugs and vaccines for COVID-19, attempts are ongoing for clinical trials of several known antiviral drugs, their combination, as well as development of vaccines in patients with confirmed COVID-19. This review focuses on the latest approaches to diagnostics and therapy of COVID-19. We have summarized recent progress on the conventional therapeutics such as antiviral drugs, vaccines, anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody treatments, and convalescent plasma therapy which are currently under extensive research and clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19. The developments of nanoparticle-based therapeutic and diagnostic approaches have been also discussed for COVID-19. We have assessed recent literature data on this topic and made a summary of current development and future perspectives.


Uncontrolled diabetes increases the risk of postoperative complications including surgical site infection, acute renal failure, and mortality. Further, the stress of surgery and anesthesia increase counter regulatory hormones which contribute to an insulin resistant state and can lead to hyperglycemia, even in patients without known diabetes. Hyperglycemia impairs neutrophil function, and increases inflammatory cytokines and formation of reactive oxygen species. These changes lead to cellular damage and dysfunction of the immune and vascular systems. Recognizing patients at risk for perioperative hyperglycemia during the preoperative assessment provides an opportunity to intervene on glycemic control. Further, attention to glycemic control on the day of surgery and postoperatively with active management of blood glucoses with insulin has been shown to improve outcomes. This article reviews perioperative complications associated with diabetes and hyperglycemia, and provides guidelines for assessment and management of the patient preoperatively, on the day of surgery and postoperatively. It also provides a protocol for treating hypoglycemia in the hospital setting.


Purpose

Over the past decade or so, successive Luxembourgish governments have sought to develop the country's information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. In this paper, the authors will aim to examine how Luxembourg's relative position in the "Networked Readiness Index" (NRI), a key international benchmarking exercise published by the World Economic Forum, has evolved over time as these ambitions have been achieved. The paper also explores what policy initiatives could be implemented to further improve Luxembourg's ranking in the NRI.

Design/methodology/approach

A longitudinal case study-based approach, drawing on secondary data and the annual publication of the NRI between 2003 and 2016, was adopted.

Findings

Luxembourg's position in the NRI has improved from 27th in 2003, so that it now ranks among the top ten countries in the world. In particular, Luxembourg has substantially improved its position with regards to "infrastructure" and "international connectivity". However, there are also areas, mainly linked to education, the provision of human resources and policies that allow for and stimulate entrepreneurship where further improvements appear possible.

Social implications

The paper highlights the need for an overall, holistic, ICT development strategy. Such a strategy would cover not only cover infrastructural and technical aspects but also educational, social, regulatory and economic issues as well.

Originality/value

The paper charts the evolution over time of Luxembourg's position in an important international ICT index and identifies its current strengths and weaknesses in terms of the different elements that constitute the NRI. This paper represents the first attempt to investigate the position of a small country, which are often overlooked in the literature, in terms of its changing position and the policies developed and enacted by a national government.


The bipolar plate is the key part in the fuel cell. It is difficult to produce the micro flow channel of bipolar plates with high accuracy. In order to solve this problem, we present one new forming techniques, accumulative forming, for the fabrication of micro flow channels. With the utilization of the software ABAQUS, finite element model of the bipolar plate with the 20mm×20mm×0.2mm is developed to simulate the accumulative forming and obtain the forming rules. The simulation results are about the plate's thickness change and deformation. It shows that the thickness reduction decreases gradually from the center of the channel to the outside with the maximal magnitude in the starting point of accumulative forming. The maximum thinning ratio is 15.85%, which is in the forming limit scope. The simulation demonstrates the feasibility of the accumulative forming and good formability.


Although tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is one of the major cool-season grasses used for animal feed in the USA, it often is unfertilized or is top-dressed with N alone. Additional fertilizer nutrients applied with N may improve yield and quality. Subsurface placement of N has been shown to improve cool-season grass production, but data are limited regarding effects of placement of different fertilizer combinations on elemental composition and yield of tall fescue. Thus, a field study was conducted from 1984 to 1986 to determine the effects of multinutrient fertilization (N-only, NP, NPK, NPKSBZn, and PKSBZn without N) and placement method [broadcast, dribble (surface banding), and knifing (subsurface banding)] on nutrient concentrations and yield of tall fescue. Nitrogen was the primary nutrient limiting fescue growth. Adding N doubled yields of samples that estimated early-grazing potential and tripled yields of hay. Supplementing N fertilization with additional nutrients increased tissue concentrations of the added nutrient, but increases in yield were small and often not significant. Broadcasting fertilizers resulted in greater yields of early-grazing samples and higher P and K concentrations than knifing; however, by hay harvest, knifing resulted in about 10% greater yields and 20% greater N concentrations. Dribble applications generally resulted in responses intermediate between those of broadcast and knifing. Contribution no. 96-95-J, Kansas Agric. Exp. Stn. Research partially supported by grant funds from the Fluid Fertilizer Foundation.


The quasi-single-scattering approximation in which a δ function replaces the forward portion of the volume scattering function is applied to radiative transfer in the ocean. Immediately beneath the surface, the product of the reflectance R and the downwelling irradiance-attenuation coefficient K(−) is equal to an integral of the volume scattering function in the backward direction weighted by a geometrical factor. Spectral variations of the volume scattering function are revealed in K(−)R; this is used to examine the wavelength dependence of scattering in two very different natural waters. In the clear water of Crater Lake, the backscattering is proportional to λ−3 (λ = wavelength), whereas the turbid, productive waters of San Vicente Reservoir show a complex dependence of backscattering on wavelength, which is associated with anomalous dispersion due to the 670-nm absorption band of the chlorophyll that is contained in the suspended phytoplankton.


Pollution of water-bodies is a major concern in today's era. Idol immersion activities during certain festive occasions are adding to the pollution load of the water- bodies. Non-biodegradable materials and synthetic paints used for making these idols are posing serious threat to aquatic life and environment. Water quality assessment is an important exercise to evaluate the nature and extent of pollution in order to take appropriate control measures. The present work is concern about the Water quality assessment to evaluate the nature and the extent of pollution in water body. Two major idol-immersion sites Shivaji Park, Mumbai and Masunda lake, Thane were selected for taking marine water sample and fresh water sample respectively in present study. Pre-immersion, immersion and post-immersion samples were collected from three sites stations and analyzed for various water quality parameters such as pH, Total suspended solids (TSS), Total dissolve solids (TDS), Total Solids (TS), turbidity, conductivity, hardness, Dissolved oxygen (OD) and COD. The variations in the values of these parameters were more prominent in fresh water samples than marine samples. It was observed that the values of these parameters significantly increased during the immersion period and then declined in the post-immersion period. However the general trend observed was : immersion > post-immersion > pre-immersion values. pH declined slightly during immersion period whereas DO showed only slight variations in the pre-immersion, immersion and post-immersion samples.


Sildenafil is an orally effective therapy for the treatment of men with erectile dysfunction(ED). It is a specific and selective inhibitor of phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5). This paper reviews the researches on the pharmacokinetics, the onset and duration of the action of Sildenafil.


This article reports the findings of a case study of sibling interaction between a young man with Down syndrome and his three brothers. The case study was conducted as part of a larger study of the social relationships of 10 students with moderate to severe disabilities. Data were collected by ethnographic interviews with family members and key personnel in the student's school and community, and by participant observation of a range of home, school, and community activities. Data from the case study of sibling relationships are compared to data on the target student's interactions with nonfamily peers. Findings indicate that, within the family context, a range of sibling roles and of activities for the target student seemed to compensate for the target student's limited participation in sibling play activities. Outside of the family, the need for peer facilitation and advocacy was essential for the target student to be included successfully. The discussion offers a consideration of how schools can foster a sense of belonging that will encourage peer accommodations without creating unrealistic demands on students, both with and without disabilities.


Starting from a practical design problem related to natural and hybrid ventilation systems, this paper looks at different airflow modeling methods that might be employed to assist in the decision making process of a building design team. The question at hand is whether or not to make use of a double-skin facade system in a new office development. The airflow modeling methods considered are the mass balance network method and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The paper gives an overview of the methodology of the design study. The underlying modeling and simulation work is elaborated. The paper finishes with some conclusions, both in terms of the actual performance of the double-skin facade and in terms of the modeling and simulation work. The main conclusions are that for the foreseeable future the network method is more suited for this type of "everyday" design support work. However there are important areas where the network method in general might benefit from CFD, or vice versa.


The exploration well ANH-CR-Montecarlo-1X, in the southern part of the CesarRanchería basin in Colombia, cuts sedimentary rocks assigned to the Cogollo Group (BarremianCenomanian). The present study integrates petrographic techniques (thin section microscopy and scanning electron microscopy), geochemistry (total organic carbon and pyrolysis rock-eval) and basic petrophysics to establish the thermal maturity and potential of these rocks as a conventional or unconventional hydrocarbon reservoir. The results of petrographic analysis revealed that the rocks correspond to quartz sandstones and greywackes and the carbonate rocks to mudstones and wackestones. These were affected by diagenetic processes such as compaction and mineral neoformations. The latter include minerals from the clays group that cover the grains of the rock framework, and other types of precipitates, such as silica, ferrous and non-ferrous carbonate that cement them. Some of these minerals present partial or total dissolution, for which secondary porosity is recognized. Chloritization and illitization of the argillaceous matrix and feldspars alteration to ferrous and non-ferrous carbonate are also observed, which affects the porosity and permeability of the rock. Additionally, during diagenesis micrite is recrystallized to sparite and carbonate precipitation ocurred in the calcareous rocks. The study also shows that the rocks were IN PR ES S Andean Geology 48 (3): xxx-xxx. September, 2021 doi: 10.5027/andgeoV48n3-3329 2 more affected by compaction than precipitation of the different types of cement, thus reducing their porosity and permeability. Based on these parameters the siliciclastic rocks in study area have a low potential as conventional reservoir but a good potential as non-conventional reservoir (tight sandstones). The geochemical studies in the calcareous rocks exhibit low content of total organic carbon (between 0 and 4.5% with an average of 0.71%), with kerogens type III and IV. They have high levels of organic matter conversion, indicative that the rocks did generate hydrocarbons, but currently are depleted and in a mature state, compatible with a low potential of hydrocarbon generation.


Present-day brackish-water areas contain a variety of animal species with differing abilities to adapt to dilute media and many studies on the mechanisms of adaptation to dilute media have been made using these species. However, many of these areas are unstable in composition, small in volume and geologically transitory and thus hardly present a likely avenue for large-scale evolutionary processes. Many of these areas are relatively poor in numbers of species and this can be interpreted as indicating that speciation has not proceeded to equilibrium. Large-scale and geologically long-lived brackish-water areas, resulting from continental drift, such as the Sarmatic Sea, may have provided the main types of situation in which the evolution of brackish- and fresh-water faunas has occurred and from where species have become dispersed into present-day localized niches.


The primarily focus of advertising is to persuade the customers. In other words advertising aims to capture the attention of customers and convince them to buy the products by using different persuasive techniques. Beauty products are become the fundamental need of every man and women because everyone wants to be look beautiful also wants to have their spouse to be attractive. Rhetorical devices or rhetoric techniques in advertisements play a vital role to persuade viewers. The current study has also focused on rhetorical devices used in the advertisements of beauty products in Pakistani print media. The researcher's aim was to examine the rhetorical devices used by advertisers in order to capture the attention of customers and also to investigate the representation of gender in beauty products advertisements that control the mind of mind and persuade them to purchase the products. For this purpose, the study has used Critical Discourse Analysis as a research tool. The research was qualitative in nature. Data was collected from beauty products advertisements and these advertisements were taken from print media. Print advertisements were collected from 3 Dawn English magazines and 3 Mag English magazines over a period of three months (April to June 2018). By using systematic random sampling the researcher selected twenty four (24) advertisements (twelve of each gender) from total population as a sample. The data was analyzed through Rhetorical Structure Theory proposed by Mann and Thompson (1988). The findings reveal that hyperbole is the most used rhetorical device. Moreover, alliteration and analogy also frequently used in beauty products advertisements. The researcher also observed that the representation of gender in beauty products are more persuasive and tactic. The advertisers used the representation of celebrities in order to motivate the viewers and to sell their products. The study also concluded that the frequently used relations from subject matter relations are: Elaboration and Explanation and from presentational relations are: Motivation and Evidence. Keywords: Rhetorical Devices, Advertisements, Gender analysis, Pakistani print media. DOI : 10.7176/JLLL/53-03


Practice has often proven that in many cases the multimedia technological applications (internet, media editing hardware and software platforms) can rise the quality of the educational act by optimizing the information transfer, pupils'/students' development of specific competences, development of creativity and involving in common activities with the help of the internet. Nevertheless, a series of studies reveal the fact that teachers consider the student-teacher relation could not be replaced, even partially, by technology.
The present paper presents the results of a study run in the 14 gymnasiums and high schools from Arges county and University of Pitesti.
The purpose of the study is to identify the perception of the social-humanistic discipline teachers in pre-university education and of the students at the social-humanistic faculties (psychology, history, journalism), wishing to become teachers, on the use of ICT resources in the didactical process. Analyzing the perception of the teachers and students in the group on the efficiency of multimedia means in facilitating the transmission of knowledge and the shaping of pupils' competences, in the judicious management of the time allocated to class teaching, in the differentiated treatment of pupils, in intermediating the pupil-teacher relationship, is among the objectives of this study.
The research hypotheses of this study are: there are differences as regards students' and teachers' perception on the utility of multimedia means in facilitating the application of teaching-learning methods which are attractive and interactive for pupils; the existence of differences as regards students' and teachers' perception on the judicious management of the time allocated to class teaching through the use of multimedia means, the existence of differences as regards students' and teachers' perception on the individualization of training through the application of multimedia methods, the existence of differences as regards students' and teachers' perception on the intermediation of the pupil-teacher relationship through social media means.
The methodology used in this investigative approach is the questionnaire applied to the social-humanistic discipline teachers in pre-university education and those students who attend the courses of the psycho-pedagogical studies program with certification for a teaching career and who have evaluated the university didactic staff. The study was carried out on a group of 41 socio-humanistic teachers and 56 third-year students of the University of Piteşti, in the social and human sciences field. Only third-year students were included in the group because the Computer Assisted Instruction was a subject studied during that year. Also during the third year students undertake pedagogical training and have access to schools in order to attend to lessons and to teach a certain number of hours.
Findings and Results of this study have aimed at the verification of research hypotheses. The results have been processed and interpreted through descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Three of these hypotheses have been confirmed and one has not been confirmed following data processing and interpretation.
The conclusions further to the research provide relevant data for improving the ICT use methodology in the process related to the teaching of social-humanistic disciplines.


This study considers the channel covariance conversion problem, which consists in estimating the spatial covariance matrix of a wireless channel by exploiting measurements obtained on a different carrier frequency and stationarity properties of the propagation environment across sufficiently close frequency bands. The first contribution given in this study is a modelling framework based on infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces that unifies a plethora of classical and novel covariance models with different degrees of complexity and generality, while still effectively capturing important properties of the propagation environment and of the antenna array. Given this framework, this study addresses the channel covariance conversion problem by proposing two simple yet effective algorithms based on set-theoretic methods that outperform existing model-based approaches both in terms of accuracy and complexity. In particular, the first algorithm is implementable as a simple matrix-vector multiplication. Moreover, in contrast to the aforementioned approaches, both algorithms can be applied to general propagation and array models such as dual-polarized antenna arrays, making them suitable for modern 5 G and beyond systems.


This article sheds light on the formation of the Nordic game industry between 1990 and 2005. The first long-lasting game development companies within the region emerged in the early 1990s and one of the factors for the advent of a Nordic industry was the subculture surrounding the demoscene. By selecting three companies in Finland, Norway and Sweden, we look at the transition from subculture into formal companies. The study is informed by an oral history approach, supplemented by a variety of other sources, including industry reports, mainstream press stories and online materials. The article argues that the presence of the demoscene in the Nordic region had an influence on the game companies, but the transition from hobbyism to professional work processes was not straightforward or simple. However, without the demoscene, the game companies would have had a difficult time finding interested and qualified employees.


This paper traces the transformation of Hausa popular fiction, a genre created predominantly by young Muslim Hausa of Northern Nigeria. It specifically explores the interface between creative fiction and conservative society and shows how creativity and media technologies combine to reflect a transformational stage of an aspect of popular culture in a conservative African society. Contemporary Hausa prose fiction evolved as the product of British colonial policies which acted as the midwife at the birth of vernacular Hausa creative writing in 1933. State patronage was however removed and a massive independent publishing industry emerged among young Hausa novelists. Reacting against the staid conservatism of mainstream Hausa society, and embracing new media technologies they opted for a creative route different from their literary forefathers. Their open treatment of romantic themes drew the ire of the Muslim Hausa conservative establishment, and graphically illustrated a society in turbulent transition.


Stellar magnetic activity of solar like stars is thought tobe due to an internal dynamo. While the Sun has been the subject of intense research for refining dynamo models, observations of magnetic cyclic activity in solar type stars have become more and more available, opening a new path to understand the underlying physics behind stellar cycles. For instance, it is key to understand how stellar rotation rate influences magnetic cycle period Pcyc. Recent numerical simulations of advection-dominated Babcock Leighton models have demonstrated that it is difficult to explain this observed trend given a) the strong influence of the cycle period to the meridional circulation amplitude and b) the fact that 3D models indicate that meridional flows become weaker as the rotation rate increases. In this paper, we introduce the turbulent pumping mechanism as another advective process capable also of transporting the magnetic fields. We found that this model is now able to reproduce the observations under the assumption that this effect increases as Ω2. The turbulent pumping becomes indeed another major player able to circumvent the meridional circulation. However, for high rotation rates (Ω ≃ 5Ω⊙), its effects dominate those of the meridional circulation, entering a new class of regime dominated by the advection of turbulent pumping and thus leading to a cyclic activity qualitatively different from that of the Sun (© 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Two diets containing either a lard-corn oil mixture (LCO) or partially hydrogenated herring oil (PHHO) were fed to cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) for up to 30 months. Serum cholesterol values rose to 180 mg/dl in the LCO-group and to 260 mg/dl in the PHHO-group. Serum lipoprotein concentrations were normal in the LCO-group, but PHHO-fed monkeys had lower HDL- and higher LDL- and VLDL-proportions. Only one animal on the LCO-diet for 24 months developed a pre-atherosclerotic lesion in the aorta. The general absence of true atherosclerotic lesions in the presence of high serum cholesterol levels and abnormal serum lipoprotein proportions may be interpreted as being indicative of the low atherogenicity of the fats used. This finding points toward a specific fat-animal species interaction.


The study is part of a doctoral research on a model of teacher training to address approach the teaching process by educational technology, which aims to establish the percentage of teachers in the municipality of San Juan Giron (Colombia) with technology skills information and communication and how many of them apply them in the classroom. A questionnaire and an interview with principals, coordinators, teachers and students who are part of the public education system was applied. Data on correlation nonparametric tests, frequency tables and histograms and two-dimensional descriptive statistics in order to quantify the degree of association between variables analyzes were performed. The results relate to the percentages of skills in information and communication technologies which has the population studied, showing low rates of application of the same in the education sector and in the classroom. Among the most notable contributions it was found that the educational community is aware of the existence of technological tools but is not trained in the management of computing resources or the development of educational resources to support teaching because of the lack of effective plans educational and training models of teacher training, which has not allowed the pedagogical use of ICT in educational institutions. It is necessary to develop and implement a model of teacher training in ICT to respond to the educational reality of the schools in San Juan Giron.


Current substrate-integrated-waveguide (SIW) filter design methodologies can be extremely computational and time-inefficient when a narrow-band filter is required. A new approach to designing compact, highly selective narrow-band filters based on smartly positioned obstacles is thus presented here. The proposed modal-cancellation approach is achieved by translating or eliminating undesired modes within the frequency of interest. This is performed by introducing smartly located obstacles in the maxima and nulls of the modes of interest. This approach is different from the traditional inverter technique, where a periodic number of inductive irises are coupled in a ladder configuration to implement the desired response of an nth-order filter, and significantly reduces the complexity of the resulting filter structure. Indeed, the proposed method may be used to design different filters for several frequency bands and various applications. The methodology was experimentally verified through fabricated prototypes.


Understanding the genetic architecture of traits in breeding programs can be critical for making genetic progress. Important factors include the number of loci controlling a trait, allele frequencies at those loci, and allele effects in breeding germplasm. To this end, multiparental populations offer many advantages for quantitative trait locus (QTL) analyses compared to biparental populations. These include increased power for QTL detection, the ability to sample a larger number of segregating loci and alleles, and estimation of allele effects across diverse genetic backgrounds. Here, we investigate the genetic architecture of resistance to crown rot disease caused by Phytophthora cactorum in strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa), using connected full-sib families from a breeding population. Clonal replicates of > 1100 seedlings from 139 full-sib families arising from 61 parents were control-inoculated during two consecutive seasons. Subgenome-specific single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci were mapped in allo-octoploid strawberry (2n = 8 × = 56), and FlexQTL software was utilized to perform a Bayesian, pedigree-based QTL analysis. A major locus on linkage group (LG) 7D, which we name FaRPc2, accounts for most of the genetic variation for resistance. Four predominant SNP haplotypes were detected in the FaRPc2 region, two of which are strongly associated with two different levels of resistance, suggesting the presence of multiple resistance alleles. The phenotypic effects of FaRPc2 alleles across trials and across numerous genetic backgrounds make this locus a highly desirable target for genetic improvement of resistance in cultivated strawberry.


Institutional births increased in India from 39% to 79% between 2005 and 2015. Drawing from 17 months of fieldwork, this article traces the shift from home to hospital births across three generations in a hamlet in Assam in Northeast India. Here, too, one finds that most births have shifted from home to hospital in less than a decade, aided by multiple factors. These include 'free' birthing facilities and financial incentives offered by government schemes, idiosyncratic changes within the hamlet, such as the introduction of biomedical practices through home births where oxytocin was used, and changes in cultural belief systems among local people. The exploration reveals significant transitions between (and fluidities of) categories such as local/global, tradition/modernity, past/present and nature/technology, creating a complex and ambivalent narrative of change, in which the voices of mothers should not be ignored.


Proxy advisory firms play a significant role in shareholder voting and in the formulation of corporate governance policy. This paper analyses the status of budding proxy advisory industry in India using a case study method. The paper first traces the history of the global proxy advisory industry and also reviews the literature. Then we study the Indian Proxy Advisory Industry, which was born when the market regulator SEBI came out with a regulation in 2010 on "mutual funds" shareholding resolution voting policy. Quickly, three proxy advisory firms came to the market with differing ownership structure. Indian financial market offered great potential for investment through institutional investors. However the institutional investors in India are traditionally restrained them from taking activist role by voting on the shareholder meeting proposals. This poses a challenge to Indian proxy advisory firms along with other challenges typical of an emerging industry. The proxy advisory firms need to overcome the challenges to ensure their success. This pioneering work on Indian proxy advisory industry would open up new research ideas.


Electromagnetic levitation of electrically conductive droplets by alternating magnetic fields is a technique used to determine the physical properties of liquid metallic alloys such as surface tension, viscosity, heat capacity and thermal diffusivity/1/. To improve accuracy, it is mandatory to reduce electromagnetic stirring and shaping of the droplet, therefore experiments are conducted in microgravity. Properties are deduced from direct measurements of position or temperature using specific models. Our purpose is to check various assumptions on which those models are built by the use of adapted numerical codes. We first compare experimental and numerical results concerning the shape and mass centre oscillation frequencies of electromagnetically levitated Nickel droplets. Axisymmetric numerical model yields equilibrium shapes and positions of the droplets in a good agreement with experiment. Then, fluid flow effects on the measurement precision of surface tension and viscosity by comparing expecte and calculated properties values are charcterized. We determine critical values of initial droplet distortion or magnetic field intensity which can lead to an overestimate of the value of viscosity. We also calculate flow effects of heat capacity and thermal conductivity values.


Abstract Background The molecular aetiology of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] and its two subtypes, ulcerative colitis [UC] and Crohn's disease [CD], have been carefully investigated at genome and transcriptome levels. Recent advances in high-throughput proteome quantification has enabled comprehensive large-scale plasma proteomics studies of IBD. Methods The study used two cohorts: [1] The CERTIFI-cohort: 42 samples from the CERTIFI trial of anti-TNFα–refractory CD patients; [2] the PROgECT-UNITI-HCs cohort: 46 UC samples of the PROgECT study, 84 CD samples of the UNITI I and UNITI II studies, and 72 healthy controls recruited in Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, USA. The plasma proteome for these two cohorts was quantified using high-throughput platforms. Results
 For the PROgECT-UNITI-HCs cohort, we measured a total of 1310 proteins. Of these, 493 proteins showed different plasma levels in IBD patients to the plasma levels in controls at 10% false discovery rate [FDR], among which 11 proteins had a fold change greater than 2. The proteins upregulated in IBD were associated with immunity functionality, whereas the proteins downregulated in IBD were associated with nutrition and metabolism. The proteomic profiles were very similar between UC and CD. In the CERTIFI cohort, 1014 proteins were measured, and it was found that the plasma protein level had little correlation with the blood or intestine transcriptomes. Conclusions We report the largest proteomics study to date on IBD and controls. A large proportion of plasma proteins are altered in IBD, which provides insights into the disease aetiology and indicates a potential for biomarker discovery.


Signaling is an important element in the lender-borrower relationship that influences the cost and availability of debt capital to agricultural borrowers. This paper analyzes the effects of signaling on farm capital structure in conjunction with the pecking order and trade-off theories. The aggregate estimation indicates that signaling does affect agricultural credit relationships through measures of past cash flow and profitability. High-quality borrowers achieve greater credit capacity by providing lenders with valid signals of their financial status, while adjusting toward target debt levels over time and following the pecking order relationship in the short run.


We derive the optimal (minimal) power allocation and capacity for a multirate DS/CDMA system with various QoS requirements. Most of the previous work on power allocation only dealt with the conventional matched filter (MF) receiver and no multiuser detection (MUD) was considered. It is well known that MUD and in particular interference cancellation (IC) can be used to improve the system performance significantly. Hence, after proposing a novel graph-aided method to do optimal power allocation with the conventional MF receiver, parallel IC (P/C) is considered in multirate systems. We propose an iterative approach for optimal power allocation with PIC in multirate systems. It is shown that the proposed power allocation algorithm can converge to the optimal solution quickly. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that when PIC is combined with optimal power allocation, the power dissipation decrease and the system capacity increase significantly.


ABSTRACT Strains of Pseudomonas syringae (78 strains and 43 pathovars) and other strains (79) of plant and insect origin were examined for the presence of the ethylene-forming enzyme gene (efe) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. The sequence of the efe gene of P. syringae pv. phaseolicola PK2 was used to design two primer sets for amplification of the gene. In addition to P.syringae pv. phaseolicola (the "kudzu strain") and P.syringae pv. glycinea, which were efficient ethylene producers, several strains of P.syringae pvs. sesami and cannabina generated PCR products of the predicted size. A DNA probe of the efe gene, isolated from strain PK2, hybridized to these PCR products, indicating homology to the P.syringae pv. phaseolicola efe gene. PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses suggested that these four pathovars harbor a similar efe gene. Furthermore, the probe hybridized to an indigenous plasmid of P.syringae pv. cannabina, suggesting that the efe gene could be located on a plasmid in this pathovar, but did not hybridize to plas-mids of P.syringae pv. sesami strains. P.syringae pvs. sesami and cannabina strains produced ethylene in King's medium B at levels similar to those of P.syringae pvs. phaseolicola and glycinea. Thus, two new ethylene-producing bacteria were detected by the PCR assay.


Barr, MJ and Nolte, VW. Which measure of drop jump performance best predicts sprinting speed?. J Strength Cond Res 25(7): 1976-1982, 2011—The purpose of this study was to evaluate which measure of a drop jump (DJ) has the highest correlation with sprinting speed over 60 m. For use of comparison, maximal leg strengths in a front squat, countermovement jump, and squat jump were also assessed. The subjects in the study were all high-caliber female university rugby players. Subjects did DJs from 0.12, 0.24, 0.36, 0.48, 0.60, 0.72, and 0.84 m. Jump height and reactive strength index (RSI) were calculated at each drop height. Pearson correlations were used to analyze the relationship between the strength and jumping measures with sprinting speed. The DJ height from 0.84 m had the highest negative correlation with 0- to 10-m split (r = −0.66), the 10- to 30-m split (r = −0.86) and 30- to 60-m split (r = −0.86). The use of RSI is questioned as a measurement of DJ performance. It is suggested that maximal height achieved in a DJ is the most important DJ measure. If it is desired to measure ground contact time, then it may be more useful to use a second test where the jump height for the athlete is set by having the athlete jump onto a box or touch a target overhead set at a standard height and measure the ground contact time with a switch mat or force plate.


This paper presents a boosting based algorithm for learning a bipartite ranking function (BRF) with partially labeled data. Until now different attempts had been made to build a BRF in a transductive setting, in which the test points are given to the methods in advance as unlabeled data. The proposed approach is a semi-supervised inductive ranking algorithm which, as opposed to transductive algorithms, is able to infer an ordering on new examples that were not used for its training. We evaluate our approach using the TREC-9 Ohsumed and the Reuters-21578 data collections, comparing against two semi-supervised classification algorithms for ROCArea (AUC), uninterpolated average precision (AUP), mean precision@50 (TP) and Precision-Recall (PR) curves. In the most interesting cases where there are an unbalanced number of irrelevant examples over relevant ones, we show our method to produce statistically significant improvements with respect to these ranking measures.


The article assesses Theodor W. Adorno's relevance today by engaging contemporary interests in form that have led to a surprising renaissance of his thought in recent years (in Tilo Wesche and Josh Robinson, among others). Comparing and contrasting this most recent focus with older trajectories of reception, the article suggests that Adorno's concept of form is not as easily dislodged from its theoretical moorings as recent appropriations tend to argue: his insistence on form as what rigorously (and painfully) demarcates an artwork from its surrounding contexts is perhaps an antidote to current all-inclusive conceptualizations of form.


Variations in solar, geomagnetic, and seismic activity can cause deviations in the ionospheric plasma that can be detected as disturbances in both natural and man‐made signals. Total electron content (TEC) is an efficient means for investigating the structure of the ionosphere by making use of GPS receivers. In this study, TEC data obtained for eight GPS stations are compared with each other using the cross‐correlation coefficient (CC), symmetric Kullback‐Leibler distance (KLD), and L2 norm (L2N) for quiet days of the ionosphere, during severe geomagnetic storms and strong earthquakes. It is observed that only KLD and L2N can differentiate the seismic activity from the geomagnetic disturbance and quiet ionosphere if the stations are in a radius of 340 km. When TEC for each station is compared with an average quiet day TEC for all periods using CC, KLD, and L2N, it is observed that, again, only KLD and L2N can distinguish the approaching seismicity for stations that are within 150 km radius to the epicenter. When the TEC of consecutive days for each station and for all periods are compared, it is observed that CC, KLD, and L2N methods are all successful in distinguishing the geomagnetic disturbances. Using sliding‐window statistical analysis, moving averages of daily TEC with estimated variance bounds are also obtained for all stations and for all days of interest. When these bounds are compared with each other for all periods, it is observed that CC, KLD, and L2N are successful tools for detecting ionospheric disturbances.


The SO2-induced atmospheric corrosion of some magnesium-aluminum (Mg-Al) alloys, including Mg alloy AZ91D, and commercially pure Mg (CP Mg) was investigated using well-controlled laboratory exposures and included real-time measurements of SO2 deposition. The influence of SO2 concentration, alloy composition, humidity, and ppb level additions of O-3 or NO2 on the rate of SO2 deposition was investigated. SO2 accelerates the corrosion of Mg and Mg alloys causing localized corrosion, MgSO(3)6H(2)O being the dominant corrosion product. At 60% RH, traces of O-3 or NO2 strongly increased both the SO2 deposition and the corrosion rate. The rate of SO2 deposition was strongly dependent on humidity; at 70% RH and higher the SO2 deposition rate was very rapid and constant in time while it was transient below 50% RH. At 60% RH, a change from transient to rapid, steady-state, SO2 deposition occurred. The sudden activation is explained by the onset of electrochemical corrosion. The activation behavior was shown to depend on SO2 concentration, the thickness of the surface film and by the presence of ambient O-2.


Insulin concentration in each sample of dog urine, carotid artery plasma, or renal vein plasma was estimated following the infusion of bovine insulin-I-125, unlabeled bovine insulin, or glucose. Insulin was estimated by immunoassay and by TCA insoluble radioactivity. Whenever insulin-I-125 and unlabeled insulin were infused together both methods were used on each sample. In agreement with the conclusions of others, who have used less direct technics, it was found that the use of plasma TCA insoluble radioactivity to determine radio-insulin degradation in vivo results in an underestimate of insulin removal, and hence an overestimate of insulin half life. This finding was shown to apply not only to the whole animal but also to the kidney. All forms of insulin were removed by the kidney but the radioactive estimate of kidney insulin removal was less than that by immunoassay. Data from experiments in which radioactive insulin was bound to guinea pig anti-insulin serum prior to infusion and from experiments in which ureteral ligation was performed prior to infusion indicated that the kidney removed insulin primarily by glomerular filtration but that direct absorption also played a role.


High performance global exploration of isomers and isomerization channels on the quantum chemical potential energy surface (PES) is performed for H5C2NO2 by using the scaled hypersphere search‐anharmonic downward distortion following (SHS‐ADDF) method. A multi‐node operation, NeoGRRM, has achieved high performance exploration calculations for the large system by submitting SHS‐ADDF sub‐jobs into many cores in parallel and unifying the results of sub‐jobs into the total lists of the main‐job. Global exploration of equilibrium (EQ) and transition‐state structures at the level of B3LYP/6‐31G(d) gave 3210 EQs and 23278 TSs. Nine compounds were found in the low energy regions of 0–100 kJ/mol; the lowest energy compound is N‐methylcarbamic acid, the second is methyl carbamate, and the third is glycine (the most fundamental amino acid). Interconversion pathways between the conformers of each of the low energy compounds were surveyed. Isomerization channels around glycine were explored in detail. The lowest energy barriers around some of the EQs turned to be negative after zero‐point energy corrections. This indicates that those structures cannot exist as independent structures because they spontaneously collapse into more stable structures. The global PES search showed various interesting dissociating channels which indicate synthon reaction pathways in the reverse directions.


Network services, such as security, load-balancing, and monitoring, are an indisputable part of modern networking infrastructure and are traditionally realized as specialized appliances or middleboxes. Middleboxes complicate the management, the deployment, and the operations of the entire network. Moreover, they induce network performance issues and scalability limitations by requiring huge amounts of traffic to be, often sub-optimally redirected, and sometimes redundantly processed. Recent trends of server virtualization and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) exacerbate these scalability and performance issues. In this paper, we present EnforSDN - a new management approach that exploits SDN principles to decouple the policy resolution layer from the policy enforcement layer in network service appliances. Our approach improves the enforcement management, network utilization and communication latency, without compromising the policy and the functionality of the network. Using emulated SDN-based data center environment, we demonstrate higher throughput and lower latency achieved with EnforSDN, as compared to a baseline SDN network. In addition, we show that EnforSDN reduces the overall network appliances load, as well as the forwarding tables size.


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In order to solve the problem of the alloy can not achieve the low surface roughness value in high-temperature, when it is grinded by abrasive disk, so that it can not meet the requirement of the craft. It uses abrasive belt grinding technology,adopts the method of fixed precise belt vibration grinding head on the CA6140 lathe and makes experiment of the impact on roughness of work piece surface from rotational speed of work piece , sand size of abrasive belt, horizontal amount of feed and process time. The result shows that the roughness value can achieve the requirement. It generalized the method of using abrasive belt grinding high- temperature alloy to make the roughness meet the requirement of craft, when guaranteed efficiency.


When data schemata are enriched with expressive constraints that aim at representing the domain of interest, in order to answer queries one needs to consider the logical theory consisting of both the data and the constraints. Query answering in such a context is called ontological query answering. Commonly adopted database constraints in this field are tuple-generating dependencies (TGDs) and equality-
generating dependencies (EGDs). It is well known that their interaction leads to intractability or undecidability of query answering even in the case of simple subclasses. Several conditions have been found to guarantee separability, that is lack of interaction, between TGDs and EGDs. Separability makes EGDs (mostly) irrelevant for query answering and therefore often guarantees tractability, as long as the theory is satisfiable. In this paper we review the two notions of separability found in the literature, as well as several syntactic conditions that are sufficient
to prove them. We then shed light on the issue of satisfiability checking, showing that under a sufficient condition called deep separability it can be done by considering the TGDs only. We show that, fortunately, in
the case of TGDs and EGDs, separability implies deep separability. This result generalizes several analogous ones, proved ad hoc for particular classes of constraints. Applications include the class of sticky TGDs and EGDs, for which we provide a syntactic separability condition which extends the analogous one for linear TGDs; preliminary experiments show the feasibility of query answering in this case.


The paper presents a method for the computation of the monostatic radar cross section (RCS) of electrically large conducting objects modeled by nonuniform rational B-spline (NURBS) surfaces using the physical optic (PO) technique. The NURBS surfaces are expanded in terms of rational Bezier patches by applying the Cox-De Boor transform algorithm. This transformation is justified because Bezier patches are numerically more stable than NURBS surfaces. The PO integral is evaluated over the parametric space of the Bezier surfaces using asymptotic integration. The scattering field contribution of each Bezier patch is expressed in terms of its geometric parameters. Excellent agreement with PO predictions is obtained. The method is quite efficient because it makes use of a small number of patches to model complex bodies, so it requires very little memory and computing time. >


Purpose: This study aimed to examine the critical-thinking disposition, job competency, and educational needs of home visiting nurses in long-term-care insurance and to provide evidence to further develop educational programs to strengthen home visiting nurses' competencies. Methods: This study adopted a correlational research design. Data accrued from 180 home visiting nurses in long-term-care insurance using a convenience-and snowballsampling method. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 25.0 software package and Excel. Priorities of educational needs were determined based on the Borich's Needs Assessment Model. Results: A positive correlation exists between critical-thinking disposition and perceived job competency of long-term-care home visiting nurses (r=.59, p<.001). Experience as a home visiting nurse was a major factor related to criticalthinking disposition and perceived job competency. Home visiting nurses were found to have higher educational needs in developing services and educational materials, as well as utilizing community resources by applying the Borich's Needs Assessment Model. Conclusion: These results highlight the need to provide career development programs for home visiting nurses with less experience in the field to enforce competencies and compose good working environments so the experienced nurses with high job competencies can remain in the field and improve the quality of visiting nursing care.


IntroductionAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an emerging phenomenon where microorganisms develop resistance against treatment antimicrobials, resulting in ineffective clinical interventions. The recent development of AMR surveillance systems at global and national stages highlights the growing importance of this topic from a public health perspective.
Objectives and ApproachThe objective was to link standardized population-based hospital AMR surveillance data with hospitalizationrecords to inform patient safety practices in Alberta, Canada. Incident inpatient cases of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA),identified by Alberta Health Services Provincial Infection Prevention and Control(IPC) Surveillance from five acute care facilities in the Calgary zone (April 2011 to March 2016),were deterministically linked to the Discharge Abstract Database using Provincial Healthcare Number and gender. The incident cohort was stratified into hospital-acquired (HA-MRSA) and community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) cases. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the patient outcomes and facility characteristics of these two groups.
ResultsA total of 2550 unique patients, representing 93.5% of the surveillance cohort, were successfully linked to hospitalization records. A total of 1259 patients belonged to HA-MRSA categories and 1291 patients belonged to CA-MRSA categories. Patients with HA-MRSA had longer hospital stays, were older, were more likely to have prior hospitalizations, had higher Charlson Comorbidity Scores, and were more likely to die in hospital when compared to patients with CA-MRSA. HA-MRSA results emphasized the important roles of in-hospital patient safety practices whereas CA-MRSA results alluded to the impact of community public health and primary care services onthe risk of hospitalization, although detected CA-MRSA numbers were likely underestimated due to selection bias within our linked cohort.
Conclusion/ImplicationsThis is first Canadian study describing HA-MRSA and CA-MRSA using linked population databases. It offers a glimpse into the intricate relationship between patient health and our healthcare system. This knowledge represents an important step forwarding building IPC strategies for managing AMR and improving outcomes in Alberta and in Canada.


Background and aims The proportion of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with cutaneous manifestations is well characterised, but the proportion with only cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) who later develop SLE is poorly understood. A fuller understanding of comorbid intersections including temporal sequence may advance knowledge regarding underlying pathogenesis. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of CLE nested in U.S. administrative data (2004–2014), in order to understand frequency and temporality of comorbid SLE. Methods The datasource was Clinformatics Datamart Multiplan, a U.S. insurance claims database containing ˜100 million lives. The universe of adult CLE patients with ≥2 claims of ICD-9 695.4 (DLE) was first identified. Secondly, five mutually exclusive cohorts were defined by presence and temporality of SLE (defined as ≥2 claims of ICD-9 710.0 [SLE]): 1) CLE , no prior/subsequent SLE; 2) CLE before SLE; 3) SLE before CLE; 4) CLE and SLE, temporality unclear; 5) CLE with <2 SLE claims. Results The universe contained 42 871 patients (Figure 1). Each cohort had >50 (range: 51.5–67.3) mean months of database observation time. Approximately one-third (27.4%) were "CLE only", with no previous/subsequent SLE diagnosis (Cohort 1), while a further 10.3% had <2 SLE claims thus not meeting the SLE case definition (Cohort 5). Only 11% percent had CLE before SLE (Cohort 2). Elapsed mean time from CLE to SLE in Cohort 2 was 12.8 (median: 6) months. Abstract 405 Figure 1 Conclusions About a third of CLE patients identified by DLE ICD-9 coding appeared to never develop SLE during observation time. Our "real world" study adds to sparse evidence on this topic.


Continuous monitoring of the development and spread of malaria parasite resistance towards anti-malarial drugs is fundamental in progressing towards eliminating malaria from Malaysia. However, the updated data on the distribution of drug resistance molecular markers in Peninsular Malaysia is limited, involving mostly only from East Malaysia. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the drug resistant molecular markers and their distribution in Peninsular and East Malaysia. A total of 67 diagnostic blood samples from malaria infected individuals were received from district health centres and confirmed as P. falciparum by nested PCR for species specific identification. Samples were then subjected for drug resistance genes analysis for artemisinin (PfKelch13; K13) and chloroquine (Pfcrt and Pfmdr1) using Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) and validated by sequencing. Out of 67 samples, 2 (3%) samples showed a presence of K13 mutations at P553L and A675V which has been implicated to be associated with delayed parasite clearance for artemisinin. Meanwhile, 44 samples (65.7%) showed mutation for Pfcrt genes at K78T site and 28 samples (41.8%) have mutation for Pfmdr-1 at N86Y. Although artemisinin combination-based therapy is used as first line anti malaria treatment in Malaysia, continuous monitoring of the distribution of Pfcrt and Pfmdr1 mutations alongside the emergence of K13 mutations is vital in order to facilitate national policy makers in governing and managing the burden of the disease to the country.


Flexible patterning of different cells into designated locations with direct cell–cell contact at single‐cell patterning precision and control is of great importance, however challenging, for cell patterning. Here, an optical assembly method for patterning of different types of cells via direct cell–cell contact at single‐cell patterning precision and control is demonstrated. Using Escherichia coli and Chlorella cells as examples, different cells are flexibly patterned into 1D periodic cell structures (PCSs) with controllable configurations and lengths, by periodically connecting one type of cells with another by optical force. The patterned PCSs can be flexibly moved and show good light propagation ability. The propagating light signals can be detected in real‐time, providing new opportunities for the detection of transduction signals among patterned cells. This patterning method is also applicable for cells of other kinds, including mammalian/human cells.


Objective: To find out the optimal Brain Extraction Tool (BET) parameter (fractional intensity threshold) for measuring the brain volume compared with the standard manual method in our institute and to compare with those of automated FreeSurfer software Methods: This retrospective study was performed in 10 healthy adult subjects with data of 3D-T1W on 3T MR machine. The manual gold standard brain volume measurements were done by two independent readers. The automated segmentations using BET with varied parameters and FreeSurfer software were also performed. Then, the two automated methods were compared with the manual tracing to make the optimal parameter by seeking for the highest intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) using SPSS software. Results: The fractional intensity threshold for whole brain volume measurement of 0.1- 0.6 showed high ICC with the manual gold standard (ranging from 0.639 to 0.748). The best value was 0.1, showing highest ICC of 0.748 (p < 0.006) with confidence interval of 95% equal to (0.242; 0.932). There were no optimal parameters for right and left hippocampus volume measurement by BET due to very low ICC between BET and the reader (ICC ranging from 0.017 to 0.139 and from 0.012 to 0.110, for the right and left hippocampus volume, respectively). The ICC values of the automated FreeSurfer method with the manual tracing were also very low (0.063, 0.068, and 0.063 for right, left and bilateral hippocampi respectively). Conclusion: The optimal BET parameter (fractional intensity threshold) for automated brain volume measurement in our institute is 0.1 similar to the suggested value by prior study with high agreement (ICC=0.748) to the manual method.


Theoretical debate and practice exploration on social security of migrant workers were introduced. The political direction and security layer on social security for migrant workers in Wan-jiang urban belt were analyzed: the first layer is to implement wage payment guarantee and employment injury insurance; the second layer is to emphasize serious disease insurance and endowment insurance; the third layer is unemployed insurance and social assistance. The primary strategy of building a social security system for migrant workers in Wan-jiang urban belt was put up: wage payment guarantee system that is united in certain regions should be promoted; employment injury insurance system that is undertaken by enterprises should be built; a social health care system for serious diseases should be set up; multi-layers endowment insurance system for migrant workers should be created; vocational training and training in how to start a business should be built as well as the unemployment insurance system; social assistant system based on the basic cost of living allowances should be set up.


This Paper attempt to user satisfaction of Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) in the Public Libraries Chennai. In this investigation about the frequency, purpose, problem faced by users and satisfaction of public library users. This study also analyze the awareness of users, important of OPAC, lack of skills user to OPAC and proper guidance of library staffs to search them needs and locate them resources on the shelves. The present of study survey approach was used distributed 100 questionnaires and 90 questionnaire received back and analyzed with specific objectives. This study focused on the user OPAC to Check availability of document in the library 33(36.67%), followed by the users due to the Internet Speeds 42(46.67%) and 53(58.89%) users Satisfied by the users on use of OPAC.


Grazing management practices can be erosion abatement actions for lowering soil loss and the subsequent sediment pollution of surface water bodies. Process-based Geographic Information Systems models provide the opportunity to identify critical areas and hence better target such actions across the landscape. This study implemented the SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) hydrologic and catchment management model to estimate the soil loss vulnerability of the nearly pristine but highly erodible Greek island of Samothraki in the North Aegean Sea, with a typical Mediterranean climate and steep topography. Model parameterization and evaluation were carried out by taking advantage of previous modeling experience on areas with data limitations. Inter-annual and intra-annual soil loss variability and the most critical areas (subbasins) of soil loss to waters were adequately identified and grazing management scenarios, including livestock reductions by 50% and 100%, grazing period reduction, and a combination of them, were formulated and applied to investigate the degree to which soil loss could be reduced. The annual reduction results varied between scenarios in the range of 10% to 25% for the entire island, and in wider ranges for its individual subbasins, showing a high potential for reducing the vulnerability of the most pressured ones. However, due to the high importance of the natural factors of rainfall and land slopes, the erosion vulnerability of the island overall could be significantly altered only if grazing management was integrated within a vegetation regeneration plan that included reforestation.


In this document, technical details of the upgrade plan of the J-PARC neutrino beamline for the extension of the T2K experiment are described. T2K has proposed to accumulate data corresponding to $2\times{}10^{22}$ protons-on-target in the next decade, aiming at an initial observation of CP violation with $3\sigma$ or higher significance in the case of maximal CP violation. Methods to increase the neutrino beam intensity, which are necessary to achieve the proposed data increase, are described.


The type and properties of the grouting materials contribute great impact on the grouting effect. The new grout with hydrated lime, fly ash, bentonite, sand, water and water reducer as materials was developed, and the raw material requirements and performance requirements of the new grout were ascertained. Some experimental results were illustrated on the fineness modulus of sand and water reducer dosage impact on the properties of the new grout. The preliminary application results in Shanghai and Soochow metro showed that the new grout played a very good role on the surface subsidence control both in fine clay soil and sand strata.


BACKGROUND The promotion of a physically active lifestyle has become an important issue in exercise therapy. Exercise-only interventions are frequently used for the rehabilitation of individuals with chronic diseases. These do indeed improve functional and physical performance, but they are not alone sufficient to initiate long lasting changes in physical-activity behaviour. Behaviour-related aspects are rarely integrated into exercise-therapy interventions. OBJECTIVE Based on theories of health behaviour change, effective techniques for changing physical-activity behaviour in the context of exercise therapy will be identified. METHODOLOGY The starting point is a theory-driven definition of individual behavioural determinants of physical activity and the identification of techniques for influencing the determinants. Subsequently, the potential of the techniques for enhancing physical activity is evaluated. The available evidence was reviewed on the basis of international reviews and control-group studies from the German rehabilitation setting. Finally, recommendations are offered for designing exercise-based interventions to promote participation in and adherence to physical activity. RESULTS A total of 28 techniques for the promotion of physical activity behaviour were identified. An approach that proved particularly effective was self-monitoring of physical activity behaviour in a variety of combinations with other techniques, such as contracting, feedback, rewards, generating one's own varied exercise experience, action planning and barrier management. DISCUSSION The integration of behaviour-related techniques in the context of exercise therapy interventions shows great promise as a means of initiating and promoting a physically active lifestyle.


Sexual selection is thought to be a powerful diversifying force, based on large ornamental differences between sexually dimorphic species. This assumes that unornamented phenotypes represent evolution without sexual selection. If sexual selection is more powerful than other forms of selection, then two effects would be: rapid divergence of sexually selected traits and a correlation between these divergence rates and variance in mating success in the ornamented sex. I tested for these effects in grouse (Tetraonidae). For three species pairs, within and among polygynous clades, male courtship characters had significantly greater divergence than other characters. This was most pronounced for two species in Tympanuchus. In the Eurasian polygynous clade, relative courtship divergence gradually increased with nucleotide divergence, suggesting a less dramatic acceleration. Increase in relative courtship divergence was associated with mating systems having higher variance in male mating success. These results suggest that sexual selection has accelerated courtship evolution among grouse, although the microevolutionary details appear to vary among clades.


Abstract. Digital elevation models (DEMs) of the whole of Antarctica have been derived, previously, from satellite radar altimetry (SRA) and limited terrestrial data. Near the ice sheet margins and in other areas of steep relief the SRA data tend to have relatively poor coverage and accuracy. To remedy this and to extend the coverage beyond the latitudinal limit of the SRA missions (81.5° S) we have combined laser altimeter measurements from the Geosciences Laser Altimeter System onboard ICESat with SRA data from the geodetic phase of the ERS-1 satellite mission. The former provide decimetre vertical accuracy but with poor spatial coverage. The latter have excellent spatial coverage but a poorer vertical accuracy. By combining the radar and laser data using an optimal approach we have maximised the vertical accuracy and spatial resolution of the DEM and minimised the number of grid cells with an interpolated elevation estimate. We assessed the optimum resolution for producing a DEM based on a trade-off between resolution and interpolated cells, which was found to be 1 km. This resulted in just under 32% of grid cells having an interpolated value. The accuracy of the final DEM was assessed using a suite of independent airborne altimeter data and used to produce an error map. The RMS error in the new DEM was found to be roughly half that of the best previous 5 km resolution, SRA-derived DEM, with marked improvements in the steeper marginal and mountainous areas and between 81.5 and 86° S. The DEM contains a wealth of information related to ice flow. This is particularly apparent for the two largest ice shelves – the Filchner-Ronne and Ross – where the surface expression of flow of ice streams and outlet glaciers can be traced from the grounding line to the calving front. The surface expression of subglacial lakes and other basal features are also illustrated. We also use the DEM to derive new estimates of balance velocities and ice divide locations.


High-stability single-frequency fiber lasers typically exhibit relative intensity noise that is far in excess of shot noise across a broad frequency range extending from dc to many tens of megahertz. This excess noise precludes the use of these fiber lasers in a range of precision interferometry and quantum optics applications. We present experimental results using a passive, high Q, fiber ring resonator to filter out up to 26 dB of excess laser intensity noise, resulting in a stabilized laser output that reaches the shot-noise limit over most of its signal spectrum.


In this work, a new electrical characterization method for MOSFETs using an in-wafer Kelvin-contact device structure is developed. The developed method can eliminate the parasitic series resistance such as resistance in source/drain terminals of MOSFETs, in metal wires on wafers and in a measurement system. Using the developed method, we can measure and analyze the short channel transistors' intrinsic current-voltage characteristics as well as the quantitative effects of the parasitic series resistance to the device performance, very stably and accurately. In addition, a framework for the characterization of inversion layer mobility in ultrathin gate insulator MOSFETs with large gate current is provided. Based on the framework, the developed method is introduced as a suitable mobility characterization method.


Wild parsnip is an invasive species with a global distribution in temperate climates. Parsnips are native to Eurasia and have been cultivated for more than five centuries. It is unclear whether the global invasion of this species is a consequence of escape from cultivation or the accidental introduction of a Eurasian wild subspecies. In this study, we used nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) markers to evaluate the genetic structure of wild parsnip in its native range (Europe) and in three distinct geographic regions where it is considered invasive: eastern North America, western North America, and New Zealand. We also compared wild and cultivated parsnips to determine whether they are genetically distinct. From 112 individuals, we recovered 14 ITS and 27 cpDNA haplotypes. One ITS haplotype was widespread; few haplotypes were rare singletons. In contrast, at least two lineages of cpDNA haplotypes were recovered, with several novel haplotypes restricted to Europe. Cultivated parsnips were not genetically distinct from wild parsnips, and numerous wild parsnip populations shared haplotypes with cultivars. High genetic diversity was recovered in all three regions, suggesting multiple introductions. Nomenclature: Wild parsnip, Pastinaca sativa L. PASA2. Management Implications: The availability of molecular data and advances in population genetic analysis have made it possible to estimate the patterns of species migrations with considerable precision. Findings from historical colonization and dispersal studies can shed light on human-mediated transport of biological materials and provide a broad understanding of how humans may have contributed to the introduction and spread of an invasive species. Evidence obtained in this study indicates that escape from cultivation led to the globalization of wild parsnips and introduced populations have high genetic diversity. Increased levels of diversity in invasive populations can act as a primer for rapid adaptive evolution of this noxious invasive species. Future studies with increased sampling and additional loci have the potential to elucidate specific patterns of colonization and admixture in this agriculturally entwined invasive plant and may serve as a model for investigating the natural and agricultural history of plant species that exist in wild, cultivated, and feral forms.


Airborne Wind Energy is a technology where wind energy is harvested with tethered flying devices. Kitepower uses flexible leading edge inflatable kites, but these have a scaling disadvantage in that they become heavier with size. A single skin kite has the potential of negating this disadvantage while at the same time being more aerodynamically efficient. An airfoil of this type is therefore investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics and optimized using Surrogate Modelling techniques. A hybrid mesh was generated with hyperbolic extrusion and triangulation. The RANS solver that was used produced good results. The results of the optimization were unsatisfactory. The parametrization did not provide enough local control and unique airfoil shapes. The surrogate modelling approach is promising due to the computationally expensive CFD analyses.


The dielectric properties of volcanic ash from five volcanoes in Japan were measured by using the transmission/reflection coaxial line method of a network analyzer, in a frequency range from 3 to 13 GHz. The measured permittivity of powdered ash was then converted to that of solid ash (dense rock equivalent) with the aid of effective medium theory. The values of solid-ash relative permittivities for the five volcanoes revealed that they were in a relatively narrow range. Their real part was generally in a range from five to six in magnitude, while their imaginary part was in a range from 0.08 to 0.18.


Summary Our purpose was to study serially, measurements which relate to right ventricular events, using echocardiography and Doppler in full term neonates for the first three weeks after birth. Echocardiographic and pulsed Doppler studies were performed for 21 newborns during the first 36 hours of life, and subsequent serial studies were performed in the second (n=21) and third (n=14) weeks of life. Evaluation included measurement of right isovolumic relaxation time and peak E and A velocities across the tricuspid valve. Pulmonary velocities were studied for evidence of patency of the arterial duct, and to determine acceleration in the pulmonary trunk. Mean right isovolumic relaxation time decreased significantly from 68±9 ms to 39 ± 14 ms (p<0.001) between the first and second week. Mean tricuspid peak E increased significantly between the second (48 ± 7 cm/s) and the third week of life (62 ± 8 cm/s; p<0.001). Mean peak A wave velocity did not change significantly during the time of study. The pulmonary arterial acceleration time increased from the initial measurement (68 ± 10 ms) to the second week (85 ± 9 ms; p<0.001). Changes in right isovolumic relaxation time were significantly related to the changes in the pulmonary arterial acceleration time (r=0.63, p=0.0001), suggesting a significant influence of afterload on diastolic events. These data demonstrate the normal progression of some measures of early right ventricular diastolic function.


Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQL) is increasingly used to measure the outcomes of interventions among people with chronic diseases. Objectives: To assess the effect of interventions for adults with diabetes on HRQL, as measured by the Short Form (SF)-36 questionnaire. Research Design: The systematic review was conducted using the methods of the Cochrane Collaboration. Studies reporting SF-36 scores before and after an intervention focused on adults with diabetes were obtained from searches of multiple bibliographic databases. The mean changes and standardized mean differences between pre- and post-intervention were reported as outcome measures. Pooled estimates were obtained using random effects models. Results: We identified 33 studies examining a wide range of interventions, including diabetes education and behavioral modifications (15 studies), pharmacotherapy (11 studies), and surgery (7 studies). Interventions generally demonstrated improvement in HRQL. When all available profile scores were examined together, the ranges of mean changes in scores were as follows: surgery for treating diabetes comorbidities, 15.0 to 42.0 point improvement; surgery for treating diabetes complications, −13.0 to 37.9; pharmacotherapy using insulin to optimize glycemic control, −4.6 to 27.6; pharmacotherapy for treating comorbidities, 3.8 to 33.2; pharmacotherapy for treating complications, −2.6 to 14.6. Pooled effects from 5 randomized controlled trials of educational interventions demonstrated significantly improved physical function [3.4 (95% CI, 0.1–6.6)] and mental health [4.2 (95% CI, 1.8–6.6)], and a decrease in bodily pain [3.6 (95% CI, 0.6–6.7)]. Conclusions: A variety of interventions can improve HRQL among adults with diabetes, but the magnitude of effects varied with the interventions. The mechanism of these changes needs to be further examined in the future research.


Different bioactive molecules are released into living cells from lipid-covered mesoporous silica nanoparticles. The release is triggered by light, as the particles feature covalently attached photosensitizers as membrane-opening agents. It is demonstrated that the particles achieve endosomal escape and that they release their cargo into the cytosol.


AIM
To evaluate the efficacy of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) used in conditioning modes before allogeneic hemopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) and its effect in reducing the incidence of posttransplantation complications.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
The study assessed the results of 92 allo-HCTs depending on the presence or absence of ATG in conditioning modes, the doses of Atgam (60 mg/kg or more), the presence or absence of acute leukemia (AL) in remission before HCT.

RESULTS
In patients with AL in remission receiving ATG in conditioning modes (Atgam 60 mg/kg or thymoglobulin 7.5 mg/kg), overall three-year survival was 60%. Increasing the dose of Atgam up to more than 60 mg/kg resulted in higher transplantation-associated mortality (TAM) rates than did with the Atgam dose of 60 mg/kg (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION
Allo-HCT is the treatment of choice for patients with AL in the presence of an HLA-identical related or unrelated donor. The use of Atgam in a course dose of not more than 60 mg/kg or thymoglobulin 7.5 mg/kg in conditioning modes is associated with low TAM rates and higher overall survival in earlier-stage disease in complete clinical hematological remission as compared with those in patients with expanded-stage AL, rather than in AL in remission at the start of conditioning before HCT.