Building trust and forging relationships with remote Aboriginal communities is an essential element of culturally informed, reciprocal research. Historically these relationships have been formed over-time where community members and researchers come together face to face to share their knowledge and yarn in both an informal and formal manner. Researchers from Telethon Kids Institute are partnering with local stakeholders and remote Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley, Western Australia (WA) to support healthy skin through the SToP (See, Treat, Prevent skin sores and scabies) Trial. The SToP trial, a collaboration between Telethon Kids Institute, Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services (KAMS), Nirrumbuk Environmental Health Services and Western Australia Country Health Services (WACHS) – Kimberley is a clustered randomised trial with a stepped-wedge design. SToP trial consultation with stakeholders and communities commenced in 2016 to proceed consenting in 2018 and trial commencement in 2019. Since that time, the SToP trial team have been conducting intermittent fieldwork in nine remote Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic when Aboriginal health leaders recommended a cessation to research related travel in northern WA from March 11, 2020 to prevent the incursion of COVID-19 into Aboriginal communities with health vulnerabilities, crucial face-to-face yarning was no longer possible. At the time it appeared the existing relationships with communities involved in our research (the SToP trial) would be challenging to maintain without this ability to visit the communities. Fortunately, when tested, this assumption was erroneous. Here we report the successful use of technology to bridge the inability to visit communities in 2020 due to COVID-19. The Telethon Kulunga Aboriginal Unit (Kulunga) and SToP trial team members were able to connect virtually with Community Navigators from the Dampier Peninsula communities. The initial virtual meeting using Microsoft Teams technology involved four Community Navigators and their mentor, three Telethon Kids Institute and five Kulunga staff members. Community Navigators joined Microsoft Teams from their respective communities and Kulunga and Telethon Kids Institute staff joined from their homes. Not only was this an exciting new way of communicating, it enabled existing relationships to continue to be strengthened. Since the initial meeting, the teams have continued to meet virtually, and plan SToP trial health promotion activities including a community-driven, collaborative music video. While the significance of face-to-face yarning can never be overstated, having to adjust to a new way of yarning has reiterated the importance of connection, albeit virtually. Unfortunately, due to technical limitations, intermittent internet connectivity and various other challenges, there has been no opportunity to engage virtually with SToP trial communities in the East Kimberley. However, we continue to seek ways where virtual communication in these communities is possible.


After the War, the municipality of Amsterdam established the Central Office for Public Health Care to co-ordinate public and private activities in the field of medicine and health care, and to advise on future development. This book by the Professor of Social Medicine in the University of Amsterdam describes the methods by which it evaluated the various facilities in the preventive and curative fields. It describes a series of exercises in the fields of the family physician, prevention, the hospital, mental health, geriatrics, longterm illness and handicaps, and what the author calls an integrative approach. The exercises showed that no single activity was operating at the highest level of efficiency and it is argued that no urgency to extend facilities quantitatively could be assumed to exist as long as qualitative shortcomings are in evidence. The author believes that it is desirable to build into the health organization an instrument for continuous operational research. The detailed descriptions and occasionally unusual English tend to hide the book's considerable worth. Although the method of evaluating the facilities in the various fields of medicine and health care may not satisfy everyone, the recognition of the need


Nahdlatul Wathan has three charitable enterprises (Amal Usaha) as its institutional central movement: education, social, and dakwah Islamiyah fields. Out of the three central movements, social field is interpreted most widely as the principle of justification for practical political development undertaken by Nahdlatul Wathan. Nahdlatul Wathan still develops its organizations consistently, including practical political domain until today. NW has encountered internal problem related to leadership dualism since 1998 until today: Anjani and Pancor versions. Dualism problem widens political dynamic of NW, particularly in NTB, with their own constructed direction and political development. This article discussed political dynamic of Anjani-version Nahdlatul Wathan in considering rational choice aspect of NTB community members. The dynamic was analyzed using rational choice theory as the primary theory, in addition to practical opportunity theory, framing process and resource mobilization as the reading instrument in analyzing the mechanism and procedure of succession taken by Nahdlatul Wathan. This study described that Nahdlatul Wathan Anjani has not maximized fully the political policy yet based on rational choice aspect of citizens, thereby affecting the objectivity of its political analysis in seeing opportunity structure, succession technique packaging, and political resource distribution.


In systems involving quantitative data, such as probabilistic, fuzzy, or
metric systems, behavioural distances provide a more fine-grained comparison of
states than two-valued notions of behavioural equivalence or behaviour
inclusion. Like in the two-valued case, the wide variation found in system
types creates a need for generic methods that apply to many system types at
once. Approaches of this kind are emerging within the paradigm of universal
coalgebra, based either on lifting pseudometrics along set functors or on
lifting general real-valued (fuzzy) relations along functors by means of fuzzy
lax extensions. An immediate benefit of the latter is that they allow bounding
behavioural distance by means of fuzzy (bi-)simulations that need not
themselves be hemi- or pseudometrics; this is analogous to classical
simulations and bisimulations, which need not be preorders or equivalence
relations, respectively. The known generic pseudometric liftings, specifically
the generic Kantorovich and Wasserstein liftings, both can be extended to yield
fuzzy lax extensions, using the fact that both are effectively given by a
choice of quantitative modalities. Our central result then shows that in fact
all fuzzy lax extensions are Kantorovich extensions for a suitable set of
quantitative modalities, the so-called Moss modalities. For nonexpansive fuzzy
lax extensions, this allows for the extraction of quantitative modal logics
that characterize behavioural distance, i.e. satisfy a quantitative version of
the Hennessy-Milner theorem; equivalently, we obtain expressiveness of a
quantitative version of Moss' coalgebraic logic. All our results explicitly
hold also for asymmetric distances (hemimetrics), i.e. notions of quantitative
simulation.


The malaria genome encodes over 5,000 proteins and many of these have also been proposed to be potential vaccine candidates, although few of these have been tested clinically. RH5 is one of the leading blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum malaria vaccine antigens and Phase I/II clinical trials of vaccines containing this antigen are currently underway. Its likely mechanism of action is to elicit antibodies that can neutralize merozoites by blocking their invasion of red blood cells (RBC). However, many other antigens could also elicit neutralizing antibodies against the merozoite, and most of these have never been compared directly to RH5. The objective of this study was to compare a range of blood-stage antigens to RH5, to identify any antigens that outperform or synergize with anti-RH5 antibodies. We selected 55 gene products, covering 15 candidate antigens that have been described in the literature and 40 genes selected on the basis of bioinformatics functional prediction. We were able to make 20 protein-in-adjuvant vaccines from the original selection. Of these, S-antigen and CyRPA robustly elicited antibodies with neutralizing properties. Anti-CyRPA IgG generally showed additive GIA with anti-RH5 IgG, although high levels of anti-CyRPA-specific rabbit polyclonal IgG were required to achieve 50% GIA. Our data suggest that further vaccine antigen screening efforts are required to identify a second merozoite target with similar antibody-susceptibility to RH5.


Viability of Bacillus globigii spores in chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe loop systems were examined under oligotrophic conditions. Three 2.5 cm × 10 m pipe loops having poised free chlorine concentrations of 0.0, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/L were seeded with 3.0 × 10 8 B. globigii spores each and viability was assessed over a 21 day period in both the recirculating waters and within the biofilms associated with pipe wall surfaces. After 10 min of exposure, viable spores were found to be associated within the pipe biofilms. In the untreated pipe loop spore counts remained statistically consistent in both the bulk water and biofilm until 1.0 mg/L free chlorine was introduced, then spores were completely inactivated in less than seven days. Spores within the pipe loop poised at 0.5 mg/L free chlorine showed a 7.6-log 10 inactivation in the bulk water phase, but only a 2.7-log 10 inactivation was observed within the biofilm after 14 days of treatment. Complete inactivation was observed in the 1.0 mg/L free chlorine system in both the biofilm and the bulk water phase in less than 10 min. These data demonstrated that B. globigii spores were readily incorporated into PVC pipe biofilms, which decreased spore inactivation nearly five orders of magnitude under moderate free chlorine concentrations.


A code LEADS based on the Lie algebraic analysis for the continuous beam dynamics with space charge effect in beam transport has been developed. The program is used for the simulations of axial-symmetric and unsymmetrical intense continuous beam in the channels including drift spaces, electrostatic lenses and DC electrostatic accelerating tubes. In order to get the accuracy required, all elements are divided into many small segments, and the electric field in the segments is regarded as uniform field, and the dividing points are treated as thin lenses. Iteration procedures are adopted in the program to obtain self-consistent solutions. The code can be used in the designs of low energy beam transport systems, electrostatic accelerators and ion implantation machines.


Studies of mire hydrology and carbon accumulation have shown 1) an exponential increase in the rate of horizontal water movement with increasing height of the water table, and 2) a curvilinear relationship between the water table elevation and carbon accumulation rate, with a single maximum. Equations for these relationships suggest that optimal carbon accumulation will occur where the water table is at moderate depth and the surface has little microtopography. Wet conditions tend to enhance microtopographic relief by differential peat accumulation, while dry conditions tend to reduce relief. For mires with abundant dry microsites, increasing the water supply typically increases the rate of carbon accumulation, but this effect could be transient because microtopographic relief may also increase and have a negative effect on carbon accumulation. The runoff-inhibiting nature of ridge and hollow patterns makes patterned mires especially vulnerable to loss of carbon fixation ability with increasing wetness. While dry periods often cause peat loss in the short term, over the long term their effect may be positive because they hinder the formation of strong microtopography. This helps explain why high peat accumulation rates and some of the world's most extensive peatlands occur in continental regions with a marginally adequate moisture supply.


The molecular order in a smectic monomer is utilized to create a photoreactive material that is highly polarization-selective during its photo-crosslinking polymerization. A dichroic photoinitiator adapts the molecular orientation of its aligned smectic B host monomer which reaches a degree of orientation larger than 0.9. This value correlates to a dichroic ratio, defined as the absorbance ratio of light with its polarization respectively parallel and perpendicular to the orientation axis, of 32. This is substantially higher than the dichroic ratio of similar dichroic initiators previously studied in nematic host monomers which considerably improves the polymerization contrast. The presence of an inhibitor, such as a hydroquinone, in the monomeric mixture enhances the polymerization contrast further. The effect of the inhibitor is due to the close to zero monomer to polymer conversion for the polarization perpendicular to the alignment in the initial stages of polymerization. It is argued that the high polarization-selectivity of the above-described system is potentially useful in nano and/or microstructuring techniques without the use of masks such as polarization holography.


The cheetah Acinonyx jubatus once occurred throughout Zimbabwe, but is now largely absent from the north and east of the country. Estimates of the cheetah population over the last 30 years range from 400 to 1,500, but many of these figures are not based on reliable data, and no current estimates are available. The cheetah population is thought to have been stable or decreasing in protected areas, and increasing on private land. The fast track land resettlement programme (FTLRP) initiated in 2000 may have affected the present status and distribution of the cheetah, but this has not yet been investigated. Cheetahs are legally hunted as problem animals and as trophies, but insufficient data are available to assess the impact of hunting on the population. Illegal removals may also have an important impact on the population. It is suggested that research is conducted to determine the current status and distribution of the cheetah population, and how this may have been affected by recent land use changes. In addition, it is recommended that trophy quality should be monitored, and information on non-lethal predator management techniques should be provided to farmers.


A theoretical and experimental investigation was made of the mechanism of formation of a lengthened train of pulses in a garnet laser. A comparison of the theoretical and experimental results indicated that the mechanism in question was associated with the absorption by free carriers when the laser cavity with hybrid mode locking, contained a negative-feedback component in the form of GaAs.


Alternative models for break-induced recombination predict different distributions of primary products. The double-stranded break-repair model predicts a noncrossover product and equimolar amounts of two crossover products. The one-end pairing model predicts two crossover products, but not necessarily in equimolar amounts, and the single-stranded annealing model predicts deletion of the fragment between the pairing sequences. Depending on the structure of the recombining substrate(s) and the nature of the resectioning step that precedes strand annealing, the single-stranded annealing mechanism would yield only one or both crossover products. We tested these predictions for the RecE recombination pathway of Escherichia coli. Nonreplicating intramolecular recombination substrates with a double-stranded break (DSB) within one copy of a direct repeat were released from chimera lambda phage by in vivo restriction, and the distribution of primary circular recombination products was determined. Noncrossover products were barely detectable, and the molar ratio of the two crossover products was proportional to the length ratio of the homologous ends flanking the DSB. These results suggest an independent pairing of each end with the intact homolog and argue against the double-stranded break-repair model. However, the results do not distinguish alternative pairing mechanisms (strand invasion and strand annealing). The kinetics of heteroduplex formation and heteroduplex strand polarity were investigated. Immediately following the DSB induction, heteroduplex formation was done by pairing the strands ending 3' at the break. A slow accumulation of the complementary heteroduplex made by the pairing of the strands ending 5' at the break (5' heteroduplexes) was observed at a larger stage. The observed bias in heteroduplex strand polarity depended on DSB induction at a specific site. The 5' heteroduplexes may have been generated by reciprocal strand exchange, pairing that is not strand specific, or strand-specific pairing induced at random breaks.


Brand identity of Thai television news programs has not attracted attention from researches despite it is as the soul of media brand. In the digital television era, a strong brand identity is an important factor in its success. It helps the audience differentiate the news program brand from competitors, make the brand stand out and directly impact to profitability. To study the development of Thai television news brand identity, the starting point is to draft the research instruments. This article aims to collect and synthesize research instruments for the study of the development of television news brand identity. This study is a qualitative research that provides a systematic review of existing researches. Sixteen articles in Google Scholar and EBSCOhost database in 2000-2018 were found relating to television news brand identity. Two articles are Thai researches, while other fourteen articles are international researches. Twelve papers (from sixteen papers) used the quantitative method, two papers used qualitative method and two papers applied mixed-method. Among the papers using quantitative method, the survey with questionnaires as research instrument is applied most. There are five researches directly focusing on "Brand Personality". The other elements of "Brand Identity" (Brand vision, Brand culture, Brand positioning, Brand Relationship and Brand Presentation) are not stated explicitly in the reviewed papers. In order to fulfil a brand identity model for TV news program, further study in the other TV brand identity elements shall be conducted.


The primary radiologic evidence of intra-abdominal hernia is disturbance of normal small intestine arrangement. Loops of intestine are crowded together as if in a bag, giving the appearance of clumping or sacculation. Dilatation and loss of mobility may occur with varying degrees of stasis. Displacement of viscera or pressure deformity may be observed. Studies of the small bowel are necessary to demonstrate these conditions and must be made with the patient in the erect as well as the horizontal position. Repeated studies may be required, and the best time to make them is during an acute attack, as the hernia may be temporarily reduced during a remission. The clinical symptoms are sufficiently characteristic to suggest the diagnosis in most cases. The usual history is of repeated attacks of abdominal pain or discomfort, usually accompanied by distention, varying in periodicity and intensity, with or without nausea or vomiting, and not accompanied by laboratory data or clinical signs indicative of inflammatory disease. Similar or identical clinical and roentgenologic evidence may be produced by torsion of the small bowel or by peritoneal adhesions. The hernia or torsion may reduce spontaneously before or at the time of operation. Therefore, a careful search for abnormal fossae, mesenteric defects or adhesive bands is necessary if herniation or torsion is not found.


The Ninth Killer Cell Immunoglobulin‐Like Receptor (KIR) Workshop was held in Winchester, UK late in the summer of 2015. The extraordinary diversity of KIR and its functional consequences were key themes throughout the meeting. Novel sequencing technologies and new bioinformatics techniques continue to increase our understanding of the genetic diversity and evolution of the KIR; while a deeper understanding of KIR functions, including their specificity for MHC and its peptide ligands, are generating more refined models of their role in disease. Limited to 100 delegates from around the world, this intimate workshop facilitated vigorous discussion, generating new ideas for research in this ever‐expanding field.


Introduction: Clinical forensic medicine is a branch of medicine that applies medicine to uphold justice in the case of living victims. In accordance with this understanding, the handling of cases of living victims, especially victims of crime, must involve doctors in the field of forensics, in addition to doctors in other fields according to their competence. With so many cases of violent crime, a doctor must be able to provide a report on the results of the examination to the legal apparatus to assist in the judicial process.
Case: A man, aged 44 years, found bruises on right eyelid, left eye, left cheek, left and right scalp; blisters on the left and right eye membranes; a cut wound on the right eye membrane and the left eyelid; bleeding under the thick membrane of the brain and swelling of the brain.
Discussion: Injuries can occur as a result of violence perpetrated by criminal offenses, such as cases of theft by violence, murder, traffic accidents or ill-treatment. The doctor must be able to mention that the wound examined is caused by sharp violence, blunt force, electrical trauma, thermal trauma, chemical trauma, or other causes of trauma. Determination of the magnitude of the effect of injury to the victim, related to criminal sanctions that will be imposed on the perpetrators of criminal acts. The head is an organ that is often the target of violent blunt crimes. The brain and the surrounding layers are easily susceptible to trauma, resulting in death compared to other body parts. The wound is in accordance with Criminal Code article 90 concerning serious injuries, which results in injuries that do not give any hope of healing at all.


The Center for Market Advantage presents the Rutgers Business School Payment Practices Index for the U.S. retail industry. The Payment Practices Index surveys vendors that provide goods and services to U.S. retailers and reflects the experience that these vendors have with the payment practices of their clients. In the 2017 RBS Payment Practices Index of the U.S. Retailers, Dollar Tree, Whole Foods Market, and Family Dollar Stores received the highest ratings while Bed Bath & Beyond, Sears, and Ahold Delhaize were rated the lowest.


Temporal patterning in blood glucose (BG) consistent with fractals—how BG follows a repetitive pattern through resolutions of time—was used to examine 2 different samples of adolescents with Type 1 diabetes (10–14 years). Sample 1 contained 10 adolescents with longtime series for accurate estimations of long-term dependencies associated with fractals. The second contained 94 adolescents measured multiple times daily over a 2-week period corresponding to psychosocial measures. In both samples, temporal dependencies in BG showed patterns consistent with fractals. In the second sample, temporal dependencies were associated with indicators of vigilant regulation including adolescents' higher anxiety, mothers' higher monitoring, and intrusive support. The existence of temporal dependencies in BG moderated the relationship between glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and indicators of low BG risk but not the relationship between HbA1c and high BG risk. These results show how a biomedical indicator may be susceptible to metric issues associated with fractals.


This study aims to explore the relationships between library anxiety and library use and outline the characteristics of library-anxious students at Jinwen University of Science and Technology. A questionnaire is used for data collection in this study. There are two parts in the questionnaire: Part I is the Bostick's Library Anxiety Scale (1992) for assessing different levels of library anxiety, and the second part consists of 7 items of demographic information for describing the characteristics of students. This study does not find library anxiety among students at Jinwen University of Science and Technology that seriously affects library usage. It is interesting to note that while the students that are surveyed feel that they are familiar with the library's resources and its environment, they still do not feel confident that they can use the library efficiently. This is a reminder to library staff of the importance of constantly promoting user education and encouraging students to better utilize their institution's library. The results of this study will help library staff to decide on the most effective ways to provide custom-made and user-oriented services for students with different needs and of different backgrounds.


Real-World Evidence (RWE) refers to any "data used for decision-making that are not collected in conventional Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs), and is increasingly used in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) as an adjustment to the evidence coming from Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs).

RWE can provide additional evidence concerning treatment safety and effectiveness, facilitate the identification of relevant subpopulations, and permit the inclusion and analysis of clinical endpoints not expected in RCTs but observed in real life. However, the use RWE in the context of HTA is still limited.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the role of RWE in economic evaluation by exploring methods to use with observational data and the role of RWE for a case study of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs); a class of drugs, including apixaban, dabigatran and rivaroxaban, used for the prevention of stroke in the population affected by atrial fibrillation (AF). In addition to quantifying resource use and associated healthcare expenditure for the AF population in Scotland and evaluating propensity score methods for estimating the Average Treatment Effect (ATE), specific objectives are assessing cost as well as effectiveness and safety of DOACs using Scottish linked data.

Two cohorts, one consisting of patients with a diagnosis of AF or atrial flutter, and the other of patients on any oral anticoagulant (OAC) were identified from inpatient hospital records and prescribing data for the 1997 – 2015 study period. These data were complemented by outpatient attendances, the care home census and mortality records using individual patient data linkage.

As a first step, this thesis assessed the predictors of costs and estimated inpatient, outpatient, prescribing and care-home costs associated with AF, using population-based individual-level linked data. Inpatient admissions accounted for the majority of total costs and these were the main cost driver across all age groups.

Overall, inpatient cost contributions (~75 %) were constant across age groups.. This is offset by increasing care-home cost contributions. The inclusion of all available cost components is crucial for establishing overall costs, as these often extend beyond hospitalisation. Most importantly, the thesis found that patients' age has a limited impact on overall AF-related cost, and therefore may not be the main driver of future growth of AF-related costs in an ageing Scottish population.

In order to identify an appropriate method for the comparative-effectiveness analysis, propensity score (PS) based method, such as PS matching, covariate adjustment including PS as covariate, and a series of Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) methods were tested. A cohort of patients were followed from their first oral anticoagulant prescription to first clinical event (stroke and major bleeding) or death, and censoring was applied to treatment switching or discontinuation. In this methodological chapter, the approach that uses propensity scores (PS) as a covariate was identified as the most robust method to be used in the more comprehensive comparative-effectiveness analysis.

The comparative-effectiveness analysis, including additional clinical outcomes that were also used in the pivotal RCTs assessing the efficacy of DOACs versus warfarin in the AF population, found no statistically significant differences in risk of stroke for apixaban, dabigatran and rivaroxaban compared with warfarin. There were however, concerns over safety aspects of rivaroxaban, as it was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality.

The hazard ratios estimated from the comparative-effectiveness analysis were used to populate a Markov model to evaluate the lifetime cost- effectiveness of DOACs compared to warfarin; one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were carried out to assess the uncertainty around the findings and identify key drivers. At the £20,000 threshold, apixaban and dabigatran were found to be cost-effective in AF patients who are 50 years old when starting anticoagulation. Rivaroxaban, being the least effective intervention, was dominated by warfarin, being less costly but more effective than rivaroxaban.

This thesis shows the potential of RWE in general and within the Scottish healthcare setting. The findings highlight the importance of taking into account resource utilisation beyond hospital care, and assessing several comparative-effectiveness methods to understand strengths and limitation of each. Most importantly, the findings from this thesis have the potential to inform future research, prescribing patterns and provide real-world evidence for other healthcare settings, especially where rivaroxaban is the DOAC most widely prescribed.

Finally, this thesis shows that RWE generated from routinely collected linked data in Scotland, may well support the reassessment of prescription drugs accepted conditionally by the Scottish Medicine Consortium (SMC), an independent organisation that advises the NHS Health Boards about medicines, and would therefore support the SMC in making the final acceptance decision.


A wide variety of toxic chemicals cause blebbing of the plasma membrane in isolated hepatocytes. These alterations in surface structure occur well before cell death. The formation of blebs appears to be directly related to changes in the concentration of extramitochondrial calcium ions. These changes probably reduce the ability of the hepatocyte cytoskeleton to maintain normal surface morphology. The concentration of soluble thiols, notably glutathione, appears to regulate the size of the extramitochondrial calcium ion pool. Disturbances in intracellular thiol and calcium ion homeostasis therefore seem to be responsible for the surface blebbing observed during toxic injury to isolated hepatocytes.


BACKGROUND
Platelet derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) display a pro-coagulant phenotype and are generated throughout platelet concentrate (PC) storage. Cold storage (CS) of PCs is thought to provide a superior haemostatic advantage over room temperature (RT) storage and could prolong the storage time. However, the effect of storage conditions on EV generation and PC function is unknown. We investigated EV production under CS and RT conditions and assessed whether these EVs exhibited a more pro-coagulant phenotype in model experiments.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Buffy-coat-derived PCs in a platelet additive solution (PAS) to plasma ratio of approximately 65:35 were stored at RT (22 ± 2°C) or CS (4 ± 2°C) for a prolonged storage duration of 20 days. Impedance aggregometry assessed platelet function. EVs were isolated throughout storage and quantified using nanoparticle tracking analysis. EVs were applied to a coagulation assay to assess the impact on fibrin clot formation and lysis.

RESULTS
CS produced significantly larger EVs from day 4 onwards. EV concentration was significantly increased in CS compared to RT from day 15. EVs, regardless of storage, significantly reduced time to clot formation and maximum optical density measured compared to the no EV control. Clot formation was proportionate to the number of EV applied but was not statistically different across storage conditions when corrected for EV number.

CONCLUSION
EVs in CS and RT units showed similar clot formation capacity. However, the higher number of larger EVs generated in CS compared to RT suggests PC units derived from CS conditions may overall exhibit a haemostatically superior capacity compared to RT storage.


We aimed to compare the union rate and clinical outcome of autologous bone graft versus pronator quadratus vascularized pedicled muscle flap in treatment of scaphoid nonunion. Forty patients with a diagnosis of scaphoid nonunion who underwent unilateral pseudarthrosis surgery were included in this study. Notably, the scaphoid nonunion was unilateral, and the contralateral wrist was asymptomatic with normal function, per the physical and radiological examinations. Pronator quadratus vascularized pedicled muscle flap was used in 16 patients (group 1), and autologous bone graft was used in 24 patients (group 2). Patients were compared used Scapholunate angles, Natrass carpal height ratio and Mayo wrist score pre and postoperatively. Fifteen of the 16 (93.3%) patients in group 1 and 19 of the 24 (79.2%) patients in group 2 achieved bone union. Four of twelve patients in group 2 with avascular necrosis (AVN) and one of eight in group 1 with AVN were not able to achieve union. The group 2 (34%) had higher nonunion rate than group 1 (12%) in AVN patients. The scapholunat angle was significantly decreased and the Natress ratio was significantly increased postoperatively compared to the preoperative measurement in both group. There was no statistically significant difference in the postoperative measurement. The postoperative Mayo wrist score showed no statistically significant differences between both groups. The pronator quadratus vascularized pedicled muscle flap was superior to non-vascularized bone grafting in the treatment of scaphoid nonunion with AVN. However, management of the patients without avascular necrosis is not requiring the vascularized pedicled muscle flap technique.


The Performative Presidency brings together literatures describing presidential leadership strategies, public understandings of citizenship, and news production and media technologies between the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Bill Clinton, and details how the relations between these spheres have changed over time. Jason L. Mast demonstrates how interactions between leaders, publics, and media are organized in a theatrical way, and argues that mass mediated plot formation and character development play an increasing role in structuring the political arena. He shows politics as a process of ongoing performances staged by motivated political actors, mediated by critics, and interpreted by audiences, in the context of a deeply rooted, widely shared system of collective representations. The interdisciplinary framework of this book brings together a semiotic theory of culture with concepts from the burgeoning field of performance studies.


Background: Self-expanding metallic stents are widely used for relieving biliary duct obstruction in patients with unresectable periampullary malignancies. However, only a few studies have assessed the occurrence of fractures in these stents. Purpose: To determine the prevalence and significance of stent fracture after placement of self-expanding metallic stents for periampullary malignant biliary obstruction. Material and Methods: Over a 5-year period, 48 patients underwent placement of self-expanding metallic stents for periampullary malignant biliary obstructions. Stents were introduced 2–6 weeks after a percutaneous transhepatic biliary decompression. The medical records and relevant images were reviewed for stent patency, stent fracture, type of stent, and stent-related complications. Results: Stent fracture was detected in four of the 48 patients (8%): in one patient at 1 month and in three patients between 10 and 21 months after stenting. All four fractures involved one type of nitinol stent used in 38 patients. In one of the patients, fracture was complicated by life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding. The mean survival time for all patients was 251 days (standard deviation [SD]±275 days) and the mean overall patency time for all stents was 187 days (SD±205 days). Conclusion: Stent fracture occurs after placement of self-expanding nitinol stents for periampullary malignant biliary obstruction. The low reported incidence of this complication may be due to a lack of awareness of and difficulty in detecting stent fracture. Fracture should be considered as a possible contributing factor in recurrent biliary obstruction after self-expanding metallic stent insertion.


Summary The aim of the current study was to investigate the growth pattern of three genetic strains of broiler chickens including Ross 308, Cobb and Arbor Acres by mathematical models. For this purpose, the body weight of 500 broilers for each strain was recorded weekly. Gompertz, Logistic and Richards functions were considered for data fitting. Three functions were compared by adjusted determination coefficient (R 2 ) and root mean square error (RMSE). For all three models, R 2 had high values, ranging from 0.987 to 0.999. The difference among the fitted functions by RMSE was significant compared to the R 2 . The Richards function had more appropriate description for the growth curve of the Cobb strain, because of having the minimum RMSE, 61.57 compared to 85.43 and 66.61, for Gompertz and Logistic functions, respectively. However, the Gompertz function with the maximum R 2 , and the minimum RMSE, 73.32 and 3237, respectively, was the most suitable function to describe the growth curve of Arbor Acres strain.


Transsphenoidal and extended transsphenoidal approaches have provided
 improved surgical access to numerous intradural and extradural tumors
from the retrosellar area to the craniovertebral junction. The evolution
 in reconstruction of planum, tubercular and clival skull base defects
has progressed from the use of free tissue grafts alone to the use of
free tissue grafts in combination with vascularized flaps. Sellar floor
reconstruction is usually necessary only if intraoperative CSF leaks,
prolapse of the suprasellar cistern, or bleeding from the medial aspect
of the cavernous sinus occur. In patients with intraoperative CSF leak,
accurate packing of the sella in the area of the arachnoid membrane
tear, with or without packing of the sphenoid sinus, is performed. An
increasing armamentarium of local and regional tissue flaps have reduced
 postoperative CSF leak rates to less than 5%. Future refinements in
skull base reconstruction techniques will allow better management of
patients at high risk for a postoperative CSF leak, especially those who
 have been previously irradiated and/or require revision surgery.


We would like to substantiate the report by Green, Dodds and .Pennock I that sweat chloride plays an important role in the interpretation of sweat test electrolytes. During the past four years 756 sweat tests have been performed here on patients who have subsequently been shown not to have cystic fibrosis. Of these, 53 results (7%) were borderline with concentrations in the range 50-70 mmol/L. This is a greater proportion than might be seen in most paediatric populations because the Paediatric Department in this hospital offers a Regional service for the assessment and treatment of cystic fibrosis. In only three cases was the chloride concentration greater than the sodium, but in these three the sum of the sodium and chloride concentrations was less than 140 mmol/L. In four cases the sum was greater than 140 mmol/L, but the chloride concentration was less than that of sodium. Thus, if the two criteria suggested by Green et al. 1 were used together, there would have been no false positives. During the same period sweat tests were performed on 137 patients with cystic fibrosis. Borderline results were obtained in only four; in all four cases the chloride concentration was higher than that of sodium, but in two the sum was less than 140 mmol/L. Therefore, there were two false negatives by the suggested criteria-in both the diagnosis was certain from many other features. One point of difference between our observations and those of Green et al. I was that chloride concentrations were not invariably higher than those of sodium in our cystic fibrosis patients. Of the 137 patients assessed, 56 (41%) had lower chloride than sodium concentrations. Chloride was measured colorimetrically, a different method from that used by Green et al., I and possibly this could account for the difference. It must be emphasised that the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis does not rest solely on the sweat test. An assessment of pancreatic and pulmonary function, together with any relevant family history, are essential. We would conclude that the criteria suggested by Green et al. I make an important contribution to the interpretation of borderline sweat test results.


Abbott Laboratories encountered a serious manufacturing problem with its Ritonavir (Norvir) capsules, and officials have since announced that the capsule form will not be back on the market. The company is working on a new formula that is not prone to crystallization, as was the case with the original capsule. Before the problem occurred, Abbott was already working on a new 200 mg version of Ritonavir in a soft elastic capsule (SEC) form, but Abbott needs to demonstrate the quality of the new form before the FDA will issue marketing approval. In the interim, patients are being given the liquid form of Ritonavir, which has a distinctly unpleasant flavor. The company conducted a survey to determine which foods best mask the flavor of the liquid, and these results are listed. Other methods for taking the liquid are discussed, but no studies have been conducted using these methods.


The study investigated the extraction method of Rhizoma Imperatae and its antioxidant activity, and provided a basis for its rational development. The extraction method of Rhizoma Imperatae was determined using orthogonal design test and by total phenol content, its hydroxyl radical scavenging ability was measured by Fenton reaction, and potassium ferricyanide reduction method was used to determine its reducing power. The results showed that the optimum extraction process of Rhizoma Imperatae was a 50-fold volume of water, 30 °C, three times of extraction with 2 h each. Its IC50 for scavenging of hydroxyl radicals was 0.0948 mg/mL, while IC50 of ascorbic acid was 0.1096 mg/mL; in the ferricyanide considerable reduction method, the extract exhibited reducing power comparable to that of the ascorbic acid. The study concluded that Rhizoma Imperatae extract contains relatively large amount of polyphenols, and has a good anti-oxidation ability.


Experiments were conducted on guinea pigs. A study was made of the influence of increased gravitation on the activity of the hypothalamo-hypophysio-adrenal system. It appeared that a single centrifugation led to the activation of the mentioned system; however, repeated action of the angular accelerations on the animal organism failed to lead to any increase in the blood corticosteroid level (on the 6th-11th days); this can be attributed to the adaptation of the central link of the hypophysio-adrenal system to the given stimulus, and not to the exhaustion of the adrenal cortex.


In the current paper, the hysteretic dynamics of magnetorheological dampers is modeled by a differential model. The differential model is constructed on the basis of a phenomenological phase transition theory. The model is expressed as a second order nonlinear ordinary differential equation with bifurcations embedded in. Due to the differential nature of the model, the hysteretic dynamics of the MR dampers can be linearized and controlled by introducing a feedback linearization strategy.


An improper stoma creation can cause many complications, varying from minor to life-threatening ones. Conversely, a good functioning stoma, at the ideal site improves patient's quality of life. Most of the stoma complications occur in the early postoperative period and all clinicians must be familiar to these complications. All measures before and during operation must be taken to avoid these complications. Careful follow up after post operative period can help early diagnosis, proper treatment quick recovery of the patient. This review focus on common complications and treatment options of stoma creation.


Today, a company's service processes are interwoven with external services and customers. In these cross-company service networks, partners are interchangeable and market conditions may shift rapidly. Thus, a need for business process optimization arises, though conventional approaches often cannot be used as company's IT is not process centered. To achieve business process optimization in existing distributed infrastructures, we propose the modular aPro reference architecture, which builds upon existing components. Based on the architecture, we develop a maturity model for process optimization, which may be used to assess the need for change and select necessary measures.


PURPOSE
In this study, the authors introduce skew line needle configurations for high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy and needle planning by integer program (NPIP), a computational method for generating these configurations. NPIP generates needle configurations that are specific to the anatomy of the patient, avoid critical structures near the penile bulb and other healthy structures, and avoid needle collisions inside the body.

METHODS
NPIP consisted of three major components: a method for generating a set of candidate needles, a needle selection component that chose a candidate needle subset to be inserted, and a dose planner for verifying that the final needle configuration could meet dose objectives. NPIP was used to compute needle configurations for prostate cancer data sets from patients previously treated at our clinic. NPIP took two user-parameters: a number of candidate needles, and needle coverage radius, δ. The candidate needle set consisted of 5000 needles, and a range of δ values was used to compute different needle configurations for each patient. Dose plans were computed for each needle configuration. The number of needles generated and dosimetry were analyzed and compared to the physician implant.

RESULTS
NPIP computed at least one needle configuration for every patient that met dose objectives, avoided healthy structures and needle collisions, and used as many or fewer needles than standard practice. These needle configurations corresponded to a narrow range of δ values, which could be used as default values if this system is used in practice. The average end-to-end runtime for this implementation of NPIP was 286 s, but there was a wide variation from case to case.

CONCLUSIONS
The authors have shown that NPIP can automatically generate skew line needle configurations with the aforementioned properties, and that given the correct input parameters, NPIP can generate needle configurations which meet dose objectives and use as many or fewer needles than the current HDR brachytherapy workflow. Combined with robot assisted brachytherapy, this system has the potential to reduce side effects associated with treatment. A physical trial should be done to test the implant feasibility of NPIP needle configurations.


The main purpose of the proposed revision of Chapter 6 of the Swiss Private International Law Act (Bundesgesetz uber das Internationale Privatrecht, IPRG) has been and still is to contribute to an extensive coordination between the Swiss Law Act and the European Succession Regulation (No 650/2012). In this context, the current legal regulations regarding questions of jurisdiction and its coordination and concerning the testator's options need to be modified due to changes in the legal framework in the EU. The modifications now contained in the draft of the revised IPRG, and as discussed in this article, take account of the changed circumstances as well as the corresponding legal frameworks with which testators and heirs are currently confronted.


The paper describes a case-note and interview study of a cross-sectional sample comprising 25% of all women serving a prison sentence in England and Wales. A 5% sample of the male sentenced prison population was used for comparison. Diagnoses were assigned on clinical grounds and an assessment was made of the treatment needs of all 'cases'. The prevalence of psychosis, around 2%, was similar in the two groups but women had higher rates of mental handicap (6% v. 2%), personality disorder (18% v. 10%), neurosis (18% v. 10%) and substance abuse (26% v. 12%). There is a need for closer links between the NHS and prison health services. Women's prisons lack a therapeutic community of the Grendon type, which may be of benefit to a substantial minority of inmates.


Ottoman Empire ruled Cyprus between the years 1571-1878, in 1878 with Treaty of Lausanne was officially passed to England temporarily. Greeks who want to take advantage of this situation, gave fresh impetus to activities for"Enosis" . This process which led to the struggle for existence of Turks in the island and has resulted Peace Operation in 1974. However, Turks emigrated to different parts of the world, mainly toTurkey due to the pressure that they are exposed in the period leading up to the Peace Operation. Therefore, after the operation, Turkish control of the labor needed to eliminate the deficit for the processing of the soil and the new government in order to ensure the economic development of the population of Turkey was carried transplant candidates. "Agricultural labor" the province's population transfer carried out of Adana. In this regard all farmers from Adana, 1.480 men in 531 households, 1.287's including women 2.767 people were resettled on the island. In this study, after the operation settlement the process with the transplant population of immigrants from Adana has been discussed.


A fundamental issue in active learning of Gaussian processes is that of the exploration-exploitation trade-off. This paper presents a novel nonmyopic e-Bayes-optimal active learning (e-BAL) approach that jointly and naturally optimizes the trade-off. In contrast, existing works have primarily developed myopic/greedy algorithms or performed exploration and exploitation separately. To perform active learning in real time, we then propose an anytime algorithm based on e-BAL with performance guarantee and empirically demonstrate using synthetic and real-world datasets that, with limited budget, it outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms.


The Landslǫg was the first national law code of Norway, in force between 1274 and 1687. During this time, several different prologues were appended to the law code. The most ubiquitous were the original prologue from the law of 1274 and a new prologue that accompanied translations of the code into Danish. There was also a learned prologue that was occasionally found together with the new prologue, and when the law code was finally printed for the first time in 1604, another prologue was also written to accompany it. While previous scholarship has paid scant attention to the transformation of the prologue (several of them have never been published), I argue that the prologues are key in understanding the contexts of the Norwegian Landslǫg. Using Derrida's concept of the parergon outlined in The Truth in Painting and by analysing the interaction of the prologue and main law code in different manuscripts, I conclude that each prologue exerts a parergonal influence on the law code in a different way and that the translation of the law into Danish had a profound effect on the transformations of the prologue. In addition, this article provides an updated overview of the prologues to the Landslǫg and lists which manuscripts they are preserved in.


They say that, as you get older, your ability to absorb new information diminishes and your capacity to hold old information dwindles. Looking back over past issues of Oceanography, I realized that dementia has well and truly set in for me. A couple of years ago, I wrote about communicating with the public, with a focus on media. In the same article, I promised a follow on in my next missive on the subject of outreach in schools, whose pupils are the biggest absorbers of information and ideas. Although many of us focus on university students in our teaching, we should remember that no age is too young to start a noble education in ocean science.


BACKGROUND
Respiratory tract infections (RTI) in children is the most common cause of prescription of antibiotics. It is important to describe and analyse non-medical factors in order to develop more rational use of antibiotics.

OBJECTIVES
To compare families with high and low concern about infectious illness with regard to social variables, perception of infection proneness and beliefs in antibiotics and to relate the concern for infectious illness to reported morbidity, physician consultations and antibiotic prescriptions for the 18-month-old child in the family.

METHODS
A prospective, population-based survey was performed. During 1 month, all infectious symptoms, physician consultations and antibiotic treatments for 18-month-old children were noted. The 818 families also answered questions about their socio-economic situation, illness perception and concern about infectious illness.

RESULTS
High concern about infectious illness was associated with more frequent physicians consultations and more prescriptions of antibiotics. There was no significant difference in reported days with symptoms of RTI, but the parents more often experienced their children with RTI without fever as being ill. The variables of infection proneness in the child, inadequate beliefs in antibiotics and the factor of being the only child were important explanatory factors for concern about infectious illness.

CONCLUSIONS
High concern about infectious illness is an important determining factor for physician consultations and antibiotic prescription for small children. An adequate consultation, where the doctor deals with the parents' worries and gives appropriate information about symptoms and disease, might contribute to less antibiotic prescribing with preserved parental satisfaction.


The stereo correspondence and reconstruction of endoscopic data sub-challenge was organized during the Endovis challenge at MICCAI 2019 in Shenzhen, China. The task was to perform dense depth estimation using 7 training datasets and 2 test sets of structured light data captured using porcine cadavers. These were provided by a team at Intuitive Surgical. 10 teams participated in the challenge day. This paper contains 3 additional methods which were submitted after the challenge finished as well as a supplemental section from these teams on issues they found with the dataset.


The catalytic-site thiol groups of papain (EC 220.127.116.11) and actinidin (EC 18.104.22.168) were each labelled with the nitrobenzofurazan (Nbf) chromophore by reaction with 4-chloro-7-nitrobenzofurazan at pH 4.4. The electronic-absorption spectra of both labelled enzymes were determined in aqueous solution, in the pH ranges approx. 2-5 for S-Nbf-papain and approx. 3.3-8 for S-Nbf-actinidin, and for the latter also in 6 M-guanidinium chloride. The spectrum of S-Nbf-papain is characterized by lambda max. = 402 nm at pH 5 and by lambda max. = 422 nm at pH 2.18. The pH-dependent shift in lambda max. accompanies a pH-dependent change in A 430, the nature of which is consistent with its dependence on a single ionizing group with pKa 3.7. The spectrum of S-Nbf-actinidin is pH-independent in the pH range approx. 3.3-8 and is characterized by lambda max. = 413 nm. This absorption maximum shifts to 425 nm in 6M-guanidinium chloride. These results are discussed and related to those reported previously from studies on papain and actinidin with various reactivity probes. Despite the close similarity in the catalytic sites of papain and actinidin deduced from X-ray-diffraction studies, the considerable differences in their reactivity characteristics are mirrored by differences in their electric fields detected by the Nbf spectroscopic label. The microenvironment in the catalytic site of actinidin appears to favour the existence of ions significantly more than in the corresponding region in papain.


The concept of Cyber-Physical Society (CPSo) expands the concept of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) by including aspects related to knowledge, culture and society. Embedding computation in the control of our fast evolving society means mainly to trigger self-organizing mechanisms at any level in our complex world. The way democracy is exercised must benefit explicitly from the tremendous development of the information and communication technologies (ICT). ICT has a very big impact on various aspects of our life, but is missing a coherent approach for designing the appropriate environment for the benefit of people in their struggle with a ubiquitous corrupt political class, weak state and voracious corporations. ICT supported democratic power will allow to reconsider the manifest of the other two forms of power: the elitist form and the sacred form


We have examined the role of oxygen radicals in ethanol-induced damage to cultured rat gastric mucosal cells. Cultured cells exposed to ethanol produced superoxide anion, as assessed by the reduction of cytochrome c, in a time-related fashion. The production of superoxide anion increased dose dependently as the concentration of ethanol increased. Cellular damage increased in a similar fashion to the production of superoxide anion. Both superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase diminished ethanol-induced injury dose dependently. SOD and catalase were able to maintain their enzymatic activities in the presence of 15% ethanol, respectively. Pretreatment with deferoxamine, an iron-chelating agent, decreased ethanol-induced injury dose dependently. Furthermore, dimethyl sulfoxide decreased ethanol-induced damage dose dependently. We conclude that cultured gastric mucosal cells exposed to ethanol generate oxygen radicals and that the production of oxygen radicals is closely linked with ethanol-induced damage to the cells. Hydroxyl radical, produced by the iron-catalyzed Haber-Weiss reaction, seems to be the main mediator of ethanol-induced damage to gastric mucosal cells in vitro.


This book is a list of reference ranges with a short introduction and some method references. Reference ranges are difficult to establish in children and are generally gradually accumulated after clinical classification of the patients has established their 'normality' in the relevant area of their metabolism. It is not always clear which values in childhood are similar to those in adults. The majority of laboratories have to serve adults as well as children. A clearer indication of those reference values which definitely differ in children would therefore have been valuable. However this book is a valuable list of paediatric reference values from 'GOS' and will be welcomed especially by those in other children's hospitals.


Herpes simplex virus type 1 was purified by density gradient centrifugation, and the virion-associated proteins were resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. By Western blot (immunoblot) analysis with an anti-ICP4 monospecific serum, the results indicated that ICP4, one of the five immediate-early proteins of herpes simplex virus type 1, was associated with the purified virions. To define the location of ICP4 within the virion, trypsin digestion experiments were performed. Purified virions were treated with trypsin in the presence or absence of detergent. The virus envelope appeared to protect ICP4 from the trypsin, since virus-associated ICP4 was sensitive to digestion only after detergent treatment. In addition, ICP4 remained associated with the virus particle when the virion-specific glycoproteins were removed after detergent treatment. Finally, ICP4 was not detected in purified preparations of type A and B capsids isolated from the nuclear fraction of virus-infected cells. The above-mentioned data suggest that detectable amounts of ICP4 are present within the tegument region of the virion.


The fractional quantum Hall effect stands as a quintessential manifestation of an interacting two-dimensional electron system. One of the fractional quantum Hall effect's most fundamental characteristics is the energy gap separating the incompressible ground state from its excitations. Yet, despite nearly four decades of investigations, a quantitative agreement between the theoretically calculated and experimentally measured energy gaps is lacking. Here we report a systematic experimental study that incorporates very high-quality two-dimensional electron systems confined to GaAs quantum wells with fixed density and varying well widths. The results demonstrate a clear decrease of the energy gap as the electron layer is made thicker and the short-range component of the Coulomb interaction is weakened. We also provide a quantitative comparison between the measured energy gaps and the available theoretical calculations that takes into account the role of finite layer thickness and Landau level mixing. All the measured energy gaps fall below the calculations, but as the electron layer thickness increases, the results of experiments and calculations come closer. Accounting for the role of disorder in a phenomenological manner, we find better overall agreement between the measured and calculated energy gaps, although some puzzling discrepancies remain.


The new technique is proposed for Re-ranking based image categorization using saliency driven nonlinear diffusion filtering. The image categorize based on Re-ranking, using multi-scale information fusion based on the original image. The foreground features, which are important for image categorization and the background image regions, whether considered as contexts of the foreground or noise to the foreground, can be globally handled by fusing information from different scales. To preserve the foreground feature and deal effectively with background use saliency driven nonlinear diffusion filtering and Re-ranking categorize the image.


Precision farming systems are based on a detailed monitoring of information and data that are necessary for successful decision-making in crop production. The system is designed for data collection from several resources. In past years an extensive research and development work has been done in the field of wireless sensor networks (WSN) in the world. When a wireless sensor network (WSN) is used for agricultural purposes, it has to provide first of all a long-reach signal. The present paper describes new long distance RFID based technology implementation - VLIT NODE.


ABSTRACT With technological advancements, many interconnected environmental issues have been worsening, including soil, water, and air pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and over-exploitation of natural resources. With the inception of the term "sustainable development", many market participants, including institutional and private investors, want to consider environmental sustainability in their investment decisions. However, until the upsurge of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing, which is closely associated with sustainability, achieving sustainable development is challenging. ESG, the three critical areas identified by analysts, can significantly impact the financial aspect of a company. As a result, Renewable Energy 100%, the carbon neutrality approach, and the circular economy concept are widely used nowadays as environmental management tools. However, the limited comparability, the biased scoring metrics, the aggregated nature of diverse environmental factors, different methodologies implemented by rating providers, and the lack of robust datasets have resulted in limited usefulness of E (Environmental) scoring as a tool for greening the financial sector. Hence, to improve the relevance of the E pillar, the E in ESG must compose of a set of metrics to address different environmental aspects, thus avoiding unforeseen environmental disasters at a later stage. The inconsistency in the metrics' scope and its evaluation criteria are the main drawbacks, which must be addressed for the E pillar to become an effective tool for allowing sustainable finance and development.


Objective: The last 25 years have seen profound changes in neurocognitive rehabilitation that continue to motivate its evolution. Although the concept of nervous system plasticity was discussed by William James (1890), the foundation for experience-based plasticity had not reached the critical empirical mass to seriously impact rehabilitation research until after 1992. The objective of this review is to describe how the emergence of neural plasticity has changed neurocognitive rehabilitation research. Method: The important developments included (a) introduction of a widely available tool that could measure brain plasticity (i.e., functional MRI); (b) development of new structural imaging techniques that could define limits of and opportunities for neural plasticity; (c) deployment of noninvasive brain stimulation to leverage neural plasticity for rehabilitation; (d) growth of a literature indicating that exercise has positively impacts neural plasticity, especially for older persons; and (e) enhancement of neural plasticity by creating interventions that generalize beyond the boundaries of treatment activities. Given the massive literature, each of these areas is developed by example. Results: The expanding influence of neural plasticity has provided new models and tools for neurocognitive rehabilitation in neural injuries and disorders, as well as methods for measuring neural plasticity and predicting its limits and opportunities. Early clinical trials have provided very encouraging results. Conclusion: Now that neural plasticity has gained a firm foothold, it will continue to influence the evolution of neurocognitive rehabilitation research for the next 25 years and advance rehabilitation for neural injuries and disease.


The continuous surgical experience of the 27th Surgical Hospital in Chu Lai, Vietnam, from March 1968 through February 1970 and includes 7,314 surgical admissions and 5,231 major operations. Of 624 chest injuries requiring chest tubes only 104 (16.5%) required thoracotomy, thus indicating that the majority can be handled by tube drainage. "Contused lung," in which the injury is localized and symptoms uncontrollable may be a definite indication for lobectomy. There were 1,409 laparotomies in which 1,741 organ injuries were found. The negative exploration rate was 13.5%. Of 171 vascular repairs, there were 29 failures (17%). The failure rate was highest for popliteal artery repair at 35%. This is similar to the experience of others and may reflect either inexperience or an approach that is too conservative towards initial amputation.


Soil salinity is a major challenge for soil moisture measurement using time domain reflectometry (TDR) and time domain transmission (TDT) technologies. Both technologies measure the travel time of an electromagnetic pulse propagating in soil, which is highly related to soil wetness. A TDT soil moisture sensor with coated helical transmission line has been developed and tested in nonsaline mineral soils and saline soils to evaluate its performance. For nonsaline mineral soils, a linear calibration equation between volumetric soil water content (θ v ) and output voltage (V) from the TDT soil moisture sensor was established, and soil texture showed minor influences on the linear relationship. The RMSE of the measured θ v was smaller than <0.022 m 3 m ―3 . Under saline conditions, the slope of the θ v -V linear relationship decreased exponentially as soil solution electrical conductivity (EC) increased. When the EC is <6.6 dS m ―1 , however, the linear relationship for nonsaline mineral soils can be directly applied to saline soils if the required accuracy of moisture measurement is no less than 0.030 m 3 m ―3 . For soil solution EC in the range of 6.6 to 20.6 dS m ―1 , the linearity of the relationship still holds, but the slope needs to be adjusted according to the EC values. The θ v -V linear relationship held for soil solution EC up to 198.2 dS m ―1 . The calibration equation for nonsaline mineral soils was also applicable to several natural saline mineral soils, and the RMSE was <0.026 m 3 m ―3 . Therefore it is possible to develop TDT sensors to measure soil moisture with similar accuracy to that of TDR on nonsaline soils but better performance under saline soil conditions.


Background The growth and development of plants is deleteriously affected by various biotic and abiotic stress factors. Wounding in plants is caused by exposure to environmental stress, mechanical stress, and via herbivory. Typically, oxidative burst in response to wounding is associated with the formation of reactive oxygen species, such as the superoxide anion radical (O2•−), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and singlet oxygen; however, few experimental studies have provided direct evidence of their detection in plants. Detection of O2•− formation in plant tissues have been performed using various techniques including electron paramagnetic resonance spin-trap spectroscopy, epinephrine-adrenochrome acceptor methods, staining with dyes such as tetrazolium dye and nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT); however, kinetic measurements have not been performed. In the current study, we provide evidence of O2•− generation and its kinetics in the leaves of spinach (Spinacia oleracea) subjected to wounding. Methods Real-time monitoring of O2•− generation was performed using catalytic amperometry. Changes in oxidation current for O2•− was monitored using polymeric iron-porphyrin-based modified carbon electrodes (φ = 1 mm) as working electrode with Ag/AgCl as the reference electrode. Result The results obtained show continuous generation of O2•− for minutes after wounding, followed by a decline. The exogenous addition of superoxide dismutase, which is known to dismutate O2•− to H2O2, significantly suppressed the oxidation current. Conclusion Catalytic amperometric measurements were performed using polymeric iron-porphyrin based modified carbon electrode. We claim it to be a useful tool and a direct method for real-time monitoring and precise detection of O2•− in biological samples, with the potential for wide application in plant research for specific and sensitive detection of O2•−.


The phenomenon of impersonal verbs in Indo-European languages, particularly in Latin, is a much discussed issue. Nevertheless, the existence and use of impersonal verbs in the Latin of the Vulgate has never been investigated from a comparative point of view. The main aim of this article is to discuss the use of impersonal verbs in ancient Indo-European languages and Biblical Hebrew on the one hand, while on the other hand this article examines the translation of the impersonal verbs of Biblical Hebrew to the Latin of
the Vulgate and its underlying principles.


Caprella scaura , originally described by Templeton (1836) from Mauritius and later reported as several subspecies from numerous areas of the world, was found for the first time in the Mediterranean in 1994. Since this report, the species was found in several Mediterranean locations. To explore the current distribution of C. scaura in the Iberian Peninsula and adjacent areas, we surveyed marine fouling communities from 88 marinas along the whole Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, 3 from Italy, 1 from France, 1 from Malta and 1 from Greece between June 2011 and June 2012. The results of this survey report the first confirmed record of C. scaura in Corsica (France), Creta (Greece) and Morocco, and confirm an extensive distribution of C. scaura along the Spanish Mediterranean coast and the Strait of Gibraltar. The species was absent in the north Atlantic coast of Spain and the upper distribution limit in the eastern Atlantic coast is the locality of Cascais, in the south coast of Portugal. All populations studied belong to the same morphological form, with match with the subspecies C. scaura typica from Brazil and C. scaura scaura from Mauritius, suggesting that these two subspecies could correspond to the same "variety".


We introduce the notion of balanced strong shift equivalence between square non-negative integer matrices, and show that two finite graphs with no sinks are one-sided eventually conjugate if and only if their adjacency matrices are conjugate to balanced strong shift equivalent matrices. Moreover, we show that such graphs are eventually conjugate if and only if one can be reached by the other via a sequence of out-splits and balanced in-splits, the latter move being a variation of the classical in-split move introduced by Williams in his study of shifts of finite type. We also relate one-sided eventual conjugacies to certain block maps on the finite paths of the graphs. These characterizations emphasize that eventual conjugacy is the one-sided analog of two-sided conjugacy.


Serpins are members of a family of structurally related protein inhibitors of serine proteinases, with molecular masses between 40 and 100kDa. In contrast to other, simpler, proteinase inhibitors, they may interact with proteinases as inhibitors, as substrates, or as both. They undergo conformational interconversions upon complex formation with proteinase, upon binding of some members to heparin, upon proteolytic cleavage at the reactive center, and under mild denaturing conditions. These conformational changes appear to be critical in determining the properties of the serpin. The structures and stabilities of these various forms may differ significantly. Although the detailed structural changes required for inhibition of proteinase have yet to be worked out, it is clear that the serpin does undergo a major conformational change. This is in contrast to other, simpler, families of protein inhibitors of serine proteinases, which bind in a substrate-like or product-like manner. Proteolytic cleavage of the serpin can result in a much more stable protein with ncw biological properties such as chemo-attractant behaviour. These structural transformations in serpins provide opportunities for regulation of the activity and properties of the inhibitor and are likely be important in viva, where serpins are involved in blood coagulation, fibrinolysis, complement activation and inflammation.


Digital ethnography can be defined as a contemporary form of ethnography which considers online social spaces of discussion following the advances in data transmission technology. In the last few years, various attempts of considering online spaces in ethnographic research have been made producing different styles of online ethnography, each identified by a different label. This paper aims to provide a systematic review of the topic to map the practice of digital ethnography. The research process followed four key steps: search, selection, analysis and synthesis. In the search phase, we searched contributions iteratively in Web of Science and Scopus by using a variety of keywords corresponding to the different labels used to refer to digital ethnography. In the selection phase, we adopted a selective stance that aims to provide a critical review of the existing research and practices in the context of digital ethnography. In the analysis phase, we carried out a content analysis of the papers combining deductive and inductive coding. The synthesis phase involves a process of typology development to pragmatically reduce and systematize an extensive set of features and digital ethnography practices. Basing on the type of data collected (Small vs Big Data) and the type of fieldwork (meta or contextual field), we detected four types of ethnographic research: social media ethnography , contextual digital ethnography , meta digital ethnography , cross-media ethnography .


Background Neglected parasitic diseases (NTDs) like cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) have caused high mortality and morbidity rate in developing countries. This disease is considered as one of the six major tropical diseases, and has a great importance in HIV infected individuals as an opportunistic infection in those areas that both infections are endemic. This study evaluated the therapeutic effects of the Urtica dioica L (U. dioica) aqueous extract as an anti-leishmanial herbal drug in-vitro and in-vivo, and in addition to that, evaluated two vital immune system cytokines including gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) plus nitric oxide (NO) and arginase activity against Leishmania major (L. major) infected mice. Methodology/Principal findings In-vitro anti-leishmanial activity of U. dioica aqueous extract was determined using MTT method and also Parasite Rescue Transformation Assay. Also, the footpad lesion size and parasite load in BALB/c mice infected with L. major were quantified for in-vivo assessment. Furthermore, for evaluating the immune responses, the levels of IFN-γ, IL-4, NO and arginase were measured in the BALB/c mice. These results indicated that U. dioica extract significantly reduced the L. major promastigotes viability. According to the in-vitro cytotoxicity assay of the extract on Leishmania parasites (CC50) and infected macrophages (EC50), the extract had no toxicity to the macrophages, however it efficiently killed the L. major amastigotes. In addition, the lesion size, parasite load, IL-4, and ARG were decreased in the treated infected mice, however IFN-γ and NO were significantly increased. Conclusions/Significance This study established satisfactory results in Leishmania parasite clearing both in-vivo and in-vitro. Therefore, U. dioica extract can be considered as an effective and harmless herbal compound for killing the parasite without toxicity to the host macrophages. Furthermore, it also can treat the CL by switching the mouse immune response towards a cell-mediated response (Th1); hence, it may be identified as a perfect therapeutic herbal drug for CL treatment.


Objective – In this paper, we present the case of the sudden cardiac death of an apparently healthy 15-year-old adolescent, as well as the autopsy findings, with histopathology. Case report – A 15-year-old boy was found unconscious in his brother's room. The boy had not been diagnosed with any disease and was apparently healthy. Preliminary autopsy findings indicated the predominance of cardiac pathology in relation to his death. All the cardiac cavities were dilated and enlarged. The trabeculae were more pronounced and thicker, with deepened spaces between them. In the anterior wall and almost the entire upper half of the posterior wall of the left ventricle, as well as the interventricular septum, with almost the entire thickness of the wall, the myocardial tissue was densely imbued with fibrous tissue. Microscopic analysis of cardiac sections showed large fields of hypocellular (scarring) fibrosis, as well as smaller fibrosis focuses of moderate cellularity, with fibroblasts, fibrocytes, and lymphocytes present. Toxicological analysis of blood taken from the femoral vein during autopsy was also performed, and the results showed that there were no traces of alcohol or psychoactive substances. Conclusion – Myocarditis is not uncommon in the pediatric population and has a relatively good prognosis, with most cases resulting in complete recovery. Extensive chronic inflammation with severe fibrosis in an apparently healthy boy leading to death makes our case particularly significant.


The Bidirectional Texture Function (BTF) is a data‐driven solution to render materials with complex appearance. A typical capture contains tens of thousands of images of a material sample under varying viewing and lighting conditions. While capable of faithfully recording complex light interactions in the material, the main drawback is the massive memory requirement, both for storing and rendering, making effective compression of BTF data a critical component in practical applications. Common compression schemes used in practice are based on matrix factorization techniques, which preserve the discrete format of the original dataset. While this approach generalizes well to different materials, rendering with the compressed dataset still relies on interpolating between the closest samples. Depending on the material and the angular resolution of the BTF, this can lead to blurring and ghosting artefacts. An alternative approach uses analytic model fitting to approximate the BTF data, using continuous functions that naturally interpolate well, but whose expressive range is often not wide enough to faithfully recreate materials with complex non‐local lighting effects (subsurface scattering, inter‐reflections, shadowing and masking…). In light of these observations, we propose a neural network‐based BTF representation inspired by autoencoders: our encoder compresses each texel to a small set of latent coefficients, while our decoder additionally takes in a light and view direction and outputs a single RGB vector at a time. This allows us to continuously query reflectance values in the light and view hemispheres, eliminating the need for linear interpolation between discrete samples. We train our architecture on fabric BTFs with a challenging appearance and compare to standard PCA as a baseline. We achieve competitive compression ratios and high‐quality interpolation/extrapolation without blurring or ghosting artifacts.


This paper presents a new technique for automatically synthesizing SQL queries from natural language (NL). At the core of our technique is a new NL-based program synthesis methodology that combines semantic parsing techniques from the NLP community with type-directed program synthesis and automated program repair. Starting with a program sketch obtained using standard parsing techniques, our approach involves an iterative refinement loop that alternates between quantitative type inhabitation and automated sketch repair. We use the proposed idea to build an end-to-end system called Sqlizer that can synthesize SQL queries from natural language. Our method is fully automated, works for any database without requiring additional customization, and does not require users to know the underlying database schema. We evaluate our approach on over 450 natural language queries concerning three different databases, namely MAS, IMDB, and YELP. Our experiments show that the desired query is ranked within the top 5 candidates in close to 90% of the cases and that Sqlizer outperforms Nalir, a state-of-the-art tool that won a best paper award at VLDB'14.


We examine how cross-country differences in capital regulations shape the structure of global lending syndicates. Using globally syndicated loans extended by banks from 44 countries, we find that strictly regulated banks participate more in syndicates originated by lead lenders facing less stringent capital regulations. This finding is consistent with the explanation that strictly regulated banks seek risky deals outside the border and loosely regulated banks have an advantage to procure such deals. Accordingly, lending syndicates involving loosely regulated lead arrangers and strictly regulated participants extend loans to riskier borrowers, charge higher spreads, and incur higher default rates. The effect of regulatory differences is mitigated when participants are subject to higher accounting standards, and amplified when the participant and lead banks share prior syndicate relations. Finally, we show that global syndication exposes both participants and lead arrangers to greater systemic risk.


ABSTRACT Background: This study examined the impact of mitral valve repair (MVRe) on survival of patients with moderate or severe (≥2+) MR and ischemic cardiomyopathy randomized to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) versus CABG+surgical ventricular reconstruction (SVR) in the STICH trial. Methods: Among patients with moderate or severe MR and ischemic cardiomyopathy undergoing CABG or CABG+SVR, the impact of MVRe on mortality between the two treatment arms was compared. Results: Among 867 patients with assessment of baseline MR severity, 211 had moderate or severe MR. After excluding 7 patients who underwent mitral valve replacement, 50, 44, 62, and 48 patients underwent CABG, CABG+MVRe, CABG+SVR, and CABG+SVR+MVRe, respectively. Four-year mortality rates were lower following CABG+MVRe than CABG alone (16% vs. 55%; adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.30; 95% CI 0.13–0.71). In contrast, the CABG+SVR+MVRe and CABG+SVR groups had similar 4-year mortality of 39% vs. 39% (adjusted HR 0.88; 95% CI 0.46–1.70). MVRe had a more favorable effect on survival in patients undergoing CABG alone compared to CABG+SVR (p = 0.013). Baseline MR severity was similar between patients that received CABG+MVRe and those that underwent CABG+SVR+MVRe. A larger proportion of patients demonstrated a reduction in MR between 4 and 24 months after CABG+MVRe compared to CABG+SVR+MVRe (50.0% versus 25.0%, p = 0.023). Conclusion: In patients with moderate or severe MR and ischemic cardiomyopathy undergoing CABG, MVRe appears to have a favorable effect on survival. The addition of SVR to CABG may attenuate the anticipated benefits of MVRe by limiting the long-term reduction of MR with MVRe.


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal interstitial lung disease that presents with a 5-year survival of 20–30%, hence with a mortality rate as high as many aggressive cancer types.1 According to a current analysis by the British Lung Foundation, the incidence of IPF in the UK has long been underestimated (https://www.blf.org.uk/). In addition, a recent systematic review shows that IPF incidence rates have increased worldwide.2 Two recently approved treatments for IPF, pirfenidone and nintedanib, have been shown to decelerate lung function decline in IPF, but do not halt disease progression or cure the disease.3 ,4 Hence, there is a clear need for novel therapeutic strategies, which manifests in (at time of writing) 46 registered interventional clinical studies for IPF (http://clinicaltrials.gov) and a continued quest for novel drug targets by the scientific community, fuelled by an increased understanding of IPF pathogenesis.5 Considering the substantial pathological heterogeneity of IPF and the multitude of dysregulated signalling pathways,6 it is likely that a successful cure of IPF will involve not a single, but several active agents, specifically targeting different pathomechanistic aspects of IPF.

With de novo drug development being an expensive and time-consuming process, it seems highly sensible to examine whether effective treatment for other disease entities with significant pathomechanistic overlap with IPF is suitable for IPF therapy as well. Notably, repositioning of drugs can shorten drug development time by >50% as phases like chemical optimisation, safety assessment or pharmacokinetic (PK) profiling can be bypassed. …


Local adaptation of plants along environmental gradients provides strong evidence for clinal evolution mediated by natural selection. Plants have developed diverse strategies to mitigate stress, for example, drought escape is a phenological strategy to avoid drought stress, while polyploidy was proposed as a genomic adaptation to stress. Polyploidy as an adaptation to aridity (an environmental parameter integrating temperature and precipitation) was previously documented in annual Brachypodium spp. (Poaceae) in the Western Mediterranean. Here, we examined whether polyploidy or phenology are associated with aridity in annual Brachypodium spp. along the aridity gradient in the Eastern Mediterranean. Using flow cytometry, we determined ploidy levels of plants from natural populations along the Israeli gradient, spanning ∼424 km from mesic Mediterranean to extreme desert climates. In a common garden we recorded time of seedling emergence, flowering and senescence. We tested whether the proportion of allotetraploids in the populations and phenological traits were associated with aridity. Contrary to a previous study in the Western Mediterranean, we found no effect of aridity on the proportion of allotetraploids and diploids within populations. Interestingly, phenology was associated with aridity: time of emergence was later, while flowering and senescence were earlier in desert plants. Our results indicate that in the Eastern Mediterranean, adaptation of Brachypodium to aridity is mediated mainly by phenology, rather than ploidy level. Therefore, we suggest that genome duplication is not the main driver of adaptation to environmental stress; rather, phenological change as a drought escape mechanism may be the major adaptation.


Background The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends active case-finding (ACF) of tuberculosis (TB) in certain high-risk groups; however, more evidence is needed to elucidate the scope of ACF beyond the current recommendations. In this study we aimed to systematically review yields (the prevalence of active TB) of studies on ACF in general populations and at-risk groups. Methods A literature search in PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Central Library (CENTRAL) was performed for studies concluded after 31 December 1999 and published before 1 September 2020. Screening yields were estimated and yield/prevalence ratios (ratio between yield of study and WHO estimated prevalence of TB) were calculated to assess which groups might especially benefit from ACF. Finally, risk of bias was assessed and heterogeneity was investigated using meta-regression and sensitivity analyses. Results We included 197 studies, with a total of 12 372 530 screened and 53 158 cases found. Yields were high among drug users, close contacts, the poor and marginalised, people living with HIV, and prison inmates across incidence strata, and estimated yield/prevalence ratios in screenings of general populations tended to be >1 with an overall ratio of 1.4 and ranging between 1.0 and 1.5. Sensitivity analyses suggested that inclusion of studies at high risk of bias contributed to underestimation of yields. Conclusion Despite many studies using insensitive screening methods, these results suggest that more at-risk groups should be considered for inclusion in future screening recommendations and that screening of general populations may outperform current case-finding practices, providing evidence for extending ACF beyond the current recommendations. Active case-finding of tuberculosis can produce substantial yields in general populations and at-risk groups and may outperform current case-finding practices. This provides evidence for extending active case-finding beyond current WHO recommendations. http://bit.ly/3lOHVER


This paper focuses on remote-control and autonomous vessels from a sociological perspective. We report that if CSCW research aims to shed light on other disciplines, researchers should be reflexive insider that first position themselves in such disciplines. Through reflexive practice, CSCW researchers could connect communities of practice, thus narrowing the distance between design and engineering.


In Part 1 Wilson reconstructs the family circumstances and estate management of two landlords, Stephen Moore, third earl of Mount Cashell, and Major Robert Perceval Maxwell. Each owned several estates in Ireland and the estate known as Amherst Island in Ontario. She examines how the management of these estates changed over time and highlights the differences between management in the north and south of Ireland, particularly in Counties Down, Antrim, and Cork. She looks at the form the landlord-tenant relationship took in the New World to determine whether tenancy arrangements in the New World offered landlords an opportunity to start afresh or, instead, were influenced by the traditions and financial circumstances of their Irish estates. The second part of the study follows more than one hundred tenant families who, between 1820 and 1860, migrated from the Ards Peninsula in County Down to Amherst Island, where they rented land from Mount Cashell and, later, from Maxwell. Wilson reveals what life was like in the United Parish of St Andrews, why families emigrated and rented on Amherst Island, and what it meant socially and economically to be a tenant in the New World, where most farmers were freeholders. Wilson sets her study firmly in the framework of British, Irish, and American writing on land tenure, and in this comparative context opens the discussion of tenancy among Canadians more widely than anyone has done heretofore. She concludes that both landlords and tenants were more successful in the New World. Wealth and land ownership might be slow in materializing, but the opportunity, the choices, and the attainment of security were all greater than they had been in Ireland.


Employing a mesoscopic titania photoanode whose bilayer structure was judiciously selected to fit the optoelectronic characteristics of the Ru-based heteroleptic complex Na-cis-Ru(4,4'-(5-hexyltiophen-2-yl)-2,2'-bipyridine)(4-carboxylic-acid-4'-carboxylate-2,2'-bipyridine)(thiocyanate)(2), coded as C101, we investigated the effect of temperature for dye adsorption on the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). We found a significant efficiency enhancement upon lowering the temperature applied during the sensitizer uptake from solution. When the dye adsorption was performed at 4 °C, the photovoltaic performance parameters measured under standard reporting conditions (AM1.5 G sunlight at 1000 W/m(2) intensity and 25 °C), i.e., the open circuit voltage (V(oc)), the short circuit photocurrent density (J(sc)), the fill factor (FF), and consequently the power conversion efficiency (PCE), improved in comparison to cells stained at 20 and 60 °C. Results from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) show that the self-assembled layer of C101 formed at lower temperature impairs the back-electron transfer from the TiO(2) conduction band to the triiodide ions in the electrolyte more strongly than the film produced at 60 °C. Profiting from the favorable influence that the low-temperature dye uptake exerts on photovoltaic performance, we have realized DSCs showing a power conversion efficiency of 11.5%.