CONTEXT
Increasing dietary protein relative to carbohydrate and fat enhances weight loss, at least in part by increasing satiety. The mechanism for this is unclear.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to compare the effects of isocaloric test meals with differing protein to fat ratios on fasting and postprandial ghrelin, insulin, glucose, appetite, and energy expenditure before and after weight loss on the respective dietary patterns.

DESIGN
The study design was a randomized parallel design of 12 wk of weight loss (6 MJ/d) and 4 wk of weight maintenance (7.3 MJ/d) with meals administered at wk 0 and 16.

SETTING
The study was performed at an out-patient research clinic.

PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Fifty-seven overweight (body mass index, 33.8 +/- 3.5 kg/m2) hyperinsulinemic men (n = 25) and women (n = 32) were studied.

INTERVENTIONS
High-protein/low-fat (34% protein/29% fat) or standard protein/high-fat (18% protein/45% fat) diets/meals were given.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The main outcome measures were weight loss and fasting and postprandial ghrelin, insulin, glucose, appetite, and energy expenditure before and after weight loss.

RESULTS
Weight loss (9.2 +/- 0.7 kg) and improvements in fasting and postprandial insulin and glucose occurred independently of diet composition. At wk 0 and 16, subjects wanted less to eat after the high-protein/low-fat than the standard protein/high-fat meal (P = 0.02). Fasting ghrelin increased (157.5 +/- 3.4 pg/ml or 46.6 +/- 1.0 pmol/liter; P < 0.001), and the postprandial ghrelin response improved with weight loss (P = 0.043) independently of diet composition. Postprandial hunger decreased with weight loss (P = 0.018) and was predicted by changes in fasting and postprandial ghrelin (r2 = 0.246; P = 0.004). Lean mass was the best predictor of fasting (r2 = 0.182; P = 0.003) and postprandial ghrelin (r2 = 0.096; P = 0.039) levels.

CONCLUSIONS
Exchanging protein for fat produced similar weight loss and improvements in metabolic parameters and ghrelin homeostasis. The reduced appetite observed with increased dietary protein appears not to be mediated by ghrelin homeostasis.


We investigate why female labour market participation is low in the Arab region. Utilising Akerlof and Kranton's (2000) 'identity economics' approach, we show in a simple gametheoretic framework that women socialised in a traditional family environment violate their identities by taking a job. In the empirical analysis, we study the respective impact of two determinants of identity in the Arab region, Islam and cultural tradition. Employing two waves of the World Values Survey, we find significant evidence that identity affects female labour market participation. Moreover, our estimates suggest that in the Arab region, Muslim women do not participate in the labour market less than non-Muslim women, whereas those with strong traditional identities have a 7 percentage point lower probability of entering the labour market.


Description Logic (DL) based ontologies and nonmonotonic rules provide complementary features whose combination is crucial in many applications. In hybrid knowledge bases (KBs), which combine both formalisms, for large real-world applications, often integrating knowledge originating from different sources, inconsistencies can easily occur. These commonly trivialize standard reasoning and prevent us from drawing any meaningful conclusions. When restoring consistency by changing the KB is not possible, paraconsistent reasoning offers an alternative by allowing us to obtain meaningful conclusions from its consistent part. In this paper, we address the problem of efficiently obtaining meaningful conclusions from (possibly inconsistent) hybrid KBs. To this end, we define two paraconsistent semantics for hybrid KBs which, beyond their differentiating properties, are faithful to well-known paraconsistent semantics as well as the non-paraconsistent logic they extend, and tractable if reasoning in the DL component is.


Ensuring quality teachers and quality teacher education programmes have been fundamental global concerns over the decades. High quality teachers are critical to the future development of national educational systems and economic vitality. Teachers' quality and professionalism are closely linked to their professional standards, preparation and development. Teacher education, therefore, plays a central role in preparing quality teacher and also laying foundation for the development of teacher as a professional. Worldwide, professional standards, teacher standards, teaching- leaning standards and teacher education standards are considered instrumental for improving teacher preparation, their quality and professionalism. In this context, it becomes pertinent to deliberate upon the multiple standards frameworks in operation and how these frameworks are informing teacher education programmes for preparing quality teachers.
 The discourses on standards and benchmarking provide effective platforms for measuring and improving performance, practice, and knowledge of teachers. Standard framework can be considered a diagnostic approach to the delivery of education which evolves through research and practice to generate new knowledge and to maintain an accountable profession. The analysis of teacher standards in both developed and developing countries clearly indicates that standards contribute to the professionalization of teaching and raise the status of the profession. Therefore standards and quality dimensions form the cornerstone for the teacher education policy, planning, and implementation.
 The ideas, concepts, and constructs for standards and benchmarking in teacher education are derived from comparative perspectives and implications on quality dimension processes. The concepts of standards and benchmarks in teacher education around the globe are interpreted and used in diverse ways. The developed countries of the world have specific or explicit teacher education standard frameworks, as per their country-specific expectations and requirements. Countries such as the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Scotland, and Singapore have exclusive standards frameworks for initial teacher education. Singapore and Finland have recognised the implication of teacher education standards and benchmarking on improving teaching profession. The implementation of standards is considered an important part of the solution to the problem of assessment, accreditation, and maintenance of teacher quality by the United States of America and Australia. Acknowledging the potential of standards to raise teacher quality, the East and South Asian countries are using implicit models by drawing essence from teacher, teaching and learning and professional standards frameworks as guiding reference for teacher education .The comparative analysis of standards frameworks across different countries reveals common features such as professional knowledge, professional competencies, professional skills, and professional conduct. Therefore, it can be argued that teaching learning and professional standards make teacher education programmes accountable to deliver quality and to prepare competent teachers.
 Though the use of a standards framework is highly acknowledged, it is equally critiqued by many researchers. In order to substantiate the deliberation, the major question of whether standard frameworks are facilitating teacher education or act as a trap can be explored. This question rallies around both the merits and demerits of the multiple use of standards in teacher education. Though explicit and implicit models for teacher education standards are in operation, it is recommended that standard framework should be flexible and dynamic in nature in order to be replicated and adopted by various teacher education programs. Despite the raised criticism, once can argue that standards frameworks are necessary for ensuring teacher education quality. The teacher education framework model necessitates continuous research and innovation support to make it more dynamic and contextual.


Research on the coverage of CSOs on social media and the use of social media by CSOs has been gaining momentum. To contribute to this line of research, this study investigates the coverage of civil society organizations (CSO) on Twitter in Turkey by focusing on the most frequently mentioned organizations. It examines the characteristics of these CSOs as well as the effect that social and political developments in Turkey have on their coverage on Twitter. The data were collected from Twitter for the period between August 18, 2019 and September 17, 2019. We found that CSOs were not equally mentioned on Twitter; a total of 29,387 tweets mentioned 4,941 different CSOs, representing only 3.98% of all CSOs in Turkey. We also found that, with a few exceptions, tweets were not equally distributed in number across the CSOs or over time. Furthermore, the content of the tweets about the most frequently mentioned CSOs was strongly related to the political developments in Turkey, thereby reflecting the politically polarized views about the organizations in Turkey. Therefore, we concluded that ideological divisions in politically polarized countries such as Turkey shape the coverage of CSOs on Twitter.


Author(s): Tan, Zheng | Advisor(s): Cuff, Dana | Abstract: This dissertation explores the urbanism of Hong Kong between 1967 and 1997, tracing the history of Hong Kong's vertically integrated developments. It inquires into a Hong Kong myth: How can minimum state intervention gather social resources to build collective urban form? Roughly around the MacLehose Era, Hong Kong began to consciously assume a new vertical order in urban restructuring in order to address the issue of over-crowding and social unrest. British modernist planning provided rich approaches and visions which were borrowed by Hong Kong to achieve its own planning goals. The new town programs and infrastructural development converted Hong Kong from a colonial city concentrated on the Victoria Harbor to a multi-nucleated metropolitan area. The implementation of the rail-property development model around 1980 deepened the intermingling between urban infrastructure and superstructure and extended the vertical urbanity to large interior spaces: the shopping centers. Metro stations were fused with the basement of superstructure and formulated a rampant podium structure connecting the towers and the ground surface. Underlying this urban form is a planning system based on speculation, calculation and contracts. This dissertation is composed of three parts. The first part (Chapter 1 and 2) positions the phenomenon of "Hong Kong Section" in the historical lineage of metropolitan urbanism, or the "Culture of Congestion," defined by a breed of urban scholars including cultural critic Walter Benjamin and architect Rem Koolhaas. The second part (Chapter 3) is a review of the planning history of Hong Kong on the basis of a series of colonial city plans and programs, with a focus on its evolving vertical integration. It argues that the vertical order results from planning regulation and programmatic demands. The third part (Chapter 4 and 5) investigates two types of "Hong Kong Sections": the interiorized exterior (networked pedestrian space clustering around metro stations) and the exteriorized interior (retail center as interiorized public space). The conclusion states that the specific planning regulation and programmatic demands of Hong Kong has yielded a new Asian urbanism and a new vision for considering the relationship between urban form and population density.


Membrane gas absorption (MGA) is one of the most attractive technologies among the osmotically driven membrane processes because of its configurational advantages with respect to the conventional absorption systems that use packed bed columns for differ- ent industrial applications. Nowadays, membrane gas absorption is used in industrial wastewater treatment, CO 2 absorption from greenhouse gases, treatment of flue-gas and off-gas streams, which contain SO 2 , H 2 S, NH 3 or HCl, upgrading and desulphurization of biogas from anaerobic digesters and landfills and acid gas removal of natural gas and olefin-paraffin separation in the petrochemical industry, among other applications. In this framework, the advantages of membrane gas absorption over packed bed processes are related to the decreasing of installation surface requirements through compact process design and easy operation modes. These aspects will increase the applications of these types of processes in the mid-term. Nevertheless, the main design criteria of this technology have been poorly addressed in the literature. This chapter summarizes the fundamental aspects of transport phenomena that drive these processes, as well as the main conceptual aspects, to propose a correct design through an overview of the current status of this technology and its potential applications, challenges and future trends.


The present study included treatments of stored wheat grains with four types of dusts alone or in combination with conidia of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. A ratio of 1:4 (w/w of the fungus conidia to the dust carrier, respectively), and a rate of application of 2.0% (w/w of the dust carrier alone or the dust carrier + fungus conidia to wheat grains) were used during the treatments. Results obtained have shown that the treatments with combination of charcoal + fungal conidia, oven ash + fungal conidia, and chalk powder + fungal conidia caused significant higher percentage of Tribolium castaneum-adult mortality (73.3, 53.3, and 60.0%, respectively) compared to treatments with charcoal, oven ash, and chalk powder alone (13.3, 26.7, and 13.3% respectively). Significant reduction in the percentage of insect infestation rate on wheat grains was also obtained when treatments with the above-mentioned combinations were compared with the dust treatment alone. The least significant percent of infestation rate was thus obtained with oven ash + fungal conidia (0.5%) followed by charcoal + fungal conidia (1.2%) then, chalk powder + fungal conidia (2.0%). Moreover, significant longer durations of T. castaneum life-cycle were obtained after treatment with charcoal + fungal conidia (54.7 days) and chalk powder + fungal conidia (60.0 days) compared with treatments with charcoal and chalk powder alone (48.0 and 53.7 days, respectively). This demonstrates clearly the effect of treatment on retardation of the insect development by > 6 days. Further experiments under a wide range of temperature and relative humidity and on larger quantities of wheat grains are recommended to be carried out before applying the effective combinations of the fungus and dust carriers at a large scale for control of this insect.


Follow us: Read more at: Visit us at: @NSComment nursingblog.rcnpublishing.co.uk Nursing Older People Editor Lisa Berry Tel: +44 (0)20 8872 3169 Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Managing director Rhonda Oliver Editor in chief Jean Gray Senior editor Gary Bell Assistant editor Sophie Blakemore Head of production Fiona Maclean Senior production editor Julie Hickey Production editor Karen Davies Art directors Ken McLoone, Paul Swainson Picture editor Phil Brecht Digital director John Day IT and new media manager Alex Oldfield Web editor Amanda Carter


Prokaryote mobilome genomes rely on host machineries for survival and replication. Given that mobile genetic elements (MGEs) derive their energy from host cells, we investigated the diversity of ATP-utilizing proteins in MGE genomes to determine whether they might be associated with proteins that could suppress related host proteins that consume host energy. A comprehensive search of 353 huge phage genomes revealed that up to 9% of the proteins have ATPase domains. For example, ATPase proteins constitute ~3% of the genomes of Lak phages with ~550 kbp genomes that occur in the microbiomes of humans and other animals. Statistical analysis shows the number of ATPase proteins increases linearly with genome length, consistent with a large sink for host ATP during replication of megaphages. Using metagenomic data from diverse environments, we found 505 mobilome proteins with ATPase domains fused to diverse functional domains. Among these composite ATPase proteins, 61.6% have known functional domains that could contribute to host energy diversion during the mobilome life cycle. As many have domains that are known to interact with nucleic acids and proteins, we infer that numerous ATPase proteins are used during replication and for protection from host immune systems. We found a set of uncharacterized ATPase proteins with nuclease and protease activities, displaying unique domain architectures that are energy intensive based on the presence of multiple ATPase domains. In many cases, these composite ATPase proteins genomically co-localize with small proteins in genomic contexts that are reminiscent of toxin-antitoxin systems and phage helicase-antibacterial helicase systems. Small proteins that function as inhibitors may be a common strategy for control of cellular processes, thus could inspire the development of new nucleic acid and protein manipulation tools, with diverse biotechnological applications.


The Steinsfjord Formation (Wenlock) of the Ringerike district, southeastern Norway contains marls and carbonates which were deposited in supratidal, intertidal, and restricted subtidal environments. Rhythmic lithological variations seen within the unit represent small transgressive and regressive events. Red arenaceous and argillaceous dolomite reflects minor progradations of the adjacent continental facies from the overlying formation. Celestite is found in two associations within the strata: 1) as aggregates of tiny celestite crystals in dolomicrite of high intertidal facies, or 2) as anhedral or euhedral prismatic crystals infilling intrapores and interpores of low intertidal to subtidal facies. Celestite may have been formed from porewater enriched in SO 4 (super 2-) by solution of calcium sulphate in the high intertidal-supratidal environment. This sulphate has then reacted with Sr (super 2+) released during aragonite to dolomicrite transformation (high intertidal) and aragonite to calcite transformation (low intertidal-subtidal). The occurrence of celestite in these deposits is evidence for evaporitic conditions in the uppermost marine sequence of the Oslo Region's Lower Paleozoic succession.


Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the major vectors for the transmission of more than 30 disease-causing viruses as dengue fever, dengue hemorragic fever, zika, yellow fever and chikungunya. Vector control is one of the important strategies used in order to fight these diseases in tropical and subtropical countries. However, mosquito control is facing a threat because of the emergence of resistance to synthetic insecticides. The aim of this study was to identify larvicidal and adulticidal activity of secondary metabolites in extracts produced by bacteria isolated from different sources in Colombia. A total of 105 extracts produced from the same number of bacteria were evaluated for their activity against fourth instar larvae and adults of A. aegypti and A. albopictus using standard protocols defined for the WHO (World Health Organization) and CDC (Control Disease Centre, USA). Six extracts showed relevant activity (more than 50% of mosquito larvae were killed after 48 hours), two of them showed to be actives against larvae of Aedes aegypti and four against larvae of Aedes albopictus. None of the extracts showed activity against the mosquitoes in adult stage. The bacteria producing active extracts were identified using the biolog ® identification system as Serratia marcescens ss marcescens, Escherichia hermannii, Serratia marcescens ss marcescens, Bacillus marisflavi, Bacillus atropheus/subtilis and Pseudomonas chlororaphis subsp. aurantiaca. In conclusion, bacterial extracts are a good source for the search of new strategies in the control of mosquitoes. Further studies to determine the compound responsible for the insecticidal activity are in progress.


Objectives: Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) are common in children. Their pathogenesis remains unknown and is most likely multifactorial. We hypothesized that noninfectious causes of inflammation affecting the gastrointestinal (GI) tract early in life, such as cow's-milk allergy (CMA), can predispose to the development of FGIDs later in childhood. Patients and Methods: Case-control study. Subjects were patients between 4 and 18 years diagnosed with CMA in the first year of life at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL, between January 2000 and June 2009. Diagnosis of CMA was based on history and clinical findings. Siblings 4 to 18 years of age without a history of CMA were selected as controls. Cases completed the parental form of the Pediatric Gastrointestinal Symptoms Rome III version questionnaire to assess for GI symptoms. Results: Fifty-two subjects (mean age 8.1 ± 4.48 years, 62% girls) and 53 controls (mean age 9.7 ± 4.20 years, 55% girls) participated in the study. Twenty-three of 52 subjects (44.2%) reported GI symptoms that included abdominal pain, constipation, or diarrhea compared with 11 of 53 controls (20.75%) (odds ratio 3.03, P = 0.01). Abdominal pain was significantly more common in cases (16/52, 30.8%) versus controls (5/53, 9.43%) (odds ratio 4.27 [1.43–12.7]) (χ2 = 7.47, P = 0.01). Abnormal stool habits were more common in cases (15/52, 28.8%) versus controls (7/53, 13.2%), but the difference was not statistically significant. Ten of 52 subjects (19.2%) met the Questionnaire on Pediatric Gastrointestinal Symptoms Rome III version criteria for diagnosis of an FGID (7 irritable bowel syndrome, 2 functional dyspepsia, 1 functional abdominal pain), whereas none in the control group did. Conclusions: CMA constitutes a risk factor for the development of FGIDs in children.


Michael Dear et al's "LA School" builds on a critique of the old Chicago school. This paper extends the discussion by incorporating broader theories about how cities work, stressing culture and politics. New Yorkers lean toward class analysis, production, inequality, dual labor markets, and related themes--deriving for some from a secular Marxism. LA writers are more often individualist, subjectivist, consumption-oriented; some are also postmodernist. Chicago is the largest American city with a heavily Catholic population, which heightens attention to personal relations, extended families, neighborhoods, and ethnic traditions. These in turn lead observers to stress culture and politics in Chicago, as these vary so heavily by subculture. The paper outlines seven axial points for a New Chicago School. *The University of Chicago. Please send comments to: firstname.lastname@example.com On the FAUI Project: http://faui.uchicago.edu/archive.html. Earlier versions were presented to American Political Science Association, Chicago, September 3, 2004, the Chicago Extravaganza, July 7, 2004, Preconference to City Futures, and to a dozen urban analysts of Chicago who have met for several years and offered a joint course in Spring 2005, http://faculty.nl.edu/cspirou/preskoolers.html.


High quality soybean seeds are one of the essential elements in an effort to improve the production of a crop. Seed procurement is often done a while before the growing season so that seeds must be stored at temperature 20°C. Thus it will have high growing power when it is planted. Temperature control and monitoring where the soybean seeds are kept can be done with android cell phones based. Seeds storage temperature that arranged at 20°C will be monitored by the sensors DHT11 to be converted in digital form by microcontroller AVR ATmega 16u2 in Arduino UNO . Temperatureinformation is sent over the internet to be showed on cell phone. If the temperature is under or more than 20°C , the android application will send signal information or input signal of character to microcontroller through the ISP network using a modem. Signal information will be translated by arduino UNO and the input results of the android application will trigger air conditioner remote to raise or lower the temperature. Temperature control and monitoring prototype can be used to keep seeds room storage temperature remains constant at 20°C.


The development of nanotechnologies may lead to environmental release of nanomaterials that are potentially harmful to human health. Among the nanomaterials, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are already commercialized in various products which can be in direct contact with populations. However, few studies address their potential toxicity. Although a few reports on the cytotoxicity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been published, very little is known about their toxicity or genotoxicity in mammalian cells. We have for the first time compared the clastogenic/genotoxic potential of functionalized and nonfunctionalized MWCNTs in bone marrow cells of Swiss‐Webster mice; using mitotic index (MI), chromosome aberrations (CA), micronuclei (MN) formation, and DNA damage in leukocytes as toxicologic endpoints. Six groups of five male mice, each weighing ∼30 ± 2 g, were administered intraperitoneally, once a day for five days with doses of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, mg/kg body weight (BW) of functionalized and nonfunctionalized MWCNTs. Four vehicle control groups (negative) and a positive control group (carbon black) were also made of 5 mice each. Chromosome and micronuclei from bone marrow cells and comet slides from leukocytes were examined following standard protocols. The results demonstrated that MWCNTs exposure significantly increased (P < 0.05) the number of structural chromosomal aberrations, the frequency of micronucleated cells and the level of DNA damage, and decreased the mitotic index in treated groups compared to control groups. MWCNTs were shown to be toxic at sufficiently high concentrations, however purified functionalized MWCNTs had a higher clastogenic/genotoxic potential compared to nonfunctionalized form of MWCNT. The results of our study suggest that exposure to MWCNT has the potential to cause genetic damage. Hence, careful monitoring should be done with respect to designing/synthesizing biocompatible carbon nanomaterials. Further characterization of their systemic toxicity, genotoxicity and carcinogenicity is also essential. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2010.


To resolve the problem of degaussing of the magnetic pump, a new drive device is designed, consist of external magnetic rotor,isolation units and torque ring. Based on ANSYS12.0 analysis software, electromagnetic coupling method is firstly adopted on the simulation of this drive device. The comparison of simulation value and experimental data indicates that this method is feasible. For the purpose to provide evidence for more in-depth study of high temperature magnetic pump. Especialy,some key factors effecting on torque are considered, and this will provide references for further study of high-temperature magnetic pump.


The influences of sarcomere uniformity and Ca2+ concentration on the kinetics of relaxation were examined in skinned frog skeletal muscle fibers induced to relax by rapid sequestration of Ca2+ by the photolysis of the Ca2+ chelator, diazo-2, at 10 degreesC. Compared with an intact fiber, diazo-2-induced relaxation exhibited a faster and shorter initial slow phase and a fast phase with a longer tail. Stabilization of the sarcomeres by repeated releases and restretches during force development increased the duration of the slow phase and slowed its kinetics. When force of contraction was decreased by lowering the Ca2+ concentration, the overall kinetics of relaxation was accelerated, with the slow phase being the most sensitive to Ca2+ concentration. Twitchlike contractions were induced by photorelease of Ca2+ from a caged Ca2+ (DM-Nitrophen), with subsequent Ca2+ sequestration by intact sarcoplasmic reticulum or Ca2+ rebinding to caged Ca2+. These twitchlike responses exhibited relaxation kinetics that were about twofold slower than those observed in intact fibers. Results suggest that the slow phase of relaxation is influenced by the degree of sarcomere homogeneity and rate of Ca2+ dissociation from thin filaments. The fast phase of relaxation is in part determined by the level of Ca2+ activation.


We present two new results about exact learning by quantum computers. First, we show how to exactly learn a k -Fourier-sparse n -bit Boolean function from O ( k 1 . 5 (log k ) 2 ) uniform quantum examples for that function. This improves over the bound of e Θ( kn ) uniformly random classical examples (Haviv and Regev, CCC'15). Additionally, we provide a possible direction to improve our e O ( k 1 . 5 ) upper bound by proving an improvement of Chang's lemma for k -Fourier-sparse Boolean functions. Second, we show that if a concept class C can be exactly learned using Q quantum membership queries, then it can also be learned using O (cid:16) Q 2 log Q log |C| (cid:17) classical membership queries. This improves the previous-best simulation result (Servedio and Gortler, SICOMP'04) by a log Q -factor.


Electricity generation is a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, and a key determinant of abatement costs. Ex-ante assessments of carbon policies mainly rely on either of two modeling paradigms: (i) partial equilibrium models of the electricity sector that use bottom-up engineering data on generation technology costs, and (ii) multi-sector general equilibrium models that represent economic activities with smooth top-down aggregate production functions. In this paper, we examine the structural assumptions of these numerical techniques using a suite of models sharing common technological features and calibrated to the same benchmark data. First, our analysis provides evidence that general equilibrium effects of an economy-wide carbon policy are of first-order importance to assess abatement potentials and price changes in the electricity sector, suggesting that the parametrization of Marshallian demand in a partial equilibrium setting is problematic. Second, we find that top-down technology representations produce fuel substitution patterns that are inconsistent with bottom-up cost data, mainly because of difficulties in capturing the temporal and discrete nature of electricity generation by means of aggregate substitution elasticities. Our analysis highlights the difficulty to parameterize numerical models used for policy projections, and suggests that the integration of a bottom-up electricity sector model into a general equilibrium framework provides an attractive structural alternative for ex-ante policy modeling.


Micropatterned PEGylated substrates with two-dimensional arrays of plasma-etched circular domains (diameter:100 micro-m) were prepared by coating of mercapto-functionalized poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) on Au surface, followed by plasma-etching through a metal mask pattern with circular holes. The PEGylated region on the patterned substrate works to repel proteins, consequently, inhibits cell adhesion. Then the micro-patterning of bovine articular chondrocytes or rat primary hepatocytes hetero-spheroids underlaid with human umbilical endothelial cells (HUVEC) was achieved on the plasma-etched circular domains, exposing the base gold surface. Obtained results suggested that the efficiency of inhibiting non-specific protein adsorption significantly affects on construction of micro-patterned cell adhesion and hetero-spheroids. The formation of hetero-spheroid thus suggested is significantly modulated by suface properties, particularly non-fouling character of PEG region. These arrayed spheroids is promising materials for tissue and cell-based biosensors (TBB/CBB) as well as tissue engineering technologies.


In this paper, we aim to study optimal decisions on consumption, investment and purchasing life insurance of a household with two consecutive generations, say parents and children. A continuous-time model featuring the impacts of labor income uncertainty and model uncertainty on those decisions is considered. Specifically, as in the economic literature about the labor income process, we consider the situation where the income growth rate is unobservable. The model takes account of the decision makings of both the parents and the children who are supposed to be ambiguity-averse expected utility maximizers. An attention is given to exploring the impacts of life insurance purchasing on the decision makings. The robustness approach to economic decision makings, which is implemented in the continuous-time model through a Girsanov's measure change for a Brownian motion, is applied to capture ambiguity aversion. Employing the known mathematical techniques in stochastic optimal control, say the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman dynamic programing principle, closed-form solutions are obtained. Numerical studies are provided to illustrate the economic implications of the solutions.


A novel approach to monitoring the integrity of front-end cleans and gate oxidation is presented. This approach utilizes difference statistics of the 10-, 50-, and 90-percentile values in the charge-to-breakdown (QBD) distributions. Difference statistics are utilized to achieve improvements in the signal-to-noise ratio of potential issues and to minimize the number of wafers used in the monitoring matrix. Implementation of the analyses in this statistical process control (SPC) methodology enables the origin of issues to be brought to the attention of sustaining personnel without the need for in-depth understanding of gate oxide integrity (GOI) testing, thus making it 100% applicable to a manufacturing environment.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The hemodynamics of the inflow zone of cerebral aneurysms may be a key factor in coil compaction and recanalization after endovascular coil embolization. We performed 4D flow MR imaging in conjunction with 3D TOF MRA and compared their ability to identify the inflow zone of unruptured cerebral aneurysms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This series comprised 50 unruptured saccular cerebral aneurysms in 44 patients. Transluminal color-coded 3D MRA images were created by selecting the signal-intensity ranges on 3D TOF MRA images that corresponded with both the luminal margin and the putative inflow. RESULTS: 4D flow MR imaging demonstrated the inflow zone and yielded inflow velocity profiles for all 50 aneurysms. In 18 of 24 lateral-projection aneurysms (75%), the inflow zone was located distally on the aneurysmal neck. The maximum inflow velocity ranged from 285 to 922 mm/s. On 4D flow MR imaging and transluminal color-coded 3D MRA studies, the inflow zone of 32 aneurysms (64%) was at a similar location. In 91% of aneurysms whose neck section plane angle was <30° with respect to the imaging section direction on 3D TOF MRA, depiction of the inflow zone was similar on transluminal color-coded 3D MRA and 4D flow MR images. CONCLUSIONS: 4D flow MR imaging can demonstrate the inflow zone and provide inflow velocity profiles. In aneurysms whose angle of the neck-section plane is obtuse vis-a-vis the imaging section on 3D TOF MRA scans, transluminal color-coded 3D MRA may depict the inflow zone reliably.


The Dutch disease refers to an appreciation of the real exchange rate resulting from increased exports and capital inflows within a country with a booming resource industry. This elevated exchange rate feeds back into the rest of the economy and can crowd out other exporting sectors. This paper attempts to add to the literature by shedding some light on the existence of this mechanismin Libya over the period 1970-2010. It applies a time series approach to explore the relationship between oil price, gross domestic product, and trade balance as independent variables and real exchange rate as dependent variable.According to the theory, the general appreciation of the national currency negatively affects the economy, but this theoretical hypothesis is not crucial in some cases, as in the case of Libya. KeywordReal exchange rate, Cointegration, Dutch disease.


Different activated sludges from pulp and paper mills were treated with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of ferrous sulphate under different reaction conditions in order to improve the dewatering characteristics of the sludges. The efficiency of the treatment was evaluated on the basis of the specific filtration resistance. Although sludges from different mills varied considerably with respect to their chemical composition and dewatering properties, the specific resistance values of all the sludges could be decreased using rather mild conditions. The filterabilities of the sludges were dependent on reaction temperature, hydrogen peroxide concentration and the reaction time used in the oxidative treatment. Depending on the type of sludge, hydrogen peroxide concentrations of 15 to 30 % mmoles/l sludge were sufficient to decrease the filtration values to a low level at 70°C using a reaction time of 1-2 hours at pH 3.


Many people read online reviews to learn about real-world entities of their interest. However, majority of reviews only describes general experiences and opinions of the customers, and may not reveal facts that are specific to the entity being reviewed. In this work, we focus on a novel task of mining from a review corpus sentences that are unique for each entity. We refer to this task as Salient Fact Extraction. Salient facts are extremely scarce due to their very nature. Consequently, collecting labeled examples for training supervised models is tedious and cost-prohibitive. To alleviate this scarcity problem, we develop an unsupervised method, ZL-Distiller, which leverages contextual language representations of the reviews and their distributional patterns to identify salient sentences about entities. Our experiments on multiple domains (hotels, products, and restaurants) show that ZL-Distiller achieves state-of-the-art performance and further boosts the performance of other supervised/unsupervised algorithms for the task. Furthermore, we show that salient sentences mined by ZL-Distiller provide unique and detailed information about entities, which benefit downstream NLP applications including question answering and summarization.


Series expansions of unknown fields Φ=∑φnZn in elongated waveguides are commonly used in acoustics, optics, geophysics, water waves and other applications, in the context of coupled-mode theories (CMTs). The transverse functions Zn are determined by solving local Sturm–Liouville problems (reference waveguides). In most cases, the boundary conditions assigned to Zn cannot be compatible with the physical boundary conditions of Φ, leading to slowly convergent series, and rendering CMTs mild-slope approximations. In the present paper, the heuristic approach introduced in Athanassoulis & Belibassakis (Athanassoulis & Belibassakis 1999 J. Fluid Mech. 389, 275–301) is generalized and justified. It is proved that an appropriately enhanced series expansion becomes an exact, rapidly convergent representation of the field Φ, valid for any smooth, non-planar boundaries and any smooth enough Φ. This series expansion can be differentiated termwise everywhere in the domain, including the boundaries, implementing an exact semi-separation of variables for non-separable domains. The efficiency of the method is illustrated by solving a boundary value problem for the Laplace equation, and computing the corresponding Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator, involved in Hamiltonian equations for nonlinear water waves. The present method provides accurate results with only a few modes for quite general domains. Extensions to general waveguides are also discussed.


While the asymptotic stability of positive linear systems in the presence of bounded time delays has been thoroughly investigated, the theory for nonlinear positive systems is considerably less well-developed. This technical note presents a set of conditions for establishing delay-independent stability and bounding the decay rate of a significant class of nonlinear positive systems which includes positive linear systems as a special case. Specifically, when the time delays have a known upper bound, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for exponential stability of: a) continuous-time positive systems whose vector fields are homogeneous and cooperative and b) discrete-time positive systems whose vector fields are homogeneous and order-preserving. We then present explicit expressions that allow us to quantify the impact of delays on the decay rate and show that the best decay rate of positive linear systems that our bounds provide can be found via convex optimization. Finally, we extend the results to general linear systems with time-varying delays.


Farm households in four barangays in Botolan, Zambales were studied to make a socio-economic appraisal of their condition after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 and the massive flooding in 2009 that further marginalized their farms. A self-construct questionnaire was used for 150 farming households. Socio-economic data, farm management practices, production, and income per household were described, pooled, and analyzed descriptively. As of 2018, rice farming was the main source of household income despite the land being less suitable for rice and production area reduced. There was low productivity and a high yield gap compared with the province's and the region's yield levels. There was high input cost in rice farming due to various factors including the marginal condition of the farms. There was low income from rice farming during both seasons, but the yield was much lower during the wet season due to lower yield.


ABSTRACT Contact hypersensitivity (CHS) is frequently used as an animal model for human allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). Diets of pomegranate polyphenols (PPs) or soy isoflavones (SIs) each alleviated CHS symptoms; however, the effect of diets containing a mixture of PPs and SIs on CHS is unclear. We investigated the CHS-inhibitory effects of diets supplemented with a mixture of PPs and SIs at human physiologically relevant doses. Consuming the mixture of PPs and SIs attenuated ear swelling and reduced infiltration of Gr-1-positive cells. Ear swelling decreased in the PP and SI-treated mice compared to the SI-treated mice. The auricle tissues of the PP and SI-fed mice exhibited decreased production of CXCL2 and MCP-5 compared to the SI- and PP-treated mice, respectively. These results suggest that dietary supplementation with a mixture of PPs and SIs may have ACD-preventive effects and may prove more beneficial than supplementation with PPs or SIs alone. Graphical Abstract Consumption of PPs and SIs at doses physiologically relevant to humans attenuated contact hypersensitivity and reduced CXCL2 and MCP-5.


Optimal conditions for rapid assay of Brucella antibiotic sensitivity with the immunofluorescent method were developed. With this method high sensitivity of the main Brucella species to tetracycline, doxycycline and rifampicin was confirmed. It was found actually possible to use the immunofluorescent method for rapid assay of Brucella antibiotic sensitivity in practice.


Background The death of each child is a tragedy. Every parent has a right to have such an event properly investigated. Paediatricians and police officers play a vital role in managing the multi-agency investigative process following a sudden unexpected death in infancy or childhood (SUDIC). Failure to maintain an appropriate balance between forensic and medical enquiry, and supporting the family, has resulted in devastating consequences and miscarriages of justice. A national multi-professional protocol was developed to overcome these issues (Kennedy report 2004). The need for appropriate training for all professionals involved in child death was highlighted, along with good communication. Limited comprehensive specialist child death courses are available for senior professionals. However we are not aware of any current stand alone high fidelity simulation courses to facilitate practical SUDIC training. Basic SUDIC experience amongst senior paediatric trainees is lacking. Our regional survey amongst senior paediatric trainees in the West Midlands found that the average number of SUDICs they had been involved in was less than one. None of the trainees had observed the whole SUDI process. Methodology We have developed a one day course for senior paediatric trainees to learn about initial and subsequent management of SUDIC through high fidelity simulation and experiential learning. We aim to pilot this course in July 2015. Participants will take part in a simulated SUDI investigation. This includes attempted resuscitation, communication with parents and professionals, and postmortem examination and investigations. They will learn how to conduct a home visit and lead the rapid response meeting. Outcomes These will be evaluated qualitatively assessing pre and post confidence levels and learning experience. Potential impact Improvement of the quality of multi-professional SUDI investigations and experiences for families. Take home message This simulation programme could be adopted for multi-professional SUDIC training for health, social care and police. References Working together to safeguard children: March 2015. A guide to interagency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Chapter 5 child death reviews Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Sudden unexpected death in infancy. A multi-agency protocol for care and investigation. London: Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2004


Past research has conceptualized secrecy as speech inhibition during social interaction. In contrast, the current research broadens the understanding of secrecy by conceptualizing it as the commitment to conceal information. Seven experiments demonstrate the implications of this broader conceptualization for understanding secrecy's consequences. The results demonstrate that thinking about secrets—relative to thinking about personal information unknown by others that is not purposefully concealed (i.e., undisclosed information)—indirectly increases the experience of fatigue by evoking feelings of isolation and a motivational conflict with one's affiliation goals. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the fatiguing effects of secrecy have consequences for task persistence and performance. Integrating theories of motivation, fatigue, and social isolation, we offer new directions for research on secrecy.


Hypoglycemia or low blood glucose is a common and serious side effect of insulin therapy in patients with diabetes. HypoMon is a non-invasive monitor that measures some physiological parameters continuously to provide detection of hypoglycemic episodes in Type 1 diabetes mellitus patients (T1DM). Based on heart rate, corrected QT interval of the ECG signal and skin impedance, a Bayesian neural network detection algorithm has been developed to recognize the presence of hypoglycemic episodes. From a clinical study of 25 children with T1DM, associated with hypoglycemic episodes, their heart rates increased (1.152plusmn0.157 vs. 1.035plusmn0.108, P<0.0001), their corrected QT intervals increased (1.088plusmn0.086 vs. 1.020plusmn0.062, P<0.0001) and their skin impedances reduced significantly (0.679plusmn0.195 vs. 0.837plusmn0.203, P<0.0001). The overall data were organized into a training set (14 cases) and a test set (14 cases) randomly selected. Using an optimal Bayesian neural network with 11 hidden nodes, and an algorithm developed from the training set, a sensitivity of 0.8346 and specificity of 0.6388 were achieved for the test set.


The Internet Oracle (originally, the Usenet Oracle) was one of the earlier forms of collaborative creation on the Net. The submersion of its authors in an anonymous, collective personality may reflect postmodern notions of the "textualization of the self" in digital writing, or perhaps rather a pre-modern conception of nonprofessional writing as an anonymous dialogue among equals. Participants in the Oracle identify with a "hackish culture" that values wit, self-reflexivity, and anti-authoritarianism, and have managed to create a virtual community with its own conventions and mythos. Originally published in late 1992, this essay has been updated with links to material now available on the Web, and a new Appendix surveys changes in the Internet Oracle since 1992, provides links to new Oracle resources, and considers whether the original conclusions remain valid after four frenetic years of Internet growth.


This paper presents the current prototype of doll-shaped humanoid robot Robota. The use of the robot Robota as part of studies with disabled children sets a number of constraints on its design. In particular, it requires that the robot bears a human likeness both in its body features and in the kinematics of its motions. In this paper, we present the design of a 23 degrees of freedom upper body for Robota, including a 3 DOFs spine, two 7 DOFs arm, a 3 DOFs pair of eyes and a 3 DOFs neck


We demonstrate a novel 40-GHz mode-locked fiber laser that utilizes a single active device to provide both gain and mode-locking. The laser produces pulses as short as 2.2 ps, is tunable over a 27-nm band centered at 1553 nm, and exhibits long-term stability without cavity-length feedback control. The pulse train at 1556 nm was used in a 40-Gb/s transmission experiment over 45 km with a low 0.4-dB power penalty.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the influence of owner presence on behavioral and physiologic indicators of fear in dogs during routine physical examinations.

ANIMALS
32 client-owned dogs.

PROCEDURES
Dogs underwent a standardized, video-recorded examination consisting of 6 phases (examination of the head, lymph node palpation, body palpation, axillary temperature measurement, heart rate assessment, and respiratory rate assessment) with or without their owner present in a randomized, controlled study. Behaviors reported to be indicative of fear, including reduced posture, avoidance, escape, lip licking, body shaking, yawning, and vocalizing, were assessed during each phase, and physiologic measurements were assessed during relevant phases by the investigator. Owner presence and sex and age of dogs were investigated for associations with behavioral signs of fear; behavioral and physiologic measurements were compared between groups (owner present vs owner absent).

RESULTS
Dogs in the owner-present group had a lower rate of vocalizations, lower mean axillary temperature, and higher rate of yawning than dogs in the owner-absent group. Female dogs in the owner-absent group had a higher heart rate than females and males in the owner-present group and males in the owner-absent group, and the rate of lip licking decreased as age increased in the owner-present group. The presence of reduced body posture and rates of lip licking, avoidance behavior, and escape behavior were associated with examination phase.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggested that, when practical, owners should be encouraged to remain with their dog during routine veterinary examinations. However, effects of owner presence during procedures require further investigation. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2020;257:1031-1040).


BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY
Sildenafil and beraprost, as orally available pulmonary vasodilators, are used increasingly to treat pulmonary hypertension (PH). An evaluation was made, in patients with PH undergoing valvular heart surgery, as to whether preoperative combined oral sildenafil and beraprost treatment could induce synergistic and prolonged pulmonary vasodilation, or result in a loss of pulmonary selectivity.

METHODS
Fifty patients scheduled for valvular heart surgery with a mean pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) > 30 mmHg were randomly assigned to receive either 50 mg oral sildenafil + 40 microg beraprost, or a placebo, 15 min before the induction of anesthesia. Hemodynamic variables were measured intraoperatively.

RESULTS
The treatment group had a significantly lower systemic vascular resistance index at 60 min after medication. No other significant intergroup differences in hemodynamic variables were observed. In addition, significantly more patients in the treatment group required vasopressor therapy. In both groups, the PAP was significantly reduced by general anesthesia, and almost normalized after valvular heart surgery.

CONCLUSION
Preoperative oral sildenafil and beraprost treatment resulted in a loss of pulmonary selectivity, and did not provide any additional pulmonary vasodilation or favorable perioperative hemodynamics in patients with PH undergoing valvular heart surgery.


Studies of the epidemiology of visceral leishmaniasis in the West Pokot focus have revealed that Sergentomyia bedfordi, S. antennatus and S. schwetzi are the most abundant sandfly species. The latter have been shown to feed mainly on lizards. Phlebotomus martini was encountered in termite hills in the ventilation shafts, and showed an even distribution among the termite hills throughout the district where kala-azar cases were detected. Investigations into the relationship between termite hills and the presence of kala-azar cases in various homes were carried out. All homes afflicted with kala-azar had a termite hill or hills within a 10-m radius. The period of time spent in own homestead by each kala-azar case was to establish if each kala-azar patient contracted the disease in the focus of investigation.


We solve a long-standing problem in particle physics: that of deriving the Deep Inelastic structure functions of the proton from the fundamental theory of strong interactions, Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD). In the Bjorken limit, the momenta of the constituents of the proton (the partons) can be assumed to be in a two-dimensional plane in Minkowski space: a dimensional reduction of QCD to two space-time dimensions. Two dimensional QCD is then shown to be equivalent for all energies and values of number of colors N to a new theory of hadrons, Quantum HadronDynamics (QHD). The phase space of QHD is the Grassmannian (set of subspcaes) of the complex Hilbert space L(R) . The natural symplectic form along with a hamiltonian define a classical dynamical system, which is equivalent to the large N limit of QCD. 't Hooft's planar limit is the linear approximation to our theory: we recover his integral equation for the meson spectrum but also all the interactions of the mesons. The Grassmannian is a union of connected components labelled by an integer (the renormalized dimension of the subspace) which has the physical meaning of baryon number. The proton is the topological soliton: the minimum of the energy in the sector with baryon number one gives the structure functions of the proton. We solve the resulting integral equations numerically; the agreement with experimental data is quite good for values of the Bjorken variable xB > 0.2 . email@example.com


Magnetism space group is more accurate in explaining physics picture than traditional space group. For example, it can reflect spin as well as the symmetries of the crystal system, so the Clebsch-Gorden(C-G) coefficients of magnetism space group play a more important role. In this paper, the eigenfunction method established by Chen Jingquan is used to compute the C-G coefficients for the structure O(h)8 magnetism space group, wavevector selection rule and C-G series.


Statistics educators have developed concepts and pedagogical approaches regarding statistical literacy in order to enable students to deal with statistical data as citizens. Statistical literacy is important to interpret and evaluate statistical information, as well as to develop data-based arguments. The emergence of information clusters called big data have been shown as an even more challenging phenomenon for statistics education. Big data refers to sets of information that are continuously generated by several media in various social situations, including web page captures, smartphone uses, online shopping, and banking. Generally, people are not aware of different processes in which they are engaged in big data production, nor in possible consequences of the uses of data may have. This paper discusses the need to develop a perspective of literacy in big data in the scope of statistical literacy processes.


A previous study demonstrated that low-income women tend to have lower financial literacy. This low level of financial literacy affects the manner in which they manage their daily finances, as well as their ability to save for long-term needs. Currently, the statistics show that financial literacy in Indonesia is relatively low. To support Indonesian government in improving financial literacy, especially among the most marginalized group – women of low income – Universitas Indonesia launched a community engagement initiative conducted in the form of financial literacy training targeted at low-income women working as street sweepers around the university. This study investigates the motivation toward and perceived usefulness of the financial education program to improve the financial literacy of low-income women working as street sweepers around Universitas Indonesia. A mixed research method is applied in the study. The data were collected from in-depth interviews and a mini survey conducted to 23 low-income female street sweepers who joined the 10 weeks financial education program. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed to produce a comprehensive description of the participants' perceptions and attitudes toward the financial literacy program. The study demonstrates that the majority of low-income women have low motivation toward financial literacy education, and they also have a negative perception of the usefulness of such program. Thus, it is very important that all educators and trainers examine the characteristics of the trainees and assess the relevancy of the education program before they design certain community engagement program.


We assessed the metabolism of the two KBs, AcAc and 3-BOH; the relationships between ketogenesis and FFA inflow rate; and the effect of chronic sulfonylurea treatment in mild NIDDM patients (plasma glucose < 10 mM). We studied 10 nonobese NIDDM patients in a crossover, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled fashion. Each patient was studied 4 times: after a run-in period with placebo, after 3 mo of placebo treatment, after 3 mo of glibenclamide treatments, respectively, and after 3 mo of sulfonylurea treatment during an acute exogenous Intralipid infusion. Ten normal, nondiabetic subjects served as the control group. Glibenclamide treatment decreased plasma FFAs. When these substrates were exogenously increased, plasma FFAs were comparable with placebo and baseline concentrations. In NIDDM patients, baseline and placebo blood total KB concentration was significantly higher than in control subjects (216 ± 22 and 244 ± 25, respectively vs. 127 ± 18 μM; P < 0.01). Glibenclamide treatment significantly decreased total KBs to 177 ± 19 μM (P < 0.05). When FFAs were exogenously increased, total KBs were similar to the placebo and baseline period. In the baseline study, the AcAc/3-BOH ratio was 0.72 ± 0.06 in control subjects, whereas in NIDDM patients, the ratio was 1.61 ± 0.13 at baseline (P < 0.001 vs. control subjects), 1.66 ± 0.15 during placebo, 1.57 ± 0.09 during glibenclamide (NS vs. baseline), and 1.51 ± 0.23 during glibenclamide plus placebo FFAs. Both the AcAc interconversion rate to 3-BOH and the 3-BOH interconversion rate to AcAc were significantly lower in NIDDM patients than in control subjects. In conclusion, in NIDDM patients the major portion of overall ketogenesis must be ascribed to AcAc production. 3-BOH production is decreased because of an impaired interconversion between the two ketones. A direct effect of glibenclamide on ketogenesis in vivo is disputable because blood KB concentrations increase to a similar extent for a given plasma FFA concentration in the presence or absence of this drug.


Experiments on broiler chicks and laying hens have indicated that increased drug loads (the prolonged oral use of oxytetracycline hydrochloride in a dose of 50 mg/kg or the single administration of its long-acting formulation--nitox in a dose of 200 mg/kg) lead to the accumulation of residues in the poultry flesh, by-products, and eggs even provided that the poultry exposure schedule before slaughtering is kept. The highest levels of the antibiotic are detectable at the site of injection and in the eggs after injection of nitox, a long-acting formulation of tetracycline. The detection of the residues of the antibiotic in the poultry flesh, by-products, and eggs may be associated with the development of cytotoxic effects and with the reduced functional capacities of the organs that are responsible for the detoxification and excretion of medicinal xenobiotics.


Dr Coc ( A n a ~ ~ t l i c ~ s i c i 1987: 42: 1230-1) draws attention to one of the rarer problems associated with the use of nitrous oxide. Bu t there arc many other, more common. reasons for eschewing the use o f nitrous oxide in modern anaesthesia.' One of these is that it makes possible the safe, simplc and inexpensive use of totally closed system anaesthesia. I therefore cannot understand why Dr Coe writes about 'the trouble and expense of anaesthesia without nitrous oxide'. It is no trouble: it is not expensive and i t is very salt.. I t is the use of' nitrous oxide which causes trouble, expense and unnecessary risks.


INTRODUCTION: Vertical root fracture (VRF) is a common failure in endodontically treated teeth. Due to VRF's poor prognosis, a reliable and valid detection method is critical for treatment planning. Conventional and digital radiographs are limited in VRF detection. Recently, Cone Beam CT (CBCT) system has been introduced. This study aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of these three imaging modalities for VRF detection. MATERIALS & METHODS: One hundred and twenty extracted single-rooted teeth were selected and sectioned through cementoenamel junction. The roots were divided in two groups; group one consisted of 60 teeth with induced root fracture and group two had 60 teeth with no fracture. In the first group the crack was made by instron system. All samples were imaged by the three imaging modalities. Diagnostic accuracy was then compared with methylene blue dye detection method. Kappa was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: CBCT showed the highest sensitivity (94.6%) and specificity (98.2%). Conventional radiography and digital radiography were not as accurate as CBCT. CONCLUSION: According to our study, CBCT seems to be better than conventional and digital radiography in detecting VRF and provides the most reliable data in comparison with the two other modalities.


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The [1,4]benzodiazepine is an important class of heterocyclic compounds and clinically used for many ailments in humans. The [1,4]benzodiazepine has unique structure that mimics the peptide linkage. This interesting observation completely shifted the interest of medicinal chemist for [1,4]benzodiazepine from CNS acting drugs to anticancer agents. During last few decades, a large number of reports have appeared in the literature highlighting the anticancer activity of [1,4]benzodiazepines. Here, in this article, we have discussed the brief synthesis, origin of [1,4]benzodiazepines as anticancer agent, their mechanism of action and latest developments in this field. We have compiled the most important literature reports from last few decades till date.


The Bou Azzer cobalt deposits, which have produced to date 50,000 tons of cobalt metal, are apparently unique; they are associated with serpentinites of an upper Proterozoic ophiolite, and they consist of cobalt (Ni-Fe) arsenides with accessory sulfoarsenides, copper sulfides, molybdenite, and gold in a quartz-carbonate gangue. The ore has undergone several phases of brecciation and recrystallization related to late Pan-African and Hercynian deformations which produced the varying shapes of the orebodies: lodes, veins, stocks, complex shells, and flat lenses. The cobalt ore is mainly controlled by tectonic structures along the borders and top of the Precambrian serpentinite massifs. The orebodies which are buried under the Infracambrian volcanic cover may be localized by geochemical zoning.The serpentinites are the most obvious source rock for cobalt. The quartz-carbonate gangue grades laterally into a weathering crust of late Proterozoic age. However, the origin of the arsenic is not yet resolved; it may be consanguineous with the serpentinites or derived from an unknown hydrothermal source.


In clinical practice with alcoholics we frequently encounter a phenomenon whereby the subject claims he is able to cope with a situation, whereas in reality he cannot. This discrepancy between the claimed and the actual capacity for "control" led us to devise a study which would permit a better understanding of the phenomenon. We gave patients two questionnaires which deal with the concept of control. Comparison of the MHLC (Multidimensional Health Locus of Control, Wallston, 1978; a questionnaire which investigates the subjective degree of control in relation to health) and the GEFT (Group Embedded Figures Test, Witkin, 1971; a questionnaire which focuses more on actual behaviour and field-dependency) allowed us to test the hypothesis that alcoholics have a "pseudointernal" locus of control, that although, in what they say, they evince a strongly internal subjective locus of controls, in reality they are particularly external and dependent. The data confirm that the tendency towards an "internal" selfportrayal on the MHLC which is not backed up by the GEFT is significantly higher in alcoholics than in nonalcoholic subjects. Thus, all in all, this supports the hypothesis of a "pseudointernality" syndrome in alcoholics.


Ultrashort pulse laser heating is not only capable of resolving and observing the ultrafast interaction of energy carriers, i.e. electrons, phonons, but also widely applied to material processing, i.e., laser ablation. However, the previous theories, i.e., two-temperature model, parabolic one-step model, can be applied only to some limited segments. In this paper, according to the two-temperature model and Fourier's law, a general theoretical model is presented for the description of the entire heat relaxation process after the thin metal film deposited on the substrate has been heated by the ultrashort pulse laser. Moreover, the heat conduction process is also experimentally studied by using the rear-pump front-probe transient thermoreflectance technique on Au/glass and Au/SiC at 300 K, and the theoretical prediction accords well with the experimental result, which illustrates the validity of the present theoretical model. Based on the good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental data, the electron-phonon coupling factor of the thin gold film and thermal boundary conductance of the Au/glass and Au/SiC interfaces are extracted and the measured results are in good agrement with the previous reported values. The electron-phonon coupling factor is close to that of the bulk material and does not exhibit size effect. The thermal boundary conductance is greater than the prediction of diffuse mismatch model, and the reasons responsible for the discrepancies are electrons participating in the interfacial heat conduction, interfacial atom diffusion and inelastic scattering.


The main purpose of this paper is to review literature associated with social skills training for students with behavioral difficulties in both the general and special education settings. Research findings presented in this review were based on data collected from books, research papers, and reports published from the 1970s to 2004 in the United States of America.


: Balloon dilatation is an alternative method of aorta coarctation (AC) treatment, and it may be effective in 80 - 90% cases with appropriate indications. Arterial hypertension is one of the symptoms of AC and frequent complication of short- and long-term postoperative period. Surgical correction does not guarantee regress of pathological symptoms in all the cases, and method of surgery does not influence the rate of postoperative arterial hypertension. The study reviews CA balloon dilatation experience and analyses cases of late arterial hypertension rate in long-term period after balloon dilatation procedure.


The Mad1-Mad2 heterodimer is the catalytic hub of the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), which controls mitosis through assembly of a multi-subunit anaphase inhibitor, the mitotic checkpoint complex (MCC) [1, 2]. Mad1-Mad2 first catalyzes MCC assembly at interphase nuclear pores [3], then migrates to kinetochores at nuclear envelope breakdown (NEBD) and resumes MCC assembly until bipolar spindle attachment is complete [1, 2]. There is significant debate about the factor(s) involved in targeting Mad1-Mad2 to kinetochores in higher eukaryotes [4-9]. Through gene editing and live-cell imaging, we found that the human Rod-Zw10-Zwilch (RZZ) complex is dispensable for cell viability and initial recruitment of Mad1-Mad2 to kinetochores at NEBD, but then becomes necessary to tether Mad1-Mad2 at kinetochores and sustain SAC arrest in cells challenged with spindle poisons. We also show that RZZ forms the mesh-like fibrous corona, a structural expansion of the outer kinetochore important for timely chromosome congression [10-13] once Mps1 phosphorylates the N-terminus of Rod. Artificially tethering Mad1-Mad2 to kinetochores enabled long-term mitotic arrest in the absence of RZZ. Conversely, blocking early RZZ-independent recruitment of Mad1-Mad2 eliminated the transient SAC response in RZZ-null cells. We conclude that RZZ drives structural changes in the outer kinetochore that facilitate chromosome bi-orientation and chronic SAC transduction, a key determinant of cytotoxicity during anti-mitotic drug therapy [14-16].


Sysyemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic connective tissue disease characterized by multi-organ involvement. In its variants, SSc may affect the skin, vessels, the heart, joints and the lungs. As such, it is potentially available for ultrasound examination in a wide field of applications.

With the most modern linear high-frequency transducers, it has become feasible to examine the skin in patients with SSc. US makes it possible to measure the thickness of the skin and subcutaneous tissue thereby helping determine the potential skin involvement and its range, and differentiate the localized from diffuse forms of SSc(1). Moreover, the examination of dermal thickness and echogenicity may be helpful in stratifying SSc into the edematous, fibrotic and atrophic phases of skin involvement(2). Elastosonography, a method combining the assessment of ultrasound and elastic properties of the tissue, is also shown to be a promising technique in SSc(3).

Raynaud phenomenon and vascular involvement in SSc may be the primary events, even preceding skin affection. The assessment of the vessels is therefore of cardinal significance in SSc. A Doppler analysis of flow in patients suspected of SSc may reveal if Raynaud phenomenon is of primary or secondary character(4). The anatomical features of vessels may also help in the analysis of Raynaud phenomenon(5). Furthermore, as atherosclerosis is more prevalent in patients with SSc, the assessment of carotid plaques with US(6) may induce earlier prophylaxis in this group of patients. This assumption is strengthened by more frequent subclinical heart involvement in patients with SSc compared with healthy controls, as assessed with echocardiography(7), yet another application of US in this disease.

In the rheumatologic world, it is obviously the musculoskeletal system that receives the most attention. And it is also like that in rheumatology-related US. Pain in the musculoskeletal system is frequently reported in patients with SSc. Until recently, it has been considered neither to be inflammatory nor leading to erosive joint disease. US supports though that the reason for pain can be detected and visualized. In studies comparing patients with SSc, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and healthy controls, it has been shown that inflammatory joint changes occur as often as in joints of patients with RA(8). Synovial proliferation, joint effusion and tendinitis were reported, and only Doppler signal and erosive joint disease were more frequent in patients with RA. In a study by Chitale et al., US findings in the hands of patients with SSc were compared with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)(9). The latter showed both more inflammatory changes than US and bone erosions, which were not detected with US. Tendon involvement was assessed in a study by Elhai et al. and signs of tendinitis were more frequent in patients with SSc in comparison with RA patients(10). Another study by Cuomo et al. also presented characteristic features of tendon and retinaculum involvement showing a hyperechoic pattern(11).

In many SSc patients, interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a significant manifestation of the disease and a frequent cause of death. The method of choice for assessment and follow-up of IPF is high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). The need for frequent assessments and the increasing radiation dose of SSc patients with lung affection makes the use of US, with a potential support of HRCT, particularly attractive in long-term monitoring as a non-radiation method. A significant correlation of findings in US, HRCT score and diffusion capacity of the lungs to carbon monoxide test in a study by Tardella et al.(12), as well as other authors(13, 14), makes the possibility feasible. The elementary lesions in US assessment of patients with IPF are B-lines, i.e. vertical reverberation artifacts, also called comet tails, generated by the reflection of the US beam from thickened subpleural interlobular septa detectable in the lung intercostal spaces.

But still, the skin is the most dominant and frequently affected organ in SSc.

The authors of the paper in "Journal of Ultrasonography" deal with an aspect of SSc that is seldom investigated(15). Grzegorz Pracon et al. report on characteristic ultrasound features of hydroxyapatite deposits in a finger of a patient with limited SSc. It is an original finding which, when applied in practice, may lead to a quick surgical intervention and alleviation of the patient's symptoms.

The present study, seen in relation to the available research results, stresses the need for further and more detailed assessment of patients with SSc in the hope of quicker diagnosis, detecting complications and potential monitoring of the disease and its treatment.


Brass Art: Freud's House: The Double Mirror (2015) was commissioned by University of Salford's Commission to Collect Programme and has been acquired by University of Salford for their collection.

Lindsay Taylor commissioned Brass Art to create this new digital commission, when she became collections curator in 2013. Brass Art have been working with the Freud Museum, London, under the auspices of Director Carol Seigel. The new work has been made with the assistance of programmer and theorist Spencer Roberts, and in collaboration with electro acoustic composer Monty Adkins.

Lindsay Taylor led the contemporary art programme at the Harris from 2004 – 2013. She successfully initiated and delivered a number of innovative and complex exhibitions and projects including: Paradise by Kultug Ataman (2008) Plastic Culture: Legacies of Pop (2009), Recent Findings: Simon Faithfull (2010), Piercing Brightness exhibition by Shezad Dawood (2011).
Lindsay was instrumental in the Digital Aesthetic Project and developed an expertise in commissioning and collecting digital art.


Objective: To trend fibrinolysis after injury and determine the influence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and massive transfusion on fibrinolysis status. Background: Admission fibrinolytic derangement is common in injured children and adults, and is associated with poor outcome. No studies examine fibrinolysis days after injury. Methods: Prospective study of severely injured children at a level 1 pediatric trauma center. Rapid thromboelastography was obtained on admission and daily for up to 7 days. Standard definitions of hyperfibrinolysis (HF; LY30 ≥3), fibrinolysis shutdown (SD; LY30 ⩽0.8), and normal (LY30 = 0.9–2.9) were applied. Antifibrinolytic use was documented. Outcomes were death, disability, and thromboembolic complications. Wilcoxon rank-sum and Fisher exact tests were performed. Exploratory subgroups included massively transfused and severe TBI patients. Results: In all, 83 patients were analyzed with median (interquartile ranges) age 8 (4–12) and Injury Severity Score 22 (13–34), 73.5% blunt mechanism, 47% severe TBI, 20.5% massively transfused. Outcomes were 14.5% mortality, 43.7% disability, and 9.8% deep vein thrombosis. Remaining in or trending to SD was associated with death (P = 0.007), disability (P = 0.012), and deep vein thrombosis (P = 0.048). Median LY30 was lower on post-trauma day (PTD)1 to PTD4 in patients with poor compared with good outcome; median LY30 was lower on PTD1 to PTD3 in TBI patients compared with non-TBI patients. HF without associated shutdown was not related to poor outcome, but extreme HF (LY30 >30%, n = 3) was lethal. Also, 50% of massively transfused patients in hemorrhagic shock demonstrated SD physiology on admission. All with HF (fc31.2%) corrected after hemostatic resuscitation without tranexamic acid. Conclusions: Fibrinolysis shutdown is common postinjury and predicts poor outcomes. Severe TBI is associated with sustained shutdown. Empiric antifibrinolytics for children should be questioned; thromboelastography-directed selective use should be considered for documented HF.


In the context of globalisation, there is a need to assess the difference between domestic and world price effects as an im- portant component of the economic analysis of investment projects. We developed an integrated approach to measuring the differences between commercial and public efficien cy (indicati ng pri ce effec ts) and substantiat ing the applicat ion of specific mechanisms for implementing relevant projects based on the principles of public-private partnership. We propose to estimate price effects using three interrelated models: financial and economic model, input-output multi-regional model, and econometric model. The combination of these models allows analysing large investment projects considering their influence on the develop- ment trends of the global, national and regional economy. This methodology was tested on the example of a real regional project for the construction of the Eastern Siberia — Pacific Ocean (ESPO-2) oil pipeline. The results show that the share of price effects amounted to more than 35 % of net present value within the framework of public efficiency, confirming their high significance. Tax price effects have the largest share in the structure of the price effects. Indirect price effects of the considered project are less significant. The research results have confirmed that the identification of indicators of public efficiency and in-depth analysis of price effects increase the validity of the assessment of regional infrastructure projects. In the future, we plan to use the proposed methods as an integral part of a comprehensive assessment of large-scale production, transport and research infrastructure projects.


The CDKN2A gene consists of four exons, exon 1beta, exon 1alpha, exon 2 and exon 3, going from the proximal to the distal gene end. There are two promoters in the CDKN2A gene locus. The promoter located between exons 1beta and 1alpha regulates transcription of the p16INK4A mRNA, which consists of exon 1alpha, exon 2 and exon 3 (only partially translated), and encodes a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p16INK4A (also known as CDKN2A isoform 1, p16, INK4A, CDKN2A, CDK4I or MTS-1). The promoter located upstream of exon 1beta regulates transcription of the p14-ARF mRNA, which consists of exon 1beta, exon 2 (partially translated) and exon 3 (untranslated). The p14ARF mRNA is translated in a different reading frame from the p16INK4A mRNA and produces the tumor suppressor ARF (also known as p14ARF or CDKN2A isoform 4), an inhibitor of MDM2 E3 ubiquitin ligase-mediated degradation of TP53 (p53). Wild complex either The CDKN2A gene consists of four exons, exon 1beta, exon 1alpha, exon 2 and exon 3, going from the proximal to the distal gene end. There are two promoters in the CDKN2A gene locus. The promoter located between exons 1beta and 1alpha regulates transcription of the p16INK4A mRNA, which consists of exon 1alpha, exon 2 and exon 3 (only partially translated), and encodes a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p16INK4A (also known as CDKN2A isoform 1, p16, INK4A, CDKN2A, CDK4I or MTS-1). The promoter located upstream of exon 1beta regulates transcription of the p14ARF mRNA, which consists of exon 1beta, exon 2 (partially translated) and exon 3 (untranslated). The p14ARF mRNA is translated in a different reading frame from the p16INK4A mRNA and produces the tumor suppressor ARF (also known as p14ARF or CDKN2A isoform 4), an inhibitor of MDM2 E3 ubiquitin ligase-mediated degradation of TP53 (p53). Wild type a complex either CDK4 or cata-lytically (programmed


The most recent estimate of blackbird damage to ripening sunflower (Helianthus annuus) in North Dakota in 1980 exceeded $6 million. Although less than 5% of the sunflower fields in the state received greater than 10% damage in each of four past survey years, as much as 50% of the total state-wide damage occurred in these fields. This loss can be combated with cost-effective control-Success- ful control requires timely action when blackbirds are in large concen-trations. Frightening blackbirds from fields early in the damage season dis-perses damage and this can result in compensatory growth by sunflower, whereby yields at harvest are largely unaffected.


The study of conceptual mappings, including metaphoric mappings, has produced great insights over the last several decades, not only for the study of language, but also for the study of such subjects as scientific discovery, design, mathematical thinking, and computer interfaces. This tradition of inquiry is fulfilling its promises, with new findings and new applications all the time. Looking for conceptual mappings and their properties proves to be a rich method for discovery. To the initial studies that focused on cross-domain mappings and their most visible products have now been added many additional dimensions. Detailed studies have been carried out on topics such as compression, integration networks, and the principles and constraints that govern them. This blooming field of research has as one consequence the rethinking of metaphor. We have a richer and deeper understanding of the processes underlying metaphor than we did previously. In this article, we will illustrate the central areas of theoretical advance by looking in some detail at the metaphor of TIME AS SPACE.


This special session describes emerging modeling and control problems and solutions for integrated systems that operate at the micro and nano length scales. Complete integrated systems can be as small as millimeters across, which can include dozens of individual components with sizes ranging from nanometers to 100s of microns. These integrated systems typically incorporate such elements as microelectronics, photonics, micro-cantilevers, and microfluidics. These small-scale systems are typically manufactured by using techniques for integrated circuits and/or polymer-based techniques such as micro-injection molding and micro-imprinting. Models and control designs for these systems typically have to be adjusted to account for or utilize the characteristics of small length scales. The special session will have three presentations that describe a variety of micro and nanosystems and their associated modeling and control problems.


Efficient document retrieval heavily relies on the technique of semantic hashing, which learns a binary code for every document and employs Hamming distance to evaluate document distances. However, existing semantic hashing methods are mostly established on outdated TFIDF features, which obviously do not contain lots of important semantic information about documents. Furthermore, the Hamming distance can only be equal to one of several integer values, significantly limiting its representational ability for document distances. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose to leverage BERT embeddings to perform efficient retrieval based on the product quantization technique, which will assign for every document a real-valued codeword from the codebook, instead of a binary code as in semantic hashing. Specifically, we first transform the original BERT embeddings via a learnable mapping and feed the transformed embedding into a probabilistic product quantization module to output the assigned codeword. The refining and quantizing modules can be optimized in an end-to-end manner by minimizing the probabilistic contrastive loss. A mutual information maximization based method is further proposed to improve the representativeness of codewords, so that documents can be quantized more accurately. Extensive experiments conducted on three benchmarks demonstrate that our proposed method significantly outperforms current state-of-the-art baselines.


Recently the Joint National Committee on the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure introduced the term "prehypertension" for systolic blood pressure levels of 120 to 139 mm Hg and diastolic BP levels of 80 to 89 mm Hg. Little is known about the prevalence of this entity and the cardiovascular risk factors associated with it. We aimed to determine the prevalence of prehypertension and the cardiovascular risk factors associated with it in a large population-based sample of young Israeli adults. We studied 36 424 Israel Defense Forces employees during the years 1991 to 1999. Subjects completed a detailed questionnaire and underwent physical examination, and blood samples were drawn after a 14-hour fast. Prehypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure of 120 to 139 mm Hg, and/or a diastolic blood pressure of 80 to 89 mm Hg. We calculated the age- and sex-specific prevalence of prehypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors associated with this condition. Prehypertension was observed among 50.6% of men and 35.9% of women. The prehypertensive group had higher levels of blood glucose, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides, higher body mass index, and lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol than did the normotensive group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that body mass index was the strongest predictor of prehypertension among both males and females (odds ratio, 1.100; 95% CI, 1.078 to 1.122 and odds ratio, 1.152; 95% CI, 1.097 to 1.21, respectively, for every 1 kg/m2 increase). Our findings support the recommendation of lifestyle modification for prehypertensive patients. Further prospective studies are required to determine the role of pharmacotherapy in prehypertension.


We consider offline Reinforcement Learning (RL), where the agent does not interact with the environment and must rely on offline data collected using a behavior policy. Previous works provide policy evaluation guarantees when the target policy to be evaluated is covered by the behavior policy, that is, state-action pairs visited by the target policy must also be visited by the behavior policy. We show that when the MDP has a latent low-rank structure, this coverage condition can be relaxed. Building on the connection to weighted matrix completion with non-uniform observations, we propose an offline policy evaluation algorithm that leverages the low-rank structure to estimate the values of uncovered state-action pairs. Our algorithm does not require a known feature representation, and our finite-sample error bound involves a novel discrepancy measure quantifying the discrepancy between the behavior and target policies in the spectral space. We provide concrete examples where our algorithm achieves accurate estimation while existing coverage conditions are not satisfied. Building on the above evaluation algorithm, we further design an offline policy optimization algorithm and provide non-asymptotic performance guarantees.


In this study, Izhikevich Neuron Model, which can be exhibited different behaviors, is implemented experimentally with programmable devices, FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and FPAA (Field Programmable Analog Array). After testing the behaviors of neuron models through numerical analyses, the experimental setups are constructed with programmable devices. A switching mechanism, that provides convenience to observe results, is proposed as well as the advantage of FPGA's programmability. Experimental results agree with the numerical analyses results of neuron model.


End‐stage renal disease (ESRD) patients receiving hemodialysis are typically anemic due to a lack of erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone required for red blood cell (RBC) production. EPO replacement therapy is complex, often resulting in oscillating hemoglobin (Hb) levels. EPO dosing protocols do not account for endogenous delays and appear to contribute to, if not cause, Hb variability. The Mayo Clinic Anemia Management System (MCAMS) is based on a physiological simulation of the production and lifespan of RBCs, driven by EPO dosage schedules. Patient‐specific parameters were found such that simulated Hb levels matched historical Hb levels in response to historical EPO doses. The calibrated model was used to identify new dosing regimens that stabilize Hb. MCAMS has been used to recommend individualized EPO dosage regimens to maintain stable Hb levels within a desired target range for more than 600 patients, improving patient outcomes while reducing medication costs by about 40 percent. © 2018 System Dynamics Society


Variability in the physico-chemical properties of soils affected by animal wastes in Uyo, Akwa- Ibom State, Nigeria was investigated in this study. A free survey technique guided field sampling. Five profile pits were dug on five studied sites namely: Site severely affected with poultry manure, site moderately affected with poultry manure, site severely affected with swine manure, site moderately affected with swine manure, and control site (50 m away from the affected sites). Soil samples were collected at different depths and subjected to routine laboratory analysis. Data collected were analyzed statistically. Results of the investigation showed that variations existed among some physico-chemical properties of soils that are affected with animal wastes when compared to control. There were no variations in the silt and clay content of the affected soil. Among the affected soils, the pH and effective cation exchange capacity decreased down the profile. Results also showed that soils affected with poultry manure and swine manure had the highest exchangeable cations when compared to control. Appropriate measure should therefore be taken in the disposal of these wastes to avoid environmental hazards.


Carbon-encapsulated transition metal catalysts have caught the interest of researchers in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) due to their distinctive architectures and highly tunable electronic structures. In this work, we synthesized N-doped carbon encapsulated with CoNi nanoalloy particles (CoNi@NC) as the electrocatalysts. The metal-organic skeleton ZIF-67 nanocubes were first synthesized, and then Ni2+ ions were inserted to generate CoNi-ZIF precursors by a simple ion-exchange route, which was followed by pyrolysis and with urea for the introduction of nitrogen (N) at a low temperature to synthesize CoNi@NC composites. The results reveal that ZIF-67 pyrolysis can dope more N atoms in the carbon skeleton and that the pyrolysis temperature influences the ORR and OER performances. The sample prepared by CoNi@NC pyrolysis at 650 °C has a high N content (9.70%) and a large specific surface area (167 m2 g−1), with a positive ORR onset potential (Eonset) of 0.89 V vs. RHE and half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.81 V vs. RHE in 0.1 M KOH, and the overpotential of the OER measured in 1 M KOH was only 286 mV at 10 mA cm−2. The highly efficient bifunctional ORR/OER electrocatalysts synthesized by this method can offer some insights into the design and synthesis of complex metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) hybrid structures and their derivatives as functional materials in energy storage.


Paraduodenal hernia, a rare congenital anomaly which arises from an error of rotation of the midgut, is the most common type of intra-abdominal hernia. There are two variants, right and left paraduodenal hernia, the right being less common. We report the case of a 41-year-old patient with a right paraduodenal hernia who presented with 2 days history of continuous pain abdomen with multiple episodes of vomiting. Patient was decided to undergo laparotomy in view of Increasing abdominal pain and development of peritonitis. In a planned laparotomy, herniation of the small bowel loops through the fossa of Waldeyer, behind the ascending mesocolon was found which was gangrenous with prolapse of a few gangrenous loops into the peritoneal cavity. Gangrenous bowel was resected and an end to end jejuno ileostomy was performed.


Endoscopic enucleation of the prostate was first described by Hiraoka in 1986, using a monopolar resectoscope. His contribution was largely ignored until Gilling and Fraundorfer published their three-lobe enucleation technique with the Holmium laser in 1998 ,that ended establishing itself as a reliable option for the treatment of HBP, backed by ample scientific evidence. Later on, enucleation performed with other lasers, as well as bipolar energy, have shown concordance in their clinical results. As a result, the term AEEP (anatomic endoscopic enucleation of the prostate) emerged to encompass all these techniques. During the last few years there have been significant advances in two areas: first, technology, with the development of pulse modulation for Holmium generators (MOSES) as well as high-speed morcellators. Second, the development of new surgical techniques that recognize the importance of the early release of the sphincter from the apex of the adenoma during the operation as well as the careful preservation of the external sphincter's mucosa, to avoid early stress incontinence. In this paper,we review the recent evolution of both technology and surgical technique. AEEP has been risen to a new level, reducing operative time significantly, usually under one hour, and radically reducing the incidence of early temporary stress incontinence, and maybe also facilitating the learning curve of AEEP.


Abstract Defining the size and shape of hydrocarbon traps is a critical component in estimating the economic value of potential and existing oil and gas fields and is, therefore, a key business risk. Structural traps, defined by fault and fold geometries, form the most common type of hydrocarbon trap, the size estimates of which are based on interpretation of subsurface data, most notably seismic imagery. Interpretation of seismic image data is uncertain, as the subsurface images have limited resolution and quality; in 2D datasets the imagery is spatially limited and the interpretation requires interpolation between images. Here we present data from top reservoir maps created by eight interpretation teams, each of which interpreted a grid of 2D seismic sections at a regular spacing of 1 km, over a 220 km2 area. The resultant maps are compared for interpretation variability. Fault statistics have been generated for each map and compared with analogue datasets to aid in the identification of anomalous interpretations, and to create a likelihood rank for each map. The structural traps identified by each team are compared, and the two largest traps are assessed for their potential trapped hydrocarbon volume. An initial volume and a corrected volume, accounting for potential fault seal breach by reservoir–reservoir juxtaposition across the trap-defining faults, are calculated. The integrated analysis of the multiple interpretations: (a) captures the interpretational uncertainty, (b) determines the likeliness (or risk) of each interpretation being valid, when compared with analogue datasets and (c) assesses the impact of each interpretation on the economic viability of potential prospects (defined by structural traps).


This paper deals with cogeneration unit noise measurement by the acoustic camera. Noise is not only measured as the final number of sound power levels, but also its original location is determined with the use of the beamforming algorithm. The properties of the used microphone array are considered and numerically calculated as every different microphone array layout will measure with another resolution. From the frequency spectrum, the possible technical source is determined. The results of noise source visualization show the cogeneration unit case noise decreasing effect while also offering the possibilities for design improvements.