Seven extracts were prepared from the fresh and dried leaves of Plantago lanceolata plant. Various specific chemical reagents were used to differentiate several functional groups extracts .The results of the experiments undertaken showed the presence of certain chemical compounds (phenols ,tannins ,glycosides and polysaccharides ) and absence of proteins in six extracts . Whereas extract number 7 gave only tannins and phenols .pH measurements were performed for all the extracts , they were ranging from 5.1 to 5.3 . The results of the effect of inhibition test that was conducted by employing pathogenic bacteria of renal disease (Esherichia coli, Salmonela typhi , Shigella spp. , Klebsiella spp. , Proteus mirabilis ) occurring of interference . This interference was happened between the phenols and tannins with glycosides and polysaccharides led to the absence of the inhibition in extracts 1-6. But in case of extract No. 7 , when glycosides and polysaccharides washed , different diameters of inhibition ( 18.3 , 16.3 , 21 , 19 mm ) zone were appeared for all pathogenic bacteria (Esherichia coli ,Salmonela typhi , Shigella spp. , Klebsiella spp. , Proteus mirabilis ) at certain concentration ( 100 mg/ml ) The results showed that the diameter of the inhibition zone was as a function of concentration of the extract at the range studied (12.5 , 25 , 50 , 100 mg/ml ) and the lowest concentration ( 12.5 mg/ml ) represented the minimum inhibitory concentration ( MIC ) .


Abstract Blade-forming red algae occur worldwide and, prior to DNA sequencing, had been notoriously difficult to identify and classify, especially when lacking critical reproductive features. This, coupled in New Zealand with many longstanding assumptions that taxa were identical to non-New Zealand species or genera, resulted in many misapplied names. Pugetia delicatissima R.E. Norris, an endemic New Zealand blade-forming species of the family Kallymeniaceae, is actually comprised of one existing and one new species belonging to two distinct genera, as established by our phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences from the rbcL gene. Analyses of combined rbcL and LSU genes showed that neither is closely related to the generitype of Pugetia, the northern-eastern Pacific, P. fragilissima Kylin. We propose the names Judithia and Wendya for these two newly revealed genera. In addition to diagnostic rbcL and LSU sequences, Judithia is morphologically and anatomically characterized by rounded to oblong blades that do not taper basally at the stipe, loosely aggregated surface cortical cells and cystocarps lacking both a pericarp and an ostiole, all features observed in the holotype of P. delicatissima. Wendya, in contrast, is characterized by blades that taper both apically and basally, compactly arranged surface cortical cells and cystocarps that have both a pericarp and a distinct ostiole. The two genera also are distinguished from one other, as well as from Pugetia by features of pre- and post-fertilization development, including the number of subsidiary cells produced on carpogonial and auxiliary branch systems, whether subsidiary cells in the carpogonial branch system fuse with the supporting cell or not, and the site of origin of gonimoblast cells. Although small in area, New Zealand hosts ten of the 27 currently recognized genera in the Kallymeniaceae and is the southern-hemisphere region of greatest generic diversification in this family.


The back-to-back (BTB) converter is used in power conversion applications such as machine drives, wind energy conversion systems (WECS), uninterruptible power supplies and high-voltage, direct current transmission systems. Various topologies have evolved around voltage source converters and current source converters (CSCs) in an attempt to meet various design and reliability constraints. This paper proposes a new CSC-based BTB converter suitable for WECS application. The proposed configuration addresses the main drawbacks of the conventional BTB CSCs, such as the over-voltage frequently experienced by switches during commutation. The inverter side converter has zero switching losses. The proposed WECS offers the following advantages: simple and easy control, reduced switching frequency and maximum power point tracking with controllable grid active and reactive power. A low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) solution is also provided in the proposed WECS. PSCAD/EMTDC simulation is used to assess the steady-state and dynamic behaviours of the proposed system under different operating conditions and during LVRT. Experimental results allow steady-state and dynamic behaviour assessment of the proposed system under different operating conditions.


Background Suicidal ideation is thinking about suicide/serving as the agent of one's own death. Patients with a major depressive disorder are the highest group which are affected by suicidal ideation. It is a pre-condition for suicide attempts and to commit suicide among major depressive patients. Suicidal behavior and major depressive disorder have been becoming the main attention in recent years. In Ethiopia, there is limited knowledge of suicidal ideation among major depressive disorder patients and the factors of suicidal ideation are also limited. Objective This study assessed the prevalence of suicidal ideation and its associated factors among major depressive disorder patients at Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from March 1–30, 2019. A total of 337 major depressive disorder patients were successfully interviewed using structured and pre-tested questionnaires. A systematic random sampling technique was applied. Logistic regression was applied to identify factors of suicidal ideation. Statistical significance was considered at P-value < 0.05. Results In this study, the prevalence of suicidal ideation among major depressive disorder patients was 48.4%. Being female (AOR 2.4, 95% CI=1.40, 4.25), family history of suicide (AOR 3.2, 95% CI=1.26, 8.11), and having poor social support (AOR 4.2, 95% CI=2.29, 7.59) were significantly associated with suicidal ideation among patients with major depressive disorder. Conclusion The prevalence of suicidal ideation among major depressive disorder patients was relatively high. Hence, due attention should be given to the screening of suicidal ideation for all patients with major depressive disorder to initiate timely interventions.


Advocacy to encourage women to enter male-dominated trades has a long history, though leadership in this sphere of activism has rarely been documented in feminist histories. Efforts to improve women's working lives have most often focused on facilitating women's entry into the professions, company boards or upper management, and on campaigns to secure equal pay for work of equal value. Throughout the 20th century, however, numbers of women have promoted women's entry into skilled, working-class jobs that were thought to be the natural domain of men. One important reason for questioning the high levels of gender segregation in these trades and encouraging women to enter them has been the recognition that men's social power was bolstered by their claim that they had a special relationship with technologies. The need to expand women's opportunities into trade employment was also linked to key feminist goals of eliminating gender wage inequality and enhancing women's employment choices. Male-dominated trades promised employment that was better paid and more highly valued than female trades and often opened up opportunities for interesting work, independence and mobility that were unusual for working-class women. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Law Publication Details Clarsen, G. (2014). Women's leadership in the trades: an overview. In J. Smart & S. Swain (Eds.), The encyclopedia of women & leadership in twentieth-century Australia (pp. 1-6). Melbourne, Australia: Australian Women's Archives Project. http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0626b.htm This book chapter is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/3064


All conference organisers/editors are required to declare details about their peer review. Therefore, please provide the following information: • Type of peer review: Single blind • Conference submission management system: By email received from the organizing and editorial committee of the conference. The correspondence authors make the submission by email. • Number of submissions received: 114 • Number of submissions sent for review: 114 • Number of submissions accepted: 80 • Acceptance Rate (Number of Submissions Accepted / Number of Submissions Received X 100): 71.05% • Average number of reviews per paper: 2 reviews per paper • Total number of reviewers involved: 25 • Any additional info on review process: All papers are plagiarism checked by Turnitin software • Contact person for queries: Ely Dannier V. Niño Foundation of Researchers in Science and Technology of Materials (FORISTOM) Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


This study explores the character of an online discussion, with a view to determine whether it tends to be social or democratic. The examined discussion revolves around sports whose discourse normally exhibits no explicitly expressed political aims. The study also attempts to determine to what extent concepts developed within political theory are applicable to nonpolitical contexts, namely sports. Adapting Schudson's (1997) model that distinguishes sociable conversation from problem-solving democratic talk, I conducted a content analysis of 3993 postings on the web site hvfantasten.com. This web site is a venue for HV71's fans, one of the top clubs in the Swedish National Hockey League. Since the sociable talk, according to Schudson, tends to occur between like-minded others, there are reasons to believe that the discussion mostly tends to be a social conversation. The results, however, seem to contradict the assumption. The discussion would not have been feasible without media, with regard to both its range and performance. Ostensibly, it looks spontaneous but in fact it is rather structured due to both an open and hidden, but fully accepted, thematic agenda. Taking part requires knowledge about the norms governing the discussion which can not be said to rest upon egalitarian conditions. The media dependency, the civilized structure, and the fact that it is norm-governed indicate that the discussion first of all tends to be problem-solving democratic, and then sociable. The study shows that concepts from a political context, at least in this case, are applicable to a nonpolitical context. The reason might be that the political goes beyond its traditional reaches.


Background Neural stem cells are currently being investigated as potential therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, and trauma. However, concerns have been raised over the safety of this experimental therapeutic approach, including, for example, whether there is the potential for tumors to develop from transplanted stem cells. Methods and Findings A boy with ataxia telangiectasia (AT) was treated with intracerebellar and intrathecal injection of human fetal neural stem cells. Four years after the first treatment he was diagnosed with a multifocal brain tumor. The biopsied tumor was diagnosed as a glioneuronal neoplasm. We compared the tumor cells and the patient's peripheral blood cells by fluorescent in situ hybridization using X and Y chromosome probes, by PCR for the amelogenin gene X- and Y-specific alleles, by MassArray for the ATM patient specific mutation and for several SNPs, by PCR for polymorphic microsatellites, and by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing. Molecular and cytogenetic studies showed that the tumor was of nonhost origin suggesting it was derived from the transplanted neural stem cells. Microsatellite and HLA analysis demonstrated that the tumor is derived from at least two donors. Conclusions This is the first report of a human brain tumor complicating neural stem cell therapy. The findings here suggest that neuronal stem/progenitor cells may be involved in gliomagenesis and provide the first example of a donor-derived brain tumor. Further work is urgently needed to assess the safety of these therapies.


Whether morality has rational authority is an open question insofar as we can seriously entertain conceptions of morality and practical reason according to which it need not be contrary to reason to fail to conform to moral requirements. Doubts about the authority of morality are especially likely to arise for those who hold a broadly prudential view of rationality. It is common to think of morality as including various other-regarding duties of cooperation, forbearance, and aid. Most of us also regard moral obligations as authoritative practical considerations. But heeding these obligations appears sometimes to constrain the agent's pursuit of his own interests or aims. If we think of rationality in prudential terms–as what would promote the agent's own interests–we may wonder whether moral conduct is always rationally justifiable. Indeed, we do not need to think of rationality in exclusively prudential terms to raise this worry. The worry can arise even if there are impartial reasons–that is, nonderivative reasons to promote the welfare of others.


Space syntax research has found that patterns of pedestrian and vehicular movement are strongly correlated with the pattern of space in urban areas and inside buildings. These findings are based on observations of movement patterns of large numbers of people. However, the possible mechanisms at the individual level which might lead to such population level effects are not well understood. This paper reports on ongoing research using VR technology to try to simulate "lifelike" behaviour in a world of virtual beings. A variable field of view, collision detection and a sense of vision was given to the virtual beings. A number of "rule sets" were then used to try and mimic human behaviour characteristics including both probabilistic and learning algorithms. Research using simple rule sets for attraction surfaces imposed on a spatial configuration have been found to be problematic showing behaviours such as individuals becoming "stuck" at local minima in the surface. In this research complex rulesets involving the viewshed for each individual and awareness of other beings were tested. The movement of each being around the world was tracked and a 'trail' was produced which was then compared both to the trails produced by real experimental subjects moving around the same world using an immersive VR headset and to the syntactic properties of the world itself. This comparison is allowing us to specify plausible cognitive models for individual behaviour that might give rise to the collective patterns observed in conventional syntax research.


Novelty of this article is determined by the importance and impact that international donors have on economic activity of Romania. The main purpose of the article is the theoretical foundation in the development of methods to streamline the functioning of the Romanian economy under international funding; for this purpose, the following methods have been used: grouping, categorization, methods of analysis, synthesis, extrapolation complex treatment processes economic. The main scientific results obtained in this article, result of research consists of all problems solved, and also the conceptual and practical concept attracted international financing to develop the economy, arguing its role and effectiveness in transforming the economy into one innovative.


Central neuropathic pain in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common debilitating symptom, which is mostly treated with tricyclic antidepressants or antiepileptics. Unfortunately, the use of these drugs is often limited due to adverse events. We investigated the analgesic effect of topical amitriptyline 5% and 10% cream in a patient with central neuropathic pain due to MS. The analgesic effect of topical amitriptyline cream on neuropathic pain was dose related. To evaluate whether this analgesic effect is due to the active compound or placebo, we conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled n-of-1 study with amitriptyline 5% cream and placebo. The instruction was to alternate the creams every week following the pattern ABAB, with an escape possibility of amitriptyline 10% cream. The result was a complete pain reduction after application of cream B, while most of the time cream A did not reduce the pain. The patient could correctly unblind both creams, determining B as active. She noted that in the week of using the active cream no allodynia was present, with a carryover effect of one day.


Since its inception in 2008, cryptocurrencies are gaining adoption globally. Even though its utility may vary, the primary purpose of cryptocurrencies is to provide some form of payment (or medium of exchange) in the digital world. As more use cases arise from the industry, cryptocurrencies and blockchain are no longer a niche topic. Educational institutions are introducing it into their curriculum, and governments are talking about it in parliament. In particular, governments are keen to determine if the underlying technologies can form the fundamentals to issue a Central Bank issued Digital Currency (CBDC). Will these forms of currency become the "New Money"? This paper sets out to explore the utility of cryptocurrencies and CBDC, their implications on the economy and the government's ability to use monetary policy. We examine and compare the approaches to CBDCs suggested by various governments.


AIM
Cardiotoxicity is a serious side effect of anthracycline treatment, most commonly manifesting as a reduction in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Early recognition and treatment have been advocated, but robust, convenient and cost-effective alternatives to cardiac imaging are missing. Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) techniques applied to electrocardiograms (ECGs) may fill this gap, but no study so far has demonstrated its merit for the detection of an abnormal LVEF after anthracycline therapy.

METHODS
Single center consecutive cohort study of all breast cancer patients with ECG and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) evaluation before and after (neo)adjuvant anthracycline chemotherapy. Patients with HER-2-directed therapy, metastatic disease, second primary malignancy or pre-existing cardiovascular disease were excluded from the analyses as were patients with LVEF decline for reasons other than anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity. Primary readout was the diagnostic performance of AI-ECG by area under the curve (AUC) for LVEFs <50%.

RESULTS
Of 989 consecutive female breast cancer patients, 22 developed a decline in LVEF attributed to anthracycline therapy over a follow-up time of 9.83 ± 4.2 years. After exclusion of patients who did not have an ECGs within 90 days of a TTE, 20 cases and 683 controls remained. The AI-ECG model detected an LVEF <50% and ≤35% after anthracycline therapy with an AUC of 0.93 and 0.94, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
These data support the use of AI-ECG for cardiotoxicity screening after anthracycline-based chemotherapy. This technology could serve as a gatekeeper to more costly cardiac imaging and could enable patients to monitor themselves over long periods of time.


Abstract Dental implants have become a suitable treatment option for patients experiencing tooth loss and a popular choice among clinicians for immediate tooth replacement. Because of modifications in implant designs and development in immediate restoration and loading protocols, dental implant treatment can be reduced to a single procedure instead of multiple processes, hence providing the patient with a streamlined treatment that is typically much less invasive with immediate-tooth replacement. The purpose of this paper is to review the immediate restoration of dental implant(s) procedure and validate its position in treatment protocols by presenting success rates documented for more than 15 years and with 5000 implants. Also, recommendations for the management of different alveolar contours and defects will be presented, which have been encountered by the author when performing the immediate restoration procedure throughout this 15-year period.


The phloem-feeding aphid Essigella californica represents a potential threat to the productivity of Pinus radiata plantations in south-eastern Australia. Five- and nine-year-old field trials were used to characterize the effects of artificial and natural aphid-induced (E. californica) defoliation, respectively, on shoot photosynthesis and growth. Photosynthetic capacity (A(max)) was significantly greater following a 25% (D25) (13.8 µmol m(-2) s(-1)) and a 50% (D50) (15.9 µmol m(-2) s(-1)) single-event upper-crown artificial defoliation, 3 weeks after defoliation than in undefoliated control trees (12.9 µmol m(-2) s(-1)). This response was consistently observed for up to 11 weeks after the defoliation event; by Week 16, there was no difference in A(max) between control and defoliated trees. In the D50 treatment, this increased A(max) was not sufficient to fully compensate for the foliage loss as evidenced by the reduced diameter increment (by 15%) in defoliated trees 36 weeks after defoliation. In contrast, diameter increment of trees in the D25 treatment was unaffected by defoliation. The A(max) of trees experiencing upper-crown defoliation by natural and repeated E. californica infestations varied, depending on host genotype. Despite clear differences in defoliation levels between resistant and susceptible genotypes (17 vs. 35% of tree crown defoliated, respectively), growth of susceptible genotypes was not significantly different from that of resistant genotypes. The observed increases in A(max) in the lower crown of the canopy following attack suggested that susceptible genotypes were able to partly compensate for the loss of foliage by compensatory photosynthesis. The capacity of P. radiata to regulate photosynthesis in response to natural aphid-induced defoliation provides evidence that the impact of E. californica attack on stem growth will be less than expected, at least for up to 35% defoliation.


Ganolearic acid A (1), a 3,4- seco-hexanortriterpenoid featuring a rare 3/5/6/5 tetracyclic system, was obtained in trace amounts from Ganoderma cochlear by a LC-UV/MS-guided method. Meanwhile, a new 3,4- seco-nortriterpenoid, fornicatin M (2), as well as its biogenetic precursor, fornicatin D (3), was isolated. The stereochemical structure of 1 was completely established by 1D, 2D NMR, IR, and HRMS spectra, as well as 13C NMR and electronic circular dichroism calculations. The plausible biogenetic pathway of 1 and 2 was proposed. Furthermore, their anti-inflammatory activities were evaluated.


In this work, a unique N–C@NiMoO4 composite with a double-shelled hollow microtube structure has been developed through a simple and low-cost growth process. The composite contains a NiMoO4 outer shell with high electrochemical activity and hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (N–C NTs) with high conductivity, resulting in a high performance electrode material. The existence of N–C NTs effectively prevents the accumulation and agglomeration of the NiMoO4 nanosheets during the formation of a uniform outer shell, providing a higher specific surface area (258.2 m2 g−1). The electrochemical study displays that the C@NiMoO4 composite has a specific capacitance as high as 1242 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1, and about 82.9% cycling stability after 2000 cycles. Moreover, the as-fabricated C@NiMoO4//N–C asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) can achieve a maximum high energy density of 44.6 W h kg−1 at a power density of 250.4 W kg−1. These results imply that the C@NiMoO4 composite with a double-shelled hollow tube-structure is a promising candidate for high performance supercapacitors.


Qualitative researchers who explore sensitive topics may expose themselves to emotional distress. Consequently, researchers are often faced with the challenge of maintaining emotional equilibrium during the research process. However, discussion on the management of difficult emotions has occupied a peripheral place within accounts of research practice. With rare exceptions, the focus of published accounts is concentrated on the analysis of the emotional phenomena that emerge during the collection of primary research data. Hence, there is a comparative absence of a dialogue around the emotional dimensions of working with secondary data sources. This article highlights some of the complex ways in which emotions enter the research process during secondary analysis, and the ways in which we engaged with and managed emotional states such as anger, sadness, and horror. The concepts of emotional labor and emotional reflexivity are used to consider the ways in which we "worked with" and "worked on" emotion. In doing so, we draw on our collective experiences of working on two collaborative projects with ChildLine Scotland in which a secondary analysis was conducted on children's narratives of distress, worry, abuse, and neglect.


: Hau:ICR mice separated by sex, were reared for 30 days under various fluorescent lamps: pink, blue, black UV, cool white and full spectrum. Body weights and absolute organ weights were compared. After light exposure, female body weights were not significantly different between any groups; however, a difference in male body weights was observed. Light affected the weights of the pituitary, adrenals, kidneys and prostate in male mice and the adrenals, thyroid and pineal glands in females. The weight of adrenal glands of both males and females were most sensitive to changes in lighting.


This study looks at serial verb constructions in two dialects of the Western Desert language of Australia, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara. With a Role and Reference Grammar analysis, the paradigm allows us to look at the constituents for logical structure, and marking of macroroles. We find that core and peripheral argument phrases are marked by case with ergative nominal marking and accusative pronoun marking. Dependent marking is on the phrase level and there is no verb agreement for number, gender or person marking on the verb. Simple verbs use endings for tense, aspect, mood and status. The operator projection shows the nature of linkage between the verbs involved in multi verb structures. There is a serial participle marked on the members of these constructions and a finite verb that is typically clause final. We look at whether these meet the criteria for serial verb constructions and find that in some nuclear cases there is evidence that they do, with sharing of arguments and a single action implied. Serial verbs can form nuclear or clausal cosubordinate nexus junctures.


In this paper, I explore the ideal of self-cultivation as it confronts the holders of power and our practice and understanding of ethics and aesthetics. I begin with the field of social development as an illustrative case of field of power that is in urgent need of a reconstructive and transformative practice of self-development. I take the ethical deliberations in the field of development, that is, development ethics as an exemplar of ethical reflection today, and look at aesthetics through the contemporary quest of and reflections on self-cultivation. Then, I discuss the challenge of recognizing the face of the other that the radical alterity of poverty presents to the quest for freedom, exercise of power and the ideal of self-cultivation. Through a dialogue with the face of the other, I wish in this paper to move from a self-congratulatory view of freedom as an assertion of one's rights to the terrain of what Emmanuel Levinas calls "difficult freedom", and reiterate the imperative of responsibility that knocks at our door — an imperative that disturbs our slumber and urges for a "permanent wakefulness" in us. The mission of development ethics is to keep hope alive. By any purely rational calculus of future probabilities, the development enterprise of most countries is doomed to fail. Poor classes, nations, and individuals can never catch up with their rich counterparts as long as they continue to consume wastefully and to devise ideological justifications for not practicing solidarity with the less developed. Only some transcultural calculus of hope, situated beyond apparent realms of possibility, can elicit the creative energies and vision which authentic development for all requires.


FTIR study provides the most direct and definitive identification of fluoroquinolone and offer a means for qualitative analysis of newly synthesized fluroquinolone drug-Norfloxacin. The vibrational spectroscopy, such as FTIR has been used to measure the vibrational modes of fluoroquinolones, provides information about structural differences of its individual members. Form the interpreted spectral data norfloxacin has been distinguished by the presence of different substituents in their parent nucleus.


This research aims to determine teacher candidates' value perceptions and their opinions on the acquisition of values to teacher candidates, in education faculties. In the research, a survey model was used to describe an existing situation. In this context, a questionnaire was applied to 2274 teacher candidates. Research results show that the value perceptions of male teacher candidates are lower than female teacher candidates. The value perceptions of teacher candidates who chose the teaching profession because they had to, were lower than those who preferred it because they loved it. Perceptions of teacher candidates about the acquisition of values are low in the sub-dimensions of understanding and empathy, and medium in the other sub-dimensions. Teacher candidates' perceptions of the values that teachers should have are quite high in all sub-dimensions. Despite this, the scores regarding the acquisition of the same values in education faculties are statistically significantly lower and middle levels. These results indicate that the values cannot be gained enough in education faculties. Various suggestions were made in line with the research findings and results, and recommendations were made for future research.


A reinterpretation of the origin of subsurface rocks in southwestern Virginia and southeastern Kentucky suggests that, contrary to commonly accepted ideas, the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian Systemic boundary is an unconformity and the Lower Pennsylvanian quartz arenite sequences were deposited in a fluvial environment. Because Pennsylvanian strata of the Pocahontas and Lee Formations appear to have been deposited at the same time in adjacent valleys, the Pocahontas, which generally has been considered to be older and to underlie the Lee, is considered here to be equivalent to the basal part of the Middlesboro Member of the Lee Formation.


Organizational changes occur in many forms and affect employees and employers in various ways. Of these changes, downsizings and closures are common because they are viewed as cost effective ways to reappropriate funds to other areas of need. For many organizations, layoffs are deemed necessary in order to remain in business and competitive in the workforce (Kim, 2003).
The purpose of this study was to explore the channels of communication used by corporations in the New River Valley during layoffs that occurred as a result of downsizing or corporate closure. Fourteen participants, one manager who delivered layoff notices and thirteen employees who were laid off, took part in semi-structured interviews. Participants in the study were current and/or former construction workers, physician assistants, truck assembly plant workers, sewing machine operators, manufacturing plant workers, administrative assistants, chefs, explosive plant workers, and IT support. In addition to the interviews, examination of the organizations' corporate social responsibility stances and statements of value were coded and analyzed using content analysis. The results revealed that overall layoff victims were disappointed in the lack of communication surrounding the layoff process and many were left totally in the dark.
Ineffective communication habits from employers have long been linked to work environments and have caused increased absenteeism, disloyalty and disaffection. For a number of participants in the study, the poor and inconsistent communication habits at their jobs only worsened during the restructuring process. For many, the transitional period, combined with the lack of communication within the company, evoked feelings of confusion, insecurity, and anger.
Although Kline (2006) found that most layoff victims prefer clear, direct communication, this study revealed that many organizations in the New River Valley from which participants were laid off did not communicate clearly, if they communicated at all during the layoff process. Failure to communicate during such crucial times cultivated an issue for the employees. An issue is characterized as a gap between corporate actions and stakeholder expectations (Berg & Feldner, 2017). Victims of layoffs in the NRV took issue with their employers' failure to communicate the unfavorable direction of the companies and, ultimately, their individual employment status.
Since layoffs and unemployment have sadly become characteristic of the New River Valley, it was surprising that little research existed on the communication tactics used by local businesses. This study sought to gain a better understanding of the layoff communication practices from the perspective of employees and employers. The data from the interviewees' experiences and the literature on humane downsizing were used to compile best practice suggestions for future use, in the case that organizations in the New River Valley are faced with laying off employees.
 Still to this day, layoff remains one of the most common methods of downsizing used by organizations (Walker, 2015). While employees can accept the highs and lows of the economy, what they cannot accept is the uncertainty that accompanies a workplace plagued with layoff rumors. Employees want their organizations to demonstrate humane, sensible and responsible approaches to layoffs.
The study can contribute to positive social change by identifying methods for organizational leaders to manage impacts of layoffs and implement effective communication strategies that may lead to reduced confusion, anger, and pain for laid off employees and a more productive work environment for surviving employees and managers.


The UGent Institutional Repository is the electronic archiving and dissemination platform for all UGent research publications. Ghent University has implemented a mandate stipulating that all academic publications of UGent researchers should be deposited and archived in this repository. Except for items where current copyright restrictions apply, these papers are available in Open Access.  This item is the archived peer‐reviewed author‐version of: The Cellular Interactions of PEGylated Gold Nanoparticles: Effect of PEGylation on Cellular Uptake and Cytotoxicity


The Gambling Act 2005 reformed the gambling market with far-reaching implications for the market as a whole, and casino gambling in particular. A small survey was conducted in Swansea to review community perceptions of casinos in their locality. This paper examines the alleged benefits of gambling and to discuss the concern that the Gambling Act will be likely to harm those who are most deprived and vulnerable in society. This paper explores the advantages and disadvantages to the establishment of a casino and its perceived impacts on local families and communities. Issues such as fear of an increase in crime and increases in poverty, ill-health and family breakdown were all important to respondents and are discussed in this paper. In summary, the majority of all respondents had a negative attitude towards gambling, which reflects the findings of the British Gambling Prevalence Survey. During conversations it became evident that the respondents' attitudes towards the casino gambling were formed based on their perceptions and images of a casino and the gambling industry in general. A lot of respondents said that their perceptions of Internet gambling were predominantly based on the media reporting. Some of the respondents mentioned that their personal gambling experiences and observations had also shaped their opinions on the survey responses.


Niche markets of agricultural products are experiencing rapid growth. One such market is organic pork. Organic production typically demands specific production conditions that can be cost increasing. This study evaluates the cost of organic pork production, seasonal differences in costs, and premiums necessary to induce continuous organic pork production. In the past few years, niche marketing has been a rapidly growing phenomenon in agriculture. One area that has experienced dramatic growth is the production of organic products. Organic production typically brings with it specific conditions on how the product is produced. These can impact the cost structure of the business and in turn, needed premiums for economic production. One of these niche markets that are growing rapidly is the market for organic pork. A major issue in organic pork production is the differing cost structures across the seasons of the year which relates, in part, to the types of production systems allowed or disallowed. Studies have shown that consumers are very conscientious of product price, freshness, and availability. In the production of organic pork, we are able to demonstrate that there are cost savings to the producer by producing a seasonal product over a continuous product. While this allows for a lower cost for the producer, it causes an uneven pig flow problem throughout the vertical chain which affects packers, marketers, and consumers. The packers are affected by having their plants at full capacity only part of the year. For the consumer, there are certain times of the year when the product is in surplus and other times when it is in shortage causing prices to fluctuate greatly. This implies that both the consumer and the packer may have an incentive to induce the producer to provide a continuous supply of organic pork to the market. This study has two objectives. The first is to provide a detailed analysis of the producer's cost of producing organic pork in a seasonal and continuous production system. The second objective is to develop a premium structure that could induce a producer to adopt a continuous production system. The study addresses the issue by examining the increase of costs involved in expanding a seasonal (summer only farrowing) organic pork production system to continuous production of organic hogs. Production costs differ by production system and season of the year. Organic pork production cost per hundred pounds is projected to be $59.45 for the seasonal system. The seasonal system consists of farrowing in the summer time only. This cost can be compared to a continuous system of organic pork production with a cost of $63.88 per hundred pounds. The continuous system has farrowing occurring in both the winter and summer seasons. With the current premium structures for organic pork, there are more hogs being produced using summer farrowing than by winter farrowing. Consumers prefer a more uniform supply of fresh pork. To foster a more uniform supply of fresh organic pork throughout the year, premiums received by producers need to reflect the seasonal production costs differences. Our results show that if the producer is paid the continuous system's cost of production of $63.88, the producer would have an incentive to produce only seasonal hogs. To induce the producer to provide a continuous flow of hogs, a minimum premium of $7.47 beyond the seasonal price must be paid to the producer for producing hogs in the winter, and a premium of $1.66 must be paid in the summer. An alternative is that the producer would receive no premium for summer production and a premium of $9.13 per hundred pounds over the seasonal production costs to induce the producer to produce a continuous supply of hogs.


Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) specific activity was assayed using diaphragm muscles obtained from mature adult (10 months) and aged (25– 27 months) rats. Biochemical assays indicated significant age-related increases in the AChE specific activity of both noninnervated and innervated tissue. The different molecular forms of AChE were separated by velocity sedimentation and were further assayed. The age-related increase was manifest primarily in the 10S (G4) form in both noninnervated and innervated tissue and also the 16S (A12) form of the noninnervated samples. To ascertain more conclusively whether AChE activity in the end-plate junctional region of innervated tissue changed in the older rats, miniature end-plate currents (m.e.p.c.s) were recorded under voltage-clamp conditions before and after AChE inhibition. When AChE activity was inhibited by 10 microM echothiopate or 1 mM methanesulfonyl fluoride, m.e.p.c. amplitudes and decay time constants increased in both age groups. The magnitude of these increases was larger in the older animals. However, calculations of the relative change in m.e.p.c. amplitudes after AChE inhibition indicated that less ACh was hydrolyzed by AChE in the older animals. Inhibition of AChE did not affect mean channel open time, which was estimated from spectral analyses of ACh-induced membrane noise. These data indicate that the prolonged decay times in the older rats following AChE inhibition is quite likely due to an expanded field of postsynaptic ACh receptors and not exclusively to a change in junctional AChE.


The endeavour to optimize HCI should integrate a wide array of user characteristics that have an effect throughout users' interactions with a system. Human factors such as cognitive traits and current state, from a psychological point of view, are undoubtedly significant in the shaping of the perceived and objective quality of interactions with a system. The research that is presented in this paper focuses on identifying human factors that relate to users' performance in Web applications that involve information processing, and a framework of personalization rules that are expected to increase users' performance is depicted. The empirical results that are presented are derived from environments both learning and commercial; in the case of e-learning personalization was beneficial, while the interaction with a commercial site needs to be further investigated due to the implicit character of information processing in the Web.


A technique is described and experimental evidence presented for obtaining ultrahigh isolation between the optical local oscillator and the transmitter in heterodyne systems. A degree of isolation that results in an equivalent fed-back optical signal that is more than 200 dB below the transmitted power level has been achieved.


I read with interest Dixit's review article concerning the liver and (OC) oral contraceptives (Can J Surg 23:222, 1980), and I think attention should be drawn to 1 or 2 possibly erroneous generalizations and inaccuracies. The author refers to both OCs and menopausal replacement medications and lists a group of general long-term effects which he describes as being common. In fact their rate of occurrence is quite low. Endometrial carcinoma has been reported to be associated with estrone sulfate therapy but not with combined estrogen-progesterone OCs; however, Silverberg and Makowski reported several cases of endometrial carcinoma associated with the use of the sequential OC Oracon, a product containing dimethisterone. Sequential agents are no longer used and indeed it is possible that combination agents may have a protective effect vis-a-vis endometrial carcinoma. Further, it is confusing to state that estrogen may be causally associated with carcinoma of the cervix; this was not the intent of the quoted article. All currently used OCs contain 19-nortestosterones but substituted progesterones have been used in the past. The progestins that have been used are numerous but should include norithisterone and d-norgestrel, the latter being 1 of the most widely used synthetic progestins. Estrogens are currently used in doses as low as 0.02 mg, and 0.035 mg doses are usual. The plasma coagulation proteins are indeed elevated (page 225) but in addition to those mentioned, factors 5 and 8 should have been included. In the section on changes in pregnancy (page 226), "increased serum fibrinogen" is mentioned. Surely the author means "plasma fibrinogen," as serum is totally devoid of that particular protein. This very comprehensive review emphasizes the effect of these potent agents on hepatic function in general. In view of the elevation of coagulation protein levels produced by OCs (and the consequent tendency to hypercoagulability), it might be interesting to ask general surgeons how frequently they discontinue OC medication before they perform elective surgery.


BACKGROUND
The management of sickle cell disease (SCD) has remained insurmountable in developing countries such as Uganda, because most communities are not aware of it.

OBJECTIVE
To determine knowledge gaps, attitudes and beliefs of the communities about sickle cell disease in Eastern and Western Uganda.

DESIGN
Cross sectional descriptive study.

SETTING
The districts of Sironko and Mbale in Eastern Uganda and Mbarara and Ntungamo in Western Uganda.

SUBJECTS
Households, students and health workers.

RESULTS
Household respondents from Eastern Uganda were more aware of SCD than those from Western (p < 0.001), with the majority reporting that they had seen more people with SCD in their communities than those from the West (p < 0.001). Fewer (< 1.9%) believed SCD was due to witch craft. Eight per cent of household respondents in Eastern believed it was a curse from God compared to 2% in the West. Less than 18% of the household respondents knew they could have children with SCD and (< 52%) of health workers knew SCD screening methods. Fewer (< 14%) of the health workers had participated in screening. Less than 20% of the respondents knew their sickle cell status.

CONCLUSION
Respondents from Eastern Uganda were more aware of SCD than those from Western. Minority of the respondents knew their SCD status and few health staff knew how to screen it. There is need to sensitise communities and policy makers about prevention, screening and treatment of SCD.


Purpose Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the lysyl oxidase like-1 gene (LOXL1; rs1048661 and rs3825942) were found to confer risk to pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (XFG) through the pseudoexfoliation syndrome (XFS) in Nordic, Caucasian, and two Asiatic populations (Indian and Japanese). The prevalence (0.2%–0.7%) of XFS in the Chinese is considerably lower compared to Nordic populations. The aim of this study was to determine the association of LOXL1 in Chinese subjects with XFS/XFG. Methods Chinese subjects with clinically diagnosed XFS/XFG and normal controls were recruited. Genomic DNA was extracted, and the two LOXL1 SNPs (rs1048661 and rs3825942) were genotyped by bidirectional sequencing. Allele and genotype frequencies were compared between cases and unrelated controls using PLINK. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) calculations and haplotype association analysis were done using the Haploview package and WHAP package, respectively. Results Sixty-two Chinese patients (17 XFG and 45 XFS) and 171 Chinese controls were studied. The G allele of LOXL1 SNP rs3825942 was moderately associated (OR=10.97, p=0.0018) with pseudoxfoliation in the Chinese. The frequency of the G allele of rs1048661 was not significantly different in cases compared to controls (p=0.142) in the allelic association test. However, the genotype test showed marginal association for rs1048661 (p=0.030). Only three haplotypes were observed (T-G, G-G, and G-A) with G-G as a risk haplotype (p=0.0034) and G-A as a protective haplotype (p=0.00039). T-G, which was a risk haplotype in the Japanese, was not associated with XFG in the Chinese (p=0.124). Conclusions Polymorphisms in LOXL1 confer risk to XFS/XFG in the Chinese. The lower incidence of XFS compared to other populations suggests additional genetic or environmental factors to have a major influence on the phenotypic expression of XFS in the Chinese. The G allele of rs3825942 has been shown to be associated with XFS/XFG in all populations studied to date.


A new book explores how a community in southern Africa has turned to genetic testing to advance a claim to Jewish ancestry. The reviewer puts the episode in the broader context of diverse Jewish groups across the continent for whom religion is a matter of practice, not just identity.


Efficient serial decoding schedules for LDPC codes are described. The schedules are based on dividing the Tanner graph to sub-graphs. This yields an improvement in complexity and performance over the standard schedules. An application of the introduced schedules to decoding codes based on lifted graphs is described. An analysis based on density evolution is presented and is used to predict the behavior of different schedules.


According to the Oxford dictionary the word "dual" means being twofold. In philosophy there is the theory of "dualism" that argues that any domain of reality is always underpinned by two independent, opposing principles, for example, mind and matter, form and content, idealism and materialism, etc. In many of the theologies and religions of the world we also find the pervasive idea that the forces of good and evil are equally balanced in the universe. Another common idea is that of the dual nature of human beings, existing both in body and spirit. In the Christian doctrine there is also the belief in the dual personality of Christ (human and divine). Traditional Chinese philosophy similarly believes that there is both an active male (yang) and passive female (yin) principle in the universe, which is beautifully embodied in the symmetric yin-yang as shown in Figure 1.


This article discusses the concept of globalisation as a neoliberal ideology with materialist consequences for universities. It distinguishes between globalisation and internationalisation, emphasising that in globalisation there is the transcendence of the nation to establish a borderless economy. It describes how universities are seeking to be transnational players in this global economy. The article uses Sklair's (2001) four criteria to measure globalisation: foreign direct investment, world best practice, corporate citizenship, and global vision. This article applies those four criteria to universities. For example, it describes how universities make foreign investments in off-shore campuses to produce export dollars as a means to survive their declining budgets from the government. It also shows how adopting benchmarking as a world best practice is used to demonstrate the quality of their institutions. These practices appear to be taken up by globalising professionals without thinking about the long-term goals of universities and may do irreparable damage to the integrity of these universities. It urges academics to become involved in the critical debate about globalisation and its effects on universities and on the wider community.


In Pakistan, the F1 seed production ranks very low in the three-line system. One of the reasons is poor panicle exertion and less out crossing rate in the female lines. Gibbrillic Acid (GA3) increase the seed and improve panicle exertion as well as outcrossing. This study was designed to identify the suitable doses of GA3 application in the seed multiplication block of different CMS lines. The material comprising both the parental lines (cytoplasmic male sterility and maintainer) used in the development of hybrid rice. GA3 powder used in the experiment is 90% concentration in three level concentration that is 0, 100, 200, ppm. The outcomes indicated that GA3 positively increased plant height, stigma exertion, panicle exertion, duration of floret opening, angle of floret opening and panicle length. Increased seed production is 0.3 to 1 t/ha compared to the control (0 ppm GA3). Application of GA3 concentration at the rate of 200ppm gave the best results as compared to the other treatments like control and 100 ppm in all the tested CMS lines increased productivity. So, 200 ppm concentration is recommended in seed multiplication of parental lines used in hybrid rice development.

 Key words:  Hybrid rice, CMS lines, GA3, seed multiplication.


This article explores the impact of the digitization of traditional works of art on the aesthetic experience from a philosophical point of view. Presenting and making use of a recent approach in the philosophy of technology, initiated by the American philosopher Don Ihde, called postphenomenology. This hybrid form of phenomenology builds on traditional phenomenology and combines it with a pragmatic approach in order to focus on the mediating roles of technology. Concrete technologies and applications such as screens and virtual museums are the starting point for our examination of the specific character of these digital media, which are then compared with their physical referents. Following Ihde's arguments, we show that digital image technologies, and digital images themselves, are not merely functional, but shape perceptions and experiences. Although currently the positive effects and opportunities of these new applications are emphasized in the field – for collection management, the democratization and accessibility of art, possibilities to interact and intervene in the image, efficient marketing, etc. – they do have a significant impact on the way in which art is experienced.


Despite the vast literature on healing in African contexts, comparatively little is known about historical use of popular species in herbal medicines. Given the prominence of plants in healers' assemblages past and present, the lack of attention to plant origins, how practitioners acquire them, and to beliefs surrounding these processes, is surprising. This study, at the interface between archaeology and anthropology, approaches these issues through qualitative interviews and an ethnopharmacological survey with thirty healing specialists in a migrant community in Accra, Ghana. Over two seasons of fieldwork in 2010 and 2011, 141 unique plant-based medicines were documented, with samples of all constituent ingredients collected and botanically identified. Analysis of the ethnopharmacological results revealed 15% of species in the sample were botanically 'exotic': introduced, non-local plants found outside their native distributional range. Given that healers typically define their medicines as 'traditional and ancestral', such 'exotic' provenance is significant. This paper uses ethnography to explore contemporary assimilation of exotic plants at herbal markets, and in the beliefs and practices of individual healers. Drawing on historic and archaeological sources, these findings are used interpretively to broaden possible perspectives on introduction of new plants within the materia medica of West Africa over time.


We have used serum-deprived cultures of wild type and genetically modified PC12 cells to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which monosialoganglioside (GM1) rescues neuronal cells from apoptotic death elicited by withdrawal of trophic support. Our findings indicate that GM1-promoted survival can be mediated in part by the Trk NGF receptor as well as by TrkB, and potentially by tyrosine kinase receptors for additional neurotrophic growth factors. Experiments employing K-252a, an inhibitor of Trk kinases, and PC12 cells overexpressing a dominant inhibitory form of Trk both indicate that a portion of the survival-promoting activity of GM1 is evoked by receptor dimerization and autophosphorylation. In consonance with this we find that GM1 stimulates Trk tyrosine autophosphorylation and Trk-associated protein kinase activity. These observations may provide a mechanism to account for the reported in vitro and in vivo trophic actions of GM1.


Integrated Research for Beppu Haneyama Fault Zone (East part of Oita Plain to Yufuin Fault) in central Kyushu started on 2014 as one of Integrated Research Project for Active Fault Systems of MEXT. We need more precise study on fault distribution, latest event in and around Beppu Bay region and relationship with western end of Median Tectonic Line for understanding of Beppu Haneyama Fault Zone.  We carry out geomorphological, geological and geophysical researches on the basis of existing research findings. Obtained new data on geomorphology and geology will let us know new findings on precise location and activity of fault in and around Beppu Bay area. Moreover, new geophysical data on subsurface structure indicate size and motion of earthquake fault reached to the earthquake occurrence layer, and we also calculate precisely ground motion on the basis of precise subsurface structure and earthquake fault model.  Research group consists of about 40 researchers of Kyoto University, Kyushu University, Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and related Institutions, and also three sub-groups on the basis of methodology and science target. Subtheme group 1: Research on precise location and shape of active fault, and average slip rate and event age. Subtheme group 2: Research on three dimensional structure and subsurface structure of fault zone and the area. Subtheme group 3: Research on establishment of subsurface structure model and evaluation of ground motion. The result during 2014 fiscal year will be presented in the session.


A hundred research priorities of critical importance to protected area management were identified by a targeted survey of conservation professionals; half researchers and half practitioners. Respondents were selected to represent a range of disciplines, every continent except Antarctica and roughly equal numbers of men and women. The results analysed thematically and grouped as potential research topics as by both practitioners and researchers. Priority research gaps reveal a high interest to demonstrate the role of protected areas within a broader discussion about sustainable futures and if and how protected areas can address a range of conservation and socio-economic challenges effectively. The paper lists the hundred priorities structured under broad headings of management, ecology, governance and social (including political and economic issues) and helps contribute to setting future research agendas.


Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) comprise a heterogeneous group of diseases with different clinical presentation and morphologic, immunophenotypic and cytogenetic markers. Many of these malignancies follow an aggressive course and current therapeutic strategies are limited. The prognosis for these patients is usually very poor. The purine analogues are a class of drugs that have been shown to be active in patients who have T-cell lymphoma. T-cells have a very high concentration of adenosine deaminase, a key enzyme in the purine degradation pathway, which is blocked by this class of agent. Pentostatin has been the most extensively studied in PTCL and has shown variable response rates. However, many of the reports are limited to small single-center studies. Larger prospective randomized trials will be necessary to examine this therapy and to further explore combination regimens, which may result in increased responses.


The childhood and adolescence is an important period for establishing lifelong health. If parents want their children to live a healthy life, they should fix their children a nutritionally balanced diet and they should encourage their children to have a healthy eating habits and active physical activity. The beginning of lifelong health should be breastfeeding which reinforces immunity. What parents need to do is preparing nutritionally balanced meals at certain place at regular times. Children themselves control the amount of food they need to take. The parents should be a role model of their children to improve their childrens' healthy lifestyle. After 2 years of age, fat intake must be gradually decreased to 30~35% of total energy intake. The parents should limit their children eating saturated or trans fatty acids. Sweet or salty taste should be given as late as possible, and the parents should make efforts to give their children fruits and vegetables at each meal. Also they have to serve milk, dairy products, beans, tofu which are abundant of calcium. Traditionally, physicians has been treating sick children but nowadays physicians have to ask about childrens' health before anything else and inform the parents what to do to keep their children healthy.


Experiments were performed to investigate the release behavior of potassium and sodium in the biomass high-temperature entrained-flow gasification with the addition of acid oxide SiO2, basic oxide MgO, amphoteric oxide Al2O3. The results showed that the volatilization of alkali was found to strongly depend on temperature. High gasification temperature strengthened the alkali release. When the reactor temperature was 1200°C, the volatilization of alkali species were about 37.87% for K and 71.14% for Na. Three additives all favored the retention of potassium and sodium and the content of water-soluble potassium and sodium in the ash. Among the three additives, MgO had the best retention effect. The potassium and sodium content in the gas phase was as low as 46.6% and 67.3% compared with raw straw, respectively. In the entrained-flow gasification with short residence time, the additives retained more alkali metals by the physical and chemical adsorption. Part of the additive utilized as physical adsorbent during the gasification enhanced the ash melting point of the residue carbon.


The adsorption of the strong polyelectrolyte poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS) to the air surface of dilute aqueous solutions was investigated as a function of molecular weight and salt concentration. Detailed segment profiles of the deuterated polymer were determined by neutron reflection. Surface activity was also examined through surface tension measurements. In general, the segment profiles are composed of a thin layer (10-20 A thick) of high concentration at the air surface, followed by a distinct second layer of much lower segment concentration that extends to larger depths into the liquid. The high segment density at the air surface is due to a strong surface attraction, arising from the low surface energy of the PSS backbone relative to the surface tension of water. At low salt concentration, the profiles tend toward a single dense layer, suggesting that the chains lie nearly flat at the interface in that limit. The adsorbed amount increases with salt concentration, with a stronger dependence for higher molecular weight chains. The adsorbed amounts at the air/water interface are higher than reported previously for PSS adsorbed onto neutral solid surfaces, consistent with the fact that the air-liquid interface provides a stronger surface attraction. While the trends of adsorbed amount with salt concentration and molecular weight are in good agreement with numerical self-consistent-field lattice calculations, the measured bilayer profiles are rather different from the smoothly decaying theoretical profiles. The surface tensions of the PSS solutions are significantly lowered relative to those of pure salt solutions. Combining the reflectivity and surface tension measurements, an approximately linear relationship is established between the surface pressure and the PSS adsorbed amount.


We study Monge's optimal transportation problem, where the cost is given by an optimal control cost. We prove the existence and uniqueness of an optimal map under certain regularity conditions on the Lagrangian, absolute continuity of the measures with respect to Lebesgue, and most importantly the absence of sharp abnormal minimizers. In particular, this result is applicable in the case of subriemannian manifolds with a 2-generating distribution and cost given by d 2 , where d is the subriemannian distance. Also, we discuss some properties of the optimal plan when abnormal minimizers are present. Finally, we consider some examples of displacement interpolation in the case of the Grushin plane.


. Entity matching aims at identifying records in different data sources that describe the same real-world entity. Entity matching is the foundational technique for setting RDF links in the context of the Web of Data. By applying active learning methods for training entity matchers, it is possible to reduce the human labeling effort by selecting informative record pairs for labeling. Although active learning has been extensively studied for the two-data source matching case, it was only recently applied for the task of matching records in multi-source settings, such as the Web of Data. A multi-source matching task has certain inherent characteristics which do not apply for two-source matching tasks and which can be exploited by the active learning query strategy to further reduce the labeling effort. In this paper, we propose a set of profiling dimensions which capture these inherent characteristics of multi-source matching tasks and study their impact on the performance of different active learning methods for training entity matchers. To enable our analysis, we develop ALMSERgen, a multi-source matching task generator and curate a continuum of 252 matching tasks along the suggested profiling dimensions. We use the generated as well as five benchmark tasks to compare the performance of three query strategies: a committee-based strategy, a graph-based strategy, and a strategy that exploits grouping signals. Our results show that graph signals are relevant for multi-source matching tasks involving a large amount of records describing the same-real world entities with heterogeneous attribute values while using grouping signals is beneficial if there exists a small number of groups of matching tasks sharing the same underlying patterns.


Methotrexate (MTX) is a chemotherapeutic agent with certain side effects. Efforts were made to synthesize analogues of MTX to enhance the activity and reduce side effects. Various derivatives were synthesized by structural modification of parent drug and mainly assayed for anticancer activity and binding affinity with dihydrofolatereductase (DHFR) and folylpolyglutamate synthetase (FPGS). In vitro study was carried out on cell lines CCRF. CEM, ATCC8, L. Casei, P388, L1210, L1210/R81, and H35. These synthesized derivatives have been assayed for human squamous cell carcinoma namely SSC25, SSC68, SSC78, SSC25/R1, SSC68/R1, and SSC78/R1. Some modification proved to enhance anticancer activity while others are detrimental. Some of derivatives were also tested for other biological activity like anti-malarial, anti-bacterial and anti-diabetic and show better activity. This article deals with a comprehensive overview of the synthesized derivatives by structural modifications and the impact of these modifications on its activity.


This book is a collection of essays which investigate the current status of dialogue between Jews and Christians. The author argues that Jews have been reluctant to engage in any but the most cursitory conversations with Christians, but that there are positive reasonings for going further. A Jewish Appraisal of Dialogu argues that a certain attitude is necessary for coherant relations. Contents: Preface; Acknowledgments; On the Reluctance of Jews to Discuss Religious Truths; Why Jews Ought to Engage in Dialogue; Expositions From the Lord's Table: Typology and Midrash; Jewish-Christian Relations and the Thought of Samuel Sandmel; Confrontation or Conversation?: Models for Jewish-Christian Dialogue; Jews and Catholics Discussing Bible and Jesus; Two Popular Jewish Interpretations of Jesus; is There a Jewish Reclamation of Jesus?; Rosenzweigian Mediations on Paganism, Anti-Judaism, the Holocaust and Rejudaization of the Church, Noahide Laws, Christian Covenants and Jewish Expectations; A Note on the Friends of Israel and the Jews; Scratch a Goy.


Background Aplastic anaemia comes from a bone marrow failure which affects all blood lineages. Treatment is based on immunosuppression or allogeneic transplant, but some patients are refractory to these options. Eltrombopag, a thrombopoietin receptor agonist administered orally, promotes megakaryopoiesis and platelet release. Purpose To assess eltrombopag effectiveness as off-label treatment for immunosuppression-refractory aplastic anaemia. Material and methods A 10-month (1/12/2013–30/09/2014) retrospective study was carried out including immunosuppression-refractory aplastic anaemia patients who weren't allotransplantation candidates. After approval by the Regional Committee for drug use under Special Circumstances, each patient received different eltrombopag doses. In order to assess the effect, data were gathered from platelet count at baseline and subsequently, considering the response positive when the platelet count increased enough to avoid transfusion. Clinical data were obtained from the patient's history and from Outpatient records. Results We recovered data from two patients (male, aged 26 and 34) diagnosed with aplastic anaemia refractory to anti-thymocyte globulin, ciclosporin and high-dose steroids. Neither of them were candidates for allotransplantation. Initial dose was 50 mg/day, causing a platelet count increase of 7 and 272 mill/mm 3 after three weeks. Then, doses were modified according to current response to an average of 6.25 mg/day, reaching counts of 5–125 mill/mm 3 (average 44.33 mill/mm 3 ) in one patient and 1–553 mill/m 3 (average 139.76 mill/mm 3 ) in the other. The average treatment length was 6.75 months. Those results are similar, even better, to the ones shown in a phase-II study (Olnes et al , 2012) involving 25 patients with the same diagnosis and dose (response in 44%, average increase 44.0 mill/mm 3 , nine of them transfusion independent). Conclusion Both patients reached platelet counts higher than 100 mill/mm 3 , avoiding transfusions and their associated risks, with an improvement in their quality of life. Because of the unavailability of other treatments for this kind of patients, the off-label use of eltrombopag is a promising alternative when there's little chance of cure. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the frequency of autologous and alloplastic ear reconstructions for patients with microtia in the United States, and describe post-index procedure rates associated with each method.

DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING
Claims data from 500 + hospitals from IBM® MarketScan® Commercial and Multi-State Medicaid databases.

PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS
A total of 649 patients aged 1 to 17 years with International Classification of Diseases, ninth/tenth revision (ICD-9/10) diagnoses for microtia, congenital absence of the ear, or hemifacial microsomia.

INTERVENTIONS
Alloplastic or autologous ear reconstruction between 2006 and 2018.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Post-index procedures performed within 1 year following the index repair, analyzed across the study period and separately for each half of the study period (2006-2012, 2012-2018).

RESULTS
A total of 486 (75%) qualifying patients received autologous and 163 (25%) received alloplastic reconstruction. Secondary procedure rates were significantly higher in the autologous group at 90 days (P = .034), 180 days (P < .001), and at 365 days (P < .001). Alloplastic reconstruction accounted for 23.2% of reconstructions in the first half of the study period compared with 26.7% in the second half (P = .319). One-year secondary procedure rates in the autologous group were not significantly different between both halves of the study period (69.7% vs 67.1%, P = .558), but were significantly lower in the second half for the alloplastic group (44.9% vs 20.2%, P = .001).

CONCLUSIONS
In these databases, autologous reconstruction is more common than alloplastic reconstruction. Autologous reconstruction is staged, with most undergoing a secondary procedure between 3 months and 1 year postoperatively. Secondary procedure rates decreased over time in patients undergoing alloplastic reconstruction.


We studied the relation of carboxyhemoglobin concentration in the fetus, [HbCOf], to that of the pregnant mother, [HbCOm], and inspired CO concentrations in unanesthetized sheep. We exposed ewes with catheters chronically implanted in maternal and fetal blood vessels to varying inspired CO concentrations. At 30 parts per million (ppm) CO, [HbCOm] increased from base-line levels of about 1.1% to about 4.6% over a course of 8-10 h. [HbCOf] increased more slowly from base-line values of 1.8% to steady-state values of 7.4% by 36-48 h. At 50 ppm, steady-state [HbCOm] = 7.2% and [HbCOf] = 11.3%. At 100 ppm, steady-state [HbCOm] = 12.2%, [HbCOf] = 19.8%. The increase in [HbCOm] resembled a simple exponential process with a half-time of 1.5 h. The time for [HbCOf] to reach half its final value was 5 h. The decay curve for CO elimination showed similar reactions, with fetal washout occurring slower than in the mother. Elevated [HbCOf] significantly decreased the PO2 values in the fetal descending aorta and inferior vena cava. These decreases in PO2 values can cause hypoxia and fetal death.


In Native Village of Point Hope v. Jewell, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management did not have to include information on animal populations in its environmental impact statement ("EIS") at the lease-sale stage of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act oil and gas development program. Federal agencies are required to complete an EIS before conducting a major federal action. This process ensures that decision-makers take a hard look at adverse environmental impacts. The Ninth Circuit concluded in Native Village of Point Hope that coverage of animal populations is not "essential" in an early-stage "programmatic" EIS, but may be appropriate at a later stage. This Comment argues that the Ninth Circuit should have followed the lead of its own precedent in holding that the missing information about animal populations is "essential" in early-stage programmatic EIS, in order to maintain consistency, transparency, and predictability in the federal courts. Moreover, it would have ensured that agencies fully evaluate the environmental impacts of offshore oil production before making critical decisions.


Brazil has one of the most diverse herpetofauna and snakebites are an important health issue. The oral cavity of snakes harbored a wide range of bacteria. Enterococci have been isolated from animals, however, few studies have taken in snakes. In this sense, the present study aimed to evaluate Enterococcus spp. and their virulence attributes including antimicrobial resistance in oral cavities of healthy snake species in Brazil. Oral swabs from wild and Int J Plant Anim Environ Sci 2021; 11 (3): 503-523 DOI: 10.26502/ijpaes.202118 International Journal of Plant, Animal and Environmental Sciences Vol. 11 No. 3 – September 2021 504 captive snakes were screened for enterococci distribution, antimicrobial susceptibility, resistance and virulence genes, and CRISPRs elements by PCR. Overall, 116 enterococci were detected and Enterococcus faecalis was dominant in all snake species, followed by E. faecium, E. avium, and E. hirae. Interestingly, no resistant enterococci were detected in wild snakes. In contrast, captive snakes were found to be carriers of resistant strains, including resistance to erythromycin, rifampicin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, and tetracycline. Enterococcus faecium (50%) and E. faecalis (15.78%) isolates were multidrug-resistant. Erythromycin resistance genes, the msrC and ermB, were detected in 13.33% and 6.67% of the isolates, respectively. The tetM (70%), tetL (30%) and tetS (10%) genes were detected in the tetracycline-resistant strains. Among the virulence genes, gelE was the most frequent in all strains. CRISPR1-cas, orphan CRISPR2, and CRISPR3-cas elements were present in 16.03%, 15.79%, and 18.31% of the isolates, respectively. No antibiotic resistance was associated with CRISPRs. In conclusion, resistant enterococci in captive snakes are the result of confinement, antibiotic therapy and human contact. Resistant bacteria in captive snakes provide crucial information about public health safety.


Categorical quantum mechanics is a way of formalising the structural features of quantum theory using category theory. It uses compound systems as the primitive notion, which is formalised by using symmetric monoidal categories. This leads to an elegant formalism for describing quantum protocols such as quantum teleportation. In particular, categorical quantum mechanics provides a graphical calculus that exposes the information flow of such protocols in an intuitive way. However, the graphical calculus also reveals surprising features of these protocols; for example, in the quantum teleportation protocol, information appears to flow `backwards-in-time'. This leads to question of how causal structure can be described within categorical quantum mechanics, and how this might lead to insight regarding the structural compatibility between quantum theory and relativity. This thesis is concerned with the project of formalising causal structure in categorical quantum mechanics. We begin by studying an abstract view of Bell-type experiments, as described by `no-signalling boxes', and we show that under time-reversal no-signalling boxes generically become signalling. This conflicts with the underlying symmetry of relativistic causal structure. This leads us to consider the framework of categorical quantum mechanics from the perspective of relativistic causal structure. We derive the properties that a symmetric monoidal category must satisfy in order to describe systems in such a background causal structure. We use these properties to define a new type of category, and this provides a formal framework for describing protocols in spacetime. We explore this new structure, showing how it leads to an understanding of the counter-intuitive information flow of protocols in categorical quantum mechanics. We then find that the formal properties of our new structure are naturally related to axioms for reconstructing quantum theory, and we show how a reconstruction scheme based on purification can be formalised using the structures of categorical quantum mechanics. Finally, we discuss the philosophical aspects of using category theory to describe fundamental physics. We consider a recent argument that category-theoretic formulations of physics, such as categorical quantum mechanics, can be used to support a variant of structural realism. We argue against this claim. The work of this thesis suggests instead that the philosophy of categorical quantum mechanics is subtler than either operationalism or realism.


An alternative process of extracting energy from fossil fuels (coal, biomass, hydrocarbons, etc.) without the emission of CO2 is possible with nonequilibrium plasma. Apart from CO and CO2, there exists carbon suboxide (C3O2)—a solid carbon oxide, which can be polymerized to form chemically and thermodynamically stable substances. This article describes a novel process of extracting the energy from fossil fuels without the emission of CO2 while producing hydrogen and carbon suboxide (a reddish, brown polymer), an important constituent of organic fertilizers. This approach has the capability of avoiding drawbacks associated with combustion of fossil fuels, such as CO2 emission. The conversion processes of a hydrocarbon feedstock (n-butane) and characterization of the byproduct of the conversion process with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy are discussed. Thermodynamic calculation of energy efficiencies of conversion of readily available hydrocarbon feedstocks such as biomass, natural gas, and low quality coal (lignite and peat) into hydrogen and carbon suboxide is also discussed. Thermodynamic results calculated show energy efficiency of up to 78% for producing carbon suboxide from various hydrocarbon feedstocks when compared to energy efficiency of producing syngas (100%).


The theory of holomorphic foliations has its origins in the study of differential equations on the complex plane, and has turned into a powerful tool in algebraic geometry. One of the fundamental problems in the theory is to find conditions that guarantee that the leaves of a holomorphic foliation are algebraic. These correspond to algebraic solutions of differential equations. In this paper we discuss algebraic integrability criteria for holomorphic foliations in terms of positivity of its tangent sheaf, and survey the theory of Fano foliations, developed in a series of papers in collaboration with Stéphane Druel. We end by classifying all possible leaves of del Pezzo foliations.


The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on the modern monetary arrangements from a Marxist perspectives, following the recent developments of the Marxist theory of world money. The paper treats the US Dollar as a primus inter pares quasi-world money and challenges the argument of the US hegemony by exploring the behavior of major capitalist states and selected developing countries as far as their official international reserves are concerned. The findings reveal a clear pattern in the behavior of major capitalist states in terms of size and forms, although the degree varies implying a hierarchical structure of the corresponding quasi-world moneys. Although part of a vast literature on international reserves, the analysis focuses on developed countries and treats them individually. The merit of this approach is that it reveals the above mentioned pattern which is blurred when Japan is included. The results imply that current international monetary arrangements promote multipolarity and competition in the geopolitical scene, the evolution of which is historical.


In this paper, we discuss a new technology implemented with all single wafer process for 300 mm fab. Very aggressive cycle time reduction with high yield has been demonstrated (one-third cycle time of that of conventional fab) in single polysilicon triple metal 8M/4M low power SRAM. High performance devices with excellent reliability are also achieved.


Many real-world planning problems require generating plans that maximize the parallelism inherent in a problem. There are a number of partial-order planners that generate such plans; however, in most of these planners it is unclear under what conditions the resulting plans will be correct and whether the planner can even find a plan if one exists. This paper identifies the underlying assumptions about when a partial plan can be executed in parallel, defines the classes of parallel plans that can be generated by different partial-order planners, and describes the changes required to turn UCPOP into a parallel execution planner. In addition, we describe how this planner can be applied to the problem of query access planning, where parallel execution produces substantial reductions in overall execution time.


Objective: To identify the socioeconomic and cultural conditions necessary for obtaining a quality seal for artisanal chorizo in Valle de Toluca, Mexico. Methodological Design: A qualitative approach was made from the perspective of Localized Agrifood Systems, for the analysis of an artisanal food. The participative approach, observation, and semi-structured interviews were useful tools to carry out the research. Results: Valle de Toluca has a traditional food that identifies it, as is the case of chorizo in its red and green versions, around which there is the possibility of implementing a quality seal for its differentiation and protection. Limitations: The study was limited to the work carried out with the chorizo producers belonging to Valle de Toluca; in this sense it is necessary to assess the implementation of a differentiating seal for a traditional food which faces disloyal competition, both from the producers' trade union and from the food industry, consisting in the elaboration of generic products that have the same name, although their quality is not the same. Conclusions: It is necessary to develop a participative and territorial perspective.


The use of technology for patient health information and education in health care is expanding with text messaging, cell phones, social media, and the computer and internet being used for patients to communicate with their health care providers. Additionally, these technologies are used for health interventions and tools for patients to research health information as consumers. Although studies have examined the use of technology among African Americans for health information, there is little research that specifically examines the use of technology for African American men and preferences in how technology could be used to address their health outcomes. African-American males, compared to other races, have higher rates of chronic illness and diseases including cancer, heart disease, prostate cancer, diabetes and HIV. Focusing on this population and their use of technology is important for health care providers and researchers to know which technologies are the most effective means of communicating with African American men. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to describe the African American males' perspectives of technology use in their daily life. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 28 African American men from a large metropolitan city in North Carolina, as a part of a larger study. We provide the results of a questionnaire given to participants about their use of technology for health information. This has implications for health care providers, researchers and those developing health information technology so that programs, resources and interventions that are developed using technology will be effectively used by African American men.


Abstract : This Document summarizes the progress to date in the Office of Naval Research SBIR Project N00014-93-C-0213 Embedded Transputer-based System Design and indicates the expected direction of the Research and Development in the following periods. Overview The level of effort expended was broadly on track during this period both at Formal Systems and at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory (Draper) and Formal Systems (Europe) Ltd. Most of the slippage against plan reported last quarter had indeed been made up by the end of January, although actual delivery of reports was not achieved at that time. There have again been staff resource difficulties in the first quarter of 1995, with the result that some slippage of Q6 and Q7 deliverables is anticipated. The original schedule had considerable slack in the activities planned for Q8, to allow for just such an eventuality, so this should not impact the scope of the work completed within the project. The main areas of activity and achievement during this period were: Continued experimentation with FDR 2, in parallel with its continued development by Formal Systems (Europe) Ltd, leading to appraisal and feedback into the design. Distillation of this experience into requirements for translation and interface tools, both for increasing the facility of expression of real-time specifications, and for increasing the range of implementation notations from which behaviors amenable to analysis can be (semi-)automatically abstracted. Discussion with Draper and consequent revision of the models of scheduling and architecture of the Transputer Fault-Tolerant Processor node. Acquisition of timing requirements for the demonstrator scheduler, based on potential application systems.


The authors argue that a high-organizational error management culture, conceptualized to include norms and common practices in organizations (e.g., communicating about errors, detecting, analyzing, and correcting errors quickly), is pivotal to the reduction of negative and the promotion of positive error consequences. Organizational error management culture was positively related to firm performance across 2 studies conducted in 2 different European countries. On the basis of quantitative and qualitative cross-sectional data from 65 Dutch organizations, Study 1 revealed that organizational error management culture was significantly correlated with both organizational goal achievement and an objective indicator of economic performance. This finding was confirmed in Study 2, using change-of-profitability data from 47 German organizations. The results suggest that organizations may want to introduce organizational error management as a way to boost firm performance.


A process of performing high fidelity aerospace structural analyses early in the design cycle is presented. The process has been programmed into a tool called HyperFEA™ and couples the software HyperSizer® for failure analysis methods and sizing optimization with FEA to provide a robust system that is capable of exploring very rapidly a large design space of different FEM geometries, panel concepts, material selections, cross sectional dimensions, and composite layups for airframes and launch vehicles. The software includes hundreds of different analyses such as panel buckling, crippling, bonded and bolted joint, and composite strength to both lamina and laminate methods using damage tolerance criteria and corresponding test data correlation for consistently establishing margins-of-safety for airworthiness certification. Several examples are provided ranging from cylindrical launch structure, that does not need FEA, to a wing box that is optimized in an iterative manner with HyperSizer and FEA to a prescribed wing tip deflection. Design shortcomings are avoided and more robust designs are found as the software is used throughout four different levels of progressive analysis and design.


Unit root tests typically suffer from low power in small samples, which results in not rejecting the null hypothesis as often as they should. This paper tries to tackle this issue by assessing whether it is possible to improve the power performance of covariate-augmented unit root tests, namely the ADF family of tests, by exploiting mixed-frequency data. We use the mixed data sampling (MIDAS) approach to deal with mixed-frequency data. The results from a Monte Carlo exercise indicate that mixed-frequency tests have better power performance than low-frequency tests. The gains from exploiting mixed-frequency data are greater for near-integrated variables. An empirical illustration using the US unemployment rate is presented.


Anthocyanins are polyphenol pigments responsible for the blue/red colouring of many fruits and vegetables whose consumption is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Due to instability at neutral pH and reported low bioavailability of anthocyanins, the focus has shifted to their phenolic metabolites to explain the observed bioactivity. The hypothesis of the present study was that greater sensitivity and higher throughput could be achieved by developing existing analytical methodology, metabolite biomarkers of anthocyanin intake could be identified, and physiologically relevant anthocyanin metabolite profiles could reduce expression of proinflammatory cytokines in vitro. Stability of cyanidin-3-glucoside and 17 metabolites in serum was assessed. Unlike the parent anthocyanin, metabolite recovery was unaffected by either pH or freeze/thaw cycling suggesting that acidification and aliquoting of samples may be unnecessary for quantifying anthocyanin metabolites only. HPLC-ESI-MS/MS methodology was developed to increase sensitivity and sample throughput. Initial and developed methods were validated against FDA guidelines and found to have acceptable linearity, specificity and sensitivity with limits of detection of 9.5 ± 13.0 nM and 96.7 ± 541.7 nM respectively. Accuracy and precision were acceptable at 50 μM but outside guidelines at 1.56 μM and 0.098 μM for both methods. Biomarkers of anthocyanin intake were explored using samples from a 13C-labelled cyanidin-3-glucoside trial to compare 13C-labelled metabolites against 12C metabolites from the background diet. Gallic acid was consistently found above background levels in urine and represented the best biomarker candidate. Finally, effect of anthocyanin metabolite profiles on proinflammatory cytokines in CD40L and TNF-α-stimulated HUVEC was investigated. Incubation with metabolite profiles reduced expression of sVCAM-1 by 47-58% and IL-6 by 16-37% following TNF-α stimulation. In conclusion, the present thesis develops methodology for the quantification of anthocyanin metabolites in biological matrices and provides insight into their use as biomarkers of anthocyanin intake and role in maintaining cardiovascular health.


Generally, three typical behaviors are recognized in hot-deformation of austenite. However, considering that those austenite grains involved in single-pass deformation are mostly on the scale of dozens of micrometers or even much larger than that, it is meaningful to investigate hot-deformation behaviors of austenite grains smaller than 10μm. In the current paper, austenite grains of different sizes were prepared through repetitive treatment of rapid reheating and quenching with changing the holding temperature and/or holding time. Kinds of true stress-true strain curves at 900oC and 950oC indicate that austenitic deformation can be gradually coordinated by grain boundary behaviors, such as grain boundary sliding and/or diffusion. Simultaneously, the macroscopic deformation is more likely to be dominated through co-operation grain boundary sliding (CGBS).


ABSTRACT Sufficient evidence has now accumulated to show that dynamic transformation (DT) is a real phenomenon in steels and can take place over a wide range of temperatures in the austenite regime. During plastic deformation, some of the austenite is transformed to ferrite despite austenite being the chemically more stable equilibrium phase. Occurrence of DT has been demonstrated in various laboratory tests but apparently not in commercially hot-rolled steels. In this note, we review some old results on high strength low alloy strip steel that contained microstructural features that appear to have been caused by DT. We deduce that DT occurred early in the rolling schedule, leading to thin-pancaked sheets of ferrite in the final product. The presence of these pre-existing ferrite nuclei frequently gave rise to adjacent regions of coarse polygonal ferrite grains during cooling.


In this paper we have designed a Thermal energy efficient 32Bit ALU for network processor, the main objective of this design is to provide better thermal efficiency with respect to existing designs. For that purpose we have used six different members of SSTL I/Os standards on 28nm technology along with consideration of airflow toward hit sink and different frequency on which ALU operate in network processor or any WLAN devices. We have done total power analysis of WLAN operating on different frequencies. We have considered a set of frequencies, which are based on IEEE 802.11 standards. First we did an analysis of IO standard on different frequencies, to find out the most efficient frequency on which device can operate at lowest power consumption and thermally efficient. Later we compared different I/ Os on different frequencies, which we have considered in our paper in order to compare and find out most efficient IO standard. While analyzing we found out that when WLAN device shift from 343.15K to 283.15K, there is maximum thermal power reduction in SSTL135_R as compared to all considered I/O standards. When we compared same I/Os for different frequencies we observed maximum thermal efficiency in SSTL15 at minimum and maximum temperature as compared to all other considered I/O standards. This design has application where 32bit ALU design is considered for designing an electronic device such as WLAN. The design can be implemented on different nano chips for better efficiency depending upon the design requirement.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Activated recombinant factor VII (rFVIIa) has been shown to be effective in correcting prolonged prothrombin time (PT) in cirrhotic patients. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of 4 (5, 20, 80, and 120 microg/kg) doses of rFVIIa on correction of PT and the time to achieve hemostasis in cirrhotic patients with coagulopathy who are undergoing laparoscopic liver biopsy.

METHODS
Seventy-one patients (parts I and II) with advanced liver disease (Child-Turcotte B or C), platelet count > or =60,000/mm3, and PT in the range of 3-15 seconds above normal were included in the study. Efficacy endpoints were normalization of PT and time to hemostasis.

RESULTS
PT was corrected to normal levels (<13.1 seconds) in the majority of patients. The duration of normalization of PT was longer in patients treated with higher doses of rFVIIa. Forty-eight (74%) of 65 patients (part II) achieved hemostasis within 10 minutes. No correlation between the time to hemostasis and duration of correction of PT was observed. None of the patients required operative intervention or transfusion of blood/blood products to control bleeding. One thrombotic event and one case of disseminated intravascular coagulation were reported, but both events were considered by the investigator as unlikely to be related to treatment with rFVIIa.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study suggest that treatment with rFVIIa may offer benefit for patients with liver disease undergoing laparoscopic biopsy.


The aim of this study was to examine what reasons consumers give for either choosing or not choosing functional foods. Laddering interviews were used to find out how consumers described their reasons for choosing functional food alternatives in different product categories and how these descriptions are linked with values. Yoghurt, spread, juice, carbonated soft drinks, sweets and ice cream were used as example product categories. In total, five central means‐end chains, describing the product attributes, consequences and values behind respondents' food choices, were found, which referred to healthiness, taste and pleasure, security and familiarity, convenience and price. They were found to be independent from each other and had different connotations depending on the product category. The results indicate that respondents did not see functional foods as one homogenous group over different product categories. Instead, consumers seemed to perceive functional products as a member of the general product category such as yoghurt or spread and only secondarily as a functional food.