A solution based sonochemical synthesis method for ZnO rods is presented with a resulting growth rate in excess of 15 times faster than previously reported. Such material is solution processable and could be exploited in the fabrication of transparent conductors and/or large area electronics via inkjet printing methods or solution based self-assembly techniques. To understand the crystal structure and defects chemistry, the as-synthesized wurtzite crystal structures were compared and contrasted with rods grown by the more traditional and well characterized hydrothermal growth method. Fluorescence spectra were recorded and the emission characteristics correlated with the structural and conductive properties of the ZnO rods. In particular, the sonochemical crystals appear to have a higher degree of order with fewer defects. This study represents a first step toward the tailoring of the electronic properties of ZnO rods. In particular, we will concentrate on the influence that native defects have on electrical conduction and on photoluminescence. Furthermore, we show how the intensity of the ultrasonic power exploited in this synthesis has a direct influence on the crystal quality as revealed by a comparative study. An optimum value between 30% and 35% of the maximum amplitude of a 20 kHz ultrasonic probe was found to give the best conditions for the growth of crystals with fewer defects density, while at ca. 25% of the maximum amplitude we observed the higher intensities for the fluorescence spectra both in the ultraviolet and in the visible range.


The university was designed with the traditional student in mind. Students who are sole-support parents often have difficulties negotiating their experiences and expectations as a student with those that arise as a parent. This paper uses institutional ethnographic interviews conducted in the summer and fall of 2011 with eight single mothers who are postsecondary students in order to better understand the barriers that they face while obtaining a postsecondary education. This paper explores the theme of power and moral regulation from the interviews. I begin by describing the concept of moral regulation and use this concept as a theoretical base to explore the experiences of shame, violence, scrutiny, stigma and resistance that arose throughout the interviews and in the literature.


Massive efforts are currently being invested to improve the performance, versatility, and scope of applications of nucleic acid catalysts. G-quadruplex (G4)/hemin DNAzymes are of particular interes...


A 71-year-old man with a history of diabetes underwent a central venous cannulation of the right internal jugular vein for treatment. At 6 hours after catheterization, while sitting upright in bed, he suddenly displayed a decrease in mental capacity after violent coughing with a central venous catheter disconnected. Non-enhanced brain CT (Figure 1A) showed extensive serpiginous air bubbles in the sulci of the right convexity and collections of gas in the venous sinuses. A few locules of air were also noted in the right frontal and parietal lobes. Susceptibility-weighted MR imaging (SWI) (Figure 1B) revealed multifocal serpentine dark signal intensities distending the right frontal-parietal sulci and in the superior sagittal sinus, and additional ovoid dark signal intensities in the right frontal and parietal lobes. Phase image (Figure 1C) showed mixed high and low signal intensities in the corresponding locations, owing to an aliasing artifact from air. Diffusion MRI revealed extensive restricted diffusion in the right cerebral hemisphere (Figure 1D). The patient remained comatose despite hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and was discharged to a suitable nursing-home accommodation. On the basis of the observed entry of air into the right hemisphere, air influx from the disconnected central venous catheter seemed to be the cause of the cerebral venous air embolism. Retrograde cerebral venous air embolism associated with central venous catheterization often goes undetected and can cause major morbidity and mortality. Diagnosis of cerebral air embolism can be easily confirmed using brain CT because air bubbles show a specific low attenuation. On MRI, air appears dark signal intensity on all conventional MRI sequences. However, depending on the location and morphology, air bubbles in the intracranial venous system can be mistaken for blood product or cortical veins. We found that air bubbles in the cortical veins showed engorged tubular dark signal intensities in the sulci with blooming and aliasing artifacts on SWI owing to marked susceptibility artifact caused by gas. On the other hand, subarachnoid hemorrhage has irregular nonuniform dark signal intensity with a rough boundary and a slightly triangular form. Image findings of acute cortical vein thrombosis can be similar to those of cerebral venous air embolism on SWI owing to the increased concentration of deoxyhemoglobin in the involved veins. In this case, clinical history and immediate CT scan are helpful for differential diagnosis. In conclusion, if there are serpentine dark signal intensities with a smooth margin and blooming on SWI, with heterogeneous aliasing pattern on the phase image, retrograde cerebral venous air embolism should be considered in patients with neurological deterioration and central venous catheterization.


AbstrcatDuring the 20th century, linguistic research was most active in the new vernacular. After twenty year's research, the literary language has developed to have more and more aesthetic and artistic qualities than daily speech. Chinese literary language has had much more literary traits after it changes from classical Chinese to the new-vernacular. The writers in the new period don't put much stress on objective description of life any more in accordance with linguistic characteristics. Instead they enable the readers to create life by arousing their memory and imagination. They have made great achievements in sentence patterns, variation and recessive exaggeration of words and expressions, language's abnormal use and language style's coarseness, variegation and ugliness.


The meeting included a short presentation on the long-term plan and a brainstorm on three of the goals: Library as Commons, Empowered Staff and Focused Leadership, and Leadership in Scholarly Communications.


Thermopsis lanceolate was extracted by method of alcohol dissolution and general alkaloid could be obtained.The toxic experiment of general alkaloid being poured to the throat of mice by oral cavity demonstrated:different dose of alkaloid poured to mice had diffferent symptom.Dose 300 mg/kg with 2-2.5 min may kill all mice;Dose 200 mg/kg may kill all mice during 5-15 days,dose 50,75,100,125,150 mg/kg may kill all mice in 60 days.Dissected symptom of mice of dose 50 mg/kg showed greatly that substantial organism became bloodshot and edema.Histologically,myocardium fiber swelled and there were a lot of red minute particles in muscle plasma.Blood capillary became bloodshot;liver cell swelled and unequal and unaverage hollow bubble existed in cellular plasma.The small ball of white marrow of spleen and the surface of lymph of the central artery proliferated and red marrow spleen hole and marrow cable bleeded.Vein of lung became bloodshot,the blood vessel cluster of ball of kideney was stuffed by blood slightly.Epithelial cell of small tube nearer to kidney swelled.Cavity of tube became narrow or air was stuffed ect.


The use of polluted water bodies for recreation poses a risk of infectious diseases. This fact necessitates taking into account bacteriological indicators to determine the danger of recreational water use. The aim of the article was to develop a new method for assessing the potential risk to population health during recreational water use. A new method for assessing the potential risk to population health during recreational water use has been proposed, which combines the identification of potential risk according to chemical and bacteriological indicators. A new classification of water hazard levels according to the values of risk to population health has been developed. The value of the potential risk to the population health during the recreational use of 6 beaches in the urbanized territories of the city of Kharkiv and its suburbs (Ukraine) was obtained. It was established that bacteriological contamination has the probability of a very large impact on public health (hazard class 5). To compare the methods of assessing the risk to population health during recreational water use, the hazard index (NI) was determined according to the chemical indicators of the quality of water bodies in the city of Kharkiv. The use of the assessment of the potential risk to population health for the environmental regulation of the discharge of pollutants into a water body with wastewater is justified.

http://www.jeeng.net/pdf-146998-73500?filename=Method of Assessing the.pdf


A simplified, system-agnostic NLC algorithm based on a neuron network is proposed to pre-distort symbols at transmitter side to demonstrate ∼0.6dB Q improvement after 2800km SMF transmission using 32Gbaud DP-16QAM.


A case of "renal tubular acidosis" in a 4-year-old adopted girl is reported. The child had many of the characteristic features of primary distal renal tubular acidosis, namely: growth retardation, polydipsia, rickets, periodic attacks of muscular weakness and paralysis, hyperchloremic acidosis, hypocapnia, hypokalemia, hypocalcemia, hypophosphatemia, polyuria with low specific gravity and relatively alkaline urine, hypercalciuria, and normal glomerular filtration rate. After sustained treatment with sodium bicarbonate and potassium chloride, the hyperchloremic acidosis and the disturbed electrolytes were corrected; the symptoms of polynria and polydipsia relieved; the episode of muscular weakness and paralysis disappeared; the manifestations of rickets improved; the growth impairment caught up progressively.


Aging–related changes of the skin are characterized by reduction of the elasticity, moistness and thickness, appearance of wrinkles, pigmented spots, lentigos, and keratosis. Histological changes include thinning of epidermis, flattening of epidermal-dermal interface, reduction of production and disorganization of collagen and elastin, slowdown of cell turnover, reduction of melanocytes and their erratic activity and the phenomenon of solar elastosis. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the efficacy of mesotherapy with a cocktail containing combination of cell extracts from skin, placenta and mesenchyme with addition of collagen and elastin proteins in rejuvenation and revitalization of the facial skin. The cohort comprised of 26 women in the age 40-65 y.o. (mean age 56 ± 2.5) with Fitzpatrick skin types III and IV and Glogau score II-III. Treatment consisted of mesotherapy applied on the forehead, cheeks, periorbital and perioral areas, chin and neck. The injected formulation was MF+ Mito Organelles™ SPMCE – peptide-extracts from skin, placenta, mesenchyme, with collagen and elastin. Treatment sessions were performed across 12 weeks at weekly intervals. Final results were assessed 1 and 3 months after the last mesotherapy session using photographic comparison and patient's subjective view and external dermatologist-expert's opinion, clinical and instrumental evaluation, and histopathology report. Clinical and histochemical data obtained from the study confirms the anti-aging properties of the used product. Analysis of dermal elastic filaments has proven the reduction of skins roughness and determined the bio-revitalizing and rejuvenating effect of the used product. Study has demonstrated MF+ MO™ SPMCE capacity to promote biosynthesis of new collagen and elastic fibers. The improvements in skin hydration and dramatic reduction of senile lentigo and uneven pigmentation were noted. Obtained data allow to conclude that application of MF+ MO™ SPMCE cellular extracts/peptides in mesotherapy can be considered as safe and effective method of facial rejuvenation.


Tribology behaviors play an important role in logistics, the researches of bionic tribology focus on desorption and friction increasing in rencent years. In order to reveal the mechanism between biological characteristics and tribology behaviors, this paper studied the typical no-smooth surface of animals, the analysis result showed that the no-smooth body surface of dung beetle greatly impacted its desorption, but the no-smooth foot surface of tree frog and locust played an important role in friction increasing. The similar no-smooth surface could have both function of desorption and friction increasing under the different conditions. Comprehensive analysis of no-smooth surface was done by simulation technology and experiment research, and revealed the mechanism between no-smooth surface, desorption and friction increasing, which opens up a new way for the development of bionic tribology and also provides technology for the improvement of logistics equipments.


No reports have so far been published on hypernephroma sizes of more than 20 cm. We report on a histologically confirmed hypernephroma of an unusual size of almost 40 cm as identified both by CT and sonography that had developed within a period of three years.


Part 1 Introduction: Equilibrium Theory as an Approach to Macroeconomics A Preview of the Argument An Example Concluding Remarks. Part 2 Linear Difference Equations - Part 1 - Linearizing Nonlinear Models Solving First-Order Linear Models Solving Higher-Order Linear Models Concluding Remarks. Part 3 Linear Difference Equations - Part 2 - Linear Rational Expectations Models Solving Linear Rational Expectations Models Cross-Equation Restrictions and the Lucas Critique Concluding Remarks. Part 4 General Equilibrium Theory under Certainty: The Idea of Equilibrium The Theory of Consumer Choice Excess Demand Functions Equilibria and Their Properties General Equilibrium Theory and Efficient Allocations of Resources Concluding Remarks. Part 5 Infinite Horizon Economies and Representative Agents: The Representative Agent Economy Competitive Equilibrium and the Planner's Problem Using the Representative Agent Model to Explain Time Series Data Concluding Remarks. Part 6 Horizon Economies and Overlapping Generations: The Structure of the Overlapping Generations Economy The Consumer's Problem An Example of a Pareto Inferior Equilibrium Institutions That May Improve Allocations The Set of Equilibria in the Overlapping Generations Model Some Questions about the Model More General Examples of Overlapping Generations Economies Concluding Remarks. Part 7 Infinite Horizon Economies with Nonconvexities: A Growth Model with Increasing Returns Empirical Evidence for Increasing Returns Equilibria in the Increasing Returns Economy Comparing the Theoretical Properties of RA and IR Models Comparing Some Empirical Predictions of RA and IR Models Concluding Remarks. Part 8 General Equilibrium Theory and Uncertainty: Debreu's Formulation of the Problem Arrow's Formulation of the Problem Infinite Horizon Economies with Uncertainty Concluding Remarks. Part 9 Sunspots: Do Sunspots Matter? An Example of a Macroeconomic Model in Which Sunspots Matter Concluding Remarks. Part 10 Macroeconomic Models of Money: Models of Money The Dynamics of a Cash-in-Advance Model Equilibrium under Interest Rate Control Equilibrium under a Fixed Money Growth Rate Rule Concluding Remarks. Part 11 Applied Monetary Theory: The Monetary Facts - What There Is to Explain A Simple Monetary Model - Using Equilibrium Theory to Explain the Facts How Do Equilibria Behave?.


We appreciate that Dr. Honoré commented on our work. As Dr. Honoré pointed out, C-terminal masking of CREC proteins RCN1 and calumenin, but not Cab45, by V5-tag might influence final subcellular localization of the proteins by affecting the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retrieval system. However, our finding in this study is that the Pro 2 functions as an ER export signal. In this regard, it is important to note that the KDEL and KDEL-like motifs function to be retrieved to the ER by KDEL receptor after the proteins are exported from the ER. In addition to the ER, post-ER sites in the secretory pathway such as the Golgi, cell surface, and extracellular space, can be indeed localization sites of several proteins with KDEL or KDEL-like motif, including BiP (a representative ER chaperone), RCN1, and calumenin proteins (2–5). The balance of "export and retrieval" and final subcellular localization might be influenced by C-terminal masking, but the notion does not conflict the importance of our finding of Pro 2 as "an ER export signal." Akihiro Tomida, Yoshinori Tsukumo, Satomi Tsukahara, Sakae Saito, and Takashi Tsuruo Cancer Chemotherapy Center, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research


from it by reacting "in the external world according to an imaginary inner world of pure affective negativity" (72). Parkinson traces this "excess of affect" (72) both in the "ironic and often caustic" (74) perspective of v. Salomon's writing and his "deflection" of guilt onto the American occupiers, which are, in his text, variously anti-Semitic, abusive, and equated with the Nazis. Parkinson's case for the overwhelming presence of a complex set of negative affects in the presumably cool poses of irony and sarcasm (not only in v. Salomon), as well as more generally in the postwar German landscape of apparent emotional restraint, is strong. This reader also much appreciates her moves of historicizing conceptual paradigms and tracing out their emergence in messy scenarios of overlapping intellectual trajectories–including, notably, Alexander Mitscherlich's own early movement in the very national conservative circles that shaped v. Salomon and the possible resonance of the cultural pessimism Mitscherlich encountered there in his later work (see 131). While such emphasis on complexity much enriches our understanding of postwar German histories, I am less at ease with Parkinson's development of the conceptual pair of "social normative emotions" and "ressentiment as affective resistance" to them. Even without her subscribing to the Deleuzian–as well as cognitive–notion of affect itself as explicitly "a-" or "pre"-social, this conceptual configuration remains at risk of undertheorizing the social geneaologies of the observed excess of negative affect (preceding the emergence of postwar taboos) and the rhetorical uses of the paradigm of tabooization, which has once more been in rather prominent play in Germany in the last few decades. But, importantly, Parkinson's substantial conclusion–almost a chapter in its own right– makes some of these very connections in returning to the question of ressentiment from a different angle. Starting from Jean Améry's essay on "Ressentiments," which exposes and disrupts the logic of reversal and projection in play in this affective structure, she turns to Horkheimer and Adorno's conceptualization of anti-Semitism in strikingly similar terms and gestures at "the long afterlife" of ressentiment in postwar Germany (166), connecting postwar nationalisms to "persistent xenophobia" (167) and racist violence today. Overall, An Emotional State thus innovatively presents highly productive building blocks toward a complexified historical study of emotion, which–I hope–will inspire follow-up analyses. My wish list in that respect would include closer looks at the historical trajectories of racist affect from a comparative East–West perspective (although for this initial mapping, Parkinson's West German focus made perfect sense), as well as transnational takes toward layered contemporary histories of European political emotions. CLAUDIA BREGER Indiana University, Bloomington


We examined whether sustained alleviation of inflammation as monitored by serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels was associated with longer survival in hepatectomized hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with hepatitis C virus‐associated liver cirrhosis (HCV‐LC). Thirty‐four hepatectomized patients with HCV‐LC and HCC as a single nodule, and for whom more than 5 years had elapsed after the hepatectomy, were studied. They had no histologic evidence of portal or hepatic vein invasion. They were subdivided into two groups according to their serum ALT levels in the 2 years after hepatectomy: the low ALT group comprised 13 patients whose serum ALT levels showed a sustained low level below 80 IU, and the high ALT group comprised 21 patients whose serum ALT levels showed several peaks or plateaus above 80 IU. The patients had been followed‐up prospectively with frequent ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography for recurrence for >5 years. The survival period, non‐recurrence interval and number of recurrences were observed. Recurrences were treated with transcatheter chemoembolization in all cases. The cumulative survival rate in the low ALT group was significantly better than that in the high ALT group (P<0.05). The 5‐year survival in the low ALT group was as high as 92.3% (12 of 13) compared with 33.3% (7 of 21) in the high ALT group (P<0.05). The cumulative non‐recurrence rate in the low ALT group was also significantly better than that in the high ALT group (P<0.01). The survival period correlated well with the interval until the first recurrence (r=0.545, P=0.006). There was a tendency for the number of recurrences in the low ALT group (1.5±0.4, mean±SE) to be fewer than that in the high ALT group (2.2±0.4), although this was not significant. Sustained alleviation of inflammation, as indicated by low ALT levels, provides a survival advantage mainly due to the longer non‐recurrence interval, and possibly because of fewer recurrences, in hepatectomized HCC patients with HCV‐LC.


For the difficulties in HP Blade carrier design of 350MW supercritical steam turbines,this paper presents the process of the configuration design by using finite element analysis.The sealing calculation,structure optimization and strength calculation are analyzed to make the unit more safety and good economy.


Objective To explore the role of bacteria on the formation of cholesterol crystal in the model bile system containing unconjugated bilirubin(UCB).Methods Strains of E.coli,Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus faecalis were added in the model biles containing diffenent concentration of unconjugated bilirubin.Observed the change of cholesterol nucleation time(NT).Results Unconjugated bilirubin shortened the nucleation time in model bile.The nucleation time could be shortened when Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus faecalis were added in the model bile,however,the nucleation time could not be further shortened when unconjugated bilirubin was added together.In the condition of CSI 0.6,Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed stronger effect in shortening the nucleation time than UCB in model bile.Conclusion Bacteria and unconjugated bilirubin have no cooperative effect in the formation of cholesterol crystal in the model bile system.


Based on different periods of bag removing and ambient illumination,effects of solar radiation cumulant on fruit coloring and flavor quality indices of apple fruit with intensive planting on dwarf rootstock were studied.The results show that the anthocyanin in peel of bagged fruits increased rapidly after bag removal,anthocyanin content in fruit peel removed bags 18 d before harvest had a rapid increase during early stage and a slow accumulation close to picking,that of 12 d before harvest increased continuously until harvest,but no significant differences of anthocyanin contents were detected in both treatments of removing bag at harvest.The soluble sugar content of different periods of bag removing had no significant effect,but the organic acids of early bag removing are higher than that of late bag removing.The apple fruit coloring needed at least 46.289×106 lx solar radiation cumulation from removing bags to harvest.


The study was carried out to identify the trends of rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature for Bishoftu, Adama, Meki, Metehara, and Holeta regions of Ethiopia in the years from 1970 to 2018. Mann Kendall test and Sen's slope estimators' methods, were used to detecting the trends of rainfall, minimum temperature, and maximum temperature. The result reveals that annual rainfall shows no trend at Metehara station but all stations have significant trend of declining annual rainfall Except for Adama station where significant trend was detected with an increasing rate of 1.148mm/annum. On the other hand, the trend of maximum temperature has significantly increasing in all stations with rates of 0.032, 0.24,0.05, and 0.46 Holeta, Bishofta, Metehara and Mieso stations respectively. While the trend of annual minimum temperature of all stations has significantly increasing trend at 70% confidence interval but at 95% significant level Metehara, Bishoftu and Adama 0.023, 0.01 and 0.048 0 C/annual show increasing trend respectively. Overall, the estimated values indicated that there is climate change in the study area. From this, it can be concluded the effect of global warming is present in both the highland and low land of Ethiopia.


This paper critically examines the quantitative approach to financial crises from two perspectives. First, the assumption of comparability of financial crises is analyzed. The key question here is: how comparable are crises? An important consideration here is the context – social and political. Second, if financial crises are comparable to a certain extent, then we should be able to make predictions. Thus, the second key question is: how predictable are crises? The results have implications for the development of a theory of financial crises and government policies on crisis management.


: Augmented reality (AR) innovation, however, is altering the explorer's involvement by influencing the need to travel significantly more consistent, intelligent, and basic. This innovation makes it conceivable to layer computerized improvements over a current reality or genuine situation. AR innovation additionally changes how one can discover and encounter nearby attractions, culture and excitement. Utilizing applications controlled by AR, Tourists cannot just research and explore to the spots they wish to visit, yet they can encounter them in a considerably more significant path with advanced overlays containing intuitive data about the way of life or history of the site. For instance, when going to a historical center, they can sweep or take photographs of displays, and breathe life into them with AR, with intuitive data and diversions. AR data frameworks can help voyagers in getting to important data and enhancing their insight with respect to a touristic fascination or a goal, while upgrading the visitor experience and offering expanded levels of diversion all through the procedure. In particular, such data frameworks can customize the conveyance of the multimedia content as per the client's qualities and the utilization setting, subsequently supporting their organization for various situations. AR innovation is now utilized as a part of various fields for example: arrangement, direction and repeated planning among others. It is likewise utilized inside the tourism division, planning to enhance the traveler encounter. From one perspective, a few cases have demonstrated that AR can help traveler associations and experts towards contacting a more extensive group of spectators by filling in as the conveyance innovation of engaging sight and sound substance and portable applications, fine ‐ tuned to different learning levels.


Low earth orbit CubeSat swarms improve the spatial and temporal resolution of remote sensing, rural communication, and space exploration due to their innovative and economical satellite design. Unlike conventional large satellites, which demand high transmission power for data exchange, the CubeSat swarm communication system provides interoperability, a high data rate between networked nodes, and global coverage with real-time measurement. However, CubeSat swarms' main challenges include inefficient usage of spectrum resources and delay of data exchange, and the issues become more severe with the increased number of on-orbit CubeSats. Spectrum sensing in cognitive radio is often proposed as a critical solution to efficient spectrum utilization and low delay of data exchange. Typically, the secondary user takes over the link while the primary user does not occupy the channel. This paper proposes blind source separation (BSS) and Least Mean Square (LMS) for primary user detection with MIMO antennas equipped in all CubeSats. Each antenna receives a mixture of radio signals, including primary and interfering signals. Practical implementation issues are studied through simulations, with main performance metrics including algorithm performance and MIMO antenna deployment. These are essential for the communication resource allocation, power budget calculation, and hardware design of the CubeSat platform on configuring LEO non-terrestrial networks.


For the first time, the acoustic emission (AE) method applicability to study the processes ongoing in the microporous medium under capillary pore filling with liquid is investigated. In particular, the temperature contribution to the dynamics of the porous materials impregnation is studied. The experimental results have shown that the most informative AE parameters reflecting the capillary liquid rise dynamics are the signal sum and the oscillation sum. The curve shape of the signal sum dependence on the AE amount follows the curve shape of the dynamic pattern of changing in the liquid elevation through the capillaries of the ceramic sample constructed from the experimental data. At the beginning of the capillary rise, the AE activity is significantly higher at higher temperatures. With increase of the liquid capillary rise, the process intensity decreases. The experimental data indicate that the AE parameters reflect the impregnation dynamics and kinetics under any change in the impregnation conditions, and they can be used for the remote process control.


Graphene is a very promising material for electronics due to its extremely high electron mobility. Its twodimensional structure is especially well suited for the current microfabrication techniques. On the other hand, most electronic devices are not built from semi-metals such as graphene but rather from semiconductors. Fortunately, graphene can be made semiconducting after being engineered into nanoribbons [1, 2], and then can be incorporated into the fabrication of transistors [3, 4].


BACKGROUND
The nose and bronchi are closely linked, and rhinitis often precedes the onset of asthma. Bronchial obstruction is a characteristic of asthma, and demonstration of its reversibility is a key element in diagnosis. However, reversibility testing requires a spirometer, which is rarely available in the doctor's office. Visual analog scales (VAS) are frequently used in daily practice.

OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated the suitability of a VAS for assessing bronchodilation in patients with persistent allergic rhinitis as a means of selecting candidates for screening spirometry.

METHODS
We evaluated 120 patients with moderate to severe persistent allergic rhinitis. All patients underwent a clinical examination, skin prick test, spirometry, bronchodilation test, and VAS.

RESULTS
Patients with rhinitis showed significantly increased forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) after the bronchodilation test (median, 11.5%). Positive results were observed in 60%, and VAS values increased (>30%) after the test. There was a significant relationship between deltaVAS and deltaFEV1 (P<.0001; r=0.482).

CONCLUSION
This preliminary study shows that patients with moderate to severe persistent allergic rhinitis often experience an increase in FEV1 after the bronchodilation test. VAS assessment of the test might be useful when selecting candidates for spirometry for possible bronchial involvement.


Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of laparoscopic removal of hydatid internal capsule and open wide of external capsule.Methods:The clinical data of 55 patients with hepatic echinococcosis who underwent laparoscopic removal of hydatid internal capsule and open wide of external capsule were analyzed retrospectively.Results:The procedure was successful in all cases with no leakage of fluid from hepatic hydatid,anaphylactic shock or death.Postoperatively,there were 5 cases of recurrence which was not in primary site,2 cases of bile leakage,and 3 cases of residual cavity hydrops,which were all cured by symptomatic treatment.Conclusions:Laparoscopic removal of hydatid internal capsule and open wide of external capsule is a safe,effective and minimally invasive procedure as a treatment of hepatic hydatidosis.


This paper presents an outline of novel approaches and emerging trends related to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). These trends have been present in the MIDI 2017 conference organized within FedCSIS series. In particular on-line services and mobile applications, often operated by voice-based interfaces and voice-driven assistants, are special areas of interest as to their prospective developments. Also the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in user interfaces seems to offer a breakthrough towards more intuitive and error-tolerant interaction needed especially in the most common, mobile context of use.


Examination of depressive tendencies among university students studying in North Cyprus in terms of factors as gender, class, economic status and satisfaction level from current social connections were aimed. Automatic Thoughts Scale (ATQ) was used to measure depressive tendencies. Participants were reached according to availability principle. Participants are 171 volunteered university students whose origin country is Turkey and studying in various universities at North Cyprus (85 females; 87 freshmen-84 senior; age range 18-30, Xage=21.25, SD=2.99). According to variance analysis, freshmen students differed with significantly higher mean scores regarding total ATQ scores, 'confusion and escape fantasies', 'loneliness/isolation' and 'giving up/helplessness' subscales of ATQ. Males differed with significantly higher loneliness/isolation scores than females. Statistically significant depressive tendency differences in terms of ATQ total and all subscales among different economic levels were determined. The students who 'unsatisfied' with their current social connections differed with significantly higher depressive tendencies from students who are 'satisfied'.


Background:
 Coronary artery disease generates changes in the structure and function of the blood vessels. 48hrs organ culture (mimicking the acute loss of blood flow) of coronary arteries induces the upregulation of contractile endothelin type B (ETB) receptors, resembling the pattern seen in ischemic heart disease. MEK inhibitors (U0126 and Trametinib), can acutely inhibit the upregulation of these receptors, illustrating the importance of this pathway. The 48hrs organ culture model has been proven successful for translation in acute ischemic disease, but arterial changes have not been studied in a long-term chronic model which could be important for chronic coronary syndrome.

 Purpose:
 1) Investigate the changes of ETB receptors after incubation in a long-term optimized medium for organ culture, mimicking the reduction of blood flow in chronic coronary syndrome and 2) determine whether Trametinib, would have treatment effect on the upregulation of ETB receptors in both long term and short term culture.

 Methods:
 Rat coronary arteries were incubated in organ culture for 48hrs in DMEM ± trametinib ("acute") or in a long-term optimized medium for organ culture for 14 days ("chronic"). After the incubation, arteries were mounted stainless steel wires (40 μm) on a Mulvany-Halpern arterial wire myograph and cumulative concentration response curves were made to measure arterial contractility to the ETB receptor specific agonist Sarafotoxin (S6c). Trametinib was added at time 0 (for both the acute and chronic organ culture) or 7 days delayed.

 Results:
 For the "acute" culture, we observed a high contractile effect in response to S6c (Emax=136.5±18%). The presence of Trametinib greatly reduced this contractile effect (Emax=10±1.9%) and arteries were comparable to fresh (Emax=0.8±0.7%). The rat coronary arteries in the "chronic" culture maintained their ability to contract in response to potassium, and S6c had a strong contractile effect (Emax=74.64±17%). Interestingly, neither trametinib addition at time 0 nor at day 7 could inhibit the functional upregulation of ETB in the chronic model.

 Conclusion:
 Chronic coronary syndrome may require new inhibitors of ETB receptor upregulation. This could be investigated with our new long-term rat coronary artery model.


Objectives To investigate differences between target and actual sample sizes, and what study characteristics were associated with sample sizes. Design Observational study. Setting The large trial registries of clinicaltrials.gov (starting in 1999) and ANZCTR (starting in 2005) through to 2021. Participants Over 280 000 interventional studies excluding studies that were withheld, terminated for safety reasons or were expanded access. Main outcome measures The actual and target sample sizes, and the within-study ratio of the actual to target sample size. Results Most studies were small: the median actual sample sizes in the two databases were 60 and 52. There was a decrease over time in the target sample size of 9%–10% per 5 years, and a larger decrease of 18%–21% per 5 years for the actual sample size. The actual-to-target sample size ratio was 4.1% lower per 5 years, meaning more studies (on average) failed to hit their target sample size. Conclusion Registered studies are more often under-recruited than over-recruited and worryingly both target and actual sample sizes appear to have decreased over time, as has the within-study gap between the target and actual sample size. Declining sample sizes and ongoing concerns about underpowered studies mean more research is needed into barriers and facilitators for improving recruitment and accessing data.


Telomere length (TL) shortening is a pivotal indicator of biological aging and is associated with many human diseases. The genetic determinates of human TL have been widely investigated, however, most existing studies were conducted based on adult tissues which are heavily influenced by lifetime exposure. Based on the analyses of terminal restriction fragment (TRF) length of telomere, individual genotypes, and gene expressions on 166 healthy placental tissues, we systematically interrogated TL-modulated genes and their potential functions. We found that placental TL is relatively longer across human tissues and which maintenance is mostly connected to genes responsible for alternative lengthening of telomeres. Trans-ancestral TL genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on 644,553 individuals identified 20 novel genetic associations and provided increased polygenic determination of human TL. Next, we integrated the powerful TL GWAS with placental expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) mapping to prioritize 31 likely causal genes, among which 4 were functionally validated, including MMUT, RRM1, KIAA1429, and YWHAZ. Finally, modeling transcriptomic signatures and TRF-based TL improved the prediction performance of human TL. This study deepened our understanding of causal genes and transcriptomic determinants of human TL, promoting the mechanistic research on fine-grained TL regulation.


OBJECTIVES
The superior alveolar canal with its contents is frequently reported as an anatomical point of consideration during lateral sinus floor elevation due to the danger of bleeding and of the subsequent impairment of vision of the surgical field. Malnutrition of the graft may also ensue. This radiographical study uses cone beam computerized tomography to identify the superior alveolar canal, to measure its diameter and its distance from the sinus floor at precise tooth positions to provide the implant surgeon with information about the position and the diameter of the canal.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
One hundred and fifty-six patients (156) scanned with a Newtom VG device were included in this study. A dental and maxillofacial radiologist using the multiplanar capabilities of the device's software identified the canal and assessed its diameter and topography.

RESULTS
The canal could be identified in 82% of the cases with a mean diameter of 1.1 mm and a range of diameters between 0.2 and 2.6 mm. The distance from the floor of the sinus at various tooth positions ranged between 0 and 28.5 mm.

CONCLUSIONS
In the majority of our cases, the canal could be identified in at least one position, between the most posterior and the most anterior borders of the maxillary sinus. The large variation on the distance of the canal from the sinus floor dictates an individual evaluation of its position and not the use of mean values. Great care must be exercised by the radiologist to reliably identify the canal.


FIELD: layers properties evaluation technology. SUBSTANCE: armored means is placed moveably along well shaft, energy of electromagnetic field from armored means is transferred to layers and spin-echo signals of core-magnetic resonance are received several times in armored means with respective plurality of different transfer and receipt conditions for receiving a plurality of measurements. Layer model is formed, which in first embodiment includes several model components for salt water phase and several model components for natural oil phase, and which in second embodiment includes several model components for salt water phase and also includes several times of relaxation of natural oil for natural oil phase. Model components for model optimization on basis of measurements signals are modified, and model components for optimized model are outputted. During modification process of model components iterative modification may be performed. Layer model may additionally include a component of filtered boring solution with hydrocarbon base, and a gas component. On basis of outputted components layer characteristics may be received, like porosity, oil saturation, water saturation, viscosity, and diffusion coefficient. Measurements may be performed during movement of armored means along well shaft at certain speed. EFFECT: increased precision and lowered laboriousness of measurements. 2 cl, 19 dwg, 13 tbl, 4 ex


Miracle and magical are words I've often heard used in relation to Mata Ortiz. I would have to include myself amongst those users. The village has a way of finding you, drawing you in, accepting you and—if you are fortunate enough, worthy enough—of giving herself to you. Such is the case in my relationship with Mata Ortiz. It is a serendipitous relationship that begins well beyond the banks of the Palanganas River, in coastal Maine. I have a longtime college friend who, with her husband, owns and operates a pottery studio and shop in Belfast, Maine. We visit them every couple of years, and it was on one of these visits in the late 1990s that they shared with us some examples of a beautifully detailed pottery that they had acquired while visiting friends in Tucson. Several years later, again while we were visiting them, they had a call from a gentleman, the Tucson pottery trader from whom they had purchased this pottery, calling to let them know he was in Connecticut for a craft exhibition and, having unsold pottery, wanting to know if he could come up to Maine. My friend was hesitant as we were her guests, and she didn't want to have business intrude on her social life. With our acquiescence she invited this trader, Tito Carrillo and his son, Pablo, to come up and spend the night. The next day, when Tito unveiled his merchandise for our friends, we were amazed, charmed, fascinated, awestruck, hooked. We ended up owning our first three Mata Ortiz pots. At the time—this was probably the year 2000—Tito said that I should come down to Mexico and photograph in the village, because it was changing so rapidly from what it had been twenty-five years earlier when he first started going there. My wife and I had never been to Mexico. I spoke no Spanish.


We report on the mixing properties of high-T, superconductor (HTS) Josephson junctions. Direct radiation and heterodyne mixing experiments in the frequency range 78 GHz-119 GHz have been performed using YBa 2Cu30 7_ x (YBCO) step-edge junctions (SEJ) and bicrystal junctions (BO) on LaA10 3 and MgO substrates. Under external radiation our junctions showed harmonic phase synchronization (Shapiro steps) up to 1.88 THz. Junctions with current voltage characteristics (PVC) dose to predictions of the resistively shunted junction model (RSJ) were mounted into a heterodyne mixing setup. Under the radiation of two monochromatic signals we obtained conversion efficiencies around -14 dB in the 11 GHz intermediate frequency (IF) band. In the fundamental mixing regime we observed response at IF at working temperatures up to 72K. We demonstrated the operation of HTS Josephson junctions in the self-mixing mode. The experimental results are in good agreement with simulations using the RSJ model.


The invention belongs to the technical field of automatic detection, and relates to an automatic detection device based on machine vision for defects of instant noodle sauce packets, which is used for detecting whether packaged continuous sauce packets have defects or not. The continuous sauce packets are clamped by sauce packet clamps and conveyed by a sauce packet conveying line arranged on a support, the detection device comprises an in-place sensor, a camera, a light source and a controller. The in-place sensor is fixed onto the support and used for perceiving the tact of motion of the conveying line, signals outputted by the in-place sensor are transmitted into the controller, the controller triggers the camera to take photos according to the perception signals of the in-place sensor, the photos taken by the camera are transmitted into a computer, and processed and analyzed by the computer, and the computer judges whether the sauce packets have defects or not and transmits results to the controller. The invention simultaneously provides a method for detecting defects of instant noodle sauce packets by the aid of the device. The automatic detection device and the method have the advantages that the shortcoming of interference of subjective factors in a manual visual inspection method is completely overcome, existence and quantity completeness of the sauce packets can be quickly, objectively and accurately detected, and detection precision and efficiency for the quality of products are greatly improved.


Although the catalytic carboxylation of unactivated alkyl electrophiles has reached remarkable levels of sophistication, the intermediacy of (phenanthroline)Ni(I)–alkyl species—complexes proposed in numerous Ni-catalyzed reductive cross-coupling reactions—has been subject to speculation. Herein we report the synthesis of such elusive (phenanthroline)Ni(I) species and their reactivity with CO2, allowing us to address a long-standing question related to Ni-catalyzed carboxylation reactions.


Purpose: Rapid advances in imaging and delivery technologies and our understanding of radiation responses herald the coming of the long‐sought goal of practicing patient‐specific biologically‐guided radiation therapy (BGRT). In this work, we propose a three‐phase, incremental approach for the clinical implementation of BGRT. Method and Materials: BGRT, beginning with patient‐specific radiobiological parameters that may be extracted from biological images, can be implemented in three phases. Phase I includes planning population‐based treatments with empirical knowledge of tumor and normal‐tissue responses followed by plan evaluation with dose‐volume parameters as the primary criteria and outcome predictions as secondary criteria. Phase II involves the use of biological images and/or tissueassays to identify tumor region of radioresistance, use of outcome modeling to estimate a dose boost needed to overcome the radioresistance, development of a treatment plan to deliver the boost which does not reduce the dose to other tumor regions and maintains the desired dose to all critical organs, and plan evaluation with outcome prediction models. In Phase III, individualized‐BGRT plans derived using the validated outcome prediction models developed in Phases I and II are iteratively refined based on spatial and temporal varied patient‐specific information. In all three phases, treatments will be delivered with image guidance. The 3D dose actually delivered to an individual patient will be documented. Patients will be periodically evaluated with imaging and/or assays. The acquired follow‐up tumor and normal‐tissue response data will be used to refine outcome prediction models. Results: A three‐phase approach for a partial implementation of BRGT is proposed. An example of using physiological MRI to extract patient‐specific radiobiological parameters required for BGRT is presented. Conclusion: The full implementation of BGRT in the clinic will require new technologies and additional research. However, even the partial implementation of BGRT treatment planning has the potential to improve clinical outcomes.


An automatic extraction of pulmonary emphysema area on 3-D chest CT images was performed using an adaptive thresholding technique. We proposed a method to estimate the ratio of the emphysema area to the whole lung volume. We employed 32 cases (15 normal and 17 abnormal) which had been already diagnosed by radiologists prior to the study. The ratio in all the normal cases was less than 0.02, and in abnormal cases, it ranged from 0.01 to 0.26. The effectiveness of our approach was confirmed through the results of the present study.


To meet the demand for the early location of fire in large-span space buildings, an accurate fire location method is proposed based on machine vision technology. A nonlinear implicit camera calibration method is proposed by combining an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) method with least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) to solve the problem that it is difficult to establish accurate mathematical models for traditional nonlinear explicit camera calibration. The matched pixel coordinates of images collected by cameras are used as input, and the output is the world coordinates. The IPSO is used to search the optimal parameters of LS-SVM regression model to increase the convergence speed and improve the generalization ability of LSSVM. The spatial location of fire is achieved by three-dimensional reconstruction. The proposed method is applied to fire location for high and large buildings, and experimental results show that the method is effective, fast and accurate.


These comments address some theoretical, empirical, and normative claims made by Beth Simmons in her book, Mobilizing for Human Rights. The empirical heart of the book is rigorous, but because of the shallowness of the data and the limits of the empirical methodology, the implications for human rights law are narrow and to a large extent ambiguous.


Soil moisture feedbacks that initiate, enhance, or suppress convection initiation and precipitation are important components of regional hydroclimatology. However, soil moisture feedbacks and the processes through which they operate are notoriously challenging to observe and study outside of model environments. In this study, we combine a climatological assessment of event frequency‐based measurements of soil moisture‐precipitation coupling in the central United States with a process‐based analysis of the mechanisms by which wet‐ and dry‐soil feedbacks may operate in the region. We use the Thunderstorm Observation by Radar algorithm to identify the location of convection initiation, circumventing the issue of using precipitation accumulation as a proxy for convection initiation. Results show substantial spatial variability in the climatological sign and strength of soil moisture‐precipitation coupling in the central United States, including regions that exhibit signs of both wet‐ and dry‐soil feedbacks. Within the regions with the strongest feedback signals, we find consistently strong coupling between soil moisture and the partitioning of surface heat flux, and strong coupling between surface heat flux—particularly sensible heat flux—and diurnal change in planetary boundary layer height. In all three regions assessed, the process‐based metrics confirmed the potential of wet‐ and/or dry‐soil feedbacks leading to convection initiation.


The specific activity of the histones of the Walker, Jensen, and Ehrlich ascites tumors was greater than that of the histones of each of the nontumor tissues studied following incubation of slices or cell suspensions with l-arginine-U-C14 for intervals up to 60 minutes.

In all nontumor tissues studied, the specific activity of the histones was lower than that of proteins of the whole homogenate following 60 minutes of incubation. In the three tumors the specific activity of the histones was equal to or greater than that of the whole homogenate and was generally equal to or greater than specific activities of most of the cytoplasmic proteins.

The uptake of radioactivity into the cytoplasmic proteins of the spleen and mouse pancreas approximated that of the cytoplasmic proteins of the tumors studied.

The results of these experiments fortify the conclusion that an important activity of the neoplastic cell is the biosynthesis of histones and other nuclear proteins.


Due to extensive metastasis, poor blood supply, and drug‐resistant, there is still no effective clinical means to treat peritoneal dissemination of gastric cancer. Here, an aptamer‐siRNA chimera (Chim)/polyethyleneimine (PEI)/5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU)/carbon nanotube (CNT)/collagen membrane is constructed, which could be divided into 15 layers with a thickness of 70–100 µm. Sustained release experiments show that the collagen membranes can control 5‐FU release for more than 2 weeks. Aptamer‐siRNA chimera can specifically bind to gastric cancer cells, enabling targeted delivery of 5‐FU and silencing drug‐resistant gene. In vitro experiments demonstrated that Chim/PEI/5‐FU/CNT nanoparticles promoted the apoptosis of 5‐FU‐resistant gastric cancer cells, inhibited their invasion and proliferation. Animal experiments show that Chim/PEI/5‐FU/CNT/collagen membrane significantly inhibits the expression of mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK), and effectively treats peritoneal dissemination of 5‐FU‐resistant gastric cancer. Compared with siRNA/PEI/5‐FU/CNT group, ki‐67 proliferation index, and matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP9) expression are significantly decreased in the Chim/PEI/5‐FU/CNT group, while the proportion of apoptotic cells is markly increased. In conclusion, a chimera/PEI/5‐FU/CNT/collagen membrane is constructed, which can effectively treat peritoneal dissemination of drug‐resistant gastric cancer. The study provides a new therapeutic approach for relevant clinical treatment.


Most prior applications of Mullins's formalism for the capillarity‐induced time development of surface morphology have been restricted to cases where the deviations from a perfectly flat profile are small. An analytical technique is developed here for following the evolution of the surface profile of a body containing an initially abrupt discontinuity. The annealing, by surface diffusion, of a concave surface corner and grain boundary grooving are discussed as examples of the general method.


High-pressure direct-injection (HPDI) natural gas engines continue to draw much attention for the highly efficient and clean combustion process compared to traditional diesel engines. However, the ...


The feeding、 oviposition and population dynamics of striped leaf beetle (Phyllotreta striolata) on Brassica juncea 、 B. compestris 、B. parachinesis and B. alboglabra were investigated in field. The fitness of four host plants to striped leaf beetle was quantitatively tested with the selective index (SI) and preference index (PI) , and the index of population trend (I) was used as an important estimate to evaluate the influence of different host plant on the natural population of striped leaf beede. The results showed the adult preferred to feed and oviposit on B. juncea, B. compestris and B. parachinesis . The higher survival rates of larvae and pupa occured on B. juncea. , B. compestris and B. parachinesis. The beede laid fewer eggs and had lower survival rates in different stage of larvae on B. alboglabra, with the PI value = 1.937 and I-value = 0.78.


We performed spatially-resolved near-ambient-pressure photoemission spectromicroscopy on graphene-coated copper in operando under oxidation conditions in oxygen atmosphere (0.1 mbar). We investigated regions with bare copper and areas covered with mono- and bi-layers graphene flakes, in isobaric and isothermal experiments. The key method in this work is the combination of spatial and chemical resolution of the scanning photoemission microscope operating in near-ambient-pressure environment, thus allowing to overcome both materials and pressure gap typical of standard UHV XPS and to observe in operando the protection mechanism of graphene towards copper oxidation. The ability to perform spatially resolved XPS and imaging at high pressure allows for the first time a unique characterization of the oxidation phenomenon by means of photoelectron spectromicroscopy, pushing the limits of this technique from fundamental studies to real materials in working conditions. While bare Cu oxidizes naturally at room temperature, our results demonstrate that such graphene coating act as an effective barrier to prevent copper oxidation at high temperatures (over 300 °C), until oxygen intercalation beneath graphene starts from boundaries and defects. We also show that bilayers flakes can protect at even higher temperature. The protected metallic substrate, therefore, does not suffer corrosion preserving its metallic character, making this coating appealing for any application in an aggressive atmospheric environment at high temperature.


As part of road user cost study - a research project jointly sponsored by the World Bank and the government of India - controlled experiments were conducted to determine the fuel consumption of trucks. The objective was to evolve a mathematical relationship between fuel consumption and the factors likely to affect the same. The paper describes the study carried out and presents the results. It has been shown that speed and power of the vehicle and gradient and roughness of the road affect the fuel consumption significantly. The results can be used in selecting optimum speeds for running the trucks and to choose appropriate geometric standards for roads with a view to save fuel. (Author/TRRL)


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of caloric restriction (CR) on expressions of peroxisome proliferators-activated receptors (PPARs) and positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) (including cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) and cyclin T1) protein in visceral adipose tissue of obese rats.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Obese rats were induced by high-fat diet for 8 weeks. Then they were divided into three groups: Model (n=5), 50% Calorie Restricted (50% CR, n=5), Intermittent Fasting (IF) (eight cycles of 3-d fasting and 3-d refeeding, n=6) for 8 weeks. Biochemical parameters were measured. Protein and mRNA expression of Cdk9, cyclin T1 and PPARs were qualified in visceral adipose tissue.

RESULTS
A significant decline in fasting plasma glucose (FPG), homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), body weight, and visceral fat weight was observed in 50% CR group. The IF group exhibited a significant decrease in FPG, HOMA-IR, visceral fat weight. Both 50% CR and IF down-regulated mRNA and protein expression of PPARγ and Cdk9, cyclin T1 and up-regulated mRNA and protein expression of PPARβ.

CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that the effects of 50% CR and IF on HOMA-IR, body weight, visceral fat weight, P-TEFb and PPARγ expression may be related to their protective potential on obesity.


Ovarian cancer represents a significant challenge in women's health, with an estimated 21,980 new cases and 14,270 deaths in the United States in the year 2014. Despite excellent response rates to cytotoxic chemotherapy, the majority of patients will relapse within two to three years and extending their remission through consolidation remains a priority. The development of novel treatment agents is therefore imperative. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors are a promising new class of targeted agents currently in clinical trials for ovarian cancer. PARP inhibitors were first studied in patients harboring BRCA1/2 mutations due to the known synthetic lethality of BRCA1/2 -associated dysfunctional homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair and PARP inhibitor-associated loss of base excisional repair (BER) and non-homologous end rejoining. However, preclinical and emerging clinical data suggest that PARP inhibitors may benefit a broader patient population. While the initial studies of PARP inhibitors in ovarian cancer are encouraging, there remain many unanswered questions including the ideal timing of administration, whether to give these drugs as monotherapy or in combination with other antineoplastic agents and how to identify the patients most likely to respond. The focus of this review will be on the underlying mechanism of PARP inhibition in cancer, preclinical data, current clinical trials and the future of PARP inhibitors in the treatment of ovarian cancer.


Speaking as a graduate of 40 years' standing who has held several officer posts in one of the smaller specialist divisions of the BVA, the Society of Greyhound Veterinarians (SGV), I would suggest that if, as my anonymous colleague suggests ( VR , 27 June/4 July 2020, vol 186, p 649), we need 'a more agile and flexible approach to our representation' then perhaps we first need to agree among ourselves what functions such divisions should fulfil.

Over the years I have been an ordinary member of a number of specialist divisions. My prime motivation for joining them was educational; feeling the need to enhance my knowledge of areas in which I had either developed a particular interest or discovered a particular deficiency. A society with a half-decent journal and reasonably frequent meetings held within handy driving distance had great appeal.

Prospective members …


This work deals with a method of preparation of nanometer structures for a gas detector based on e-beam lithography and ion etching of a thin TiO2 film. The aim was the fabrication of a gas sensor with meander or comb structures of nanometer dimensions. This is of importance since both the size of the contacts and the layer thickness affect the sensor's sensitivity.


The antioxidant effect of 2,2′,3,3′-tetrahy-droxy dimethyl biphenyl (T. D. B. P.) was determined in lard, corn oil, and soybean oil, with and without the synergist citric acid, using the Swift stability method. Nordihydro-guaiaretic acid (N. D. G. A.) was also tested under the same conditions. T. D. B. P. was shown to be considerably more effective in lard and corn oil than N. D. G. A. In the case of soybean oil, T. D. B. P. was slightly better than N. D. G. A.


The DNA and RNA analysis can be useful to the selection of genotypes containing drought tolerance and good properties in the breeding program. So, this research was carried out on 38 maize (Zea mays L.) varieties to investigate the effect of drought stress on genome structure and its changes in drought tolerant, semi-tolerant and susceptible maize verities. For classifying maize varieties to three groups (drought tolerant, drought semi-tolerant and susceptible groups), seed germination ability was used under artificial water stress condition and in laboratory condition. Artificial water stress was created with sucrose solution at 10 atm. Then, one variety was chosen from each group (drought tolerant, semi-tolerant and susceptible groups). In drought tolerant, semi-tolerant and susceptible maize verities, stabile DNA, labile DNA, residual DNA and RNA were extracted. The results showed that the rate of labile DNA and RNA was increased 22.9 and 48.1%, respectively in tolerant variety under drought stress condition. Whereas in susceptible variety, the rate of those was decreased 35.9 and 17.2% under drought stress condition, respectively.


Solid pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPNs) may have an aggressive clinical course, but clinical predictors of this condition have not been thoroughly evaluated. We performed a retrospective study of 11 cases of SPN managed in our hospital between January 2007 and April 2015. Of these 11 cases, we encountered a single case with an aggressive clinical course. Histological, immunohistochemical, and clinical features were compared to identify predictors of poor prognosis. The 11 patients comprised four women and seven men with a median age of 41 years (range, 26–58 years). Clinical symptoms were nonspecific and the median tumor size was 4.6 cm (range, 1.4–18 cm). The patient with an aggressive clinical course developed multiple liver metastases within three months and died seven months after surgery. Pathological features of the tumor in this case included lymph node metastases, a diffuse growth pattern, extensive tumor necrosis, high mitotic rate, and immunohistochemistry. These features were not observed in patients who survived without recurrence at a median follow‐up of 25 months (range, 6–82 months). Characteristic pathological features and a high proliferative index, as assessed by Ki‐67 staining, may predict poor outcome in cases of SPN.


We report herein a novel series of Mannitol/GNPs (graphene nanoplatelets) composites with incremental GNPs loadings from 1 wt% to 10 wt% for further applications in medium-temperature thermal energy system. The phase change behavior and thermal conductivity of Mannitol/GNPs composite, a nanostructured PCM, have been evaluated as a function of GNPs content. Compared to the pristine Mannitol, the resultant stabilized composite with 8 wt% of GNPs displays an extremely high 1054% enhancement in thermal conductivity, and inherits 92% of phase change enthalpy of bulk Mannitol PCM (phase change material). More importantly, 92%Mannitol/GNPs composite still preserves its initial shape without any leakage even when subjected to a 400 consecutive melting/re-solidification cycles. The resulting Mannitol composites exhibit excellent chemical compatibility, large phase change enthalpy and improved thermal reliability, as compared to base PCM, which stands distinct in its class of organic with reference to the past literatures.


With computer development at full speed of technology, computer auxiliary designing technique design field receive extensive application, bring heavy change very to method and idea of the advertisement design, become design, new trend that innovate, meanwhile the computer exerted a great influence too in the field of advertisement design teaching.


Objective - to increase the efficiency of treatment of patients with allergic dermatitis by using chronodermined antioxidant drugs, taking into account the daily rhythms of the parameters of prooxidant antioxidant homeostasis.
Materials and methods: 73 patients with allergic dermatitis (eczema, allergic and atopic dermatitis) were examined, which determined the circadian (daily) rhythms of the parameters of prooxidant-antioxidant homeostasis.
Results and discussion. In patients with allergic dermatitis, an increase in the mesor and amplitude of malonic aldehyde, the fractions of oxidative modification of proteins and mediomolecular peptides with acrophase in the evening hours, as well as the reduction of the mesor of reduced glutathione and ceruloplasmin with batifase in evening hours, has been established, indicating activation and growth during free radical oxidation processes lipids and proteins against the background of a decrease in the activity of antioxidant flora, which substantiates the chronoderminable purpose of such a patient with antioxidant drugs.
Conclusion: Chronodetermined appointment in the complex treatment of allergic dermatitis antioxidant drugs accelerates the regression of their clinical manifestations, reduces the timing of treatment of patients, as well as helps to normalize their prooxidant antioxidant homeostasis.


The duality series blend films of Chitosan(CTS)/ poly-(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate(PHB) were prepared.The surface appearance of blend films were observed and analyzed by SEM.The hemolysis ratio,plasma recalcification time,dynamic clotting time and adsorbed platelets of different proportion blend films had been evaluated in vitro.Results indicated that compared with raw materials of CTS,CTS/PHB blend films had lower hemolysis ratio,longer plasma recalcification time and more smooth dynamic clotting time curve.SEM showed that blend films had markedly less adsorbed platelets on surface than CTS.The constituent of C1B1 blend materials had excellent performance.The conclusion was that CTS's blood compatibility could improve effectively by the method of simple blend with PHB.


OAM (Operations, Administration and Maintenance) system isaveryimportant component ofthe 3Gcellular network. Inorder toacquire overall management, fast response andsteady operation, aSCTP(Stream Control Transmission Protocol) basedOAM (SOAM)system is proposed. The SOAM systemimplements thenew characters ofSCTPsuchasmulti-stream, enforced SACK andheartbeat mechanism onits transport layer, which helps todecrease themessage transmission delay andaccelerate thelinkfailure detection. Moreover, a new component namedSOAMagent isintroduced toimprove theoperation efficiency oftheSOAM system. Testresults provethat SOAM system achieves better performance onsignaling transmission compared withconventional TCPbased OAM system.


This study constructs and calibrates a macroeconomic model that explains Korea's glass ceiling and examines the output cost of gender discrimination. The model is based on the span‐of‐control framework in Lucas (1978). It is assumed that the source of the glass ceiling is women requiring more managerial skill than men to be considered for promotion. According to simulation results, without the glass ceiling, besides an increase in the share of female managers, aggregate output also increases by 8.4%. The output gain from a glass ceiling removal policy is monotonic because the number of workers continues to decline while the number of managers increases gradually. This implies that the more effective the policy implementation, the greater the increase in output.


The infectious approaches and symptom of the silkworm nuclear polyhedrosis in Guangxi were discussed,and the causes of the disease were analyzed from many aspectes including special pathogeny,and reasonable countermeasures and new methods to prevent and cure the disease were suggested.


This paper presents a single-phase input-output common bus line uninterruptible power supply (UPS) circuit topology using a six-in-one insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module which incorporates a bidirectional chopper-linked battery bank with specific current-mode control strategy. The steady-state operating principle of this UPS topology and its new control strategy are described, together with conventional UPS. The experimental results of the cost-effective and high-performance small-scale UPS topology with a two-quadrant chopper-fed battery link are illustrated for the developed 3 kV A UPS and discussed, in comparison with conventional UPS topologies, from a practical point of view.


e17066 Background: Identifying high-risk early-stage EOC patients (p) is a major issue. Also, controversy about the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to surgery in advanced EOC is still ongoing. A high MLR is related to poorer outcomes in several cancers, and also in ovarian cancer according to limited retrospective series. We explored the clinical value of MLR in a cohort of EOC p. Methods: We included all EOC p diagnosed in our center, from January 2008 to April 2017, who had undergone radical treatment. Overall survival (OS) was assessed by Kaplan Meyer. Maximally selected rank statistics was used to determine the MLR cut-off value for the greatest OS discrimination. The hazard ratio (HR) of death of MLR was explored by multivariate Cox regression models, adjusted by age at diagnosis, stage I/II versus (vs) III/IV, high grade serous carcinomas (HGSC) vs other, primary surgery vs interval surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (PS, IS), residual disease < 1 vs > 1cm, year of diagnosis, and hemoglobin, neutrophils, platelets and MLR at diagnosis. Results: 124 p were included. Median age at diagnosis was 58.7 years; 55.6% were HGSC;67.7% stage III/IV; 69.3% received PS; 14.3% had residual disease > 1cm. Median OS was 75 months. MLR was the laboratory parameter that more significantly impacted on OS in our model (p = 0.02). Optimal MLR cut-off was 0.38. The MLR > 0.38 group (MLR-hi) had a higher-risk of death (HR = 2.9; 95% IC: 1.3–6.5) with respect to those with MLR < = 0.38 (MLR-lo). Median OS were 100 and 35 months, respectively. In the MLR-lo group, median age at diagnosis was 56.9 years (vs 61.9 in the MLR-hi, p 0.047), 44.8% were HGSC (vs 61.2%, p 0.134), and 49.97% were stages I/II (vs 14.2%, p 0.001). MLR-hi p who had undergone PS or IS had similar OS (p = 0.63). In contrast, among MLR-lo p, PS showed significantly higher OS than IS (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: In our cohort, MLR was an independent prognostic factor in EOC. Its potential role to identify high-risk early-stage p and to predict worse outcomes after PS among advanced-stage p need to be explored in larger cohorts.


Piezoelectric materials have wide applications in today's advanced technologies. However, most commercially used piezoelectric material PZT (PbZr1-xTixO3) is now strictly restricted worldwide due to hazardous nature of Pb. Research for the development of new lead free materials with properties comparable to that of PZT is in progress in recent years. In the present work, an effort has been made to synthesize low amount of rare earth gadolinium modified (Bi1-xGdx)0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BGNT) with compositions (x) = 0, 0.02, 0.03 and 0.04 by a novel Semi–Wet Technique. The structural, microstructure, phase transition and dielectric properties have been investigated. The XRD patterns have shown single phase formation for all the samples with a rhombohedral symmetry at RT. Gd3+ doping has shown a significant effect on the grain growth. The dielectric measurement has been carried out over the temperature range from RT to 400 oC at 1, 10 and 100 kHz frequency. It has been observed from the εr vs T plots that two phase transitions (i) ferroelectric to anti-ferroelectric and (ii) anti ferroelectric to paraelectric occur in all the samples. The composition with x = 0.02 has shown significantly high value of dielectric constant (εr ~ 1567) and low value of dielectric loss (Tan δ ~ 0.043) at room temperature.


The invention relates to a watershed algorithm-based high spatial resolution multi-spectral remote sensing image segmentation method, and aims to solve the segmentation problem of a high spatial resolution multi-spectral remote sensing image. The method comprises the following steps of: solving the gradient of the multi-spectral image by using a multi-spectral gradient algorithm to obtain a gradient image, then segmenting the gradient image by using a watershed algorithm, and finally performing region merging according to a merging algorithm by using the similarity between regions to obtain a final segmentation result.


This document describes the coated-particle fuel performance test agreed to under Annex 2 of the arrangement between the US Department of Energy and the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute on cooperation in research and development regarding high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs). The test will evaluate the behavior of reference fuel compacts containing coated-particle fuels fabricated according to the specifications for the US Modular HTGR and the Japanese High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) concepts. Two experimental capsules, HRB-21 and HRB-22, are being tested. Capsule HRB-21 contains only US reference fuel, and HRB-22 contains only JAERI reference fuel. Both capsules will be irradiated in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Capsule HRB-21 will be operated at a mean volumetric fuel temperature of 975{degrees}C and will achieve a peak fissile burnup of 26% fissions per initial metal atom (FIMA) and a fast fluence of {le}4.5 {times} 10{sup 25} neutrons/m{sup 2}. Capsule HRB-22 will be operated at a mean centerline fuel temperature of 1250 to 1300{degrees}C and will achieve a peak fissile burnup of 5.5% FIMA and a fast fluence of 1.7 {times} 10{sup 25} neutrons/m{sup 2}. Performance of the fuels during irradiation will be closely monitored using on-line fission gas surveillance. Following irradiation, both capsules will undergo detailed examinations and core heatup simulation testing. Results from in-reactor monitoring and postirradiation testing will be analyzed to comparatively assess US and Japanese coated-particle fuel performance. 3 refs., 9 figs., 10 tabs.


A thesis submitted to the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of
Doctor of Philosophy In Biological Sciences, 2013


The strength of scattering signals affects reception directly.Though simulation of scattering signals is studied the object's radar cross sections under different bistatic angles,and compared the influence of different radar cross sections,and the signal-to-noise ratios to the maximum detection range.The analysis showed that forward scattering makes good reception,and GPS passive detection range can be enlarged by selecting the optimum satellites.


An alternative route to obtain Ψ(CH 2 O) pseudodipeptide unit based on insertion of carbens in hydroxylic bond of alcohols mediated by catalyst rhodium(II) acetate is described. In that way, N-protected derivatives of alaninol, valinol, isoleucinol leucinol and phenylalaninol were converted, upon a treatment with methyl or ethyl diazoacetate, to corresponding fully protected pseudodipeptides with methyleneoxy isostere bond which can be further used in peptide synthesis.


Abstract 397 Upon antigenic stimulation of B cells, germinal centers (GCs) are formed where somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR) of immunoglobulin ( Ig ) genes serve to diversify the immune response. SHM and CSR are initiated by the enzyme activation induced cytidine deaminase (AID) through the conversion of C/G base pairs to U-G mismatches. These mismatches are processed by UNG-dependent base excision repair (BER) and MSH2-dependent mismatch repair (MMR) pathways to yield mutations (for SHM) and DNA strand lesions (for CSR). Despite this essential role in immune diversification, the intrinsic activity of AID as a DNA mutator poses a threat to genomic integrity. Indeed, aberrant targeting of AID activity is associated with translocations and point mutations of proto-oncogenes associated with B cell malignancies. A specific dependence on AID in the pathogenesis of lymphomas of GC B cell origin is exemplified in Iμ-Bcl6 knock-in mice. These mice develop a diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBL) that resembles the human disease but are protected from development of this lymphoma when crossed onto an Aid-deficient background. To investigate the role of Aid-associated DNA repair in the pathogenesis of this disease, we crossed Iμ-Bcl6 mice onto a background deficient in BER ( Ung −/− ) and MMR ( Msh2 −/− ). Young healthy Iμ-Bcl6 and Iμ-Bcl6 Ung −/− Msh2 −/− mice displayed a normal number and distribution of B cells and normal architecture of lymphoid organs. Five of 28 Iμ-Bcl6 mice (17.9%) became sick starting at ∼12 months of age. Historically, median survival in these mice has not been reached and ∼80% survive to 15 months. In contrast, 21 of 28 Iμ-Bcl6 Ung −/− Msh2 −/− mice (75%) developed disease with an onset of ∼3 months and had a median survival of 6.2 months (p Iμ-Bcl6 mice and the majority of Iμ-Bcl6 Ung −/− Msh2 −/− mice developed B cell lymphoma with splenic involvement and variable nodal involvement. Five of the Iμ-Bcl6 Ung −/− Msh2 −/− mice developed other cancers (3 T cell lymphomas, 1 pre-B cell lymphoma and 1 colon adenocarcinoma). Tumors from both genotypes expressed a mature B cell phenotype (B220+ IgM+ Igκ+ CD138-) and morphology revealed loss of normal lymphoid architecture with infiltration by lymphoid blasts. Additional staining demonstrated expression of at least one GC marker (Fas, GL7 and/or PNA). Similar to Iμ-Bcl6 mice, while many of the Iμ-Bcl6 Ung −/− Msh2 −/− tumors had clonal mutated Ig heavy chain gene variable regions, two of the tumors were identified as oligoclonal, suggesting a preceding lymphoproliferative stage. In the absence of Ung and Msh2, Aid-generated U-G mismatches are not recognized and are simply replicated, causing only C/G to T/A transition mutations and no strand lesions. Thus, as expected, all Ig mutations in Iμ-Bcl6 Ung −/− Msh2 −/− mice were C/G to T/A transitions. Lymphomas from Iμ-Bcl6 mice have been found to harbor numerous chromosome translocations and aneuploidies. Although additional analyses are underway, spectral karyotyping of 3 Iμ-Bcl6 Ung −/− Msh2 −/− tumors revealed 2 with normal cytogenetics and 1 with a 40–41,XX,t(2;17),+15,+19. Surprisingly, sequence analysis of several known Aid target genes ( cMyc , Pim1 , RhoH , Pax5 , Cd79a , Fas , H2ax and OcaB ) in tumors from 3 Iμ-Bcl6 Ung −/− Msh2 −/− mice did not identify any clonal mutations. However, non-clonal C/T to T/A transition mutations in cMyc were present at a frequency of 1.2 × 10 −4 , suggestive of ongoing Aid activity. The presence of Aid activity but absence of off-target Aid-mediated clonal SHM suggests that either other genes are targeted by Aid or that Aid has a secondary role in lymphomagenesis such as epigenetic reprogramming, as has been shown in iPS cells. Nonetheless, the incidence of Aid-dependent lymphomagenesis in the absence of Aid-associated DNA repair is significantly increased and the latency is greatly shortened. Altogether, this data suggests that Aid-associated BER and MMR pathways afford a protective effect against the development of Aid-dependent GC B cell lymphomas such as DLBL. To investigate the role of the individual Aid-associated DNA repair pathways, we have also generated Iμ-Bcl6 Ung −/− and Iμ-Bcl6 Msh2 −/− single knockout mice. These studies are ongoing but preliminary results suggest that while the effect of Ung and Msh2 deficiency on lymphomagenesis may be synergistic, Msh2 might play a more critical role in preventing Aid-mediated genomic instability. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Based on the in-depth analysis of the current situation of the important constituent elements such as existing laws and regulations,sports service system of sports facilities,resources distribution,assessment and feedback mechanism of public sports service system and so on,it is found the current public sports service system is still imperfect,there are still a lot of questions such as the shortage of existing facilities,management system is not sound,the regional distribution of sports resources in city and township is unreasonable and so on.The author puts forward some countermeasures to the construction of the public sports service system,such as improving the mass sports organization's enterprise information construction,encouraging cooperation pattern of government and enterprise,etc..


To the Editor.— A 34-year-old former heroin addict was hospitalized with a three-day history of nosebleeds and swelling of the right arm after injecting 30 mL of Donnagel (ingredients include kaolin, pectin, opium, and belladonna alkaloids) intravenously. On admission, he had a temperature of 40 °C, pulse rate of 110 beats per minute, respiratory rate of 22/min, and blood pressure of 140/70 mm Hg. There was fresh blood in the nasal cavities. Initial laboratory data included the following values: WBC count of 6,100/cu mm with normal differential; hemoglobin, 14.6 g/dL; hematocrit, 43.2%; prothrombin time, 22 seconds; partial thromboplastin time, 120 seconds; fibrinogen, 35 mg/ dL; and platelet count, 60,000/cu mm. Factor VIII level was 77% and fibrin degradation products were 40 μg/mL. Microscopic hematuria and occult blood in stools were present. Cultures of blood, urine, and an aspirate from the swollen arm were negative. The patient was treated with 4


The article presents issues related to creating sustainable mobility, which is one of the main elements of a smart city, the understanding of which in recent years has changed dramatically. We can observe a departure from the strictly technological understanding of a smart city, in favour of creative development and providing incentives for shaping urban space that is not only public, but also respects the requirements of the environment. This aspect is also necessary for the development of smart and sustainable mobility. The aim of this study is to identify the main premise and the characteristics of a smart and sustainable city, and to present mobility as one of the key challenges involved in the operationalization of the concept. Although the issue of a smart city and sustainable city in the literature is often taken up, their combination is less explored. These considerations start with presenting the key components of a smart sustainable city. This will allow to understand the idea of the concept. Next, we will go to the issue of mobility, which plays an important role in creating a smart sustainable city.


The phased array radar exhibits improved tracking accuracy and anti-jamming performance with multi-beam tracking, beam agility, and adaptive beam-forming capabilities. The performance evaluation of the phased array radar is essential for the product designing and development stage. However, the conventional injection simulation and triad radiation simulation methods are not suitable for phased array radars. Therefore, new methods for radiation simulation are required on an urgent basis for the performance evaluation of phased array radars in a reliable, reliable, and repeatable way. This paper focuses on designing a practical anechoic chamber system of multi-probe radiation suitable for phased array radars. The appropriate test distance, the physical size of the anechoic chamber, the multi-probe radiation signal model, and the number of probes required were discussed. Furthermore, an inversion method based on least squares was proposed to solve the complex weights of the probes, thereby simulating the desired apparent center position. The simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.


The article deals with problems associated with the introduction of plain language into official correspondence. The conclusions presented have been drawn from the training of about 800 officials working in ministries, regional government and other institutions financed from the state budget. The author discusses selected factors hindering effective implementation of plain Polish. These are: the lack of sanctioning of plain language by law, ambiguity, connotations as well as the relative meaning of the phrase plain language/plain Polish, officials' habits and beliefs.


The macro- and microscopic anatomy of the nasal fossa of Tupaia glis was compared with those of some insectivores. No significant group differences were found as far as the intranasal structures are concerned. Since the number of receptor cells in the olfactory epithelium of Tupaia glis and Talpa europaea is smaller than in the other species studied, a slight reduction of the sense of smell is suggested.


The Yamburg oil and gas condensate field, like many northwestern fields, is at the final stage of production. The consequence is that the large amount of formation water in the inflow may accumulate in particular in well bottom hole. The response surface analysis is used as a new technique for gaining detailed understanding of the relationships between combinations of two predictor variables and a result variable. This approach was applied to the Yamburg field in order to estimate the time of gas-water contact lift considering the lithological characteristics of the reservoirs. The results of the predicted gas-water contact time were compared to the expected gas-water contact time, the data of which were considered for the study. Using the parameters of the model as well as the three-dimensional response surface, which was built to facilitate and improve the interpretation of the results, it was possible to predict the gas-water contact time under certain conditions.


Pectin was extracted from pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) pulp at 82°C and pH 4.6, in the presence of ammonium oxalate at 0.25%. Soluble pectin was recovered as pectinates aluminium by precipitation, in the presence of aluminium sulphate. Extracted pectin contains uronic acids and neutral sugar with a percentage of 58.43±0.10% and 21.11% respectively. The studied pectin was highly methylated (DE 77.61±0.04%). Three equations were used: Huggins, Kraemer and Solomon, Cituâ and Morris to measure the intrinsic viscosity. The latter ranged from 9.00±0.40 to 10.86±0.60 dl/g. Its molecular weight depends on the intrinsic viscosity of pectin solution, as expressed by MarkHouwink-Sakurada equation. The obtained values varied between 224.40±9.50 KDa and 266.64±20.34 KDa. The effect of pH on rheological behavior of pectin solution was investigated. At pH 4, pectin showed a non-Newtonian rheological behavior at low viscosities. The increase of pectin concentration led to the increases in viscosity and the rheological behavior becomes rheo-thickening. At pH 7, the viscosity of pectin solution was rather low to develop a non-Newtonian behavior or modify the Newtonian behaviour.The viscoelastic behavior of pectin studied at different concentrations. Solid behavior can be observed for relatively low values of G '(of a few Pa), indicating the existence of a threedimensional structure.


In this paper we compare two interlingua representations for speech translation. The basis of this paper is a distributional analysis of the C-STAR II and NESPOLE databases tagged with interlingua representations. The C-STAR II database has been partially re-tagged with the NESPOLE interlingua, which enables us to make comparisons on the same data with two types of interlinguas and on two types of data (C-STAR II and NESPOLE) with the same interlingua. The distributional information presented in this paper show that the NESPOLE interlingua maintains the language-independence and simplicity of the C-STAR II speech-act-based approach, while increasing semantic expressiveness and scalability.


E-Learning, Blended Learning, Massive Online Courses, Distributed Learning, Webinars Hybrid Events and video conferencing are topics treated for decades. Technology-wise, many opportunities were taken and chances were used. However, in many situations, work places, universities and institutions, lectures, courses, trainings, workshops or informative events were still primarily held on-site. All of them, with their specific advantages and disadvantages (e.g., personal contact, networking vs. time loss, ecological footprint, etc.). First with the Corona Pandemic and the subsequent measures, all foremost the lockdown situations worldwide, remote working, learning and video conferencing experienced a dramatic boost. The option of preferring on-site, personal meetings vanished completely. Due to this profound change in collaborative that had to become common overnight, people were forced to face and adapt to available technologies. The latter, on the other side, also evolved quickly to provide more and more features to improve collaboration, usability and privacy. Formats for lectures, courses, workshops and collaboration also had to be adapted quickly. The problem was that all stakeholders, both lecturers as well as learners could not that easily change their habits, ways of teaching and learning, interacting, and – not to forget – their didactic concept, methods and materials. A 1:1 transformation was impossible since different technical background knowledge as well as very different technical and spatial conditions lead to great imbalance in quality of teaching, interaction, use of technology and practicability. In order to address these uncertainties, this work provides a basic set of suggestions for lecturers in form of a pattern collection for setting up educational online courses regarding several aspects like common sense, technology and rules of the game. Since patterns are technology-agnostic and formulated for a broad audience with different professional backgrounds, they qualify as universal format and at the same time keep the validity of time. Even after almost three years with COVID-19, there is still struggle with technology adaption and format generation. The formulated patterns are based on interviews with experts that worked as lecturers, a larger-scale survey including the results from 63 online questionnaires and one focus group. The resulting set of 19 guidelines was then reformulated as patterns in a mid-high maturity state with the perspective of being further supported by new findings and practical experience. The pattern collection is linked to a process model for evolving pattern libraries from previous work.


Objective
To study the relationship between the disease activity and Eotaxin-1, rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic cirullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibody in patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA).

Methods
Total of 52 RA patients treated from April 2017 to April 2018 in The Central Hospital Of Enshi Autonomous Prefecture were selected as RA group, and 46 non-RA patients were selected as non-RA group.At the same time, 50 healthy check-ups were selected as control group.Serum RF, Eotaxin-1 and anti-CCP antibody levels were detected to analyze its correlation with disease activity.

Results
The antibody levels of serum Eotaxin-1, RF and anti-CCP were significantly different among the RA group, non-RA and control groups (F values were 22.91, 365.07 and 565.68 respectively, all P values<0.05). The expression levels of Eotaxin-1, RF and anti-CCP antibody in RA group were higher than those of non-RA group and control group, and the RF and anti-CCP antibody in non-RA group were higher than those of control group.There was no significant difference in serum Eotaxin-1 level between non-RA group and control group.Serum Eotaxin-1 level was positively correlated with the number of swollen joint count(SJC), tender joint count (TJC) and disease activity score (DAS28)(r values were 0.486, 0.512 and 0.802 respectively, all P values <0.05). RF antibody levels were positively correlated with DAS28(r=0.264, P<0.05). The anti-CCP antibody levels were positively correlated with TJC and DAS28(r values were 0.258 and 0.479, both P values <0.05).

Conclusion
Monitoring Eotaxin-1 and anti-CCP antibody levels are of great importance to clinical prognosis and treatment, which may be considered as a new serological indicator in the disease activity of RA patients.

Key words:
Rheumatoid arthritis; Disease activity; Eotaxin-1; Rheumatoid factor; Anti-cyclic cirullinated peptide antibody


A prototype of a nitro compound vapor and trace detector, which uses the pyrolysis method and a capacitive gas sensor based on the metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) structure type Pd–SiO2–Si, was developed and manufactured. It was experimentally established that the detection limit of trinitrotoluene trace for the detector prototype is 1 × 10−9 g, which corresponds to concentration from 10−11 g/cm3 to 10−12 g/cm3. The prototype had a response time of no more than 30 s. The possibility of further improving the characteristics of the prototype detector by reducing the overall dimensions and increasing the sensitivity of the MIS sensors is shown.


During the 20th century United States consolidated an ecosystem of innovation responsible for ensuring the economic leadership of world capitalism systemic cycle. Even with neoliberal reforms in this ecosystem that were implemented during the Reagan administration the US national innovation system remains competitive because of the solid institutional trajectory it has built.


We propose a novel microstrip leaky-wave antenna, based on a multiple-ring ('bull-eye') structure, with a high radiation efficiency and reduced edge-diffraction effects. Such favorable properties are achieved by properly choosing the relevant physical and geometrical parameters in order to operate the antenna in a frequency range in which no surface wave may propagate and the only physical leaky wave is the fundamental TM/sub 0/ mode. A directive conical radiation pattern, frequency-scannable in a wide angular region, is thereby achieved. Numerical results on dispersion properties of the involved TM and TE modes and full-wave simulations of representative structures are provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed design.


Ghee is one of the most important and valuable fat rich dairy products for human nutrition. Traditionally the characterization and authentication of ghee is performed by chemical methods, which are time consuming, laborious and costly. In the recent times, infrared (IR) spectroscopy has become very much popular technique for analysis of dairy products. In this study, the spectra of various ghee samples were acquired from Mid Infrared (MIR) spectroscopy in absorbance mode with Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) based sampling technique and evaluated for classification. Principal component Analysis (PCA) was used to transform the data into low dimensional feature vector space involving principal components. The dimensions were further reduced by selection of relevant principal components, which showed better classification results. Later this reduced feature vector space was fed to the input of k-means classifier for classifying the vanaspati (Dalda) ghee, home-made desi ghee and procured packaged desi ghee from market. The results demonstrate the feasibility of Mid Infrared (MIR) spectroscopy combined with pattern recognition techniques for discrimination and classification of various ghee samples.