Background: Gouty arthritis is a type of metabolic disorder that is associated with joint inflammation as a result of accumulation of monosodium urate in the synovial fluid. It's considered as one of the commonest presentations in primary care centers, in which a patient's present complaining of rapid pain development, redness and swelling of the effected joint. Objective: In our review, we focused upon discussing the clinical presentation of gouty arthritis, and recent updates in diagnosis and management in primary health care center. Methodology: A comprehensive search was done using biomedical databases; Medline, and PubMed, for studies concerned with assessment of Gouty Arthritis. Keywords used in our search through the databases were as; "Gout arthritis evaluation", "Diagnosis", "Management", and "Primary health care center". Conclusion: Acute gouty arthritis attacks occur as a result of accumulation of monosodium urate crystal deposits into the joint space which associated with inflammatory reaction development. The condition can cause severe pain at the start of the attacks, later on as the condition progress a patients may develop deformity in the effected joint and functional impairment. Primary health care physicians should have a full knowledge regarding gouty arthritis diagnosis, evaluation, and management options. Gout management aims to reduce serum urate level below 6mg/dL, to avoid/ prevent formation of new crystals and promote the dissolution of existing crystals. In general gout management can be difficult as a result of patient's incompliance, poor medical care provided by the health care system, and the presence of comorbidities. A physician should inform the patients about their condition, and the importance of patient's compliance with management plan to prevent attacks development.


Abstract Batch laboratory scale experiments were conducted to investigate the removal of phosphate from aqueous and municipal wastewater samples by addition of Al2(SO4)3.18H2O. The effect of pH, Al‐dose and initial phosphate concentration were assessed. Optimum phosphate removal, 51% for stoichio‐metric Al‐dose, was observed at pH 6. However, a 151% excess of Al‐dose was necessary for complete phosphate removal. Phosphate removal from municipal wastewater samples was slightly higher than that observed for the aqueous solutions. A chemical precipitation mathematical model was developed and tested with the available experimental data. The model considered 16 chemical equilibrium equations and the mass balance equations for aluminum and phosphorus. The chemical equilibrium equations included: (1) The co‐precipitation of two solid phases containing aluminum and phosphorus. (2) The formation of 9 aluminum containing soluble complexes and polymers. (3) The formation of 2 aluminum and phosphorus containing compl...


Each year, the Department of Energy funds grants for development of ideas in a variety of topics, some of which are associated with power modulator research. An initial Phase I grant allows the proposed research to be fleshed out with some preliminary hardware testing, and sets up the Phase II application which, if approved, funds the main research. For several years, various aspects of solid-state modulators have been the subjects of these grants. The renewed interest in gridded high power klystron designs has called for the development of new pulsed energy delivery systems that are not strictly modulators, but perform the same functions. This presentation reviews the status of presently funded SBIR grants that involve power modulator concepts or supporting component development, and gives a synopsis of the awards for 2002.


We study the spectrum of the kinetic Brownian motion in the space of d × d Hermitian matrices, d ≥ 2 . We show that the eigenvalues stay distinct for all times, and that the process Λ of eigenvalues is a kinetic diffusion (i.e. the pair (Λ , ˙Λ) of Λ and its derivative is Markovian) if and only if d = 2 . In the large scale and large time limit, we show that Λ converges to the usual (Markovian) Dyson Brownian motion under suitable normalisation, regardless of the dimension.


Statistical analysis and Kriging interpolation method were used to analyze spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture in desert steppe of Siziwang Banner,from a variety of sampling scale.The results showed that with the increasing of sampling scales,the soil moisture spatial heterogeneity firstly increased,then slightly decreased and finally trended to be stable.The spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture in desert steppe is affected by microtopography of sampling plots and distribution of bushes.The appropriate sampling scale to study spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture in desert steppe is(4~6)m×(8~12)m.


The idea of smart cities has mainly developed along a technology-centric vision, based on (broadband) communication networks, smart objects and internet of things, (open) public, private, and personal data made available by institutions and citizens, software based services, and so on. The vision of a smart community moves the emphasis towards the people living in the territory and towards the different communities of citizens sharing common goals, interests, and problems.


In situ RNA capturing has made it possible to record histology and spatial gene expression from the same tissue section. Here, we introduce a method that combines data from both modalities to infer super-resolved full-transcriptome expression maps. Our method unravels transcriptional heterogeneity in micrometer-scale anatomical features and enables image-based in silico spatial transcriptomics without hybridization or sequencing.


Objective To study the influence of infant iron deficiency anemia(IDA)on children language and motor development.Methods 42 children coincided with IDA diagnosis were selected as test group,and 42 normal children with equal background were selected as control group The Gesell Development Diagosis Schedule was used to evaluate children's language development.Peabody Developmental Motor Scales 2 was used to evaluate children's motor development.All subjects were traced for 1 year,then the development of children language and motor were evaluated again.Paired t-test and correlation analysis were conducted to compare the language and motor development in the two groups.Results Fine motor DQ are lower in test group than in control group(t=4.78,P0.05),there were not significant differences between two group for gross motor and language DQ.After 1 years,fine motor DQ of test group was still lower than the control group(t=2.43,P0.05),there was positively correlation between infant's hemoglobin level and fine motor development,the correlation coefficient was 0.23(P0.05).Conclusion Infant IDA would effect children fine motor development.Even in a year after anemia had been corrected,this effect still existed.However,infant IDA did not effect children gross motor development.


From June through December 1971 there were 553 completed applications for vasectomy at a free or low cost vasectomy program at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Of the 125 applicants interviewed 116 underwent vasectomy. 55% of the patients wanted to limit family size. 64% of the patients were from New York City. Nearly 40% of the patients were Catholic. 94.9% of the men were employed. Only 3 patients required subsequent surgical intervention. Social factors which may be responsible for the reluctance of the Bellevue Hospital Community to respond to the clinic are discussed.


The reunification of Germany raised a variety of public international law questions that have been subjected to extensive scholarly review in Germany, where the interest is naturally intense. This report is designed to bring before American and other international lawyers the basic facts and issues pertaining to that important event.


Abstract: Aims/Background: Hepatic stimulator substance (HSS) is a liver‐specific growth factor implicated in hepatocellular proliferation and hepatoprotection in models of acute liver injury. In the present study, we examined the effect of exogenous HSS administration on liver proliferating capacity and survival outcome in an experimental animal model of fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) and encephalopathy, induced by repeated injections of thioacetamide (TAA) in rats.


The activities of local people living in or around the nature reserves have important influences on the structure of forest communities. This study focused on the influences, which come from the firewood collecting by the local peop l , on the distribution of arbors. Through the investigation in 10 villages near the Wanglang natu re reserve, the income levels of the villages were divided into 3 ranks using the K-means Cluster , and 3 villages, which are the closest to the average values of each rank, were chosen to do the detailed analysis. At 90 sites around these 3 villages, some information was recorded on the char acte istics of arbors (species, height, diameter at breast height, and percentage of cover) and shru bbe y (species, height, quantity, percentage of cover, basal diameter and weight). Based on these d ata, the results indicated that the cumulative quality of the timber and the tree density relative o the one of shrubby both were the function of the distance to the center of the village (independ ent variable). By using the SPSS (Statistical Program for Social Sciences), regressive curves est imation was made in 10 math models. From the results of estimating, significant difference could not be found among the 3 villages so that the conclusion can be made as follow: the economic gaps existing in these 3 villages didn't affect obviously the distribution of the arbors. It is bec ause that the economic differences lying among the 3 villages are not significant enough to cause the changing on the approaches and the quantities of firewood collection of the local peop le. In addition, the results of curve estimation show that the R reaches the peak when comparing the function betwe en the independent variable and the cumulative quality of the timber with the L ogistic Model. Simultaneously, the maximum R appeared when we compared the function curve compo sed by the independent variable and the tree density relative to the one of shrubby with th e Growth Model. The distributing pattern can be easily found from the curve of the function. At fir st, the dependent variable ascended gently along with the increasing of the independent variable, wh ich illustrates that if the distance to the center of the village is less than the first threshold (be tween 3 km to 4 km), firewood collection plays a key role in the distribution of arbors. Even if the quality and the quantity increase, the trend changes slightly. However, if the distance keeps go ing up, the slope of the curve rises up suddenly and sharply. The trend is caused by the dramatic in tensity reducing of the negative disturbance from firewood collecting, and the existing range li s from the first threshold to the second threshold (between 7 km to 8 km). And after that, d ue to the human's influence on firewood collecting reduce gradually and almost can be ignor ed, the increasing trend of the curve becomes gentle again, and finally, the quality and quantity of the arbors go back to what they are in the original state.


Despite the undeniable ethical dimensions of paid occupations — trades and services — other than the traditional professions, it is still natural to associate courses of professional ethics with medicine, law, nursing or teaching, rather than auto-repair, supermarket assistance or window-cleaning. Indeed, it seems plausible to hold that if there is anything more to the traditional distinction of professions from trades or other services than considerations of social and economic status, it might well reside in the distinctive ethical or moral character and implications of such occupations as medicine, law and education. This paper undertakes to explore, via examination of some of the commonly suggested criteria of professionalism, the nature of such implications and the extent to which they justify continued deployment of a distinctive occupational category of 'profession'. On the assumption that they do, however, the paper is also concerned to examine critically the consequences for education in professional ethics of any such distinctive ethics of profession.


The basic objective of this paper is to introduce and investigate the properties of nano β-irresolute in nano topological spaces and studied some of its properties.


A Real-Time Task Offloading Strategy Based on Double Auction for Optimal Resource Allocation in Edge Computing 9 Zhipeng Gao (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications), Congcong Yao (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications), Kaile Xiao (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications), Zijia Mo (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications), Qian Wang (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications), and Yang Yang (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications)


Abstract In the present study, multi-scale entropy algorithm was used to characterise the complex flow phenomena of turbulent droplets in high water-cut oil-water two-phase flow. First, we compared multi-scale weighted permutation entropy (MWPE), multi-scale approximate entropy (MAE), multi-scale sample entropy (MSE) and multi-scale complexity measure (MCM) for typical nonlinear systems. The results show that MWPE presents satisfied variability with scale and anti-noise ability. Accordingly, we conducted an experiment of vertical upward oil-water two-phase flow with high water-cut and collected the signals of a high-resolution microwave resonant sensor, based on which two indexes, the entropy rate and mean value of MWPE, were extracted. Besides, the effects of total flow rate and water-cut on these two indexes were analysed. Our researches show that MWPE is an effective method to uncover the dynamic instability of oil-water two-phase flow with high water-cut.


IGAC is an ambitious, decade-long and global research initiative concerned with major research challenges in the field of atmospheric chemistry; its chemists and ecosystem biologists are addressing the problems associated with global biomass burning (BMB). Among IGAC's goals is the achievement of a fundamental understanding of the natural and anthropogenic processes determining changes in atmospheric composition and chemistry, in order to allow century-long predictions. IGAC's studies have been organized into 'foci', encompassing the marine, tropical, polar, boreal, and midlatitude areas, as well as their global composite interactions. Attention is to be given to the effects of BMB on biogeochemical cycles.


Now, fuel systems on aircrafts/engines are required to rapidly improve thermal management technology. The proposed variable speed pump systems are a unique solution to improve the thermal management of aircrafts/engines without requiring a major change in the conventional interface between a jet engine and a fuel system. Concurrently, the proposed systems have the possibility to improve SFC by about 0.25% during cruise on a small turbofan engine due to reducing inefficient energy consumption. These systems lead to minimize the conventional cooling mechanisms and contribute to the additional improvement of SFC. The purpose of this paper is to show the characteristics of the proposed systems.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


: review of critical texts on Lois Pereiro published since the 1980s. The texts are ordered in different phases; they are discussed, and those most relevant due to their canonizing orientation are described. The study reaches some conclusions on the process of canonization, as assessed by systemic the-ories and hermeneutical rhetoric; and they are analyzed from the point of view of the peculiarities of Galician cultural system.


Suffasia keralaensis, a new species in the spider family Zodariidae from the Western Ghats in India is described. It can be diagnosed from other members of the genus by oval spermathecae in the female and by the presence of three cymbial pits and long curved embolus with pointed tip of the male palp. A diagnostic key to both male and female species so far reported of the genus Suffasia is provided.


Summary form only given. The initial stage of discharge development at sufficiently high pd (where p is the gas pressure and d is the gap length) is the formation and propagation of ionization waves - streamers. Crossing the gap by the primary streamer does not necessary lead to breakdown. The next stage of discharge development evolution of the streamer channel is governed by the mean electric field inside the gap Em=U/d, where U is the applied voltage. At Em lower than the critical electric field Ec (corresponding to the equality of ionization and attachment coefficients) just after the bridging of the gap the mean net ionization rate is negative, so that the conductivity of streamer channel and, hence, the current decrease with time. However, in the initially decaying plasma some processes exist that tend to decelerate the decay and even to change the sign of the net ionization rate. As the result, after some time delay the decrease of current can be changed to an increase, resulting finally in spark breakdown. Two major factors lead to the growth of plasma conductivity. One, a thermal mechanism, is a lowering of the gas number density n inside the channel due to expansion of the heated plasma. It results in the growth of the mean reduced electric field Em/n and, hence, in an increase of the net ionization coefficient. Another, a kinetic mechanism, is related to the accumulation of active particles (radicals and excited molecules) changing the balance between the rates of generation and loss of electrons due to the acceleration of the detachment, stepwise and associative ionization, etc. The time delay t br between the bridging of the gap and spark formation is one of the main characteristics of the streamer-to-spark transition. Results of experiments have shown that the values of tbr in short non-uniform gaps in atmospheric-pressure air decrease steeply with growth of the mean electric field. Previous simulations of the streamer-to-spark transition in short air gaps have been performed for relatively high values of Em, when the breakdown occurs in the nanosecond time range and is governed by the kinetic mechanism only. At lower Em the effect of channel expansion is essential. In the present work the results are presented of simulation of spark breakdown with account of both mentioned factors. The model is modified by inclusion of the gas dynamic equations describing gas motion in the radial direction (normal to that of streamer propagation). It is shown that an account of the channel expansion results in considerable shortening of the breakdown time tbr at low Em. Calculated values of tbr versus the applied voltage agree with the experimental data


An earlier version of this text was prepared for a workshop of the University of Bielefeld in 2013. It was later published under the title: Stolpersteine Der mühevolle Weg zum Large Hadron Collider, in: H. Satz, P. Blanchard, C. Kommer (eds.), Großforschung in neuen Dimensionen, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2015. I am much indebted to John Pym of CERN and his team for the skillful translation of the German version. Great thanks go to Horst Wenninger for his continuous support. I am grateful to Luciano Maiani for a constructive exchange on aspects of the cost crisis of the LHC.


The capacity of SRAM-based FPGA block RAM (BRAM) is restrained by the low density and high leakage power of the current CMOS technology. In this paper, we propose a nonvolatile memory (NVM)-based BRAM architecture which enables flexible conversions between single-level cell (SLC) and multilevel cell (MLC) states. We show that despite the high per-access latency and power consumption, MLC-based BRAM blocks reduce the routing cost between logic units and on-chip data storages, which potentially leads to a smaller critical path delay and power consumption. Therefore, we propose an NVM BRAM architecture and an EDA framework which adaptively packs data into SLC- or MLC-state BRAMs during FPGA design flow in order to achieve better system performance. This paper illustrates that a simple memory device replacement from SRAM to NVM leads to nonoptimal system performance. On the other hand, compared with operating all NVM BRAM blocks in the SLC state with better per-access latency and power consumption, the proposed hybrid SLC-MLC architecture and design flow improves the critical path delay by 18.51%, with a system power reduction of 25.83% at the same time. Moreover, compared with the traditional "fast" SRAM-based BRAM blocks under the same BRAM area constraint, our hybrid NVM BRAM architecture improves the critical path delay by 8.55% on average, with an average system power reduction of 54.34% at the same time.


Although researchers have shown that purchasing longevity insurance at retirement guarantees pensioners of a high annual income for the rest of their lives, most retirees (who have a choice) choose to take the lump sum and self-manage the portfolio. This is a long-standing puzzle called the "annuity puzzle". This question arises in importance due to the UK government's recent changes in pension policy. This paper implements a behavioural model, the hyperbolic discount model, to analyse annuity purchase decisions. We give an explanation for the low demand of immediate annuity at retirement, and uncover the high desirability of long-term deferred annuities for both retirees and working-age pensioners. Based on our modeling result, a 65-year-old individual would like to pay 24% higher than the fair price for a 30-year deferred annuity. Moreover, we suggest that if governments were to introduce a pre-commitment device which requires pensioners to make annuitisation decisions 10 years before retirement, the take up rate of annuities would become higher.


In the era of knowledge economy,knowledge has become the source of enterprise's competitive advantage,and the value enhancement of knowledge value promotes the enterprise's value enhancement.On the basis of researching some theories related to enterprise's knowledge value chain,this paper builds the model of enterprise's knowledge value chain,finds out some related factors influencing the operating efficiency of enterprise's knowledge value chain,and puts forward some corresponding development strategies of enterprise.


As an individual criminal case works its way through the legal system, the parties are confronted at several stages with certain crucial decisions. Defendants must decide whether to plead guilty or to defend themselves at trial; once at trial, juries must decide whether to convict or acquit; thereafter, judges must pronounce sentence on those who are convicted. At root, each of these decisions, by the many actors within a criminal courts system, is economic in nature. The parties have to weigh the costs and benefits of the alternatives open to them. Their decisions influence not only their own individual fates but also the operation of the system as a whole. Any evaluation of the courts thus asks how individuals maximize their own private benefits, which, in turn, determines whether the allocation of resources is also efficient for the system. At both levels, economic logic can be used to expose and examine the critical factors underlying the choices made and the consequences they generate. Economists have developed formal models of the judicial process in order to illuminate the relevant economic issues. In the seminal work in this area, William Landes1 models the choice of guilty plea or trial in a * Associate Professor of Economics, University of Alabama. This work has been supported by research grants from the Research Grants Committee of the University of Alabama and by the College of Commerce and Business Administration at the University of Alabama. I would like to thank an anonymous referee for some very useful comments and suggestions.


The structural design applications and mechanical properties of high-strength concrete (HSC) are briefly reviewed. Analytical design studies of reinforced HSC bridge piers and columns subjected to static and seismic loadings are presented. Flexible and rigid foundation systems are incorporated into the analysis. The results of this study show that the use of HSC will reduce column size and stiffness. As the columns become more flexible, seismic shears and moments are reduced. Cost estimates show that the use of HSC with minimum reinforcing steel provides the most economical solution for bridge piers and columns. Economy is also achieved because smaller foundations can be used.


Abstract : The military experiences of the Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm) and the emphasis of Congress (and the new Administration) to reduce the size of our military force drive us to re-evaluate our capabilities in the combat service support arena.


Effective governance of air pollution requires precise identification of its influencing factors. Most existing studies attempt to identify the socioeconomic factors but lack consideration of multidimensional heterogeneous characteristics. This paper fills this long-ignored research gap by differentiating governance regions with regard to multidimensional heterogeneity characteristics. Decision tree recursive analysis combined with a spatial autoregressive model is used to identify governance factors in China. Empirical results show several interesting findings. First, geographic location, administrative level, economic zones and regional planning are the main heterogeneous features of accurate air pollution governance in Chinese cities. Second, significant influencing factors of air pollution in different delineated regions are identified, especially significant differences between coastal and non-coastal cities. Third, the trends of heterogeneity in urban air governance in China are to some extent consistent with national policies. The approach identifies factors influencing air pollution, thus providing a basis for accurate air pollution governance that has wider applicability.


Impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) is a well-established technique of reinforcing bars(rebar) protection in concrete against corrosion. Application of ICCP needs provision of an external ...


Due to the recent global events, in this case, the Covid-19 pandemic, a new challenge arises at all levels. Higher education was one of the most affected areas. This communication presents the use of interactive simulation software in on-line Physics education. This resource is directed towards Engineering courses which are offered at Instituto Superior de Transportes e Comunicações (ISUTC) a private institution of higher education in Mozambique. In the field of Physics, it was necessary to move from face-to-face teaching to on-line teaching. This discipline is divided into two semesters as Physics I and Physics II, with their components, in theory, problems and laboratory. To implement the laboratory classes, a search on the web was done and a virtual lab model was selected, which made use of interactive simulation experiments. In the first semester, the laboratory experiments were selected based on the criteria that they exist in laboratory work in a face-to-face system. In the second semester it was possible to develop totally new laboratory experiments. The conventional Physics teaching laboratory, LabFis, was reinvented as a virtual laboratory. Using a platform of open access, the lab guides were prepared for the different experiments. The student is guided to use the simulations to get an effective learning. To measure the effectiveness of this strategy on the on-line system, an analysis was done of the assessment results of three groups of fifty students of different Engineering courses. A comparison was established from the results in Physics I and Physics II. The assessment results compared are of the year 2019, and the year 2020. The average of students' assessments is used as an indicator of effectiveness of the adopted strategy. In general, it was observed an improvement on this indicator. After an uncertain start, the students were motivated and they welcomed these changes. They adapted satisfactorily to the new paradigm.


The experiment was carried out at the Student Farm of CCS HAU, Hisar for two consecutive kharif seasons of 2011 and 2012. The field was laid out in a split plot design following the block randomization system with three replications. Four varieties (HC 541, HC 308, HC 171 and HJ 513) and five nitrogen levels (0, 40, 60, 80 and 100 kg N ha-1) were taken in the main plots and subplots, respectively. Data collected revealed that grain and straw yields were significantly affected by both variety and nitrogen application. HJ 541 gave the highest grain and straw yields (1973 kg ha-1 and 18086 kg ha-1) with nitrogen application of 100 kg N ha-1, respectively. Nitrogen application enhanced N content and uptake in grain, but a non significant effect was recorded in straw by varieties. A non significant response was noticed with N application on P content in grain while P content in straw was significant. Nitrogen levels significantly affected K content in both grain and straw. Total uptake of NPK was enhanced by nitrogen application at all levels while control recorded the lowest total NPK uptake.


Objective To investigate the expression of CaMK Ⅱ mRNA in hippocampus and cortex after cerebral ischemia reperfusion in rats,explore the regulative effects and the mechanism of basic fibroblast growth factor(bFGF) on CaMK Ⅱ mRNA in the brain tissue of the rats.Methods The model of middle cerebral artery occlusion(MCAO) was performed by using the intraluminal filament method.The expression of CaMKⅡ mRNA and neuron apoptosis in hippocampus and cortex were detected with RT-PCR TUNEL method.Results The expression of CaMK Ⅱ mRNA in hippocampus and cortex reduced after cerebral ischemia reperfusion.The expression of CaMK Ⅱ mRNA in bFGF group was increased,but neuron apoptosis decreased.Conclusion Basic fibroblast growth factor neuron inhibits apoptosis and participates in the regulation of expression of CaMK Ⅱ mRNA in ischemic neurons and protects the neurons.


A commentary on "Why It's Not Time for Health Care Rationing," by Peter A. Ubel, in the March-April 2015 issue.


Sadar Sub-watershed is one of 32 Brantas sub-watersheds located in the southern part of Mojokerto district and parts of the city of Mojokerto. Based on government regulation (PP) No 26 of 2008, Mojokerto is one of the national strategic areas from the point of view of economic interests. The National Strategic Area (KSN) with an economic interest point of view has an important role for national development, because these areas have the potential for a fast-growing economy and a leading sector capable of driving the national economy. This economic growth must be supported by the availability of various supporting facilities, one of which is the provision of clean water. The current condition of the existence of clean water is decreasing due to various reasons. The purpose of this research is to predict the availability of water in the future as a basis a water resources planning. The stages of the research are as follows: (1). Secondary data collection in the study. The data is used to calculate current water availability and predict future water availability. Primary data is in the form of interviews with groundwater users and experts. (2) Data Analysis. (3) Build the model of water availability in the study area. (4) Simulation of water availability in the study area under various scenario (5). Model validation. The results of this study indicate that there is an effect of land-use change on water availability in the sub-basin. Water conservation scenarios can maintain water availability in the future.


Agrammatic sentence production in aphasia has been connected to disturbances of verbs and the role played by verbs in determining the structural expression of thematic roles assumed by other words in the sentence. Apparently contradictory data are presented from an aphasic patient, who had difficulties in retrieving verbs in spite of a relatively well preserved use of canonical structure in written sentence production, where he frequently left a blank or dash between agent and theme to signal that a word was missing. A therapy study is reported where the focus was on differentiating verb meanings and integrating verbs in sentence production. After therapy the patient showed significant improvement in verb production, but only for trained items. He also showed a significant increase in use of canonical sentence structure on trials with trained, but not untrained verbs. It is suggested that the patient was relying on a general schema for canonical sentence structure which may interact with verb-specific knowledge in normal processing.


Nanostructured regular materials based on dendrimers bound by covalent or coordination bonds between surface functional groups were synthesized. Bimetallic Cu(II) and Pd(II) metal complexes with nitrile-based dendrimers demonstrated high activity in Wacker oxidation of terminal alkenes along with good selectivity for methylketone formation. New heterogeneous catalysts based on Pd nanoparticles and cross-linked polypropylene imine (PPI) and polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers were prepared and examined for selective hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds.


We show that armed conflict in Uganda affects civic participation, measured by the frequency of political discussion and local meeting attendance. Relying on four rounds of nationally representative individual-level data on civic participation bracketing a large number of battle events, we find that civic participation increases in districts in which battle events took place. Evidence from a variety of identification strategies, including difference-in-difference and IV estimates, suggest that the relationship is causal. However, unlike previous studies, we find that experiencing violence does not affect formal electoral participation.


Agent technology will be of great help in pervasive computing. However, the use of Multi-Agent Systems in pervasive environments poses important challenges. One of them is to allow agents in dierent devices in an ad-hoc network to share services between them when they are close enough. In this paper, we will define a system agent, the Service Discovery Agent, that helps other agents in search of services oered by other agents or other systems in the network. We will see that none of the service discovery protocols proposed so far in the literature adapts well to the case of pervasive systems, and we will propose a new service discovery protocol, called PDP.


The article gives a brief history of the development in Udmurtia some summer sports: athletics, basketball and acrobatics. It is shown, that the level of development of sports in the Udmurt Republic, is depending on the degree of government's supporting. On the example of athletics can be seen the rapid development of the sport. Basketball is an example of conservation of the Soviet level of achievement. Acrobatics, practically non-supported as in soviet times and now, no has any successful.


This Lecture Has a Dual Theme. Theme Number One is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the OECD, where I worked from the beginning of 1984 till the spring of this year. I was originally asked by Ghita Ionescu to prepare for Government and Opposition an article on the Organization, as one of a series which the journal has been carrying on different international agencies. Two such articles have already appeared: one by Sir Nicholas Bayne, on the GATT and the Uruguay Round, and the other by Andrew Crockett on the IMF. I am pleased to be following these distinguished authors, the more so since I think of them both as former quasi-colleagues — a term that I will explain later — at the OECD. But when the further idea of a lecture was raised, Professor Ionescu suggested that my subject-matter should be extended to cover international economic cooperation more generally, on the understanding that this broader theme would be linked to the specific case of the OECD.


A high performance amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin film transistor (TFT) inverter is implemented using the enhancement mode driver and the depletion mode load. The threshold voltage of the TFT is easily controlled by adjusting the active layer thickness in a-IGZO TFTs. The proposed inverter shows much improved switching characteristics including higher voltage gain, wider swing range, and higher noise margins compared to the conventional inverter with an enhancement load.


I read with interest the recent article by Nakamura et al. [1]. It is well known that physiologic [F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) accumulation is frequently observed on PET imaging in the extraocular and masticatory muscle, salivary glands, lymphoid tissue, and vocal cords of the head and neck. Uptake is also very variable and often asymmetric. The differentiation between benign and neoplastic uptake is really challenging in some cases. However, the differentiation cannot be simply achieved, I believe, by setting higher or different cut-off values of maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), which is a conclusion of Nakamura's article. Although most experienced nuclear radiologists will ignore the conclusion of the article and authors' opinion, some may be misled by them. The study by Nakamura et al. [1] reported that most of the malignant tumors show significantly increased FDG uptake compared with surrounding or contralateral normal tissue counterpart; however, the SUV values of the tumors are usually very variable and often depend on background uptake of the benign tissue. In other words, slightly increased uptake above faint background FDG accumulation, for example in the parotid gland, may indicate the presence of a malignant neoplasm, but very high uptake without a focus is most likely benign in nature, especially in the extraocular muscle, palatine tonsils, lingual glands, and vocal cords. Diffuse intense FDG uptake bilaterally with SUVmax up to 10 or 15 may be completely normal and benign in these sites [2]. Therefore, I think that setting higher or different cut-off values of SUVmax is misleading and meaningless for diagnosing head and neck tumors on FDG-PET, mainly because of frequently noted very high physiologic uptake and variability of normal uptake in the regions. More important pitfalls than SUV values should be emphasized in interpreting head and neck FDG-PET imaging. First, focally increased uptake above the tissue background is suspicious for a neoplasm. A linear or diffuse pattern of uptake is more likely benign. Second, a corresponding lesion noted on computed tomography (CT) imaging is necessary for establishing a diagnosis. Owing to limited resolution of low dose, noncontrast CT in a PET-CT study, additional contrast CTor MRI may be needed to visualize a lesion. Finally, marked asymmetry of uptake is always suspicious for a pathological or neoplastic process [3].


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It is truly an exciting time to be actively involved in the Entomological Society of America (ESA), particularly in light of past and current initiatives moving us into the future. These initiatives include making ESA a global leader in entomology, increasing the influence of entomology in national public policy making, and supporting the ability of all members to be engaged with the Society. The fantastic leadership we have seen over the past several years has moved ESA in the right direction for all members.

Your Annual Meeting Program Committee has already begun work for Entomology 2015, which will present some interesting and exciting opportunities as we co-locate in Minneapolis with the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America. This will likely be one of the largest gatherings ESA has experienced in quite some time. Please come prepared for a very interactive meeting with our brethren in agricultural sciences; however, we will continue our regularly scheduled events, symposia, student competitions, section meetings, and Linnaean Games. We will share some common opening and closing speakers, but our meeting will remain intact with …

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Objective
To observe the effect of microRNA (miRNA, miR)-422a expression on the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells.

Methods
40 healthy male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into two groups: osteosarcoma MG63 and U2OS cell line bearing mice. Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) double staining was used to transfect miR-422a primers and inhibitors to regulate miR-422a, the proliferation and apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells were analyzed under overexpression and miR-422a expression, and the inhibitory effect of miR-422a expression on different cell cycle osteosarcoma cells was examined.

Results
The proliferation of MG63 and U2OS cells was significantly inhibited at 48 h after transfection of miR-422a, and that of MG63 and U2OS was promoted at 48 h after transfection of miR-422a inhibitor with the difference being statistically significant (P=0.068, 0.035, 0.016, 0.004; 0.072, 0.028, 0.019, 0.003). The apoptosis rate of MG63 cells in the control group at 0 and 96 h was (5.3±0.1)% and (5.2±0.1)% respectively, and that in miR-422a group was (5.3±0.5)% and (5.4±0.4)% respectively. The apoptosis rate of U20S in the control group at 0 and 96 h was (5.2±0.2)% and (5.3±0.2)% respectively, and that in miR-422a group was (5.5±0.1)% and (5.2±0.1)% respectively. After starvation for 48 h, the apoptosis rate of MG63 cells in control group at 0 and 96 h was (5.2±0.4)% and (28.6±2.7)% respectively, and that in miR-422a group was (5.5±0.2)% and (48.5±2.4)% respectively; the apoptosis rate of U20S in control group at 0 and 96 h was (6.2±0.3)% and (18.7±3.1)% respectively, and that in miR-422a group was (6.2±0.2)% and (39.8±3.2)% respectively. As compared with negative control group, the apoptosis rate of osteosarcoma cells had no significant changes in miR-422a group at 96 h. Howdever, the combination of miR-422a transfection and apoptosis induction for 48 h, the number of apoptotic osteosarcoma cells was significantly increased as compared with negative control group. After transfection of miR-422a, the number of cells in G0/G1 phase was significantly increased, and that in G2/M was significantly reduced.

Conclusion
The high expression of miR-422a can effectively inhibit the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells and increase the apoptosis rate of osteosarcoma cells in harsh environment.

Key words:
Osteosarcoma; MicroRNA-422a; Cell proliferation; Apoptosis


The only report of neonatal T pharmacokinetics indicated half-life varied from 3.3-33 hours in 8 patients. The longest half-life occurred in an infant with a poor cardiovascular status. Adult dogs eliminate T by renal tubular base transport without detectable metabolism by a chemically non-specific assay. This transport system is saturable and immature in infants at birth thus placing infants at risk for limited T excretion. We have developed a chemically-specific microassay for T by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and used it to study 12 T eliminations following pulse and infusion doses in 10 infants. T half-life varied from 1.5-29.6 hrs and showed a significant correlation with the logarithm of urine output from 0.40-2.35 ml/kg/hr (R=0.77, p<0.01). In 2 infants studied twice, the longer half-life occurred during lower urine output. In 2 infants who failed to void for 3-4 hrs after a T dose, concentrations measured every 30 min did not decrease until voiding resumed. This suggests that T is not significantly metabolized in infants and that decreased urine production prolongs T half-life exponentially. The variation in T half-life in these patients and those previously reported may be explained by variation in urine output. During oliguria, pulse doses of T may need to be decreased in frequency and infusion doses decreased in magnitude to avoid T accumulation and adverse effects.


The 3D quantitative structure–activity relationship model representing r = 0.8605, q = 0.8193 and pred_r = 0.6847 respectively, was generated for thymidine phosphorylase (TP) inhibitory activity of some 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives. Electronegative substituents at R and less steric bulk with electropositive substituents at R were found to be favourable for TP inhibition. The activity prediction of a combinatorial library of 1629 compounds resulted in 50 molecules whose predicted activity was comparable to the most active compound in the dataset and within the model's applicability domain. Among them six molecules showed favourable interactions with the active site of TP proposing potential anticancer activity of the title compounds.


Based on SmartGuard, a mobile robot for substation inspection, we propose an image based visual servo control system to precisely make the cameras with the pan & tilt to capture the substation equipment we expected to inspect. The vision control system contents of an image acquisition system, a pan & tilt and an embedded servo control system. The proposed approach firstly uses SURF local feature to take the offset of the new acquired image and the template image, which is invariant to light, scale and rotation. Without the calibration of the pan & tilt and the vision system, we calculate the Jacobian matrix based on the test movement. Then we take the servo until the image feature reach to the object image. Using this image based vision system, SmartGuard can avoid the effect of the motion error and the repeating errors of pan & tilt system, and take the precisely image of the power equipments for automatic optical inspection system.


The morphological and growth characteristics of mycelial cultures of 24 xylotrophic medicinal Agaricomycetes mushrooms including 12 edible species collected in Mazandaran and Golestan Provinces of Northern Iran were studied for the first time. The morphology of colonies, growth parameters, and an ability to develop in vitro teleomorph, presence and form of hyphal clamps, cystidia, loops, asexual spores (anamorphs), crystals and other cultural characteristics of Iranian collections were observed. The obtained data can be used for taxonomic identification of mycelial cultures of studied species/strains during their biotechnological cultivation to obtain mycelial biomass and bioactive compounds.


A three-step molding softlithographic process has been developed for the construction of a sharp Y-junction structure formation in a 1 × 2 Y-branch plastic optical fiber (POF) coupler design. The 1× 2 Y-branch POF coupler is based on a Y-junction splitter which requires that the splitting part is constructed with sharp infinitesimal junction. The softlithographic process enables a PDMS mold to be constructed which then allows mass replication of the polymer-based POF coupler. A standard master mold based on PMMA material is fabricated using CNC milling. A secondary or auxiliary- mold process step is then introduced in order to produce a sharp Y-junction structure which is then transferred to the final PDMS stamp prior to device replication. This step utilizes a free flowing, low viscosity casting-based resin, which after curing and hardening provide the auxiliary mold for PDMS mold fabrication. The result shows that a very fine and sharp Y-junction structure can be produced easily which cannot be produced via standard two step molding softlithographic process. Models for the Y-branch POF coupler produced with and without an auxiliary mold process are constructed which show that a 16% increased in optical performance with the device replicated with the auxiliary mold process.


Lipoxygenase (linolenate: oxygen oxidoreductase (E.C.22.214.171.124) is found in a wide variety of plants, particularly the legumes. It is present in groundnut, soyabeans, peas, potato and wheat. Under appropriate conditions, this enzyme leads to the deterioration of fat-soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids of oils and fats. Since little is known about this enzyme in rice bran (which is a good source for edible grade oil), work on this aspect is undertaken. This enzyme when reacted with substrate (rice bran oil) yields oxylipins. Oxylipins are saturated and unsaturated oxidized fatty acids. These compounds include the eicosanoids (e.g. prostaglandins, thromboxanes, leukotrienes, lipoxygenase products), many of which are pharmacologically important compounds with biological activities. These compounds are highly toxic towards bacteria and fungi. This study aims at isolating lipoxygenase from rice bran and using the oxylipin produced by the enzyme reaction which is used to inhibit Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic human pathogen. Results of partially purified enzyme activity are found to be 0.65/ml/min. Whereas inhibition zone of 2.2 cm is observed with the produced oxylipins which are lower than that of the used standard antibiotic Streptomycin i.e., 2.6 cm. In conclusion partially purified enzyme has provided an oxylipin showing low inhibition compared with standard which is not surprising as it is a pure antibiotic. Further the study is suggestive to use the pure compound as antibiotic.


(4) University of Amsterdam, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Earth Surface Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands (email@example.com), (1) All-Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Chemistry, Moscow, Russia, (2) University of Hohenheim, Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, Stuttgart, Germany (firstname.lastname@example.com, (3) University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research, Agroecosystem Research, Bayreuth, Germany (email@example.com)


The radiation survival of CHO cells subjected to a wide range of NaCl, KCl, Na/sub 2/SO/sub 4/, or sucrose concentrations is characterized by isodose survival curves having two maxima and a minimum. At high solute concentrations (1.5 M), a radioprotective effect is observed with NaCl, Na/sub 2/SO/sub 4/, or sucrose treatment but not with KCl treatment. For all solutes tested, a radiosensitizing effect was observed at concentrations between 0.2 and 0.7 M and for concentrations less than 0.1 M. At hypotonic salt concentrations radiosensitivity could be related to cell volume. Incorporation of 5-bromodeoxyuridine did not qualitatively alter the cellular radioresponse during salt treatment although it did radiosensitize the cells.


The invention provides a lavender aromatic water-based ink which is composed of a carmine dye ink, a yellow dye ink, a light carmine dye ink, a blue dye ink, a light blue dye ink and a black dye ink, wherein any dye ink is composed of a nanocapsule lavender essence and a dye ink; and the nanocapsule lavender essence is composed of a lavender essence, composite modified oligosaccharide and deionized water. The invention also provides a preparation method of the water-based ink, which comprises the following step: proportionally and uniformly dispersing the nanocapsule lavender essence in the six dye inks to obtain the water-based ink with lavender aroma characteristic. The composite modified oligosaccharide used as the wall material is coated with the lavender essence to form the nanocapsule lavender essence, thereby enhancing the aroma retentivity and water solubility of the lavender essence. The nanocapsule lavender essence is uniformly dispersed in the water-based ink to form the stable-quality aromatic water-based ink with lavender characteristic aroma.


1. Single-click on the Common Objects Panel located on the Insert Panel a. Single-click the Insert Table icon b. Enter the number of rows and columns desired c. Enter the width in one of two ways: in Pixel dimensions or by Percentage d. Enter a pixel value for Cell Padding. Cell Padding is the space allowed between the cell borders and the text e. Enter a pixel value for Cell Spacing. Cell Spacing is the space allowed between the cells f. Enter 0 if no border is desired. For 3-D effects enter a border size of 2 or more. Border width is measured in pixels. 2. Single-click the OK button to insert the table 3. Single-click on the table to select it a. Single-click on the down-arrow on the Align icon which is located on the Properties Panel and select the table alignment desired


The need for various innovations in Islamic religious learning in schools is a necessity that must be carried out to develop the quality of education. One aspect that allows innovation in learning is the use of methods that vary according to the situation and condition of the class. The use of appropriate methods in learning is one of the steps that must be taken in order to achieve learning objectives. The proverbs method can be an alternative in responding to the demands of innovation and variation in the learning process. This study aims to describe the concept of the proverb method and its implementation in learning. This research uses a qualitative approach with a literature study method. Sources of data obtained from various books, books, and journal articles will be analyzed and presented in the form of a description. The results of the research show that the proverb method is a method of simulating something abstract with something more concrete and easy to understand. The Proverbs method also gives and motivates people to act according to the purpose of the parable if it is something the soul likes; on the other hand, it also encourages people not to act like the parable because it is something that is hated by the human conscience.


Human population growth and development have degraded freshwater ecosystems through direct negative effects on basal resources and higher trophic levels. Knowledge of how basal resources are influenced by anthropogenic activities is needed to examine foodweb responses and to evaluate negative effects of human disturbance. We combined quantitative sampling of all putative resources and consumers and naturally occurring stable isotopes of resource C and N to investigate how land use influences characteristics of basal resources (leaf litter, fine particulate organic matter [FPOM] suspended in water, FPOM deposited in pools, and epilithon) and the invertebrate communities in 9 streams of British Columbia (Canada) on a seasonal basis. Study streams were grouped as forest, cropland, and urban, based on percentages of land use in their catchments. We tested for seasonal and spatial differences in biomass, isotopic variability, and overlap of different basal resources and their relationships with invertebrate communities. Our results show that landuse intensification promotes wholesale degradation, which includes deterioration of water quality, changes to the quantity and quality of basal resources, and shifts in community structure of benthic invertebrates. Stream basal resources showed large variations in isotopic signatures caused by landuse changes, with the largest isotopic variability observed in cropland streams and the smallest in urban streams. Invertebrate communities had fewer taxa and reduced functional diversity in impaired streams (i.e., cropland and urban) via simplification of feeding styles of consumers, probably because of bottom-up controls. Our study highlights the importance of quantifying the isotopic variability of basal resources to estimate effects on food webs over time and along landuse intensification gradients.


A paediatrician detected leukocoria of the right eye in a previously healthy 2-year-old boy (Fig. 1a). Visual acuity in that eye was only light perception. Penlight examination revealed a large, amelanotic mass with haemorrhage occupying the globe behind the lens (Fig. 1b). Magnetic resonance imaging showed an enhancing, lobulated mass confined within the eye (Fig. 1c). Examination of the left eye was unremarkable. What is the most likely diagnosis? How should this condition be treated? (answer on page 747)


This study aims at investigating the decision process of middle school girls who are situated in study and training as judo athletes. 7 middle school girls who are judo athletes in Seoul and Gangwon Province participated in participatory observation and in-depth interview. The student-athletes made their decision based on imitation of colleague players, poor academic achievement, demand level of exercise participation, interference of their parents, impact of school and related Judo officials, and their own enthusiasm. The decision was made by social decision making process as a group rather than personal individual decision process. The decision making process of student-athletes under goes the following steps; 1st step, searching for the other student-athlete who is in the same situation. 2nd step, forming association with them in order to act together. 3rd step, modifying opinion among their association. This often includes vote among themselves. 4th step, following their converged opinion. Final step, the more powerful decisive parties were school teachers, Judo related officials, and their parents than student-athletes themselves. The result of the current study can be used as baseline data to provide student-athletes have a choice over study and training as equivalent parts in their lives and it can provide them as guidance when they choose study over training and life as an athlete.


Oral pathologists or dentists in general opting for alternate career paths are very common nowadays. Financial security, lesser availability of jobs and work satisfaction are the most commonly observed reasons for this openness to switch career. While there is a multitude of alternate career options available such as medical writing and pharmacovigilance in this review, we aim to give an insight specifically on opportunities available in the medical journals aspect of the publishing industry. Oral pathologists can opt to take this field as a full-time engagement and attain a constant growth in terms of finances, knowledge and personal development. One of the authors has opted for this career path and has provided personal opinions about the scope, opportunities and perks of working in this industry.


An automatic vending machine with a bad smell removing function is provided to enhance user convenience and satisfaction by spraying deodorizers to a user according to a standing position of the user. An automatic vending machine(100) with a bad smell removing function includes a compressor(130), a deodorizer container(140), a liquid sensor(141), a gas spray nozzle(150), and a solenoid valve(160). The compressor is formed inside a vending machine and compresses air according to a signal from a controller. The deodorizer container stores the deodorizer in the vending machine. The liquid sensor is formed on a bottom of the deodorizer container and detects a remaining deodorizer amount. The gas spray nozzle includes two suction holes and one spray hole. One of the suction holes is connected to the compressor, while the other is connected to the deodorizer container. The solenoid valve opens or closes an acoustic hose, where the compressed air travels, according to the controller.


An efficient thin-film photovoltaic cell has been fabricated using a heterostructure consisting of a Cu(In1-xGax)S2 absorber layer obtained by sulfurization of a Cu–In–GaS precursor, a chemical-bath-deposited CdS buffer layer and an rf-magnetron sputtered In2O3 window layer. The growth of hillocks was observed on the surface of the absorber layer when the precursor was heated to the sulfurization temperature (550°C) at the rate of 7°C/min. According to energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, the hillocks, which cause the deterioration of cell performance, are composed of an indium-rich compound. Their growth could be prevented if the heating rate were greatly increased, particularly in a temperature range between 300°C and 550°C, using a rapid thermal process. A conversion efficiency of up to 12.3% has been achieved with a hillock-free Cu(In1-xGax)S2 thin film.


TO THE EDITOR: The publication of the Federated Council of Internal Medicine's resource guide to curriculum development [1] is an exciting event. This guide should achieve unity across all training programs while still allowing for individual variations. My colleagues and I recently revised the curriculum at our institution and, after long discussions, decided to add two areas of competency. One is alternative and complementary medicine, in which the residents will learn about classification (as developed by the Office of Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health); possible interaction between alternative medicine and allopathic medicine; and, more important, where to find reliable information. The addition was considered necessary given the increasing number of patients using complementary therapies [2] and the potentially serious interactions between prescription medications and natural remedies. The second addition was a list of suggested literary and artistic works that in our mind will improve the humanistic qualities and the life-long learning skills of the doctors for adults that we train [3].


Photogrammetric data, whether it refers to terrain or to close-range images, are typically massive in size. This results in a dataset that is often too large to handle and prohibits any form of real-time interaction or even visualization. Therefore, special database structures and image storing formats should be sought. FlashPix image format supports images of any size, and any resolution. Images in FPX format are stored at multiple independent resolutions. This special structure allows applications to select the appropriate resolution for a certain procedure and to access directly the specific areas of an image needed for the operation being performed. This eliminates the need to process the entire image for viewing a small part of it, or to handle a large amount of data (high resolution image) in order to produce a smaller amount of data (displaying a lower resolution image). This paper presents research efforts on identifying visualization tools, which can make use of this special image format, taking thus advantage of its special data structure.


GAP evaluation of architectural model in light of software performance 7.2.5. Making components work together: the kernel team's approach to development Participants of the kernel team also engaged with server-side software in an anticipatory manner, for the purpose of design, even if these activities did not figure in their accounts. My concern here will be the overall outline of their approach in constructing the architectural model of server-side technologies. A central aspect of this approach was engaging with actual software with the goal of getting things to work. Understanding emerged as coupled with this practical engagement. Assessment, planning and insight


Objective: Treatment with intranasal mometasone furoate spray is proposed as alternative to surgery in adolescents with adenoidal hypertrophy. Hence we compared the efficacy and tolerability of intranasal mometasone furoate as an add-on therapy with existing standard treatment in a randomized, open label comparative study. Design: A Prospective, randomized, open label, comparative study in patients with grade I and II adenoidal hypertrophy. Patients were divided into two groups to receive intranasal mometasone therapy and intranasal saline plus existing standard treatment with amoxycillin, paracetamol and levocetrizine. Improvement in symptoms like nasal obstruction, rhinorrhoea, cough, snoring and quality of life were assessed by a questionnaire at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks and by an endoscopic scoring at baseline and 8 weeks. Results: At the end of 8 weeks the percentage reduction of nasal obstruction in mometasone furoate and saline were 81.5% and 39% respectively, rhinorrhoea was 89.66% and 37.93% , cough was 97% and 41.4% snoring symptoms were 95.4% and 35.71%, quality of life was 96.2% and 39.29% . In Endoscopic scoring, there was reduction in size of adenoids attributed to 61.98% in mometasone and 14.81% in saline group. Conclusions: Intranasal mometasone furoate is an effective alternative to surgery in the management of grade I and II adenoid hypertrophy in adolescents.


The effect of relative age is a topic to consider in the selection of elite athletes to ensure that a good detection of sporting talents is being carried out during the athlete's growth and maturation phase. PURPOSE: Evaluate the relationship of relative age with sport performance of elite athletes according to gender and sports modality of sports and to evaluate differences between men and women. METHODS: We analyzed the data of 1285 athletes who were selected and attended the High Performance National Center in Chile between 1992 and 2017. The athletes came from different sports disciplines which were divided into Combat Sports, Sports with Ball, Strength and Resistance and Art and Precision sports. Only athletes presenting complete data on date of birth and sports discipline were included, while all Paralympic athletes were excluded. The age of the athletes varied from 8 to 49 years old, with a total of 59.4% men. With the data of month of birth and sports discipline we organized athletes in 4 quartiles. Athletes were classified by sport discipline and gender, and statistical analysis was carried out through Chi square to see differences between the groups. RESULTS: No effect of relative age was observed in the overall sample, however there was a slight decrease in those born in the 4th quartile, with a total of 23% of the total births, without significant differences between the quartiles without variation when analyzing by gender and sports performance. Of the 4 sports disciplines, Strength and Resistance and Combat sport showed an increase of those born in the first quartil and a decrease of those born in the last 3 months of the year, without significant differences between the groups. In sports with a balloon, this effect was not observed, while in Art and Precision sports a slight increase was observed in those born in the last months. CONCLUSIONS: Although an effect of relative age was not observed in elite athletes who train in High Performance Center in Santiago, an important decrease was found in those born in the last 3 months, especially in strength and endurance and combat sports, leaving the doubt if younger athletes are being considered during the selection of sports talents and if they are having the same opportunities to compete as their peers who were born a few months earlier.


Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (with annexes). Honolulu, 5 September 2000


The paper describes the invention of an improved new insulation which will withstand fire and nuclear radiation and can be used for the manufacture of high voltage cables and power system insulators. The cables can be extruded and the bushings can be moulded. The insulation has also been designed to offer high resistance to shock and explosion hazard as well as resistance to wear.


Prepositions, in any given language, are context sensitive, i.e. their meaning cannot be determined from their lexical individual and decontextualised meanings. It is rather determined by taking into account the surrounding textual and contextual factors. Prepositions are language-specific items as well. That is, each language has its distinct and special manner of using them which may or may not overlap with their usage in other language(s). This study sheds some light on the two crucial issues of context sensitivity and language specificity by analysing and contrasting the collocational and colligational phenomena of verb-preposition structure in English and Arabic languages. The purpose is to perceive the extent to which the dissimilarities can affect the process of understanding the overall message of Arabic press texts, and to propose a number of theoretically and empirically-based recommendations for English learners of Arabic. A Multiple-choice test and a translation test were conducted by twenty five English learners of Arabic. The results revealed that there were many difficulties encountered by English learners of Arabic when dealing with the Arabic verb-preposition structure. Yet, the issues of context sensitivity and language specificity were the main two reasons behind these difficulties.


High frequency transformers significantly influence the operational characteristics and the efficiency of switched mode power supply. This paper deals with high frequency transformer optimized rapid design procedure. The procedure is based on the simplified design approach considering the most necessary phenomena related to high-frequency transformer operations. The verification is done through the simulation analysis of a dc-dc converter with a precise model of high frequency transformer. The simulation results serve to select the appropriate geometry of the transformer in order to achieve the highest possible efficiency. The results are also verified by experimental measurements on the proposed LLC dual interleaved converter.


In psycholinguistic research the exact level of language selection in bilingual lexical access is still controversial and current models of bilingual speech production offer conflicting statements about the mechanisms and location of language selection. This paper aims to provide a corpus analysis of self-repair mechanisms in code-switching contexts of highly fluent bilingual speakers in order to gain further insights into bilingual speech production. The present paper follows the assumptions of the Selection by Proficiency model, which claims that language proficiency and lexical robustness determine the mechanism and level of language selection. In accordance with this hypothesis, highly fluent bilinguals select languages at a prelexical level, which should influence the occurrence of self-repairs in bilingual speech. A corpus of natural speech data of highly fluent and balanced bilingual French-English speakers of the Canadian French variety Franco-Manitoban serves as the basis for a detailed analysis of different self-repair mechanisms in code-switching environments. Although the speech data contain a large amount of code-switching, results reveal that only a few speech errors and self-repairs occur in direct code-switching environments. A detailed analysis of the respective starting point of code-switching and the different repair mechanisms supports the hypothesis that highly proficient bilinguals do not select languages at the lexical level.


Amid unprecedented political polarization, the US continues to grapple with the simultaneous crises of COVID-19 and structural racism. We examine potential predictors of COVID-19 mask-wearing at the intersection of these crises, with particular attention to the behavior of conservatives and young people, who have resisted compliance with efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. Specifically, we investigate perceptions of racial/ethnic inequities in the healthcare system and civic values as predictors of COVID-19 mask-wearing frequency and potential moderators of the relationship between political orientation and COVID-19 mask-wearing frequency. Diverse college students at a university in southern California participated in our longitudinal survey, which was initiated prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 431). We found that perceptions of inequities and civic values predicted mask-wearing, whereas political conservatism was negatively related to mask-wearing. Further, conservative participants were more likely to wear masks if they reported greater perceptions of inequities. Our results provide a foundation for future research that may inform targeted public health interventions aimed at encouraging responsible COVID-19 behavior and fostering dialogue on structural equities in a contentious political environment.


This study delves into the mechanical and durability properties of rubber fiber hydraulic concrete (RFHC) using an orthogonal testing method. The optimal mix proportion for RFHC is determined through orthogonal range and variance analysis results. The influence of polypropylene fiber content, rubber particle content, and rubber particle size on the compressive strength, flexural strength, split tensile strength, brittleness, and crack resistance of rubber fiber concrete is thoroughly examined. Durability tests are conducted based on the optimal mix ratio, and a comparative analysis of the durability between RFHC and conventional concrete is carried out. The findings indicate that the mechanical properties of the concrete exhibit a significant decline with increasing rubber content and decreasing rubber particle size. The variation in rubber content notably affects the mechanical properties of hydraulic concrete. The frost resistance and impermeability of RFHC are considerably higher than those of conventional concrete, while the erosion resistance of RFHC surpasses that of the conventional benchmark concrete. This research offers valuable benchmarks for the theoretical design and practical engineering application of RFHC, contributing to the advancement of sustainable construction materials.


The source of inclusion in the continuous casting slab and reoxidation during the pouring process are analyzed.The measures of inclusion removal and control in the tundish in advanced steelmaking plants at home and abroad(such as Nippon Steel,JFE,Corus,Dillinger,Posco and Baosteel)are introduced.The conclusion is:the structure of the tundish can be optimized by increasing the capacity of tundish,using the type of H tundish or centrifugal flow tundish;secondary pollution during tundish free-opening can be controlled by using tundish sealed argon blowing technology;slag entrapment can be prevented by using vortex controllers;secondary pollution of molten steel can be reduced,reoxidation can be prevented,inclusion floatation can be promoted and the quality of steel can be improved by adopting alkaline linings and alkaline covers,tundish non-oxidation baking and electromagnetic induction heating,tundish continuous vacuum casting treatment and electromagnetic filtration.


This paper analyzes the security of campus network,it is presented that the measures of safe technologies to be considered on layout the campus network and the suggestion of how to select these technologies on above basis is proposed.


This survey investigates to what degree the Chinese learners know about the discrepancies between Chinese and English thought patterns and their possible effects on English writing. Eighty-one students from North China Electric Power University participate in the survey. Qualitative and quantities approaches, involving the adoption of both questionnaire and data analysis, underpin the survey. Questionnaire is used to examine five constructs, namely, students' writing condition, students' knowledge about discrepancies of the Chinese and English thought patterns and their effect on Chinese learners' English writing in terms of wording, sentence structure and discourse organization. Data collected from the questionnaires are then analyzed. Findings from the study reveal that a vast majority of Chinese students are surprisingly not fully aware of the important influence thought patterns exert on languages and how discrepancies in thought patterns are associated with differences in languages. As a consequence of this, their English essays preserve some features of Chinese despite years of English learning. The results of the study contribute to a good understanding of the Chinese learners' current writing condition in EFL teaching. Suggestions to alter this undesirable situation are put forward.


This paper experimentally investigates the impact of burst aggregation and contention on HDVC streaming over OBS testbed. Novel scheme is proposed and demonstrated to guarantee 100% "excellent" performance of HDVC transmission.


To reduce the exposure doses of workers and to establish decontamination plans, it is important to understand and visualize the distribution of radioactive substances at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan, where an accident occurred on the 11th of March, 2011. In this decommissioning work environment, radioactive substances adhered to various objects, such as rubble and equipment, and it was necessary to visualize the distribution of these contaminants in all three dimensions. The technology used to automatically and remotely acquire data to visualize the distribution of radioactive substances in three dimensions was useful for reducing the exposure dose of the workers and to shorten the survey time. We constructed an automatic data acquisition system that consisted of a Compton camera and a 3D-light detection and ranging sensor mounted on an autonomously moving robot. We also evaluated the system feasibility using radiation sources and succeeded in automatically acquiring the data required for visualizing the radiation sources. For this data acquisition, the operator did not need to operate the system after the measurements were started. The effects of the imaging parameters of the Compton camera and the accuracy of the self-position estimation of the system on the radiation-imaging accuracy are also discussed.


It is known that considerable even yarn can be produced in wet spinning without drafting controller. In this report, the mechanism of wet drafting is investigated by applying some common methods of drafting analysis.The results obtained are as follows:1) The average drafting force in wet spinning is larger than in conventional dry spinning, but the variation of force is smaller, especially, in larger roller gauge. (Fig. 3, 4)2) The weight reduction curves in wet spinning are independent of roller gauges as shown in Fig. 5, 6. It seems that the Perfect Drafting occurs in any drafting conditions.3) The comparison with two kinds of spectrograms before and after drafting shows that drafting in wet spinning does not produce any Drafting Wave. (Fig. 8)4) The sliver in wet drafting zone has higher and stabler density than in the conventional. It means that the motion of floating fiber in drafting zone is well controlled. (Fig. 10)


The cooperative search technique was introduced into firefly algorithm so that the firefly can jump out of local extremum to a certain extent to improve the algorithm's performance optimization. Simulating UCI data sets and comparing with other algorithms such as K-means algorithm,artificial bee colony algorithm and particle swarm optimization show that this cooperation-based firefly algorithm outperforms other algorithms in clustering analysis.


An old specter is haunting Europe: the specter of liberal orthodoxy. I refer to the view that the only way for a nation to secure high levels of economic growth and employment is to develop an economy built around perfectly competitive markets, an ideal-type that implies weak trade unions, substantially deregulated financial markets, and inter-firm relations based on highly-competitive relationships mediated by legal contracts rather than long-term collaborative arrangements. Of course, this is an Anglo-American orthodoxy, developed since the eighteenth century by British and American economists, whose ideals have been implemented most extensively and with great success in the economies of the United States and the United Kingdom. Whenever the continental European economies have experienced economic problems, the Anglo-American model has been urged on them as a solution. It inspired much of the advice they received about post-war reconstruction and was revived again during the 1970s to indicate how Europe should respond to 'stagflation' (Milward 1984; OECD 1977; Olson 1982; Ruggie 1982; Keohane 1984). Its policy prescriptions call for the deregulation of markets in labor and capital, retrenchment in social policy, and reductions in the state's role in the economy. However, such prescriptions pose serious dilemmas for most European nations. Many have powerful trade union movements that resist efforts to deregulate labor markets (Calmfors and Driffill 1988). European value systems reflected in the strength of Social Democratic and Christian Democratic parties are inimical to the allocation of resources entirely by competitive markets (Polanyi 194; Esping-Andersen 1990; Kiesbergen 1996). Many European firms have developed strategies whose effectiveness depends on the non-market coordination that high levels of regulation make possible (Soskice 1991; 1994b). Accordingly, European nations have historically resisted wholesale movement toward an Anglo-American model of capitalism (Wood 1997a; Thelen forthcoming). This is not surprising. More surprising is that these nations have had successful records of economic performance, marked by rates of growth,


In the state of the art development of chip manufacturing (FinFet technology for example) both optical inspection and inline electrical test are deployed to monitor and facilitate the process development. While optical inspection provides critical process evaluation at the sector inline electrical test (ILT) at M1 provides the information of process impact on the electrical signal, which ultimately is the indication of device operation and performance. It is always tempting but not trivial to compare the optical inspection result (defect density) with the in-line electrical test result (yield) in a quantitative way. Nuances in doing such correlation between the inspection and electrical yield are discussed. In the scenario where a correlation could not be established, ranking the different inspections in terms of yield impact is another source to provide feedback to the process development. To build such yield impact Pareto three different algorithms for counting the sector contribution to the electrical fail are compared.


A device used for superhigh-speed communications on the terahertz band is required. However, high-speed-response devices fabricated using Si-based technology cannot achieve this frequency. Field emitters have exhibited a high-speed response at frequencies higher than 100 GHz utilizing electron emission in a vacuum. Therefore, field emission devices are very suitable for use as high-speed switching elements. We have fabricated a local vacuum package enclosing a Si field emitter array and a Ti getter on a Si substrate using Si integrated circuit (IC) technology and micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology for an on-chip integrated device. In this paper, we discuss the Ti getter. The bridge structure getter was successfully evaporated within the cavity structure. This technique can realize micrometer-order alignment, and will be very useful for many applications owing to its high performance.


The addition of difluorocarbene generated from phenyl(trifluoromethyl)mercury and anhydrous sodium iodide, with trimethylsilyl enol ethers derived from cyclohexanone, cycloheptanone, 3-pentanone and acetophenone was described. The corresponding 2, 2-difluoro-1-trimethylsilyloxy-cyclopropanes were obtained in good yields. The thermal stability of these cyclopropyl derivatives was affected by the molecular strain and the nature of their substituents. Thus, 1-trimethylsilyloxy-cyclopentene reacted with difluorocarbene to give only 2-fluoro-2-cyclohexen-1-one instead of the expected 1-trimethylsilyloxy-6, 6-difluorobicyclo [3.1.0]hexane, and a mechanism for its formation was proposed.


This study utilizes a comparative case study method to evaluate the influence of two nonprofit organizations active in the mid-1990s on land use decisions. In Wake County, North Carolina, the Middle Creek/Swift Creek Community Alliance and the Umstead Coalition worked to protect a parcels of land considered critical for environmental integrity and water quality. The Middle Creek/Swift Creek Community Alliance was focused on enforcing building regulations for the drinking water watershed and the Umstead Coalition defeated the building of a connector road, the Duraleigh Connector, through the Richland Creek cooridor. Each organization was evaluated from the perspectives of context, activities and outcomes achieved. Organizational histories and land use histories set the context for conflicts over development in watersheds that were considered environmentally sensitive. A narrative of the conflicts was then developed primarily from newspaper accounts. Using a policy science framework to map the social processes involved in each case, the outcomes were evaluated in terms of relationships between decision makers and organizations. As a final analysis, the outcomes were compared against each other to answer questions about the effectiveness of the activities. The results of the self-assessment were mixed. One organization expressed frustration and ineffectiveness while the other perceived success. In both of these cases, the effectiveness of actions to stop specific projects was evaluated differently even though in both cases the protested projects were not built. Effectiveness appears to be linked to four parameters: (1) Size of the issue If the issue a narrowly defined project, like a road or dam, an organization can be very effective at influencing the policy process. However, if the issue a long-term, regional wide issue like watershed water quality protection, there does not appear to be the ability to control the outcomes. (2) Size of the organization – The size of the organization directly affects the influence of an organization. A larger membership has more avenues of contact to the decision makers and they are able to leverage those relationships to get a voice at the decision table. (3) Communication techniques – Dialogue that brings about viable solutions rather than


Carrie Rose has worked in early childhood education for 20 years. She has worked for many years in a range of teaching across both private and community-based child care, lecturing in early childhood education and her successful EC consultancy work for the past three years. Her passion focuses on using both emergent curriculum principles and innovatively designed environments to provide an engaging educational environment for young children.


Quantitative X−ray topography of GaSb : Te crystal, grown during unmanned Chinese space experiment has showed a high structural perfection in its greater area, which corresponds to the crystallization of a rounded interface. At the same time, the defects in the field of a face growth have been revealed after some time of the crystallization onset. The control of parameters during the growth process was absent. It was a reason for a reconstruction of the crystal growth history using a two−dimensional map of the measured Te concentrations in the crystal and mathematical modeling of the growth process, and taking into account the analysis of possible factors that influenced the growth crystal characteristics.


The invention relates to a suspending seed coating agent for treating seeds, in particular to a suspending seed coating agent using cyproconazole and fludioxonil as active ingredients and a preparation method for the suspending seed coating agent. In the suspending seed coating agent, the cyproconazole content is 1 to 70 percent and the fludioxonil content is 1 to 70 percent. The suspending seed coating agent is mainly used for treating seeds of soybeans, peanuts, corns, wheat, rice, cotton, cowpeas, watermelons, sunflowers and ornamental flowers, has an obvious effect of preventing and treating a large number of soil-borne or fungal and bacterial diseases such as root rot, gray mold, damping off, bakanae disease, sclerotiniose, smut and the like, saves time and labor, and has low pollution compared with other technologies for treating seeds or applying pesticides.


This paper provides an overview of the development of an interactive simulation system and Graphical User Interface (GUI) for an underwater robotic vehicle. Computer simulations and graphical interfaces are effective ways for studying the behavior of a system well before it is developed and deployed. It allows lot of flexibility in the design and greater scope for improvement without major financial commitments. The underwater vehicle and its sub-system properties, control inputs (parameter adjustments, maneuvers, etc), and the underwater environment are graphically represented on an user interface that can be easily accessed by the user for modifications. The interface provides convenient means to evaluate vehicle performance by means of animations, dashpot and time history plots of engineering variables of interest. The dynamic model and control algorithms, developed using standard tools are used at the back-end of the program to model and simulate various control behaviors of the vehicle. The environment conditions, parameter variations, disturbance forces etc. can be simulated using the back-end algorithm. The simulation results can be visualized using the GUI and various control strategies, navigational algorithms and path planning can be easily tested using the interface program. Few examples showing how the simulations can be used to identify design changes that can improve underwater vehicle dynamic and control performance are also provided.


Dayao Ms 6.1 earthquake occurred on October 16,2003,December 26,2004 Shuangbai Ms 5.0 earthquake occurred on December 26,2004.Two months before the earthquakes,the water level appeared different anomalies,and according to the data,the authors have pointed out the short-impending earthquake prediction to earthquake administration of Yunnan province,For the further analysis of these two earthquakes,they have studied water level anomalies and M≥ 5.0 earthquakes within 300 km in Yimen area,and given out the prediction index.


Conflicts between information from the plurality of spread spectrum transmitters simultaneously transmitted by allocating each transmission is reduced on the receiver resources available. In a CDMA cellular telephone system, each transmitter may be a receiver station may be a mobile station tomb. Each mobile station uses one or more randomly assign it to a transmission method. Random manner using four in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, having a separate transmit these random conflict reduction effect. On the other hand, by reducing the transmission power of the minimum noise. The mobile station increments the power of successive probes each probe sequence. The first probe sequence of each probe of a predetermined level of the transmission.


Use of microbial systems for functional foods supplementation can be defined into fermentative process by starter cultures, use of probiotics microorganisms and use of microbial biomass. Scientific and technical aspects as related to use of microorganisms in functional foods supplementation are highly diverse and complex, since they have to deal with the viability of probiotic strains as well as with the safe production, nutritional composition and acceptability of the new product. However, limited information is available on the microorganisms which can be used in functional food supplements, as well as how to use these microorganisms and generation of products. This review reports details of this information. The data from this review can be useful to support the development of new functional products, with microbial supplementation, for the market.

 Key words: Kefir, yeast, microalgae, lactic acid bacteria, probiotic.


have shown that a homozygous nonsense mutation in the homologous human gene was associated with partial oculocutaneous albinism, leucopenia, and recurrent infections. While in prepara-tion for publication, a patient with partial albinism and absence of platelet (cid:6) granules was reported to have the same mutation in PLDN . 13 That patient did not have recurrent infections. We have also shown the PLDN mutation to be associated with defective NK-cell degranulation and cytolysis, and with abnormal lysosomal markers on NK cells that were similar to, but distinct from, those in HPS2. Some of these were corrected by PLDN replacement. The symbol HPS9 has been approved for PLDN-associated disease.


The lived experiences of Bruno Bettelheim in the concentration camp, his activities in the Orthogenic School of Chicago and his numerous clinical cases of children affected with serious mental problems are all well known. Less known, instead, is the attention he dedicated to the study of individual personality and its development. This contribution fills this void, by analyzing the factors that determine the evolutive process (innate potentiality and the influence of environment) and the stages that characterize it. It highlights particularly, the emphasis that Bettelheim gives to play as a factor of growth, as a means for solving problems and as an instrument of contact with reality.


For evaluating resistance of experimental and commercial popcorn hybrids to Exserohilum turcicum, the causal agent of Northern leaf blight of maize, an experiment was carried out in randomized block design with four replications, in Maringa, State of Parana, during the 2007/2008 cropping season. An additional objective was to compare the efficiency of using a single disease assessment compared to several assessments for discriminating resistance. The incidence and severity of the disease, evaluated four times during the season, were used for estimating the area under the disease progress curve of incidence (AUDPCI) and severity (AUDPCS). The last assessment of incidence and severity, AUDPCI and AUDPCS were used to compare the genotypes by analysis of variance and Scott-Knott test. Spearman's rank correlations among incidence, severity, AUDPCI and AUDPCS values were estimated to describe their associations. Significant differences (P≤0.001) of resistance were verified among genotypes. The hybrids UEM129, UEM145, UEM140, UEM116 and UEM101 presented the lowest levels of disease and were considered the most resistance genotypes. These genotypes overcame UEM109, UEM153 and IAC 112, which are considered resistant standards and, Zelia and Jade, considered susceptible. The correlation analysis showed that the assessment of incidence and severity at dough stage did not provide same data as AUDPCI and AUDPCI for discriminating resistance to E. turcicum. Key-words: Zea mays; leaf diseases of maize; genetic resistance.


It has been found in recent years that STATS widely distributes in nervous system, including hippocampal CA1-3 region, dentate gyrus and cerebral neocortex, etc. Ischemic brain injury can cause the release of some cytokines and growth factors, while electro-acupuncture may have multi-level, multi-channel and multi-target protective and interventional effects on ischemic brain injury.OBJ ECTIVE: To observe the effects of electro-acupuncture on STAT3 expression and nuclear translocation in hippocampal CA1 region of rat models of brain ischemia/reperfusion.DESIGN: Randomized and controlled observation.SETTING: Staff Room of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Department of Acupuncture and Bone Injury,Hubei College of Traditional Chinese Medicine; Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.MATERTALS: Seventy-two healthy SD rats, of clean degree and either gender, weighing (200±20) g, were provided by the Experimental Animal Center of Hubei College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. STAT3monoclonal antibody was purchased from Santa Cruz Company, USA, and G-6805 electro-acupuncture instrument was purchased from Shanghai Medical Electronic Instruments Factory.METHODS: This experiment was carried out in the comprehensive laboratory of Department of Acupuncture and Bone Injury, Hubei College of Traditional Chinese Medicine between September 2005 and February 2006.Seventy-two rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: ① control group(n =6): Untouched. ② Sham-operation group (n =18): Artery was isolated, but without inserting thread bolt.③ Model group (n =24): Rat models of local brain ischemia/reperfusion were established with modified suture occlusion. ④Electro-acupuncture group (n =24): Dazhui and bilateral Neiguan points were selected for electro-acupuncture treatment. No. 28acupuncture needle of 3.33 cm was used in the treatment A G-6085 electro-acupuncture instrument with continuous wave, frequency of 120 times/min, intensity of 1 mA, 30 min/time, was used. Acupuncture was conducted firstly


In this paper we present three different algorithms based on finite difference method (FDM) for solving heat equation. The common point of these algorithms is that all of them have been developed in parallel. While, each one of them has been differently implemented using SkelGIS library, Streams and Iterations in Single Assignment Language (SISAL) and Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). Halstead metrics have been used for evaluating the programs.


To assess the carotid artery intima-media complex thickness (IMT) and vascular microinflammation in subjects with different level of blood pressure (BP). Design and methods. 194 subjects (mean age 42,1 ± 0,5 years) were divided into 5 groups according to the BP level (WHO classification, 2004). Following methods were performed: ultrasound examination of carotid arteries by means of Aloka 5000 with IMT measurement, lipid spectrum investigation, determination of the quantity of C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum levels of cytokines (TNFα, IL-1, IL-8, IL-4), as well as specific antibodies IgG to CMV, HCV-1, Cl. pneumoniae, H. рylori и β-streptococci (ASLO). Results. IMT is related to the level of systolic and diastolic BP in a different way. In the absence of vascular inflammation and low infection contamination level IMT is increased up to 0,9 mm in proportion to BP. In case of high contamination and in presence of vascular inflammation IMT is more than 0,9 mm. The vascular wall changes and inflammation level are almost identical in subjects with high normal BP and in hypertensive subjects.


1 Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; to whom correspondence should be sent. Email address: email@example.com 2 Dawes Arboretum, Newark, Ohio. Former graduate student. 3 Research Plant Physiologist, USDA-ARS-Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory, Corvallis, OR. 4 Professor, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 5 Research Associate, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.