Tilapia exports to the US have been claimed to double in the last three years following the two bans on Vietnamese catfish imports in November 2001 and June 2003. The aim of these bans was to restrict imports from the major exporter of Catfish (Vietnam) reducing competition for US catfish producers in the market. Interestingly, the bans on Vietnamese catfish may have indirectly benefited tilapia imports and in particular, frozen fillets as catfish is mainly imported as frozen fillets into the US market. This could explain how frozen fillets of tilapia have astonishingly grown by 391% in the last three years. In this study, we investigate relationships between the prices of frozen fillets from US produced and Vietnamese imported catfish as well as imports of tilapia frozen fillets to obtain information about their market structure. Prices were found to be non-stationary so the Johansen test was used as the empirical tool to investigate possible market integration between these three products. The results indicate frozen fillets of US produced and Vietnamese catfish imports are integrated, though not perfectly, in the same market. On the other hand, frozen fillets of tilapia imports have not been found to compete with either US produced or Vietnamese catfish imports. Tilapia must therefore be taking market share from a different product in the US market, such as red snapper. These results have important policy implications as a ban on tilapia imports would not benefit American catfish producers conversely it would severely affect an industry that is largely taking off in developing countries around Asia and South and Central America.


Based on their nature of mysterious and adventure, island tourism is popular. For this, many islands in China, where tourism can be developed successfully, have important actual meanings to China's regional economic development. In order to probe into the common pattern, take Cyprus for example, this paper introduces the achievements challenges during development of its tourist industry and including location situation, political factors, visitor's behavior, transportation influence, accommodation development, the role of the CTO and the capability to practise policy. At the same time, seven aspects were summarized and explained in detail. Based on analysis of the resource factors in developing China's island tourism and relevant experiences of Cyprus in this regard, five points of advice have been put forward at the end of this paper.


This bachelor thesis is concerned with improving safety and smoothness of road cycling II/298.It suggests the bridge from the direction and Sezemice Rokytno through Redicky Creek watercourse.


A new, sensitive and specific isocratic reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RPHPLC) method with fluorescence detection was developed and validated for the determination of sumatriptan in rabbit plasma using sulpiride as an internal standard (IS). Sumatriptan was extracted from plasma by a liquid-liquid extraction with a mixture of tert-butyl methyl ether, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate (2:2:3, v/v). Chromatographic separation of the analyte and internal standard was achieved on a Phenomenex C4 (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) analytical column maintained at 40°C. The mobile phase was composed of 25 mM ammonium acetate (pH 6.5) and acetonitrile (85:15, v/v), pumped isocratically at a flow rate of 0.9 ml/min. Column eluent was monitored at excitation and emission wavelengths of 225 and 350 nm. The calibration curve was linear over a concentration range of 1 to 300 ng/ml (r 2 = 0.9999) with a limit of quantification, 1 ng/ml. The intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy were between 2.24 and 4.28% and -1.10 and 2.86%, respectively. The mean recoveries of sumatriptan and sulpiride were 89.92 and 91.03%, respectively. Sumatriptan containing plasma samples were stable at -20°C for 14 days. The validated method was successfully applied for pharmacokinetic study after a single oral administration of sumatriptan (50 mg) to rabbits.


Population‐level studies on the treatment practices and comparative effectiveness of therapies in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) are lacking due to the absence of validated methods to identify patients with AIH in large databases, such as administrative claims or electronic health records. This study ascertained the performance of International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for AIH, and developed and validated a novel algorithm that reliably identifies patients with AIH in health administrative data and claims.


In micro-EDM, the debris generated in machining process is difficult to be moved from the discharging gap, the discharge state is instability, and the material removal rate is low. A new method of PZT incentive synchronous compression discharge channel micro-EDM is presented based on the inverse piezoelectric effect of PZT piezoelectric ceramics, using a spark discharge and PZT sync pulse power. In this paper, the system composition and machining principles are described in detail, and its machining mechanism is analyzed in terms of the experiments. By the experiments, it is certificated that on the process of PZT sync compressing discharge channel machining, the state of discharge gap, the machining efficiency and quality can be improved, the throw out of debris makes easier, and then the stability of micro-EDM process is raised, which indicated that this new technology has wide application prospect in the field of micro manufacturing.


The Yang zab nam mkha' mdzod chen is one of the five Treasuries composed by Shardza Rinpoche. It is made of two volumes covering liturgical texts and technical or yogic instructions on various aspects of devotional, ritual, tantric and rDzogs chen practices. This work has been summarized and commented by Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche in Heart Drops of Dharmakaya, Snow Lion, 1993. The chapter includes as instruction manual on the practice of the g.Yung drung sems dpa' lta ba bshags pa'i mdo which was discovered by bDe chen gling pa and included in volume 12 of his Collected Works. The text was written by Shardza Rinpoche at the behest of Tshul khrims rnam dag. It first describes the practice of the "four teachings which reverse the [ordinary] mind." An important work composed by the sMan ri abbot bSod nams g.yung drung at the request of his disciple is also discussed.Keywords: four teachings; rDzogs chen practices; Shardza Rinpoche; tantric practices; Tshul khrims rnam dag; Yang zab nam mkha' mdzod chen


The efficiency of conjugation of F‐like plasmids is regulated by the FinOP fertility inhibition system. The transfer (tra) operon is under the direct control of the TraJ transcriptional activator which, in turn, is negatively regulated by FinP, an antisense RNA, and FinO, a 22 kDa protein. Recently, FinO has been shown to extend the chemical stability of FinP in vivo in the absence of traJ mRNA. The in vitro secondary structures of both the FinP and TraJ RNAs were determined by the use of single‐ and double‐strand‐specific nucleases; both RNAs were found to have double stem‐loop structures that are complementary to each other and, therefore, FinP RNA and TraJ RNA have the potential to form a duplex with each other. This was verified by in vitro binding experiments. The reaction was shown to be bimolecular with an apparent rate constant (Kapp) of 5 × 105M−1 s−1, a value that is similar to those found for other natural antisense RNA systems. Preliminary evidence for the in vivo formation of the FinP–TraJ RNA duplex was obtained by primer extension of the traJ mRNA; the presence of both FinO and FinP was required to cause a dramatic reduction in the steady‐state level of traJ mRNA, perhaps as a result of RNase III degradation of the resulting RNA duplex.


Mrs B sought a faculty for the introduction of a memorial into the churchyard over the grave of a family member. The memorial fell outside the incumbent's delegated discretion under the diocesan churchyard regulations in a number of respects. The memorial was to be in the shape of a gypsy caravan, with silvered engraving on both sides of the stone showing the detailing of the caravan and a silvered inscription to the memory of the deceased on the left door of the caravan. The Diocesan Advisory Committee did not recommend the proposal on the grounds of the material, large size and unusual imagery of the memorial. Further information was provided confirming that the deceased was one of the last remaining Romany gypsies who had lived his whole life in a traditional horse-drawn gypsy caravan. After visiting the churchyard the deputy chancellor concluded that neither the material nor the silvering of the engraving would be out of place in this particular churchyard, given the existence of other examples. He was nevertheless concerned about the unusual shape of the proposed memorial. He noted that the truly exceptional life of the deceased did not guarantee that he could be commemorated by an unusual memorial. Nevertheless, in this case the proposed design was not unpleasant and was of a carefully thought-out design that would fit within the category of memorial referred to in Re St Mary, Kingswinford [2001] 1 WLR 927 as 'a specially designed memorial which may be non-standard, but which is a fine work of art in its own right'. Regarding the detail of the memorial, the deputy chancellor considered that, although some engraving on the rear of the memorial was acceptable, the addition of an image of a horse-drawn waggon would detract from the aesthetics of the memorial. A faculty was granted for the memorial as proposed save for that part of the engraving. [RA]


Introduction by the Author About this book The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Demarcation Stones The Poppy Legend Battlefield Debris CALAIS-YPRES Route I via Bergues CALAIS-YPRES Route II via Cassel CALAIS-YPRES Route III via St Omer ZEEBRUGGE-YPRES The Yser Battlefield - Battles of the Ypres Salient 1914-1918. Summary YPRES YPRES YPRES SALIENT BATTLEFIELD TOUR Route I The Northern Sector Route II The North-eastern Sector Route III The Eastern Sector Route IV The South-eastern Sector Route V The Rear Areas THE ROAD SOUTH ARRAS THE BATTLES OF THE SOMME ARRAS-CAMBRAI Route I via Monchy-le-Preux ARRAS-CAMBRAI Route II via Bullecourt FIVE ROUTES TO MONS MONS MONS MONS BATTLEFIELD TOUR MONS TO LE CATEAU LE CATEAU LE CATEAU TO AMIENS AMIENS TO CALAIS Route I via Abbeville AMIENS TO CALAIS Route II via St Pol-sur-Ternoise ST QUENTIN TO REIMS The Chemin des Dames and the Champagne Battlefields REIMS TO VERDUN The Argonne Battlefield VERDUN VERDUN BATTLEFIELD TOUR THE ST MIHIEL SALIENT REIMS TO COMPIEGNE THE BATTLE OF FROMELLES INDEX.


Preliminary results are reported on ship detection using coherence images computed from cross-correlating images of multi-look-processed dual-polarization data of ENVISAT ASAR. The traditional techniques of ship detection by radars such as CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) rely on the amplitude data, and therefore the detection tends to become difficult when the amplitudes of ships images are at similar level as the mean amplitude of surrounding sea clutter. The proposed method utilizes the property that the multi-look images of ships are correlated with each other. Because the inter-look images of sea surface are covered by uncorrelated speckle, cross-correlation of multi-look images yields the different degrees of coherence between the images and water. The polarimetric information of ships, land and intertidal zone are first compared based on the cross-correlation between HH and HV. In the next step, we examine the technique when the dual-polarization data are split into two multi-look images.


BACKGROUND: Recipientsof allogeneic HCT remain vulnerable to a heightened risk of reactivation of otherwise latent viral infections owing to a compromised immune system early after transplantation. Uncontrolled reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) leading to post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) is one of such major complications after T-cell depleted HCT. Recovering within weeks after transplantation and being first in line of defense against viral infections, natural killer (NK) cells are deemed important in the immunopathogenesis of EBV complications. Their role however remains elusive. NK cell responses are regulated by a series of activating and inhibitory cell surface receptors, central to which are the Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptors (KIR). Through these receptors NK cells discriminate healthy cells from 'altered' self-cells by scaling the perturbations in HLA expression after viral transformation of the target cell. Here, we set out to determine whether and how KIR gene and motifs' content of HCT donors and/or recipients influences the development of PTLD after allo-HCT.

STUDY DESIGN:

Hypothesizing that diverse NK cell receptor repertoires can titrate NK cell functional responses to EBV infections/reactivation and can potentially modify the risk of developing PTLD, we determined the KIR gene repertoires of 356 HLA-matched donor-recipient pairs of first allo-HCT and 50 healthy donors through Next Generation Sequencing of the KIR locus on the Illumina MiSeq platform. Based on the presence/absence and number of copies of individual genes, the KIR genotypes were determined and classified into four common centromeric (cA01, cB01, cB02 and cB03) and two telomeric (tA01 and tB01) motifs along with their variants. PBMNCs from KIR typed healthy volunteers were stimulated with EBV-transformed target cells to enumerate NK cell response to EBV (degranulation and/or IFNγ production) as a function of KIR gene content and motifs' distribution using a multicolor flow cytometry-based assay. Effect of KIR gene profile on development of PTLD was analyzed using binomial competing risks regression statistics. Distribution of NK cell functional response across various KIR characterized groups was analyzed using Mann-Whitney U statistics.

RESULTS:

Donor telomeric A motifs (tA01, KIR3DL1+ve KIR2DS4+ve; KIR3DS1/2DS1+/-ve), strongly protected against PTLD (p=0.0001, SHR=0.17; Figure 1). An increased protection against PTLD with increasing number of tA01 was noted with at least one copy required for a significant protective effect (Figure 1B). Copy number analysis of tA01 gene contents yielded similar associations. Further, the number of EBV induced functional NK cell subsets were significantly higher in individuals with than without KIR genotypes containing tA01 motifs (Figure 2 A-C) and was found to be increasing with an increasing number of tA01 copies (Figure 2 A'-C'). There was no influence of recipients' KIR repertoire on the risk of developing PTLD

CONCLUSIONS:

NK cell responsiveness, a function of KIR gene repertoire has a profound effect on the development of PTLD. Appropriately characterized KIR gene profile based identification of HCT recipients at high risk of developing PTLD will enable closer monitoring of EBV DNAemia and facilitate prompt therapy.

![Figure 1.][1]

Figure 1.
Donor KIR telomeric A motif (tA01) protects against the risk of developing PTLD (A). Presence of at least one copy of donor KIR tA01 motif confers significant protection from PTLD (B)

![Figure 2.][1]

Figure 2.
KIR telomeric A motifs (tA01) titrate NK cells' functional response to Epstein-Barr virus infected cells (A-C), with and increasing %functional NK cells and subsets (measures as expressing CD107a, IFN-γ, or both) are observed with increasing tA01 motifs' copies (A'-C')

Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: pending:yes


Higher order discontinuous Galerkin methods offer the potential to solve both steadystate and transient problems efficiently and accurately. In this paper an introduction is provided to both elastohydrodynamic lubrication and the discontinuous Galerkin method before going on to describe the application of this method to the solution of typical problems, both steady-state and transient, that arise in elastohydrodynamic lubrication. In particular, it is demonstrated that the combination of high order elements and a simple spatial adaptive scheme can yield highly accurate numerical results using only hundreds of computational degrees of freedom.


The paper applied the definition by B.mandelbrot about the fractals dimension,to discuss the fractals dimension of an arbitrary point's e - district and infinite district on the real axle,we find out the conclusion is:0 D !!! (k) 1,1 D(I) 2.


In this paper, we present a new approach of design and developing multi agent systems. Our approach is based on Model Driven Architecture (MDA), which aims to establish the link between existing agent architectures and the models or meta-models of multi-agent systems that we build from AUML. We have designed a generic and scalable class diagram to develop complex multi-agent systems. The source code of the models is generated by an open source tool called AndroMDA. The model and source code will facilitate the design and development of applications to implement and simulate multi-agent models for Management of Common Renewable Resources. This approach allows reuse of the model and generated source code to develop new applications.


Modifications of plasma proteins, structural proteins and other macromolecules by glycation (the Maillard reaction) contribute to the development of accelerated atherosclerosis and other complications in diabetes and are also involved in the pathogenesis of aging. Monosaccharide esters, which mimic the reactivity of sugar 6-phosphate esters in nonenzymatic glycations, were prepared from endogenous opioid peptide leucine-enkephalin (Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Leu), smaller peptides of different lengths (Tyr-Pro-Phe-Val, Tyr-Pro-Phe, Tyr-Pro) and from only one amino acid (Tyr) and were used as model compounds for a study of the Maillard reaction in vitro. It was found that these compounds readily undergo intramolecular reactions leading to different types of products, such as Amadori compounds, imidazolidinones, glycosylamine, diketopiperazine, pyrrololactone, etc. The obtained results demonstrate that the chemical properties of the glycopeptides studied are determined by the structure and length of the peptide chain, suggesting that similar products may be also generated in the early stages of the Maillard reaction in vivo.


..............................................................................................5 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................6 1. METODOLOGY ......................................................................................8 2. HISTORY BACKGROUND.........................................................................9 2.1. First War between China and Japan ..........................................................9 2.1.1. Conflict Outcomes..........................................................................11 2.2. Taiwan under Japanese Authorities..............................................................11 2.2.1. The First Period of 1895 – 1918..........................................................12 2.2.2. The second period 1919 – 1937............................................................13 2.2.3. Third Period 1937 -1945...................................................................13 2.3. The Consequences of 50 Years of Colonization............................................14 2.4. Second War between China and Japan.......................................................15 3. THE TAIWAN QUESTION........................................................................18 3.1. US intervention and changes in the importance of Taiwan................................19 3.2. Analysis of history...............................................................................21 3.2.1. Economic changes.........................................................................22 3.2.2. Health........................................................................................22 3.2.3. The political influence.....................................................................23 3.2.4. Education....................................................................................23 3.2.5. Culture ......................................................................................24 4. TERRITOTIAL DISPUTES........................................................................26 4.1. The historical background......................................................................27 4.1.1. Japan's position...............................................................................27 4.1.2. China's position..............................................................................28 4.1.3. Cause of the Dispute – the Islands .......................................................30 4.2. Taiwan's role in the Senkaku issue.............................................................32 4.3. The aggravation of the conflict.................................................................34 4.3.1. The 2012 crisis .............................................................................35 4.4. Attempts to resolve the conflict and to strengthen the role of Taiwan...................37


Objective: Determine if the implementation of prophylactic neck dissection of the central compartment as a routine procedure increases the risk of injury over the recurrent laryngeal nerve and parathyroid glands in patients with clinical stage T1N0M0 compared with patients who underwent total thyroidectomy only. Method: Retrospective study of 46 patients undergoing total thyroidectomy plus prophylactic central lymph node dissection for papillary cancer with preoperative staging T1N0M0 from March 2008 to July 2010. The outcomes were compared with 107 patients in the same conditions and period undergoing total thyroidectomy alone. Results: The 2 groups (with and without neck dissection) were similar in age, gender, pathologic features, and completeness of thyroidectomy. Of the 46 patients who underwent neck dissection, 6 (13.0%) had vocal fold paralysis with one (2.1%) permanent. In patients who underwent only total thyroidectomy, 9 (8.4%) had transient paralysis, with no cases of permanent paralysis. Regarding hypoparathyroidism 15 patients (32.6%) had transient and 2 (4.3%) had permanent among those who underwent neck dissection, but in patients who underwent only total thyroidectomy, the total rate of hypoparathyroidism was 7.4% (8 cases) with 2 cases (1.8%) of permanent hypoparathyroidism. Conclusion: Even though the prophylactic neck dissection of the central compartment did not cause a statistically significant increase in injuries on the recurrent laryngeal nerve, its realization is associated with high rates of hypoparathyroidism. These results make it difficult to indicate this procedure as a routine treatment for early thyroid tumors.


The subject of the thesis is the definition, the analysis of organised crime and the possibilities of combating organised crime at the regional level. The theoretical part is focused on general concept and specifics of the emergence of organized crime, as well as on current approaches in the investigation against this kind of crime. I'm also the current problems in the investigation of or-ganizovaneho crime within the departments of the Police of the CZECH republic. The practical part is focused on custom designs in the investigation in the environment of organised crime. The last chapter of the problematic it discusses and recommends solutions to identified problems.


The pre-failure warning indicator (11) for use with a sling (10) is provided. Pre-failure warning indicator 11 has been started up from prediction point as possible within a relatively narrow range, thereby increasing the likelihood of a damaged sling (10) is removed from point of use. Pre-failure warning indicator (11) comprises a load-bearing core yarn 17, the dedicated strand 20 to close as is separate from the core yarn (17) with disposed maintain separate state for the material of the sling 10, and , the ends of the dedicated strand 22, 24 is connected via a sacrificial "ring" (26). It acts with the operator / the operator the warning fiber (29) having an end with a view line dedicated strand 20 and the ring 26. Ring 26 is designed to fail when placed under the sling 10 is specifically chosen condition (e.g., the weight). Ring 26 when the failure warning indicator fiber 29 is entered umcheuryeo back from the field of view of the operator, the sling 10 is that it may be damaged when placed under conditions determined by the specific place warning to the operator. Rope, destruction, pre-failure warning indicator, rings, strands


In the beginning of the XXI century, the global community faces numerous worldwide, regional and local challenges, problems and threats. The following can be may pointed out: crisis of debts, the threat of global finances collapse, uncontrolled demographic development, poverty and social inequality as well as drug abuse and present day civilization diseases. All these problems will not fade away in a short term, being mostly of a structural character and will require ceaseless dealing with.One of the most serious problems today is the rapid degradation of the natural environment of the Earth and its particular elements. Ecological threats may be appeased only due to mutual and coordinated activities undertaken by governments, organizations and institutions, social groups, enterprises and households on different levels beginning with the global one on to the microeconomic level for the protection of the environment and the promotion of balanced development principles. Such activities are achievable provided adequate financing is ensured - and this is not easy with a deficiency of financial resources.


This paper reports the results of non-destructive energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis of 186 obsidian artifacts from eight archaeological sites attributable to the Alföld Linear Pottery Culture (c. 5600-4900 cal BC). This is the largest instrument-based study yet conducted and reported for Alföld Linear Pottery Culture (ALPC) artifacts from Slovakia, where ALPC chipped lithic assemblages are almost entirely composed of obsidian items. Results show that all obsidian artifacts analyzed were manufactured exclusively from a volcanic glass of the Carpathian 1 chemical type, the source of which has been localised in Slovakia. This chemical variety of obsidian appears to have been the most important volcanic glass used by prehistoric communities in East-Central Europe during the Neolithic.


Purpose:
 To compare the characteristics and outcomes of severely injured trauma patients with or without preinjury stroke.

 Methods:
 A retrospective matched cohort study was conducted using data from the Japan Trauma Databank (JTDB), a Japan-nationwide hospital-based trauma registry from the year of 2003 to 2017. Adult (>15 years old) trauma patients were selected from the database and subjected to the within-cluster propensity-score matching. Patients with or without preinjury stroke were matched on 1:1 basis with the balancing of preinjury confounders consisted of fixed effect confounders (age and preinjury comorbidities except for stroke) and random effect confounders (sex, year of injury and hospital). The mechanism, anatomical distribution and severity of injury under the definition of the Abbreviated Injury Scale and hospital mortality was compared across the patients with or without preinjury stroke. Association between prior stroke and hospital mortality was also assessed by the quasi Poisson regression model doubly-adjusted for confounders included in the propensity score estimation and the trauma severity.

 Results:
 Of 294,274 patients registered in JTDB, 13,532 and 254,670 trauma patients did and did not complicate with preinjury stroke were selected as the study participants, respectively. Within-cluster propensity score matching extracted 13,212 patients each with or without preinjury stroke whose preinjury characteristics were adequately balanced across the groups. Fall on the ground was the most popular mechanism of injury and significantly higher in the group with preinjury stroke (75.9% versus 64.4%, risk ratio [RR] 1.18 95%CI [1.14, 1.21]). The severe injuries in head (34.1% versus 31.4%, RR 1.09 96%CI [1.04, 1.14]) pelvis and lower extremities (42.9% versus 39.8%, RR 1.08 95%CI [1.04, 1.12]) were relatively frequent in the stroke survivors, in contrast, those in chest, abdomen, and spine were relatively infrequent in the stroke survivors. Adjusted hospital mortality was similar in patients with or without prior stroke (RR 1.00 95%CI [0.91, 1.09]).

 Conclusion:
 Severely injured trauma patients with preinjury stroke were associated with frequent fall and possibly fall-related injuries on the head, hip and lower extremities.


The fractures and kerogen, which generally exist in the shale, are significant to the CO2 huff-n-puff in the shale reservoir. It is important to study the effects of fractures and kerogen on oil recovery during CO2 huff-n-puff operations in the fracture– matrix system. In this study, a modified CO2 huff-n-puff experiment method is developed to estimate the recovery factors and the CO2 injectivity in the fractured organic-rich shales and tight sandstones. The effects of rock properties, injection pressure, and injection time on the recovery factors and CO2 usage efficiency in shales and sandstones are discussed, respectively. The results show that although the CO2 injectivity in the shale is higher than that in the sandstone with the same porosity; besides, the recovery factors of two shale samples are much lower than that of two sandstone samples. This demonstrates that compared with the tight sandstone, more cycles are needed for the shale to reach a higher recovery factor. Furthermore, there are optimal injection pressures (close to the minimum miscible pressure) and CO2 injection volumes for CO2 huff-npuff in the shale. Since the optimal CO2 injection volume in the shale is higher than that in the sandstone, more injection time is needed to enhance the oil recovery in the shale. There is a reference sense for CO2 huff-n-puff in the fractured shale oil reservoir for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) purposes.


Objective
To explore the effects of targeted nursing interventions on the quality of life in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) after panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) .

Methods
Totally 92 DR patients who received PRP in the People's Hospital of Hechi from May 2016 to May 2018 were selected using convenient sampling and divided into control (n=46) and observation (n=46) groups. Patients in the control group received routine nursing care postoperatively, while patients in the observation group received targeted nursing interventions on this basis. Patients in both groups received follow-up visits for 3 months. The 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25) was used to evaluate the patients' quality of life postoperatively and at the last follow-up visit.

Results
There was no statistically significant difference in NEI-VFQ-25 scores between the two groups before intervention (P>0.05) . Single item scores and total NEI-VFQ-25 scores of the observation group were increased after intervention than before intervention, and the differences were statistically significant (P 0.05) . The scores of another 11 items and total NEI-VFQ-25 scores of the observation group were higher than those of the control group, and there were statistically significant differences between the two groups (P<0.05) .

Conclusions
Targeted nursing interventions have significant effects on the quality of life in DR patients after PRP, which can improve their quality of life.

Key words:
Diabetic retinopathy; Panretinal photocoagulation; Targeted nursing; Quality of life


Multipotent bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem/ stromal cells (BMSC) exhibit a finite lifespan following ex vivo expansion leading to cellular senescence. Many factors can contribute to this. Recently, our group has identified for the first time expression of the chemokine-like factor superfamily 8 (CMTM8) gene in cultured human BMSC. In the present study, we examine the role of CMTM8 in BMSC proliferation, migration and differentiation. Functional studies using siRNA mediated knockdown of CMTM8 in human BMSC resulted in decreased capacity to undergo proliferation and migration and an increased capacity for osteogenic differentiation in vitro. Furthermore, reduced CMTM8 levels led to a decrease in the EGFR signalling pathway during BMSC proliferation and migration respectively. Supportive studies using retroviral mediated enforced expression of CMTM8 in BMSC resulted in an increased capacity for proliferation and migration but a decreased osteogenic differentiation potential. Collectively, these data suggest that CMTM8 promotes BMSC proliferation and BMSC migration via the EGFR/ ERK1/2 pathway. This study provides insight into novel regulatory mechanisms of human BMSC growth and cell fate determination.


Opportunity has become the central concept in entrepreneurship. Discovery-focused accounts assume opportunity to be objective and to exist independently of the entrepreneur. Process-focused studies critique such notions. We contribute to process-based conceptions of entrepreneurship with an account of opportunity as historically specific and materially embedded. Drawing on Latour we argue that opportunities are constituted through dense material networks. We argue that opportunity and entrepreneurship are mutually constitutive, and emphasise that the entrepreneur shares agency with a heterogeneous array of 'actants' in the network of opportunity. We make use of this framework in a historical analysis of a large family agribusiness in Honduras, illustrating the historically dependent nature of entrepreneurial process and the role that the material plays in it.


The main difficulty of star detection during daytime is the over strong background radiation. Detec-tors with three same parameters are rigid connected to the detection platform by an all-weather near Infrared multiFOV detection system to detect stars. According to geographical positions in China, star background contrast duringdaytime at near Infrared band in three detection FOV changing with sun zenith, platform azimuth, pitching angle inx and y direction as well as platform height is analyzed. The results show that with the variation of sun zenith, con-trast similar exponent increases. With the variation of platform azimuth, the contrast approaches to normal distribu-tion. When the platform has a certain pitching angle, the contrast changes little and change range is small, but threeFOV has a big difference such as from 1.5 to 20 times. The contrast will exponentially increase greatly with the plat-form height changing to provide a better basis for star magnitude amendment.


Thirty-nine sophomore and junior college students from an introductory cognitive psychology course participated in a feature film activity designed to help students define the parameters of cognitive psychology, apply course information to nonacademic situations, and work in a cooperative-learning situation. Working in pairs, students selected a feature film and a journal article-that represented some topic in cognitive psychology. Students wrote a three- to five-page paper and gave optional class presentations in which they reported theoretical or empirical connections or both among the cognitive topic, journal article, and film. The instructor and students evaluated the film activity as highly enjoyable, a valuable instructional tool, and a fairly simple task to complete; 85% of the students wrote positive comments about the activity and recommended it be continued in the future.


Two 40' fields of M31 observed with the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) during the Astro-1 mission in 1990 December are searched for known globular clusters. The flux of 20 clusters in the nucleus field and 23 clusters in the disk field are measured in a near ultraviolet (NUV ∼2500 A) bandpass. In the far-ultraviolet (FUV ∼1500 A), only four clusters are detected with certainty, and six others are possible detections. The NUV photometry of the M31 globulars that are detected by UIT do not have a UV excess in comparison to their Galactic counterparts. The spectral energy distributions of the globular clusters from the NUV to V fall within the range of predictions of the Buzzoni models for a 15 Gyr old population


A chatbot is perceived as more humanlike and likeable if it includes some jokes in its output. But most existing joke generators were not designed to be integrated into chatbots. This paper presents Witscript, a novel joke generation system that can improvise original, contextually relevant jokes, such as humorous responses during a conversation. The system is based on joke writing algorithms created by an expert comedy writer. Witscript employs well-known tools of natural language processing to extract keywords from a topic sentence and, using wordplay, to link those keywords and related words to create a punch line. Then a pretrained neural network language model that has been fine-tuned on a dataset of TV show monologue jokes is used to complete the joke response by filling the gap between the topic sentence and the punch line. A method of internal scoring filters out jokes that don't meet a preset standard of quality. Human evaluators judged Witscript's responses to input sentences to be jokes more than 40% of the time. This is evidence that Witscript represents an important next step toward giving a chatbot a humanlike sense of humor.


Neonatal hypoglycaemia is a major metabolic problem. It may result in mortality or severe handicap among survivors. Many babies admitted for neonatal care are at high risk for hypoglycaemia. The present study set out to determine its point-of-admission prevalence, clinical presentation and outcome. Consecutive neonates who met the study criteria had plasma glucose determined at admission into the special care baby unit of Wesley Guild Hospital. Hypoglycaemia was defined as plasma glucose of 2.5mmol/L. Babies with and without hypoglycaemia were compared for risk factors, clinical features and outcome. A total of 150 neonates were studied out of which 49 (32.7%) had hypoglycaemia. The mean age, 38.3 ± 71.6 in hours was s ig n if ican tly lo w er amo n g neonates with hypoglycaemia than those without hypoglycaemia [p = 0.006]. Low socioeconomic class Background


The film irradiation complex "ALFA" dedicated to expose the polymer films used in the track membranes production was designed and manufactured by JINR (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) for "TRACKPORE TECHNOLOGY" company [1] and put into operation in 2002 year [2] in Dubna, Russia. "TRACKPORE TECHNOLOGY" holding company was established to solve complex problems of track membranes mass production and a wide range of filtering products based on track membranes. The the following:


This issue of JAMA Psychiatry includes a timely article by Grant et al1 that makes a compelling case that the United States is facing a crisis with alcohol use, one that is currently costly and about to get worse. The article reminds us that the chilling increases in opioid-related deaths2 reflect a broader issue regarding additional substance-related problems. The article by Grant et al1 describes substantial increases in alcohol use and related problematic behaviors that occurred between the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions evaluations in 2001-2002 and in 2012-2013. The validity of the results is underscored by the impressive methodology, which at each time applied virtually identical well-validated face-to-face interviews and analytic approaches to about 40 000 nationally representative participants 18 years and older. The concept of high-risk drinking demanded 5 drinks per occasion for men (4 for women) at least weekly, with a standard drink defined as 14 g of ethanol, and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) were defined by the DSM-IV.3 The results documented substantial increases in the prevalence of past 12-month drinking, high-risk drinking, and AUDs. The largest increase related to the rate of the most serious problems, AUDs overall, which shot up by 49.4%, from 8.5% in 2001/2002 to 12.7% about a decade later. These figures are limited to the past 12-month, or current, diagnoses and do not include individuals who are in potentially temporary remissions. Respondents with lifetime but not current AUDs are also likely to carry future health care costs through enhanced vulnerabilities for cancers, cardiac disease, and other serious disorders associated with histories of heavy drinking. The overall changes in prevalence over the decade were even greater for several population subgroups including women (an 83.7% increase in AUDs over the 11 years), African American individuals (a 92.8% increase in AUDs), individuals aged 45 years to 64 years and 65 years and older (with 81.5% and 106.7% increases in AUDs, respectively), those with only high school educations (a 57.8% increase in AUDs), and individuals with incomes less than $20 000 (a 65.9% increase in AUDs). During that same period, high-risk drinking, described using the previously mentioned criteria, increased from 9.7% to 12.6% (a change of 29.9%), with similar subgroups as reported for AUDs demonstrating the greatest increases. The proportion of drinkers increased from 65.4% to 72.7% (an enhancement of 11.2%). Similar results have been reported in other national surveys, indicating that the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions findings are not anomalies. As noted by the authors,1 in 2010, the cost to society for alcohol-related problems was estimated at $250 billion per year.4 It may be too early to precisely identify future costs associated with the higher rates of problematic drinking and AUDs because most do not become apparent for years after heavier drinking begins. However, there are already signs that the changes in drinking observed since 2001-2002 may be associated with increases in alcohol-related health consequences. As highlighted by Grant et al,1 data already indicate increases in alcohol-related cirrhosis and in hypertension as well as a levelling off of previous decreases in cardiovascular and stroke-related deaths.5,6 The higher rate of increase in high-risk drinking and AUDs in groups less likely to have adequate health coverage is particularly alarming. I am especially concerned about the 106% increase in AUDs for older individuals because they are likely to carry multiple preexisting medical disorders that can be exacerbated by heavier drinking. These older drinkers are also likely to be taking multiple medications that can interact adversely with alcohol, with resulting significant and costly health consequences. It is worth noting the greater-than-average increases in AUDs and related conditions in individuals with less education and lower incomes because these individuals who drink often cannot afford insurance or might have policies that severely limit or do not cover alcohol-related treatments. The 16% increase in the proportion of women who drink alcohol, 58% increase in their high-risk drinking, and the 84% higher 12-month prevalence of AUDs among women are likely to foreshadow future increases in lost time at work, suboptimal childrearing practices, and children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, with potential lifelong impairments in functioning.7 The higher rate of alcohol problems in subgroups with lower financial resources are cause for concern for humanitarian reasons alone. But even if those are set aside, the absence of easier access to medical care for individuals with long-term, often severe medical problems associated with heavier drinking is likely to result in these individuals turning to emergency departments for their treatment. That will produce subsequent increased costs to taxpayers both directly and through higher insurance rates. This brings us to the $64-million question of what can be done to mitigate the problems and costs in the future. First, some good news. Several studies have demonstrated that it is possible to decrease the risk for future alcohol-related problems in 18-year-old students by focusing on risk factors for heavy drinking.8 Our group delivered an intervention to 500 university freshmen through four 50-minute internet-based videos that helped students recognize their vulnerability toward heavy drinking related to a low level of response to alRelated article Opinion


ABSTRACT: This research examines accounting faculty job search and selection in the tightening academic job market. Surveys were sent to all new accounting Ph.D.s and to faculty who relocated from ...


A new class of simple and exact solutions of relativistic hydrodynamics is presented, and the consequences are explored in data analysis. The effects of longitudinal work and acceleration are taken into account in an advanced estimate of the initial energy density and the life-time of the reaction.


Silk fibroin (SF) and sodium alginate (SA) offer promising properties for application as biomaterials, especially as artificial skin and wound dressing. By blending SF and SA, it is possible to conjugate their properties, producing a material with suitable mechanical properties and good efficiency for wound healing applications. Degree of swelling in water, water contact angle, water vapor transmission, tensile strength and in vitro cytotoxicity tests were performed on blend membranes and in the pure component membranes. The blend membrane presented intermediate values for all tests when compared to pure SF and pure SA. SA membrane presented the highest degree of swelling (310%), while SF presented 59.5% of swelling. The water vapor transmission was also higher for SA membrane. SA presented the lowest water contact angle. It is known that the cellular adhesion and growth is enhanced in hydrophilic surfaces. The tensile strength of SA, blend and SF membranes were 95.70 MPa, 73.00 MPa and 52.62 MPa, respectively. All membranes presented good cell viability (90-100%), indicated by in vitro cytotoxicity test. SF presented the highest cell viability in all extract concentrations analyzed, similar to the negative control. The blend membrane obtained in this study is a noncytotoxic material, suitable for applications in the biomaterial field. In addition, the presence of SF and SA in the blend is essential for the formation of a material with good physical properties and cell viability.


Variations in the arterial pattern of the upper limb are very common as observed in many cadaveric and angiographic studies. Knowledge of variations in the origin and course of the radial artery is important because they are used for many diagnostic procedures as well as vascular and reconstructive surgeries like coronary angiography, percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass surgery. During routine dissection in our institute, we observed a case of high origin of the radial artery in a 33 year old male cadaver. It was found to be unilateral; on left side, radial artery was taking origin from 3 part of the axillary artery at the lower border of pectoralis minor before the origin of subscapular artery and anterior circumflex humeral artery. It had a superficial course in the arm crossing the median nerve from medial to lateral side. The further course of this superficial radial artery in the forearm was normal and it terminated by forming a deep Palmar arch in hand. These variations may be of great clinical implications for vascular and plastic surgeons and radiologists. Superficial course of radial artery makes it vulnerable to accidental injuries and elevates the risk of bleeding. ABSTRACT Background: An pen fracture with exte sive s ft tissue defects still remains ne of the most delicate and challengi g problems in trauma surgery. Severe bone and soft ti sue injuries produced by high velocity trauma have become one of the common causes of morbidity and mortality all over the world. The pr venti n of infection and n n-u i n in open fr ctures h s changed ramati lly over the last 15-20 years mainly as a result of improved plastic surgery techniques, but also because orthopedic surge ns have bec me m re aware of the importance of debridement and early soft tissue cover and ar now less absorbed by the minutiae of fracture fixation. The goal in the prevention of infection an non-union in compound fractures is to preserve the limb that is more functional than an amputated li b with prosthesis. Achieving this goal requires the current and timely management of both the bone and oft tissue defects. Various methods are followed with their adv ntages a d drawbacks. The main aim is to study the different modalities of prevention of infection and non-union in compound fractures and to present our experience of primary soft tissue covers in the prevention of infection and non-union in compound fractures. Methods: In a prospective study conducted in the department of orthopedics of Guntur Medical College/ Government General Hospital, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, 60 cases of open fractures from September 2010 to Oct 2012 were admitted. All the cases were treated as per protocol with thorough debridement and early skeletal stabilization and wound coverage, bone grafting whenever necessary and finally fracture loading in cast or ilizarov. Plastic Surgeons were involved early in all the flap covers. Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons were involved in Grade IIIC injuries. Patient was followed up regularly every 4 to 6 weeks and fracture union was tested radiologically and clinically. Status of the soft tissue cover was noted. When sufficient union was present, fixator was removed and the limb was put in below knee functional cast brace. Patients were called up for regular followups to review the progress. On follow up assessment was done recording the status of the wound, clinical and Radiological evidence of fracture union, range of mobility at knee and ankle joints, function of the limb and complications. Results: Out of 60 cases selected for the study age ranging from 1 year to 70 year, maximum cases 33.33% were in the age group of 21-30 years and 45 patients (75%) were male and 15 (25%) were female group. Most of the injury was due to RTA which were 48 cases (82.5%). 15 cases (25%) were in Type I, 12 cases (20%) were in type II and 36 cases (55%) were in type III Gustilo-Anderson classification. As per anatomical distribution, 42 cases (70%) involved tibia, 8 cases (13.33%) involved femur, 6 cases (10%) involved humerus and 4 cases (6.67%) involved forearm bones. Skeletal stabilization was done by plaster in 6 patients (10%), external fixation in 36 patients (60%) and by internal fixation in 18 patients (30%). Primary closure was done in 10 cases (16.67%), delayed primary closure was done in 7 cases (11.67%), split skin grafting was done in 27 cases ( 45%), flap coverage was done in 8 cases (13.33%) and in 8 cases (13.33%) wound were left open and they healed. Complications included in the study were pin tract infection in 9 cases (15%), equines in 5 cases (8.33%), knee stiffness in 4 cases (6.67%), toe clawing in 2 cases (3.33%), Non union in 6 cases (10%), chronic osteomyelitis in 4 cases (6.67%) and shortening in 5 cases (8.33%). There was no neurovascular damage, compartmental syndrome, failure of fixation or amputation. Overall result in our study was excellent in 30 patients (50%), good in 20 patients (33.33%), fair in 6 patients (10%) and poor in 4 patients (6.66%) Conclusion: From our study we concluded that majority of the compound fracture seen in leg and are due to road traffic accident. Males are more commonly involved than females. Most of the fractures are Type III Gustilo-Anderson. The External fixator is useful apparatus for early stabilization and early wound coverage in type III fractures. Internal fixation given excellent results in Type I & II fractures, similar that of closed fracture. Early debridement and wound coverage is the single most determinant of the fracture out come. Dynamization is useful for early union of fracture. Bone grafting is useful in case of delayed union for union of fractures. Complications like joint stiffness are best compared to conservative methods.


Neural architecture search (NAS) aims to automate architecture design processes and improve the performance of deep neural networks. Platform-aware NAS methods consider both performance and complexity and can find well-performing architectures with low computational resources. Although ordinary NAS methods result in tremendous computational costs owing to the repetition of model training, one-shot NAS, which trains the weights of a supernetwork containing all candidate architectures only once during the search process, has been reported to result in a lower search cost. This study focuses on the architecture complexity-aware one-shot NAS that optimizes the objective function composed of the weighted sum of two metrics, such as the predictive performance and number of parameters. In existing methods, the architecture search process must be run multiple times with different coefficients of the weighted sum to obtain multiple architectures with different complexities. This study aims at reducing the search cost associated with finding multiple architectures. The proposed method uses multiple distributions to generate architectures with different complexities and updates each distribution using the samples obtained from multiple distributions based on importance sampling. The proposed method allows us to obtain multiple architectures with different complexities in a single architecture search, resulting in reducing the search cost. The proposed method is applied to the architecture search of convolutional neural networks on the CIAFR-10 and ImageNet datasets. Consequently, compared with baseline methods, the proposed method finds multiple architectures with varying complexities while requiring less computational effort.


One of the most common methods in soil improvement of soft soils is using rigid inclusions (RI) that enhance the stiffness of the soil surrounding and beneath the inclusions. This paper aims to develop simple and user-friendly charts to estimate the settlement improvement factor (N) that correlates the settlement values without soil improvement to the settlement values after improvement, considering the installation effect of the rigid inclusions in soft clay formations. The cavity expansion method is used to model the installation process of the rigid inclusions. A parametric study is carried out using numerical modelling to predict the variation in the improvement factor with the variation of the treated soil stiffness and geometry of the RI system. The analyses are performed using a verified numerical model for a case study of a zone loading test performed at New Mansoura city in Egypt, employing the finite element software (PLAXIS 3D). The cavity expansion approach is first utilized for an axisymmetric model by imposing a prescribed displacement equivalent to the inclusion radius to simulate the construction effect of the rigid inclusion. From the axisymmetric model, the enhancement in the deformation modulus and the over consolidation ratio of the soft clay, resulting from the construction of the rigid inclusions, are determined. In the second stage of the analysis, the improved soil parameters are then implemented in the 3D finite element model, in which the external stresses due to superstructure are applied over the improved soil. The settlement associated with loading both the improved and unimproved soils is then compared for each studied condition in the parametric study to determine the improvement factor (N). The performed analyses clearly showed the high effect of the rigid inclusions in reducing the settlement associated with the construction on the improved soft clay. The achieved improvement factor varies between 2.88 to 58.10, with an average value of about 12.00. Based on the conducted parametric study, design charts are developed to provide a simple tool for predicting the settlement values associated with construction on improved soft clay formations with rigid inclusions under different conditions.


The invention relates to a method for electrochemically machining titanium alloy large-scale blades, which comprises the following steps of: arranging a convex plate on a blade blank when preparing the blade blank; performing electrochemical machining on the blade blank by using an electrochemical machine, wherein the height of the convex plate is 20 to 40mm; the clamped area of a clamp and the convex plate is not less than 98 percent of the overall area of the side of the blade; pressing force at the tip is 3,000 to 4,000N; and the width of an inlet of an electrolyte is 2 to 3 times of the thickness of the blade; and symmetrically arranging the inlet of the electrolyte along an inlet edge of the blade blank, wherein machining parameters include the electrode feeding speed of 0.25 to 0.4 mm/min, before-machining time delay of 3 to 5s, after-machining time delay of 3 to 5s, electrolyte temperature of 35-45 DEG C, the hydraulic pressure of the electrolyte of 0.3 to 0.5MPa, and compressed air pressure of 0.4 to 0.6MPa. The method can be used for machining the titanium alloy blade with the blade profile area of more than 700cm2; and the technique can be widely applied to the machining of the profile area of the titanium alloy blade, such as heavy duty gas turbines, a large-scale aero-engines and the like, and also has an extensive application prospect.


This study aims to examine how Russian adults make their choices about expenditures on non-professional sports to improve their health. The data was taken from Levada-Center survey on the attitude of people to their health and the quality of medical care in Russia, conducted in 2017. Probabilistic models of binary choice, Heckman selection model and semiparametric model by Newey were employed. The results of the study showed positive relationship between expenditures on sports and individual's income. Gender, age, profession, rural and entourage were among other factors that determined individual expenditures on sport.


The interaction points between cinema and society constitute the subjects of cinema, and important social life issues are reflected in the language of cinema as a string of signs. By creating a dream world, which is the expression language of cinema, the message to be conveyed is tried to be placed in the audience's mind. This indicates that the main function of cinema is not just to entertain but to raise awareness. This study tries to problematize whether the South Korean production Squid Game, which has reached a significant audience recently, can be watched through Social Darwinism. In the study, the exploitation of the efforts and hopes of the weak by the strong was analyzed within the framework of Social Darwinism theory. The semiotic method was used in the research due to its suitability for its purpose, context, and basic research question. The analysis unit of the research is the South Korean TV series called Squid Game. The sample of the study was determined according to the purposive sampling technique. The research data consists of the scenes and player expressions reflected in the Social Darwinist perspective of the visual and verbal expressions in the series. Research findings show that the evolutionary laws existing among living things continue in social life in the form of Social Darwinism.


Background/Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious global health problem. According to the International Diabetes Federation Atlas 2015 the estimated number of people with DM worldwide is expected to increase from 415 million in 2015 to 642 million in 2040. Cardiovascular complications are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients. Electromechanical function is frequently compromised in the diabetic heart.

Purpose: To investigate the regional effects of DM on shortening and calcium (Ca2+) transport in epicardial (EPI) and endocardial (ENDO) myocytes from the left ventricle of streptozotocin (STZ) - induced...


Friction Stir Welding is a solid state welding process used in aero-space, automobile and machine tool industry. However, corrosion of the friction stir weld zones is still a major drawback that needs to be addressed immediate-ly; hence the current work focuses on the corrosion characterization of the fric-tion stir weld joints of dissimilar aluminium alloy. In the present research, fric-tion stir welding is carried out at different set of parametric conditions and the weld joints are characterized for weight loss corrosion in sodium chloride saline medium. The friction stir weld joints of dissimilar aluminium alloys are ob-tained using three sets of process parameters viz., tool profiles of straight cylin-der, taper cylinder, and straight triangular; tool rotational speed of 800 rpm, 1000 rpm, and 1200 rpm; tool feed rate of 100 mm/min, 120 mm/min, and 140 mm/min; tool offset of 0.5 mm, 0 mm, and -0.5 mm. The corrosion characterization is carried out for friction stir weld joint using immersion tests. The results give an overview of the variation in the corrosion with time, and the effect of process parameters on the corrosion behavior of weld joints.


In cloud computing, service providers offer costeffective and on-demand IT services to service users on the basis of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). However the effective management of SLAs in cloud computing is essential for the service users to ensure that they achieve the desired outcomes from the formed service. In this paper, we introduce a SLA management framework that will enable service users to select the best available service provider on the basis of its reputation and then monitor the run time performance of the service provider to determine whether or not it will fulfill its promise defined in the SLA. Such analysis will assist the service user to make an informed decision about the continuation of service with the service provider.


Brain metastasis affects 10-30% of cancer patients. Treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are mainly palliative and ineffective. In order to study resistance to radiotherapy, we have developed a model of brain metastasis receiving whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT). We aim to identify mediators of radiation resistance to develop new strategies to sensitize brain metastasis. Several clinically relevant WBRT protocols were applied to lung and breast adenocarcinoma models of brain metastasis that were highly sensitive to radiation in vitro. However, none of them impaired the growth rate of metastases or increased mice survival in vivo, mimicking the outcomes of recent clinical trials using WBRT in patients with brain metastases. Based on the different sensitivity comparing in vitro versus in vivo we hypothesized that resistance to radiation could be modulated. Indeed, brain metastatic (BrM) cells grown in organotypic cultures dramatically decreased their sensitivity to radiation. Transcriptomic analysis of a BrM cell line under culture conditions correlating with low or high sensitivity to radiation was performed. The top candidate S100A9, as well as a known receptor and downstream signalling pathway, were all upregulated in conditions involving resistance to radiation.
Although targeting S100A9 in BrM models did not impair the ability to generate brain metastasis, when combined with WBRT a significant reduction in tumour burden was evident. Similarly, an inhibitor blocking S100A9 mediated activation of NFκβ reproduced this finding suggesting a potential therapeutic implication. Analysis of S100A9 levels in human samples reflected inter-patient heterogeneity, suggesting its potential as a biomarker to personalize the use of radiation therapy in patients


The objective of this study to highlight the evolution of the urban planning of the Coptic monasteries, and its architectural elements through the Islamic age. The Stages undergone urban planningfrom mid of fourth century to the Islamic conquest and from the Islamic conquest to nineteenth century. The analytical study contains urban planning and the architectural elements which witnessed several developments during the period from the 4th to 19th century, consists of the defense buildings, civilian buildings and churches. The research focused on the features of urban planning, and the treatments were reflected on some semblance of desert architecture.


Our brains are expert at processing multi-sensory inputs. We automatically "fuse" sounds and sights that come from one source-- to the point that we cannot turn off cross-sensory perceptual interactions. Examples like the McGurk effect (in speech perception), the "Flash-Beep illusion" (in temporal perception), and the "Ventriloquism Effect" (in spatial perception) demonstrate how robust and obligatory cross-sensory integration can be. Indeed, these sensory "illusions" are not truly "illusions," but rather examples of how perceptually integrated sensory inputs are in the real world, compared to how we view them in the laboratory. Such cross-modal effects also underscore differences in the kind of information that vision and audition "specialize" in, and what our brain trusts. Specifically, visual inputs convey spatial information precisely, but temporal information poorly. Conversely, auditory inputs convey temporal information precisely, but spatial information poorly. Recent cognitive neuroscience work f...


An asymptotic solution of ray equations is used for numerical simulation of the electromagnetic wave propagation in a smoothly non-uniform Earth-ionosphere duct. Being an extension of the adiabatic invariant approach, our method allows one to easily calculate and visualize all descriptive and energetic characteristics of global HF radio waves, including transition between multi-hop and ricochet propagation modes, antipodal focusing, geometric divergence and ohmic absorption. A quasi-parabolic model of F2 layer with the parameters taken from the international model IRI-2012 is used in numerical examples. From the mathematical point of view, it is an example of two-scale asymptotic expansion in a small parameter <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\nu \sim {H/L} \sim L/\pi R$ </tex-math></inline-formula> where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${H}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is a characteristic height of the ionospheric layer, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${L}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the scale of its horizontal non-uniformity, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the Earth radius.


Abstract We propose a thin accretion disk with magnetically driven winds model to investigate the high jet efficiency phenomenon in lobe-dominated luminous FRII radio galaxies, which was reported by Fernandes et al. (2011) and Punsly (2011). It was found that the temperature of a thin disk with winds was much lower comparing with that of a standard thin disk because the winds take the most of energy released in the disk away, resulting in a much smaller raditive efficiency. Therefore, the jet efficiency can be very high even for conventional jet power. Our model can explain the observations quite well.


In India the current understanding of the strategies and implementation mechanisms for expanding contraceptive choice is limited partly because both the policies and the underlying ideology are new. Understanding and identifying barriers to and opportunities for policy implementation with regard to informed contraceptive choice will help in the design of better programmes. Communications used strategically can help address some of the barriers by initiating behavior change accelerating the processes of change already under way and reinforcing behavior change that has already occurred. The rapid growth of the media in recent years offers a powerful vehicle for social change. Through its expansive and effective reach the media can also be effectively used to initiate and sustain behavior change required to enhance contraceptive use. This research was undertaken by the Institute jointly with Population Council in Maharashtra to identify barriers to and opportunities for operationalizing expandedand informed choice. (excerpt)


This paper presents a method to inspect multi-channel image data by creating audible em sonifications, which are `sound images', computed from a stack of image data. While visualization of multi-channel image data is limited by the available three color channels, our perception of sound is sensitive to a potentially much larger number of frequency channels or dynamic patterns, that can be perceived simultaneously. Browsing the image stack while listening to the sonifications facilitates the identification of intensity patterns and the discrimination of similar patterns. Some sonification designs which use different organization principles of acoustic elements derived from the data in the image stack are presented and sound examples are given. The evaluation of Multi-Parameter Fluorescence Microscopy Data is presented as a well suited application of this sonification method.


The aim of the study was to analyse the connection between retrospective assessment of fathers' parental attitudes and attachment styles in close relationships of young adult women in Poland and Ukraine. Respondents completed Parental Attitudes Retrospective Assessment Questionnaire and Attachment Styles Questionnaire, both by Mieczyslaw Plopa. The study involved 116 women in Poland and 116 women in Ukraine. The results showed that women in Poland, were attached securely in their close relationships more often, when their fathers were accepting and autonomy-giving, and less overdemanding and inconsistent. Inconsistency, overdemandingness and lack of acceptance and autonomy of a father, conduced anxious-ambivalent attachment among their daughters. Avoidant attachment more often described women, whose fathers were inconsistent, rejecting and were not giving autonomy. Women in Ukraine were attached securely in their close relationships more often when their fathers were accepting, autonomy-giving, and overprotecting. Inconsistency of a father conduced anxious-ambivalent attachment among their daughters. Avoidant attachment more often described women, whose fathers were inconsistent and rejecting. The secure attachment style characterized more often women in Poland, and the avoidant one was manifested more frequently by women in Ukraine. Higher level of overprotection parental attitude was noticeable among women in Ukraine. The value of the studies undertaken, can be noticeable especially in the matters of developing conscious fatherhood in the contemporary family and among others in the functioning of partners in multi-ethnic relationships.


In this paper we demonstrate the use of the Emerging Product Process and Consideration of Environment (EPPACE) mixed integer programming model to evaluate the effect of a lead tag or limits placed on availability of lead on economic decisions for product and process design. The paper concludes with directions for future study. Other questions that might be answered using the EPPACE model are discussed.


Long thin circular cylinders commonly serve as towed sonar tracking devices, where the radius-of-curvature along the longitudinal axis is quite low [ρr = O(10−4)]. Because no understanding presently exists about the direct impact of longitudinal curvature on the turbulent statistics, the long cylinder is simply viewed as a chain of straight segments at various (increasing then decreasing) small inclinations to the freestream direction. Realistically, even our statistical evidence along straight thin cylinders at low incidence angles is inadequate to build solid evidence towards forming reliable empirical models. In the present study, we address these shortcomings by executing Large-Eddy Simulations (LESs) of straight and longitudinally curved thin cylinders at low to moderate turbulent radius-based Reynolds numbers (500 ≤ Rea ≤ 3500) and small angles-of-incidence (α = 0° → 9°). Coupled with the previous experimental measurements and numerical results, the new expanded database (311 ≤ Rea ≤ 56 500) deliver...


Summary. A survey of the results of bone marrow transplantation for severe aplastic anaemia in 13 European teams is reported. 159 questionnaires were analysed by univariate and multivariate analysis. The overall 1 year survival was 41.2%. The chance of survival was decreased by the presence of infection before grafting and by the use of female donors. The conditioning regimen did not influence survival. Graft rejection was influenced by the conditioning regimen and the sex of the donor. Graft‐versus‐host disease was influenced by the conditioning regimen, and the age and the sex of the recipient.


Introduction A major constraint to livestock production in tropical countries is the scarcity and fluctuating quantity and quality of year around forage supply. During the rainy season, tropical forage species grow at very fast rates, with forage yields often exceeding animal requirements. If not cut or fed to animals, during the dry season such forage becomes fibrous and lack of most essential nutrients required by animals. In densely populated country like Indonesia, lacks of forage supply are aggravated by the high conversion of grassland to cash crop and invasion of alien weeds into pasture area.


Photoluminescence (PL) and optically detected magnetic-resonance (ODMR) experiments have been performed on a set of Si/Si 1-x Ge x strained-layer superlattices grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. A variety of parameters was explored to expand on the results of an earlier investigation and to test models proposed for the origin of the broad emission bands. These include the dependences of the magnetic resonance on temperature, microwave power, and excitation power density. In addition, sets of samples were grown to study the PL and ODMR as a function of layer thickness, Ge composition, total superlattice thickness, and doping with group-V impurities


New localities of Elmidae (Coleoptera: Byrrhoidea), with a revised checklist of species occurring in Poland Seventeen species of elmid beetles have been unequivocally recorded from Poland. The paper presents new data on the distribution of 13 species of this family, among which Esolus parallelepipedus and Riolus cupreus have been proved to occur in the country. Altogether 227 localities are given, either from the authors' own observations or from materials gathered during the implementation of the programme "Monitoring of the ecological state of surface waters, studies and an assessment of the ecological state of rivers" coordinated by the Chief Inspectorate for Environmental Protection in Poland. The paper also includes a revised checklist of Elmidae occurring in Poland.


This paper describes a simplified analytical approach to evaluate the performance of WDM systems operating on long distances in the presence of high chromatic dispersion with channels having different bit rate and modulation formats. Simulation results show that such a method can be extended to links where channels can be added and dropped along the path.


In this fascinating article, Dr Sally Nash explores the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and draws out for the reader a number of conclusions that can be applied to our youth ministry practice.


This paper concerns problems of applying the approach based on rough sets and rule induction to a software engineering data analysis. More precisely, we focus our interest on a software cost estimation problem, which includes predicting the effort required to develop a software system basing on values of cost factors. The case study of analysing the COCOMO data set, containing descriptions of representative historical projects, allows us to discuss how this approach could be used to: identify the most discriminatory cost factors, extract meaningful rule representation of classification knowledge from data, construct accurate rule based classifiers.


Introduction and hypothesis: Spontaneous remission to normal weight status occurs in ~10-20% of overweight youth. The factors that predict remission, particularly modifiable factors such as diet an...


Flumequine (FL), a quinolone-antibiotic used for veterinary treatment of infections, was found to elicit hepatocellular tumors in a conventional 18-month carcinogenicity study in mice, and hepatocellular necrosis-regeneration cycle was considered to be a possible underlying mechanism. In order to clarify whether FL has any modifying effects on development of hepatocellular proliferation, groups of heterozygous p53 deficient CBA mice [p53(+/-) mice], sensitive to genotoxic carcinogen, of both sexes and their wild-type littermates [p53(+/+) mice] were fed diet containing 4,000 or 0 ppm FL for 26 weeks after an intraperitoneal injection of 5 or 0 mg/kg body weight of dimethylnitrosamine (DMN). Higher incidences of hepatocellular foci were observed in animals receiving FL, with or without DMN-initiation, than in the corresponding control groups in both p53(+/-) and p53(+/+) mice. Incidences and multiplicities of foci were generally similar in p53(+/-) and p53(+/+) mice, but, in the DMN+FL group, multiplicity of foci and their PCNA labeling indices were greater in p53(+/-) mice. There were also small numbers of hepatocellular adenomas and carcinomas in the DMN+FL group of p53(+/-) mice, hepatocellular adenoma in the FL alone group of p53(+/-) mice, and hepatocellular adenomas in the DMN+FL group of p53(+/+) mice. Induction of hepatocellular tumors in these mice within a relatively short period strongly suggests that mechanisms such as direct or indirect damage to DNA might be responsible for the hepatocarcinogenesis of FL.


Acetylene is considered as an undesired component in polymerization reactors, which can afford unwanted properties in the final products and harmful effects on the related catalyst. The most efficient method to eliminate Acetylene and to decrease its purity to 2-3 part per million is the selective hydrogenation process. Even though widespread experimental efforts have been implemented on different aspects of acetylene hydrogenation reactors in many articles, they mostly represent a modelling which may be accurate for that special case study, and different parameters variations which are effective in the modelling, have not been investigated based on valid industrial process criteria as sensitivity analysis and optimization cases. In this article, Acetylene hydrogenation reactor modelling is being implemented on a pseudo homogenous one dimensional adiabatic steady state plug flow reactor in order to investigate temperature and concentration changes along the reactor length which is achieved by solving mass and energy balance equations simultaneously which shows less than 1% error for molar Acetylene conversion. Subsequently sensitivity analysis is implemented on the modelling based on two process limitations which are inlet temperature and Hydrogen to Acetylene molar ratio. Furthermore, optimization is performed on various objective functions such as selectivity and Yield to achieve the most optimum values for these reactors inlet conditions.


Spawning in the aquaculture of giant gourami is an important factor which determines the success of production because it supports the sustainability and improvement of the quality and quantity of giant gourami fry in aquaculture activities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feeding in the conditioning of giant gourami (Osphronemus gouramy) broodstock. The methodology carried out included the preparation of spawning ponds, broodstock selection, broodstock feeding, spawning, conditioning, nest inspection and egg collection, egg handling, egg hatching, and larval rearing. The eggs produced were 21.452 eggs with 18.714 fertilized eggs and 2,738 unfertilized eggs, and the Fertilization Rate (FR) value obtained during the study was 87.3%. Eggs that successfully hatched into larvae were as many as 16.238 while eggs that did not hatch were as many as 2.341 eggs, and the Hatching Rate (HR) value obtained was 87%. The water quality data obtained from the broodstock pond and the hatching pond included DO with a range of 5.88 – 6.11 mg/L, a temperature of 27.2°C – 28.2°C, and a pH ranging from 7.21 to 7.27.


In the urban pavement management, it is essen2al to develop urban pavement condi2on indexes to support Municipal Secretariat for Infrastructure on decisions making in rela2on to maintenance and rehabilita2on (M&R). The aim was to develop an urban pavement condi2on index (UPCI) for flexible pavements and perform a compara2ve analysis with some pavement condi2on indexes (PCI). The work method followed such steps: defini2on of sampling size; forma2on of ra2ng panel and training; data collec2on about present serviceability ra2ng (PSR) and flexible pavement distress; development of an UPCI; and, compara2ve analysis with some PCI. Mul2linear regression modeling based on distresses and PSR carried out the UPCI, in accordance with some sta2s2cal assump2ons such as homoscedas2city, serial correla2on, mul2collinearity


With the merits of having excellent safety, being low cost and being environmentally friendly, zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitors (ZHSCs) are expected to be widely used in large-scale energy storage and flexible wearable devices. However, limited by their sluggish kinetic process, ZHSCs suffer from low-specific capacity and poor cycling stability at high cathode mass loading. Herein, a novel designed oxygen-rich hierarchical porous carbon (HPOC) is obtained by a one-step strategy of synchronous activation and templated for high-performance ZHSCs. The fabricated ZHSCs with HPOCs show significant improvement in Zn-ion storage capability, with a capacity of 209.4 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 and 108.3 mAh g−1 at 10 A g−1. Additionally, the cycling stability is excellent, with 92.3% retention after 4000 cycles. Furthermore, an impressive areal capacity of 1.7 mAh cm−2 is achieved, even with a high mass loading of 12.5 mg cm−2. More importantly, the flexible quasi-solid state ZHSCs also show a considerable capability (183.5 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1) and a high energy density of 178.0 Wh kg−1. This promising result suggests a valuable route to produce functional nanocarbon materials for zinc storage applications.


The movie Xiaowu is the first work of Jia Zhangke in which he depicted with camera the Chinese lowlifes' activities,detached,impartial and true-to-life.Xiaowu's friendship,love and relationship with his family are described respectively in the movie,reflecting the unsatisfactory psychology of the social lowlifes of the time and the overturning spirit of the 6th-generation director to overthrow the traditional expressing ways of grand narrative pattern,super-realistic characterization,and historical narration.In this movie,full of flavor of postmodernism,we fell Jia's idea that is against with traditional movie and hear the complaining words from the bottom of lowlifes' hearts.


This study investigated the stability across sex of primary and higher order factors derived from Cattell & Scheier's Neuroticism Scale (NSQ). Only one of eight primary factors was found invariant across sex and this was identified as being similar to Cattell's second-order anxiety factor. For a three factor higher-order solution this was still the only invariant factor, but for a two factor higher-order solution invariance across sex was achieved for both factors. The two stable factors could be identified as Cattell's invia-exvia and anxiety or Eysenck's introversion-extraversion and neuroticism.


Privacy is a big challenge in a lot of fields such as healthcare field. As technology advances, data privacy became at risk and must to protect individuals' personal information and sensitive data. The existing privacy preserving techniques as encryption whether full or partial encryption are not sufficient because they have some defects. In this paper, we will introduce an enhanced technique whose main mission is maintaining individuals' privacy and increasing the utility of data. By combining fine-grained encryption method with the proposed perturbation technique. Where we will use fine-grained encryption method to encrypt only key and sensitive attributes. On the other side, we will use proposed perturbation technique to add a small amount of random noise to quasi-identifier in order to increase the security of data and prevent disclosure it by linking with other external data. Our evaluation proves that the introduced technique is more secure than other privacy preserving techniques and consumes less memory.


WHILE MANY organizations such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and American Heart Association continue to recommend diets low in fat and high in fiber to reduce the chance of developing cancer and heart disease, it is becoming clear that research into the connection between foods and disease has moved onto a more sophisticated plane. Detailed studies at the biochemical and even molecular level are providing new information about the role phytochemicals, the active compounds in dietary fruits and vegetables, play in preventing, and sometimes treating, malignant disease. Most of this research has been done during the past 7 years, said Ritva R. Butrum, PhD, vice president of the American Institute for Cancer Research, who was interviewed during the group's annual meeting in Washington, DC. The meeting attracted some 400 scientists, the largest attendance in the history of the 12-year-old organization. "We are far from definitive findings, but I think


Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was prepared from rice husk by subjecting it to alkaline pretreatment, delignification, bleaching and hydrolytic operations. MCC was also prepared from cotton wool and used as a reference because of its high cellulose content to estimate a relative yield and quality of the MCC produced from rice husk. The characteristic morphological feature was established by scanning electron micrograph (SEM); the functional group was confirmed by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic method and the thermal stability was determined from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and this characterized MCC of rice husk was applied as a stationary phase in P reparative T hin L ayer C hromatography (PTLC) .


Vallecular cyst is a rare cause of respiratory distress in newborns and infants. It is typically considered a ductal cyst, otherwise known as a mucous retention cyst. The cyst originates from obstructed submucosal glands and expands in response to glandular secretions. As this occurs, the infant may experience episodic inspiratory stridor, periodic spells of apnea, and cyanosis. Frequent coughing, choking, gagging, difficulty feeding, poor weight gain, and failure to thrive are other likely presenting signs. The differential diagnosis for such nonspecific signs is broad, and diagnosing vallecular cyst can be challenging. We describe a case of vallecular cyst in an infant and highlight the unique magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics that aid in diagnosis.


Abstract Desurfaced soils are found near cities in the Pampean Region of Argentina because A horizons were used for brick production. These soils are not suitable for agriculture. Application of sewage sludge is a tool for improving soil productivity, but its effects on the environment are not thoroughly understood. Production of carbon dioxide (C02)‐carbon (C) in the field from a desurfaced soil in which 25 Mg dry matter ha‐1 of sewage sludge were applied the first year and 10 Mg dry matter ha‐1, the second year was evaluated during a corn (Zea mays L.) growing cycle. Microbial biomass and metabolic activity were also measured. Sludge applications produced an increase of the CO2‐C efflux in the field of 30–50% during summer. Microbial biomass was not affected by sludge some months after the application, but metabolic activity and organic matter mineralization were enhanced. The increase of the CO2‐C emission from the soil represented 21% of the sludge C applied the year of the experiment and 15% of the C...


Objective: To determine the diagnosis, surveillance and delivery method for pregnancies with nuchal cord and cephalic presentation. Method: Clinical data of 367 cases of pregnancy complicated with nuchal cord and cephalic presentation were analyzed retrospectively, no pregnancy complications had ever been found in the pregnancy women before delivery.Result: All nuchal cords were identified using prenatal color doppler with an accurate rate of 93.7%(343/367). Attempts at vaginal delivery were tried in 239 cases. Among them, 83.2% had protracted stage of labor which could be observed only when the cervical dilatation was at least 5cm; the incidence of fetal distress is 26.2 %,and 79.2% of which occurred when the cervical dilations from 5 cm to10 cm were within 15 minutes; 68.2% occurred when the presentation was at the level of -2s to +2 s. engagement in labor were associated with lower incidence of fetal distress, cesarean section and arrested stage of labor compared with none-engagement cases (p0.05). However, the incidences of fetal distress, newborn asphyxia and aspiratory pneumonitis were not significantly differrent between the group of the engagement and that of the plannedcesarean section(p0.05).Conclusion: For pregnancies with nuchal cord and cephalic presentation, careful surveillance of labor process as well as fetal status should be made after 5cm of cervical dilatation.and(or) -2s of presentation. If engagement in labor could be observed, vaginal delivery may be attempted; whereas, cesarean section was strongly recommended.


Based on the actual failure of the bushing, this paper conducts analysis and research. Firstly, it analyzes the protection action, on-site harmonic components, bushing structure and disassembly step by step. Then it conducts the research on the discharge and breakdown characteristics of epoxy insulation. Finally, we results show that there are bubbles or impurities in the outer capacitor layer of the capacitor core inside the casing, and the harmonic content is higher under the operating conditions of the converter station. Meanwhile, we gives some relevant suggestions for the through-wall bushing in the design and manufacturing stage to consider relevant harmonic factors are of certain significance to extend the life of the bushing.


The fixed points adopted in the international temperature scale of 1990 have generally been used to calibrate contact thermometers, such as thermocouples, to get the highest accuracy. The fixed point for Pd is located at the upper limit range of the Pt/Rh noble metal thermocouple calibration. However, the high price of Pd itself restricts its wide use in calibration laboratories. To overcome this difficulty, this study develops an alternative fixed point having a close transition temperature to the Pd freezing temperature of 1554.8 °C. The alternative is pure Fe with a quoted melting temperature of 1538 °C. To make a thermometric cell, an alumina crucible was used to contain the molten liquid and it was found to be robust enough to last for more than 60 cycles of melting and freezing tests without any chemical and mechanical damage. Two cells were fabricated, and their melting and freezing behaviors were studied using type B thermocouples. By considering the advantage and disadvantages of melting and freezing, the melting temperature was selected as a thermometric transition point for the calibration of thermocouples because of its easy operational processes and acceptable uncertainty level. Using a reference thermocouple that had been calibrated versus a standard radiation thermometer, the average melting temperature of the two Fe cells was 1534.0 °C with an uncertainty of 1.2 °C (k = 2). From the studies, an Fe cell made in an alumina crucible can successfully replace the Pd fixed point.


: This paper examines economies of scale in the audit market. We use a measure of economies of scale that corresponds to the theoretical framework from the economics literature. Using kernel-weighted local regression analysis, we document evidence of economies of scale among both Big-4 and non-Big-4 auditors and at the city-industry, national-industry, and city (irrespective of industry) levels. By using nonparametric techniques, we are able to identify the audit firm size at which average costs are minimized. We conclude that most audit firms or offices can achieve economies of scale with fewer than ten clients. In addition, we revisit prior literature and suggest that the inability to document scale economies in broad settings may be a byproduct of using linear regression to identify a nonlinear relation.


The substrate of as-cast Ni-28 wt% Sn hypoeutectic alloy immersed in liquid nitrogen is rapidly remolten and solidified by laser surface remelting with a scanning velocity of 10 mm/s and the laser power of 1950 W. The microstructure of the substrate and its effect on the microstructure of the molten pool are investigated by scanning electron microscope carefully. It is found that the substrate of the Ni-28 wt%Sn ingot is composed of coarse primary α-Ni dendrites and the interdendritic (α-Ni+Ni3Sn) eutectic. The growth orientations of α-Ni dendrites and the interdendritic eutectic are distributed nearly randomly in the as-cast substrate. There are three kinds of microstructure characterstic zones from the top to the bottom of melted pool. The growth directions of α-Ni dendrites with the primary dendritic spacings ranging from 4.19 to 6.91 μm are approximately parallel to the laser scanning direction at the top of the molten pool due to the fact that the temperature gradient at the interface between the molten pool and substrate tends to be parallel to the laser scanning direction. In the middle of the molten pool, the epitaxial α-Ni columnar dendrites are found to be inclined to grow in the direction vertical to the bottom of the molten pool due to the fact that the temperature gradients in most zones of the molten pool are perpendicular to the bottom of the molten pool. The formation of new primary dendrites by the growth of the tertiary arm results in the decrease of primary dendritic spacing in comparison with that at the bottom of the molten pool. There are a small quantity of residual α-Ni primary phase and a large amount of (α-Ni+Ni3Sn) eutectic at the bottom of the molten pool. The microstructure of laser remolten zone is greatly influenced by the substrate microstructure, and the growth direction of the α-Ni dendrite in the molten pool is also affected remarkably by both the heat flux and the preferred crystal orientations for dendritic growth. Compared with the mixed lamella, rod and divorced (α-Ni+Ni3Sn) eutectic microstructures in the substrate, the eutectic structure in the molten pool is completely composed of the refined lamellar eutectic, which grows epitaxially in the direction perpendicular to the interface between the molten pool and the substrate at the bottom of molten pool. The eutectic lamellar spacing increases from the top (0.23 μm± 0.01 μm) to the bottom (0.42 μm± 0.02 μm) of the molten pool due to the interface growth velocity decreasing from the top to the bottom. The Kurz-Giovanola-Trivedi model for rapid dendritic growth and the Trivedi-Magnin-Kurz model for eutectic growth are used to estimate the growth undercooling of the microstructure in the molten pool respectively. It is found that the growth undercooling of dendrites and the eutectic in the molten pool should be between 50.4 K and 112.5 K, which is much larger than the critical undercooling for anomalous eutectic growth found in the high undercooled solidification in the previous researches. This phenomenon means that the critical undercooling for anomalous eutectic growth reported in the previous literature may be not the sufficient condition for generating the anomalous eutectic.


Osteosarcoma(OS) is the most common malignant primary bone tumor in children and adolescents. Currently, the combination of surgical resection and chemotherapy is the chief method for treating OS. OS resistance to the anti-OS drugs plays an important role in decreasing the chemotherapeutical efficacy. Therefore, elucidation of the mechanisms of chemoresistance and implementation of strategies to overcome chemoresistance will definitely play a pivotal role in developing novel chemotherapeutics and improving the survival rate of OS patients. There are two major mechanisms contribute to drug resistance of OS: osteosarcoma inhibiting chemotherapeutical efficacy directly and improving the cell ability to resistance chemotherapeutics. This article reviewed three methods of osteosarcoma inhibiting chemotherapeutical efficacy directly: inhibiting chemotherapeutics transport into cell, removal of chemotherapeutics from tumor cells and promoting chemotherapeutics inactivation.


Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks, Lord Bilimoria, Cobra Beer Founder, Pimlico Plumbers' Charlie Mullins MBE, Bill Morrow, Angels Den founder, JustEat CEO David Buttress, 2015 Apprentice winner Mark Wright and Crowdcube investment manager Michael...


Likewise, the domain of public schools has a broad range. Many large innercity public schools register low achievement scores, are beset with multiple social issues, and contend with powerful teacher union constraints which limit their agency. By contrast, smaller and less bureaucratic suburban schools feature strong funding and high achievement and often model themselves on and measure themselves against successful independent schools. As many researchers have documented, size is a ver}' important variable in determining school effectiveness. The enterprise of education began as a cottage industryand operates best on a human, (i.e., small) scale. Large size is daunting in schools, and parents and students seem to understand this intuitively. The attractiveness of charter schools, independent schools, and Catholic schools depends to a great extent on their manageable size. In addition to organizational and structural features that favor their success. Catholic schools are generally smaller than public schools, thereby affording more opportunities for personal contact and better communication between adults and adolescents. Despite the limitations imposed by its brevity'. Catholic Schools at the Crossroads provides an informed perspective on Catholic schools at the end of the t\\ entieth century'. It also raises important research and public policy questions regarding the ability of these valuable institutions to survive in a competitive and economically driven society. As a practitioner in both Catholic and public schools, I strongly recommend this book for reading and reflection.