Introduction: Systemic light chain (AL) amyloidosis is a rare progressive and debilitating disease which is caused by the abnormal production of amyloidogenic free light chains by a plasma cell clone. Substantial heterogeneity in clinical presentation of AL leads to difficulties in the early and correct diagnosis, as well as special challenges in management. Until recently there were no regulatory approved therapies. The approach to the diagnosis and management of the disease was derived from single referral center studies. EMN23 is a retrospective, multicenter study supported by the European Myeloma Network, aiming to describe the patterns of real-world AL amyloidosis management in Europe.
 Methods: EMN23 completed the enrolment of 4480 patients in 13 Sites and 10 countries across Europe: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Enrolled patients had initiated treatment between 2004 and 2018, and study outcomes were analyzed in 2 time periods, 2004-2010 (pre-2010), and 2011-2018 (post-2010), with 2010 being the approximate timepoint when the combination of cyclophosphamide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone was introduced in clinical practice. This report focuses on the efficacy outcomes with respect to the cardiac stage at diagnosis, first-line treatment, and period of first-line initiation.
 Results: In total, 4480 patients started treatment between 2004 and 2018; 1415 patients pre-2010, and 3065 patients post-2010. Overall, 31% of the patients were below 60 years, 16% between 60 and 64, 37% between 65 and 74, and 16% over 75 years, with <5% difference in all age groups between the 2 periods. Patients at stage I, II, IIIa, and IIIb between 2004 and 2018 were 16%, 32%, 22%, and 15%, respectively, whereas cardiac stage was not reported for 16%. Cardiac, renal, and soft tissue involvement were the most common throughout the entire study period, at 68%, 66%, and 18% respectively. Patterns of organ involvement did not change over time (<5% difference for all organs), and about one fifth of the patients had 3 or more organs involved at diagnosis. Chemotherapy-based (chemo) and immunomodulatory-based (IMiD) regimens were the most common first-line treatments administered pre-2010, for 43% and 30% of the patients, respectively. Most patients who received chemo or IMiDs at first line pre-2010 and did not achieve a hematologic response (SD or PD), continued with IMiDs (46%) and bortezomib-based (bor-based) regimens (57%) at second line, respectively. Bor-based regimens were dominant in the post-2010 era, administered to 75% of the patients. Fifty-three percent of patients non-responsive to bor-based regimens at first line post-2010 proceeded with IMIDs at second line. The proportion of patients who received ASCT was 8% pre-2010, and 6% post-2010. Overall response rate (hematologic response ≥PR) at first line for patients who started treatment in 2004-2018, was highest for ASCT (81%), followed by bor-based (54%) and chemo (41%), while the non-responders (SD, PD, or death within 3 months from treatment initiation) for the same regimen groups were 13%, 33%, and 44%, respectively. Deeper hematologic responses at 3 months from first-line initiation correlated with better overall survival (p<0.0001); the median OS for no response, PR, VGPR, and CR were 21, 62, 83, and 109 months, respectively. For stage IIIb patients in particular, early response to treatment was critical, as hematologic responses at 3 months were associated with better survival outcomes: median OS was 3, 19, 36, and 47 months for patients with no response, PR, VGPR, and CR, respectively (n=342, p<0.0001). OS was improved in the most recent era for patients of stages II (p=0.054) and IIIa (p=0.017), but not for patients at stages I (p=0.670) and IIIb (p=0.531). Median survival of stage IIIb patients was 5 months for bor-based, chemo, or IMiD regimens.
 Conclusions: This is the largest real-world study for AL amyloidosis that provides insights into the management and outcomes of these patients. After 2010 a transition to bor-based therapies was observed, together with an improvement in OS in patients with stage II and IIIa disease but with no improvement for stage IIIb patients, regardless of the first-line regimen used. Deeper hematologic responses at 3 months from first-line initiation significantly improved overall survival, even among high-risk stage IIIb patients.
 Figure 1 Figure 1.

 Palladini: Janssen Global Services: Honoraria, Other: advisory board fees; Pfizer: Honoraria; Siemens: Honoraria. Schönland: Janssen: Honoraria, Other: Travel grants, Research Funding; Takeda: Honoraria, Other: Travel grants; Sanofi: Research Funding; Pfizer: Honoraria; Prothena: Honoraria, Other: Travel grants. Milani: Celgene: Other: Travel support; Janssen-Cilag: Honoraria. Jaccard: Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Honoraria; Abbvie: Honoraria. Bridoux: Janssen: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Dimopoulos: Beigene: Honoraria; Takeda: Honoraria; BMS: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria; Amgen: Honoraria. Hegenbart: Prothena: Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Akcea: Honoraria; Alnylam: Honoraria. Cibeira: Janssen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Honoraria; Akcea: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Minnema: Alnylam: Consultancy; Kite/Gilead: Consultancy; Jansen-Cilag: Consultancy; BMS: Honoraria; Celgene: Other: Hospitality. Bergantim: Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Takeda: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Hajek: BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Pharma MAR: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. João: Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; GSK: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; BMS: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Consultancy. Leonidakis: Health Data Specialists: Current Employment. Cheliotis: Health Data Specialists: Current Employment. Sonneveld: Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Celgene/BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Karyopharm: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; SkylineDx: Honoraria, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Kastritis: Takeda: Honoraria; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Genesis Pharma: Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding.

 This is a retrospective study on AL amyloidosis, and until recently there were no regulatory-approved treatments for the disease.


Most intellectual property litigants have a tough time. The settlement of any legal dispute consumes hours that can be better used on other things and costs money that is better spent on other things. What's more, a dark cloud of uncertainty hangs over the disputants' business plans until it is lifted by the dispute's resolution. In IP disputes, the situation can be even more fraught: the outcome of a dispute may be the complete exclusion of a party from a market he has worked years to establish, or the sudden and often irrevocable vaporization of an intellectual property right that has encouraged and sustained large-scale investment. For this reason, intellectual property litigants need a dispute resolution environment that enables them to avoid excessive expense and save time and which then lets them get on with their lives. It is no accident that many IP disputes have moved out of the public sector entirely. IP arbitration and mediation have arguably never been more popular, particularly where the disputants have a pre-existing relationship that must outlive the dispute regardless of its outcome. Nor is it any accident that public sector domain name resolution systems such as those operated by WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center and by EurID are so closely modelled in low-cost and relatively informal private sector processes. Even within the formal court and administrative structure of national jurisdictions, IP litigants have a surprisingly large range of options. Depending on the jurisdiction, these include choices between administrative and judicial proceedings, between higher and lower courts and between tribunals the decisions of which may, or may not, be appealed. In the United States an injured rights owner may go to court or seek redress through the International Trade Commission; he may bring patent infringement proceedings in the regular Federal Courts or ride the rocket docket. In Europe there exist different options: pan-European Community trade mark and registered design rights may co-exist with national rights in respect of identical subjectmatter, thus giving their owner the choice between suing for infringement of the Community and domestic versions (he doesn't get two bites of the cherry, though: Pepsico's attempt to sue Coca-Cola for infringing its PEPSI Benelux registration with its ipsei product, having failed in an earlier action for infringement of its Community trade mark, was held to be an abuse of process). Given this wide range of choice, together with the European Commission's almost religious fervour for competition, it seems strange that the European Court of Justice has recently come out so strongly against what it perceives as the evils of forum-shopping by patent litigants, in Case C-539/03 Roche Nederland and others v Primus and Goldenberg. Yet that is what the court views as being the intended function of the Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments. There is another view: the Brussels Convention is intended to lay down rules that regulate, rather than eradicate, the option of an injured party to sue a defendant in the courts of a country other than that in which the latter is domiciled. Prima facie, there would seem to be no better set of facts to justify the exercise of such an option than a patent infringement action brought against nine alleged infringers domiciled in different countries, where the nine are companies within the same group. If the court's theoretical analysis of the provisions of the Convention leads correctly to the conclusion that a patent owner must commence nine separate patent infringement actions, each in the jurisdiction in which one of the related defendants is domiciled, it is difficult to refute the assertion that the Brussels Convention acts as a deterrent to the enforcement of patent rights against a highly organized international infringer. Indeed, Primus and Goldenberg might be better advised to invest their money in infringing other people's intellectual property rights in preference to patenting and protecting their own research. The issue of choice of jurisdiction will not go away. The fact that it has arisen so painfully in a Europe so recently determined to fuse itself into a single, internally competitive market is quite ironic. If competition is good for the consumer of electronic goods, telecommunications, banking services, and so forth, it surely should not so suddenly be frowned upon when it comes to the resolution of legal disputes.


If a mobile node out of home domain asks to provide mobility service, the mobile should be permitted by the home domain. This can be accomplished by the usage of AAA but the recent studies have shown its weakness to fail the ability of mobile node. This study suggests Fast Handoff model which will shorten permission time by AAA and allow the mobility service to be more efficient. Our suggestion with Assertion function is a new approach to assist authentication capability through mutual authentication of each V_AAA when the distance between HA and itself gets far or its delay time becomes longer. Our suggestion verifies its efficiency by cost analysis.


We examine intraday market reactions to stock-specific news. Using pre-processed data from an automated news analytics tool based on linguistic pattern recognition we exploit information on the relevance and the direction of company-specific news. Concise news-implied reactions in returns, volatility as well as liquidity demand and supply are quantified by a high-frequency VAR model on 20 second intervals. We find significant responses in prices, volatility, spreads and trading volume to relevant news for a cross-section of stocks traded at the London Stock Exchange. The results confirm the usefulness of linguistic news classification in structuring the very noisy intraday news flow.


The paper reports theoretical results of collimation and focusing of spatio-temporal field structure that is forming due to far-field (Fraunhofer) diffraction of paraxial wave packet emitted by single-cycle radiation source. A spatial collimation of such waves results in a peculiar shape of spatio-temporal structure with the central part moving faster than its outlying areas. During the focusing of collimated beam, a transformation from 1.5-cycle to single-cycle and again to 1.5-cycle wave occurs along a path from collimating to focusing mirrors with equal focal lengths.


Both intensity and phase information are needed for structure determination by macromolecular X-ray crystallography. The diffraction experiment provides intensities. Phases must be accessed indirectly by molecular replacement, or by experimental phasing. A popular method for crystallising membrane proteins employs a lipid cubic mesophase (the in meso method). Monoolein is the most popular lipid for in meso crystallisation. Invariably, the lipid co-crystallises with the protein recapitulating the biomembrane from whence it came. We reasoned that such a lipid bearing a heavy atom could be used for experimental phasing. In this study, we replaced half the monoolein in the mesophase with a seleno-labelled analogue (Se-MAG), which has a selenium atom in the fatty acyl chain of the lipid. The lipid mixture formed the cubic mesophase and grew crystals by the in meso method of the alginate transporter, AlgE, and the lipoprotein N-acyltransferase, Lnt. Se-MAGs co-crystallised with both proteins and were used to obtain phases for high-resolution structure determination by the selenium single-wavelength anomalous diffraction method. The use of such a mixed lipid system may prove to be a general strategy for the experimental phasing part of crystallographic structure determination of membrane proteins that crystallise via the in meso method.


In a recent discussion paper on an improved conceptual framework (IASB, 2006a), the IASB and the FASB argue that prudence and conservatism are not desirable qualities of financial reporting information (IASB, 2006a, BC2.22). One interpretation of this proposal is that the consistent undervaluation of net assets (consistent conservatism), which used to be common under Continental European GAAPs and to some extent under US GAAP, is not considered to be an adequate way of dealing with uncertainty. Instead, the changes in the business conditions of a firm should be, to a greater extent, reflected in the financial reporting via changes in future-oriented estimates and probabilities. In turn, this should increase the decision relevance to users. However, although the boards suggest that the improved framework will not include prudence or conservatism as desirable qualities, this paper suggests that a more valid description is that consistently conservative accounting treatments will be replaced by accounting methods that leave more opportunities for temporary conservatism (changes in accounting estimates that temporarily understate net assets via the creation of hidden reserves which later may be reversed). From a user perspective, temporary conservatism is demanding because of the increased income-shifting between periods. This is illustrated in the paper by examining three cases concerning loss carryforwards, development costs and construction contracts, related to three different standards (IAS 12, IAS 38 and IAS 11, respectively). Furthermore, the paper illustrates how the mixing of consistent and temporary conservatism may lead to counter-intuitive interpretations of the underlying business activities that, in turn, make the information less relevant to users.


Moderate to severe aortic valve insufficiency (AI) in patients undergoing left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation is a significant complication which occurs in up to 10.7% of patients in the INTERMACS database and has profound consequences for survival. Preoperative Impella use is associaed with greater post‐LVAD AI.


The lack of effective management of the planning and scheduling of funds by enterprises can lead to the emergence of short term loans and long term investments. Although short term loans and long term investments allow enterprises to arrange funds more flexibly and easily, they can seriously endanger the healthy and stable development of enterprises. Therefore, it is important to improve the current situation of the proliferation of short term loans and long term investments. In this paper, we study the economic effects of digital transformation on enterprises' short term loans and long term investments. Firstly, the collected sample data - 11-year financial data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share companies from 2011-2021 - are processed to make the data more realistic and representative, and then the data are empirically tested and regression analyzed using Stata and Spss software to study the effect of digital transformation on short loans and long investments of enterprises . The results of the study show that: digital transformation of enterprises can effectively inhibit enterprises' short loans and long investments; the larger the scale of enterprises and the larger the asset-liability ratio, the greater the possibility of enterprises' short loans and long investments. Finally, based on the research findings, recommendations are drawn: enterprises should allocate funds rationally; enterprises should expand the scale advantage of internal talents; the government should provide policy support for enterprises' digital transformation; and the internal and external market environment should be optimized.


A two-phase system of Fe-based nanocrystalline alloys is here investigated. The nanocrystalline Fe69.5Cu0.5Cr4V5Si13B8 alloys, which consist of two magnetic phases: α-FeSi grains and an amorphous matrix, were prepared by annealing the amorphous ribbons. Mossbauer spectroscopy and magnetic measurements at elevated temperatures were carried out. The results show that the exchange coupling interaction exists between grains through the amorphous matrix, and obviously affect the soft magnetic properties of the nanocrystalline alloys. A phenomenological coupling model is applied to estimate the coupling intensity for samples annealed at different temperatures and the data can reasonably explain why the nanocrystalline alloys annealed at 540 °C hold the best soft magnetic properties.


This study examines the kinetics of pyrolysis and oxidation of hydrochars through thermal analysis. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques were used to investigate the decomposition profiles and develop two distributed activation energy models (DAEM) of hydrochars derived from the hydrothermal carbonization of grape seeds produced at different temperatures (180, 220, and 250 °C). Data were collected at 1, 3, and 10 °C/min between 30 and 700 °C. TGA data highlighted a decomposition profile similar to that of the raw biomass for hydrochars obtained at 180 and 220 °C (with a clear distinction between oil, cellulosic, hemicellulosic, and lignin-like compounds), while presenting a more stable profile for the 250 °C hydrochar. DSC showed a certain exothermic behavior during pyrolysis of hydrochars, an aspect also investigated through thermodynamic simulations in Aspen Plus. Regarding the DAEM, according to a Gaussian model, the severity of the treatment slightly affects kinetic parameters, with average activation energies between 193 and 220 kJ/mol. Meanwhile, the Miura–Maki model highlights the distributions of the activation energy and the pre-exponential factor during the decomposition.


Aiming at the serious problem of Salawusu formation aquifer damage caused by caving mining in Yuyang coal mine, the technique of mechanized back‰ll mining with Aeolian sand-like paste was invented. Aeolian sand was used as aggregate and alkali-activated ‹y ash as cementing agent in the back‰ll material. Slurry ratio was studied where the water-sand ratio was 1 :1.3 and the mass concentration was 72%, while slurry initial ‹uidity could reach 210m. e author proposed the local resistance loss calculation method of slurry pipeline transportation, and the ‰eld gravity transport test results showed that resistance loss of unit length elbow was 4.26 times as big as loss of resistance along path; thus the pipeline diameter with 14.9 gravity of self-‹owing was determined, and the pipeline ‹ow design precision was improved by more than 10%. e back‰ll capacity could reach 360m/h and the running energy consumption was lower because of adopting back‰ll station model with double pulping system and underground equipment pool. e author also put forward whole back‰ll space sealing in which cloth consumption was only 40% of bag back‰ll. Industrial test showed that the back‰ll mining techniquemet requirements of water resources protection, primarily because the ‰lling rate was 98.5% in goaf, strata behavior appeared slightly, roof water leaching was less than 2m/d, and surface subsidence value was only 38mm.ere were great breakthroughs in cost and production e•ciency in this technology compared with similar technologies.


Temperature variations could potentially impact flotation performance, leading to operational and economic issues. Several historical and currently operating plants across Canada have reported seasonal metal losses as one of their major challenges. Improvements in flotation efficiency at cold temperatures are important for the sustainable development of the industry, especially in view of expanding mining operations to the north and the increasing impact of climate change-originated weather extremes on mining operations. To better understand the driving mechanisms of the seasonal metallurgical variation, the degree of vulnerability of froth flotation to fluctuations in temperature, and to develop recommendations addressing seasonally driven losses, a series of mono-mineral flotation tests were conducted. The observed variations in yield and recovery kinetics for different sulfide minerals follow a similar pattern: higher recovery and slower kinetics at lower temperatures, and lower recoveries and faster kinetics at higher temperature conditions. Following the results of the flotation tests, foam height and stability were investigated at different temperatures to explain the observed variations. A high correlation between changes in mono-mineral flotation behavior and foam properties with temperature was revealed.


Varying the density of the atoms in the cavity changes the Q of the atoms. When the cavity is mistuned, the density variation causes a frequency variation proportional to the degree of cavity mistuning.


This paper concerns the incorporation of steel fiber in reinforced concrete beams under the combined effect of shear and flexure. Then, this study is presented for the significant effect of steel fibers in improving the shear resistance of reinforced concrete beams without stirrups. The approach described in this study follows the basic concept outlined by Imam et al. 9) in their considerable study for shear-flexure interaction of steel fiber reinforced concrete beams. Based on the previous equations, 18),24) an analytical model was developed and published for predicting the relative flexural capacity of steel fiber reinforced concrete beams(M u /M fl ), i.e., the ratio of moment with shear interaction to pure flexural moment. The observed modes of failure for 205 test beams agree well with the predictions. Data presented in the literature are also analyzed and compared.


This essay explores the postmodern theory of hyperreality in order to better understand professional sports as an expression of hyperreality engendered through the contemporary information era's proliferation of images, signs, and simulations that constitute American professional sports. Jean Baudrillard, one of the main postmodern theorists, developed a grand theory of hyperreality that is grounded in a consumer community, whose understanding or perception of mediated events or images becomes severed from the reality of the actual phenomena. While various electronic media increasingly infiltrate our postindustrial society, Baudrillard argues, their presentation is now what people understand as reality. My analysis applies Baudrillard's theory to several dimensions of the professional sports industry to demonstrate this divergence from the profound reality into an idealized hyperreality. I begin by briefly outlining Baudrillard's theoretical orientation, axioms, concepts, and hypotheses that compose his theory of hyperreality. Following this summary of the theory, I elucidate its relevance to understanding professional sports as a multi-billion dollar industry that consumes immeasurable amounts of people's time and resources. Fundamental to the production of the hyperreal, simulations are growing as the primary form of information communication, specifically regarding professional sports. The three dimensions of sports that I demonstrate are becoming increasingly simulated are the following: the broadcasting of sports by the media, the athletes themselves, and the actual environments in which the sports are played. Through media and other new technologies, professional sports have slipped into a realm of manipulation and fascination, where simulations and hyperreal signs effortlessly float from screen to screen, mind to mind, arousing and circulating mediascapes and metanarratives as shared cultural consciousness. These narratives manufacture and reproduce hidden hegemonic ideologies, maintaining the status quo and a sedated mass society, living vicariously through hyperreal simulations.


Muon-spin rotation $(\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{SR})$ and torque magnetometry have been used to probe the anisotropy of an untwinned single crystal of ${\mathrm{YBa}}_{2}{\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{7\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}.$ The absence of twin planes allows the ratios of all three principal components of the superconducting effective mass tensor to be determined. The values for the in-plane anisotropy are in good agreement with values obtained by other techniques. The out-of-plane anisotropies as measured by $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{SR}$ are also found to be in good agreement with other microscopic measurements, but somewhat lower than those resulting from torque measurements on this and other crystals.


A mining cutter bit holder and mounting assembly providing for positive engagement of the load bearing surfaces between the holder and mounting base. The bit holder and mounting base cooperate to support the bit against lateral forces and inhibit rotation of the holder within the socket in the base. Load support surfaces are arranged so that as the bit holder is clamped in the base and positive contact is made between surfaces. Bit support surfaces are provided at the front and rear of the bit holder.


Introduction: Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) for symptomatic aortic stenosis (SAS) for high surgical risk patient is increasing and Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in such group of patients when presenting with future acute coronary syndromes are a challenge. We present a case demonstrating the importance of anticipation, preparation for a PCI and the need for a good understanding of the TAVI prosthesis to be able to deal with the challenges during PCI.

Case report description: A 64 year old female with Scleroderma and TAVI 15 months ago was admitted to the ED with Chest pain. ECG was consistent with STEMI and she was transferred immediately to cardiac cathlab for Primary PCI. She underwent successful Primary PCI to distal LMS bifurcation lesion and we faced many challenges during and after PCI. We present the case to discuss the precautions that need to be taken before considering PCI in these subsets and to share some important points that we learnt from this case.

![Figure][1]

Figure 1. Chanelling JL4 GC through TAVI

Discussion: Chronic inflammatory disease is in itself an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease. Long term pharmacotherapy in these patients remains a challenge as no clear guidelines exist. Primary PCI in a TAVI patient poses a huge challenge but is feasible. A good understanding of the commonly used TAVI therapy devices and the techniques used when these devices are implanted in relation to coronaries is important for all interventional cardiologists undertaking Primary PCI.

Implications to clinical practice: 1. Always start with an aortogram in these subsets.

2. PCI in patients with previous CoreValve® Revalving® system is safe and feasible.

3. Aggressive management of the disease process in chronic inflammatory condition is important to prevent the progression of atherosclerosis.

 [1]: pending:yes


The accurate detection and localization of lesion within the prostate could greatly benefit in the planning of surgery and radiation therapy. Although T2 Weighted Imaging (T2WI) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) provides an infinite amount of anatomical information, which ease and improve diagnosis and patient treatment, however, modality specific image artifacts, such as the occurrences of intensity inhomogeneity are still obvious and can adversely affect quantitative image analysis. Conventional high resolution T2WI has been restricted in this respect. On the contrary, Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) map has been seen as capable to tackle T2WI limitation when a functional assessment of the prostate capable to provide added value compared to T2WI alone. Likewise, it has been shown that diagnosis using ADC map combined with T2WI significantly outperforms T2WI alone. Therefore, to obtain high accuracy detection and localization, a combination of high-resolution anatomic and functional imaging is extremely important in clinical practice. This strategy relies on accurate intensity based image registration. However, registration of anatomical and functional MR imaging is really challenging due to missing correspondences and intensity inhomogeneity. To address this problem, this study researches the used of applying linear geometric transform to the corresponding point to accurately mapping the images for precise alignment and accurate detection. Transformation type is crucial for the success of image registration. The selection of transformation type is influenced by the type and severity of the geometric differences between corresponding images, the accuracy of the control point between images, its density and organization of the control points. A transformation type is selected to reflect geometric differences between two images in image registration. Often, the selection of the suitable transformation type for image registration is undeniably challenging. To make this selection as effective as possible, an experimental mechanism has to be carried out to determine its suitability. These transformations types are Affine, similarity, rigid and translation. Additionally, intensity based image registration is implemented to optimize the similarity metric mean square error through regular step gradient descent optimizer. Accuracies evaluation for each transformation type has been carried out through mean square error (MSE) and peak signal noise ratio (PSNR). The results have been presented in a chart form together with a comparison table.


Global community currently faces the dangerous spread of Ebola endemic. This essay discusses the threat of Ebola outbreak as one of non-traditional security issues and the need for regional organizations to consider new concept in the multilateral cooperation to combat the threat. The results of this descriptive analysis reveals that the Ebola outbreak, as a non-traditional issue, is a catalyst for a more formal and institutionalized security cooperation amongst ASEAN countries.


Abstract Cloud data acquired during the cirrus intensive field operation of FIRE 86 are analyzed for a 75 × 50-km2 cirrus cloud field that passed over Wausau, Wisconsin, during the morning of 28 October 1986. Remote-sensing measurements from the stratosphere and the ground detect an inhomogeneous cloud structure between 6 and 11 km in altitude. The measurements differentiate between an optically thicker (τ > 3) cirrus deck characterized by sheared precipitation trails and an optically thinner (τ < 2) cirrus cloud field in which individual cells of liquid water are imbedded. Simultaneous measurements of particle-size spectra and broadband radiative fluxes at multiple altitudes in the lower half of the cloud provide the basis for a comparison between measured and calculated fluxes. The calculated fluxes are derived from observations of cloud-particle-size distributions, cloud structure, and atmospheric conditions. Comparison of the modeled fluxes with the measurements shows that the model results underestim...


The article reviews the stages of implementation of the methodology on the example of the Stripping voltammetric determination of iodine in samples of foodstuff and food raw material. The authors controlled the metrology characteristics obtained during the approbation of the methodology in the food laboratory. The operational control of measure procedure was performed for the quality management of analysis. The control of measure procedure was performed by an executive on the work sample using the addition technique. The group with the highest iodine content the group of sea fish products was selected. The data analysis of the research results during the implementation of the Stripping voltammetry methods in the analysis of the iodine content in samples of foodstuff and food raw materials confirms the reliability of the obtained results, which indicates in its turn: 1) the effectiveness of the functioning quality system of the laboratory; 2) during the implementation of the methodology in the laboratory all aspects that can affect the quality of work and results of the research were taken into account. Also the authors discussed the effectiveness of the use of Stripping voltammetry for the determination of trace concentrations of metals.


– Species of the genus Euconnus Thomson, 1859, subgenus Euconnus, of the French fauna (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae). The French fauna has three species belonging to the genus Euconnus Thomson, 1859, subgenus Euconnus: E. hirticollis (Illiger, 1798), E. fimetarius (Chaudoir, 1845) and E. rutilipennis (Müller & Kunze, 1822). Some precisions are given about their morphological characters, their biology and their distribution. Unpublished characters are provided; labrum, mandibles, male genitalia and sexual secondary characters are illustrated in detail. A synonymy is revalidated: E. hirticollis var. sanguinipennis Reitter, 1882, synonym of E. hirticollis (nec syn. of E. rutilipennis).


Average daily traffic volume has a significant impact on the market value of single family housing units alongside the road. This study estimates the decrease in value to be of the order 0.8% per 1000 ADT. The data used are sales price and property characteristics for 249 housing units sold in Oslo during January-May 1984. The analysis is done by standard regression technique on a hedonic price model for property values. The results are consistent with those obtained in other studies aimed at estimating the impact of road traffic noise on property values. Apart from giving a basis for estimating environmental costs of road traffic, the results of the study may also be used for public assessment of property values.


This article explores the relationship between slave emancipation and the spread of Islam in early colonial French Buguni (southern Mali). It examines the reconstitution of village communities in the wake of violence and enslavement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and documents the ways in which widespread mobility and trans-local social processes fostered the emergence of new forms of religious identification and practice. It demonstrates that many of the region's first Muslims were returning slaves whose conversion was a cultural consequence of slavery. Oral accounts of village histories of Islam are used in reconstructing a history that has left few traces in the archival record.


Provides a detailed review of the development and curriculum of the MA History programme, explaining the aims and structure of the course. The paper provides an overview of the seminal works of history studied, the skills and resources students learn to deploy, local and regional historiography in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the six major themes of the course (crime & policing, the role of families, poverty & welfare, industry, urbanisation, and religion), and project planning for research and writing a dissertation.


Background—Lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) is known to increase intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in endothelial cells. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) on the increase in [Ca2+]i and membrane current induced by LPC. Methods and Results—[Ca2+]i was determined in cultured human aortic endothelial cells by fura-2 assay, and membrane current was measured by whole-cell patch clamp. The [Ca2+]i increase induced by LPC was abolished by inhibitors of phospholipase C (PLC). Statins markedly decreased the [Ca2+]i increase caused by LPC. This suppressive effect was quickly reversed by geranylgeranylpyrophosphate (GGPP) and was mimicked by inhibitors of Rho and Rho kinase. LPC induced the translocation of the GTP-bound active form of RhoA into membranes within 1 minute as determined by a pull-down assay and reduced the levels of RhoA in the cytoplasm, indicating that LPC quickly increases the GTP/GDP ratio of RhoA and induces membrane translocation. Statins prevented the GTP/GDP exchange of RhoA and its membrane translocation from the cytoplasm caused by LPC, and these effects of statins were reversed by GGPP. The responses of RhoA activation to statins and GGPP concurred with their effects on Ca2+ mobilization. LPC also induced a nonselective cation current after a lag. Statins prolonged the lag and decreased the current amplitude, and GGPP abolished the inhibitory effect on the current. Conclusions—LPC induced Ca2+ mobilization and membrane current via a Rho activation–dependent PLC pathway in endothelial cells, and statins blocked these effects by preventing the GGPP-dependent lipid modification of Rho. The present study implicates Rho in LPC stimulation of Ca2+ movement.


The classic studies of doll preference conducted by Clark and Clark have stimulated more than 25 years of research investigating self-acceptance and self-rejection in black children. These studies, however, have failed to consider the importance of nonracial factors as determinants of preference. In an investigation of the importance of cleanliness as well as race as a determinant of preference, 60 white and 56 black children of both sexes in grades 2, 3, and 4 of a nonsegregated New York City public school indicated their relative preferences for four photographs varying in cleanliness and race. Results indicate that cleanliness is a more potent determinant of preferences than is the race of the stimulus person.


The productivity-improving features of a direct digital radiography system for projection radiography are introduced and the integration of the system with PACS is discussed. A flat panel digital array, an array controller, and a system controller with video monitor and standard interface to a local or wide area communications network are the main components of the direct digital radiography system of which prototypes have been built and tested in laboratory settings. When used in radiology room for projection radiography, the digital array converts x-ray photons into digital image data and makes the data available immediately for display on a video monitor for the technologist's review. Upon the technologist's acceptance of the image, an industry-standard network allows the transmission of the image to a workstation where additional image processing can be performed and where the image can be viewed on a high resolution display by the radiologist. If so desired, the image may be routed to a laser printer, digital mass storage medium, or to a PACS communication interface. By connecting the direct digital radiography system with a PACS network, radiographs may be shared electronically like images of other digital modalities. In this scenario, productivity improvements would come mainly from shorter patient exams as a result of the immediate availability of the review images, wider exposure latitude and ease of handling of the digital array, and from the electronic transport, storage and retrieval of image files and patient data in a PACS environment.


"Chunks" of related news coverage with the potential to affect political outcomes - are the building blocks of political narratives and an important concept in political communication. In this paper I make three important claims about news stories. First, consistent with common intuition, news tends to come in chunks. Second, this tendency can enrich studies of media and politics if used well, and lead to confusion and error if ignored. Finally, the methodological capacity to identify meaningful chunks of news on a large scale is within reach. I demonstrate how hidden Markov models can be used identify news stories within stream of media content, and discuss implications for the study of media, public opinion, and political communication.


A factorial experiment was used to evaluate light, a range of alternating temperatures, and stratification on germination of freshly collected current year's seed of Piceamariana (Mill.) B.S.P. Light was required for complete germination of unstratified seed at low (5–15 °C) and moderate (10–20 °C) temperatures. This light requirement was removed by moist chilling at 3 °C for 24 days.


This paper gives an analysis of noncontact monitoring of thoracic activity by electromagnetic coupling between a sensor coil and thoracic tissue (sometimes called Magnetic induction monitoring). In this context, thoracic activity comprises respiratory and cardiac activity as well as further body motion. The physical principle of the measurement technique is described and several wearable and stationary monitoring devices developed by the authors are presented. Sensor characteristics are investigated in laboratory experiments and the suitability of the measurement method for homemonitoring systems is evaluated in different medical applications on healthy volunteers. This work intends to give an overview about the findings achieved by the authors and, therefore, summarizes information already been published elsewhere.


The total energy stored in the LHC is expected to reach 360 Mega Joule, which is about two orders of magnitude higher than in HERA or the Tevatron. Damage and quench protection in the LHC require a highly efficient and at the same time very robust collimation system. The currently planned system, the status of the project and the expected performance of the collimation system from injection up to operation with colliding beams will be presented.


A balanced tear film is essential for a healthy ocular surface. Insufficient tear production may result in dry eye, a common disorder in the elderly population. Dry eye causes significant discomfor ...


The increasing concerns related to the global warming process determined the shifting towards the use of distributed generation (DG) designed to meet the environmental restrictions. The increasing penetration rate for the DG in the energy systems is raising technical and non technical problems that must be quickly solved in order to deeply exploit the opportunities and benefits offered by the DG technologies. In this paper, the analysis of the impact of distributed generation units on the voltage quality in a 6 kV medium voltage network is conducted. The distributed generation units may require an inverter before their interconnection to the mains. Thus, these converters can produce harmonics that propagate in the distribution network. The case studies are conducted using the software package ATP- EMTP on an existing 6 kV network.


Climate induced natural disasters (CINDs) like drought, flood and cyclone have become serious problems to Orissa. CINDs are of regular occurrence particularly in coastal Orissa and have become the part of normal life. The poor people are the worst affected. In most years, adjustment in household activities combined with relief works provides the minimal succors (employment, food, etc). However, occasionally the situation gets worsen like the case in coastal Orissa since late 1990s. The farmers and fishermen who are the traditional food producers living in such fragile environments become ecologically, geographically and economically marginalized. However, over time they have evolved certain coping mechanisms and adaptive strategies to reduce drought, flood and cyclone vulnerability. This communication focuses on coping strategies of the poor to drought, flood and cyclone vulnerability in coastal Orissa. The vulnerability towards all these three extreme events and the rural household's coping strategies are discussed. Rural people's perception and attitudes about natural disasters are also reported. For the study, a simple random sample was adopted and interviews were carried out through questionnaire. From the study a picture of coping responses was built up. The common perception of rural households in the study area is that climate has changed for the worse with increased frequency as well as intensity of CIND events in recent years. Although the warning system was also developed and found to be timely and largely accurate, the rainfall forecasting in drought years were misleading. Further, the cyclone warning was ignored by the rural households which resulted in higher causality than expected. As with most other warning systems, there appears to be a missing link between the warning signals and follow up action. A classical pattern of sequential and/or simultaneous quick responses was seen, building up from minor adjustments, such as diet changes or increased reliance on off-farm income sources, to the disposal of assets, notably land and cattle to a major shift such as out-migration. The study has found out that 94% of the selected sample households have adopted one or the other strategies and mechanisms to address drought, flood, and cyclone vulnerability. These coping mechanisms reported to vary over time on the basis of nature of extreme events. Results suggest that households seek access to a secured source of income that provides basic food and income for the household when agricultural production fails. The favoured strategies are mainly seeking wage earning locally. Only a small percentage of households have access to such favoured activities and many households, therefore, resort to out-migration for daily wages. Out migration in search of non-farm income was critical. Those who cannot migrate and does not find adequate employment locally attempt for a multitude of activities that complement each other in securing food or income for the household. Most of these activities are informal and include activities such as catching fish and turtles from the river, collection of forest products, local handicrafts, and even assistance from close relatives. However, the study concludes that the poor have become active agents and victims to such vulnerability, because of various internal and external factors imposed upon them. But government relief was vital. In spite of inefficiency and also corruption in the distribution system, relief in terms of food, medicine, housing and cyclone shelters saved many poor from further suffering. Majority of the respondents felt that the relief operations were just in time, but inadequate and short-lived. The paper concludes that the various coping mechanisms, particularly out-migration, modifying household consumption, social co-operation and government relief and rehabilitation programmes help the poor people to reduce the risk of CIND vulnerability. However, there is an urgent need for shift in focus from food aid to longterm mitigation measures such as drought proofing, development of resistant cultivars (against drought, flood and salinity), infrastructural development in terms of road and irrigation, and generating off-farm employment opportunities. 1 Paper prepared for the UNFCC COP8 Conference organised by the Government of India, United Nations Environment Programmes, and FICCI during October 23-November 1, 2002, Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, India * Scientist, Director, and Principal Scientist, National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (ICAR), Library Avenue, Pusa, New Delhi-110 012


High energy (approximately GeV) positrons are seen within cosmic rays and observation of a narrow line at 511 keV shows that positrons are annihilating in the galaxy after slowing down to approximately keV energies or less. Our state of knowledge of the origin of these positrons, of the formation of positronium 'atoms', and of the circumstances of their annihilation or escape from the galaxy are reviewed and the question of whether the two phenomena are linked is discussed.


Aims: To examine the short-term effects of transradial percutaneous coronary interventions on the upper extremities function. Method and results: This is an interim analysis of the Effects of trAnsRadial perCUtaneouS coronary intervention on upper extremity function (ARCUS) study. Out of 191 patients evaluated at 2 weeks after they had undergone a transradial percutaneous coronary intervention, 120 (62.8 % ) had manifestations of upper extremity dysfunction on the side of the intervention. The main abnormalities were a decrease in sensibility, a ≥ 15 % increase in the Disabilities of the Hand and Shoulder questionnaire score and a ≥ 2 cm increase in hand and forearm volumes. Radial artery occlusions occurred in 12 patients in the upper extremity dysfunction versus 1 patient in the no upper extremity dysfunction group (p = 0.03). Patients with upper extremity dysfunction were significantly more likely to have a family history of heart disease (50 % vs. 26.8 % ; p = 0.002). In addition, there was a trend (p = 0.07) toward a greater proportion of previous smokers in the group with upper extremity dysfunction than in the other group. Conclusions: Upper extremity dysfunction after transradial percutaneous coronary intervention is a medical concern. However, our original score may be overly sensitive and overestimate the rate of upper extremity dysfunction. Further analyses are needed, as well as perhaps a modification of the primary endpoint. Received Date: May 18, 2017 Accepted Date: June 28, 2017 Published Date: July 06, 2017 Citation: IJsselmuiden, A.J.J., et al. Upper Extremity Function after Transradial Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Short-Term Interim Results of the ARCUS Study. (2017) J Heart Cardiol 3(2): 34-39.


Studies how the parameters of guiding vanes in swirlers for diesel engines affect the air flow between the vanes. 2D flow field between the vanes is simulated by the CFD software. When the parameters of guiding vanes are different, mean velocity of air at the guiding vane outlet and the coefficient of loss of flow are calculated to evaluate the performance of guiding vanes. The results show that the mean horizontal velocity at outlet becomes higher when the outlet angle is smaller, the straight section of outlet becomes longer and the arc radius gets larger. While the coefficent of loss of flow becomes smaller when the outlet angle is larger, the straight section length at the inlet and outlet are smaller, and the radius of arc is larger. The results of calculation agree basically with the experimental results of steady flow tests for the swirlers.


Solving diagonally dominant tridiagonal linear systems is a common problem in scientific high-performance computing (HPC). Furthermore, it is becoming more commonplace for HPC platforms to utilise a heterogeneous combination of computing devices. Whilst it is desirable to design faster implementations of parallel linear system solvers, power consumption concerns are increasing in priority. This work presents the oclspkt routine. The oclspkt routine is a heterogeneous OpenCL implementation of the truncated SPIKE algorithm that can use FPGAs, GPUs, and CPUs to concurrently accelerate the solving of diagonally dominant tridiagonal linear systems. The routine is designed to solve tridiagonal systems of any size and can dynamically allocate optimised workloads to each accelerator in a heterogeneous environment depending on the accelerator's compute performance. The truncated SPIKE FPGA solver is developed first for optimising OpenCL device kernel performance, global memory bandwidth, and interleaved host to device memory transactions. The FPGA OpenCL kernel code is then refactored and optimised to best exploit the underlying architecture of the CPU and GPU. An optimised TDMA OpenCL kernel is also developed to act as a serial baseline performance comparison for the parallel truncated SPIKE kernel since no FPGA tridiagonal solver capable of solving large tridiagonal systems was available at the time of development. The individual GPU, CPU, and FPGA solvers of the oclspkt routine are 110%, 150%, and 170% faster, respectively, than comparable device-optimised third-party solvers and applicable baselines. Assessing heterogeneous combinations of compute devices, the GPU + FPGA combination is found to have the best compute performance and the FPGA-only configuration is found to have the best overall estimated energy efficiency.


Multiple-segment climbing robots developed to perform such tasks as inspection, sandblasting, welding, and painting on towers and other structures. Look and move like caterpillars. Video camera mounted on one of segments rotated to desired viewing angle. Used in remote inspection of structure, to view motion of robot and/or provides video feedback for control of motion, and/or to guide operation of head mounted on foremost segment with motorized actuators.


This paper examines certain issues pertaining to the structure of agrarian credit markets in developing countries using empirical evidence on credit transactions from two villages in south India. First, the bases for the segmentation between formal and informal sectors of the credit market are identified as being: (1) the type of collateral offered on credit contracts, and (2) the purpose for which credit is taken. Secondly, the paper shows the occurrence of a systematic association between rates of interest and types of collateral. The evidence supports the hypothesis that lower marketability of collateral security, and hence higher undervaluation, increases the rate of interest charged on a loan. Thirdly, the evidence shows an inverse relationship between the value of land owned by a borrower and the rate of interest on a credit contract. Copyright 1991 by Oxford University Press.


We propose the implementation of an on-demand system to serve requests to ride shuttles on a university campus. Assuming that each client and each shuttle bus has a GPS device, we devise two online algorithms: the k-means based algorithm, and the general pool-based algorithm. The former has two components: the first deals with the problem of assigning requests to shuttles, which it does through the k-means algorithm, and the second one solves the scheduling problem for each bus. The latter does not perform a prior assignments of requests to shuttles. We evaluate the effectiveness of the two methods by means of a simulation of both the system that is currently in place at the University of Maryland College Park and the two proposed on-demand systems. An empirical comparison of all models is then carried out, focusing on the total waiting time to serve a request. A more fine-grained analysis can be done by breaking down the waiting time into waiting time at the stop, walking time (to and from the stop), and ride time. Finally, we also study the fuel consumption of all systems. These preliminary tests show that, in some cases, the on-demand systems are capable of delivering lower values in all of these performance parameters.


Using the notion of an 'ideal public sphere', this article explains and analyzes the democratizing impulses and the clash in intentions as students and local community members negotiate for access to the airwaves at WMUA, a unique hybrid college radio station in Western Massachusetts. Undergraduate students technically control the station, but many of its actual practices fit a Community Radio model that disproportionately favours community members. Students use their WMUA for their own entertainment or see it as a place to gain on-air experience and build resumes. Community members, however, use their WMUA to produce empowering content for audiences beyond the University. With institutional memory and cultural capital, they largely control WMUA's structure. With data from long-term ethnographic research, this article critiques the normative Habermasian public sphere by showing how regulatory practices limit individualistic, developmental goals of the students, even as these practices facilitate the outside community's progressive agenda.


Catalytic inhibition of topoisomerase II during G2 phase delays onset of mitosis due to the activation of the so‐called decatenation checkpoint. This checkpoint is less known compared with the extensively studied G2 DNA damage checkpoint and is partially compromised in many tumor cells. We recently identified MCPH1 as a key regulator that confers cells with the capacity to adapt to the decatenation checkpoint. In the present work, we have explored the contributions of checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) and polo‐like kinase 1 (Plk1), in order to better understand the molecular basis of decatenation checkpoint. Our results demonstrate that Chk1 function is required to sustain the G2 arrest induced by catalytic inhibition of Topo II. Interestingly, Chk1 loss of function restores adaptation in cells lacking MCPH1. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Plk1 function is required to bypass the decatenation checkpoint arrest in cells following Chk1 inhibition. Taken together, our data suggest that MCPH1 is critical to allow checkpoint adaptation by counteracting Chk1‐mediated inactivation of Plk1. Importantly, we also provide evidence that MCPH1 function is not required to allow recovery from this checkpoint, which lends support to the notion that checkpoint adaptation and recovery are different mechanisms distinguished in part by specific effectors.


Background: Osteosarcoma (OS) is a fatal primary bone cancer in humans. In recent years, it has been reported that microRNAs (miRNAs) are closely related to the emergence of OS. Moreover, miR-212-5p and X-linked apoptosis protein (XIAP) are abnormally expressed, according to cancer research. However, the function and mechanisms of the two in OS have not been clarified. Objective: The present study aimed to explore the effects and molecular mechanisms of miR-212-5p and X-linked apoptosis protein (XIAP) in osteosarcoma (OS). Methods: A total of 80 tissue samples of patients with OS, from May 2012 to May 2014, were obtained. Furthermore, miR-212-5p and XIAP levels in tissues and cells were detected. In vitro cell experiments were carried out, aiming to observe the roles of miR-212-5p and XIAP on the biological behavior of OS cells. Results: Results suggest that miR-212-5p was inhibited in OS tissues and cells, while XIAP was significantly overexpressed. Overexpression of miR-212-5p or silencing of XIAP may inhibit proliferation, invasion, and migration of OS cells, promoting cell apoptosis. However, these biological behaviors were the opposite in miR-212-5p knockdown or XIAP overexpression. XIAP could be used as a direct target of miR-212-5p through luciferase activity measurement. Overexpression of XIAP eliminated the biological behavior of miR-212-5p overexpression. Conclusion: Results suggest that miR-212-5p is related to OS and can directly target XIAP, inhibiting malignant behavior of OS cells. Moreover, miR-212-5p/XIAP can be a latent treatment target for OS.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of mineral taping containing natural minerals powder on knee joint pain and swelling in the elderly. Forty elderly people with knee pain were divided into 20 mineral taping groups and 20 kinesio taping groups and randomly placed in a single blind manner. The study period was conducted from April 6, 2020 to April 7, 2020, and pain and blood flow by time point were examined before, after, and after 1 day of taping. Knee pain was significantly different in the post-test (F = 93.758, p <.001) and the post-day test (F = 93.758, p <0.001) for each measurement point. The blood flow test for edema was significantly different in the post-test (F = 48.648, p <0.001) and the post-day test (F = 35,427, p <0.001) for each measurement time point. There was no significant difference in the effect test result for each group (F = 0.160, p> 0.05). However, When comparing the retention effect after 1 day, the mineral taping group was excellent to the post-score than the Kinesio taping group. In the future, we believe that increasing the taping time and retention period will have a positive effect. It is thought that the results of this study will contribute to the study of taping materials in the future.


Correspondence Paige Marie Patchin Email: email@example.com Feminist work on population governance has tracked its racial dynamics, its varied attempts to expunge the poor from the future, and its violent wresting of control over reproduction away from women. Attention has recently turned to "economised" understandings of possible and proto‐life that take the aggregate reproductivity of certain groups of women and girls as a means of shaping economic futures, which emerged as the dominant form of population governance during the Cold War. Underexplored in this incisive body of work, however, is the relationship between the reproductive body and social reproduction. This paper advances feminist work on adjudications of life worth in government policy and scientific expertise, and critical political economic work on global health governance, by exploring experiments in family planning. I do this through a discussion of the Zika virus, the recent re‐emergence of which was framed as an economic problem: experts "priced" a single case of microcephaly at US$10 million or more across a lifetime. Specifically, I examine a programme of contraceptive provision to women in Puerto Rico as part of the public health emergency, which I show to have possible eugenic effects. I argue that in the global politics of public and reproductive health, relatively new neoliberal health metrics have joined up with eugenicist impulses to value life according to future economic contributions. Such valuations of life focalise the reproductive body while abandoning the social reproductive body. The relationship between reproductive labour and social reproduction warrants further scrutiny, for as we careen through uncertain ecological futures, and as discourses about limited Earth for humans amid environmental crisis and limited funding for future children thicken, the reproductivity of certain women and girls is being tinkered with by experts, governments, and private institutions in new ways.


This study was conducted to evaluate the effects on external eostrus signs and hormonal profile of pigs reared with feed formulated by subtitling soya bean meal (SBM) with blood meal (BM). Blood, used to formulate the experimental diets was collected from apparently healthy cattle at slaughter, boiled and sun dried. Thereafter, the BM was used to formulate four grower pig diets: A, B, C and D, containing 50.0, 75.0, 100.0 and 0.0% (control) SBM as replacement for BM. Following feed formulation, 16 Landrace×Large White crossbred weanling pigs were selected and used for the study. They were aged 6.0 to 6.5 weeks, with average body weight of 12.24 kg. The pigs were randomly allotted to the 4 treatment groups, each of which was further divided into two; with 2 pigs as replicate. Individual animal was maintained on experimental diet that was equivalent to 5.0% of its average body weight as ration from beginning to the end of study. At their 6.5 months of age, the gilts were observed two times daily for symptoms of eostrus. Following the manifestation of eostrus signs, scoring for the vulva changes was carried out and values obtained were compared between treatment groups at first, second and third eostrus cycles, respectively. Similarly on their forth eostrus cycle, the gilts were bled every 30 min for 6 hours and sera obtained was used to determine their hormonal profile. Hormone assay was done by ELISA technique. Results showed no dietary treatment affected most of the parameters investigated within the study period. Thus, age at puberty, duration of standing reflex, intensity of reddening, and swelling of the vulva and eostrus cycle length showed no significant (P>0.05) variation, when compared to the control. The study showed that while the duration of standing reflex increased, intensity and duration of reddening and swelling of vulva rather decreased with eostrus cycle number. The hormonal assay showed that estradiol-17β levels of groups A, B and C were significantly (P<0.05) higher than the control group D animals. BM inclusion had no significant effect on Luteinizing and Follicle Stimulating Hormonal profile of the gilts, but their pulsatile release at the 3rd and 6th hours was evident. It is concluded that inclusion of BM in formulating pig diets under tropical humid conditions is safe. It does not interfere with some key reproductive parameters in gilts, such as their age at puberty, manifestation of eostrus signs and reproductive hormonal profile.


Giving students an opportunity to make a difference in their world is part the culture of our school. When this opportunity is embraced, the results can be very rewarding for the students, the community and the school.


Two groups of fresh full size stator bars of an 18 kV/180 MW generator were subjected to accelerated thermomechanical and electrical-thermal combined stress aging respectively to investigate the deterioration of groundwall insulation. The dissipation factor measurement was performed during the thermomechanical stress aging together with tap testing and dimension measurement. In addition, the dissipation parameters were also measured during the electrical-thermal combination aging. The correlation analysis between the dissipation parameters and the dimension of coil straight section, the insulation delamination were made respectively. It was found that the high voltage dissipation factor measured at room temperature, the dissipation factor tip-up and the capacitance tip-up are strongly correlated with the degree of insulation delamination, which indicates that the three parameters are sensitive indicators of the aging condition of stator bar insulation. It was also found that among all of the dissipation parameters, the high voltage dissipation factor measured at high temperature has the strongest correlation relationship with the change in the dimension of coil straight section. It is inferred that the parameter can reflect more chemical and structural changes within the insulation in addition to insulation delamination. The comparative analysis on the voltage dependency of dissipation factor implies that the characteristic crest on the dissipation factor curve could be taken as a fingerprint parameter to distinguish the insulation delamination type.


The relatively small number of arts librarians who have participated in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Immersion since it began in 1999 is a reason to reflect on the place of information literacy in arts libraries. It is a formidable challenge to combine elements of the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards1 with relevant ideas extracted from the sizeable body of literature of IL, and to appropriate them in meaningful ways for an academic arts library. There are few, if any, existing formulas in place to create IL programs that can adequately address the particular and idiosyncratic needs of arts students. Immersion provides the tools and methods, in a highly inspiring setting, to create and structure the beginnings of a useful and appropriate IL program for an arts college. The need to create a structured information literacy program at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) became apparent in 2006 as the result of several factors. The year 2006 marked the restructuring of the liberal arts curriculum as well as the begin ning of a multi-year reaccreditation process, far more rigorous than the previous reaccreditation in 2000. Both of these events indicated a need for the library to consider information literacy more strategically than had been done previously. At the same time, the opportunity for the sole instruction librarian to partici pate in the ACRL Institute for Information Literacy Immersion program occurred, a very timely and welcome opportunity to focus on creating a structured IL program. The implementation of a tangible IL program worked best with a philosophical component?it made sense at CalArts to present IL as a way of thinking in addition to simply designing skills-based sessions for students. We developed the program through an assimilation of the following: the necessary elements of the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards, a thor ough review of the existing literature on IL, and sensitivity to the idiosyncratic needs of our visual and performing arts students.


Dubious expression is a common phenomenon in Japanese,it is considered as one of the outstanding characteristics of Japanese.Not only does it reflect the traditional attitude towards life and behavior principle,but also the specific character of the whole nation.Japanese prefer to use non-restrictive expression in their communication.They are good at expressing and understanding overtones.In addition,many ambiguous words are frequently used in Japanese.This phenomenon in expression was greatly affected by the way of living in remote antiquity,the unity in Japanese nationality and language,and the Japanese principle for behaving and living in harmony.


Organized systems such as micelles, reverse micelles, vesicles, polyelectrolyte capsules, liquid crystals, etc., formed through a self-assembling process represent nanoreactors that can be used for preparing nanostructured materials. Besides a fascinating academic subject, these nanoreactors provide a unique way to develop a special type of advanced material for a wide variety of applications in electronics, photonics, biomedical and other areas. The article examines the formation, functioning, properties and special attributes of these nanoreactors with a view towards their engineering analysis, design and possible integration in manufacturing technology.


This article deconstructs environmental uncertainty in technological research and development (R&D) projects. Deconstructing environmental uncertainty allows us to introduce a transient view on tra...


In the present invention, discloses a body fluid imaging system, the body fluid imaging methods and depth of field extension imaging apparatus. Depth of field extension imaging apparatus, and an interface unit for receiving the light refracted and / or reflected by a body fluid sample for the current fluid sample container, the wavefront coding and convergence process to the light received by the interface unit including a depth of field expansion unit for carrying. Using the system, method and apparatus of the present invention, to shorten the time required for image processing, therefore, it is possible to improve the productivity of the system, the body fluid sample container, depth of field extension imaging apparatus If, to avoid frequent errors caused by the adjustment of the relative position between the image sensor, therefore, it is possible to improve the reliability of the system.


Abstract Sites of preferential corrosion of floating-zone-refined iron (99· 996%) in 5N-NH4NO3 at 75° have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy, and susceptibility of the iron to stress-corrosion cracking has been examined in constant strain rate tests. Electron microscopical observations have shown that individual dislocations or dislocation walls do not undergo any preferential dissolution. Instead, the corrodent dissolves the iron crystals predominantly along the {111} and {lID} planes. In polycrystalline material, quenched rapidly from above the A3 point, both segregated and pure grain boundaries were attacked preferentially. The Iron was prone to stress-corrosion cracking under these conditions. Preferentialcorrosion of pure grain boundaries is attributed to their higher free energy and smaller activation energy for dissolution, as compared with those of grains.


Genetic algorithms (GA) are a new type of global optimization methodology based on nature selection and heredity, and its power comes from the evolution process of the population of feasi ble solutions by using simple genetic operators. The past two decades saw a lot of successful industrial cases of GA application, and also revealed the urgency of practical theoretic guidance. This paper sets focus on the evolution dynamics of GA based on schema theorem and building block hypothesis (Schema Theory), which we thought would form the basis of profound theory of GA. The deceptiveness of GA in solving multi-modal optimization problems encoded on {0,1} was probed in detail. First,a series of new concepts are defined mathematically as the schemata containment, schemata competence. Then, we defined the schema deceptiveness and GA deceptive problems based on primary schemata competence, including fully deceptive problem, consistently deceptive problem, chronically deceptive problem, and fundamentally deceptive problem. Meanwhile, some novel propositions are formed on the basis of primary schemata competence. Finally, we use the trap function, a kind of bit unitation function, and a NiH function (needle-in-a-haystack) newly designed by the authors, to display the affections of schema deceptiveness on the searching behavior of GA.


A pigeon sits on the ground. It tries to fly to its perch but succeeds only in crashing into a far wall. Another bird tries to peck a grain from the feed tray. It fails because, at the last second, its head jerks spasmodically and is twisted violently away and back around. It tries again, and fails again. Desperate, the bird tries to fly. Instead, it rolls into an uncontrollable series of fit-like spasms. Domestic pigeon breeders around the world have seen this happen in their lofts since the first report in Europe in 1982. Other symptoms include an early and extremely watery diarrhea. Many breeders have characterized it as a "flood" in the loft. Some birds show partial or complete paralysis. On posting, some specimens show lesions of the brain and other internal organs. Mortality rates are above 90 percent with those surviving often showing manifestations of the disease for the rest of their lives. One breeder I know lost over 300 birds in two weeks. The disease is paramyxouirus 1 (PMV-1). PMV-1 is related to the virus which causes atypical fowl pest (Newcastle disease) in chickens and related birds but PMV-1 is not a threat to anything but pigeons and doves. The virus has been shown to attack Columba and Streptopetia species. It may be capable of attacking other genera also. I have not heard of it attacking any of the native American doves but this may simply be because infected birds die without being noticed. Flocks of feral pigeons have been decimated. The virus is spread by direct contact from bird to bird or indirectly through dust infected with the virus. It may be spread from dust on a loft visitors' shoes or clothing. The incu: bation period is about three weeks. During this time, there are no symptoms but infected birds may spread the disease to others at shows, in the loft, or when sold. There is no cure! However, there is a preventative vaccine. Joe Quinn, then chairman of the American Pigeon Fanciers Council, was able to interest the Maine Biological Laboratory in producing a killed virus vaccine. He was then able to get the vaccine okayed for use in all states. This oil-based vaccine is injected under the skin of the neck. Effective protection is provided by two injections spaced a month apart with a yearly booster. The vaccine retails for about $15 per 50-dose vial and $ 20 per 100-dose vial. These doses are racing-homer-sized bird doses which is 0.5 cc/bird, much more than would be required for smaller doves. My friend, his two sons, 14 and 15, and I have. personally vaccinated over 2,000 racing pigeons and many ringneck doves (Streptopelia roseogrisea - Goodwin). We lost only three birds. These were in the first hundred we did and we were still nervous and learning the technique. All the dead birds were posted. We found two died due to our carelessness in inserting the needle. The other died of anaphylactic shock (a severe allergic reaction). Over the last five years, hundreds of thousands of show and domestic pigeons have been vaccinated across the United States and Canada. The number reported as lost due to vaccination is so low as to be practically zero. There are still some foolish breeders who believe the whole story is a scam thought up by a company to make money. None of these breeders have sat and watched his whole loft die within a week or so. I put a stray bird into my loft for less than a half hour while I readied its holding cage. I lost ten birds and a season's breeding. Thankfully, all my older stock was vaccinated. None of the vaccinated birds showed any symptoms. Remember, it's your choice. For your birds' sake, please don't make the wrong one. Emergency vaccination after infection can sometimes produce enough antibodies to protect a few of the latest infected birds. Early vaccination can eliminate the worry totally. Don't take a chance with a virus that could wipe out your years of breeding or your valuable stock. The first step is to quarantine anything you bring in for a minimum of three weeks. The second is to vaccinate. If your own suppliers don't yet have the vaccine available, it may be purchased along with needles and syringes from Foy's Pigeon Supplies, Box 27166, Golden Valley, MN 55427 or Strecker Supply Co., Box 330-P, Selbyville, DE 19975. Directions for Use for Avian Paramyxovirus Vaccine - Type 1 Killed Virus Introduction Avian Paramyxovirus-Type 1 ( called PMV-1) was first diagnosed in the United States in early 1984. By 1985, it was widespread throughout the Northeast and had been diagnosed in many other areas. The pathogenicity of the disease varies greatly but in many cases heavy losses have been reported. Shows and races bring together large numbers of pigeons from different locations which provides an ideal opportunity for the virus to be spread from bird to bird. The infected birds are then returned to their lofts to infect their penmates. There is no cure. Prevention through vaccination is the only way to control this disease. Signs and Symptoms The most outstanding symptoms of PMV-1 are incoordination, twisted necks and paralyzed limbs. Less specific symptoms include decreased feed intake, increased water consumption, loss of weight and watery droppings. In the most advanced stages, the birds may be found laying on their sides with complete paralysis. The Vaccine Avian Paramyxovirus Vaccine-Type 1, Killed Virus is a sterile product and contains no live organisms which can infect your pigeons or cause disease. Paramyxovirus immunity develops through the slow release of dead virus from the oil emulsion vaccine. Care of Vaccine This vaccine should be stored in the refrigerator but not frozen. It should not be injected when cold. Remove the vaccine from the refrigerator and allow it to warm to room ternperature (70 °F to 80 °F) before use. This will make the vaccine easier to inject and will greatly reduce the shock of injection. Shake well before using.


The critical length aIc of a mode I crack that corresponds to a vanishing of the influence of the notch stress concentration can be approximately expressed by a formula reported by Lefort. This study aimed to generalize his approach to shear mode cracks by finding a criterion for a statistical compatibility of formulae for critical lengths of cracks. It revealed that the Lefort ́s formula describes the critical crack length aIc at which the relative level of the notch effect on the mode I SIF is less than 1%. Based on this criterion, a mathematically similar formula for the critical length aIIIc was found. A part of this study was also a development of a transformation procedure suitable for fitting the obtained SIF data by simple analytical formulae and for clear related illustrative plots of results.


George Orwell's Burmese Days describes the identity plight of the British in a small Burmese town during the waning days of British colonial rule in Burma. From the perspective of performance studies, we could see in the novel the British's collective performance and Flory's individual performance respectively. The protagonist Flory, a white British who admires the Burmese culture, adopts a kind of liminal existence to deal with his identity problem.His crossing the social norm is repelled by the British and misunderstood by the Burmese, which finally results in his failure of performance and tragedy.


Since 1995, landings of Atlantic Thread Herring (Opisthonema oglinum) on the Florida Panhandle averaged 124 mt each spring (April–June) but declined to nearly zero in 1996–97 and 2006. To elucidate causes of recurring periods of low landings, we used generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) to examine the relationship between Atlantic Thread Herring catch in a trawl survey on the west-central coast of Florida and four environmental variables. Chlorophyll-a was significant in the models, indicating a direct relationship between local abundance of baitfish and their planktonic food. Temperature and depth were also significant whereas salinity was not. During 2003 and 2012, synoptic satellite-derived temperature and chlorophyll-a maps were used with the GAMMs to predict monthly spatial availability on the Florida Panhandle fishing grounds (long. 85–88o W and depth 12–25 m). The predicted monthly availability was significantly correlated with commercial catch rates (Pearson's r = 0.26, P = 0.004, d.f. = 118). We used multiple linear regression (MLR) with lags to describe the effect of river discharge and wind (as a transport mechanism) on surface chlorophyll-a over the Panhandle fishing grounds. Discharge from local rivers was significant in all MLRs, and the Mississippi was only significant as an interaction with wind. We conclude that Atlantic Thread Herring are distributed over the Panhandle fishing grounds based on food availability that is driven by river discharge and eastward transport of Mississippi River plumes. This analysis improves our understating of baitfish dynamics, an important ecosystem component in the Gulf of Mexico.


Background: The purpose of this study was to stratify patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) according to the trend of disease activity by trajectory-based clustering and to identify the predictive factors for treatment response and the switching patterns of biologics according to trajectory groups. Methods: We analysed the data from a nationwide RA cohort from the Korean College of Rheumatology Biologics and Targeted Therapy (KOBIO) registry. Patients treated with second-line disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) were included. Trajectory modeling for clustering was used to group the disease activity trend. The predictive factors and switching patterns of biologics for each trajectory were investigated.Results: The trends in the disease activity of 688 RA patients were clustered into 4 groups: rapid decrease and stable disease activity (group 1, N = 319), rapid decrease followed by an increase (group 2, N = 36), slow and continued decrease (group 3, N = 290), and no decrease in disease activity (group 4, N = 43). In the multivariable analysis for predictive factors, current smoking (OR, 7.845; 95% CI 2.158–28.220), low hemoglobin (OR 0.694; 95% CI, 0.532–0.901), and high initial disease activity score according to the 28-joint assessment (DAS28) (OR, 2.397; 95% CI, 1.638–3.586) were significantly associated with group 4 compared with group 1. Group 1 had a higher proportion of patients who had never had switching (86.5%) and who were initially treated with non-TNF inhibitors (44.2%) compared with groups 2 (52.8% and 25%), 3 (50.3% and 23.4%), and 4 (25.6% and 18.6%).Conclusions: The trajectory-based approach was useful for clustering the disease activity in longitudinal data in patients with RA. Among the four trajectories, the group with sustained high disease activity was associated with current smoking, low hemoglobin, high initial DAS28, and frequent switching of biologics.


This paper proposes the method to find the optimal number of turns in IPT for a maximum power efficiency by using deep Q-learning network (DQN) based on reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm. Since it is barely possible to get an optimal number of turns for a transmitter (Tx) and a receiver (Rx), satisfying to operate at a maximum power efficiency, the most of Tx & Rx turns are normally wound until the coils are occupied over the cores. Moreover, it requires extremely long time to iteratively proceed to simulate all existing combinations of the Tx & Rx coil windings to derive the maximum power efficiency. To minimize the time to compute the number of coil-turns to get the maximum power efficiency, the proposed DQN algorithm can select the optimal coil turns having high Q-value through ε-greedy turn selection process. After a few episodes of the neural network system, the expected power efficiency by the proposed RL can reach to the maximum power efficiency by less than 20% of all possible combinations. The proposed RL algorithm has been evaluated by FEM simulation analysis, showing that the optimal number of turns for various WPT cases having different loads can be easily found.


In this study, have the effect of oral administration of aqueous extract of the bark of Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb (PM) for a period of 12 weeks on diabetes associated metabolic alterations in normal and streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats has been studied. The parameters checked are plasma insulin, glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), a-glutamyl transferase (a GT) and creatine kinase (CK). After administration of PM extracts the levels of glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL –cholesterol were normalized in diabetic rats. It also reversed the elevated levels of AST, ALT, ALP, a- GT and CK to near normal levels. The levels of plasma insulin, glycosylated hemoglobin, and liver glycogen were also restored after PM treatment. The results of this study, indicates that PM possesses desirable effect on diabetes associated metabolic alterations in experimentally induced diabetes mellitus.


and the regime could not afford them. It could barely buy food for the children, let alone provide creative toys or well-paid teachers. As the cities became depopulated during the civil war, less money was available for kindergartens. Kirschenbaum's study of early childhood education parallels changes in the broader society. Both had to modify their Utopian visions and settle for less. In terms of early childhood education, this resulted in less freedom in the classroom and more direction by teachers. Slowly, play became less "free" as work and play were conflated. Likewise, cooperation among children gave way to discipline and order imposed by teachers. By the mid-1920s, Bolshevik educational theorists praised not "free upbringing" but teacher-imposed discipline producing a "calm atmosphere in which groups did not bother one another—and in this way real freedom was achieved" (111). By the beginning of the first Five-Year Plan, Soviet educational institutions, like society at large, were emphasizing work not play. Yet, the emphasis on work did not make kindergarten less joyful. Teachers were able to impress discipline and order and the need to work collectively upon the children. A similar phenomenon occurred in wider Soviet society: in the 1930s the workplace tried to impose discipline on and create joy among workers. With the exception of young Komsomol members, however, factory workers seldom experienced as much joy as the kindergarten children. In a book so carefully written, one finds few weaknesses. One criticism arises from the choice of writers describing "happy childhoods" in the postscript. The authors selected are well known, but not necessarily representative of those involved in the educational processes. Could not a few interviews with more ordinary Soviet people have been included? Still one need not quibble at what the author did not do when she so admirably wove the tale of Bolshevik education and theory into the wider history of the period. One of the strengths of this book is its parallel analysis of children's liberation with women's liberation and how both are slowly curbed, subordinated, and abandoned by the state during the Five-Year Plans. This analysis makes the book interesting for women's history and women's studies classes. Another strength is the weaving of Bolshevik educational theory into the broader picture of Soviet society following the revolution of 1917. The book is certainly recommended for its insightful overview of Soviet social life and policies in the 1920s and early 1930s.


The granularity of given temporal information is the level of abstraction at which information is expressed. Different units of measure allow one to represent different granularities. Indeterminacy...


An attempt has been made to boost the proton beam quality using the multiple counter-propagating laser pulses target interaction with the help of particle-in-cell simulation. Here, we show that a pair of low-intensity reversely incident laser pulses can significantly improve the proton beam quality, i.e., leading to generating a highly peaked monoenergetic proton beam with reduced energy spread. The reverse laser pulses not only help to guide the main laser but also provide initial momentum to the target electrons and thus protons, which is very crucial for efficient acceleration. As a result, a high-quality (sharp narrow peak) monoenergetic proton beam, with energy spectra peaked around GeV, can be obtained for the pulse energies at the level of 50 J. Furthermore, the effects of the time delay for the main laser pulse and the distances between the incident points of the reverse laser pulses are also investigated.


Shaykh Naʿim al-ʿArqsusi is one of Damascus's most popular Muslim scholars. A leading figure of a local Islamic movement called Jamaʿat Zayd (Zayd's Group), he is widely praised for his knowledge, modesty, and asceticism. Every week, this frail, short-bearded fifty-six-year-old attracts several thousand people to the huge concrete al-Iman mosque next to Baʿth party headquarters in the middle-class neighborhood of al-Mezraʿa.


Crop domestication has resulted in nutrient losses, so evaluating the reshaping of phytonutrients is crucial for improving nutrition. Soybean is an ideal model due to its abundant phytonutrients and wild relatives. In order to unravel the domestication consequence of phytonutrients, comparative and association analyses of metabolomes and antioxidant activities were performed on seeds of six wild (Glycine soja (Sieb. and Zucc.)) and six cultivated soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). Through ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), we observed a greater metabolic diversity in wild soybeans, which also displayed higher antioxidant activities. (−)-Epicatechin, a potent antioxidant, displayed a 1750-fold greater abundance in wild soybeans than in cultivated soybeans. Multiple polyphenols in the catechin biosynthesis pathway were significantly higher in wild soybeans, including phlorizin, taxifolin, quercetin 3-O-galactoside, cyanidin 3-O-glucoside, (+)-catechin, (−)-epiafzelechin, catechin–glucoside, and three proanthocyanidins. They showed significant positive correlations with each other and antioxidant activities, indicating their cooperative contribution to the high antioxidant activities of wild soybeans. Additionally, natural acylation related to functional properties was characterized in a diverse range of polyphenols. Our study reveals the comprehensive reprogramming of polyphenolic antioxidants during domestication, providing valuable insights for metabolism-assisted fortification of crop nutrition.


The suggestion that illiterate mothers could readily learn to interpret growth charts of their infants and should be allowed to keep such charts ;in the home was initially greeted with scepticism and opposition by health professionals. However, actual experience in many different countries indicates that most mothers can readily distinguish the significance of a gain or loss in weight of their children from one weighing to the next. The following article from Papua New Guinea suggests that this generalization may be too optimistic. Since it is unlikely that Papua New Guinea mothers are less competent than those of other developing countries, the teaching method employed may have been the problem. Alternatively, this study may be more thorough. It is hoped that publication of this article will stimulate letters or other articles that will provide additional information on both the successes and limitations of using growth charts kept in the household as a guide and stimulus to the adequate feeding of the young child. Poverty is the principal cause of malnutrition in the Third World (1). Populations such as slum dwellers with limited economic self-sufficiency and poor housing are those most likely to be malnourished, and within these disadvantaged populations children of less than three years are most likely to suffer sickness, developmental retardation, or death (1, 21. Nevertheless, organizations such as UNICEF consider that some cheap and simple technologies together with educational efforts can reduce child malnourishment and associated problems. The educational strategy favoured by UNICEF is to teach mothers to understand weight or height growth charts with the goal that such understanding will promote the mothers' involvement in the nourishment and health of their children. Surprisingly little effort has been made to study how mothers in Third World countries perceive such charts. Similarly, there is little evidence of evaluation of efforts to teach understanding and use of the charts to mothers (David Morley, personal communication, 21 April 1983). A survey of mothers attending maternal and child health clinics in a Papua New Guinea city found that, while 81.5 per cent of mothers could correctly identify their own child's weight graph as either "good" or "not good," only 34.5 per cent were able to label correctly four out of four varied "test" weight graphs (3). This suggests that mothers' accuracy in identifying trends in their child's development was not the result of knowledge of how to identify trends shown in the child's weight graph. The graph then was presumably not functioning to motivate mothers to participate in the nourishment of their children. The mothers' understanding of the test weight graphs was not related to the nutritional status of their children. Malnourished children were more likely to have unemployed fathers, with the family living in selfbuilt homes. Nutritional status of children also tended to decline after 12 months of age. There was a relationship between the understanding of weight graphs and their children's nutritional welfare for mothers with children over the age of 12 months; mothers with children over this age were more likely to have well-nourished children if they correctly identified all of the four test weight graphs. This led to the conclusion that mothers of children at risk of poor nutrition were able to put their knowledge of nutritional deveIopment measured as accuracy in identifying weight charts to work in improving their children's nutrition. In the present study, the mothers and their children were followed up four months later, after some had received instruction in how to identify different examples of weight charts. The effects of this nutrition education we're assessed in terms of changes in mothers' accuracy in identifying test charts, and in terms of their children's nutritional development.