2021 Background: Unlike conventional therapies for GBM, immunologic targeting of tumor-specific gene mutations allows precise eradication of neoplastic cells with reduced toxicity. EGFRvIII is a constitutively activated and immunogenic mutation not expressed in normal tissues, but widely expressed in GBM and other neoplasms. The cancer vaccine CDX-110 is comprised of an EGFRvIII-specific peptide sequence linked to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH).

METHODS
A phase II multi-center trial assessed the immunogenicity and efficacy of CDX-110 in patients with newly-diagnosed, EGFRvIII+ GBM. After resection and radiation / TMZ, patients received CDX-110 vaccinations biweekly x 3, then monthly until tumor progression. Sequential cohorts received CDX-110 alone [ACTIVATE (n = 18)] or in combination with TMZ (200 mg/m2 x 5/28 days [ACT II A (n = 13)]) or (100 mg/m2 x 21/28 days [ACT II B (n=10)]).

RESULTS
Reversible systemic drug hypersensitivity reactions were seen in 1 ACTIVATE and 4 ACT II patients. Two patients had non-specific changes on MRI which were possibly due to the vaccine but which resolved. Despite grade 2 or 3 lymphopenia in all ACT II patients, EGFRvIII-specific immune responses were generated in all patients, and all immune responses were sustained or enhanced during subsequent TMZ cycles. Although ACT II B patients had more severe TMZ-induced lymphopenia, they developed greater EGFRvIII-specific immune responses (p = 0.028) when compared to ACT II A. EGFRvIII-specific IgG1 also increased in avidity with vaccination (Ka>>2x109M-1) in a randomly selected subset of 4 patients (p = 0.000068). Of the 23 recurrent tumors studied, 18 lost EGFRvIII expression (p = 0.001). There are no significant differences between ACT II A and B in estimated median TTP (18.5 vs. 14.9 months, p = 0.31) and OS (23.6 vs. 19.9 months, p = 0.75). ACTIVATE TTP (14.2 months) and OS (26.0 months) and ACT II TTP (15.2 months) and OS (23.6 months) compare favorably to a TMZ-treated, matched historical control group (TTP: 6.3 months; OS: 15.0 months).

CONCLUSIONS
CDX-110 vaccination in patients with GBM appears very promising. TMZ enhances immune responses despite lymphodepletion. CDX-110 with simultaneous TMZ is under further investigation in a larger phase II trial. [Table: see text].


In June of 2002, the US Supreme Court upheld a regulation that allows employers, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, to make disability-related employment decisions based on risks to an employee's own personal health or safety. Previous judicial decisions had allowed employers to make employment decisions based on the threat that a worker's medical condition posed to others but had not addressed the issue of risk posed to an employee's health by his or her own disability. The authors comment on the potential effects of the court's decision for occupational health practitioners charged with assessing the degree of risk and harm of a particular workplace environment and for public health efforts aimed at curbing workplace injury and sickness.


This study compares the parameters and the performances of conventional microstrip antenna and the antenna with cells of CSRR designed by using CST Microwave Studio software. Both of them are constructed with the same specifications and operated at frequency of 3.5 GHz. Based on the simulation results obtained, the microstrip antenna with cell of CSRR metamaterial provide better parameters and performances than the conventional microstrip antenna in terms of return loss, VSWR, gain, bandwidth, impedance reference, directivity, and radiation pattern. It indicates that the presence of cells of CSRR metamaterial on antenna could improve performances and miniaturize antenna dimensions with size of 49.44% smaller than conventional microstrip antenna. It is expected to be able to apply to the WiMAX. The designed antenna has met standards or matching for being fabricated.


Spiders` silk is a natural material with great mechanical properties. Therefore, scientists are trying to find its secrets. Latest discovery has shown that spiders` silk is a protein, and its good mechanical properties lay in its tertiary structure: beta-sheet nanocrystals. The bonds in the structure are hydrogen, which are among the weakest bonds, however here in crystals hydrogen bonds brakes one by one and silk fails gracefully. So the scientists have studied this silk failure and with series of computer simulations found out that the strength of spider silk depends on size of crystals. They found the critical size of around 3 nm. When the crystals are allowed to grow beyond 5nm, the silk becomes weak and loses all the best mechanical properties which made it interesting.


The essay compares Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and Clifton Roman Catholic Cathedral in Bristol to show how uncertainty within the Church opened up a conceptual space that modern architects could fill in various ways. Modern architecture offered aesthetic certainties - in the case of Gibberd at Liverpool, a diagrammatic plan, produced as a result of the competition process, but undermined in execution by an indecisive client committee; at Clifton, a liturgically-ordered plan based on functional study, with a modest exterior that responded to anxieties about the desirability of church building. At a time of continual change in the Church, modern architects provided answers to the problem of what the Church should look like in the modern world. This essay draws on detailed archival evidence from the two cathedrals to explore their processes of design through negotiations between architects and clients.


The daily ration of vendace larvae (mean TL 10·1–12·8 mm) was assessed after a time-intensive field survey in Lake Lentua. Ten larvae were sampled every 2 h throughout the 10-day sampling period and their alimentary tract contents analysed. The gut was cut into four quarters of equal length and each quarter was analysed separately. This procedure enabled the assessment of the proportions of different zooplankton taxa in the diet based on the least degraded first-quarter contents and to reconstruct the entire gut contents. Secondly, the gut passage time of ingested zooplankton was evaluated by comparing the degradation rate of zooplankton in the guts of experimentally fasted larvae to the degradation of zooplankton in the gradient from pharynx to anus among the larvae sampled from the lake. Finally, food consumption was calculated as zooplankton individuals and carbon biomass based on the two variables, gut passage time of constantly feeding larvae and reconstructed gut contents. The daily ration of vendace larvae varied between 14 and 450 zooplankters in the monitored period.


This study examined the effects of the location and direction of the scolioti curve on postural balance in patients with idiopathic scoliosis. Fifteen subjects were divided into three groups: right thoracic curve group, left lumbar curve group, and double curve group. The dynamic trunk motion (angle variation in the lumbar, thoracolumbar, lower thoracic and upper thoracic region) and plantar pressure distribution (maximum force and peak pressure) were assessed using an ultrasound-based motion analysis system and Emed-at platform system. From the results, it was confirmed that patients with idiopathic scoliosis showed postural imbalance with an increased angle and pressure asymmetry according to the location and direction of the scoliotic curve for dynamic trunk motion and plantar pressure distribution. In addition, there were differences in the postural balance pattern between the single curve and double curve groups. Further studies for developing a rehabilitation training device will be conducted to improve the postural control ability and trunk balance as well as treat scoliosis based on the results of this study.


For problem that current harmonic detection and analysis devices are too expensive,a simple on-line harmonic detection and analysis system was designed.The system uses digital signal processor TMS320F2812 to build circuit of harmonic detection device,which could collect and transmit harmonic data fast,and adopts LabVIEW virtual instrument to develop upper computer system,which could display detected harmonic real-timely and do harmonic FFT analysis.The system has simple structure and convenient operation.The experimental result showed validity of the system.


Gross hematuria, a flank mass, and a nonfunctioning kidney were seen at excretory urography in a 10-month-old infant with staphylococcal pneumonia and septicemia. Selective renal arteriography revealed a mycotic (false) intrarenal artery aneurysm with an intrarenal and perinephric hematoma.


Presently, protein aggregation is of intense medical interest since the deposition of protein aggregates in vivo is related to the pathogenesis of many diseases. Interestingly, chemical chaperones accumulated by organisms during stress have been shown to assist in proper protein folding thereby preventing aggregation. However, most of these studies have been performed under dilute conditions as compared to the crowded intracellular environment where proteins perform their function. Indeed, the cell interior is known to be crowded due to the presence of soluble and insoluble macromolecules, which occupy ~40% of the total cellular volume. The degree of volume occupancy by these macromolecules is expected to have significant effect on protein aggregation. It is, thus, important to understand the protective role of chemical chaperones against protein aggregation under conditions mimicking crowded intracellular environment to have a real insight of the in vivo scenario. In this spirit, we have investigated the aggregation behavior of carbonic anhydrase in the presence of betaine, a chemical chaperone under crowded conditions using various spectroscopic techniques and electron microscopy. The results suggest a dramatic increase in the efficiency of betaine in preventing protein aggregation under crowded conditions which is speculated to result from the additive effect of preferential hydration by betaine and excluded volume effect encountered under crowded conditions. It is concluded that chemical chaperones are much more efficient than expected in maintaining protein homeostasis under crowded in vivo conditions.


Increasing vessel size and complexity creates high uncertainty in flooding situations, and it is challenging for the crew to obtain a complete overview and make fully informed decisions. Time is of the essence, and to optimise decision making and ensure decisions are made on time, we propose adopting the concept of Dynamic Barrier Management through increased use of sensors and analytics. Focus will be placed on emergency responses as their impact on safety has not been quantified in terms of risk reduction to the same extent as for passive design barriers. Based on the idea of increased use of advanced analytics and sensors, particularly flooding sensors, this paper aims to present current research ideas and planned development of a method in which active mitigation measures such as emergency response actions can be quantified in terms of effective risk reduction based on real-time measurements and simulations during an accident, i.e. intelligent quantification of emergency response measures.


Towards a wider application of Shape memory alloy (SMA) driven actuators, by following the principle of easy assembly and applicable design, a novel design of tendon-driven actuators for robotic and wearable devices is presented. The actuator is driven by a group of SMA wires which is enhanced by wrapping layers of Teflon and copper for better insulation and heat dissipation while retaining the characteristic of easy manufacturing. As a demonstration, a multiple SMA wire-driven tendon robotic finger, which utilizes the actuator on agonist-antagonist muscle pairs without any bias strings, is presented. The demonstrating device is built by a combined group of LEGO Technic bricks and custom 3D-printed blocks. A real-time control and sensor circuit system is designed based on IIC bus sensors, including a 6-DoF inertial meter and an ADC for a rotational encoder, for evaluating the demonstrating device. The result of the experiment shows that our design exhibits a superior performance, on both fast-actuating speed and relaxing speed, when compared to conventional SMA wire-based robot fingers.


security of image is the serious issue now-a- days because of ever increases in multimedia development and brute force attacks. In this paper we are introducing a best hybrid model for image encryption composed of genetic algorithm and chaotic function. In the first stage of proposed method number of encrypted images is constructed using secret key and chaotic function. In the next stage, these encrypted images are used as initial population for genetic algorithm. In this proposed method genetic algorithm is used to obtain optimum result and in the last stage best cipher image is selected based on calculation of correlation coefficient and entropy. The image having lowest correlation coefficient and highest entropy is selected as best cipher image. In this paper first time we are using genetic algorithm for encryption of images. Entropy and correlation coefficient obtained by using this method are 7.9978 and -0.0009 respectively.


Biddle's study is an attempt to demonstrate empirically an association between LIFO adoption decisions and properties of year-end inventory levels. My comments on the study are divided into five main topics. In the first part, I examine the hypotheses generated. The second part consists of a discussion of the model used to generate these hypotheses. In the third part, I examine the experimental design, and in the fourth, I discuss the test results. I conclude by giving some suggestions for further tests of the hypotheses.


The persuasive effectiveness of metaphor may be accounted for, in part, by the evaluative responses which the receiver has to the verbal stimulus used metaphorically, and by the referents for the verbal stimulus. Through mediational processes, the listener resolves incongruent evaluations and arrives at the new meaning response for the metaphor. This explanation is derived from an integration of the Osborn‐Ehninger model of metaphor with Osgood's verbal mediation model. Evidence from the psychology of language supports the assumptions concerning reinforcement inherent in this model.


The mechanical, thermal and optical properties of a transparent thermoplastic resin which is based on non-crystalline nylon with cross-linking agents were improved by electron beam (EB) irradiation cross-linking. When the EB irradiation power was increased, the yield stress improved by 34% and the glass transformation temperature increased from 116 to 165°C. Transformation from the brittle to the ductile state was observed by the dependence of a strange elastic module on the temperature and EB irradiation power. Above the glass transformation temperature, an optical element produced using this resin could maintain its shape. The birefringence decreased when the EB irradiation power was increased. The decrease of the birefringence was dependent on the initial birefringence value before EB cross-linking. The molecular orientation was relaxed by EB cross-linking. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers


This paper addresses the development of a two-dimensional (2D) computer serious game prototype named SightHeart as an alternative informal tool for training students' analytical skills and values internalization. The prototype was developed using an extension of the ADDIE model called DGBL-ID and was evaluated based on users' motivation, engagement, acceptance and behaviour intention towards the serious game. The study aims to highlight on developmental issues related to serious games such as lack of entertainment value due to heavily-focused on the learning content. Simultaneously, the game also intends to address learning issues among undergraduate students reported by literature, particularly the lack of critical thinking skills and having poor character that may affect their employability. The concept of gamification, motivation, psychological and other related learning theories were used as a combined approach to overcome these issues to boost their motivation and engagement towards SightHeart. Results suggested that SightHeart is successful in terms of positive influence over users' attitudes and their perceived learning opportunities, which contributed to students' better acceptance towards serious games.


The 10 deg 1 bands of the isotopic forms /sup 12/C/sup 32/S/sup 34/S were analyzed. The band centers are at 2172.771 and 2122.184 cm/sup -1/ respectively. The ground level constants are B/sub 0/ = 0.105919 and D/sub 0/= 0.98 x 10/sup -8/ cm/sup -1/ for /sup 12/C/sup 32/S/sup 34/S and D/sub 0.96 x 10/ sup -8/ cm/sup -1/ for /sup 13C/sup 32/S/sup 34/S. It is the first ban d of /sup 13C/sup 32/S/sup 34/S and the second band of /sup 12/C/sup 32/S/sup 34/S obtained in high-resolution infrared spectroscopy. (tr-auth)


235 Jennifer M. Suh, email@example.com, is an assistant professor of mathematics education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Her research interests include lesson study and the development of preservice mathematics teachers. Christopher J. Johnston, cjohnst2@ gmu.edu, is a doctoral student at George Mason University interested in preservice and beginning mathematics teachers' use of technology. Joshua Douds, firstname.lastname@example.com, is a fourth-grade teacher at Westlawn Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia. His research interests include center-based mathematics and the effects of cooperative learning in mathematics. By Jennifer M. Suh, Christopher J. Johnston, and Joshua Douds mathematics lessons that address the needs of their diverse students, in particular, English Language Learners (ELLs) and students with special needs. Through classroom examples, we discuss how a technology-rich learning environment influences a classroom's critical features. Moreover, we define In Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 2000), the Technology Principle asserts: "Technology is essential in teaching and learning mathematics; it influences the mathematics that is taught and enhances students' learning" (p. 24). More specifically, a technology-rich environment for mathematical learning influences five critical features of the classroom (Hiebert et al. 1997): the nature of classroom tasks, the mathematical tool as learning support, the role of the teacher, the social culture of the classroom, and equity and accessibility. An essential question when working in a technology-rich mathematics environment is how technology can be used (appropriately) to enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics. This article describes teachers working collaboratively in a technology-rich environment to plan Enhancing Mathematical Learning in a Technology-Rich Environment


In the title compound, C14H18N2O6·C2H6OS, the –C(O)NHCH2CO2H and –O(CH2)2CH(CH3)2 substitutents of the aromatic ring are positioned such that the –NH– group is hydrogen-bond donor to the ether O atom of the other substituent. The dimethyl sulfoxide solvent molecule is linked to the carboxylic acid group by an O—H⋯O hydrogen bond.


Chinese rural financial management is the foundation which can promote and strengthen the development of the rural collective economy. It is also related to the reformation of the rural economy directly. Hunan Province, which is the central region of China, should enhance the rural financial management because it plays a critical role in keeping the economy developing steadily and apace at the same time and to build a new socialist countryside. According to the case about current rural financial management in Hunan Province, this paper finds out some problems existing it, then comes up with several relevant solutions for improving.


The work deals with the study on the influence of the inhibitor based on phosphonates (S-fp) on corrosion protection of metal materials in cooling water. The specimens, in a form of corrosive coupons, have been placed in an open circulating system of the cooling water for one month. The protective effect of S-fp inhibitor is based on production of insoluble salts with Ca2+, Zn2+ ions present in the cooling water and on forming a protection layer on the surface of exposed metal coupons. The corrosion rate in cooling water with and without inhibitor was determined by measuring of weight change of exposed coupons. The analysis of samples surface was carried out, too. After one month exposure, the coupons were removed from the corrosion slings of the cooling system. The highest inhibitor efficiency was observed on coupons from brass. The addition of inhibitor to cooling water increases corrosion resistance of metal materials by formation a high quality protective layer on their surface.


The main objective of this study has been to explore how art therapists experience the visual art´s that can be used in the promotion of health among people with depression - and anxiety disorders. ...


Drones are gaining popularity in various fields, including delivering products, disaster management, entertainment, airport security, and more. As a result, the odds of a drone being utilized for malevolent purposes are increasing, prompting an unsettling concern about physical infrastructure security, safety, and monitoring at airports. There have been numerous allegations in recent years of unauthorized usage of various types of drones at airports, causing airline operations to be disrupted. To solve this issue, this study proposed two deep learning-based approaches named YOLOv4 and Faster RCNN. The offered methodologies were compared to find the optimal model. Drones are also frequently mistaken for birds due to their morphological and behavioral similarities. Not only can the proposed algorithms identify the presence of drones in a provided image, but they can also detect the presence of birds and point to their positions. The proposed YOLOv4 model obtained better results compared to Faster RCNN, with mAP values of 75% and 72%, respectively.


A nascent surface has high activity to catalyze the decomposition of lubricants under boundary lubrication conditions. The effects of sulfur-containing, nitrogen-containing, phosphorus-containing additives and phosphate-containing ionic liquid were investigated on the decomposition of synthetic hydrocarbon oil (multialkylated cyclopentane, MAC). The decomposition processes of the lubricants on the nascent surface of bearing steel AISI 52100 were investigated using a ball-on-disk friction tester in a vacuum chamber with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Three parameters related to the decomposition process were observed: the induction period for the decomposition, the desorption rate of gaseous products, and the critical load for the activation of the decomposition. The order of efficiency of additives in extending the induction period was: sulfur-containing additive (S)<nitrogen-containing additive (N)<phosphorus-containing additive (P)<phosphate-containing ionic liquid (P-IL). The order of efficiency in increasing the critical load was: N<S<P<P-IL, and the order of efficiency in decreasing the decomposition rate was: N<S<P<P-IL. These results suggest that additives which can form iron salts (such as iron phosphate and iron sulfide) will deactivate the nascent surface, decreasing the decomposition rate and increasing the critical load.


Current models used to study Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) infections do not account for complex organ microenvironments or species-specific signaling pathways. To address this, we created a vascularized 3D lung-on-a-chip (LoC) that better recapitulates the physiologic lung, including cellular components, immune cell recruitment, blood flow, and oxygen tension. Hypoxia inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) is a transcription factor known to activate inflammatory pathways during infectious diseases, but its role in acute SP infection remains unclear. LoC was used to validate HIF-1α upregulation and characterize its role in immune cell recruitment. Whole human blood with fluorescently-labeled immune cells were perfused in LoC +/− BAY 87-2243 (HIF-1α chemical inhibitor). HIF1α-dependent inflammatory mediators involved in SP infection were identified by scRNA-seq and confirmed at the protein level by Western blot and ELISA. Preliminary studies of LoC stimulated with SP demonstrated HIF-1α early target gene activation. LoC showed increased CD15 +-neutrophil recruitment from perfused whole blood in microvessels to tissue and airway during SP infection, partially mediated by HIF-1α. IL-17C was identified as the top differentially expressed gene activated by SP and 2D protein analysis showed increased IL-17C levels during HIF-1α knockdown, suggesting that HIF-1α is a negative regulator of IL-17C transcription. These preliminary findings suggest that HIF-1α mediates immune cell recruitment during acute SP infection and support the use of LoC as a pre-clinical human model that can identify key mediators during pneumonia.


Following the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit, Canada expanded its existing capability for nuclear forensics by establishing a national nuclear forensics laboratory network, which would include a capability to perform forensic analysis on nuclear and other radioactive material, as well as on traditional evidence contaminated with radioactive material. At the same time, the need for a national nuclear forensics library of signatures of nuclear and radioactive materials under Canadian regulatory control was recognized. The Canadian Safety and Security Program, administered by Defence Research and Development Canada's Centre for Security Science (DRDC CSS), funds science and technology initiatives to enhance Canada's preparedness for prevention of and response to potential threats. DRDC CSS, with assistance from Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, formerly Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, is leading the Canadian National Nuclear Forensics Capability Project to develop a coordinated, comprehensive, and timely nationa...


The Alphabet Strategy is a mnemonic-based approach to assist commitment to important aspects of diabetes care: Advice; Blood pressure lowering; Cholesterol and creatinine control; Diabetes control; Eye examination; Foot examination; and use of Guardian drugs. This strategy reported high standards of care of patients with type 2 diabetes. This study assesses the impact of the Alphabet Strategy on diabetes management in young adults with type 1 diabetes and compared data with those of a recently published multicentre study. Results were analysed using the chi-square test and Student's t-test. Data were collected retrospectively from 68 patients with type 1 diabetes aged 16‐25 years attending the George Eliot Hospital (GEH) adolescent diabetes clinic and who were being managed as per The Alphabet Strategy. Standards of diabetes care in the GEH clinic were better than those reported in the multicentre study. GEH versus multicentre study: clinic non-attendance 12% vs. 24.6%: mean HbA1C% 8.4 vs. 9.5, p<0.001: screening rates; hypertension 100% vs. 88%, p<0.05; nephropathy 80% vs. 56%, p<0.01; retinopathy 98% in GEH clinic: prevalence of complications; nephropathy 5% vs. 21%, p<0.02; retinopathy 24% vs. 28%, not significant. In conclusion, we found regular clinic visits and separate adolescent clinics improve glycaemic control. The Alphabet Strategy may be considered an effective approach in monitoring/screening and attaining targets in young adults with type 1 diabetes. Br J Diabetes Vasc Dis 2006;6:168‐70


The original algorithm steps of template method,which do not need to be extended,will be copied to a sub-class when a new algorithm step of template method is added to the sub-class.Aiming at the problem,a template method creating process was presented,which used the strategy pattern to reduce the unnecessary copies.Finally how to design an attendance algorithm with the improved pattern was discussed.


Background: The amount of energy delivered from the ventilator applied to the lungs within a given timeframe, is defined as mechanical power (MP). Recently, low MP is one of the new concepts in lung-protective ventilation strategies that may associate with survival benefit. However, measuring MP requires additional calculations not being carried-out in usual clinical care and the reports about MP were mostly a cross-sectional data. The real-time changes or dynamic data of MP was scarcely reported. Our objective is to investgate the association between the dynamic changes of MP and clinical outcomes in critically ill patients.

Methods: This will be a prospective, observational study performed in a single center. Adult patients admitted to medical intermediate and intensive care units who requiring invasive mechanical ventilation will be consecutively enrolled. The patients' ventilators will be connected to the specific investigator's computer system for continuously real-time data recording for at least 24 hours. The primary outcome is in-hospital mortality.

Hypothesis: We hypothesize that excessive mechanical power during mechanical ventilation contributes to ventilator-induced lung injury, thus real-time continuously mechanical power monitoring may reduce adverse events associated with mechanical ventilation.

Ethic: The study protocol has been approved by the Institution Review Board of Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand (No. MURA2021/680).

Trial registration: TCTR20220202010


Platelet membrane glycoprotein (GP) IIb and IIIa form a Ca2+-dependent, heterodimer complex (GPIIb-IIa complex). Monoclonal antibodies that are specific for the platelet membrane glycoprotein IIb-IIIa complex bind to resting platelets, but will not bind to platelets that have been exposed to EDTA at 37°C. We developed new monoclonal antibodies (NNKY1-32, 2-6, 2-18) that react with a determinant specific to the GPIIb-IIIa complex, and we studied the distribution of GPIIb/IIIa on platelet surface in the living body and some factors that have influence on the structual of GPIIb/IIIa using flow cytometry. The results obtained from this study indicated following facts. 1. The surface of large platelets is richer in GPIIb/IIIa than that of small platelets. 2. The incubation of intact platelets with EDTA at 37°C causes the progressive dissociation of GPIIb-IIIa complexes, and this influence is marked in small platelets. 3. The addition of Ca2+ or Mg2+ in the reversible dissociation of GPIIb-IIIa complexes causes the reassociation of GPIIb and GPIIIa, and this reassociation is even more marked after ADP stimulation. 4. The prolonged incubation of intact platelets with EDTA at 37°C causes GPIIb and GPIIIa to form peculiar complexes different from GPIIb/IIIa complexes in intact platelets.


BACKGROUND
The elderly is characterized by a gradual decline in body function, which represents the clinical situation called "frailty". Prefrailty is the intermediate stage between frailty and the robust condition. L-carnitine (LC) plays an important role in energy production from long-chain fatty acids in mitochondria and its serum level is lower in prefrail and frail subjects.

OBJECTIVE
This study aims to evaluate the effect of Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR) in pre frail older patients.

METHODS
We scheduled 3 months of treatment and then 3 months of follow-up. 92 subjects were selected from May 2009 to July 2017 in a randomized, observational, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. We scheduled 3 months of treatment and then 3 months of follow-up. ALCAR (oral 1.5 g/bis in die - BID) or placebo group.

RESULTS
After the treatment, only the treated group displayed a decrease in C reactive protein (CRP) p<0.001, an increase in serum free carnitine and acetyl carnitine (p<0.05), in Mini Mental state (MMSE) p<0.0001 and 6-walking distance (p<0.0001); ALCAR group vs. placebo group showed a decrease in HDL cholesterol and in CRP (p<0.01), an increase in MMSE score (p< 0.001) and in 6-walking distance (p<0.001) Conclusions: ALCAR treatment delays the incidence and severity of onset in prefrail subjects of degenerative disorders of the elderly, with improvement in memory and cognitive processes.


How a K-12 school system is using Linux to supply a myriad of stable network services to its students and staff


Nanospray transfers liquid into an aerosol via electrostatic forces created between an emitter and a counter electrode. Herein, we present compact laboratory-made instrumentation for nanospray-processing of silver colloid. The instrumentation is based on the pressurized polysulfone chamber fixing a disposable vial with an immersed platinum electrode and a long fused silica capillary supplying the sprayed liquid to the emitter. The combination of low flow rates (70 nL/min) with a sharp emitter, fabricated on a 3D printed grinding station, resulted in a fine aerosol. The low volume of released droplets allowed full evaporation of water during their flight towards the counter electrode without any need for drying gas or the addition of volatile solvents. The constructed device was successfully used for the deposition of water-free silver colloid without any requirement of its pretreatment. The deposition of completely dried nanoparticles on planar substrates eliminated undesirable coffee ring effect and deposits of increased homogeneity could be obtained. Electron microscopy confirmed no significant changes in the character of nanospray-processed nanoparticles. Finally, we also investigated several approaches for the improvement of the surface density of nanoparticles on the substrate at preserved time scale.


DURING THE LAYING OF BITUMINOUS BASE COURSES ON THE A.13 MOTORWAY, SLIGHT STRIPPING PHENOMENA WERE OBSERVED IN BITUMINOUS MIXTURES CONTAINING FLINT AGGREGATES. DETAILS ARE GIVEN OF THE MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT USED, AND OF THE PHENOMENON AS IT OCCURRED. OBSERVATIONS SHOWED THAT LONGER DRYING TIME RESULTED IN THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE PHENOMENON. REMEDIAL METHODS ARE PROPOSED: INCREASE IN DRYING EFFICIENCY, USE OF SILICONE ADMIXTURES AND SLOPES, AND ADDITION OF QUICK LIME AS EXTRA FILLER. THE LATTER SEEMS TO BE THE MOST EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUE. /LCPC(A)/RRL/


Objective: A cross sectional study was carried out to assess prevalence of tuberculosis among migrant worker in Qassim region, Saudi Arabia. Methods: Retrospective study based on the secondary data pertaining to the patients registered in hospital from Jan 2005 to December 2009. A total of 165 migrant form neighboring countries were included. Results: The majority of subjects (72, 44%) were from Indonesia, India with (38, 21%) cases followed by Nepal (12, 7%). Out of 165 patients, 95 (58%) were female compared to 70 (42%) males with housemaid being the highest (45.5%) with regard to occupational category. Majority of the cases were of middle age and low socio economic status. Fever, loss of appetite, loss of weight, and cough were the chief clinical presentations. Among the total cases, 9 cases (6%) were suffering from Diabetes. Conclusion: Prevalence of TB among migrant is relatively high. Preventive measures for early diagnosis should be performed especially in migrant worker from high-prevalence countries.


This article provides an overview of New Zealand households' financial assets and liabilities, and net wealth, based on a comprehensive compilation of data from 1978.


Purpose – The aim of this article is to gain insight into some of the factors that determine personnel‐training efforts in companies introducing advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs). The study provides empirical evidence from a sector with high rates of technological modernisation.Design/methodology/approach – Ad hoc survey of 90 firms in the manufacturing sector with advanced manufacturing technologies in production processes.Findings – Managerial decision to develop training is determined by a factor that is extraneous to the investment in new production technologies, that is to say, recruitment policies. As for the existence of a specific training budget, implementation of AMTs does not appear to determine a company's decision to allocate specific budget items to personnel‐training programmes. It is concluded that training policies are strongly influenced by factors outside the inner context of the organisation.Research limitations/implications – Similar research could be conducted on informal co...


Instructing English teaching work with Marxist philosophical thought and correctly handling various relations in the teaching process is helpful to cultivate students' English thinking ability,thus to promotes their full scale development.


To segment a binary seal image out of a check image without distortion,an adaptive morphological segmentation algorithm based on a top-hat transformation is proposed to accurately extract a binary Chinese square seal from a bank check.A gray scale square seal is extracted from a coloured bank check according to the colour information.Different Chinese characters have different stroke features and background evenness.To respectively process each character in the square seal,the seal is divided into four sub-squares.Then,the background across each sub-square of the grey scale seal image is smoothed by the top-hat transformation.The size of the structuring element in the top-hat transformation can have a significant influence on the segmentation.So an adaptive method is proposed to iteratively estimate the proper size of the structuring element according to the local foreground area.In each sub-square,the optimal size of the structuring elements,respectively,for the imprint frame and the character are estimated.With their optimal structuring elements,the character and the imprint frame in each sub-square are filtered by the top-hat transform and binarized by the Otsu's method.The experimental result shows that when 350 different square seals are segmented in bank checks,only 2 segmented seals have distortions.It is proved that the proposed algorithm can correctly segment Chinese characters with intricate and dense strokes in a bank check square seal.Adhesion and incompleteness distortions in the segmentation results are reduced,even when the original square seal has poor quality.


Through experimental research under the condition of different ratio of polymer and SAE of modified mortar, compressive and flexural strength of change trend, also studied the 1% content of steel fiber on the mechanical behavior of the SAE modified mortar, for in both cases, examined the mortar specimens respectively than the law of the change of compressive and flexural strength, and the conclusion is given.


Enπma eli, the Babylonian epic of creation, was the most influential Mesopotamian religious text of the first millennium BCE. This article discusses how the epic was read, re-interpreted, and revised during the period from 900 BCE to AD 500, both within and outside Mesopotamia. The Assyrian version of the epic, and various Assyrian commentaries on the text, receive particular attention. The article argues that the Erra epic and parts of the Primeval History of the Bible represent counter-texts written in response to the ideological challenges posed by Enπma eli, and that war and peace were factors that determined to a significant extent how the Babylonians and other people of the ancient world approached the epic.


A layer of super-hydrophobic film of stearic acid was fabricated on magnesium substrate by self-assembled method.The super-hydrophobic film was analyzed by contact angle measurement,scanning electron microscope(SEM),FT-IR and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.It was found that water contact angle of the film increased rapidly to about 154° during the first hour.Infrared spectroscopy showed that stearic acid was successfully bonded to the surface of magnesium substrate.With scanning electron microscope(SEM),the micro-structure of the film surface was shown to be composed of flower-like clusters,which played an important role in the performance of super-hydrophobicity.Electrochemical impedance measurements showed that the super-hydrophobic film increased the charge transfer resistance and thereby inhibited localized corrosion of magnesium to a certain extent.


Abstract Flash chromatography of the mixture obtained by reaction of L-rhamnose with methanol in the presence of cation-exchange resin, in addition to methyl α-L-rhamnofuranoside (3) and methyl rhamnopyranosides 1 and 2 gave methyl β-L-rhamnofuranoside (4) in 8% yield. 13C and 1H NMR spectra of 3 and 4 as well as their calculated conformation in solution are discussed.


Background: Acquired tracheoesophageal fistula (TEFs) imperil patients9 lives. Aims: 1. To establish the minipig model of TEFs. 2. To evaluatue the feasibiblity, safety and biocompatibility of a plugging device designed by the authors for the occulusion of the acquired TEFs. Methods: 15 minipigs get the TEF by surgery. The first experimental group was performed to purduce the TEFs model in two minipigs without treatment. The second experimental group was performed to evaluate effect of the occlusion by plugging device in 13 minipigs through a flexible bronchoscope. All were followed up with a bronchoscopy at 1, 4, 8 and 12 weeks. Both scanning electron microscope and transmission (SEM) and transmission electron microscope(TEM) were used to examine surface of the device.
 Results: TEFs model was established successfully. The plugging device was successful implanted. The symptoms9 duration of group 1 is longer than that of the group 2. The tracheal stenosis appeared in the group 2. The surface of the device was covered with deciduous epithelia and bacterium without the regular layered endothelial cell. Conclusion: The model has stability and reproducibility and is suitable for experimental studies of TEFs. The method of occlusion with a plugging device has a favorable outcome in a short time. Its long-term safety and curative effect needs a further study to observe.


Fish belonging to several trophic levels from Cartagena Bay, a tropical estuary, were collected and analyzed for total mercury (T-Hg) concentrations in muscle. T-Hg concentrations varied from 0.010–0.526 μg/g, and the overall average was 0.051 ± 0.002 μg/g. Carnivorous species presented the highest T-Hg mean value (0.100 ± 0.006 μg/g), followed by omnivorous (0.076 ± 0.014 μg/g) and detritivorous (0.028 ± 0.001 μg/g). The relationships between weight and T-Hg content were found for the carnivorous species Sciades herzbergi (r = 0.508, p < 0.001) and not for the detritivorous Mugil incilis (r = 0.086, p = 0.207). Although results suggest fish from the bay pose a low health threat for humans in terms of Hg exposure, vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, should avoid eating large size carnivorous species. Knowledge about species with low Hg content should be widespread within fishing communities, guaranteeing adequate nutrition by including fish in the diet and reducing the risk of Hg poisoning.


The Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) is a recent metaheuristic that can be explored in many applications. This paper proposes a mechanism to tune the control parameters that influence the hunting process in the GWO in order to improve its efficiency. This adjustment is made by a fuzzy inference system that uses the normalized fitness value of each wolf and the hunting mechanism control parameters of the GWO. The proposed fuzzy mechanism is tested and compared with the conventional GWO and another version that uses a fuzzy system as input information the ratio of the current iteration number and the maximum number of iterations. For performance analysis of the proposed fuzzy mechanism, all tested optimizers in ten benchmark optimization functions ran 1000 times. Simulation results show that the proposed fuzzy mechanism improves the convergence of the conventional GWO and it is competitive in relation to another fuzzy version adopted in the GWO design.


Environmental Values 19.3 process that this suggests. Running through the book and the syncretic theory itself is the notion of development. This comes across very clearly in the later chapters where the theory is further elaborated and possible criticisms viewed. Moore is writing from the perfectly reasonable position that we grow up aesthetically: we can – in the right circumstances and with the right encouragement – learn to deepen and enrich our aesthetic experiences. It would certainly be possible to tease out problems here and there with any approach that attempts to combine opposing theories, but the strengths of this book far outweigh such quibbles. In short, Moore's book puts the aesthetic experience centre stage and does so by continual recourse to actual aesthetic experiences; it contributes to the discussion of how aesthetic experiences develop as we 'grow up' aesthetically; and it appreciates that experiencing natural beauty involves all the senses.


Questionnaires were developed based on focus group discussions to identify needs and benefits during specific eating occasions for midlife women (35–55 y). Questionnaire items were factor‐analyzed resulting in 7 major factors. Eating occasions were divided into those experienced by normal weight (n=229), overweight (n=150) and obese (n=141) women. Mean age of women (n=174) was 46, mean BMI was 26 and mean % body fat by DEXA was 38%. Women were mostly non‐Hispanic white (86%) married (59%), employed full time (52%) and well educated. Occasions experienced by obese women were less often driven by health/weight, convenience and cost and were higher in fat, cholesterol, saturated fat, % calories as fat, and lower in fiber than occasions for normal or overweight women. Lunch occasions for obese women were less often driven by the need for convenience and dinner occasions were less often driven by the need to maintain health/weight and were higher in calories, fat and saturated fat than those for normal and overweight women. Few differences existed in nutrient intake for dinner occasions. However, snack occasions for obese women were also higher in calories, fat, cholesterol, saturated fat and % calories from fat compared to snack occasions for normal and overweight women. These data reflect relationships between obesity, a less positive set of needs driving eating occasions and less healthy eating behaviors.


Abstract We prove the existence of solutions of Maxwell's equations for a conducting medium whose constitutive parameters are piecewise constant on R3, and then examine the convergence of these solutions in the quasi-static limit in which displacement currents are neglected. Secondly, we examine the regularity of the limiting solution and the sense in which the classical boundary conditions hold, namely, continuity of the tangential electric field and the normal current density.


Major cardiovascular surgery employing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) represents a unique biologic stimulus leading to profound pertubations in inflammatory, hemostatic, and oxidative stress pathways, all implicated in the pathogenesis of perioperative organ injury. Organ injury following cardiac surgery and associated morbidity concerns a number of organs including brain, heart, kidneys, liver, and lung. Despite significant advances in surgical, anesthetic, and organ protective strategies, the incidence of perioperative organ injury remains high. The clinical and financial implications of these problems can be profound, with prolonged hospitalization, reduced quality of life, and increased health care resource utilization having been associated with minor and major organ injuries. Preventing or treating these organ injuries remains difficult because the underlying mechanisms associated with ischemic reperfusion injury and the generalized inflammatory response introduced by CPB and DHCA are incompletely understood. The use of appropriate disease models of CPB and DHCA to study these injury mechanisms together with the testing of pharmaceutical treatments and other strategies should first occur in suitable animal models before applying them in costly multi-center trials.


The profession is one of the most important determinants of the place of an individual in the social world, which is strictly connected with the place in the social structure. The main focus of this article is on the burden of the social worker's profession. This profession has been evolving for several decades as part of the development of social work, and is currently perceived as a profession with a specific social mission, which requires specific predispositions, including personality. Unfortunately, it is also a profession of low prestige among other professions, as evidenced by studies conducted by numerous authors specializing in social welfare and social work. This study confirms that in the opinion of the representatives of help professions, the prestige of a social worker in Polish society is low. The reasons for this situation include a negative image of the profession in the mass media, low pay for work, risk of professional burnout and limited opportunities for professional advancement.


Abstract Gibberellins can promote the inhibition of floral induction in citrus in order to reduce alternate bearing. However, not much is known about the responsiveness of Citrus deliciosa to exogenous applications of gibberellic acid. Furthermore, the successive application of gibberellins is barely studied. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of successive applications of gibberellic acid (GA3) on the reduction of spring flowering subsequent to low fruit load periods (off-year) in 'Montenegrina' and 'Rainha' mandarin trees, in southern Brazil. The treatments consisted of one to four successive applications of GA3 (40 mg L-1) with 21-day interval in off-year trees. Applications began in May and ended in July. There was a significant reduction in sprouting and flowering of 'Montenegrina' mandarin with more than two GA3 successive applications compared to the control. To 'Rainha' mandarin, only two GA3 applications reduced the sprouting and solely one GA3 application was enough to reduce sprouting in relation to the control. GA3 use reduced sprouting and flowering of Montenegrina and Rainha cultivars. The orchard age may be related to its level of alternate bearing and, therefore, to the greater or lesser sensitivity of gibberellin applications.


A flexible, porous TiOxNy sheet consisting of numerous conductive fibers was synthesized by nitridation of titanate and further used as an electrochemical electrode. The high surface area and mixed-oxidation state of titanium make TiOxNy sheets to be promising candidates for a good supercapacitor.


Several methods have been published for the preparation of 4-iodo 2-3 dimethyl phenyl pyrazolone (iodoantipyrine) [1, 2, 3] but none of them mention the experimental procedures involved nor the yield obtained, with the exception of ref. [3], which employs the Conway camera microdiffusion method, with a yield of 30%. We have studied the influence of some variables on the yield of labelled iodoantipyrine, obtained by isotopic exchange according to the method of M I T T A and G A M I N [4]. In particular we have studied the influence of ρκ, concentration, temperature and illumination.


Ultrasonic pulse-echo methods are versatile, effective procedures for inspecting welds in steel structures. However, the ultrasonic methods conventionally used have two disadvantages: inspection must be performed manually by a skilled technician, and the signal obtained at the time of one inspection provides no "memory" to be used at the time of a later inspection. Our research involves the development of MEMS ultrasonic flaw detection devices that could be permanently installed at critical locations, that would maintain a history of earlier signal characteristics, and that would be polled remotely. One purpose of this paper is to acquaint researchers with the development of MEMS devices, and another is to present experimental results demonstrating the feasibility of our approach for MEMS ultrasonic flaw detection in solids. We first outline the fabrication choices afforded to developers of such devices, and then describe the design decisions made in developing our device. We next describe results of electrical characterization, again using our chip and our experimental study of its electromechanical properties as a case study. We then describe the experiments we performed to establish chip performance as a detector of ultrasonic signals, with particular interest in its performance as a phased array transducer to localize a signal source. We report successful demonstration of signal detection and source localization, and conclude that a MEMS ultrasonic transducer can perform phased array signal detection in contact with solids.


E-learning plays an important role in pedagogy activities to support education without barrier of location and time. In Thailand, most e-learning systems try to imitate Web-based learning. Students can access on-line course via Web site, but lacking adaptation corresponding to student's behavior. It is resulting in limitation of learning effectiveness. Therefore, an adaptive e-learning approach based on link hiding technique is developed to increase learning efficiency. This technique is a simple method that can relieve student cognitive overload. This paper proposes a method to navigate the most appropriate learning path by using student knowledge level and conditions of SCORM 2004. This results in students with different knowledge levels taking different learning paths to obtain the highest learning efficiency.


SUMMARY Mathematical model simulations are used to predict the extent of groundwater contamination at gasoline-release sites where chronic and single small-volume releases of gasoline remain trapped in the unsaturated (vadose) zone. A vadose-zone transport model was used to predict mass fluxes (loading rates) and breakthrough times of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and benzene at the water table resulting from such releases. Mass transport to groundwater was quantified as a function of groundwater recharge rate, sediment (soil) type, depth to groundwater, biodegradation, and gasoline composition. Simulation results indicate that groundwater recharge had the greatest effect on mass-loading rates to groundwater because diffusive transport is limited in the capillary zone. Diffusion to the atmosphere and biodegradation also significantly affected the amount of contaminant mass available to enter groundwater. Mass loss to the atmosphere was determined largely by the proximity of the gasoline release to land surface and by soil type. This can be an important natural-attenuation pathway for MTBE, given that it is relatively slow to biodegrade. However, recharge can limit MTBE mass losses to the atmosphere, especially in fine-grained soils. For benzene, biodegradation in the vadose zone was a substantial limitation on mass loading to groundwater. Water that recharges an aquifer beneath a release site can therefore be enriched in MTBE relative to benzene compared to water that is in equilibrium with gasoline. Model-simulated breakthrough times for MTBE at the water table ranged from days to hundreds of years, depending primarily on depth to groundwater and soil type.


The article gives a historical overview on the formation of aesthetic geography as an independent scientifi c fi eld. The main methodological approaches to the assessment of aesthetic appeal of landscapes were considered and the ways to improve evaluation methods were determined.


This paper in the systemic functional grammar theory and convergence theory as the basis,realization of the textual functions of Cameron New Year greeting speech of discourse analysis to promote cohesion and mode from the main two aspects,in order to carry out the process and organize the sentence means to explore the discourse information,enhance the the speech understanding and grasp.


An algorithm is proposed and notions defined to determine the minimal sets of all possible higher order moments and cumulants of a random vector or a random matrix. The main attention has been paid to the case of symmetric matrices. Using the introduced notions, cumulants of arbitrary order for the Wishart distribution have been obtained.


Many studies about the vegetation layer by means of SAR tomography are model based or make use of some sort of superresolution algorithms. By one side such approaches are often necessary because of the limited resolution characterizing the datasets. On the other side results can be easily a ected by poor accuracy whenever the model does not t. In this paper a totally model free approach is proposed to perform SAR tomography. It is based on the existing relationship between the complex re ectivity pro le along the cross range direction and the multi baseline signal: a Fourier transform. Whenever the baseline distribution is suitable a new stack of uncorrelated complex image can be obtained, each one associated with a particular elevation inside the vegetation layer.


In order to get the knowledge of the current situation of the rural old-age pension in Baoji City,we carried out the investigation on 1179 old people in 3 villages in Baoji City by entering household to grant questionnaire. The computer statistics software SPSS has carried out the statistic analysis on questionnaire data. The results showed that there were many needs for the rural area old people with different age groups among different aspects such as the way of caring for the aged,children's support for their parents,the objects of supporting the poverty. Therefore we should explore a new pattern system providing for the aged serving,and suggest that the different aged group people adopt different providing for the aged; put forward the suggestion of children's support of their parents and poverty relief; carry out rich culture specifically for rural area old people,improve the life of the old people.


Far lateral disc prolapse accounts for 6.5% to 12% of all lumbar disc prolapses. Surgical options include open laminectomy with discectomy, microscopic and endoscopic excision of the prolapsed disc. Some of these options may not be available in limited resources centers. We will highlight the effectiveness of various surgical options. Twenty patients with foraminal and extraforaminal lumbar disc prolapse were operated upon from January, 2015 to June, 2016 in the neurosurgical departments of Cairo and Fayoum Universities in Egypt by different modalities (open laminectomy with discectomy, microscopic and endoscopic discectomy). Seventeen patients had foraminal disc prolapse and only three patients had extraforaminal disc prolapse. Twelve patients were operated by conventional laminectomy approach. Microscope was used in four patients and four patients were operated endoscopically. Excellent radicular pain improvement was achieved in 15 cases (75%) including all of the laminectomy groups. Conventional laminectomy and discectomy in far lateral disc prolapse remains an excellent option especially in limited resources centers. Although building up experience with other surgical modalities is mandatory.


Introduction: Social Policy Pathways, Twenty Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall A.Cerami & P.Vanhuysse PART I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Social Policy in East Central Europe: Major Trends in the 20th Century D.Szikra & B.Tomka Mechanisms of Institutional Change in Central and Eastern European Welfare State A.Cerami Power, Order and the Politics of Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe P.Vanhuysse PART II: COUNTRY STUDIES Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia: Adaptation and Reform of the Post-Communist Emergency Welfare States T.Inglot The Transformation of Welfare Systems in the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania J.Aidukaite Welfare State Transformations in Bulgaria and Romania A.Cerami & S.Stanescu PART III: SECTORAL ANALYSIS AND CHALLENGES Transnational Actors in Central and East European Pension Reforms M.Orenstein Elder Care Systems: Policy Transfer and Europeanization H.Theobald & K.Kern The Impact of Minimum Income Guarantee Schemes in Central and Eastern Europe C.Rat Devolution of Social Protection Arrangements N.van Mechelen & V.De Maerschalck The Impact of the EU Social Inclusion Strategy: the Czech Case T.Sirovatka & M.Rakoczyova CONCLUSIONS: The Eastern European Welfare State in Comparative Perspective: S.Haggard & R.R.Kaufman Epilogue: Lessons Learnt and Open Questions C.Offe


Sepsis is still a severe problem for the critical care medicine.And multiple-organ failure generated by sepsis is still the most major cause of death in the ICU patients.Blood purification is a kind of organic functional supporting method.With the help of extracorporeal circulation,it can obliterate the plasma inflammatory cytokine,toxin and excessive moisture through the man-made semipermeable membrane,in order to maintain homeostasis.In recent years,there are 3 kinds of theories concerning high volume hemofiltration to explain the clinical transformation after blood purification therapy in the sepsis patients.


The shortage of water resources has seriously restricted the development of cities. Unconventional water resources is of great significance for sustainable development. As a city lack of water, Los Angeles plans to develop reclaimed water as an important component of urban water supply under the conditions of drought and over exploitation of groundwater. In order to provide a basis for urban reclaimed water construction planning, this paper developed a system dynamic model to provide scientific suggestions for the planning of reclaimed water. According to the analysis of Los Angeles water system, the model divides the system into reclaimed water system, urban water consumption system, urban water supply system and water supply cost system. The degree of water shortage, urban water supply, water supply cost, and reclaimed water production were chosen as the model index for the requirement of plan design. The historical data was employed to verify the model, indicating that the model is reliable. Then the plans under different rates of growth of reclaimed water were designed. According to the comprehensive analysis of the model index, the second plan was considered to be the optimal one: increase the local water supply in Los Angeles to 50 percent of the total by 2035 and reduce purchases by 50 percent. Finally, Reclaimed water accounts for 30% of the city's water supply, meanwhile, water supply costs decline 10%.


Computer graphics special effects are widely used in film, television, and computer games. Compositing is a key part of the special effects pipelineit is the final, crucial step where all the component parts of a rendering are joined together into a single, integrated image. These components may include 3D and 2D images that have been created with the wide variety of modeling, animation, and rendering tools available today.Ron Brinkmann's The Art and Science of Digital Compositing provides a complete guide to the technical and artistic elements of this process and is the leading book in the field. Now revised in a second edition, Brinkmann uses his extensive experience in the visual effects industry to discuss the latest techniques used to create beautiful and believable images. The book takes a conceptual approach, fostering a deep understanding of compositing technique rather than focusing on specific toolsknowing where the buttons are located isn't nearly as important as knowing why to press those but tons.* Ron Brinkmann brings extensive experience with feature film production to this complete reference on compositing* Profusely illustrated in 4 color throughout with examples from contemporary films* The bestselling book on compositing used by professionals and students alike


More and more companies have implemented chatbots on their websites to provide support to their visitors on a 24/7 basis. The new customer wants to spend less and less time and therefore expects to reach a company anytime and anywhere, regardless of time, location, and channel. This study provides insight into the influence of chatbots on customer loyalty. System quality, service quality, and information quality are crucial dimensions that a chatbot must meet to give a good customer experience. To make a chatbot more personal, companies can alter the language style. Human-like chatbots lead to greater satisfaction and trust among customers, leading to greater adoption of the chatbot. The results of this study showed that a connection between chatbots and customer loyalty is very likely. Besides, some customers suffer from the privacy paradox because of personalization. Implications of this study are discussed.


MHC molecules play a pivotal role in presenting tumor derived antigens and hence in activating and regulating antitumor immune responses. Decrease expression of major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) genes in colorectal cancer (CRC) has been reported. MHC-II transactivator (CIITA), encoded by the MHC2TA gene, is considered to be the master regulator for MHC-II gene expression. A functional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) –168A>G in the promoter region of the MHC2TA gene to investigate the association between the–168A>G MHC2TA gene variant in patients with CRC versus a control group. TaqMan system was used to determine this SNP in and control subjects regarding genotype and allelic distributions or associations to clinical characteristics. The results of this study suggest that–168A>G polymorphism of the MHC2TA gene is not associated with CRC risk. *Corresponding author: Mailing address. Department of Biotechnology, College of Science, University of Al-Nahrain, Baghdad Iraq, Mobile: 07901174876, E-mail: email@example.com chapter 3 NO.3 TU06 Edit1.indd 3394 4/4/2011 10:53:40 AM Lack of Association of MHC Class II Transactivator Gene Polymorphism with Colorectal Cancer 3395 Introduction The major histocopatibility complex (MHC) class II is a group of highly polymorphic and cell surface glycoprotein, it plays important role in immune system which involve antigen presentation and T-cell activation. Antigen presenting cells (APC) present fragments of processed foreign antigen in a class II MHC to CD4+ T cells and hence activate and regulate the immune response. Humans express at least three isotypes of MHC class II proteins, human leukocyte antigen-DR (HLA-DR), HLA-DQ and HLA-DP. These MHC-II isotypes are normally expressed constitutively on restricted cell types including macrophages, dendritic cells, B lymphocytes and thymic epithelium. A wide variety of other cell types can be induced to express MHC-II antigens by numerous stimuli, Th1 cytokine IFNinduce the express of MHC-II on macrophage, pancreatic -cells, keratinocytes, melanocyte, eosinophils, kidney, lung and liver and intestinal epithelial cells. The MHC Class II Transactivator (CIITA) is referred to as the master regulator of MHC-II gene transcription and is important for both constitutive and cytokine induced expression in a variety of cell types. The absence of MHC-II protein in patients with bare lymphocyte syndrome (BLS) transcription factors that regulate MHC-II gene expression which is CIITA. There is growing evidence that lack or reduced expression of MHC-II gene results from epigenetic silencing by hypermethylation of MHC2TA in several types of cancer. cytokines such as IFNintestinal epithelial to the stimulation of CD4+ T cells. Loss or down regulation of MHC-II expression is considered as a one strategy employed by malignant cells for evading recognition and elimination by the immune system. Existing data on MHC-II expression in human CRC show that normal colorectal tissue displays weak to high grade of MHC-II proteins and that CRC shows reduced expression compared to adjacent normal tissue. It has been reported that MHC-II negative CRC tissue exhibit a lower grade immune surveillance. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been detected in the promoter III region of the gene encoding human CIITA which is mapped to chromosome 16p13. 11) One of them -168A G, is associated with autoimmune Addison's disease. Moreover, -168A G SNP has been shown to be associated with other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis chapter 3 NO.3 TU06 Edit1.indd 3395 4/4/2011 10:53:40 AM Melad Mumtaz AL-Samak et al. 3396 multiple sclerosis and myocardial infection. It has been suggested that the G/G genotype leads to reduce the expression of CIITA and MHC-II accordingly.(13) Depending on the observed role of the functional gene polymorphism -168A G in MHC2TA, this study was performed to evaluate its Materials and Methods Patients and controls This study comprised blood samples from southeastern Sweden who underwent surgical resections for primary colorectal adenocarcinomas at the Department of Surgery, Ryhov County Hospital, Jönköping, Sweden. All blood samples were centrifugated to separate plasma and blood cells and then stored frozen at -78 íC until use. DNA extraction and genotyping DNA was isolated from blood samples using a QiaAmp DNA Blood Kit (Qiagen, CA, USA). DNA samples were genotyped using the 5'-exonuclease allelic discrimination assay (Applied Biosystems, CA, USA). Taqman SNP Genotyping Assay was used for analysis of the rs3087456 (CIITA, –168A G) genotype (Applied Biosystems). Ten nanogrammes DNA μl containing TaqMan Universal PCR Master Mix (Applied Biosystems) including 1x TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assay. Amplication was performed using two cycle at 50 íC for 2 min followed by 40 cycles at 95 íC for 15 s and 60 íC for involved an initial cycle at 95 íC for 10 min followed by 40 cycles at 92 íC for 15 s and 60 íC for 1 min. A post PCR endpoint reading was performed on each plate using the 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems). The manual calling option in the allelic discrimination application ABI PRISM 7500 SDS software version 1.3.1 (Applied Biosystems) was then used to assign genotypes. Statistical analysis Differences in the frequencies of the MHC2TA polymorphism between CRC patients and the control group and between clinical characteristics within the CRC subgroup were analyzed using the Chi-square test and the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was tested for the genotypes. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS for Windows computer package chapter 3 NO.3 TU06 Edit1.indd 3396 4/4/2011 10:53:41 AM Lack of Association of MHC Class II Transactivator Gene Polymorphism with Colorectal Cancer 3397 Table 1 Clinicohistopathological characteristics of colorectal carcinoma patients with not known CRC history and from the same geographical region as the CRC patients were selected as the controls (Table 2). (Rel. 14.0, 2005; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). p<0.05. Results and Discussion Blood samples were collected from 248 consecutive patients mentioned in Table 1. The patients group represents 127 males and 121 females with a mean age of 70 years (range 29-93 years). The tumours were localized in the colon (n=124) stage A (n=47), stage B (n=102), stage C (n=85) and stage D (n=14). Characteristic No. of patients Patients (%) Age <73 124/248 50 >73 124/284 50 Gender Male 127/248 51.2 Female 121/248 48.8 Localization Rectal 124/248 50 Colon 124/248 50 Colon site Left 52/124 41.9 Right 72/124 58.1 Differentiation grade high differentiated 32/248 12.9 moderate differentiated 175/248 70.5 low differentiated 41/248 16.5 Dukes' stage Dukes' A 47/248 19 Dukes' B 102/248 41.1 Dukes' C 85/248 34.3 Dukes' D 14/248 5.6 The control group consists of 136 males and 120 females with a mean age of 68 years (range 50-83 years). chapter 3 NO.3 TU06 Edit1.indd 3397 4/4/2011 10:53:41 AM Melad Mumtaz AL-Samak et al. 3398 Table 2 Distribution of controls according to age and gender Fig. 1 Genotyping of rs3087456 single nucleotide polymorphism. Blue allelic discrimination plot represent homozygous (G/G), green allelic discrimination plot represent heterozygous (A/G), while red allelic discrimination plot represent homozygous (A/A). Optimization of 7500 Fast RealAfter successful extraction of DNA from blood samples, both types of 19 CRC blood DNA samples, 19 control blood DNA samples and 2 no template control (negative control) to analyze which type gives more separated sample groups and within each group the samples are more closed to each, this can be seen Characteristic Controls No. controls (%)


Rosmarinus officinalis L. is an important plant due to its chemical constituents, medicinal properties and commercial use. The present study was carried out to determine the change in concentration of chemicals in salt stressed R. officinalis. Plants were treated with 50, 100 and 150mM NaCl to determine the change in moisture content level and concentrations of carbohydrates, alkaloids, flavonoids and phenols. Results revealed that moisture content and carbohydrates decreased with increased salinity. Maximum values of moisture content (60.39%), insoluble carbohydrates (2.25 g) and soluble carbohydrates (24.5 ml), found in control treatment, while the minimum values of moisture content (48%) and 1.47 g and 21 ml for insoluble and soluble carbohydrates respectively were recorded for 150 mM NaCl treatment. Maximum values for alkaloids 0.9 g and flavonoids 0.82 g were recorded for 50 mM NaCl treatment while minimum values, alkaloids 0.76 g and flavonoids 0.32 g were recorded for 150 mM NaCl treatment. Quantitative analysis of phenols expressed that phenols increased with increased salinity i.e for control lowest 3.02% and for 150 mM NaCl highest value 4.24% obtained. It concluded that phenols might release the oxidative stress caused by NaCl applications but their increase is also beneficial because they are natural antioxidants.


The motion of a heterogeneous fluid sphere due to an impulsive point source is calculated by several finite difference schemes and is interpreted in terms of reflected and diffracted pulses. The deviations due to heterogeneity from the results for the homogeneous sphere are calculated explicitly. Calculations show the change in amplitude of pulses and dispersion due to continuous variation of compressional velocity c, as compared with discontinuities in c.


We had previously found that the bacterial flagellar motor is resistant to ionizing radiation at a dose that is sufficient to inhibit bacterial growth. This implies that some enzymatic activity remains after irradiation to maintain the metabolic network in cells. In the present study, to estimate the persistence of bacterial motility after irradiation, we investigated the swimming ability of gamma-irradiated cells after maintenance in a non-nutrient motility medium for several hours at room temperature or at 4 °C. Hence, the motility of the gamma-irradiated cells, which showed no colony-forming ability, lasted for more than 1 day. Swimming speed and the motile fraction were not significantly different between intact (unirradiated) and irradiated cells, whereas these parameters decreased gradually with incubation time. Cells stored at 4 °C did not swim; however, motility was recovered after bacteria reached room temperature.


Recent experimental research has shown that mass is linked to Compton periodicity. We suggest a new way to look at mass: Namely that mass at its most fundamental level can simply be seen as reduced Compton frequency over the Planck time. In this way, surprisingly, neither the Planck constant nor Newton's gravitational constant are needed to observe the Planck length, nor in any type of calculation or gravitational predictions. The Planck constant is only needed when we want to convert back to the more traditional and we would say arbitrary mass measures such as kg. The theory gives the same predictions as Einstein's special relativity theory, with one very important exception: anything with mass must have a maximum velocity that is a function of the Planck length and the reduced Compton wavelength. For all observed subatomic particles, such as the electron, this velocity is considerably above what is achieved in particle accelerators, but always below the speed of light. This removes a series of infinity challenges in physics. The theory also offers a way to look at a new type of quantum probabilities. As we will show, a long series of equations become simplied in this way. Further Newton's gravitational constant G is clearly not needed for gravity calculations or predictions; it is the Planck length and the speed of light (gravity) that are essential for gravity, and both can be measured easily with no knowledge of G.


The 357 species of jumping plant lice (Homoptera: Psylloidea) recorded from the Oriental zoogeographical realm, including the whole of mainland China, are listed under their respective genera. Information is given on synonymy, host-plants and distribution. The position of problematical taxa is discussed. The check list is supplemented by a taxonomic list of host-plants and their associated psyllids and by a resume of published descriptions of undetermined psyllid galls.


Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc. has a total of 2200 feeders in its system, which service a combination of up to eight different types of loads. These feeders can be taken out of service for eight different reasons - ranging from sceduled maintenance to an emergency trip. Complete details of each feeder and its related equipment are now being programmed into a central data base, stored in a pair of Alpha 2100 computers, which act as servers to client workstations in the dispatch center. The 1200 feeders are now in the data base and there are 1000 more 4-kV feeders to be entered. 6 figs.


The paper presents a novel design methodology for an intelligent controller based on a database capable of self-study and auto-control. The motivation stems from making a smart database analogous to human brain, namely, a dummy brain database (DBD). The data stored in the DBD may be collected from a plant/system at present, recent past and/or over a period of time in the past, i.e. the historical data. The proposed method intends to enable DBD to perform information processing, knowledge elicitation and decision making in a manner similar to human brain. In particular the features of human memory including its sensitivity, frequency of change, information update and reconstruction are researched and the mechanism of the brain's associative memories studied. The DBD thus established has led to a self-study and auto-control model which is capable for learning over the machine's lifetime. Possible applications in control of a group of elevators and in city traffic control are discussed


We investigate the impact of buoyancy and wind stress on Southern Ocean transport through a fully resolved idealised direct numerical simulation model. A scaled re-entrant channel with zonal wind forcing, differential heating over the surface and bottom topography is used to model transport in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). Cooling over the southern portion of the domain triggers convection. Our simulations fully resolve all length scales, resulting in a more accurate representation of smallscale processes like convection and eddy formation and their impact on mean transport. Results suggest that surface wind stress enhances the isopycnal slope across the channel, leading to baroclinic instability and the formation of small-scale baroclinic eddies. Themes: Oceanography, Computational fluid dynamics


Background : The metabolic syndrome (MS) is considered to be an important public health problem.This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in Tambon Chantanimit and to compare its frequency as defined by the most commonly used working definitions. Methods : Cross-sectional suryey by systematic sampling from popylation in Tambon Chantanimit Amphur Muang,Chanthaburi Province.A total of 385 aduts completed a questionnaire and underwent to identify the clinical and laboratory parameters of metabolic syndrome.The prevalence of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP),revised criterion and the new International Diabetes Federation (IDF) definition. Results : The mean age was 46 years (range 20-85 years) and 71 percents of the group were women.The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 26.8 and 23.9 percent(25.5 percent,20.9 percent in men and 27.3 percent,25.1 percent in women),using the revised NCEP and IDF criteria,respectively.There was 22 diabetes patients (5.7 percent) in this study.The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in diabets was high (revised NCEP,72.7 percent IDF,59 percent). Conclusions : The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is high in Chantanimit.The new IDF criteria for metabolic syndrome with particular focus on central obesity and ethnicity is easy to implement if clinical practice and comparable with revised NCEP criteria.


Reading habits in Russia have changed since the Soviet era, and the more intellectual journals and magazines in particular have lost their importance. Audiences for books and magazines have fragmented, and there are fewer sources of commonly shared information and ideas than was true a few decades ago.


In order to analyze the pathomechanisms of dysmenorrhea and efficiency of DSOM(diagnosis system of oriental medicine), clinical test was performed for 541 childbearing women having menstrual pain in P metropolitan city. The experimental group was composed of subjects who experience discomfort in daily life or interpersonal activities caused by menstrual pain with scores of 4 or above on the measurement of menstrual pain (MMP). The control group was composed of subjects reporting little or no discomfort with scores of 3 or below on the MMP. The menstrual period measurements were taken within 2-3 days following the first day of menstruation, when menstrual pain is at its peak. While non-menstrual period measurement were within 7-10 days after the last day of menstruation. The dampness pathomechanism was yielded most frequently in both groups, and then heart、heat、blood deficiency、cold、qi deficiency、phlegm、qi congestion、blood stasis in order. And the significant differences were in the pathomechanisms of blood deficiency、blood stasis、qi congestion、five viscera、phlegm and cold between the two groups. This means that general pathomechanisms of childbearing women in twenties mainly are dampness and heat, especially the experimental group has mostly disharmony of six qi and/but then move to insufficiency and stagnation of qi and blood and then to visceral disease pattern having statistically significant difference. Moreover in the two times of investigation, the output of pathomechanisms in each group has similar pattern in the same group. Therefore it can be concluded that the results of pathomechanisms by DSOM were in accordance with existing pattern classifications of dysmenorrhea in general and the DSOM showed reproducibility and stability in the data processing of questionnaires.


The degree of conversion of the monomer diallyldimethylammonium chloride (DADMAC) to its polymer, poly(DADMAC), was determined using dynamic thermogravimetry (TG). DADMAC solution was exposed to different radiation doses, and the degree of conversion of the monomer to the polymer was determined from a calibration plot generated previously from solutions containing known monomer–polymer ratios. The concentration of monomer and polymer in the mixture was estimated by measuring the weight loss corresponding to the steps involved in the thermograms. By employing the method, polymerization of DADMAC as a function of irradiation dose was studied. The degree of conversion of DADMAC increases considerably during the initial stages of irradiation, up to a dose of 40 kGy, after which the increase in conversion is not very significant. To validate the method, the degree of conversion was also determined by classical gravimetry, and the results were found to be in good agreement. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


Using region crossing changes, we define a new invariant called the multi-region index of a knot. We prove that the multi-region index of a knot is bounded from above by twice the crossing number of the knot. In addition, we show that the minimum number of generators of the first homology of the double branched cover of [Formula: see text] over the knot is strictly less than the multi-region index. Our proof of this lower bound uses Goeritz matrices.


4052 Background: EC commonly expresses cyclo-oxygenase II (COX-2). COX-2 inhibition results in decreased cell proliferation and potentiation of chemotherapy and radiation. We reported the prelimina...


Computer image processing is a diversified area of information technology. Automatic age estimation, emotion, gender and race recognition based on the human face is an interesting and challenging task. In addition, this knowledge can be useful in such fields as the security industry, psychology and entertainment. The purpose is to extract certain attributes of a person from a video stream or image. This process is built up from several steps: loading the input image from a sequence, face detection, cropping the desired face, preprocessing and classification. Our goal is to find the appropriate techniques both for preprocessing and classification. In the experiments below we used face cropping and Local Binary Patterns for preprocessing and Support Vector Machines for classification. We performed the observations for each partition of each aspect using different parameter configurations. The results are collected in tables.


Efficient borylation reaction of diazonium salts in water is realized for the first time by using easy-prepared, highly emissive and crystalline carbon dots. Electron-donating and withdrawing groups on diazonium salts were well tolerated with moderate to good conversion efficiency. Compared with widely used metal complexes, organic dyes and quantum dots, the approach presented in this work uses carbon dots which are nontoxic and possess good biological and medicinal compatibility and high reactivity. Therefore this approach presents a new perspective of carbon dots in green chemistry.


INTRODUCTION Muscle performance is determined by the metabolic, calcium handling, and sarcomeric characteristics of its constituent fibres. Diet induced obesity (DIO) may influence contractile performance in whole muscle, but little is known about the effects of DIO at the single fibre level. Particularly, how DIO might influence the contractile characteristics of single fibres free from the influence of metabolic or calcium handling properties is not established. There is some limited evidence to suggest that DIO may influence the sarcomeric proteins. For example, troponin T, an important regulatory protein found on the thin filament, exhibits a shift from the fast T3 isoform, to the slow T1 isoform, in mouse soleus muscle following high fat feeding, with no associated change in myosin heavy chain isoform [1]. These results suggest that DIO may cause fast fibres to express slow isoforms of sarcomeric proteins in postural muscles of mixed fibre-type. The purpose of this study was to assess the force-calcium and force-velocity relationships of skinned fast and slow fibres of vastus intermedius, a mixed fibre-type postural muscle [2], in chow-fed rats and a rat model of DIO. It was hypothesized that fast fibres from DIO rats would exhibit characteristics associated with a slower fibre phenotype, including increased calcium sensitivity and lower shortening velocities. METHODS Individually housed male Sprague-Dawley rats, aged 10-12 weeks, were randomized to undergo diet induced obesity (DIO) where they were fed a high fat, high sugar diet (n = 6) or a standard chow diet (n = 6) for 12 weeks. The caloric content of DIO diets was 40% fat and 45% sucrose, compared to chow diets which consisted of 12% fat and 0% sucrose. Both vastus intermedius muscles were collected from each rat. Similar to the mouse soleus, the fibre type distribution of rat vastus intermedius is approximately 50% type I and 50% type IIa fibres [2]. Muscles were chemically skinned in a glycerol-rigor solution for 2 weeks.  Two fast and two slow fibres per animal were then isolated and mounted in a model 802B skinned fibre test system (Aurora Scientific) at 2.4 µm sarcomere length for testing.  Preliminary fibre type assessment was made using a strontium sensitivity test [3].  The force-pCa relationship was assessed from pCa 7.2 to pCa 4.2. The force-velocity relationship was assessed by measuring the shortening velocity during isotonic contractions.  Maximal shortening velocity (V max ) was assessed by a slack test protocol. Statistical differences were determined using Student's t-test or a two-way factorial ANOVA and Newman-Keuls post-hoc analysis as appropriate, α = 0.05. RESULTS Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans revealed DIO rats had significantly higher body mass, fat mass, and greater percent body fat than chow fed rats (all p<0.05), while lean mass was not significantly different between groups. DIO did not affect the force per cross-sectional area (CSA) of skinned fibres (Table 1). Fast DIO fibres had significantly lower maximum shortening velocities when compared to fast chow fibres (p<0.05; Table 1). No such differences were observed in slow fibres. Independent of fibre type, DIO fibres had significantly higher calcium sensitivity than chow fibres (p<0.01, Table 1).  While the Hill coefficient of the force pCa relationship was different between fast and slow chow fibres, no differences were seen in DIO fibres (p<0.05; Table 1). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Consistent with a fast to slow phenotype transition, V max was lower in fast DIO fibres. However, DIO influenced the force-calcium relationship of both fast and slow fibres. Therefore, adaptations are not limited to fast fibres, but rather influence contractility on a larger scale. Whether this influence is global or localized to postural muscles remains to be determined. The specific isoforms of contractile proteins expressed in single fibres should be assessed following DIO.


To the Editor: —Just after reading in your issue of July 24, page 269, "A Display of Fakirism," I chanced to read in L'Illustration of July 3 a short article on "La supercherie [humbug] du fakirisme." This article, by a French scientist, M. Paul Heuze, described the demonstration before a body of scientists and journalists in Paris of some of the same acts exhibited by "Dr. Tahra Bey," who had hat pins thrust through his cheeks and across his throat, apparently through the larynx, and who also reclined on the points of nails. Dr. Heuze insisted that there was no anesthesia in his case. He did not swallow his tongue, go into a cataleptic state or have weights put on. These phenomena, including apparent death, burial and resurrection, are discussed in one of Robert Louis Stevenson's novels.


In different solutions,the repeated water-absorbing capacities of four types of super-absorbent polymers (SAPs) with organic macromolecules were comparatively studied by simulated experiments. The result showed that in tap water and soil solution,the original water absorbency and repeated water-absorbing capacity of SAPs were reduced relative to those in distilled water. The reduced effect of water quality on the original water absorbency of SAP was higher than that of soil solution. The water-absorbing abilities of SAPs would be increased in higher concentrations,but the increases were reduced with the repeated utilization. It was preliminarily considered that among four types of SAPs labeled BF,JP,BJ and WT,JP conduct the best performance in sustaining use,BF and WT took the second place,while BJ was the worst. The sustaining effects of SAPs varied according to their water-absorbing status,stability and gel structure.


This contribution discusses some important issues of the Holonic Manufacturing Systems. The respective approach can bring about some features requested by the present conditions in manufacturing. An appropriate planning mechanism is designed, together with the execution cycle of the agents used as the holons' deliberative part. The proposed planning and coordination mechanism is implemented in an agent specific environment. The implementation details clarifies the way the proposed solution is to be carried out, conducting to a collaborative robotic system as the main part of an experimental manufacturing system.


We report on the improvement in electrical conductivity of Nafion® 112 membrane by the impregnation of bimetallic Au/Pd nanometric clusters. Colloidal Au/Pd nanoclusters of different molar ratios were prepared by simultaneous reduction of corresponding metal salts. The colloidal bimetallic clusters were characterized by TEM and optical spectroscopy techniques. The Au/Pd nanoclusters of different molar ratios were impregnated into the well hydrated Nafion® membranes for 3 hrs. Optical absorption spectroscopy was used to verify the impregnation process. The electrical characteristics of the impregnated membranes were investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The experiments were performed in a solid state electrochemical cell consisted of the impregnated Nafion® in electrical contact with Au electrodes. The EIS response of the impregnated membranes showed a drastic improvement in their electrical conductivity, which promises a better performance for the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) when Au/Pd nanocluster impregnated Nafion® is used as solid electrolyte. (© 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


A microscopic study of the solvation dynamics of a rigid ion in liquid methanol is presented. The theory is in good agreement with the available computer simulation results. We further find that the collective and single particle dissipative kernels (that is, the memory functions) show rather similar dynamics at ultrashort times.


We compared five regression approaches, namely, ordinary least squares, major axis, reduced major axis, robust, and Prais–Winsten to estimate δ18O-δ2H relationships in four water types (precipitation, surface water, groundwater collected in wells from lowlands, and groundwater from low-yield springs) from the northern Italian Apennines. Differences in terms of slopes and intercepts of the different regressions were quantified and investigated by means of univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analyses. We found that magnitudes of such differences were significant for water types surface water and groundwater (both in the case of wells and springs), and were related to robustness of regressions (i.e., standard deviations of the estimates and sensitiveness to outliers). With reference to surface water, we found the young water fraction was significant in inducing changes of slopes and intercepts, leading us to suppose a certain role of kinetic fractionation processes as well (i.e., modification of former water isotopes from both snow cover in the upper part of the catchments and precipitation linked to pre-infiltrative evaporation and evapotranspiration processes). As final remarks, due to the usefulness of δ18O–δ2H relationships in hydrological and hydrogeological studies, we provide some recommendations that should be followed when assessing the abovementioned water types from the northern Italian Apennines.


The goal of this research is to audit and compare the innovation management capabilities of the two organizations using the audit tools proposed by Tidd and Bessant (Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change, 5th ed. Wiley, West Essex, 2014) which consists of from five dimensions: Strategy, Innovation Process, Learning, Innovative Organization, and Linkages. The sample was selected from each organization from the High Suggestion Department (HSD) and the Low Suggestion Department (LSD). Audit questionnaires were distributed to respondents. The results obtained from this study were processed and analyzed. Comparisons were made between the two organizations in terms of their innovation management capabilities. In addition, comparisons were made between HSD and LSD in each organization. Of the five tested dimensions of Audit has a high score; Therefore, it can be concluded that the organizations in this study have a higher innovation management capability. In addition, every organization must keep the various components of innovation management in balance to maintain them.


Background: The use of oncoplastic reduction techniques have many proven benefits over lumpectomy alone in the management of women with breast cancer. The impact it has on tumor recurrence is unclear. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the incidence of recurrence in patients who underwent oncoplastic reduction techniques compared to lumpectomy alone. Methods: A prospectively maintained database of patients at Emory Hospital who underwent oncoplastic reduction techniques at the time of tumor resection was queried. These patients were compared to a series of patients who had lumpectomy alone over a similar period. For inclusion in the study, patients were at least 10 years since the time of the tumor resection. The main outcome of interest was tumor recurrence. Results: There were 97 patients in the lumpectomy-only group and 95 patients in the oncoplastic reduction group, with an average follow-up of 7.8 years and 8.5 years, respectively. Patients in the oncoplastic group were younger (lumpectomy only, 61.4 years; oncoplastic reduction, 51.6 years; p < 0.001) and had larger tumors (lumpectomy only, 1.1 cm; oncoplastic reduction, 1.6 cm; p < 0.001). Local recurrence was 13 percent in the lumpectomy-only group and 9 percent in the oncoplastic reduction group (p = 0.34), and overall recurrence rates were similar (lumpectomy only, 15 percent; oncoplastic reduction, 24 percent; p = 0.13). Overall, surgical intervention (lumpectomy alone versus oncoplastic reduction) was not associated with local recurrence or any recurrence on univariate and multivariate analyses. Conclusion: Despite the oncoplastic reduction patients having a higher risk of recurrence and a more generous tumor resection, the long-term recurrence rates were equivalent when compared to breast-conserving therapy alone. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, III.