Aflatoxin production by Aspergillus parasiticus NRRL 2999 was inhibited when Ca2+ channel blockers, i.e. verapamil and diltiazem (>1 mmol l−1), were included in the culture medium. Inhibition was not accompanied by growth inhibition, nor was the [14C]‐glucose uptake by the organism altered. However, both the compounds inhibited [14C]‐acetate incorporation into aflatoxin B1 in a dose‐dependent manner and decreased sporulation of the organism. Even though a nutritional role for Ca2+ has not been demonstrated unequivocally in fungi, the present study suggests the importance of Ca2+ in the production of these secondary metabolites.


Lexical progression involves a process of network building whereby learners acquire depth of lexical knowledge. This includes the knowledge of a word's different sense relations, paradigmatic as well as syntagmatic, to other words. The focus of this article is a longitudinal study of young foreign language learners'acquisition of English adjectives. A series of tasks were developed to tap lexical relations between adjectives of emotion, e.g. the paradigmatic relations of synonymy and gradation, in order to study how a particular adjective such as thrilled finds its place among other near-synonymous expressions in the subfield HAPPY. Data were collected over a three-year period, so it was possible to study learner performance over time as well as across tasks. Findings revealed that network building is an extremely slow process and that some subfields are much more difficult than others. With the help of qualitative analyses, an account is given of the way in which particular adjectives become enmeshed – or fail to become enmeshed – in the meaning network of related words in the lexical field.


[Objective]The purpose was to study the production technology of deodorant of garlic odor.[Method]The products from amino-carbonyl reaction with the mixture of amino acid and reducing sugar as raw material were used as main components to produce garlic deodorant. [Result]The total contents of ammonia nitrogen in deodorant A and B were reduced by about 80%and 35%resp.after deodorization reaction. With the extract fluid of garlic as titration solution,the volumes of titration solution consumed by deodorant A and B,sodium glutamate,lysine, glucose and fructose were 6.4,6.2,0.4,0.8,0.4 and 0.5 ml resp.;the volumes of titration solution consumed by sodium glutamate,lysine, glucose and fructose heated at 100℃for 5 h were 0.5,0.6,0.5 and 0.8 ml resp.and the volumes of titration solution consumed by sodium glutamate, lysine,glucose and fructose heated at 150℃for 5 min under pressure were 0.5,0.7,0.7 and 0.8 ml resp.[Conclusion]The deodorant produced by this method needed short deodorization time and had high deodorization efficiency and could be used in combination with the other matters.


Various approaches have been proposed for solving collision avoidance problems in robotic systems [l, 2, 3, 4, 5, 61. In this paper we propose a method for designing an adaptive two layer fuzzy control system for collision-free trajectory control of a multiple robot system. The proposed method is based on the integration of Genetic Algorithms and Fuzzy Logic. The robots are considered as point masses moving in a common work space. The knowledge base which controls how to navigate in the work space without collision is determined by learning via Genetic Algorithms.


The purpose of this research is to ascertain how growth regulator concentration and type affect lime shoot cuttings (Citrus aurantifolia) growth. From November 2022 to February 2023, this study was carried out in Dusun III Pandanan Dukuh Biru RT 03/RW 01, Wonosari District, Klaten Regency, Central Java. At an elevation of about 118 meters above sea level, the research site is located. This study employed a CRD (completely randomized design) with two factors, namely three ZPT types at (Z1: extract of onions, Z2: coconut water, and Z3: IBA Chemical Hormones) and growth regulator concentrations (K1: 25%, K2: 50% , K3 : 75%). There were 108 experimental units totaling 36 with four replications and three sample plants each. The percentage of living cuttings, the age at which shoots appeared, the height of shoots, the number of leaves, the number of shoots, and root length were the parameters that were observed. used the One-Way ANOVA test of variance (Test F) at the levels of 5% and 1% to analyze the data. at a level of 5%, continued the Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) examination. According to the findings of the research, the treatment of various types of PGR significantly affects the age of shoot emergence, plant height, and number of leaves. ZPT concentration had a significant impact on plant height and root length, but there was no significant interaction between the two in any of the observed parameters.


A system has been developed for the real-time analysis of surface reactions during molecular beam epitaxial growth which uses photoelectron spectroscopy with VUV light taken from synchrotron radiation. This system consists of a synchrotron radiation beamline and growth/analysis apparatus in which photoelectron spectroscopy is performed with sub-second time resolution. In this system, photoelectron spectra are measured in sequence by a 'non-scanning' measurement method that enables the acquisition of snapshot photoelectron spectra using a multi-channel detector. This non-scanning measurement method was enabled by equipping an electric field correction grid. This system was used to monitor the photoelectron spectra of a GaSb(001) surface.


Abstract 4374 Introduction: Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a rare malignancy whose causes and epidemiology are not well known. The incidence of APL in the United States was estimated to be 0.22 cases per 100,000 population, and a higher incidence has been suggested in specific geographic or ethnic sub-groups. However, clinical and epidemiological data on APL arise primarily from clinical trials and single centre experiences rather than population-based data, which may lead to selection bias. We studied a cohort of APL cases in a well defined population using the diagnostic gold standard of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Methods: The Canadian province of Manitoba, with a population of 1.2 million, has a single referral centre for the definitive diagnosis and clinical care of all acute leukemia patients. Only one laboratory is capable of performing PCR based testing for the PML-RARA fusion gene product. We examined consecutively diagnosed patients with APL based on PCR testing from January 1999 until July 31 2010 in order to determine the incidence, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of patients with APL. Results: Over the 11.5 year period of observation, 24 patients were diagnosed with APL. Based on the 2006 Canadian census, the annual incidence of APL in Manitoba is thus 0.18/100,000 population. These cases did not appear to be distributed evenly, with an average of 1.1 cases diagnosed annually between 2002 and 2008 compared to six cases diagnosed in the most recent period between 2009 and 2010 (relative to 2002–2008, incident rate ratio (IRR) 2.61, p = 0.075) and ten cases diagnosed between 1999 and 2001 (IRR 2.94, p = 0.023). Symptomatic CNS disease at diagnosis was present in 3 (12.5%) patients. Thirteen patients developed differentiation syndrome during the course of their therapy (54.1%). In all but one patient, ATRA was able to be successfully resumed. Ten patients presented with DIC (41.7%). Conclusions: In this population-based study, we noted episodic clustering of new cases and a relatively high proportion of CNS disease at diagnosis. While these observations may be due to normal fluctuations in the patterns a rare disease, this could also suggest an underlying environmental trigger. Additional investigation is required to confirm or refute this hypothesis, due to the relatively small numbers in this cohort. The high rate of CNS disease suggests that this finding maybe more common than previously thought. As the pathogenesis of APL remains unclear, these observations deserve additional epidemiological investigation in larger cohorts. Disclosures: Kumar:Celgene: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees.


The audio playout structure in IP network and RTP/RTCP protocol is analyzed. The key techniques of several existing playout algorithms in audio transmission are improved and realized in simulation. The practical results show that the improved algorithm decreases the delay and rate of lost packet and can be used to make better the quality of audio transmission in Internet.


The development of high power (100's of kilowatts) ion engines may be greatly facilitated through the use of a technique which enables optimization of the discharge chamber to be performed without beam extraction. Ion thruster operation without beam extraction results in an experimentally determined decrease in the accelerator system transparency to ions from approximately 0.8 down to 0.22 for the standard J-Series thruster ion optics. This decreased ion transparency translates into a decreased propellant flow rate requirement for operation without beam extraction, enabling testing to be performed in smaller vacuum chambers with lower pumping speeds. Performance curves simulated without beam extraction are shown to agree well with actual performance curves obtained with beam extraction. Screen grid temperatures, however, are shown to be significantly higher without beam extraction due to the decrease in the accelerator system transparency to ions.


Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are widely used gene delivery vectors due to their ability to transduce dividing and non-dividing cells, their long-term persistence, and low immunogenicity. However, natural AAV serotypes have a limited set of tropisms. Directed evolution has been used to engineer recombinant AAVs to target specific cell types and tissues, leveraging next generation sequencing data. The deluge of data from these deep sequencing experiments has brought about data management and analysis challenges, for which there are no current commercially available solutions. Furthermore, classical approaches to analyzing data from directed evolution heavily involves manual inspection, and often overlooks patterns present in the larger datasets. To address these challenges, we developed robust cloud-based software that provides central management for next generation sequencing data, extracts variants, performs structural modeling, and can be extended to incorporate machine learning models to make predictions for variants with specific properties. The software is composed of a set of interconnected discrete components: a modern web user interface implemented in JavaScript with React, a relational database, a distributed task queue, task workers, and a Django-based API. This architecture allows computationally intensive tasks such as alignments, structural modeling, and machine learning to scale from a single machine to hundreds of machines, with minimal configuration. The software automatically imports and manages sequencing data from several different commercial and in-house sequencing providers. When the data is imported, sequence quality metrics are automatically generated and presented to the user. Variants are extracted by performing pairwise alignments between the natural serotype and the sequencing reads. The variants are further encoded into embeddings, grouped into families, and are analyzed for prevalent sequence motifs. We use the Rosetta software libraries to perform comparative modeling simulations on selected variants. Finally, we are developing and have extension support for Pytorch-based machine learning models to generate novel variants with desirable properties as well as to select candidate variants for additional rounds of optimization and characterization. This software represents a general tool for simple, scalable, and centralized analyses of next generation sequencing data for protein engineering by directed evolution, and could be generalized for all projects with large-scale deep sequencing datasets in the future.


Many decision problems have more than one objective that need to be dealt with simultaneously. Moreover, because of the qualitative nature of the most of real world problem it is an inevitable acti ...


Performing bio-catalysis in non-aqueous solvents is advantageous due to enhanced solubility of hydrophobic substrates, and capability of increasing the temperature for shifting the reaction equilibrium in forward direction. In this work we show design and development of another class of non-aqueous composite solvent obtained by mixing surface modified enzyme, and neat ionic liquid (IL). We systematically probe interaction and solubility of industrially relevant α-chymotrypsin in its native or surface bound polymer-surfactant bioconjugated form, with neat protic (N-methyl-2-pyrrolidonium trifluoromethanesulfonate; [NMP][OTf]), or aprotic (1-methyl-3-(4-sulfobutyl)-1H-imidazol-3-ium trifluoromethanesulfonate; [HO3S(CH2)4MIm][OTf]), ILs. Polarized optical micrographs show that lyophilized powder of native α-chymotrypsin, nCT, does not disperse in either of the neat ILs, however, its polymer surfactant (PS) coated bioconjugate counterparts, PScCT, in the water-less state, can be well dispersed and solubilized in the aprotic ionic liquid, [HO3S(CH2)4MIm][OTf]. The solubilisation of water-less bioconjugates of PScCT in neat [HO3S(CH2)4MIm][OTf] provides a composite liquid, WL-ImPScCT (WL: water-less, Im: [HO3S(CH2)4MIm][OTf]), having viscosity of ≈ 75 Pa.s at 25 °C with a shear-thinning behaviour, ≈15 w/w % α-chymotrypsin content, and ≈ 1.2 w/w % residual water content. Detailed secondary structural analysis using circular dichroism, and Fourier self-deconvolution on the ATR-FTIR data of WL-ImPScCT liquid reveals retention of near native secondary structure of α-chymotrypsin. Further, using a combination of fluorescence spectroscopy and electron spray ionization mass spectrometry, we show that scattering of dry and powdered bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein on the WL-ImPScCT composite liquid, results in the solubilisation of the former, followed by limited proteolysis of the albumin by the α-chymotrypsin. Our results, therefore, show the stabilization of α-chymotrypsin in a neat aprotic IL environment, to yield a composite liquid, which not only acts as a non-aqueous, non-volatile, and environmentally benign solvent, but also provides a biocatalytic platform capable of carrying out reactions relevant for biotransformations, food processing, drug delivery and various other applications.


This chapter traces the critical history of Charles Brockden Brown's Ormond; or, The Secret Witness from its early reception as a formally flawed novel through more recent scholarship that reads the novel through the lenses of gender and sexuality, revolutionary politics, and the birth of Gothic fiction in America. However, by focusing on narratives of contagion and conspiracy in Ormond, this chapter also argues that scholars should embrace the novel's transgressive form not as flawed but as a radical commentary on the possibility of political and biological indistinction. Set in a young nation besieged by pestilence and revolutionary ideals, Ormond invites readers to contemplate the impossibility of maintaining rigid physical (or ideational) boundaries in a transatlantic world bound together by bodies (and ideas) in perpetual contact.


This paper first considers the policy reasons for why the international community should define terrorism, focusing on arguments that terrorism: (a) seriously violates human rights; (b) jeopardizes the State, deliberative politics and the constitutional order which sustains rights; (c) is politically or publicly motivated violence distinguishable from private violence; (d) threatens international peace and security; and (e) requires definition to control the operation of mandatory Security Council measures since 2001, which have empowered States to unilaterally define and criminalize terrorism to suit their own sovereign interests. Secondly, this paper briefly outlines recent proposals for an international definition of terrorism before extrapolating the basic elements of an international definition of terrorism from the policy reasons for definition discussed in the first part of this chapter. Finally, claims that certain conduct should be excluded from any definition of terrorism are considered. A coherent legal definition of terrorism might help to confine the misuse of the term by national governments against their political opponents and in ways which seriously undermine fundamental human rights.


Abstract One argument against using cost-benefit analysis to justify policies aimed at promoting human life and health or protecting the environment is that it requires putting a price on priceless goods. This distorts the value of these goods, and it can affect their value by cheapening them. This argument might be rejected by a moral consequentialist who believes that a rational agent should always be able to reflect on his values, even priceless goods, and assess their costs and their importance. This article defends the argument against cost-benefit analysis and suggests that a proper understanding of priceless goods shows that they also raise difficulties for consequentialist moral theories.


The various pre‐trial stages of these complex proceedings have been discussed in previous issues of this Journal in Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 70–72, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 274–280, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 359–364 and the factual background explained. Depositors in the UK branch of BCCISA (part of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International group which collapsed in 1991 leaving large scale losses) had brought actions for damages in respect of their uncompensated losses against the Bank of England (the Bank) in relation to its discharge of its statutory functions under the Banking Act 1979. They argued (1) that the Bank's licensing as a deposit‐taker and subsequent supervision of BCCI amounted to misfeasance in public office and/or (2) that they had, under European law, enforceable rights against the Bank conferred on them by the First Council Banking Co‐ordination Directive (77/780/EEC) which the Banking Act 1979 implemented in the UK. In May, 2000 the House of Lords definitively settled as a matter of law the second ground of the claimants' argument ruling that the European Directive in question did not have the effect of conferring rights in damages against the Bank on the depositors. In the same judgment the House of Lords ruled as a matter of law that the essential elements of the tort of misfeasance in public office (which by this stage is the only possible legal ground of claim available to the depositors) were to be found 'where a public officer acts knowing that he has no power to do the act complained of and that the act will probably injure the [claimant]. It involves bad faith inasmuch as that the public officer did not have an honest belief that his act was lawful' (per Lord Steyn, House of Lords judgment of 18th May, 2000 in these proceedings). This 'reckless indifference' which must be proven to exist for a claim against the Bank to succeed must be judged in a subjective sense, their Lordships ruled last year, so that the depositor claimants needed to show knowledge on the part of the Bank that the decision of the Bank would probably damage the Appellants. The question of whether or not the facts pleaded by the claimants reveal a sustainable cause of action against the Bank or whether, as the Bank had argued throughout, they did not and the action ought to be struck out without proceeding to full trial was referred to another House of Lords hearing. It was from that subsequent hearing on whether or not the claim should be allowed to proceed to full trial of the substantive issue of the Bank of England's alleged liability that this decision was made.


Objective: To study the influence of high cell incubating temperature on AMP-activated protein kinase(AMPK) activity and lipid metabolites of piglets hepatocytes in vitro.Method: Primary hepatocytes of piglets about age 55d were separated and cultured under 37 ℃(control) or 42 ℃(heat stress).The anabolic and catabolic products of [14C]-oleic acid were detected for hepatocytes and culture media at 60min,120min and 180min.There were 9 replicates per time point.Result: Heat stress activated AMPK activity and enhanced fatty acid oxidation.The production of [14C]-CO2 and [14C]-acid soluble metabolites(ASM) was higher in heat stress group than in the control.At the same time,heat stress depressed the incorporation of [14C]-oleate into phospholipids,monoglycerides,triglycerides,cholesterol and cholesteryl ester.Conclusion: Heat stress activated AMPK activity and enhanced the formation of anabolic products and depressed catabolic products in piglets hepatocytes in vitro.


Abstract Sample Matrix Inversion (SMI) is a widely used method for assigning the weights of an adaptive antenna array. Standard SMI is a special case of a more general algorithm in which diagonal loading of the covariance matrix is used to improve weight convergence or to improve the suppression of weak interference signals. This paper characterizes the performance of the diagonally-loaded SMI algorithm as a function of the number K of snapshots used in the covariance matrix estimate by providing O (1/ K ) statistics (bias and variance) of the array weights, output powers, and output power ratios such as SINR and INR. The approach accomodates wideband signals, including a wideband desired signal. Monte Carlo simulations are provided to verify the theoretical analysis. In addition, the theory has been used to predict the performance of an experimental array testbed.


Many toll plazas are constrained in width by buildings or other physical barriers. These barriers may make the cost of adding toll lanes prohibitive. One method for increasing the capacity of a toll facility without increasing its width is to use tandem toll booths. A tandem toll booth consists of two toll takers in a single toll lane both serving alternating sets of vehicles simultaneously. The capacity of tandem toll booths is calculated with time-space diagrams and the cumulative headway distributions of vehicles at a conventional toll booth. The capacity depends on the maximum of two random variables, which correspond to the service times at the two booths, and is found by taking the product of their cumulative headway distributions. Adjacent tandem toll booths were found to increase the capacity of the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza by about 15 percent, and batch tandem toll booths increase capacity by 25 percent or more. Thus, tandem toll booths would eliminate the queueing that now exists during the morning commute period without the cost of expanding the toll plaza's width. (Author)


Protective effects of triterpenic acids, asiatic acid (AA), glycyrrhizic acid (GA), or oleanolic acid (OA), for two human bronchial epithelial cells, 16HBE and BEAS-2B cells, against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) induced injury were examined. Cells were pretreated by triterpenic acid at 4 or 8 μmol/L and followed by H2O2 treatment. Results showed that H2O2 significantly upregulated both Bax and cleaved caspase-3 expression, and also downregulated Bcl-2 expression in test cells. AA at these doses retained Bcl-2 expression, but GA and OA only at 8 μmol/L reserved Bcl-2 expression. Test triterpenic acids lowered cleaved caspase-3 expression dose-dependently. H2O2 treatment lowered Na+-K+-ATPase activity and mitochondrial membrane potential in cells. Triterpenic acid pretreatments significantly maintained mitochondrial membrane potential and Na+-K+-ATPase activity. H2O2 enhanced reactive oxygen species, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and prostaglandin E2 levels in test cells. Three triterpenic acid treatm...


It would be difficult to disagree with Professor Avi-Yonah that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the "TCJA")'s "foreign derived intangible income" ("FDII") provisions are vulnerable under WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM). The SCM bars "prohibited subsidies," which include "the allowance of special deductions directly related to exports or export performance, over and above those granted in respect to production for domestic consumption," in the calculation of income taxes.1 The TCJA's FDII provisions appear to provide just that: a special deduction for the export of goods that does not apply to sale of the same goods for domestic consumption. There are some additional points to consider. FDII does not apply to all exports, only to exports by U.S. taxpayers that have overall income in excess of a deemed return on their tangible assets.2 But this does not mean that the export subsidy is limited to intangible income. An export of goods can give rise to an FDII benefit even if the excess return is attributable entirely to domestic activities. FDII is not the only part of the TCJA that could attract WTO challenge, and there is uncertainty about whether such a challenge would take a different course from past challenges to U.S. tax law. The TCJA's "base erosion and anti-abuse tax" ("BEAT") may similarly constitute a prohibited subsidy. In fact, as the TCJA raced its way through Congress, the finance ministers of the five largest European economies called out BEAT, in addition to FDII, as potentially illegal under WTO agreements.3 BEAT imposes a minimum tax designed to limit a large, multinational corporation's ability to reduce its normal U.S. taxes through payments to foreign related parties. Although BEAT is styled as a 10% minimum tax, it is applied to an income base that excludes certain payments to foreign related parties and ignores certain tax credits, potentially increasing the effective tax rate to much more than the statutory rate of 21%.4 Deductions that can trigger BEAT include amounts paid or accrued by a taxpayer to a foreign related person for depreciable or amortizable property and, in the


Digital-based governance transformation is needed to respond to dynamic global challenges. This article aims to analyze institutional isomorphism through Mcdonaldization in a digital-based minimum service standard reporting system (e-monev SPM). Various studies show that governance needs to be dynamic, collaborative and innovative to achieve an efficient system by utilizing technological developments. In contrast to previous studies, this article argues that the transformation of governance in the reporting system for the implementation of digital-based Minimum Service Standards (e-monev SPM) indicates the occurrence of McDonaldization which is characterized by changes in rationality as a feature of modern society by utilizing technological developments that lead to the occurrence of institutional homogenization. This article uses a qualitative approach with multiple methods. Data were obtained from in-depth interviews, literature studies, secondary data, official documents and digital data. The findings of the data show the occurrence of McDonaldization in 4 (four) dimensions, namely Efficiency seen from changes in reporting mechanisms and speed, Calculability seen from the ability to be used periodically for interested parties, Predictability seen from content standardization and reporting time, and Control seen from e -monev as a digital-based tool to ensure regional compliance in reporting. The institutional homogenization efforts are indicated by the occurrence of Coercive Isomorphism related to the implementation of mandates regarding changes in the reporting system, Mimetic Isomorphism which is shown through the adoption of technology in the reporting system, and Normative Isomorphism which can be seen from organizational professionalization efforts related to increasing human resource capacity, facilities and infrastructure, cooperation, and budget. However, there is also an irrational dimension of McDonaldization rationality, which is related to the readiness of infrastructure and human resources. This article contributes to efforts to improve the quality of governance by utilizing technological developments through a digital-based reporting system .


This invention relates to a method for running any additional process in conjunction with the main processing that is executed in full-screen mode (full screen mode) or the mode window (window mode), such as online games. Executing main processing associated additional process method according to the invention, and the execution means adding process executed is inserted in the main processor, a first step of generating a child window of the main processing, the sub-process execution means is a sub for the main processing a second step and, the addition process executing means for classed and a third step to run the additional program in the child window, the additional image displayed on the child windows.


This paper uses micro data of China's listed companies from 2004 to 2011,and takes an empirical research about implementation of new enterprise income tax law on the enterprises' tax burden. Statistical and econometric analysis show that,after implementing the new enterprise income tax law,the listed companies' enterprise income tax burden is reduced,but the business tax burden has increased to a certain extent,and the effects of the new enterprise income tax law on enterprises' tax burden are different in different industries. In addition,Quantile regression results show that implementation of the new enterprise income tax law has different effects on tax burden according to different enterprises' tax burden level.


This paper presents experimental investigation of nano power generation, less than 1 kW size, using Thermoelectric Generator (TEG). The heat source is expected from waste temperature of incinerator, but in the laboratory experimental it was from electric heat source controlled by electronics device. A prototype of 0.02 kW system, comprising 24 modules of TEG bismuth telluride type connected in series, was built. The system is attached with cooling and temperature control to investigate the characteristics. Preliminary experiments and analytical models of electric output power as function of specific temperature were presented. An optimum output power could be set at a certain condition.


Obesity is recognized as a multi-factor metabolic change of epidemic proportions [1]. Factors such as inadequate dietary intake, sedentary lifestyle, patterns of physical activity, social and environmental variables were involved in the development of obesity [2]. Other factors like individual susceptibility; determined by unmodi ied factors such as genetic and family history factors were also considered [2].


Objective To inquire the curative effect and mechanism of Shenmai Zhusheye in children with acute viral myocarditis.Method To 65 instance virus myocarditis were divided into contracts observation series 34 instances and comparison series 31 instances.The former was treated by Shenma i Zhusheye besides the tradition method,and the letter only used the tradition m ethod.In the process of treating,not only the clinical symptom and sign,but also electrocardiogram,myocardium and cardiac function were observed.Result Availability of the observation series was 91.2 %,and comparison series was 71.0 %.The effect of observation series was hither than that of comparison series (P0.05).Conclusion Shenmai Zhusheye can raised the clin ical curative effect in children with acute viral myocarditis.


In this atlas, sections of anatomical specimens are correlated with corresponding MR images of the entire human body. Normal structures and the topographic relationships between them are demonstrated in the three standard planes (axial, coronal, and sagittal).


Agriculture and Growing Up: Milk and Wine in Genesis and the Odyssey Jack Klempay, Columbia University In the book of Genesis, the patriarch Jacob prophesizes that his son Judah will one day become a great leader and that "the scepter shall not depart from Judah / nor the ruler's staff from between his feet" (Genesis, 49.10). Most interesting, however, is the way in which Jacob predicts that Judah will earn "the obedience of the peoples" (Genesis, 49.10): Binding his foal to the vine and his ass's colt to the choice vine, his eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk. (Genesis, 49.11-12) This allusion to milk and wine is not alone in ancient Western literature and is highly symbolic. From the Greek epics to the Old Testament, milk is associated with herders, and wine is associated with farmers. Normally, these words--milk and wine, herder and farmer--are set in opposition, but in Judah, they are combined. In the Odyssey, however, a different story emerges: Odysseus, who represents of a largely agricultural Greek society, encounters Polyphemus and the Kyklopês, a group of barbaric herders who live without a law to bless them. Here the two come into conflict, with Odysseus ultimately outwitting Polyphemus thanks to his wine-skin and his agricultural technology. These two literary figures represent two different moments in the history of human society. Judah is a transitory figure, reflecting a historical transition from hunting and gathering to an agricultural community, still tied to his past but looking forward towards his future. Odysseus, on the other hand, is a sort of


Introduction: Implantable defibrillators have proved effective in terminating potentially life‐threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmias in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), although the timing of appropriate shocks may be exceedingly variable.


The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on marketing of cannabidiol (CBD). "Cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds are subject to the same laws and requirements as FDA-regulated products that contain any other substance," said Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless, M.D., last month. "We are working to protect Americans from companies marketing products with unsubstantiated claims that they prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure a number of diseases or conditions. This is especially concerning when companies are peddling unproven CBD products for use in vulnerable populations like infants and children. We've sent numerous warning letters that focus on matters of significant public health concern to CBD companies, and these actions should send a message to the broader market about complying with FDA requirements. As we examine potential regulatory pathways for the lawful marketing of cannabis products, protecting and promoting public health through sound, science-based decisionmaking remains our top priority. We appreciate the FTC joining us on these and other actions to protect consumers from fraudulent CBD products." As described in the warning letter issued to Rooted Apothecary, the company used product webpages, through its online store and social media websites, to make unfounded claims about its CBD products, and some of the products were also unlawfully marketed as dietary supplements. The agency has determined that CBD products cannot be marketed as dietary supplements. Examples of the unsupported claims made by the company include: • "Instead of synthetic chemical[s] that can have safety concerns, this blend uses the best of nature to help calm the inflammation and pain of teething, while also promoting sleepiness for your little one." • "No matter what age, ear aches are a terrible, no good way to live each day! Our main priority was safety, effectiveness ... as we formulated this for the entire family including our precious little ones. When the pain is bad, this roller goes to work for soothing pain, inflammation, and to battle against the bacterial/ viral critters to blame." • "Increasing evidence suggests that CBD oil is a powerful option for FDA From the


Abstract : The thermal decompositions of copper chromate and copper chromite have been examined by simultaneous thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis. Decomposition proceeds in successive stages ultimately yielding cuprous chromite and cuprous oxide from both copper chromate and copper chromite. Alternate successive exposure of the catalyst at 400-420C to fuel (ammonia, isobutene or ethylene) and oxygen showed that after the initial reduction, a redox cycle occurred between cupric oxide and copper. Both stages of the redox cycle were associated with exothermic reactions. No redox cycle was observed when methane was used as a fuel. When perchloric acid was used as oxidizer, an irreversible weight change occurred, along with the oxidation part of the redox cycle. The relevance of these results to the mechanism of composite propellent catalysis is discussed.


The invention relates to a method for preparing a semi-inorganic styrene-acrylic silicon steel insulating coating through in-situ compatibilization polymerization. The coating comprises the following components in parts by mass: 100-200 parts of dihydric phosphate, 0.5-2 parts of nanometer SiO2, 800-1000 parts of deionized water, 20-50 parts of acrylate, 5-10 parts of acrylic acid, 20-45 parts of styrene, 1-5 parts of emulsifier, 0-2 parts of polyvinyl alcohol, 0.5-2.5 parts of initiator, 0.5-2.5 parts of sodium bicarbonate, 0.5-2 parts of coupling agent and 10-15 parts of glycerine. According to the invention, the dihydric phosphate aqueous solution is directly adopted as the inorganic component and the emulsion polymerization reaction of styrene-acrylate is carried out to prepare the electrical steel insulating coating. The method disclosed by the invention has the advantages that the good compatibility between the inorganic component and the organic emulsion is guaranteed; the stability of the coating is increased; no harmful element is contained; the coating has good combination property at the same time.


Ferritin is a positive acute phase reactant, exhibiting increased levels in blood during the acute phase response. Nevertheless, the precise role of ferritin as an acute phase reactant remains to be clarified. As for other acute phase proteins, ferritin is produced and secreted by hepatocytes. However, ferritin is also produced and secreted by other cell types, including macrophages and cancer cells. Many isoforms of ferritin (isoferritins) are found in the body, depending on the H-subunit to L-subunit ratio in the ferritin protein shell. The subunit composition of ferritin molecules is a major determinant of the functional properties of the ferritin isoforms. Expression of ferritin and its subunits is governed by the amount of metabolically available iron, the presence of oxidative stress and both proand antiinflammatory cytokines. Ferritin as an acute phase reactant is well known for its intracellular iron sequestration and storage abilities during immune activation (Weiss & Goodnough, 2005). This function is of high importance for protection of the body against microbial proliferation, oxidative damage, inflammation and cancer. Although the regulation of iron appears to be a primary function of ferritin in both normal conditions and during the acute phase response, other functions, beyond the control of iron bio-availability, have also been described. Although more investigations are required in order to clarify the precise role of ferritin as an acute phase reactant, this chapter shows a synopsis on the present knowledge on ferritin during the acute phase response. In the first part of this chapter (2-4), the processes of iron sequestration, storage and release by the ferritin molecule, the significance of the presence of isoferritins, and the regulation of the expression of ferritin by iron are described. In the next section (5) changes with diseases, and possible significance of extracellular (plasma) ferritin is discussed. In the last section (6-11) the differential up-regulation of H-subunit rich ferritins during the acute phase response, the importance of H-subunit rich ferritins in the withholding of iron by the macrophage, as well as its role in immune modulation, its pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic activities, and variations in cancer are addressed.


This study examines the Hikayat Johor or the Johor Annals as a significant chronicle in the history of modern Johor. It is preceeded by a brief narration of the author of Hikayat Johor, Major Dato' Mohd. Said bin Hj. Sulaiman, the private secretary to the late Sultan Ibrahim of Johor (r. 1895-1959). It is then followed by the analysis on several events and issues derived from the hikayat as a means to evaluate its historical value based on existing primary and secondary sources relating to historical development of Johor in the second half of the 19th century. This work was published in 1908 and reprinted ten times from 1911 to 1955 to commemorate Sultan Abu Bakar (r.1862-1892) who laid the foundation of modern Johore sultanate currently presiding in Johore.


A method for providing a user interface screen in a device includes receiving a user input for manipulating a user interface of a printer driver installed in the device, determining a type of an input used for the received user input, determining a display style of the user interface corresponding to the determined type of the input, and providing the user interface presented in the determined display style.


In recnt years there are more and more the call to reflect upon literary theory.The"surpassing the bounds"of literary theory is an important problem in this reflection. Some middle-age scholar consider that in the age of cultural study literary theory should surpass the bounds and study new cultural phenomenon in the contemperory life, so they didn't pay longer close attention to literature itself. Some other scholar didn't agree with it, they admit the reasonable aspect of cultural study, but they consider that the object of literary theory is literature, not other things, because literarure didn't end.


the historians of science have only recently learned of the existence of a sixth volume of the grandly conceived work of the abbé raffaello caverni entitled storia del metodo sperimentale in italia. five volumes had already been published between 1891 and 1898. the sixth volume was published, one might say, in an almost furtive way. in fact, the first notice of it was given in a journal by aldo mieli just a few months ago. among materials he is collecting under the heading, "for a biography of the italian historians of science," in addition to other things already said about caverni in a previous issue, mieli has published the following "information received from g. vacca": "the printing of the sixth volume of the history of the experimental method in italy dealing with the history of hydraulics had been started but was interrupted by the author's death. about 450 pages have been printed, the greater part of the copies of the loose sheets have been lost."


The paper illuminates the innovation in software – technical issues related to the concept of intelligent factory presented at TMTS show (Taiwan 2016). Programs and systems for monitoring and management of machines and production lines. And independent actions taken by machine manufacturers to adapt their products to the idea of Industry 4.0.


The nursing profession is constantly evolving to meet patient and population need, with nursing staff continually advancing their practice and skills to provide high-quality patient care.


32 Background: Primary care physicians (PCPs) provide essential support for cancer patients. Both primary and cancer care have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the US, cancer related encounters and screening decreased over 40% and 80% respectively in January to April 2020 compared to 2019 (London et al JCO Clin Cancer Inform 2020). However, the impact of the pandemic on primary care access for cancer patients remains unclear. Methods: This was a population-based, retrospective cohort study using administrative healthcare databases held at ICES in Ontario, Canada. Patients with a new gastrointestinal (GI) malignancy diagnosed within the year prior to the pandemic, between July 1 and Sept 30, 2019 (COVID-19 cohort), were compared to patients diagnosed in years unaffected by the pandemic, between July 1 – Sept 30, 2018 and July 1 – Sept 30, 2017 (pre-pandemic cohort). Both groups were followed for 12 months after initial cancer diagnosis. In the COVID-19 cohort, this allowed for at least 4 months of follow-up data occurring during the pandemic. The primary outcome was number of in-person and telemedicine visits with a PCP. Secondary outcomes were number of in-person and telemedicine visits with a medical oncologist, number of emergency department (ED) visits, and number of unplanned hospitalizations. Outcomes, reported as number of visits per person-year, were compared between the COVID-19 and pre-pandemic cohorts. Results: 2833 individuals diagnosed with a new GI malignancy in the COVID-19 cohort were compared to 5698 individuals in the pre-pandemic cohort. The number of in-person visits to PCPs per person-year significantly decreased from 7.13 [95% CI 7.05 – 7.20] in the pre-pandemic cohort to 4.75 [4.66 – 4.83] in the COVID-19 cohort. Telemedicine visits to PCPs increased from 0.06 [0.05 – 0.07] to 2.07 [2.01 – 2.12]. Combined in-person and telemedicine visits to PCPs decreased from 7.19 [7.11 – 7.26] to 6.82 [6.71 – 6.92]. In-person visits to medical oncologists decreased from 3.73 [3.68 – 3.79] to 2.87 [2.80 – 2.94], and telemedicine visits increased from 0.10 [0.10 – 0.11] to 0.95 [0.91 – 0.99]. Combined in-person and telemedicine visits to medical oncologists remained stable (3.84 [3.78 – 3.89] vs. 3.82 [3.74 – 3.90]). The number of ED visits per person-year decreased from 1.04 [1.01 – 1.07] in the pre-pandemic cohort to 0.93 [0.89 – 0.97] in the COVID-19 cohort. Unplanned hospitalizations did not show a significant change (0.56 [0.54 – 0.58] vs. 0.53 [0.50 – 0.56]). Conclusions: PCP visits for patients with newly diagnosed GI malignancies overall decreased during the pandemic, with a dramatic shift from in-person to telemedicine visits. Visits to medical oncologists also shifted from in-person to telemedicine, but the overall combined visits remained the same. While the number of ED visits decreased, the shift in ambulatory practices did not seem to impact the number of unplanned hospitalizations.


The utility model relates to a shower. The technical problem to be solved is that the shower has the characteristics of saving water and electricity and facilitating operation and use. The technical scheme is that the multifunctional water-saving and electricity-saving sensitive shower comprises a circuit module and a sprinkler, wherein the circuit module is connected with an electromagnetic valve and an infrared main probe respectively by a leading wire; the sprinkler is communicated with the water source by a water pipe; and the electromagnetic valve is arranged on the water pipe. The multifunctional water-saving and electricity-saving sensitive shower is characterized by also comprising a tray which is used for placing a showering liquid and a cream shampoo; an infrared sub-probe is added on the tray; and the infrared sub-probe is also connected with the circuit module by the leading wire. The electromagnetic valve is also provided with a time delayer which is connected with the electromagnetic valve in a time delay way. And the delaying time of the time delayer is 1 to 3 minutes.


ABSTRACT This article offers a reparative textual analysis of the fat representations and comedy in the first seasons of the sitcoms American Housewife and Super Fun Night. These series navigate a discursive terrain that increasingly encourages individual body positivity while not overtly pushing back against discourses of the "obesity epidemic." These narratives and representations of individual body positivity or acceptance that avoid or fail to engage with larger systemic and political critiques construct a fat ambiguity that may nevertheless create important televisual space for more diverse and less oppressive ways of understanding and representing fatness.


We present evidence of the passivation of the CdTe back interface by the application of a thin arsenic doped selenium layer. Surface photovoltage spectroscopy measurements are presented indicating the reduction of band bending on the rear surface of completed cadmium telluride photovoltaic cells.


Newly available high quality inexpensive digital 1394 cameras enable cheap and easy construction of omnidirectional cameras. We address several important issues for creating real-time panoramas, including user-assisted focusing, devignetting, and computer controlled brightness, contrast, and white balance. We demonstrate remarkable improvements in panoramic image quality using methods requiring very little CPU usage.


The patch-clamp technique has revolutionized studies of ion channels in a wide variety of cells. Its development in the late 1970s and early 1980s made it possible to analyze the currents of single ion channels. However, electrophysiological recordings of these proteins were limited to the plasma-membrane of living cells: the small size and the doublemembrane organization of some cell organelles and the reduced stability of intracellular membranes precluded an implementation of this technique to investigate the properties of channels located in mitochondria, chloroplasts, the endoplasmic reticulum or lysosomes. For the last 25 years great effort has been made to implement the patch-clamp technique besides the planar lipid bilayer approach on these organelles. In this mini-review we focus on the developments and applications of the patch-clamp technique on mitochondrial and other cytosolic membranes and discuss the challenges of different, innovative approaches.


The tremendous progress of vision-to-language retrieval over these years is fueled by contrastive vision-language pretraining (VLP), such as CLIP. Although, contrastive methods do not exhibit the same level of performance on other downstream tasks (e.g., video question answering and natural language grounding). One possible reason is they ignore the misalignment between vision and language, especially the absence of spatial information in language. To mitigate this issue, We start from a new perspective and propose a contrastive VLP framework with spatial reconstruction on text (SpaceCLIP). Specifically, we introduce a unique reconstruction method to assign text representations into the same spatial structure with images or videos and a pretraining objective, SpatialNCE, to reduce the computational overhead and ensure performance on downstream tasks. Empirically, we show SpaceCLIP outperforms other methods with performance gains ranging from 2.1% up to 9.0% on MSRVTT and EgoCLIP multiple-choice questions answering, 2.5% up to 11.0% on EPIC-KITCHENS-100 and MSRVTT multi-instance retrieval, and 0.31% up to 7.2% on Ego4D natural language query benchmark.


We study the renormalization group running of the cosmological and the Newton constants, where the renormalization scale is given by the inverse of the radius of the cosmological event horizon. In this framework, we discuss the future evolution of the universe, where we find stable de Sitter solutions, but also 'big crunch'-like and 'big rip'-like events, depending on the choice of the parameters in the model.


The Clemson GRB Follow‐Up program utilizes the SARA 0.9‐m telescope to observe optical afterglows of Gamma Ray Bursts. SARA is not yet robotic; it operates under direct and Target‐of‐Opportunity (ToO) interrupt modes. To facilitate rapid response and timely reporting of data analysis results, we developed a software suite that operates in two phases: first, to notify observers of a burst and assist in data collection, and second, to quickly analyze the images.


In strategic management, strategy analysis includes an analysis of a company's strategic position. In particular, the PESTEL framework serves to analyze a company's macroenvironment, i.e., the political, economic, social, technological, ecological, and legal factors that influence a company's strategic position. In this paper, we demonstrate a modeling tool for PESTEL analysis implemented in MetaEdit+ using iStar 2.0 notation. Semantic technologies then serve to infer new knowledge from PESTEL models, namely the opportunities and threats that a company faces.


Fractional frequency reuse for the downlink of multicellular WiMAX networks is examined in this work. Three different schemes are evaluated through simulations, including distance-based and SINR-based approaches, as well as a new scheme which is based on load-balancing between different reuse regions. The proposed load-balancing scheme overcomes the main weakness of the SINR-based approach, namely its inability to manage efficiently the available resources of both Reuse-1 and Reuse-3 zones, as their size varies. The simulation results exhibit a clearly better performance of the proposed algorithm compared to distance-based and SINR-based approaches. It is shown that the employment of fractional frequency reuse with the proposed load-balancing approach improves the performance of WiMAX networks in terms of a variety of metrics, such as blocking probability and achievable bit rate.


Abstract A typological research strategy can distort the analysis of Upper Paleolithic stone tools because it is ill-equipped to distinguish stylistic and functional similarity. This lack can make the significance of formal stone tool types in either culture-historical or behavioral analysis ambiguous. "Attribute analysis," as it is being developed with French Upper Paleolithic materials, is introduced as an alternative strategy. The stylistic and functional analysis of burins in three Upper Paleolithic cultures, the Perigordian VI, the Proto-Magdalenian , and the Magdalenian II-III, is presented as an example indicating the advantages of one approach over the other.


Compositions, kits and methods of preparing a biocompatible film for cosmetic or medical uses are disclosed. The compositions or kits contain polyvinyl acetal (PVA), siloxane and a solvent. The siloxane can have a hydrophilic group. Once the solvent content is reduced, for instance, by evaporation, the mixture of PVA and siloxane is solidified, forming a film. The compositions and kits, optionally, further include one or more of an antimicrobial agent, a pigment, an anti-inflammatory agent, an anesthetic agent or a hemostatic agent. Such a film can be used, for example, in the form of an antimicrobial sealant, a liquid bandage, body paints, scar camouflage, water-proof sun block, makeup sealer, or antimicrobial wipe or spray.


(57) Abstract: plastid 2-oxoglutarate / malate transporter, especially spinach (Spinaciaoleracea) from the obtained plastid 2-oxoglutarate / malate transporter, a DNA molecule encoding, and the DNA molecule bacterium having, fungi, transgenic plant cells, and transgenic plants are disclosed.


Objective To investigate the knowledge about menstruation and influencing factors among women in urban and rural areas in China. Methods Data of 2625 unmarried women in urban and rural areas in Mainland China were collected from the results of the National Population and Reproductive Health Survey 1997 so as to analyze their knowledge about menstruation and possible influencing factors. Results The general knowledge rate of menstruation was 67.35% (71.45% for urban women and 65.75% for rural women). The knowledge rate was higher among women in Southern China East China and Southwest China and among women of Han nationality. The later the birth time the more the education obtained the older the age of menarche the shorter the distance the residence and the township government for the rural women and the more the income the higher the menstruation knowledge rate. The sources of knowledge about menstruation included mother female friend and schoolmate teacher female family member and mass media. Conclusion Most of the Chinese women have some knowledge of menstruation. The major influencing factors include time of birth ethnicity education age of menarche region and place of residence. (authors)


Drosophila nephrocytes have been an object of study for more than a century. They were named by Bruntz, based on observations of cells around the heart, the central nervous system, and in the sternal area in scorpions.[1][1] Kowalevsky suggested that they function as a storage kidney, because they


Sufficient conditions are given for the existence and uniqueness of periodic solutions in the large for the nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equation $u_{xy} + a(x,y)u_x + b(x,y)u_y + c(x,y)u = f(x,y,u,u_x ,u_y )$. The method of proof consists of reducing the given problem to the finding of a unique fixed point of a certain integral operator in a suitable function space.


Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, with 129 400 new cases and 56 600 deaths estimated to have occurred in 1999 (1). Most cases of colorectal cancer arise from adenomatous polyps (2). Screening has been shown to decrease colorectal cancer incidence and mortality rates (3, 4), and various decision analyses support its cost-effectiveness (510). Despite demonstrated clinical and economic benefits, however, use of screening tests is low (1113). In a large population-based study, 19.8% of respondents reported having fecal occult blood testing during the preceding year and 30.4% reported having sigmoidoscopyproctoscopy during the preceding 5 years; 9.5% had had both tests (13). In a national strategy to decrease the burden of colorectal cancer, aspirin chemoprevention is a potentially powerful adjunct to screening. Numerous casecontrol (1421) and cohort studies (2226) support the hypothesis that aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) decrease the incidence of colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer and the mortality rate from colorectal cancer by 30% to 65%. Many animal models show that NSAIDs have an antitumor effect in the colon (27). However, the Physicians' Health Study, a randomized study of male physicians that was not designed to examine colorectal cancer specifically, found no decrease in colorectal cancer incidence when 325 mg of aspirin on alternate days was compared with placebo (28). These results may conflict because of the specific dose and duration used and the patients studied. Aspirin is of proven benefit in secondary prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and death (29) and in primary prevention of myocardial infarction in men (30). However, its use for primary cardiovascular prevention remains controversial, in part because mortality prevention is unproven and no randomized studies in women exist (29). Although it is well recognized that aspirin may cause major complications (3035), prophylactic aspirin is prescribed on the basis of cardiovascular considerations. In contrast, aspirin is unlikely to be prescribed for colorectal cancer prevention until better estimates of its benefits and risks become available. Since such data are unlikely to be available for the general U.S. population in the near future, we constructed a decision analytic model to explore the incremental clinical and economic effects of aspirin when it is added to an accepted screening program for sporadic colorectal cancer. Accepted screening programs consisted of flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years and yearly fecal occult blood testing (FS/FOBT) (8, 36) or screening colonoscopy every 10 years (COLO), an emerging alternative screening strategy (710, 37). Our primary aim was to clarify whether aspirin chemoprevention might prove to be a cost-effective adjunct to screening. In secondary analyses, we examined the potential role of aspirin chemoprevention in an unscreened population and the effects of screening when added to existing aspirin use. Methods Literature Review We searched MEDLINE from 1980 to 1999 for English-language literature that provided data on colorectal cancer, screening, aspirin chemoprevention, and aspirin-related complications. Model inputs were based on the literature search and on rigorous literature reviews by a multidisciplinary expert panel from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (8) and by the Office of Technology Assessment (7) (Table 1). Table 1. Inputs in the Cost-Effectiveness Model Decision Analytic Model We created a Markov model using DATA 3.0 (TreeAge Software Inc., Williamstown, Massachusetts); Excel 2000 (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Washington) was used for analysis. The Markov model estimated the clinical and economic consequences of six strategies: natural history (no aspirin or screening), FS/FOBT, COLO, aspirin alone (ASA), FS/FOBT and aspirin (FS/FOBT/ASA), and colonoscopy and aspirin (COLO/ASA). Beginning at 50 years of age, patients progressed through the model for 30 1-year cycles; principal states were normal, polyp, cancer (localized, regional, or distant), and dead. The Markov model is discussed in detail in the Appendix. To reflect the effect of aspirin in the general population and not in an individual, we varied the percentage of persons in the population who adhered to screening. Using population-based data (13), we selected a screening adherence rate of 25% to reflect current practice. The general population, men, and women were examined separately. Natural History of Sporadic Colorectal Cancer We constructed a model of the natural history of sporadic colorectal cancer in patients at average risk for the disease. Epidemiologic data on colorectal cancer were derived from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program (38). According to results of autopsy studies, adenomatous polyp prevalence was assumed to increase from 15% at 50 years of age to 47% at 75 years of age (16% to 54% in men; 15% to 40% in women) (3941). We assumed that 90% of tumors develop from polyps and that cancer progresses from localized to regional (2 years in each state) to disseminated, with symptomatic presentation by stage as reflected in SEER data. Age-specific transition probabilities were calculated between normal, polyp, and cancer to yield polyp and cancer rates derived from the literature. Age-specific noncolorectal cancer mortality rates were derived from U.S. life tables (46). Effect of Colorectal Cancer Screening We selected FS/FOBT as an accepted strategy endorsed by published guidelines (8, 36). In the model, any positive test result was followed by colonoscopy and, if necessary, polypectomy. If the results of colonoscopy were normal, screening resumed in 10 years. After an adenoma was detected, surveillance colonoscopy was performed every 5 years. Although specific patients with high-risk or low-risk adenomas may undergo surveillance at different intervals, we chose 5 years to reflect the average surveillance interval for the population. Colonoscopy was performed at cancer diagnosis and 3 years and every 5 years thereafter (8). As long as results of screening tests remained negative, FS/FOBT was continued. Emerging data from clinical studies and decision analyses suggest that colonoscopy is a cost-effective screening tool (710, 37). Therefore, COLO was examined as an alternative screening strategy. In the model, colonoscopy was performed every 10 years as long as no adenoma or cancer was detected. Surveillance after adenoma detection was the same as that described for FS/FOBT. Effect of Aspirin Aspirin, 325 mg/d, was added to the screening and natural history strategies. In the base case, aspirin was estimated to reduce colorectal cancer risk by 30% through equal reductions in adenoma incidence and progression to cancer (1426). Aspirin may increase occult gastrointestinal blood loss (4753), which could affect the FS/FOBT strategy. In the base case, we assumed that aspirin did not affect fecal occult blood testing because increases in blood loss have been reported only with high doses (4853) and low doses have been reported to have no effect on fecal occult blood testing (5456). The protective effect of NSAIDs is not explained by earlier detection of adenomas or cancer (19, 26); however, increased sensitivity and decreased specificity of FS/FOBT in patients receiving aspirin were assessed in the sensitivity analysis. In the model, aspirin-related complications were followed by aspirin withdrawal and return to baseline risk for colorectal cancer. Using data from trials of low-dose aspirin, we calculated rates of excess serious complications in patients taking aspirin. The rates were 1.4 per 10 000 person-years in patients younger than 65 years of age and 28 to 40 per 10 000 person-years in older patients with cerebrovascular disease (30, 3234). The 1-year prevalence of serious gastrointestinal NSAID-related complications is estimated to increase eightfold after 65 years of age (31). Thus, we selected a base-case rate of 2 per 10 000 person-years before 65 years of age and 16 per 10 000 person-years thereafter for serious aspirin-related complications. We modeled mortality rates of 2% to 8% after a serious aspirin-related complication (4244). We did not include changes in cardiovascular outcomes in the base case for several reasons. First, the role of aspirin in primary cardiovascular prevention is controversial, largely because prevention of death is unproven (29). A recent decision analysis suggested that aspirin may be harmful in cohorts at low risk for cardiovascular events and may be only minimally beneficial as risk increases (57). Second, aspirin may increase the incidence of hemorrhagic stroke (30), and the balance of risks and benefits is unknown, particularly in women (29). Third, in patients with cardiovascular indications for aspirin, a potential effect on colon cancer is unlikely to affect prescribing decisions. Thus, we chose to examine the incremental benefit of colorectal cancer screening in a population already receiving aspirin. In the sensitivity analysis, we examined the effect of aspirin by assuming that it reduced cardiovascular mortality. Cardiovascular death accounts for 30% to 42% of deaths, depending on age (46). Costs Procedure costs were derived from Medicare fee schedules and include professional fees and median procedure reimbursement. We used the wholesale cost of aspirin at the University of Michigan pharmacy, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Complication costs were derived from relevant diagnostic related groups (45). Costs for care of stage-specific colon cancer were taken from reports to the National Cancer Institute (7). All costs are in 1998 U.S. dollars (Table 1). Outcomes Colorectal cancer cases by stage, deaths by cause, average life-years after age 50 years, total costs, and itemized costs were determined for each strategy. Costs and life-years were discounted


Objective To explore the clinical effect of BAL used for patients bronchiectasia.Methods 73 cases of patients with bronchiectasia were randomly divided into experimental group (n=37) and control group (n=36).Control groups were given routine comprehensive treatment,and experimental group were given therapy of BAL therapy on base of control group.Results The total effective rate in experimental group was 94.6%,the cure rate was 73.0%,the clinical effect was significantly better than that in control group (P0.05).Conclusions BAL therapy used for recovery of bronchiectasia,can significantly enhance clinical effect and improve the life quality of patients,so it deserved application and promotion in clinical work.


Ryan White developed AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) as a child, and he was unable to attend school in December 1984. When Ryan attempted to return to school in the fall of 1985 after recovering from his acute illness, the superintendent of schools in Kokomo, Indiana prevented him. After an extensive legal and administrative battle, Ryan attempted to resume his education in February 1986.2 Parents of other school children, however, fought to exclude him and they were successful in obtaining a court order barring him from school.3 Ryan finally was able to continue his education in August 1986 after another Indiana judge ruled in his favor because he had a health certificate declaring that he was not infectious to other children. 4 In January 1984 Raytheon Company refused to let its long-term employee, John Chadbourne, return to work after an absence due to his infection with AIDS. 5 On February 10, 1987, the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission decided that AIDS was a physical handicap under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and ordered his reinstatement. On appeal, the Superior Court found that AIDS was a handicap, thus finding discrimination based upon the AIDS virus was prohibited by state law. 6 Unfortunately, Mr. Chadbourne died before the hearing. Despite Mr. Chadbourne's death, the Commission ordered Raytheon to pay his estate $4359 in back pay, plus attorney's fees, since reinstatement was no longer a viable alternative. In March 1987 the State of South Carolina placed a woman under quarantine because she was HIV seropositive. She was first ordered confined to her house trailer, and when she violated that order, she was placed in a state mental hospital for observation. 7 Although the woman's chief means of support was apparently


The objective of this study is to understand the role of bark water uptake in refilling of xylem vessels after embolism in Salix matsudana. Further, we determined expression of genes closely related to xylem embolism repair. The isolated branch segments of S. matsudana were soaked in deionized water and after 2 h, the micro-computed tomography (CT) images, volume of xylem sap, osmotic potential of xylem sap, and the content of starch and soluble sugar were measured. At the same time, Illumina high-throughput sequencing (Hi Seq TM) was applied to obtain the xylem transcriptome profiling. The results showed that the soaked branches had 58.86 % fewer embolized vessels than branches before soaking. The volume of xylem sap was increased by 21.51 % in comparison with initial sample and the osmotic potential (Ψs) of xylem sap was decreased by 87.18 %. The content of ions and soluble sugars in the xylem sap significantly increased after soaking. Fourteen genes were clarified and found to have a significant correlation with osmotic potential of xylem sap. Our findings showed that water can enter the xylem vessels through the bark and can repair the xylem embolism in branches. The saccharides played an important role in osmotic potential difference formation and the genes UXL1 (uridine diphosphate-xylose synthase 1), UGDH (uridine diphosphate-glucose 6-dehydrogenase), BGLU40 (β-glucosidase 40), PPE8B (pectinesterase/pectinesterase inhibitor), UG1 (uridine diphosphate-glucuronate 1), and XYL4 (β-D-xylosidase 4)) were the key genes to promote embolized vessels refilling.


Two new tryptamine-related alkaloids, psychotrimine and psychopentamine, were isolated from the leaves of Psychotria rostrata, and their novel structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analyses.


Question: How does the risk of infectious disease transmission affect individual habitat selection decisions and the resulting spatial distributions of populations? Mathematical method: We use a differential equation model to describe disease dynamics in two habitats coupled by natal dispersal and use an evolutionary game theoretical approach to calculate the evolutionarily stable strategy for habitat choice. Key assumptions: Natal dispersal by offspring with ideal knowledge of habitats. Habitats differ only in resource quality. Fecundity is proportional to intake rate, which decreases with density. We assume density-dependent disease transmission, with infection reducing fecundity or lifespan. Disease may be present in both habitats or the high-quality habitat only. Conclusions: In the absence of disease, our model predicts input matching (i.e. the distribution of individuals matches the distribution of resource inputs). The negative fitness consequences of infection can result in undermatching (underuse of the high-quality habitat compared with input matching), but stable overmatching (overuse of the high-quality habitat) is never predicted. Increasing the risk of transmission increases the degree of observed undermatching when only the high-quality habitat is infected but reduces undermatching when both habitats present a risk of disease. Increasing the cost of infection by reducing fecundity reduces use of the high-quality habitat (undermatching) in both cases. Increasing the cost of infection by increasing mortality rates also reduces the use of the high-quality habitat when both habitats are infected; if only the high-quality habitat is infected, undermatching may initially increase with mortality but eventually decreases.


The morden Social rised higher request in people' s ability of education in order to change negelected students character from education' s purpose,for the sake of promoted student' s quality across the board.


We continue the research on the eeects of Monge structures in the area of combinatorial optimization. We show that three optimization problems become easy if the underlying cost matrix fulllls the Monge property: (A) The balanced max{cut problem, (B) the problem of computing minimum weight binary k-matchings and (C) the computation of longest paths in bipartite, edge-weighted graphs. In all three results, we rst prove that the Monge structure imposes some special combinato-rial property on the structure of the optimum solution, and then we exploit this combinatorial property to derive eecient algorithms.


Controllers for DC to DC Boost Converters have evolved from simple control method to those that involve the use of fuzzy logic controllers.   In many implementations, Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers are commonly employed.  In this paper, a genetic algorithm for tuning the PID controller of a DC to DC Boost Converter is hardware modelled and implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) using Verilog as tool for the design entry.  The goal of embedding genetic algorithm into the controller is to search for the best PID parameters that will yield fast settling time of the booster at an output of 6V.  The hardware implementation allows the controller to tune itself by searching for the best Kp, Ki and Kd values that will give the best settling time.  Significantly, this eliminates the need for a separate computer to do the searching routine.   Test results of the circuit implemented yielded promising results.   When compared to previous researches, the genetic algorithm employed yielded good PID parameters that resulted to a settling time as low as less than 60msec.


This research is a quantitative research that examines customer satisfaction and customer value of Zelika Company, West Papua Province. The aims of this study are: 1) To examine and analyze the effect of customer relationship management on customer value; 2) Test and analyze the effect of service quality on customer value; 3) To test and analyze the effect of customer relationship management on customer satisfaction; 4) To test and analyze the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction; 5) To test and analyze the effect of customer value on customer satisfaction. This type of research is explanatory research, using a quantitative approach with data collection methods through questionnaires, interviews and documentation, instrument measurements were measured using a Likert scale using five points. sampling method using the slovin method. Date analysis uses GeSCA (Generalized Structured Component Analysis) analysis. The research population was 230 respondents, the research sample was 146 people. The results showed that: customer relationship management has a significant effect on customer value, service quality has a significant effect on customer value, customer relationship management has a significant effect on customer satisfaction, customer value has a significant effect on customer satisfaction, and service quality has a significant effect on customer satisfaction.


The effects of stage of ripeness at harvest, harvesting methods and storage conditions on storability of organic long Cayenne pepper fruits were investigated. Fruits were harvested with or without pedicels, at 10 or 100% ripe stage and stored at ambient conditions (21.9-33.5°C and 58-62% relative humidity (RH), in refrigerator (4.0°C and 40-45% RH) or in evaporative coolant structure (10.0-15.8°C and 70-75% RH). Postharvest quality was assessed using percentage weight loss; and general appearance on a scale of 1-4. Means were separated by Duncan multiple range test (DMRT) at p<0.05. Refrigerated fruits had significantly lower WL between 3 and 30 days in storage (DIS) compared to those in ambient conditions or evaporative coolant structure. Between 9 to 30 DIS, fruits harvested with pedicel intact exhibited significantly lower weight loss compared to those without pedicels. Furthermore, fruits harvested at 10% ripeness had significantly lower WL of than those harvested at 100% ripeness during the storage period.


The salafiyah in deed has been developed since the early period of Islam
and it based its movement on the interpretation of the Quran recommended by
the salafus salih. In recent Indonesia, however, some people see that terrorism
has close relationship with this salafiyah movement. It is because both the
salafiyah and terrorism actors usually have similar characteristic in their way
of thinking and their behavior. This article is aimed to seek the relation between
the salafiyah doctrines and terrorism activities. The research shows that
the salafy doctrines have nothing to do with terrorism in Indonesia.
Keywords: Teologi, salafy, bid'ah


A mobile communication terminal and a method is provided to facilitate prepayment of a communication fee, whereby when a prepaid communication fee is depleted while using a mobile communication service, an alert signal and an announcement signal are generated and output, a channel occupied state is maintained and a hold condition is set to interrupt sending and receiving of communication signals, and an Internet connection is established to a selected financial institution to enable prepayment of an additional communication fee, thereby enabling continuous use of the ongoing mobile communication service.


The sense of the spontaneous polarization Ps for ferroelectric LiH3(SeO3)2 has been related to the absolute atomic arrangement with the use of anomalous scattering of neutrons from 6Li. The polar axis is almost parallel to the crystallographic c* axis. The absolute sense of Ps is antiparallel to c* with an experimentally determined magnitude of 15 × 10−2 C m−2. The calculated value, assuming point charges for Li+, H+, Se4+ and O2− is −9.8 x 10−2 C m−2. LiH3(SeO3)2 belongs to the three-dimensional class of ferroelectrics with essentially random displacement directions of the atoms at polarity reversal. The large value of Ps is the result of the oxygen displacements all having the same sense along the polar axis.


We investigate a hyperlens at l=1200 nm based on two fans of metal tips converging to a central zone where multiple nanoparticles have to be detected. The rich Green function of the system provides deep-subwavelength resolution, but sensitivity requires a novel dark-field scheme that we will detail, based on amplitude and phase control of the fields on the illumination fan.


ABSTRACT Existing studies on the impact of orphanhood on wasting in sub-Saharan Africa were historically conducted in East and South Africa. These studies have been interested in understanding how close kinship ties with household heads impact orphans' risk of wasting, considering economic resources in the household. The unavailability of secondary data in the past made exploring the idea difficult. Little is known on the subject in West Africa, particularly Nigeria. This research undertakes this topic by analyzing the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey Data and employing a multi-level logistic regression model. The research examines the interaction of being a paternal orphan or vulnerable child and the child's relationship to the household head on early childhood malnutrition as measured by weight-for-height z-score, wasting. It also ascertains whether the interaction effect varies with household income. Results show that, regardless of residence in poor or non-poor households, being a paternal orphan or vulnerable child coupled with being a grandchild produces the highest probability of wasting, especially in poor households. Further, results show that extended families and relatives, particularly grandparents-headed households, are not meeting the nutritional needs of paternal orphans or vulnerable children who are grandchildren, especially in poor households.


Introduction and objective. Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumour in women in Poland. In 2006, the Population-based Breast Cancer Early Detection Screening Programme was introduced in Poland to decrease the mortality of women due to this cancer. This study aimed to analyse the diagnostic methods used in the Population-based Breast Cancer Early Detection Screening Programme in the experience of one facility in Poland. Materials and method. The material for the study consisted of 1,411 questionnaires from women aged 50–69 qualified for enhanced diagnostics by a mammography performed in the first stage of the programme. During the study, a retrospective analysis of the documentation was performed. Results. Analysis of the convergence of BI-RADS scores between MMG and USG showed that the highest convergence was confirmed for a BI-RADS score of 4 and the lowest for a BIRADS score of 5. Comparing the sensitivity and specificity of MMG and USG after the acquisition of BI-RADS, BAC were more frequently chosen for enhanced diagnostics of breast cancer. However, cancer was significantly more often confirmed by BAG. Tumours were biopsied more frequently for BI-RADS scores of 4 and 5 in both MMG and USG. Core-needle biopsy was more frequently used to diagnose a BI-RADS score of 5 tumours in both MMG and USG. In contrast, fine-needle biopsy was more frequently used to diagnose BI-RADS scores of 3, 0 and 4 in mammography. Conclusions. The obtained results showed the highest sensitivity of breast cancer screening methods for BI-RADS MMG (4+5) and ultrasound (3+4+5). The highest convergence of results between MMG and USG is shown for a BI-RADS score of 4. Breast tumours are more often diagnosed by BAC, but cancer is more often confirmed by BAG.


In this investigation a dense array of 0.090-in. protruding rivets installed on the cylindrical section of a Lockheed Agena is considered. For comparison purposes, flush-rivet panels and protruding-rivet panels were instrumented for each flight. The downstream propagation of boundary-layer disturbances resulting from the presence of the roughness elements is also described. Presence of the roughness elements prolongs the existence of the turbulent boundary layer. Local transition Reynolds numbers for the roughened surface may be reduced to one-third the value for the corresponding smooth surface. Within the data accuracy, the roughness elements did not influence the turbulent flow heat-transfer coefficients.


Although ideal behavior in a mixture is normally defined on the basis of particular structural models, it would be desirable to introduce a concept of ideally based purely on thermodynamic basis. This consideration brings out that the most primitive concept of thermodynamic ideally is, in fact, that of free interchange between particles with the same chemical physical characteristics.


Field tests were carried out on Sihui metro depot of Beijing metro line 1 and its superstructure. The acceleration time history of sleepers and floors of the building was obtained, and the waves-propagation laws of building were studied through the tests. Test analysis shows that the structure vibrations show zigzag tendencies ascends with the height of the building. Based on current situation of Sihui metro depot, a metro-soil-building 3-dimensional finite element model is established on ANSYS. By using actual acceleration of sleepers as inputs, the dynamic responds rule of the superstructure is obtained. Compared calculation results with the experimental results, the given numerical model can predict the vibrations of the building induced by moving trains quite well. This method can provide guidance and technical support for future development of superstructure.


Dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) thermosetting resin has been characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique. The main monomer in DCPD resin is found to be in endo isomer form. Solid-state 13C cross polarization/magic angle spinning and 13C high-power decoupling NMR techniques have been applied for characterization of polymer network during curing and after cure. NMR spectra of carbon atoms in rigid phase and in mobile phase have been investigated. The possibility of three structural elements in polymer network was discussed. Solid-state NMR technique was applied to study of poly-DCPD oxidation. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Abstract Spalangiopelta ciliata n. sp. is described and represents a new record for the subfamily Ceinae (Pteromalidae) in North America.


There are large expanses of as yet untapped peat resources in the tropics potentially utilizable energy source. Indonesia has by far the largest occurrence estimated at 8.8 million hectares with peat thickness of greater than 2 m. The energy related characteristics of tropical peat appear not to differ substantially from those of sphagnum peat of the northern latitude countries in which peat has long been utilized for energy. are now several possible forms of peat product designed for practical use in electrical, heat, and steam generating plants, in industry, and in household application. Prospect of peat as an alternative source of energy in tropical countries, particularly in Indonesia appear promising. In the short term prospect of application in Indonesia would appear to be restricted to local use for small size generating plants and for household use. In the long term however, the possibility of Indonesian peat as an exportable commodity should not be ruled out. The possibility and potential of using the Indonesian peat and peatlands for various purposes including energy, call for an intersectoral coordination and cooperation in exploration and exploitation. Development of peat for agricultural, forestry, energy, and recreational uses can be complementary


Energy retrofit of existing buildings is based on the assessment of the starting performance of the envelope. The procedure to evaluate thermal conductance through in situ measurements is described in the technical standard ISO 9869-1:2014, which provides two alternative techniques to process collected data: the Average Method (AM) and the Dynamic Method (DM). This work studies their effectiveness using virtual data from numerical simulations of three kinds of walls, performed using a Finite Difference model. The AM always provides acceptable estimates in winter, with better outcomes when indoor heat flux is considered in every case except the highly insulated wall. Summer conditions do not lead to acceptable measurements, despite the fulfillment of the check required by the standard. The DM results show acceptable estimations of the thermal conductance in both climates, for most of the virtual samples considered, although critically depending on some parameters of the DM that are left to the user's discretion, without strict indications by the standard. This work highlights a possible approach for overcoming this issue, which requires deeper future investigation.


The semiconductor structure comprises a second layer comprising a first layer comprising a first semiconductor material, and a second semiconductor material. The first semiconductor material, using a first etch process, which is selectively etchable relative to the second semiconductor material. The first layer is disposed on the second layer. In at least a first layer, the recess is arranged. Also described a method of forming a semiconductor structure including a recess. The method includes the step of using a first etch process, to etch one region of the first layer. The first layer includes a first semiconductor material. The first etch process, stopping at a second layer below the first layer. The second layer comprising a second semiconductor material.


The chinook came early in January and worried stockmen were encouraged, but their hopes were thrown into reverse when, at the end of the month, a blast of brittle cold came out of the north that changed the melted snow into a coat of crystal armor and then covered it with a soft, treacherous mantle. The slender blades that held the hope of life were locked against pawing horse hooves and nosing cattle muzzles.


Management systems are part of virtually every organization. However, so far no systematic effort has been made to distinguish different stages in the adaptive process of management systems according to sophistication criteria. By building on existing theories in the areas of systems control, cybernetics, and general systems theory, this paper develops and presents a taxonomy of management systems. It is shown that flowing-equilibrium (F-E) management systems can explain systems behavior that cannot be explained by management theory based on cybernetics or double-loop learning. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


It needs more computation time to recognize conservative DNA sequences.Therefore,a parallel algorithm of transcription factor binding sites(TFBS) recognition was developed,which can discover a sequence pattern of given length from a group of DNA sequences.This algorithm is based on probability model and is achieved by iteratively searching.A corresponding program was implemented based on C language and MPI message transfer model,a three-node computer cluster was constructed successfully on the Windows platform,and a multi-sequence simulated dataset was tested,which consists of 20 sequences and each of which is 200 bases long.The successful experiment result indicated the efficiency of pattern recognition was improved greatly with parallel algorithm.


This paper proposes a new data-driven machine learning-based approach to estimate the volatility surface and infer the conditional Risk-Neutral Density (RND) from a crosssection of daily option prices. In order to retrieve the RND from option prices, one need to insure, among others, that the price of the options is convex with respect to the strike price. By designing an optimal design of the neural network, our paper proposes two new approaches to guarantee that the convexity constraint is always respected. The two proposed approaches follow the same economic principles but use a different number of layers in estimations. On top of the convexity constraints, the estimated measures are arbitrage-free, time-varying, computationally simple and fast to retrieve. To empirically demonstrate the properties of our approach, we recover the implied volatility and RND for the S&P500 options over a period of almost 20 years.


Aim of study: The study was conducted to examine impact of skidding traffic, trail slope, traffic frequency, and soil depth on the soil bulk density. Area of study: This study was carried out in the Kheyrud Forest in Hyrcanian forest, Iran. Material and methods: The level of soil compaction at eight levels of traffic (1, 4, 8, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 passes), four levels of skid trail slopes (0, 10, -10, and -20%) and three soil depth (5, 15, 25 cm) were applied in three replicates consequently. Bulk densities were measured on the undisturbed surface (control) and within the tracks. Timbers were extracted in the tree-length logging method using rubber-tired skidder (Timberjack 450 C). Main results: About 5.2% of total area of harvesting unit were disturbed and compacted. Uphill skidding increases compaction more than downhill skidding. In the four different slopes, the highest increasing of the bulk density was occurred during the first few passes of skidder, although the bulk density continued to increase in amount and depth with the number of passes. The increases in bulk density were still important at the maximum sampling depth of 20-30 cm. Research highlights: The results indicated that slope steepness had a strong effect on the soil physical properties and soil disturbance. Designated skid trails should be used to minimize the influence on the forest soil. Key words: soil compaction; tree-length logging method; rubber-tired skidder; Hyrcanian forest.


In this talk, I will discuss the ways in which probabilistic models of phonology can handle the existence of categorical units such as segments. I will frame the discussion by briefly examining the duality of gradience and categoricality in phonology more generally, and then describe some of the ways that the two can co-exist in phonological models. I will then give a concrete example of a probabilistic model of phonological relationships that relies on the existence of categorically distinct units, such as segments, that can be counted. This model (from Hall 2009) is designed to describe the exact degree to which two sounds (segments) are predictably distributed in a language, so as to more accurately account for cases of " marginal " contrasts.


The study presents the assessment of water quality of a recirculation aquaculture system (RAS). In this study, a laboratoryscale recirculation aquaculture plant was designed and fabricated to reduce, recycle and reuse fish farm wastewater. The system incorporates trickling filter as a biological treatment processes. Development of bacteria on the trickling filter was done by continuous recirculation of highly concentrated fish farm waste water for 16 days when a considerable mass of bacteria enough for nitrification was observed to have developed. In the experiment, two different systems were compared: a RAS with trickling filter and a conventional open pond system. A sample of effluent from the trickling filter was analyzed for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, dissolved oxygen, pH and total suspended solid. The result of the analysis showed that the water parameters in RAS were within acceptable level for African catfish culture; 32.89L of water was used up in the RAS for the 21 days culture and percentage increase in weight ranging from 17.69% 37.05% was observed in the RAS. This shows that the system was effective in producing required effluent quality for catfish fish rearing.


In this issue we wish to draw your attention to an issue of vital importance raised by Kommalage in his correspondence with the Galle Medical Journal. In his letter, he focuses on the changes to the requirements and procedure of accreditation of medical schools/ qualifications by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), and the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) and similar bodies. Some countries require ECFMG accreditation for a foreign medical graduate to work and/ or train in their respective health care facilities. These changes are to be effective from the year 2024, and at the moment there is no recognised local accreditation agency in Sri Lanka for this key purpose. The absence of adequate accreditation would potentially place the local medical graduates lost in the doldrums in the global medical arena. This calls for urgent, focused and purposeful action by the local medical fraternity.


To reinforce the adaptability of word segmentation model and make up for the inaccessibility of large-scale annotated corpus in military domain, we propose a self-adaptive word segmentation model in military domain based on conditional random field. The model adequately extracts the features of character, position and part-of-speech from texts to increase the accuracy of the general word segmentation model. Meanwhile, it introduces the boundary entropy and dictionary features, and realizes the self-adaptability of the word segmentation model in military domain, based on reverse maximum matching of word segmentation results using the military dictionary. The experiment shows when the training corpus is general and the testing corpus is military, the precision, recall and F1-measure value increased by 9.45%, 9.97% and 9.72%, respectively, compared with the CRF model in general domain, which effectively improves the self-adaptability of segmentation method in military domain.


Background: Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has substantially improved the survival of people living with HIV-AIDS (PLHAs). The individual and public health responsiveness to ART is, in turn, determined by ART-related knowledge of PLHAs. Objective: To study the knowledge of HIV positive individuals regarding ART and also to study its association with education and duration of HIV positivity. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary level hospital. The study participants were 102 PLHAs who were not yet started on ART and data were collected using a face-to-face interview. Results: The mean age was 35.5 years and 58.8% were educated to 10th standard. About 92.2% were married, and more than 70% belonged to rural areas. Nearly 11.8% felt that there is no treatment available. Surprisingly, 60.8% of the participants had incorrect knowledge about the correct time of initiating ART while 60 (58.8%) participants were aware that ART needs to be taken lifelong. 26.5% said that antiretroviral drugs were associated with side effects. As per predetermined knowledge scores, 79.4% had satisfactory knowledge regarding the treatment. A statistically significant (P = 0.03) relationship was observed between the knowledge scores regarding ART among the study participants and educational status while it was not statistically significant (P = 0.56) as regards duration of HIV positivity. Conclusion: There still exists a considerable gap in knowledge regarding treatment options for HIV/AIDS among the PLHA of this region. Hence, there is a need to increase the awareness regarding the same and implement the same into practice. Periodic counseling is necessary to increase awareness and to clear misconceptions about ART among PLHA.


Emperor Kangxi himself commanded the three-way army to crusade Galden whose main force was annihilated in the year thirty-five of Emperor Kangxi. The famous Emperor Kangxi's first crusading Galdan personally known by historian has a great impact on Galdan's regime and Qing government's realizing registration of Khalkha Mongolian successfully.