We present ISO SWS and LWS observations of the symbiotic star HM Sge. The infrared emission longward of 5m is dominated by a silicate dust shell. There is a number of high ionization emission lines superimposed on the dust continuum. The ISO continuum spectra can be tted with a single, optically thick silicate dust shell but such a model does not t other known properties of this system, such as the observed JHK colours, the optical visibility of the red giant and the occurrence of a dust obscuration event. We favour a two component model in which in addition to a partial Mira dust shell, a second dust component is associated with the hot source. This second shell is located at the interface between the Mira dust shell and the dust free region carved out by the hot component. This picture corresponds closely to that deduced independently from radio observations. The two dust components are very dierent. The dust envelope associated with the Mira is very extended and optically thin, whereas the second dust component is geometrically rather thin but dust rich. The model not only ts the ISO data reasonably well, but is also compatible with other IR properties of HM Sge. The thin dust shell contributes strongly to the dust emission over most of the ISO range. It may be the combination of the two shells that makes a symbiotic a D type. The general agreement of the present models with ISO observations indicate that radiation (rather than collisions) as the main dust heating mechanism is sucient.


In the course of development of digital library in China, it is very natural to have competition and integration. There are two crucial points -- one is to allow competition, another is to establish a healthy and orderly environment of competition. And in that time,we shall not only pay attention to the construction of databases,but also the development of new communication and networking technology, and improvement of information storage, transmission and retrieval.


Abu El-Asrar AM, Al Tamimi M, Hemachandran S et al. (2013): Prognostic factors for clinical outcomes in patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease treated with high-dose corticosteroids. Acta Ophthalmol 96: e486–e493. Dolz-Marco R, Gallego-Pinazo R & D ıazLlopis M (2011): Rituximab in refractory Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease. J Ophthalmic Inflamm Infect 1: 177–180. Errera MH, Fardeau C, Cohen D et al. (2011): Effect of the duration of immunomodulatory therapy on the clinical features of recurrent episodes in Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease. Acta Ophthalmol 89: e357–e366. Garcia-Valenzuela E, Tessler HH, Carnahan M et al. (2000): Multiple recurrences of exudative retinal detachment in a patient with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease. Retina 20: 672–674. Sachdev N, Gupta V, Gupta A & Singh R (2008): Posterior segment recurrences in Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease. Int Ophthalmol 28: 339–345.


In this study, we introduces a classification approach using Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP)with Back-Propagation learning algorithm and a feature selection algorithm along with biomedical test values to diagnose heart disease. Clinical diagnosis is done mostly by doctor's expertise and experience. But still cases are reported of wrong diagnosis and treatment. Patients are asked to take number of tests for diagnosis. In many cases, not all the tests contribute towards effective diagnosis of a disease. Our work is to classify the presence of heart disease with reduced number of attributes. Original, 13 attributes are involved in classify the heart disease. We use Information Gain to determine the attributes which reduces the number of attributes which is need to be taken from patients. The Artificial neural networks is used to classify the diagnosis of patients. Thirteen attributes are reduced to 8 attributes. The accuracy differs between 13 features and 8 features in training data set is 1.1% and in the validation data set is 0.82%.


Zonal flow helps reduce and regulate the turbulent transport level in tokamaks. Rosenbluth and Hinton have shown that zonal flow damps to a nonvanishing residual level in collisionless [M. Rosenbluth and F. Hinton, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 724 (1998)] and collisional [F. Hinton and M. Rosenbluth, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 41, A653 (1999)] banana regime plasmas. Recent zonal flow advances are summarized including the evaluation of the effects on the zonal flow residual by plasma cross-section shaping, shorter wavelengths including those less than an electron gyroradius, and arbitrary ion collisionality relative to the zonal low frequency. In addition to giving a brief summary of these new developments, the analytic results are compared with GS2 numerical simulations [M. Kotschenreuther, G. Rewoldt, and W. Tang, Comput. Phys. Commun. 88, 128 (1991)] to demonstrate their value as benchmarks for turbulence codes.


Through studying long foundation pits,a simplified computing model of diaphragm wall is established to improve model's computing efficiency.In the model,the hyperbolic nonlinear spring element was adopted to simulate the elasto-plastic interaction between the wall and the foundation soil.The model's calculation width is supposed to be that of the diaphragm wall segment and its six kinds of boundary conditions are determined according to the locations of the segments' junctions and the way they joint.Furthermore,soil stratifying and the supports' pre-force are considered.The model's computed results agree quite well with the in-place data by computing the diaphragm wall of one foundation pit in Tianjin.It gives a simple and effective computing method for simulating the process of foundation pits' excavation and for forecasting diaphragm walls' deformation.


Petri net is a powerful modelling and analysis mechanism, which facilitates a smart way to understand events and dynamic systems. This paper provides an analysis of several generations of mobile network systems, namely, UMTS, LTE, GPRS and MANET using Petri net. The detailed analysis shows that these protocols are robust, bounded and deadlock free.


Based on high energy demand of the primary production and losses during secondary production, alternative recycling of aluminum becomes a popular research topic. Compared to both primary and secondary production of aluminum, solid state recycling offers energy savings and reduced material losses during processing by surpassing an inefficient melting step. In this work, a direct recycling route for machining chips via pulsed electric current sintering (PECS) is evaluated. Therefore, necessary processing steps for a complete recycling route are briefly outlined. After cleansing, EN AW 6082 chips, provided by Neuman Aluminium GmbH, Marktl, Austria, are compacted with variable loads and consolidated via PECS on two separate systems to enable a comparison. Produced specimens are examined with density measurements, optical microscopy and the bonding quality is evaluated by Vickers micro-hardness measurements. In combination with elevated temperature and deformation, applied current promotes consolidation amongst chips and improvements in density, hardness and microstructure are achieved. The results of this work clearly show a positive effect of PECS on the bonding amongst chips, but further research will be necessary to separate and understand influences of single processing parameters. Additionally, all processing steps from collection to consolidation have to be taken into account to achieve industrial implementation.


The Criminisi method is a classical image inpainting method, which has flaw of unreasonable priority calculation. To overcome this flaw, we propose an improved Criminisi method. To improve the accuracy of a repaired block's priority, we propose a novel method by considering the continuity of structure and color information between the repaired block and its adjacent blocks. When searching the matching block for a repaired block, we compute the similar between two blocks as the sum of squared differences (SSD). Since different blocks within an image may contain different levels of information, we set block to different sizes to determine the best matching block. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


We introduce a new kind of soliton-impurity interaction by examining the phenomena generated by colliding multiple-wave solitons in quadratic nonlinear media with localized perturbations. We examine different models for the impurities and find regimes of soliton self-bouncing, tunneling, and trapping, depending on the impurity type. We show that the transition between the different regimes is governed, e.g., by the soliton energy, and in one of the models we derive a Snell-type law for the process. We propose an optical setting to observe the soliton bouncing predicted.We introduce a new kind of soliton-impurity interaction by examining the phenomena generated by colliding multiple-wave solitons in quadratic nonlinear media with localized perturbations. We examine different models for the impurities and find regimes of soliton self-bouncing, tunneling, and trapping, depending on the impurity type. We show that the transition between the different regimes is governed, e.g., by the soliton energy, and in one of the models we derive a Snell-type law for the process. We propose an optical setting to observe the soliton bouncing predicted.


Research of disease rate among athletes bear witness that during last years the first place as in all over the world take cardio-vascular system , the second – supportingmotor apparatus, the third – respiratory organs, e.g. discases the most sagnificant and are more frequent of hockey players. Muscle loads which rise because of increase of general level of fitness of athletes and increse in growth of skills by means of amount of training loads promote the exhaustion of athletes that in its turn doesnlt lead to healthy development of athletes' organism. Nature of injuries is direct correlation from level qualification of athletes, loads forcing, number of competitions. Reasonsof injuries, circumstances and conditions in which they happen depend on differenr factors both external and internal. Not uncommon external reasons causing certain changes in organism create internal cause. leading to injury. At present time in hockey trainings aimed at achieving high results on competitions put organism almost on edge of human capacity. That's why it's necessary to search for new means of athletes's state normal functioning recovery. Keywords—health saving methods; sport fitness; means of recovery; athletes; young hockey players.


Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that is characterized by inadequate insulin secretion by the pancreas or the lack in ability of the existing insulin to function properly. So, diabetes forms a fertile media for many diseases and embodies a risk to human-being's health. Unfortunately, the incidence of diabetes is increasing every year. Over decades, several strategies have been tried by specialists to control diabetes, some of which are medical and herbal. Although diabetes mellitus represents a growing global epidemic disease, at the moment there is no absolute solution at the molecular level that targets the disease. Despite the fact that bacterial functions, such as gut barrier stability and butyrate production, are crucial for preserving normal blood sugar and insulin levels, a growing body of evidence suggests that some naturally occurring gut bacteria are underrepresented in the intestinal tracts of people with type 2 diabetes (T2D){Sharma, 2019 #8}. In fact, we need to look at the possibility of using probiotics in the outpatient clinic. Probiotics have been demonstrated to be helpful for patients with diabetes mellitus, particularly at the cellular level, based on clinical trials and animal research, as well as their high tolerability. In preclinical investigations and human trials{Kocsis, 2020 #7}, probiotics have shown that they can lower insulin and fasting blood glucose levels in people with diabetes. Recently, probiotics have been used to treat a range of ailments, such as autoimmune conditions, allergic reactions, andinflammation. However, there was a lot of heterogeneity in these trials. Examples include the kind of species used, how many probiotics are used, and the level of effectiveness. In our review, we focused on reviewing the role of using probiotics as an adjuvant therapy for lowering blood levels of sugar and troubled metabolism of our body sugar. Keywords: probiotics; diabetes; type 2 DM; inflammation; adjuvant therapy.


This paper describes ongoing research into the development of multi-physics models of the electrodeposition process. This is part of the collaborative project - MEMSA (modelling the electrodeposition process for microsystems applications) - between the universities of Greenwich and Heriott-Watt, and our industrial partners: Merlin Circuits and Raytheon Systems. The aim of this research is to build numerical models that can predict all aspects of the electrodeposition process, and to verify these models against experimental data gathered. This paper focuses on model development for (i) the represention of the moving interface through a level-set technique, and (ii) the implementation of the associated moving boundary conditions and source terms together with considerations regarding the electrode kinetics boundary condition. Accurate modelling of the electrode kinetics is crucial to any electrodeposition model as it drives the deposition process and influences the distribution of the solved variables of which it is itself a non linear function. The multi-physics code PHYSICA provides the framework in which the electrodeposition models will be built. This paper will be of particular interest to applied modellers wanting to modify computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes to simulate the electrodeposition process.


Background The prevalence of underlying cardiovascular disease in those who die suddenly varies with age (Finocchiaro et al 2016). Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging can provide incremental in-vivo diagnostic value in those resuscitated from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) but this practice is not yet supported by guideline recommendations. Method CMR data from consecutive patients (2002–2016) referred within 6 months of resuscitated SCA were retrospectively reviewed. Patients aged >40 years of age were excluded because, for them, coronary artery disease is known to be the leading cause of SCA. Results In total, 89 SCA survivors (mean age 28±8 years, 54% male) underwent contrast-enhanced CMR. Of these, rhythm disturbances during resuscitation were ventricular fibrillation (90%), ventricular tachycardia (7%), and a non-defined shockable rhythm (3%). The CMR study was reported as normal in 47%. The most commonly reported diagnoses (see figure A) were; dilated cardiomyopathy (18%), acute myocarditis (8%), myocardial infarction (7%), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (4%). Late gadolinium enhancement was present in 31%, including 5% of patients with an otherwise normal study. Eight patients (9%) were known to have a cardiovascular problem prior to SCA and 18% (n=16) had new disease identified by other investigations, such as echocardiography (see figure B). For the remainder of patients, CMR identified a new diagnosis in 26% (n=23) and excluded important structural abnormalities in 47% (n=42). The new diagnoses by CMR were early dilated cardiomyopathy (39%), acute myocarditis (30%), ARVC (13%), myocardial infarction (4%), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (4%). Conclusion Contrast-enhanced in-vivo CMR findings in young adult survivors of SCA excluded important structural cardiac disease in 47%, which is similar to the rate in post-mortem studies. CMR provided incremental diagnostic value in the identification of potentially arrhythmogenic substrates due to acute myocarditis, ARVC, and dilated cardiomyopathy that may not be diagnosed by other standard investigations. These results therefore support a role for CMR in the assessment of SCA survivors.Abstract 50 Figure 1 Diagonses in survivors of suddem cardiac arrest aged <40 years (A), further subdivided into non-CMR diagnosis and CMR diagnosis (B). The subgroup classified as other is composed of the diagnoses listed in figure A with a frequency of <2% in this cohort.


Knight meditates on the stylistic convention that best unites contemporaty arts, namely, pastiche. With this concept, he carefully discusses each of the exhibited works by 39 American and European artists. 8 bibl. ref.


When the topic of functional MR (fMR) imaging comes up, most of us probably picture a subject performing a task (ie, finger tapping) within a magnet, while rapid imaging is being performed. Typically, the task has a baseline built into it, and some statistical test is performed on the data relative


The acoustic emission (AE) technique represents a structural health monitoring approach that uses AE events caused by crack formation and growth in a structure under external load to monitor its structural integrity. Besides pure counting (AE activity), localization as well as moment tensor inversion are well known variants of AE analysis. In this paper a new imaging technique is presented that uses AE events as sources for ultrasonic travel time tomography. For that purpose the localization algorithm is iteratively combined with an appropriate tomography algorithm. In addition to visualizing the volume of the specimen in terms of source positions, the resulting new imaging technique provides a locally varying wave speed distribution. Moreover, the finally determined sources can be used to image the reflection properties by applying synthetic aperture focusing techniques (SAFT). The new imaging method was developed, tested, and validated by using extensive numerical simulations based on the elastodynamic finite integration technique (EFIT). Examples of application in the field of concrete testing and guided wave monitoring of plate-like structures are presented.


A B ST R A C T The mastery of soft skill is very important among students nowadays, however, the issue on the most effective ways to inculcate this skill has yet been identified. Thus, the purpose of the study is to identify the most dominant channel that is effective to inculcate the skill to help students to embrace it. The objective of the study is to identify settings that are convenient for inculcation of soft skill. There are three different settings identified and researched; the skill could be inculcated through co-curriculum, workshops or in the classroom. The experiment is design to be a descriptive study. Data for the experiment was collected through instruments such as survey forms and interviews. The respondents of the survey were 196 students semester 5 and 6 from ADTEC Malaysia. The outcome of the experiment showed that levels of soft skill development are varied through co-curricular activity, workshops and classroom. From a Paired Sample t-Test that has been carried out, it showed that there is a significant different in level of soft skill development between cocurricular activities and workshops, and between co-curricular and classroom. On the other hand, the outcome of the Paired Sample t-Test does not show any significant difference of soft skill between workshop and class. The findings conclude that the most relevant difference is through workshop and class.


Crude oil pollution is a serious problem that causes severe damage to the environment. The adsorption process by using one of the adsorbents is considered one of the most important and successful methods for getting rid and removing crude oil from the water. In this study, activated carbon was used as a sorbent to clean the water from crude oil. This use of activated carbon is new. Adsorption parameters tested included the contact time on adsorption, sorbent dosage, the impact of pH, and temperature. The removal of crude oil from water by activated carbon was investigated by batch adsorption after varying contact time (5–30 min), adsorbent dosage (5–50 g), pH (2–11), and temperature (10–50 0C). hydrophobicity of carbon has increased very significantly due to the modification that was made on carbon, and this, in turn, led to the creation of a sorbent with a very high ability to remove crude oil from the water and thus increase the adsorption capacity. As the results of the study show that the highest value of adsorption capacity was 96% at contact time 20 min, sorbent dosage (25 g), pH (7), and temperature (30 0C). The prepared adsorbent showed the potential to use as a low-cost adsorbent in oil-spill clean-up.


Population aging has been a common demographic phenomenon among developed countries which arises political, economic and social impacts profoundly. With low fertility, total population grows slowly and young population gradually reduces. In addition, with the expansion of higher education, labor force would shrink even more. Therefore, numerous countries turn to other alternative human resources, such as women, minority, disabled and older workers, for alleviating the problem of labor force supply. On the other hand, health status of older people has been improved along with human longevity, which means that human still have the ability to work and may want to stay in labor market during their young old age. As a result, employment of older workers becomes a hot issue among developed countries. Taiwan has the fastest speed of population aging and government is also aware of threaten of labor force shortage in the near future. Nevertheless, the awareness still does not reflect on labor policies. The United Kingdom (UK) is a country which has not only a long history of using older manpower, but also most friendly and positively attitudes toward older people all around the world. The local company, BQ 2) to depict the turning-points of TestRite Retail's human resources strategies from 2005 to 2007, especially the change of attitudes toward older workers; 3) to understand the TestRite Retail's expectations and suggestions toward older workers' employment promotion policies. Both UK and Japan are aged societies facing labor shortage and labor aging urgently. Their awareness can be recognized by their labor policies in which values of older workers for employers were well established and older workers' labor participation rates were higher than most developed countries. For the TestRite Retail case, our interviews showed that TestRite Retail was forced to employ a certain proportion of older workers under B&Q's requirement from 2005. However, TestRite Retail didn't develop any further management measures for older workers. But after getting along with older workers for a period, managers learned some traits of older workers that are different from their stereotypes. In summary, TestRite Retail can raise proportion of older workers up step by step and integrate older workers to regular job training programs under a forced plan. In the aspect of policy suggestion, the human source manager/administrators in TestRite Retail suggested that (1) a regulation of minimum proportion of older workers is acceptable if government provide subsidies, (2) setting up older workers databank by profession to help employers recruiting older workers, (3) establish mechanism for cooperation between government and enterprises on older workers training programs.


The strategic guideline of building a harmonious socialist society proposed by the Central Committee of CCP is the significant theoretical development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.The 6th Plenary Session of the 16th Party Central Committee has systematical specified the principles on the construction of har- monious socialist society;this will guide China to intrinsic balance of equality and efficiency that will benefit all the people.In order to better study and understand this important philosophy,the editorial board of Finance and Trade Economics has invited some scholars to contribute a written conversation for our reader.


The capture cross sections and density‐energy distribution of the trap states at the interface between GaAs epitaxial layers and oxide films grown by anodization in oxygen plasma have been determined by deep‐level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). The capture cross sections are of the order of 10−12–10−13 cm2. The state density in the energy space range from 1×1013 to 3×1013 cm−2 eV−1. It has a peak 0.43 eV below the conduction band edge, but increases again near the valence band edge. The existence of traps in the oxide is also suggested. The activation energies of the emission rates determined by constant‐capacitance DLTS with a small pulse voltage are in good agreement with the surface potentials, and no particular band structure at the interface, such as an interface band, has been found.


According to the analysis of the data of one air conditioning cooling water system,this paper puts forward optimal energy-saving suggestion.


: Stylistic and linguistic studies on the Qur'an have been written for several centuries since the stylistic and linguistic studies have found abundance of material in the text of the Holy Qur'an. However, we have seen in recent times the rise of specialist studies that analyse the Qur'anic text from the aspect of mathematics. There certainly were certain attempts in the past to point to certain mathematical and numerical aspects of the Holy Text, but modern mathematical methods have produced particularly interesting results. Rhymed and rhythmical prose are a well-known characteristic of the poetic text in general, while the Qur'anic text also abounds with expressive and connotative meanings.


A new photographic recorder registering cosmic-ray threefold coincidences without any screen is described. The analysis of the first data obtained shows that the partial correlation of the daily means with the heights corresponding to a pressure-level in the atmosphere is greater the higher the selected pressure-level from the ground, up to about 16 km. Supposing that the mesons are generated at the layer of 75 mm Hg., the true absorption-coefficient and the mean rate of decay can be calculated. For the absorption-coefficient it is found that μ = 1.68 × 10−3 cm2/g, and for the rate of decay μ′ = 0.054 per km. From the value of μ′ it results that for the mean range of the meson before disintegrating spontaneously L = 18.6 km, and for the mean life of a meson of 3 × 109-ev energy, when at rest, τ0 = 1.6 × 10−6 sec. Finally, for the temperature-coefficient the value −0.35 per cent per 0C was obtained.


The world that we are living in now is surrounded by emerging technology. Technology has undoubtedly improved human lifestyle. As days go by, the combination of technology and internet have taken over the digital world now. It is seen in our daily lifestyle that people are connected to this technology everywhere. With the increase of internet usage, every activity easily done through online from online banking to online meeting. There are many types of online attacks and one of the famous online attacks is phishing. Phishing attacks exploit email or malicious websites to seek personal information by posing as a truthful party. To protect users from phishing attacks a proper analysis need to be done to understand how users interact with those attacks. In this thesis I present analysis in user awareness on phishing attempt among students. A proper data collection through mixed method which is through web based survey and an interview will be conducted. In the end an appropriate awareness guidelines will be propose to targeted users.


Informal learning procedures have been changing extremely fast over the recent decades not only due to the advent of online learning, but also due to changes in what humans need to learn to meet their various life and career goals. Consequently, online, educational platforms are expected to provide personalized, up-to-date curricula to assist learners. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Crowdsourcing based approach to create and update curricula for individual learners. We show the design of this curriculum development system prototype, in which contributors receive AI-based recommendations to be able to define and update high-level learning goals, skills, and learning topics together with associated learning content. This curriculum development system was also integrated into our personalized online learning platform. To evaluate our prototype we compared experts' opinion with our system's recommendations, and resulted in 89%, 79%, and 93% F1-scores when recommending skills, learning topics, and educational materials respectively. Also, we interviewed eight senior level experts from educational institutions and career consulting organizations. Interviewees agreed that our curriculum development method has high potential to support authoring activities in dynamic, personalized learning environments.


Data access parallelism (DAP) indicates how well available hardware resources are utilized by data accesses. This paper investigates four complementary components of data access parallelism in detail: cache-level parallelism (CLP), bank-level parallelism (BLP), network-level parallelism (NLP), and memory controller-level parallelism (MLP). Specifically, we first quantify these four components for a set of 20 multi-threaded benchmark programs, and show that, when executed on a state-of-the-art manycore platform, their original values are quite low compared to the maximum possible values they could take. We next perform a limit study, which indicates that significant performance improvements are possible if the values of these four components of DAP could be maximized. Building upon our observations from this limit study, we then present two practical computation and network access scheduling schemes. Both these schemes make use of profile data, but, while the compiler-based strategy uses fixed priorities of CLP, BLP, NLP, and MLP, the machine learning-based one employs a predictive machine learning model. Our experiments indicate 30.8% and 36.9% performance improvements with the compiler-based and learning-based schemes, respectively. Our results also show that the proposed schemes consistently achieve significant improvements under different values of the major experimental parameters.


The consequences of key process parameters of cryogenic treatment (i.e. holding time and temperature) on the average coefficient of friction and wear rate in dry sliding condition at different level of load (60, 80, 100, 120 & 140 N) and sliding velocity (0.628, 0.942, 1.257, 1.571 & 1.885 m/s) have been explored through cubic regression mathematical modeling technique. An average error of 1% and 9.9% has been observed in the experimental and model given values for coefficient of friction and wear rate. Mathematical model equation capability is within the range of 95% confidence level. Moreover, desirability function approach has been employed to find out the process parameter to have lower wear resistance. Worn out samples have been examined with field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and reveals that the operative mechanism for wear is delaminating and rupturing of matrix.


I appreciate Andrew Booth's effort to promote standards for reporting the findings of systematic reviews of qualitative research [1]. Yet, several of our papers were erroneously considered in Booth's work. These papers (references 61, 83, and 84 in the Booth paper) were not formal metasyntheses and were focused on methods for such reviews, rather than results. These papers were misrepresented in the STARLITE analysis as they were not reports of studies but rather methodological papers on how to do them, as indicated in each of these papers.

Booth also overlooks a key issue facing authors of such reviews: editors and publishers decide what to include in such reports and have their own standards for tailoring reports to their audiences. For example, we have been told not to include lists of papers or details of search terms, databases, and related material to conserve space. Authors are then compelled to limit the information provided in reports and make this additional detail available on request. In addition, it may be seen as duplicate publication to repeat details of a search when two or more synthesis reports are written from the same data set.

Booth and others interested in such issues may wish to read two publications that address them further [2, 3].


Shaped silver nanoparticles with spheres, rods, and dendrites have been prepared by a pulse sonoelectrochemical technique from an aqueous solution of AgNO3 in the presence of nitrilotriacetate N(CH2COOH)3-NTA. The silver nanoparticles were characterized by using transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and absorption spectroscopy. The effects of electrosonic time on particle shape have been discussed. It was found that the concentration of AgNO3 and NTA affects the shape of the nanoparticles.


Introduction:
Dermolipectomy of the anterior abdominal wall also called abdominoplasty (or « Tummy Tuck surgery ») is one of the most demanded cosmetic surgeries in Morocco and worldwide. Whether the surgery is an aesthetic success depends on the patient's expectations and their subjective perception of the final result.
This survey aims to:

Assess the level of satisfaction/dissatisfaction among the patients who underwent an Abdominoplasty.
Determine the criteria that influence the patients' perception of the result.
Assess the efficiency of our standards of care.


LARGELY as a result of Cronbach's (1946; 1950) reviews of the early literature on response sets-or response styles-on tests, the view is widely held that tests and test items that are difficult or ambiguous are most affected by those response styles, such as acquiescence, evasiveness, and extremeness, that are linked to the response format. Despite the prevalence of this view, the results of relevant studies are not altogether convincing, and are largely limited to two response styles-acquiescence, and the position of the chosen alternative on multiple-choice tests. One major group of relevant studies examined acquiescence on tests or items of varying difficulty or ambiguity. Only one of the studies (Gage, Leavitt, and Stone, 1957) concerns the difficulty issue. In a comparison of difficult and easy general information items, the reliability of the number of true responses was .68 for


Objective To investigate the influence of splenectomy on the development of induced liver cancer in rats.Methods Eighty male SD rats (weighting 180 to 220 g) were bred with diethlnitrosarnine (DEN) and then were randomly divided into two groups: total splenectomy group and sham operation group.The changes in histopathology and serum parameters were observed.Results The mortality in the total splenectomy group was significantly higher than that in the control group.The node number of cancer in the total splenectomy group is more than that of control group.In the total splenectomy group, development of hepatic cancer was earlier and quicker and the NK activity significantly lower than in the control group.Conclusion Splenectomy promotes the occurrence and development of induced liver cancer in rat, which might be related with the decline of splenic function of anti tumor immunity.


Here, we observed 3- to 4-year-old children (N=31) and their parents playing with puzzles at home during a zoom session to provide insight into the variability of the kinds of puzzles children have in their home, and the variability in how children and their parents play with spatial toys. We observed a large amount of variability in both children and parents' behaviors, and in the puzzles they selected. Further, we found relations between parents' and children's behaviors. For example, parents provided more scaffolding behaviors for younger children and parents' persistence-focused language was related to more child attempts after failure. Altogether, the present work shows how using methods of observing children at a distance, we can gain insight into the environment in which they are developing. The results are discussed in terms of how variability in spatial toys and spatial play during naturalistic interactions can help us contextualize the conclusions we draw from lab-based studies.


Acute corticosteroid-refractory graft-versus-host-disease (GvHD) is a life-threatening complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) with reported mortality rates of 40-60%. Our previous study (Spoerl S et al. Blood 2014) had shown the induction of tolerogenic regulatory T cells after ruxolitinib treatment in the mouse and clinical responses in six patients with corticosteroid-refractory GvHD. Here we report the outcome of 14 patients with GvHD refractory to steroids and at least two other lines of treatment who received ruxolitinib as a salvage treatment. Ten patients were classified as acute and four as chronic GvHD involving the skin, intestinal tract and liver as detailed in Table 1. Patients were treated with ruxolitinib at a starting dose of 5 mg orally twice daily with a dose increase to 10 mg orally twice daily. Clinical and histopathological grading of skin, intestinal and liver GvHD was performed according to established criteria. Of 14 patients, 13 responded with respect to clinical GvHD symptoms and serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Three patients with histologically proven acute skin or intestinal GvHD grade I, achieved a complete response. One non-responder discontinued ruxolitinib after one week because of lack of efficacy. In all other patients corticosteroids could be reduced after a median treatment of 1.5 weeks. Serum levels of IL-6 and soluble IL-2R were measured prior and after the start of ruxolitinib and declined in the majority of the analyzed patients (n=11). CMV reactivation was observed in four out of 14 patients and responded well to antiviral therapy. Two out of 14 patients developed cytopenia during ruxolitinib treatment that was mild and did not require dose reduction or transfusion. Our results indicate that treatment of corticosteroid-refractory GvHD with ruxolitinib is safe and well tolerated. Despite the low number of patients treated so far, our results demonstrate that ruxolitinib reduces the severity of corticosteroid-refractory GvHD and support further development of therapeutic JAK1/2 inhibition as a salvage treatment in GvHD. 1Pt.: patient, no: individual patient number, 2Acute and chronic GvHD were defined according to NIH criteria, 3PR: partial response, CR: complete response; 4Until last follow up, none of the patients experienced a relapse of GvHD. 5Follow up was calculated from the time of initiation of ruxolitinib treatment. In patient 01, ruxolitinib was discontinued at week 16 because of complete resolution of all GvHD signs. The patient did not develop any signs of GvHD after discontinuation of ruxolitinib until last follow up. Disclosures Off Label Use: Ruxolitinib in GvHD.


This article focused on the energy limit property of Wireless Sensor Network, and proposed a residual energy based algorithm WRECS, which is improved on classical routing algorithm LEACH. The algorithm took the normalized residual energy and the cumulative number of the normal nodes supported by the cluster heads as cluster-heads selection parameters. In order to balance the energy consumption of each cluster-head, the algorithm took both the different positions of the base station and the initial energy of the network into consideration, and weighted the two factors to balance the energy consumption between transmission and data fusion. Simulation results show that the algorithm can promote the lifetime of the uneven energy network and does not impair the effects of the LEACH algorithm.


— The effect of post ageing treatment (140 o C for 2h) on the microstructure and mechanical behaviour of FSPed 7075 Al alloy has been studied by Optical microscopy (OM), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and mechanical properties. Friction stir processing (FSP) is a solid-state surface modification technique to apply for cast aluminium alloys. FSP has a similar metal working principle like FSW (friction stir welding). The alloy has strong age-hardening response with scandium (Sc) inoculated Al-Zn-Mg alloy, on the other hand novelty of FSP only few studies have been carried out to the effect of post ageing treatment on the microstructure, size, morphology and fine dispersion of coherent Al 3 Sc(L1 2 ) type precipitates or ή-phases and its mechanical properties of friction stir processed 7075 Al alloy. The FSPed enhances grain boundary (GB) formation and increases suitable sites for the precipitation of nucleation in post aged 7075 Al alloy. Themechanical properties have been evaluated such as proof strength (σ 0. 2 ) of 122. 9 MPa, ultimate tensile strength (σ u ) of 256. 4 MPa, ductility (δ) of 8. 6%, Vicker's hardness in stir zone of 101 HV, strain hardening exponent (n) of 1. 82, and heat input during FSPed of 2. 15 kJ/mm, respectively. traverse speed and specified tool design, then its post aged at 140 o C for 2h. It is clear that post ageing treatment conducted after completion of double-pass FSPed plate. Then, the samples were picked up from SZ (stir zone) and preferred for characterizations such as OM, FESEM, SEM, DSC, TEM, and mechanical testing. Samples for optical metallography were cut into small pieces for cold mounting then polished by emery papers from course to finer grades and followed by velvet cloth polishing with alumina powder slurry to obtain mirror finish. The FESEM with EDS analysis (QUANTA 200F, 30kV) was determined for GB segregations of experimental samples. The DSC (EXSTAR TG/DTA 6300) run was carried out of experimental samples for revealing semi-solid state precipitation and dissolution reactions by using a nitrogen atmosphere and a constant heating rate of 10 o C/min till 650 o C. The polished samples were cleaned by water then dried and etched in Keller"s reagent (1ml HF + 1. 5ml HCl + 2. 5ml HNO 3 + 95ml H 2 O) for optical microscopy. An optical microscope (LEICA DMI 5000M) was used to obtain microstructure images. TEM with SAD studies were performed using a Techai G 2 20 S-TWIN at 200kV. The TEM thin foil (80 to 100 µm) specimens were prepared through polishing by fine emery papers and subsequently through conventional twin-jet electropolishing technique using a 30%HNO 3 + 70%CH 3 OH solution at -20 o C and 20V. After electropolishing samples (3 mm diameter and contain center hole) have preserved in vacuumdesiccator for TEM analysis. A vertical milling machine was used for surface modification of cast aluminium plate by FSP. The FSP machine consists of 3 H. P. motor mounted on top with option for 8 variable spindle speeds. The spindle speed selection was done by shifting the rubber belt to the desire groove of the four-step cone-pulleys. A hydraulic power pack controlled the movement of a semi-automatic adjustable working table. A constant axial compressive force of 15 kN fixed before start the FSP machine and all


The aim of the article is to present the work for the family carried out at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The reports, comments, and information included in the article show the beginnings of educational and pre-school institutions. They serve as a proof of the activity aimed at supporting the family undertaken by a part of the society of Poland. Keywords: family, child, upbringing. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/p.2014.019


AIM To identify the particular proteins in the pathogenesis of talipes equinovarns(clubfoot)-like deformities. METHODS Pregnant rats were given all trans-retinoic acid 135 mg·kg~-1 at d 10 of gestation by a single intragastric infusion. Tibia-fibulae musculatures were removed from rat fetus on gestation d 21. Proteins were extracted with lysis solution (5 mol·L~-1 urea, 2 mol·L~-1 thiourea, 20 g·L~-1 CHAPS, 20 g·L~-1 SB3-10, 40 mmol·L~-1 Tris, 0.2% Bio-Lyte 3-10), 20 mL·g~-1 tissue. For two-dimensional electrophoresis, immobilized pH gradient gel (IPG, pH 3-10 and pH 5-8) iso-electric focusing was set as the first dimension, while 12% SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis as the second dimension. Loaded sample sizes were 0.5 mg (350 μL) for each pH 3-10 IPG strip and 1.0 mg for pH 5-8 IPG strip. Following electrophoresis, gels were stained with Coomassie brilliant blue. The images were analyzed with a PDQuest 7.0 software package. Spots with significant differences were subjected to mass spectrometry analysis. The peptide mass fingerprints were identified with protein databases (Swiss-Prot and NCBInr) using different softwares including PeptIdent, Mascot and MS-Fit. RESULTS Compared with those of the normal controls, samples of model rat fetus showed gaining and losing some spots with increase or decrease in intensity for a number of protein spots. A total of eight protein spots showed significant differences, and peptide mass fingerprints were acquired for seven among them. Three protein spots were identified by more than two softwares to give similar results, i.e., loss of slow skeletal muscle troponin T(sTnT), X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis(XIAP) and extra expression of carboxylesterase AY034877. CONCLUSION Proteomic difference between model and normal rat fetus can be well presented with 2-D electrophoresis. Expression change of sTnT, XIAP and carboxylesterase AY034877 may be related to the pathogenetic mechanisms of talipes equinovarus.


The invention relates to a refractory in the form of a dry, mineral batch of fire-resistant mineral materials combined in such a way that refractories which are long-term resistant to fayalite-containing slags, sulfidic melts (mattes), sulfates and non-ferrous metal melts and are used for refractory linings in industrial non-ferrous metal melting furnaces can be manufactured, said refractory at least containing: - at least one coarse-grained magnesia raw material as the main component; - magnesia (MgO) meal; - at least one fire-resistant reagent which, during the melting process, acts (in situ) in a reducing manner on non-ferrous metal oxide melts and/or non-ferrous metal iron oxide melts and converts same into non-ferrous metal melts.


Chronic atrophic gastritis is a precancerous gastric disease with intestinal epithelial hyperplasia and heterogeneous proliferation based on mucosal atrophy. In recent years, the international guidelines and consensus on the treatment of precancerous gastric disease have been gradually updated, emphasizing the treatment of precancerous gastric disease and lesions based on the pathological changes as the outcome. Chinese medicine is widely used in the clinical treatment of chronic atrophic gastritis, but there are fewer research ideas of Chinese medicine based on the pathological evaluation of the results. In this article, the pathological concepts related to chronic atrophic gastritis and the clinical research ideas and practice strategies of traditional Chinese medicine based on the evaluation of pathological outcomes are compiled.


A 73-year-old woman with a past medical history of hypertension was evaluated haematologically because of lymphocytosis found on a routine blood count. Her only complaint was of progressive fatigue for a few months. Physical examination showed pallor, right posterior cervical lymphadenopathy and moderate splenomegaly. A full blood count showed a white cell count of 18AE2 · 10/l with 82% lymphocytes and a normocytic normochromic anaemia with haemoglobin concentration of 100 g/l. A computed tomography scan of the abdomen showed an enlarged spleen (25 cm). Bone marrow biopsy showed mantle cell lymphoma. The patient was treated with a modified Hyper-CVAD-R (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, dexamethasone, rituximab) regimen. She developed chills without fever or hypotension during the rituximab infusion on day 1 of cycle 1. Her platelet count dropped from a preinfusion level of 85 · 10/l to 14 · 10/l the next day but there were no signs of bleeding. Three days later, her platelet count had increased to 118 · 10/l. She did not require platelet transfusion and was discharged home in good condition. She developed acute severe thrombocytopenia following each dose of rituximab during subsequent cycles of chemotherapy (Figure). The thrombocytopenia improved spontaneously over 2–3 d on each occasion.


The present invention relates to an air bag system, and more particularly, to such a system that an individual is used as a rescue system or lifesaving systems make it possible to survive avalanche. In certain embodiments, the present invention is, for example skiers, snowboarders, hikers, or snow mode biller is an airbag system for use with a backpack mounting. Instead of relying on compressed gas cartridge or a compressed gas cylinder to inflate the air bag (s), the present invention is to inflate the air bag (s) using only ambient air. In certain embodiments, air is supplied to the air bag by a battery-powered electric motor. .FIELD 1


The invention provides an optimized clopidogrel intermediate preparation method, the method uses a low-toxicity and convenient-storage and transportation raw material as a brominating agent, the reaction can be carried out in a solvent system containing water, reaction condition is mild, reaction time is short, brominating agent use rate is high, the use of a high toxic brominating agent is avoided, the obtained product can be directly used without purification in the subsequent reaction of clopidogrel preparation; on this basis, the invention also provides a production technology of another clopidogrel intermediate D-(+)-alpha-(2-thiofuran ethylamino)-alpha (2-chloro phenyl) acetic acid methyl ester hydrochloride, and by integration of all clopidogrel intermediate preparation processes, a clopidogrel intermediate industrialized production process is designed, the clopidogrel intermediate industrialized production process as a whole has the advantages of low pollution, high yield, short reaction time and other beneficial effects.


Once the three-phase unbalanced problem occurs in the power supply and distribution system, it will cause damage to the lines, transformers and power equipment. This paper analyzes the causes and harms of the three-phase imbalance problem and summarizes the management methods of the three-phase imbalance problem. Finally, it is decided to use the active power filter to compensate the three - phase unbalanced load. And through the simulation software of MATLAB Simulink library of three-phase unbalanced state of reactive power compensation and harmonic control simulation, three-phase voltage from the oscilloscope waveform diagram and the voltage amplitude, according to the result analysis.


Since the mid 19th century, only eight records of hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) have been documented from the Bay of Fundy and north- ern Gulf of Maine. Between 1994 and 1998 thirty-one additional records have been reported, suggesting a recent and dramatic increase in this ice-breeding seal in the region. Sergeant (1975) has noted the proclivity for juvenile hooded seals (Cystophora cristata), to wander outside their normal range of arctic and subarctic waters. Extralimital records of hooded seals have been reported occasionally from the east coast of North America as far south as Florida (Miller 1917), and even Puerto Rico (Guzman-Ramirez and Mignucci-Giannoni 1998). However, Squires (1968) commented that this species is infrequent along the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast of New Brunswick, in spite of whelping in small numbers in the Gulf (Sergeant 1974), and Gilpin (1874) was aware of only a single Nova Scotia record, from off the eastern shore. Since the mid-19th century, only three reports of hooded seals have been documented in the Bay of Fundy and perhaps five from the entire coast of Maine. Here we review the status of the hooded seal along the Maine coast and the Bay of Fundy and document 31 additional records from the Bay of Fundy and northern Gulf of Maine. These records show that there has been a dramatic increase in occurrences of this ice-breeding seal in the region since 1994.


Using the cut leaves of Acacia holosericea as material, the inhibitors of polyphenol oxidase(PPO) including 4-hexylresorcinol(HR), tropolone(TP) and sodium metabisulfite(SM) were used to pre-treated the material for 5 h and then the material was immediately placed in vases. The vase life and changes in relative fresh weight, water uptake, water loss and water balance during their vase period were investigated. The results showed that suitable PPO inhibitor pretreatments effectively improved water uptake and maintained fresh weight of cut leaves of A. holosericea, and thus prolonged their vase life. The best treatment was 5 mmol / L HR, with which the vase life was 3.9 days longer than that of the control.


Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is characterised by a number of recurrent chromosomal abnormalities which inform prognosis. Low hypodiploidy (HoTr) and high hyperdiploidy (HeH) are genetic subgroups associated with large non-random ploidy shifts, specifically 30-39 chromosomes and 51-65 chromosomes respectively. HoTr ALL often presents with a near triploid karyotype of 60-78 chromosomes through chromosomal endoreduplication without cytokinesis. This presents a diagnostic challenge in distinguishing this poor risk entity from good risk HeH ALL. To date, classification of such challenging cases has been based on the modal chromosome number, the pattern of specific gains, and identification of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays where possible. However, loss of cellular context and mixed cell populations (normal diploid, low hypodiploid and near-triploid) when analysing SNP arrays can pose additional analytical difficulty.
 The aim of this SNP array study was to (1) determine the level of inaccurate genetic subgrouping when cytogenetics only was used to distinguish HeH from doubled up HoTr and (2) develop a diagnostic algorithm to reliably call HeH and HoTr without supporting cytogenetic analysis.
 SNP arrays were performed on diagnostic ALL samples of 85 patients (46 HoTr, 39 HeH) using Illumina CytoSNP 850k (n=80) or Affymetrix Cytoscan HD (n=5) arrays. Probe level data were uploaded to Nexus Copy Number 10 (BioDiscovery) and manual segments spanning the length of each chromosome were created. No further data pre-processing was carried out and log2 ratio of 0 was automatically assigned to the median log2 ratio of the sample. Chromosomal log2 ratios were normalized within each sample and a variety of machine-learning techniques used to cluster the samples independently of assigned diagnosis. Cases residing in the incorrect cluster based on initial diagnosis were examined in detail using information from cytogenetics and SNP array interpretation.
 SNP arrays were analysed from 46 HoTr (median age 50.5 years (range 7-87), 43% male) and 39 HeH (median age 7 years (range 1-58), 56% male) patients. Unsupervised clustering of log2 ratios showed a clear distinction between HeH and HoTr patients (figure (A)). Six cases clustered incorrectly based on cytogenetic diagnosis. After detailed interpretation of all cases, including identifying LOH affecting chromosomes 3, 7, 15, 16 and 17, 3/6 cases initially classified as HeH were highly suggestive of HoTr ALL despite having <60 chromosomes. Similarly, 1/6 cases was cytogenetically diagnosed with HoTr but had a SNP array pattern typical of HeH ALL. We identified chromosomes 1, 4, 11, 17, 19, and 21 as those contributing most to the distinction in the HoTr and HeH signatures with the log2 ratio of chromosome 1 the most highly discriminatory in this cohort.
 Using whole chromosome log2 ratios, HoTr and HeH ALL have distinct profiles. SNP array analysis highlighted at least 4 patients whose ploidy subgroups appeared incorrectly called by cytogenetics, which can affect risk stratification. Crucially, these data call into question the accepted modal chromosome numbers for HeH and HoTr in the near triploid phase and suggest this alone cannot be used to classify patients into these ploidy groups. All samples incorrectly classified as HeH ALL were from adults aged >40 years, suggesting this good risk subgroup is even rarer than previously thought in older adults. After re-classification, our cohort only contained 5/41 adults >40 years with HeH ALL, signifying that HoTr ALL is the commonest genetic ploidy group in older adults with ALL and must still be considered in cases with 50-60 chromosomes.
 Copy number analysis from SNP arrays is challenging in samples with marked ploidy shift and mixed cell populations. Importantly, a number of our samples had significant contaminating normal DNA and LOH could not be confirmed visually (figure (B)), underlying the need for additional factors to aid classification. Our analysis only takes into account log2 ratio of entire chromosomes, thus permitting a measure of the relative over and under-representation of specific chromosomes within the sample. This method accurately clusters patients even when LOH cannot be clearly visualized from B-allele frequency due to contaminating non-leukemic DNA and supports the development of a diagnostic classifier based on chromosomal log2 ratios.

 Fielding: Amgen: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy; Incyte: Consultancy.


Papazian et al. reported in 2010 that use of neuromuscular blocking agents within 48 h of development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) had a positive effect on survival in patients with severe disease (Pao 2 /Fio 2 less than 120 mmHg) compared with management with deep sedation alone. Supporting this survival benefit, a retrospective study by Steingrub et al. reported lower in-hospital mortality when mechanically ventilated patients with severe sepsis and a respiratory source of infection received neuromuscular blocking agents within the first two hospital days (treated: 31.9%, untreated: 39.3% in-hospital mortality; P < 0.001). Possible mechanisms by which this benefit might occur include decreasing oxygen consumption and improving oxygenation, decreasing the systemic inflammatory response associated with ARDS, and improving patient–ventilator synchrony. The general use of neuromuscular blocking agents in early ARDS, however, is not without consequence. Risks associated with this intervention include prolonged mechanical ventilation owing to excessive sedation, prolonged paralysis after discontinuation of neuromuscular blocking agents, development of critical illness myopathy and polyneuropathy, development of corneal abrasions and ulcerations, and risk of apnea with unrecognized ventilator disconnections. A decade later, The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Bethesda, Maryland) Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury Clinical Trials Network published a multicenter trial comparing a 48-h infusion of cisatracurium accompanied by deep sedation with usual-care and lighter sedation targets in patients with moderate to severe ARDS (a Pao 2 /Fio 2 less than 150 mmHg with a positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) greater than or equal to 8 cm H 2 O. The trial was stopped early for futility to detect a difference in the primary outcome variable of in-hospital death at 90 days. How shall we use these studies to guide our clinical practice? In patients who can be managed with light sedation, neuromuscular blockade plus deep sedation appears to offer no advantage. In those patients requiring deep sedation, the addition of neuromuscular blockade may be beneficial. Potential Benefits of neuromuscular Blockade


The thesis is consisted of five cha s introduction in research field of the thesis. Hypothesis are given and shown. The second chapter deals with instruments used in managing ene en the fact that electricity is special kind of good and power systems have tures unknown in other areas where derivatives are used. The third chapter gives theoretical explanation of managing price risk in companies, and the fourth chapter presents results of survey made on sample consisted of EFET members. At the end there is conclusion and benefits of the thesis. The research has shown that 91% of companies manage price risk. The most used derivative are forwards (68%), and options and futures (more than 50%). Statistical analysis has shown that size and leverage of companies are the most important factors in making decisions on managing price risk and usage of derivatives.


This book describes how the science of crash reconstruction enables engineers to determine the most probable scenario for how and why traffic collisions occur. Over the past 20 years, ongoing research has continually enhanced crash reconstructionists' knowledge of the application of physical laws in this field. This book contains 47 papers that have presented significant steps forward, focusing on the following areas within the field of crash reconstruction that have experienced major advances: (1) planar impact mechanics; (2) stiffness modeling; (3) crash pulse analysis; (4) structural restitution; (5) lateral deformation and override/underride; (6) BEV v. Delta-V; (7) rear and side impacts; (8) pole impacts; (9) uncertainty analysis; (10) pedestrian crashes; and (11) braking performance.


The shift to hybrid teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a real challenge to predict student performance and conduct timely interventions on at-risk students. This study proposed a deep neural network supporting the early prediction of student performance. Bidirectional LSTM, Global Average Pooling, and TIME MASK structure were utilized in the improved GritNet model. Subsequently, this study optimized the hyperparameters with the aid of the hill-climbing algorithm. Finally, on-campus data sets were used in experiments to evaluate the model's performance. Data were collected from a course that carried out multiple iterations from Fall 2021 to Fall 2022. In Fall 2022, the proposed model achieved a ROC-AUC value of 95.47% in the 8th week, while the baseline model only achieved 91.44% in the same week. Besides, the proposed model achieved a ROC-AUC value of 89.67% in the 4th week, which meant it had acceptable prediction performance in the early stage. The experimental findings demonstrated that the model was capable of predicting the academic performance of students in hybrid courses early on.


Objective To explore the surgical techniques for the fifth metacarpal neck fractures with obvious displacement and evaluate the chnical outcomes.Methods From June 2008 to June 2011,26 cases of closed fractures of the fifth metacarpal neck were treated with antegrade intramednllary pin fixation.Resdts All the patients were follow-up for 6 to 9 months (average,7.5 months).The head/shaft angle of the healed metacarpal V on the injured side was (15.3± 1.9)°,while that of the uninjured side metacarpal V was (14.6± 1.7)°.There was no significant difference between the two sides(t =1.71,P =0.12).The range of motion of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint of the injured side was (89.7 ± 2.9) °,while that of the uninjured side was (90.7 ± 1.5)°,not being significantly different between the two sides (t =1.83,P =0.10).Conclusion Antegrade intramedullary pin fixation is an effective method for treating fractures of the fifth metacarpal neck.

Key words:
Metacarpal bones;  Fracture fixation, intramedullary;  Treatment outcome


The distribution, movements, activity range, and habitat use of the Concho water snake, Nerodia harteri paucirnaculata, were studied by mark-recapture and radio telemetry in a large lake system, in central Texas, USA. Concho water snake emigration and distribution were largely driven by alteration of habitat availability caused by fluctuating water levels. Habitat characteristics associated with the presence of snakes at the study area were turbid water, minimal wave action, a gentle shoreline gradient, a silt substrate, and a rocky shoreline. Males and gravid females were equally vagile, and the likelihood of a snake undertaking an emigrational movement was independent of age andlor reproductive condition. However, males had significantly more movement days than gravid females. Radio-tagged males had detectable move- ments on 64% of monitored days, compared to 43% of monitored days for gravid females. Mean activity range length was 278 m for males, 219 m for gravid females, and 210 m for juveniles. Concho water snakes generally selected retreat sites within 3 m of water, although gravid females selected sites as far as 15 m from water. As a management procedure for lake populations, we advocate increasing the vertical distri- bution of rocky shoreline. habitat, densities are greatly reduced (pers. Little is known about the spatial ecology of obs.), which may increase the likelihood of local snakes occurring in temporally volatile habitats. extirpations. With the impending construction Houston and Shine (1994) reported high dis- of Ivie Reservoir and the subsequent inundation persal rates for filesnakes (Acrochordus arafurae) of a significant portion of Concho water snake among billabongs, attributable to fluctuating habitat, assessment of the ecological attributes water levels. They also cite extensive wet season of lake populations became imperative. Of spe- movements for water pythons (Liasis fuscus) cial interest was a population persisting in E. V. (Madsen and Shne, unpubl. data). The above Spence Reservoir, constructed in 1969. Data ob- studies illustrate the importance of environmen- tained from the Spence Reservoir population tal variables on snake spatial ecology in natural may be applied to the future management of the systems. The present study deals with a popu- Ivie Reservoir population. lation of Concho water snakes in an artificial en-


The title of this panel is Perspectives On Enforcement of Human Rights. One perspective which is frequently asserted is that there is and can be no effective enforcement. An advocate of this perspective, Professor Watson, has kindly agreed to serve as the lightning rod on this panel. In a recent controversial article he argues that: state practice suggests "either human rights are not subject to the jurisdiction of international law, or else that the strictures of that system are so ineffective as to be completely worthless." He concludes that "advocacy on the part of scholars in the area of human rights has replaced serious study to such an extent that law and wishful thinking are inextricably interwined. The result — an attractive, if futile, philanthropy." Poised on his left and right are Professors Shelton, Lillich and Weissbrodt. Professor Shelton will scrutinize the empirical underpinnings of the "no effective enforcement" perspective. Professor Weissbrodt will explore the connection between international fact finding and enforcement; and Professor Lillich will examine the domestic enforcement of international human rights norms.


Abstract A case of Koro or the Genital Retraction Syndrome in a young man where the symptom of Koro was secondary to a Major Depressive Disorder is reported here. This is the first such case to be reported from Ireland.


The diffusion of computer supported communication systems has recently contributed to redefine the context of social interaction. More specifically, within the working context, it has contributed to enhance new forms of participation as well it has highlighted the opportunity to further develop organizational strategies based on collaboration, on competence and objectives sharing in absence and/or in partial presence of offline interactions (Cascio, Shurygailo, 2003). Actually, within the last few decades, the many advantages supplied by the web have allowed a fast widespread of virtual teams, physically distant but greatly committed to common goals. Such evidence has supported the chance to further enhance very original key competences in the workplace: the traditional teamwork ability a new skill has been enriched by the ability to co-work with colleagues physically distant (virtual teamwork ability). The aim of the present paper is to understand how a virtual team "works", which strategies are chosen to solve problems and to make decisions. To this purpose, the working sessions of a virtual team have been taken into account. Content and discourse analysis have been adopted to analyze the data.


In structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) modeling, sometimes the identifying restrictions are insufficient for a unique specification of all shocks. In this paper it is pointed out that specific distributional assumptions can help in identifying the structural shocks. In particular, a mixture of normal distributions is considered as a possible model that can be used in this context. Our model setup enables us to test restrictions which are just-identifying in a standard SVAR framework. The results are illustrated using a U.S. macro data set and a system of U.S. and European interest rates.


*Corresponding author Copyright©2019, University of Isfahan. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0), which permits others to download this work and share it with others as long as they credit it, but they can't change it in any way or use it commercially. Doi: 10.22108/jssr.2019.116539.1097 http://ui.ac.ir/en


Ferromagnetic shape memory nickel-manganese-gallium (Ni-Mn-Ga) has shown tremendous promise as an actuator material due to its large strain and high bandwidth. However, current Ni-Mn-Ga devices are electromagnet based as this configuration allows for an externally applied force perpendicular to the applied field, and are therefore bulky, energy inefficient, and narrowband. We investigate the dynamic response of Ni-Mn-Ga driven by a solenoid transducer in which the magnetic field is aligned collinearly with the loading stress. The work focusses on the quasistatic and dynamic testing of a Ni50Mn28.7Ga21.3 sample which is believed to have an internal stress field which plays the role of the restoring force necessary for reversible strains. This sample is shown to exhibit reversible compressive strains of -0.41% with no external forces applied. Several experimental apparatus are used in order to verify these results. The measurements demonstrate a 231% change in stiffness with applied dc magnetic fields.


There were better literary merchants in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties than before. Both Han-styled folk songs and fantasy fiction portrayed positive merchants, displaying their livings and feelings, their horrors and dreams. Not only increased the number of works but also enlarged the showing scope. Many creative techniques broke the path for later literary works.


The creation of distributed energy generation that eliminates conventional differences between energy producers and consumers creates a new role called prosumer. This study aims at deploying a general ABM simulation framework to facilitate electricity exchange and demonstrate the functionality of blockchain. The simulation involved a Transactive Energy Distributed Energy Resource in a block chain dependent robust multi-agent structure. The LEM proposal based on blockchain uses auction system to balance supply and demand. Prediction error impacts on market outcomes were reduced by the LTSM model. The prediction procedure works on blockchain based LEM with adjusted prediction procedure. In ten real-world household power consumption datasets, the proposed hybrid deep learning neural network outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. To complement the proposed framework for actual application use, we additionally offer a k-step power consumption forecasting technique. This research offers a scalable environment for analyzing an energy blockchain from the perspective of Qatari society, finance, and technology.


I N A R E C E N T O V E R V I E W O F T H E S O C I O L O G Y of Science, Harriet Zuckerman (1989 [1988]) argues that specialties and disciplines are the chief social mechanisms involved in the growth of scientific knowledge. Understanding their emergence and decline thus sheds light on the growth of new lines of inquiry and the connections between social context and the development of scientific knowledge. Not just knowledge, however; when one talks about science, one refers also to a set of procedures or techniques for advancing knowledge and to a set of social arrangements for developing, certifying and communicating knowledge (Zuckerman, 1989 [1988]: 513). The technical set of procedures or cognitive domain defines what should be studied and how. The social arrangements that promote scientific growth include, inter alia, the "thickening" of communication networks. Kuhn (1970 [1962]: xxi) has argued, therefore, that the social aspects of scientific communities "must be discovered by examining patterns of education and communication before asking which particular research problems engage each group."


We present the discovery of a radio galaxy at a likely redshift of z = 4.424 in one of the flanking fields of the Hubble Deep Field. Radio observations with the VLA and MERLIN centered on the HDF yielded a complete sample of microjansky radio sources, of which about 20% have no optical counterpart to I ≤ 25 mag. In this Letter, we address the possible nature of one of these sources, through deep Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS images in the F110W (J 110) and F160W (H 160) filters. VLA J123642+621331 has a single emission line at 6595Å, which we identify with Lyα at z = 4.424. We argue that this faint (H 160 = 23.9 mag), compact (r e ≃ 0. ′′ 2), red (I 814 − K = 2.0) object is most likely a dusty, star-forming galaxy with an embedded active nucleus.


A sample processing apparatus which has a transporting device; a sample processing device, the transporting device has a first transport path; a second transport path; a rack moving mechanism for moving the sample rack from the first transport path to the second transport path; a guide member, movable in vertical directions, for allowing the sample rack to move from the first transport path to the second transport path when the guide member is at a predetermined position, and for preventing the sample rack being transported on the first transport path or the second transport path from deviating from the transport path when the guide member is above the predetermined position; and a drive source for moving the guide member in vertical directions. Also, a sample transporting device, and a sample rack transporting method.


It is a prerequisite to introduce chemical functional groups onto solid surfaces, for example, glass, silicon oxide, gold, and polymers, for the investigation of fundamental phenomena in interfacial reactions and also for many tech-nological applications in heterogeneous catalysis, microar-rays, transistors, light-emitting diodes, solar cells, batteries, and sensors. [1] In the case of metal surfaces, self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have been intensively and effectively used for modification and functionalization of surfaces, based on specific chemical interactions between the metal surface and self-assembling molecules. [2] For example, SAMs of alkanethiols on gold and siloxanes on Si/SiO 2 form spontaneously on the surfaces, which leads to well-or-dered molecular monolayers with functional properties. [3] However, the formation of SAMs can only be applied to a limited number of solid substrates. Because specific chemical bonds between a surface and a coating molecule are re-quired, chemical modification/functionalization of polymeric surfaces, such as polycarbonate, poly(methyl methacry-late), and cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), has been difficult because of the lack of chemically reactive groups on the surface. On the other hand, polymers, compared with hard inor-ganics, have recently emerged as a promising alternative for the fabrication of electronic devices and microfluidic chips. [4] For instance, COC, the copolymer of 2-norbornene and ethylene, has desirable properties for biochips, for ex-ample, biosensors, medical devices, and microfluidic devices, , and then dried with a stream of argon. Contact angle measurements were performed by using Phoenix 300 ap- paratus (Surface Electro Optics Co. Ltd, Korea) equipped with a video camera. The static contact angles of water drops of ca. 5 m L were mea- sured at five different locations on each sample, and average values were recorded. X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study was per- formed with a VG Scientific ESCALAB 250 spectrometer (UK) with a monochromatic Al K a X-ray source. Emitted photoelectrons were de- tected by a multichannel detector at a take-off angle of 90 8 relative to the surface. The base pressure was 10 (cid:2) 9 –10 (cid:2) 10 Torr during the measurements. The wide spectra were obtained at a resolution of 1 eV from three scans, and the high-resolution spectra were acquired at a resolution of 0.05 eV from 5–20 scans.


Objective To observe the clinicopathological features of collecting duct carcinoma of kidney(CDC).Methods The clinical records and results of HE,immunohistochemical examination of 8 CDC cases were analyzed.Results The average age of 8 cases was 50.8 years and male dominated.The major symptoms were hematuria and flank pain.In histopathologic examinations tumor cells displayed hobnail-like shape and diffuse tubular or tubular-papillary pattern with desmoplastic stromal reaction.Immunohistochemical staining showed positive for CK7,EMA and vimentin in tumor cells.Conclusion CDC can be differentiated from other kidney tumors based on HE and immunohistochemical staining.


The new work, Morphons and Bions (2011), is a realtime computer music work generated in Pd. All sounds in the work are synthesized as opposed to recorded. The sound sources rely fundamentally on white noise and digital noise mediated by classical synthesis techniques and random processes. Since the work is built on a substrate entirely made of noise, the piece is situated within certain philosophical and aesthetic issues surrounding noise, its use, and its definition. This paper seeks to address these issues. Keywords-noise music; sound synthesis; random and stochastic


In this paper, we propose the idea of gray optical apertures in contrast to the conventional binary apertures for holographic data storage (HDS). A gray aperture can be realized by a liquid crystal display or a binary aperture with a coating near the edge. In our simulation, HDS with a gray aperture shows a better page signal-to-noise ratio and modeling accuracy than HDS using a binary aperture.


This study aims to determine the effect of human resources, technology utilization, and monitoring of local finance to the timeliness of financial reporting SKPD ogan Ilir district simultaneously and partially. This type of research is quantitative research. The analysis model used is multiple linear regression analysis. The type of data in this study is the primary data. And data processing using SPSS software version 23.
The result of this study are simultaneously the qualily of human resources, technology ultilization and financial control region significantly affect the timeless of financial reporting of the district government ogan Ilir. But other result partially utilization of technology does not have a significant effect on the future financial reporting time of local government ogan Ilir.


Tobacco or tobacco products (TTP) are harmful because they contain nicotine and some heavy metals. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate whether the responses of parents to questionnaires were compatible with the hair cotinine levels of their children, and to investigate whether exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and living conditions increased the levels of cotinine, lead (Pb), arsenic (As), and cadmium (Cd) in the hair samples of the children. Questionnaires were administered to the parents questioning household consumption of TTP and living conditions. Children were grouped as "exposed to ETS" (E‐ETS) and "not exposed to ETS" (NE‐ETS). This grouping was performed through a questionnaire‐based evaluation, and a hair cotinine cut‐off value‐based evaluation. According to the questionnaire‐based evaluation, there were no significant differences in hair Pb, As, and Cd levels between the groups (P‐values: .337, .994, and .825, respectively). The hair cotinine of the E‐ETS group was higher (0.24 ± 0.21 vs 0.22 ± 0.15 ng/mg), but the difference was not statistically significant (P = .317). According to the cotinine evaluation, cotinine, Pb, and As levels were statistically higher in the E‐ETS group (P < .001, <.001, and .036, respectively), but there was no statistical difference between the groups in terms of Cd levels (P = .238). Our results showed that exposure to ETS increased the levels of cotinine, Pb, and As in the hair samples of children, and the questionnaire responses of the parents about their smoking habits might not be compatible with the hair cotinine levels of the children.


Introduction Washington's "war on drugs" is an example of language George Orwell might dismiss for "staleness of imagery" and "lack of precision." The phrase is simple enough, not shrouded in pretentious diction, but it is a "dying and vague metaphor." It is "designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectful" (Orwell, 1956: 357; 366). Analogous to changing the name of the War Department in the U.S. to the Department of Defense, Washington's declaration of a "war on drugs" in Latin America has become a media veil for the actual uses of U.S. military and economic aid to its allies in the "war on drugs." There is a war taking place. This we know from the alarming body counts taken each year in Colombia, arguably the most violent country in the hemisphere. Yet despite more than $600 million the U.S. has granted to the Colombian military and national police in the last seven years, drug production and export have continued to rise. In fact, the military aid is used for purposes other than fighting drugs. According to the Andean Commission of Jurists, 25,491 noncombatant Colombian civilians were killed in political or social violence between 1986 and 1994. Almost 70% of those identifiable assassinations, massacres, and enforced disappearances were committed by the Colombian army and police or by paramilitary groups and privately financed death squads operating in partnership with state forces (Carrigan, 1995: 9). Still, U.S. policies may be effective for large Colombian landowners who, supported by the military and private paramilitaries, brutally crush popular resistance over labor disputes and land grabs, as well as for Colombian and U.S. investors who benefit from the resulting growth in GDP, the opening of the market, and the privatization of the economy. It is a war of the political and business elite, the military and national police, and the largest landowners of all - the drug mafia - against the peasants, workers, teachers, students, black and indigenous peoples, union leaders, human rights monitors, priests, and guerrillas. If we were to be honest with ourselves, this unique "war on drags" in Colombia would be named just another "war of the rich against the poor."(1) In April 1997, the U.N. High Commissioner placed a special human rights office in Bogota, financed by the European Union. This action places Colombia in a category among the seven most violent countries in the world, along with Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi, Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia. Already, the representative of the High Commissioner's office in Bogota, Almudena Mazarrasa, has faced highly resistant government officials. One senator for the Liberal Party called for her ouster from Colombia because she opposed the legalization of the ultra-right paramilitary groups known as Convivirs, which have been widely cited for human fights violations (Colombia Bulletin, Summer/Fall, 1997: 1). This essay attempts to unshroud the war in Colombia, which the mainstream press has obscured by its failure to critically investigate U.S. State Department intentions. The report begins by examining the announced "war on drugs" in Colombia and the corresponding increase in violence in the region. The steady growth of the Colombian economy is noted, along with the paramilitary and military repression that accompanies it. I discuss the treatment of Colombia's outgoing president, Ernesto Samper [defeated in the June 21, 1998, election by Conservative Andres Pastrana - eds.], who was targeted by the U.S. government and press for accepting drug money in his campaign. The section contrasts how Washington's attitude to Samper differed from that to former President Cesar Gaviria, who was celebrated in the North for his neoliberal policies and economic privatization efforts (known as the apertura, or economic opening). Finally, the essay examines the level of impunity for human rights violators suffered by the Colombian people, which was worsened by judicial reforms in 1991. …


Biliary strictures are the most common complications after liver transplantation and can be classied as anastomotic strictures (AS) and nonanastomotic strictures (NAS), according to the different location of the strictures. The two types of biliary strictures differ in pathology, risk factors, therapy, and prognosis. Combined with the literature at home and abroad, the risk factors and therapy of the two types of biliary strictures after liver transplantation are reviewed in this paper.

Key words:
Liver transplantation; Biliary strictures; Risk factors; Therapy


Protests, understood as "the collective use of unconventional methods of political participation to try to persuade or coerce authorities to support a challenging group's aims" (Taylor and Van Dyke, 2004: 263), can comprise a vast variety of actions. According to Taylor and Van Dyke (2004: 263) these actions can vary from conventional strategies of political persuasion, like petitions or lobbyism, to confrontational tactics, like marches, strikes or demonstrations, violent actions, that involve property damage, economic loss or even fatalities or forms of political expression like rituals, music, shows, poetry, art, film or literature. Cultural forms of political expression provide greater flexibility than traditional forms of civil participation or protest, like marches, petitions or demonstrations. According to Reed (2016: 81), in the last decades "every form of art has been drawn in the circle of protest", and his list includes, without being limitative, visual art, theatre and performance art, protest painting, protest poetry, protest dance, protest films, protest photography, underlining the significant role of protest music and of the ubiquitous protest posters. In this study we analyse the presence of art and artists during the Romanian protests from the The involvement and the role of art in the #rezist civic actions in Romania


Annual rainfall records from the island of Crete in Greece were used with the aid of a geographical information system (GIS) to study the temporal and spatial rainfall characteristics. The GIS was used to produce a digital elevation model, delineate watersheds and estimate the areal rainfall from a network of raingauges by using different interpolation schemes. The rainfall–elevation correlation was significant, suggesting an orographic type of precipitation for the island. The rainfall records for the majority of the stations were found to fit the normal distribution. Deviation from normal for the rest of the records was attributed to the wettest year of 1977–1978. The year 1989–1990 was the driest, and most rainfall records showed a decrease in rainfall over 30 years with higher negative rainfall gradients at the higher elevations. Frequency analysis of the rainfall records was used to estimate areal rainfall for the island of Crete and its main watersheds for return periods of 2, 5 and 10 years. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


To the Editor.— Correspondence in theArchiveshas recently centered on the possible relationship between pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy (PUPPP), maternal-fetal weight gain, and twin pregnancy.1,2This association has been strengthened by the report of PUPPP in patients with polyhydramnios and triplet pregnancy.3We have recently reviewed the clinical and histologic features of 32 patients with PUPPP seen at our institution over a 6-year period (1985 through 1991) (F. C. P.; P. Dervan, FRCPath; S. O'Loughlin, FRCPI; unpublished observation, January 1992). The mean age of onset of the eruption in this group of patients was 28 years. In 30 patients (94%), the eruption commenced in the third trimester. There were four twin pregnancies (12%). Twenty-eight patients (87%) were gravida 1, three were gravida 2, and one was gravida 5. It is this patient, who also had a twin pregnancy, who is described in more detail


ABSTRACT This follow-up study investigated why same-sex couples in Taiwan break up. In-depth interviews were conducted with four sexual-minority men and 16 sexual-minority women. Their reasons for break up included infidelity, life-stage incompatibility, rigid interaction patterns, and loss of trust. The results suggest a correlation between gender and the reasons for termination. Sexual-minority female couples seem to be more emotionally enmeshed and put more emphasis on exclusivity, which tends to put strain on the relationship. Female couples break up primarily due to infidelity. Male couples seem to have a higher incidence of and tolerance for infidelity, and a much lower breakup rate.


"Ji Zhong-xing Case" is the miniature of Chinese extreme right maintaining events,which reflects the malfunctioning and defect of regular right-defending system.The social bottom class people's desire of rights protecting can't be satisfied and they have to seek for other irregular right-defending ways.In the era of "We-Media",these extreme events are widely spread by Internet and self-medias,taking obvious expansion and demonstration effect,and are deeply influencing people's right defending selection.The negative effects of extreme events in "We-Media" era are related with the deficient social remedy mechanisms of China.The extreme events in right maintaining will reduce the credibility of regular right maintaining channel,therefore,it should be prevented with effective measures.


Formations of acoustic cavitation bubbles in various resonator set−ups are recorded by high− speed stereoscopic means. The bubble distributions and motions are reconstructed in three dimensions. Such data is a key for better understanding of the mechanisms taking place in applications of intense ultrasound in liquids. Furthermore, the data serves for verification and improvement of particle modeling of cavitation bubbles.


In this paper, a novel paradigm of mobile edgequantum computing (MEQC) is proposed, which brings quantum computing capacities to mobile edge networks that are closer to mobile users (i.e., edge devices). First, we propose an MEQC system model where mobile users can offload computational tasks to scalable quantum computers via edge servers with cryogenic components and fault-tolerant schemes. Second, we show that it is NP-hard to obtain a centralized solution to the partial offloading problem in MEQC in terms of the optimal latency and energy cost of classical and quantum computing. Third, we propose a multi-agent hybrid discrete-continuous deep reinforcement learning using proximal policy optimization to learn the long-term sustainable offloading strategy without prior knowledge. Finally, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can reduce at least 30% of the cost compared with the existing baseline solutions under different system settings.


In a time when the purchase of real estate – especially apartments – is largely financed by long-term loan agreements, and when statistics show that the number of divorces is increasing year after year, the question of the real estate legal regime acquired through loan agreements is becoming an increasingly important issue. In order to properly understand the problem of the legal regime of real estate, it is necessary to distinguish two groups of cases: firstly, the cases when one spouse concluded a loan contract before marriage and used that money to finance the purchase of a certain real estate; secondly, the cases in which the real estate was financed with funds from the loan acquired during marriage, but which (the marriage) was shortly after terminated and only one spouse continued to repay the loan.


COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease that is causing havoc to the entire world due to the newly discovered coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In this study, the dynamics of COVID-19 for India and a few selected states with different demographic structures have been analyzed using a SEIRD epidemiological model. A systematic estimation of the basic reproductive ratio R0 is made for India and for each of the selected states. The study has analysed and predicted the dynamics of the temporal progression of the disease in Indian and the selected eight states: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. For India, the most optimistic scenario with respect to duration of the epidemic shows, the peak of infection will appear before mid September with the estimated R0=1.917, from the SEIRD model. Further, we show, a Gaussian fit of the daily incidences also indicates the peak will appear around middle of August this year. Our analyses suggest, the earliest dates when the epidemic will start to decline in most states are between Jun-August. For India, the number of infected people at the time of peak will be around 1.6 million including asymptomatic people. If the community transmission is prohibited, then the epidemic will infect not more than 3.1 million people in India. We also compared India's position in containing the disease with two countries with higher and lower number of infections than India and show the early imposition of lockdown has reduced the number of infected cases significantly.


Background: Synchronous bilateral breast cancer (SBBC) provides a special condition where two independent breast tumors are exposed to cancer pharmacotherapy within a uniform pharmacokinetic milieu. Both senescence and apoptosis are established responses to therapy; however, they have potentially variable contributions to the overall outcome of treatment, which are yet to be determined. Methods: In this report, we describe the clinicopathological picture of two SBBC cases that received standard anticancer treatment and assess their expression profile of several molecular hallmarks of senescence and apoptosis. Results: Our analysis identified that synchronous tumors have variable expression profiles of both senescence- and apoptosis-associated biomarkers, despite comparable pathological responses to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and current survival rates. Conclusions: Our results highlight the variable expression of senescence- and apoptosis-associated markers in breast tumors (despite the shared somatic genetic background) and invites a large-scale assessment of both senescence and apoptosis in breast cancer tissue in vivo and their contribution to the pathological response and overall survival.


Illegal drugs and their effects can be deadly. Nearly 65,000 Americans died of drug overdose last year, and thousands more ended up in the emergency room...


In this paper, we consider the random periodic solution to a neutral stochastic functional differential equation driven by Brownian motion. We obtain the existence and uniqueness of the random periodic solution by Banach fixed point theorem. Moreover, we introduce two examples to illustrate our results.


A single laser cooled ion in a radiofrequency trap can serve as the basis for a highly stable optical frequency standard. We present recent results of our work on single indium ions, using the /sup 1/S/sub 0/ to /sup 3/P/sub 0/ transition at 236.5 nm wave-length as the clock transition. This resonance has a linewidth of only 0.82 Hz where systematic shifts should be controllable on the mHz level. A single In/sup +/ ion is stored in a miniature Paul-Straubel trap and laser cooled to a temperature of about 100 /spl mu/K. The clock transition is excited using a frequency quadrupled Nd:YAG laser. A fractional resolution of 1.3/spl middot/10/sup -13/ has been achieved so far (linewidth of 170 Hz at 1267 THz). The absolute frequency of the clock transition clock transition has been measured with an uncertainty of 2/spl middot/10/sup -13/ using a frequency chain and a methane-stabilized HeNe laser as a reference, that was calibrated with a cesium clock.


Aim To observe the effect of Alisma Decoction on lipid deposition and the expression of LXRα and ABCA1 on macrophagic foam cell formation. Methods Macrophagic foam cell formation was established after induction with oxidized low density liprotein( ox-LDL)( 50 mg / L) and Dil-ox-LDL( 10 mg / L) for 24 h respectively and then the cells were intervened with 20% Alisma Decoction-containing serum. Oil red O staining and fluorescence microscopy were used to detect the lipid deposition in cells. RT-PCR and Western blot was utilized to detect the expression of LXRα and ABCA1. Results Macrophagic foam cell formation was established sucessfully after the stimulation with ox-LDL( 50 mg / L) and Dil-ox-LDL( 10 mg / L). Compared with the control group,lipid deposition was increased significantly in the model group,while lipid accumulation was obviously reduced in macrophage cells after treated with Alisma Decoction-containing serum. The expression of LXRα showed a low level in both the control group and model group. However,after intervened with the Alisma Decoction-containing serum,the expression of LXRα increased distinctively in macrophage cells which was pretreated with ox-LDL. As to ABCA1,the model group expressed much more greatly than the control group. And the macrophage cells treated with the ox-LDL and Alisma Decoction--containing serum group had a high level expression,but it is lower than the model group. Conclusion Macrophagic foam cell formation was sucessfully established after induction with oxidized low density liprotein( ox-LDL)( 50 mg / L) and Dil-ox-LDL( 10 mg / L). Alisma Decoction can decrease the lipid deposition in the process of macrophagic foam cell formation,and it may depend on the way of upregulating the expression of LXRα.