tions with malononitrile used for therapeutic purposes (Serra, 1951; Serra & Severgnini, 1953). d) The importance of lipoic acid for the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvic acid has been confirmed from the constant changes in human EEG, observed as frequent "photic driving" patterns (Serra & Ventra, 1957). The significance of these enzymic activations of the electrical response of the brain in intermittent photic stimulation is thoroughly disciissed (Serra, 1959, Serra & Ambrosio, 1961). From the comparative analysis of these results the degree of importance of various substances in activating the brain metabolism is emphasized. Their importance in conditioning the complex physico-chemical changes responsible a t cellular level for the continuous variations of electrical potentials is stressed. (Baronw. Serra & Lambiase, 1957; Mcllwain, 1955; Purpura & Grundfest, 1956).


Patient: Female, 46-year-old Final Diagnosis: Invasive mole Symptoms: Bleeding • vaginal bleeding Medication: — Clinical Procedure: Curettage • hysterectomy Specialty: Obstetrics and Gynecology • Oncology Objective: Rare disease Background: Gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) is a spectrum of disorders consisting of premalignant (ie, complete [CHM] and partial hydatidiform moles [PHM]) and malignant conditions (ie, invasive moles, choriocarcinoma, placental site trophoblastic tumors, and epithelioid trophoblastic tumor). If GTD persists after initial treatment and has persistent elevated beta human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG), it is referred to as post-molar gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (pGTN). To date, there is no detailed information regarding how fast invasive moles can develop from CHM. However, the risk of developing any pGTN from CHM is rare within 1 month and is greatest in the first 12 months after evacuation, with most cases presenting within 6 months. Case Report: We present a case of a 46-year-old primigravida woman with rapid transformation of an invasive mole. In the beginning, the patient had a chief concern of a uterus size greater than the gestational dates. Laboratory evaluation showed high β-hCG serum level (>300 000 mIU/mL), and ultrasonography evaluation revealed a hydatidiform mole. Suction evacuation and curettage procedures were then performed. Pathology evaluation afterwards revealed a complete hydatidiform mole without any sign of malignancy. Twenty-two days afterwards, the patient came to the emergency room with vaginal bleeding. β-hCG serum level was high (53 969 mIU/mL), and ultrasonography examination showed the presence of fluid filling the uterine cavity. The patient was then diagnosed with GTN, and hysterectomy was chosen as the treatment of choice. After the surgery, her β-hCG serum level gradually reverted back to normal. Conclusions: Invasive moles can develop less than 1 month after suction evacuation and curettage procedure for CHM. Serial β-hCG serum level evaluation according to the guideline should be performed to prevent late diagnosis, which could lead to the development of metastasis and worsen the prognosis.


Growth hormone (GH) secretory alterations and dysregulations with insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-1) axis among type-1 diabetic children and adolescents is well established. In this poorly controlled abnormal metabolic state, GH hypersecretion is observed with decreased levels of Insulin-like Growth Factors (IGFs), IGF binding proteins-3 (IGFBP-3), and growth hormone binding protein (GHBP). These all factors results in decreased growth velocity and growth retardation in type-1 diabetic children and adolescents. Insulin is the most important metabolic regulator of this system. Absolute insulin deficiency, as observed in type-1 diabetics, is the primary cause of this dysregulation and alterations. Several published studies have shown that elevated HbA1c and poor glycaemic control are the main factors of this abnormal metabolic state. Conversely, studies have also demonstrated that good glycaemic control with basal bolus insulin regimens or insulin pump can improve diabetic state with restoration of normal growth. Hence this perspective review focuses on these important aspects of growth abnormalities in type-1 diabetic patients and concludes that health care policy makers should develop a close monitoring program and system with multi-disciplinary team approach to prevent further diabetes related growth complications.


The paper analyses and discusses the formation and trends of culture individuality for the northeast people from culture anthropology.The content includes personality birth environment,and localization trends,being accepted widely,and experiencing the fly course from sense to reason.the aim for people grasping the formation and trends of culture personality for the northeast people in a vivid and objective way.


Multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) utilizes short DNA repeat polymorphism in genomes, which is termed variable number tandem repeat (VNTR), to differentiate closely related organisms. One research challenge is to find an optimal set of VNTR to distinguish different members accurately. An intuitive method is to use an exhaustive search method. However, this method is not an efficient way to find optimal solutions from a dataset comprising many attributes (loci) due to the curse of dimensionality. In this study, metaheuristic methods are proposed to find an optimal set of loci combination. Basic genetic algorithm (BGA) and modified genetic algorithm (MGA) were proposed in our previous work for this purpose. However, they require prior knowledge from an experienced user to specify the minimum number of loci for achieving good results. To impose no such expertise requirement for parameter setting, a GA with Duplicates (GAD), which allows the inclusion of duplicated loci in a chromosome (potential solution) during the search process, is developed. The study also investigates the search performance of a hybrid metaheuristic method, namely quantum-inspired differential evolution (QDE). Hunter-Gaston Discriminatory Index (HGDI) is used to indicate the discriminatory power of a loci combination. Two Mycobacterium tuberculosis MLVA datasets obtained from a public portal and a local laboratory respectively, are used. The results obtained by using exhaustive search and metaheuristic methods are first compared, followed by a performance comparison among BGA, MGA, GAD, and QDE by a statistical approach. The best-performing GA method (i.e., GAD) and QDE are selected for a performance comparison with several recent metaheuristic methods using both MLVA datasets by a statistical approach. The statistical results show that both GAD and QDE could achieve higher HGDI than the recent methods using a small but informative set of loci combination.


The global incidence of nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD) has been increasing [1]. Recently popularised microbiology tests, including 16S rRNA sequencing and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation–time-of-flight mass spectrometry, have made it possible to identify rare nonmycobacterial species previously unidentifiable using conventional methods [2, 3]. Transmission of Mycobacterium marinum to humans is mainly through direct contact with domesticated fish or through pre-existing wounds or abrasions on limbs exposed to contaminated water [4]. M. marinum causes swimming pool or fish tank granuloma [4]. The organism grows well at 30–32°C, but poorly or not at all at 37°C [4]. Most M. marinum infections do not invade deeper than the superficial cooler regions of the skin, and pulmonary infections are rarely reported [4]. Mycobacterium marinum can cause pulmonary infection and can grow at ≤32°C. Physicians should consider M. marinum when examining patients with pulmonary infection and low body temperature or anorexia nervosa, and grow the specimen at ≤32°C. https://bit.ly/3jkzBeq


OBJECTIVE To study the fungistasic activity of Stellera chamaejasme L.on Trichophyton mentagrophyte and influence on the ultrastructure alternations,then speculate the antifungal mechanism.METHODS T.mentagrophyte was cultured with the agar mixing method and liquid diluting method for antifungal test.And the ultrastructure of T.mentagrophyte in the process of Stellera chamaejasme L.was studied by transmission electron microscope(TEM).RESULTS It was shown that Stellera chamaejasme L.had obvious activity on T.mentagrophyte,and the effective concentration(EC50) was 0.3021 mg·ml-1.The minimal inhibitory concentration(MIC) was 0.3125 mg·ml-1,and the minimal fatal concentration(MFC) was 0.625 mg·ml-1.Observation under TEM showed obvious morphological changes in the hypha of T.mentagrophyte.CONCLUSION Stellera chamaejasme L.is found to possess intense activity on T.mentagrophyte,which makes Stellera chamaejasme L.having practical potent of substituting antidermatophytic drugs.


This article reviews the growing research dealing with informal caregivers to peoplewith HIV infection or AIDS, focusing particularly on the intersection of this workwith research on aging. It contrasts AIDS caregiving with what is known aboutcaregiving in general, which is often associated with caring for a frail older person.This comparison points to a scholarly literature in which aging, gender, generationaldifferences, and life-course issues have been a central concern. In addition, using datafrom the UCSF Care Study, this article presents some results from analyses concernedspecifically with the interpretation of age-related effects and caregiving. It emphasizesthe diversity among AIDS caregivers, who may be friends, partners, or familyrelatives, and the diversity of their experiences with caregiving, loss, and aging. Italso outlines important methodological and conceptual links between a life-courseperspective on aging and AIDS caregiving and suggests how each scholarly concernmay inform the other.


In this study, a total of 9 milk markets and 30 pastoralist herds in Jigawa State were investigated using Milk ring test and questionnaires in order to determine the prevalence of Brucella antibodies in milk and also to assess some risk factors that could predispose both humans and animals to infection. The results indicated that out of the 310 pooled milk sampled from milk markets 23(7.4%) tested positive to the ring test while of the 260 fresh milk samples 9(3.4%) tested positive. Questionnaire assessment of the milk sellers and the herdsmen showed that there is risk of contacting brucellosis because of traditionalhusbandry system and local habit of the pastoralists.In conclusion this study has brought out silent features of brucellosis infection in the study areas and herds. It is hereby recommended that Public education and Enlightenment as a preventive measure for control and eradication is desirable among the pastoralist.


A fuel injector (1) for an internal combustion engine; injector terminating in a nozzle for injecting fuel into a corresponding engine cylinder and comprising: - a body hollow (2) injector extending in an axial direction (3); - a control rod (10) axially movable with respect to said injector body (2), to open / close said nozzle; - a servo valve housed in said controlling injector body (2), and comprising: a) an electric actuator; b) a camera control (23) which is bounded axially on one side by said control rod (10), communicates with a fuel inlet (4) and has a discharge conduit (26, 48) comprises a calibrated portion (42, 52); c) a shutter (17) movable axially, under the control of said electrical actuator, between a closed position in which it closes said discharge conduit (26, 48), and an open position in which it opens elmencionado conduit ( 26, 48) for varying the pressure in said control chamber (23) and so produce axial movement of said control rod (10); whereby - said servovalve also comprises an axial rod (33) fixed with respect to said injector body (2), and comprising an outer lateral surface (34) through which exits said discharge conduit (26, 48); - said shutter (17) is fitted to said outer lateral surface (34) to slide axially in substantially fluidtight and, in said closed position, closes said discharge conduit (26, 48) so that It is subjected to a resultant axial pressure by the fuel substantially zero; and - said calibrated portion (42, 52) is formed so as to produce swirl and / or cavitation in the fuel discharge next closing area between said shutter (17) and said axial rod (33).


An increasing number of comfortable publishing systems nowadays leads to documents containing more than just textual information. Graphics and images are combined with text and often overlap one another. In this paper we present a robust algorithm for separating textual information from nontextual within multi-mode documents without recognizing individual characters. The approach generates connectcd componenLs and classifies them as text or non-text. As result, a credibility for each connected component is calculated which expresses its similarity to text or graphics. Moreover, strings are generated that represent sequences of connected components classified as text. Strings can be aligned in any direction. The main processing steps of oru system are connected component generation, neighborhood analysis, and the generation


The effect of phosphor slag on hydration and harden of portland cement by use of XRD,DSC,SEM and MIP is disscussed in the paper.The results show that phosphorous slag has the same pozzolanic effect as fly ash.It can slow down cement early hydration and make looser paste microstructure and higher porosity because it lengthens the setting time.


The direct conversion of heat into electricity by thermoelectric generators is a promising approach to generate power for sensor systems in hot and harsh environments. For this special application, thermoelectric oxides are especially interesting, as they can be used at high temperatures up to 800°C in air. Thermoelectric materials in general are evaluated by the power factor PF = S2∙σ and the figure of merit ZT = (PF ∙ T)/κ. For infinite heat sources as in the field of energy harvesting, the thermoelectric material should be optimized for maximum PF to enable a high-power generation.1 For a limited heat source as in the field of energy recovery, a high-energy conversion efficiency is required and thus a maximum ZT is important.1 Thermoelectric oxides, although having lower ZT than conventional thermoelectric materials like tellurides and skutterudites,2 are an interesting alternative at elevated temperatures as they are stable in air. In Received: 14 August 2020 | Revised: 16 October 2020 | Accepted: 16 October 2020 DOI: 10.1111/jace.17541


We compare the strategy and direct-response methods in a one-shot trust game with hidden action. In our experiment, the decision elicitation method affects neither participants' behavior nor their beliefs about this behavior. We conclude that the direct-response method does not, by itself, induce guilt aversion.


In Ethiopia, women's participation in their own matters and women's benefit from social, economic and political spheres is low. The study is attempted to identify the various possible determinants of women socio-economic empowerment using data collected from 384 households in the selected woredas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPR). A case-control household survey is conducted on randomly selected married women in study areas. Results of the study show that women's level of education, their employment status, their earning compared to husbands, exposure to media, place of residence, age at first marriage, family size and attitude towards wife beating are found to be the major determinants factors affecting women participation on their social and economic matters in a household. Therefore, the Concludes that policy designed at the micro level should be translated to solve the problem on the ground. Thus, considering their agency, women's empowerment at different levels might be realized. On the other hand, collecting clear statistical data and studying the different types of women's home based work and their empowerment and/or disempowerment effect might be areas of research that further have policy implications.


Purpose: This paper reports a case of an older white woman presenting with recalcitrant bilateral vitreoretinal inflammation that was ultimately proven to be primary vitreoretinal lymphoma by vitreous biopsy who subsequently developed a branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO) following an intravitreal injection of methotrexate. Methods: Case summary. Results: The patient was treated with serial intravitreal methotrexate injections and subsequently developed a BRAO immediately following her seventh injection. Conclusions: A full systemic evaluation to rule out other causes of the BRAO was negative and given the timing of her symptoms after the injection it was determined that the BRAO was most likely realted to the intravitreal methotrexate injection.


Introduction There is a long tradition of viewing democracy and education as inseparably interconnected: democracy as a basic value and practice in education; and education as a means to strengthen and sustain democracy. Democracy was a central theme for major educational thinkers of the last century, such as John Dewey, Paolo Freire and Loris Malaguzzi. Today it still has proponents, however the discourse of democratic education is in danger of being drowned out by two other discourses, that of quality and that of markets. The discourse of quality is strongly managerial and understands education as a technology for delivering predetermined outcomes. It is concerned to bring children, teachers and institutions into conformity with expert-derived norms. By contrast, the discourse of markets favors deregulation but understands early childhood education and care as a commodity for sale to parent-consumers. Neither discourse values democracy in the practice of early childhood education. As Carr and Hartnett observe, in their book Education and the Struggle for Democracy:


Many efforts in cardiovascular medicine have been focused in the identification of patients at risk of developing an acute ischaemic event. Biomarker discovery studies have become an essential research area, being proteomic technologies an excellent tool for biomarker identification. By applying proteomic approaches, we have detected changes in retinol‐binding protein 4 (RBP4) in acute new‐onset myocardial infarction patients (AMI) and in high‐risk patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH).


This study focuses on numerical modeling of condensation of water vapor in a Laval nozzle, using the liquid drop nucleation theory. Influence of nozzle geometry, pressure, and temperature on the average drop size is reported. A computer program written in MATLAB was used used to calculate the nucleation and condensation of water vapor in the nozzle. The simulation results are validated with the available experimental data in the literature for steam condensation. The model reveals that the average drop size is reduced by increasing the divergent angle of the nozzle. The results also confirm that increasing the inlet pressure has a direct effect on the average drop size while temperature rise has an inverse effect on the drop size.


: It is important to extract students' reading data to predict their reading performance. This study aims to identify significant indicators of eye-movement and EEG-based attention and to test their predictive effectiveness on reading performance. Data were collected from 56 undergraduate students who read an illustrated science text about geography. Out of 21 reading indicators, 16 were found to have a significant correlation with reading performance. The multiple regression model suggested that Whole time , Text-diagram , Test-text , Medium attention , and High attention were significant indicators. They predicted 62.5% of the variation in students' reading performance.


Biomphalaria tenagophila tenagophila, B. tenago phila guaibensis and B. occidentalis are indistinguishable on the basis of shell morphology and the majority of organs of the genital system. Only B. t. tenagophila is susceptible to infection with Schisto soma mansoni. The identification of this species is important for epidemiological studies of schistosomiasis. Snails from different sites in Brazil, Argentine and Uruguay were studied using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) of the Ribosomal RNA Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS) using seven enzymes. Profiles resulting from digestion with AluI showed some invariant species-specific products allowing correct identification of B. t. tenagophila, B. occidentalis and B. t. guaibensis . Profiles obtained with other enzymes did not permit species identification as extensive intraspecific polymorphism or invariant RFLP profiles were observed. Restriction profiles obtained with all enzymes were used to calculate the percentage of band sharing between all individual snails and these data were used for a cluster analysis. A closer relationship between B. occidentalis and B. t. guaibensis than B. t. tenagophila and the subspecies B. t. guaibensis was observed. Based on previous morphological data and these molecular data, we propose grouping B. t. tenago phila, B. occidentalis and B. t. guaibensis into a B. tenagophila complex.


In this paper,GPS-based mobile measurement system is introduced including the hardware and the architecture of the system based on Internet/Intranet. The measurement system has bee applied in Australian Network and successfully extracted the oscillatory frequency and damming values of the power system. Results from the analysis show that the angle measurement system is able to be used to record the variation of phase angle of the power system thus to carry out the post-event analysis of the incident of the power system successfully and extracting oscillation of the system in real-time.


In the Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP), almost all transactions are implemented with the use of the computer. It is envisioned that all transactions are implemented with the use of advanced technology. But in some cases, like the Student Advising of the Registrar's Office, these are still done through manual process. The manual process of evaluating the students' records usually takes a long time. The registrar usually takes two weeks to get the result done using the manual process. To solve such problems and to further align the vision of TIP in implementing a computerized method in all of its transactions, this study was conceptualized. The development of a web-based expert system for student advising was the focus of the study. Through this web-based expert system for student advising, a new procedure could be implemented in the institution. Accurate and reliable results could be produced and could be accessed by both the students and the registrar's office of the school. The evaluation gathered from the respondents reveal that the system prototype had very well implemented the paradigm that takes to formulate a better student advising procedure than the manual way. The needs and requirements are met by the system prototype due to the implementation of the module paradigm. Overall, this study had met all the requirements needed by the respondents as well as the institution.


Redesigning mini compact crucible furnace to improve heat insulation durability and to obtain the best exhaust pipe position is needed to achieve compatibility for aluminium casting practice. Performance test of the redesigned mini compact crucible furnace was conducted by variation of crucible, support and economizer. The rate of temperature increase, the aluminium melting rate, and gas consumption for melting aluminium specify the furnace performance. The temperature change was determined by digital infrared thermometer. Heat insulator on the inner side wall of mini compact crucible furnace were redesigned by using stainless steel plate cylinder combining with ceramic blanket D.96. Total weight of the furnace decreases by 28%. This insulator combination was able to accelerate the temperature increase, maintain the heating chamber temperature, and reduce the gas consumption. The furnace was able to melt 3 kg of aluminium in 35 minutes by consuming around 1.2 kg of liquefied petroleum gas. The economiser functioned well, was able to accelerate the temperature increase, and maintain the heating chamber temperature.


M2M communication in the Industrial Internet of Things is still in its infancy as the information exchange between machines is hindered by various modern security challenges and threats. An attacker can leverage the M2M communication by exploiting it with resource exhaustion, data integrity, and injection attacks. In this article, to address the aforementioned security issues, we first employed a long short-term memory based AI model on the edge servers to classify the machines' malicious and nonmalicious message requests and forwarded them to the onion routing (OR) network. Then, to enhance the security and reliability of the conventional OR network, we have associated it with blockchain technology by incorporating two additional fields along with the original message requests, i.e., verifying token and time to live that validates the incoming message requests. Additionally, the OR network, along with blockchain, is simulated inside a discrete simulator, i.e., a shadow simulator. Finally, the performance of the proposed system is evaluated with different performance metrics, such as F1 score, precision, recall, and false-negative rate. The empirical results show that the proposed OR network outperforms the conventional OR in terms of throughput, decryption time (computationally inexpensive), and OR circuit compromised rate.


Objective. To examine associations of depressive feelings with disease related variables and explore the moderating effect of social support on depressive feelings in individuals with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) prospectively over four years. Research Method. Data were collected annually over a four-year period. The sample consisted of 124 individuals with diagnosed RA (85.5% women; mean age 48.1 years; mean disease duration 21.9 months). The strength of cross sectional and prospective associations of sociodemographic, disease related variables and the direct and moderating effects of social support on depression were tested using correlations, multilevel models and hierarchical linear regressions. Results. The study showed that emotional support moderated the influence of functional disability on depressive feelings in individuals with RA. This was not detected for instrumental support. Further prospective associations between functional status, marital status and depressive feelings were also found. Overall the strongest association was found between initial depressive feelings and depressive feelings four years later. Conclusions. Initial depression seems to be a risk factor in explaining later depressive feelings but emotional support might be prospectively beneficial especially for individuals with higher levels of disability. Early detection of individuals at risk for depression and providing interventions aimed at the specific functions of social support might help to decrease mental health problems.


: Two-dimensional communication (2DC) textile is a technical combination of e-textile and two-dimensional signal transmission (2DST) technology. 2DC textile-based wearable system has several benefits, whereas designing a transmission scheme that ensures both power and high data rate transfer among numerous distributed devices on the textile is still challenging work. This paper proposes a charge/communication switching approach based on a baseband transmission system without modulation/demodulation of carriers. Successful power and more than 1 Mbps, half-duplex data transfer between one master and ten slaves was achieved. We also explain the trade-off relationship between the charging power, data rate, and device number by applying this approach.


The invention belongs to the field of catalyst and preparation thereof, and relates to a molecular sieve catalyst containing heteroatom and a preparation method thereof, and in particular to an MFI-type zeolite catalyst for propane dehydrogenation conversion to produce propylene and a preparation method thereof. The catalyst, calculated by its own weight, comprises the following components: 60%-98% of an MFI-type heteroatom molecular sieve, 0.15%-0.4% of a main active component, 0.05%-2% of a mixed element modifier, 5%-30% of a binder and 2%-15% of an extrusion assistant, wherein the total amount of the above components is 100%. The catalyst of the invention has excellent propane dehydrogenation activity and stability, and has the advantages of simple preparation process, lower cost, and good prospects for industrial applications.


Freight transport modelling is always a challenge since its complexity and the often scarce data availability, and the varying rate of detail in available databases. After a long EU wide research and development period the TRANS-TOOLS model system was developed on European continental scale with extensions to the eastern Mediterranean countries, however it raised a number of concerns during the former applications. The National Transport Infrastructure-Development Strategy required the development of a national transportation model for Hungary that could handle both traffic volume and modal shift effects of policies. The paper presents the background and the model built including its validation. The model applies the Aggregate-Disaggregate-Aggregate approach to improve the transposition from EU scale to national scale. Through selected set of applications covering both infrastructure and financial measures the sensitivity of the model is presented.


The ability of a single signaling protein to induce distinct cellular processes is a well-known feature of cell signaling networks. This assumes that proteins can switch their function depending on the cellular context. However, causally proving and understanding such a switch is an arduous task because of the multiple feedbacks and crosstalks. Here, using an optogenetic tool to control membrane localization of RhoA nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), we show that a single protein can trigger either protrusion or retraction when recruited to the plasma membrane, polarizing the cell in two opposite directions. We found that the switch from retraction to protrusion is due to the increase of the basal concentration of the GEF prior to activation. The unexpected protruding behavior arises from the simultaneous activation of Cdc42 and inhibition of RhoA by the PH domain of the GEF at high concentrations. We propose a minimal model and use its predictions to control the two phenotypes within selected cells by adjusting the frequency of light pulses. Our work exemplifies a unique case of control of antagonist phenotypes by a single protein that switches its function based on its concentration or dynamics of activity. It raises numerous open questions about the link between signaling protein and function, particularly in contexts where proteins are highly overexpressed, as often observed in cancer.


We examine how the relaxation of short-sale constraints affects annual report readability using a natural experiment, Regulation SHO. We find that the readability of 10-Ks for the pilot stocks significantly decreases during the program period. The relation between reductions in short-sale constraints and annual report readability is not uniform in the cross-section. We find results are more pronounced for firms that the short-sale constraints bind tighter; for firms with greater information asymmetry; and for firms with worse news or corporate governance. Furthermore, we document that pilot firms significantly increase the use of uncertainty words in 10-Ks during the experiment period. Our results suggest that pilot firms obscure valuation-relevant information by producing less readable and more ambiguous 10-Ks to prevent investors from selling short, especially when short-sale constraints are loose.


The study was carried out with one-year-old branches of four apple dwarf rootstocks including 71-3-150,GM256,SH6 and M9.By the temperature treatment of-20℃,-25℃,-30℃,-35℃,and-40℃,the semi-lethal temperature(LT50) was conducted by using conductance method with Logistic equation.The relative electrolyte leakage,the content of soluble protein,and the POD activity were also studied.The results showed that the S-type curve of electrolytic leakage was negatively correlated with the low temperature.The semi-lethal temperature of 71-3-150,GM256,SH6 and M9 were-40.63℃,-39.29℃,-34.10℃,-30.10℃ respectively.71-3-150 and GM256 which were more cold hardiness can maintain a higher content of soluble protein and POD activity.


The prognosis of WHO grade II low-grade gliomas (LGG) is varied with potential for long survival.Given their relatively intact immune system and slow growth rate, vaccines are an attractive treatment strategy for LGG in an attempt to defer more toxic treatments. The goals of this pilot study were to evaluate safety and immunological effects of vaccination with GBM6-AD, an allogeneic glioblastoma stem cell line lysate, with poly-ICLC in LGG.

 Eligible patients were ≥ 18 years old, ≥ 70 KPS, with recurrent LGG or imaging consistent with LGG, and amenable to resection. Patients were randomized to vaccine prior to surgery (Arm 1) or not (Arm 2) and all received adjuvant vaccine. Co-primary outcomes were safety and immune response in the tumor, with exploratory outcomes of survival and immunologic effects in peripheral blood.

 A total of 17 eligible patients were evaluable – nine into Arm 1 and eight into Arm 2. Median age was 33 years, with median time from initial diagnosis of 4.7 years (0 – 20). Two patients (11.8%) previously received radiotherapy and seven (41.2%) prior systemic therapy. No dose limiting toxicities or grade 3 AEs were observed. Neoadjuvant vaccination induced up regulation of type-1 cytokines and chemokines in peripheral blood, and CD8+ T cell clones that reacted to the vaccine were also detected in the tumor. Median follow-up time from first post-operative vaccine was 20.8 months with median PFS of 11.0 months and time to change in therapy of 23.7 months. Of the six patients to receive additional treatment, three had second surgery only one confirming malignant progression to anaplastic oligodendroglioma.

 Treatment was well-tolerated with no regimen-limiting toxicity. GBM6-AD plus poly-ICLC induced effector CD8+ T cell response in peripheral blood and enables some vaccine-reactive CD8+ T cells to migrate into the TME. Further investigation is warranted.


The purpose of this report is to identify barriers to pollution prevention and to recommend strategies to overcome them. Chapters are divided in accordance with the statutory language mandating this report: regulatory, economic, educational, and institutional. Each section opens with a Problem Statement and Context, then the Barriers are discussed, and finally the recommendations are provided.


AbstractMajor depressive disorder (MDD) in children and adolescents has been the focus of much research in the last decade. Findings to date indicate that MDD does exist in children and adolescents and is similar to MDD in adults in terms of phenomenology, family history of MDD, dexamethasone nonsuppression, and response to imipramine pharmacotherapy. These findings are reviewed, with a focus on diagnosis and pharmacological approaches to treatment.


This demonstration presents a spatial database integration for novel CAD applications into off-the-shelf database systems. Spatial queries on even large product databases for digital mockup or haptic rendering are performed at interactive response times.


Nonverbal interaction includes most of what we do; the interaction resulted from other means than words or their meaning. In computer-mediated interaction, the richness of face-to-face interaction has not been completely achieved. However, multiuser virtual reality, a computer-generated environment that allows users to share virtual spaces and virtual objects through their graphic representation, is a highly visual technology in which nonverbal interaction is better supported when compared with other media. Still, like in any technology media, interaction is accomplished distinctively due to technical and design issues. In collaborative virtual reality, the analysis of nonverbal interaction represents a helpful mechanism to support feedback in teaching or training scenarios, to understand collaborative behavior, or to improve this technology. This chapter discussed the characteristics of nonverbal interaction in virtual reality, presenting advances in the automatic interpretation of the users' nonverbal interaction while a spatial task is collaboratively executed.


This study aims to determine the effect and analyze the influence of organizational culture and job rotation on work motivation and performance of Public Health Center employees in Tarakan City. . The total population is 215 people and the sample is 85 people. Data collection by distributing questionnaires and continued in the analysis by path analysis. The results of hypothesis testing have proven that organizational culture has a significant effect on the work motivation of Puskesmas employees in Tarakan City, this indicates that every change in organizational culture that is better will have a positive impact on the desire of employees to be more enthusiastic at work. Job rotation has a significant effect on employee work motivation, with this indicating that every job rotation policy can be carried out in every certain period, giving employees more incentive to work harder because of the new position as a result of the rotation. Organizational culture directly has a significant effect on employee performance, this indicates that any increase in the existing organizational culture will have a positive impact on employee performance. Job rotation directly has a significant effect on employee performance, this indicates that job rotation policies are often carried out and proper placement can improve employee performance. Work motivation has a significant effect on employee performance, this indicates the higher employee work motivation will improve performance, and vice versa. The direct influence between organizational culture and job rotation on employee performance is greater than the indirect effect between organizational culture and job rotation through work motivation so that the direct effect is more dominant than the indirect effect. Work motivation does not fully partially mediate the influence of organizational culture and job rotation on employee performance is greater than the indirect influence between organizational culture and job rotation through work motivation so that the direct influence is more dominant than the indirect effect. Good organizational culture and job rotation as well as motivation that is still monitored for its implementation will be able to influence employee performance to be better.


The evaluation of Fourier integrals using fast Fourier transform (FFT) employing the Narasimhan scheme is examined. It is observed to be a special case of spline interpolation. His method is effective when the sampling rate is sufficiently high and piecewise linear approximation between sampling points is adequate. If knowledge about the signal smoothness is available, further improvement in accuracy can be achieved by judicious choice of high degree spine interpolant.


This research addresses the types of assessment tasks, the assessment criteria, instruments and procedures of communicative competence used by primary school teachers in Andalusia. This multiple-case study drew on the experiences of teachers from four schools in the south of Spain. The data source has been the focus groups in which the teachers took part. The transcripts were analysed thematically by three researchers who devised a system of categories designed through an iterative process. The findings reveal the paucity of tasks used to assess reading, listening and oral expression. The study also shows the diverse problems faced by teachers when it comes to evaluating communicative competence. This paper highlights the need to rethink the curricular contents and the methods applied to assess communicative competence in primary schools.


The present invention relates to a method for monitoring media flow in a telecommunication network. The network comprises a media-handling node (MHN) through which, sessions between subscribers are transported via first ports (PI 1 -PI 5 ) and second ports (PO 1 -PO 5 ). An extra port (XP 1 -XP 5 ) is assigned to the media-handling node (MHN) for each new session that is transported through the node. The method comprises the following steps: storing in a database (LI-DB), identification of a first subscriber (A) for which monitoring is desired; a connection is set-up between the first subscriber (A) and second subscriber (B); an assigned extra port (XP 1 ) that is adherent to the session between the first and second subscriber (A, B) is connected; the session between the first and second subscriber is monitored via the connected extra port (XP 1 ).


Automatic label generation systems, which are capable to generate huge amounts of labels with limited human efforts, enjoy lots of potential in the deep learning era. These easy-to-come-by labels inevitably bear label noises due to a lack of human supervision and can bias model training to some inferior solutions. However, models can still learn some plausible features, before they start to overfit on noisy patterns. Inspired by this phenomenon, we propose a new Peaks fusion assisted EArly-Stopping (PEAS) approach for imagery segmentation with noisy labels, which is mainly composed of two parts. First, a fitting based early-stopping criterion is used to detect the turning phase from which models are about to mimic noise details. After that, a peaks fusion strategy is applied to select reliable models in the detection zone to generate final fusion results. Here, validation accuracies are utilized as indicators in model selection. The proposed method was evaluated on New York City dataset whose labels were automatically collected by a rule-based label generation system, thus noisy to some extent due to a lack of human supervision. The experimental results showed that the proposed PEAS method can achieve both promising statistical and visual results when trained with noisy labels.


Purpose – This paper seeks to investigate the impact of citrus tristeza virus (CTV) on the commercial value of fruit produced by navel orange trees.Design/methodology/approach – Data are counts of fruit of various sizes and quality harvested from a tree in a year. The counted fruit are converted to a dollar value using a standardized pricing matrix and then normalized as a ratio of the tree value compared to trees in the same orchard and year that were free of virus. Statistical tests determine if trees at various stages of infection have different production values than virus‐free trees.Findings – On average, trees infected with CTV have higher fruit production values than trees that did not contract the virus, after compensating for climate and location differences, even though the presence or absence of CTV explains only about 1 percent of the variation in production value.Research limitations/implications – Data are from commercially maintained orchards rather than a carefully controlled experiment in...


all our efforts to diminution of suffering until such time as the patient succumbs to sheer exhaustion, or dies from some concomitant complaint. It has been my lot to have such a case under almost daily observation for two and a-half years -from the first diagnosis of the disease to its fatal termination-and the course of the case under the treatment adopted seems to me worth recording, and the treatment itself worth remarking upon. The problem I wish to draw attention to is this: Given a ease of cancer where surgical treatment is impossible, what treatment offers the best means of making the patient's life bearable as long as it lasts? Thie case I refer to was as follows:


Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris Huds.) golf greens in the U.S. Southeast are subjected to summer drought and heat stresses. This study was initiated to determine the effects of foliar Fe on Fe-sufficient bentgrass shoot responses, root growth, and respones to drought stress. Ferrous sulfate (FS), Lawn-Plex (LP), and Sequestrene 330 (Seq. 330) (FeSO 4 .7H 2 O; Fe phosphate-citrate; and sodium ferric diethlenetriamine-pentaacetate, respectively) were applied to a golf green at 1.12 kg Fe ha −1 per month for a 17-mo period (...)


This paper aims to highlight some end of the world mythologies and their problematizations in contemporary culture, starting from the discussions presented by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Déborah Danowski in the book Is there a world to come? Essay on fears and ends (2017). Taking as poetic object the recent work of singer Linn da Quebrada, the essay discusses the reality of the Brazilian transsexual population in order to understand how such a feeling of immanent catastrophe appears more marked in populations that have already faced the end of the world for some years. Finally, the analysis also focuses on critical works such as those by Donna Haraway (2009) and Jacques Derrida (2011), in order to propose a reality to come only with the breakdown of the gender barrier and with the resources accessed by the poetic tools.


Technological conditions for recovery of oil vapor with WS diesel as absorber were studied.A correlation equation of oil vapor recovery rate with absorption temperature,liquid-gas ratio and theoretical plate number was established by box-behnken central composite design method.Through solving this equation,the optimum technological conditions were obtained as follows: temperature 10.6 ℃,liquid/gas ratio 56.25 L/m3,theoretical plate number 3,hydrocarbon recovery rate can reach 98.4% under above conditions.The simulation result has been applied in industry,and effect is very good.


The conventional Kalman filter assumes that the system model and the observation model is linearity. Also the noise in system and observation model is white noise. However the practical environment is very complex. When we use Kalman filter to estimate, we can not got the transcendent information. The paper considers the characteristic of aircraft, research the structure and scheme of INS/CNS/GPS integrated navigation system. The error model of integrated navigation system has been set up. The status of navigation system has been estimated with Kalman filter, and the simulation calculation has been progressed. The paper presents a method, which use neural network ensembles to deal with the Kalman filter. This method improves the generalization and stabilization ability. The simulation shows that the arithmetic has high precision.


The theoretical foundations of the seesaw mechanism and baryogenesis are developed, prior to a discussion of leptogenesis - the idea that the baryon asymmetry of the universe (BAU) originates in the physics of the seesaw mechanism. Particular emphasis is placed upon several novel lepton avour effects arising from decays of the next-to-lightest right-handed neutrino (RHN), N2. Two new effects are identified: the "flavour swap scenario" and "phantom leptogenesis", either of which can give local order-of-magnitude enhancements to a BAU generated via leptogenesis. Leptogenesis is next reformulated in terms of the density matrix, where decoherence and gauge boson themalisation are taken into account and flavour-basis-independent expressions for the BAU are derived and subsequently specialised to the two RHN model in a two-flavoured basis. This model is then studied extensively, for both standard model and supersymmetric realisations, with N2 decays fully taken into account. In both cases new N2-dominated regions are identified, corresponding to models with light sequential dominance. It is shown that these regions get enlarged upon consistent inclusion of the "phantom terms". Results are altered in the supersymmetric case where tan beta becomes large and it is shown that new allowed regions emerge, strikingly so for the case of an inverted hierarchy.


Abstract Under a group sequential design, the conditional power at an interim analysis represents the probability of success in the future given the past data. Because an adequate overall power is not a guarantee of an adequate conditional power, many authors in the literature have proposed multi-stage adaptive designs allowing sample size adjustment. In this paper, we evaluate the consequences of various such adaptive designs. This is achieved through the use of not only a conventional efficiency criterion of expected sample size, but also an effectiveness criterion from a benefit–risk analysis which takes into consideration some constraints associated with the drug development process. We show that with a proper choice of an adaptive design the conditional power can be maintained at a desirable level, which improves the efficiency, and more importantly, effectiveness of a clinical trial.


This study examined the effect of bis-3-sulfopropyl-disulfide (SPS) addition to chromium sulfate solution on the characteristics of trivalent chromium electrodeposition. To investigate the effect of SPS on current efficiency, electrodeposition was carried out on the Invar surface at a constant current over time. Electrochemical tests, surface and solution analyses, density functional theory calculation, and Vickers micro-hardness tests were conducted to identify the SPS mechanism and evaluate its properties. SPS addition improved the electrodeposition current efficiency more than two-fold by increasing the nucleation of the electrode and changing the Cr-complex in solution to increase the bonding length between trivalent chromium ions and water molecules. Also, the surface hardness and corrosion resistance of the electrodeposited specimen were improved in the SPS-containing solution.


A parabolic method for steady transonic flow is extended to bodies of revolution oscillating in a sonic flow field. A Laplace transform technique is employed to derive the dipole solution, and the Adams-Sears iterative technique is used in the stability derivative calculation. A computer program is developed to perform the stability derivative calculation for the slowly oscillating cone and parabolic ogive. Inputs for the program are body geometry thickness ratio, acceleration constant, and pitch axis location. Sample calculations were performed for the parabolic ogive and circular cone and results are compared with those obtained by using other techniques and the available experimental data for circular cones.


There is an urgent need to develop drugs and vaccines to counteract the effects of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and adequately treat the corona virus disease (COVID-19). As these drugs are still under investigation, research also focuses on existing medication with proven effectiveness in other coronaviral diseases. The advantages of existing therapeutic drugs that are currently approved (for other indications) are the known safety profile, general availability and relatively lower costs involved in extending the purpose to a new disease. Calcineurin inhibitors (CNI) are drugs that have shown effectiveness in several coronaviral diseases, and are well-known and widely used drugs in transplant medicine. The aim of this narrative review is to present the current evidence of CNI in coronaviral diseases, the biophysiology of CNI and to suggest possible ways to study CNI as a new treatment option for COVID-19. We searched original papers, observational studies, case reports, and meta-analyses published between 2000 and 2020 in English in the PubMed database and Google Scholar using the keywords: (coronavirus), (treatment), (MERS), (SARS), (COVID-19), (tacrolimus), (ciclosporin), (cyclosporin) AND (calcineurin inhibitor). We excluded studies in patients with clear indications for immunosuppressive therapy. Additionally, we searched in the preprint servers and the World Health Organization bulletin. Ten studies were identified and included. Calcineurin inhibitor therapy has been suggested to be effective for coronaviral diseases in different settings. The results are summarized in a table. CNI should be investigated as a first treatment option based on evidence of direct antiviral effects and its properties preventing severe systemic hyperinflammation, as has been observed in COVID-19 with predominantly pulmonary immunopathological changes.


D iscovering new isotopes is like the stamp collecting of physics, but the consequences of adding to the set are much further reaching. A team of researchers using the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou, China, has now expanded the collection with the discovery of the lightest uranium isotope to date [1]. The finding could have implications for our understanding of a particular type of radioactive decay that is still mysterious despite more than a century of work.


The invention discloses an anti-counterfeiting method and an anti-counterfeiting device for separating and counting non-touch paper currency or tickets. The separating and counting method comprises the following steps: a, acquiring digital video images of end faces of the paper currency or the tickets; and b, inputting the acquired digital video images into a processing control system, carrying out gradient operation and converting the digital video images into gray level images, sampling a plurality of sheets from the gray level images, analyzing and processing the gray level images to acquire each sampled sheet number, and using the number with highest occurrence frequency as the number of the paper currency sheets. The anti-counterfeiting method comprises the following steps: carrying out optical irradiation for at least one end face of the detected paper currency or the tickets by using an anti-counterfeiting light source, then carrying out image acquisition for the end face of the paper currency or the tickets, inputting the images into the processing control system, and comparing the images and pre-stored data of a program, wherein if the images are matched with the data, the paper currency or the tickets are real, otherwise, the paper currency or the tickets are false. The device comprises a digital video acquisition device, a data memory, a program memory, a digital signal processor and an interface communication module. The method and the device can effectively prevent the paper currency from generating dust pollution and from being damaged during the separating and counting, and improve the counting precision and speed.


Transparent, photocatalytic, and self-cleaning TiO2 thin film is developed by TiO2 sol-gel coating on glass and polycarbonate (PC) substrates. Acetyl acetone (AcAc) suppresses the precipitation of TiO2 by forming a yellowish (complex) transparent sol-gel. XPS analysis confirms the presence of Ti2p and O1s in the thin films on glass and PC substrates. The TiO2- sol is prepared by stabilizing titanium (IV) isopropoxide (TTIP) with diethylamine and methyl alcohol. The addition of AcAcsilane coupling solution to the TiO2-sol instantaneously turns to yellowish color owing to the complexing of titanium with AcAc. The AcAc solution substantially improves the photocatalytic property of the TiO2 coating layer in MB solutions. The coated TiO2 film exhibits super hydrophilicity without and with light irradiation. The TiO2 thin film stabilized by adding 8.7 wt% AcAc shows the highest photo-degradation for methylene blue (MB) solution under UV light irradiation. Also, the optimum photocatalytic activity is obtained for the 8.7 wt% AcAc-stabilized TiO2 coating layer calcined at 450 oC. The thin-films on glass exhibit fast self-cleaning from oleic acid contamination within 45 min of UV-light irradiation. The appropriate curing time at 140 oC improves the anti-fogging and thermal stability of the TiO2 film coated on PC substrate. The watermark-free PC substrate is particularly beneficial to combat fogging problems of transparent substrates.


In this study, speech in sentence-form of the early developmental stage is analysed to clarify its structure and the interpersonal-instrumental functions. "Sentence" is defined as a word-chain which is organized by some syntactical rules in a given language (here in Japanese). Speech samples analysed had been recorded by tape-recorder and transcribed through its reproduction. Situations and accompanying behaviors to speech were also recorded. Situation were rather natural; a child (oneyear girl K) was in a room and given many toys and picture-books, and free conversations were allowed. Observations and recordings were made once a week, 30min. a day, and the tape-materials are 1090 in all, of which 520 are word-chains (the imitated utterances have been eliminated).Procedures and results are as follows:1) Every word-chain is classified according to the number of words contained, and we find following developmental features: number of words in a word-chain increases as her age in months increases, and 2-word-chains appear in the first half of her one-year old, and 3-word-chain in the second half.2) In the Japanese language, all the word-chains can be regarded as some combinations of content (independent) word [A] and function word (clitics) [B], or content words only, and identifications of words with these two fundamental word-classes were not so difficult even in speeches of early childhood. Next, every word-chain is classified according to the pattern composed of A and B. The group of 2-word-chains is divided into AA and AB. As a result, AAs are found to develop earlier than ABs. But toward the last period of one-year stage, the frequencies of AB and AA become nearly equal. By the same procedure, all the 3-word-chains are divided into AAA, AAB, ABB, and ABA, of which AAA and ABA are dominant in frequency. AAA develops earlier than ABA, but at last the latter exceeds the former. As ABA is one of the essential sentence-types and frequently used in the Japanese speech, even a child below 2 years of age may be able to learn this type of utterance.3) According to the definition already given, sentence are only a part of a body of word-chains. A uniqueness of the Japanese speech may be grammatical functions of B in sentence, and Bs are grammatically categorized according to these functions into following two: a) those of combining words logically [BL]; b) those of appealing to the hearer or of expressing the speaker's sentiment [BA]. BA appears earlier than BL in the developmental stage. Althouth BL plays more important functions in the developmental formation of verbal behavior, BA furnishes "plain logical-linguistic utterance" with interpersonal-humanistic "tone" which is essential in everyday conversation. In our data, BA is dominant in AB-type sentences, whereas BL is dominant in ABA-type sentences. In general, 2-word-sentences increase at the middle stage, and 3-word-sentences at the last.4) AA-type and ABA-type sentence utterances above all are considered as fundamental forms of the specific instrumental or motivation-reducing behaviors. Such an instrumental function may be classified in reference to the concrete situation where the utterance appeared. In both AA and. ABA-type sentences, number of types of the specific instrumental functions is positively correlated with C. A. in months.These features of speech development: may be partly explained by the mechanism of concept learning. However, conceptlearning processes work in two levels; one in the syntactical level, the other in the instrumental level.


This paper examines the effect of fiscal rules on fiscal performance in sub-Saharan Africa region. Fiscal rules impose numerical ceilings on fiscal aggregates with an aim of instilling fiscal discipline and contain fiscal deficits. The number of countries in the region adopting the rules is on the rise with over half of them implementing various forms of the rules. Despite this policy stance, fiscal deficit remains a regular feature in most countries in the region. Whether the rules have had any effect on fiscal performance in the region is still unclear. Using a fiscal rule index of strength constructed based on updated IMF dataset, we empirically assess the effectiveness of fiscal rules on fiscal balance both at the national and supranational level. Furthermore, we compare whether there are any differences in fiscal performance between countries with and without the fiscal rules. The empirical results reveal that fiscal rules generally contribute to improved fiscal outcomes. Particularly, budget balance and debt rules have significant positive effects on the fiscal balance. Again, supranational rules are more effective compared to the national rules. Further evidence from the treatment effects model reveal that there is significant improvement in fiscal performance over time for countries with fiscal rules as compared to those without the rules. JEL classification: E62; H61; H62, H30


Water is currently on the political agenda of most, if not all, countries in the world. The reasons lay with the current water situation, which has become more acute with recent reports on the impacts of climate change over water resources availability and the predictions of water wars in the near future. This situation clearly begs the question of what is humankind going to do or, more accurately, what can humankind do to survive this situation. And the immediate answer is, since there is so...


According to electromagnetic coupling relationship between metal wear debris and inductive coil, a novel inductive wear debris sensor and the monitoring system are designed. The testing rig of in-line wear debris monitoring is applied to test the detection capability and conformity of the sensor. The experimental results show that the sensor has effective detection capability for ferromagnetic wear debris which granularity is larger than 70µm, and for unferromagnetic wear debris which granularity is larger than 400µm. The magnetic debris trap can remarkably improve the detection capability of the sensor for small ferromagnetic wear debris. The sensor has good consistency for different wear debris with different granularities. The conclusions of this study indicate that the sensor can better meet the needs of in-line wear debris monitoring.


The urokinase system is pivotal in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Therefore, soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) concentrations may help in the detection of functionally relevant coronary artery disease (fCAD).

 To evaluate suPAR as diagnostic marker for fCAD.

 Among consecutive patients with symptoms suggestive of fCAD, fCAD was adjudicated blinded to suPAR concentrations in two domains: first, diagnosis of fCAD according to myocardial perfusion single photon emission tomography (MPI-SPECT) and coronary angiography; second, fCAD according to cardiovascular death, non-fatal acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and all-cause death during 2-year follow-up.

 Among 968 patients, symptoms were adjudicated to be causally related to fCAD in 26% (255/968). SuPAR concentrations were higher in patients with fCAD as compared to those without (3.45 ng/mL versus 3.20 ng/mL, p=0.007), but overall had only low diagnostic accuracy (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.56, 95% CI 0.52–0.60) and were not independent predictors of fCAD after multivariable adjustment. Circulating suPAR concentrations were modestly correlated with high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) T (Spearman's rho 0.393, p<0.001), NT-proBNP (Spearman's rho 0.327, p<0.001) and age (Spearman's rho 0.364, p<0.001), but only weakly correlated with the extent of coronary atherosclerosis as quantified by perfusion defects (Spearman's rho 0.123, p<0.001). Prognostically, suPAR concentrations had moderate-to-high accuracy in the prediction of cardiovascular death (AUC 0.72, 95% CI 0.62–0.81) and all-cause death (AUC 0.72, 95% CI 0.65–0.79) at 2-years, and remained a significant predictor for all-cause death after multivariable adjustment (p=0.001). SuPAR concentrations did not predict non-fatal AMI.

 SuPAR is an independent predictor of death, but not helpful in the detection of fCAD.

 European Union, Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss Heart Foundation, the Cardiovascular Research Foundation Basel, the University of Basel,


Transesterification of palm oil with ethanol catalyzed by Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase immobilized on epoxy–polysiloxane–polyvinyl alcohol composite (epoxy–SiO2–PVA) was performed in a continuous packed-bed reactor (PBR). Two strategies were used for improving the miscibility of the substrates: the addition of the organic solvent tert-butanol and the surfactant Triton X-100. Results were compared to those obtained in a solventless reactor, which displayed a biphasic system that passed through the reactor. Using this system, the ethyl ester yield of 61.6 ± 1.2% was obtained at steady state. Both Triton X-100 and tert-butanol systems were found to be suitable to promote the miscibility of the starting materials; however, the use of Triton X-100 reduced the yield to levels lower than 20%, because of the enzyme desorption from the support surface, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy analysis. The best performance was found for the reactor running in the presence of tert-butanol, which resulted in a...


Introduction Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production system of the last decade, accounting for a quarter of total world food fish landings and 27% of shrimp product. Nine out of every 10 oysters, Atlantic salmon and cyprinids consumed are farmed. With a growing human population (and consequent demand for protein sources) but declining usable land mass and a decline in populations of wild fish, this is an opportune time to expand the cultivation of new fish species. Such species include some Gadidae (cod, haddock, hake etc), flatfish (turbot, flounder, halibut, sole etc), hybrid striped bass, seabass and other Mediterranean species, wolfishes, lumpfishes and tuna.


Objective
To evaluate the feasibility of lentivirus (Lv) mediated calcitonin gene-related peptide(CGRP) gene transduction in diabetic rats by myocardial injection and whether this method has a protective effect on diabetic myocardium during ischemia/reperfusion(I/R) injury.

Methods
Sixty healthy male SD rats, weighing 200-220 g, were randomly divided into control group (group C), diabetes mellitus group (group DM), Sham transduction group (group Sham), myocardial injection control group (group MC) and myocardial injection experiment group(group ME), in accordance with a random number table. Rats in group Sham, group MC and group ME were given with normal saline, at a titer of 2×107 virus genomes(vg)/ml Lv-enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) and Lv-CGRP-eGFP 50 μl respectively by myocardial injection. One week later, rats in group DM, group Sham, group MC and group ME received streptozocin(STZ) 50 mg/kg intraperitoneal injection to induce diabetes. Eight weeks after the injection of STZ, myocardial I/R was induced by occlusion and release of left anterior descending branch of coronary artery. The latency of tail flick reflection, the expression of eGFP, the transcription level of CGRP, the expression of CGRP in myocardium, spinal cord and dorsal root ganglion(DRG) and myocardial ischemia area, infarct size(IS) area were measured.

Results
Compared with group C, the latency of tail flick reflection in group DM, group Sham, group MC and group ME were significantly prolonged in the 4th week after diabetic model successfully manufactured(P<0.05). The transcription levels of CGRP in the ischemic myocardium, spinal cord T1-T5 and DRG T1-T5 in group DM, group Sham and group MC were lower than those in group C and group ME (P<0.05). The level of CGRP in ischemic myocardium and DRG T1-T5 of group ME was higher than that in group C(P<0.05). The content of CGRP in cord T1-T5, DRG T1-T5, ischemic myocardium and serum in group C and group ME were higher than those in group DM, group Sham and group MC (P<0.05). The content of CGRP in cord T1-T5, ischemic myocardium in group ME was higher than that in group C (P<0.05). The infarct size in group DM, group Sham, group MC were higher than that in group C and group ME(P<0.05), the infarct size of group ME was higher than that in group C(P<0.05).

Conclusions
Intramyocardial injection of CGRP gene can effectively enhance the expression of CGRP at I/R of diabetic rat′ heart. Increased CGRP may reduce cardiac I/R injury in diabetic rats.

Key words:
Calcitonin gene-related peptide; Diabetes mellitus; Myocardium; Ischemia-reperfusion


Social experience (i.e., social inclusion versus exclusion) is an important factor that influences consumer behaviors but has not been adequately examined in advertising research. To fill this gap, we conducted three experiments to investigate how consumers' social experiences affect their responses to promotion-focused versus prevention-focused advertisements. Our findings indicated that consumers who experienced being included or being ignored responded more favorably to promotion-focused advertisements than prevention-focused advertisements. However, these effects were due to different underlying mechanisms. Consumers who experienced being rejected were indifferent to advertisements' regulatory focus, but they preferred promotion-focused advertisements once they received a self-esteem boost. These findings are believed to provide meaningful contributions to both advertising research and practice.


This Study describes eleven patients positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. In our cases, females and younger patients developed more severe disease. In contrast, improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction and N‐terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide within the first week of treatment contributed to promising outcomes.


Initial studies re-examine the role of certain central nervous system structures in the production of vestibular-induced vomiting and vomiting in general. All experiments were conducted using cats. Since these studies demonstrated that the essential role of various central structures in vestibular-induced vomiting is only poorly understood, efforts were re-directed to study the control of the effector muscles (diaphragm and abdominal muscles) that produce the pressure changes responsible for vomiting, with the goal of determining how this control mechanism is engaged during motion sickness. Experiments were conducted to localize the motoneurons that innervate the individual abdominal muscles and the portion of the diaphragm that surrounds the esophagus. A central question regarding respiratory muscle control during vomiting is whether these muscles are activated via the same brain stem pre-motor neurons that provide descending respiratory drive and/or by other descending input(s). In other experiments, the use of a combination of pitch and roll motions to produce motion sickness in unrestrained cats was evaluated. This stimulus combination can produce vomiting in only the most susceptible cats and is thus not as provacative a stimulus for cats as vertical linear acceleration.


Robinson and colleagues refer to non-Alzheimer diagnoses of dementia.1 These less typical diagnoses pose complex problems for those with the disease and for their families, friends, and carers. When these forms of dementia affect younger people the problems can be even more challenging.

When asking the question: "What constitutes best practice in early intervention?" we must acknowledge that people …


This article elucidates the distinction between type and token interdiscursivity (Silverstein 2005) through an analysis of Japanese wedding speeches. Type interdiscursivity is genre defining, involving the use of speech formulae to frame the performance as an instance of the wedding speech genre. By contrast, token interdiscursivity in these speeches involves the artful insertion of quoted texts that are reinterpreted in the wedding speech context. Through a process of citation, quotation, and exegesis, speakers construct the replicated text as authoritative and borrow the authority of prior speakers for their own rhetorical purposes. Both forms of interdiscursivity allow speakers to use existing cultural resources to create new texts that are simultaneously appropriate, authoritative, and creative.


A 17-year-old man with no significant past medical history presented with chest pain in June 2008. No other symptoms, including fever, fatigue, night sweats and body weight loss, were complained of...


With the progress of science and technology,the development of nuclear industry and the extensive use of cancer radiotherapy,people are exposed on ionizing radiation more frequently than before. Therefore,the research on anti-radiation drugs has become the hotspot in pharmaceutical industry. However,the synthetic anti-radiation drugs have several side effects,more and more investigators have focused on the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and natural products. This review reports the research advances in anti-radiation TCM and natureal products.


Images of Mexico, both positive and negative, rarely include the urban, industrial working class. Mexico is often still seen as a rural country, though 75 percent of the population lives in urban areas and 50 percent of those in rural areas live through the sale of their labor power. Real unemployment is around 20 percent in urban areas and 50 percent in rural areas. Our purpose here is to examine the current conditions of the Mexican working class and the emerging modes of working class resistance and struggle. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


In a method for casting a substantially rotationally symmetrical component, in particular a piston (10) for an internal combustion engine, the defining the mold cavity tool portions tilted after filling and prior to solidification by at least 45 degrees about a horizontal axis such that the axis of rotation (A ) of the component (10) moves in the direction of the vertical. There is further provided a molding tool is disclosed, in which are the mold cavity-defining die portions after filling and prior to solidification by at least 45 degrees about a horizontal axis so tiltable that the axis of rotation (A) of the component (10) moves in the direction of the vertical ,


Gideon Aran and Ron Hassner, both distinguished scholars of religious violence, offer a rich discussion of violence in Judaism. They guide the reader on a tour from the past to the present, making ...


We theoretically demonstrate the propagation of long-range surface plasmon polariton (LR-SPP) with higher mode confinement at 1.55 μm. The multi-layer structure surrounds a 10 nm thick gold strip waveguide with a width of 2 μm.


Background: Regional anesthesia techniques for gynaecological procedures are on increasing trends due to their advantage of postoperative analgesia owing to intrathecal adjuvants. The present study was aimed to comparatively evaluate the clinical efficacy of clonidine with nalbuphine when co-administered intrathecally with 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine for gynaecological procedures. Methods: Regional anesthesia techniques for gynaecological procedures are on increasing trends due to their advantage of postoperative analgesia owing to intrathecal adjuvants. The present study was aimed to comparatively evaluate the clinical efficacy of clonidine with nalbuphine when co-administered intrathecally with 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine for gynaecological procedures. Results: The onset of sensory block was earlier in patients of Group BN (3.91±2.25 min vs 4.30±0.87 min, p=0.039). The onset of motor block was also earlier in patients of Group BN (p=0.042). The time to first rescue analgesia in patients receiving intrathecal clonidine was significantly delayed (283±14.18 min vs 231.50±26.18 min, p=0.001). Intraoperative hemodynamic changes were comparable and none of the patient suffered from respiratory depression, shivering, nausea or vomiting. Conclusions: Intrathecal clonidine as adjuvant to bupivacaine provided was clinically more effective than nalbuphine for prolonging the duration of analgesia for gynaecological procedures.


The Title 24 low-rise residential building standards were introduced in California in the late 1970s. The most recent round of standards, implemented in 2001, reflects the peak demand concerns resulting from the California energy crisis. In addition, California's investor-owned utilities (IOUs) have designed and implemented energy efficiency programs aimed at the residential new construction market. These two parallel efforts have influenced typical building practices through mandated building requirements, education and training, design assistance, and financial incentives. The result is a continual enhancement of building practices and improvements in the energy efficiency of California's new housing stock. This paper explores the impact of the Title 24 standards and the statewide California ENERGY STAR New Homes Program on typical building practices in California. The analysis and results presented in the paper are based on a four-year ongoing effort to characterize and track changes in typical building practices and compliance with Title 24 standards. This work includes two rounds of interviews with Title 24 consultants and builders and on-site survey data and building simulations of over 2,000 homes built since 1998. This paper also compares the measures actually installed in homes with the self-reported data from Title 24 consultants and builders. This comparison may be useful in determining the accuracy of self-reported information and how to use this information when it may not be feasible to conduct on-site audits.


PURPOSE: A hybrid scrubber apparatus is provided to increase the specific gravity and the particle diameter of waste gas particles by forming a vortex using the cyclone and jet principles. CONSTITUTION: A hybrid scrubber apparatus comprises the following: a body; a gas inflow unit(10) extended from one side of the body to the inside of the apparatus; a guiding blade unit(30) including plural guiding blades(32) located in a spiral form around a shaft(31) to produce a vortex to inflow gas from the gas inflow unit; a packed bed(60) installed on the upper side of the gas inflow unit; a washing water inflowing unit(20) spraying washing water into the gas inflow unit; and a buoy(40) for controlling the pressure loss and the inertial force.


Abstract We have prepared (KH)3C60 as an initial composition by direct reaction of potassium hydride (KH) to C60. (KH)3C60 had higher Tc(19.5 K) and larger lattice constant (14.351 A) compared with K3C60 prepared by doping of potassium metal. The expanded lattice constant is suggestive of the intercalation of hydrogen. The evidence of the inclusion of hydrogen was given by mass-analyzed thermal desorption experiment. We have also prepared (NaH)4−x(KH)xC60 to study the substitutional effect of KH to (NaH)4C60. It was found that the superconducting phase is stabilized by substitution of only a few percent KH as seen in (NaH)3.9(KH)0.1C60.


The aim of this study was to compare the physicochemical characteristics and antioxidant activities of Pyropia dentata harvested in November (PD11), Pyropia seriata harvested in December (PS12), and Pyropia yezoensis harvested in December (PY12), January (PY01), or March (PY03). Total amino acid content (mg/100 g dry wt.) was high: PY01 (41,009.52) > PY12 (40,914.26) > PS12 (35,720.29) > PD11 (33,762.75) > PY03 (32,906.54). The major minerals within the three laver cultivars were Ca, K, Mg, and Na. PD11 exhibited the highest contents of shinorine (2,089.84 mg/ 100 g dry wt.) and porphyra-334 (3,127.96 mg/100 g dry wt.), which are mycosporine-like amino acids. Of the PY samples harvested at different times, PY03 exhibited the highest contents of shinorine (19.00 mg/100 g dry wt.) and porphyra-334 (438.31 mg/100 g dry wt.). The total phenol content was higher in PD11 (702.99 mg tannic acid equivalent/100 g) than those in the other samples. PD11 had the highest 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid radical-scavenging and ferric reducing antioxidant activities. The results provide basic information regarding the physicochemical characteristics and antioxidant activities of laver cultivars harvested at different times.


ABSTRACT Electoral malpractices undermine the legitimacy of the electoral process, the general acceptability of electoral outcomes, and challenges the democratization process in Nigeria. This study examines the role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the electoral process and its impact on the credibility of electoral outcomes in Nigeria, with emphasis on the 2019 general election. With evidence collected from documentary sources, we argue that the role of CSOs in the democratization process (before, during, and after elections) is important in advancing democracy in Nigeria. We found that the participation of CSOs in the electoral process of 2019, as significant as it was, was undermined by the paucity of fund, insecurity, administrative bottlenecks, and limited access for monitoring movement of sensitive election materials. We recommend, among other things, that the government set aside support funds for qualified/accredited Civil Society Organisations in the electoral process to aid them in undertaking their important role in the democratization process.


With regard to relationship of administrative subordination and the source of funds,local colleges need strong support of local public finance.Development of local colleges,In turn,will have great significance in local economic development.While supporting local colleges,public finance should lead them to serve local economy and social development.


The critically endangered species Patella ferruginea (Gastropoda, Patellidae), endemic to the western Mediterranean, has breeding populations in both natural and artificial habitats, the latter of which are generally linked to port infrastructures. Over the past decade, the temporal change of this species' population has been monitored (structure and density) using exhaustive censuses along Ceuta's coast (Strait of Gibraltar), one of the few stronghold populations within the entire Mediterranean basin. This study focuses on the population dynamics of P. ferruginea in Ceuta and the environmental factors that affect the structure of this population, such as wave exposure, coastline heterogeneity, substratum roughness, substratum lithology, and chlorophyll-a concentration. Different potential negative interactions were also considered: angling, shell fishing, bathing in the intertidal, bathing near the intertidal, recreational boating and temporary migrant campsites nearby. The results have shown in the period 2011-2021, the estimated size of P. ferruginea population has increased by 200 %, from 55,902 to 168,463 individuals (of which 131,776 are adults). The subpopulation with the greatest increase in these years was the one settled on dolomitic rip-raps inside the Ceuta's harbor, with an increase of 1,288%. The results of the present study indicate that Ceuta hosts the main population of this endangered species through its distributional range (Western Mediterranean), being a source population on the Southern Iberian Peninsula that its preservation must be prioritized. Statistical modelling has shown that the adult density of P. ferruginea is positively influenced by coastal heterogeneity, habitat area and substratum roughness, but negatively by vertical inclination, concentration of chlorophyll-a, and anthropogenic impact. These results also support the concept of ¨Artificial Marine Micro-Reserves¨ as a new area-based conservation measure according with the IUCN guidelines, as these will contribute to setting up a network of these source populations that promote genetic flow among populations, with eventual recolonization throughout its original distribution.


We prove that, in both real and complex cases, there exists a pair of matrices that generates a dense subsemigroup of the set of $n\times n$ matrices.


Vector quantization consists in finding a discrete approximation of a continuous input. One of the most popular neural algorithms related to vector quantization is the, so called, Kohonen map. We generalize vector quantization to temporal data, introducing context quantization. We propose a recurrent network inspired by the Kohonen map, the contextual self-organizing map, that develops near-optimal representations of context. We demonstrate quantitatively that this algorithm shows better performance than the other neural methods proposed so far.


This essay aims to demonstrate the importance of the legislative technique of "general clauses" for the contemporary Civil Procedural Law.


The invention relates to a high silicon-containing waste water in an oil field reuse boiler pretreatment technology and an apparatus. The pretreatment technology comprises the following steps: adjusting the high silicon-containing waste water in the oil field and adding a reverse demulsifier; depositing the adjusted waste water, separating oil and water and removing the impurity in the waste water; adding a salt substance in the waste water after deposition treatment and performing air floatation treatment, removing an dissolved organic matter and oil, filtering the waste water after the air floatation treatment and removing suspended matters; using filtering weak acid resin for preliminarily softening the filtered waste water, reducing the concentration of high valent cationic to ppm grade, using chelate resin for deeply softening the waste water after preliminary softening, and reducing the concentration of high valent cationic to ppb grade to obtain the high silicon-containing waste water after pretreatment in the oil field. The invention also provides the high silicon-containing waste water in oil field reuse boiler pretreatment apparatus.


The study examined the assessment of raw water and drinking water projects of Diyala Governorate for the year 2017, amounting to (24) projects, The average per capita supply of potable water (0.396 m3 / day/person), which is less than the global standard for the average per capita of drinking water, and constitute water rumors within the network of water transport in the province (3%), and the water of raw and drinking value within the limits allowed to be used by Iraq and the global indicators of {Total acidity, alkaline, acidic function, chlorides, magnesium, Electrical conductivity, total soluble salts, sodium, potassium, sulfates, turbidity other than (raw water)}. While the index of calcium only a value higher than the limits allowed to be used in Iraq and the world, The percentage of the reduction in the value of indicators for raw water was fluctuated before pumping to citizens for drinking in drinking water projects in the governorate, The highest rate of reduction was recorded for the turbidity index (79.95%), Magnesium (3.7%), acidic function (2.67%), Total precipitation (0.66%), sulfate (0.52%), electrical conductivity (0.41%), Total dissolved salts (0.21%), and there is no reduction (0%) for the indicators (calcium, sodium) together, While the indicators recorded a negative value of reduction (basal-0.77%), chlorides (6.38%), potassium (3.03%), The treatment plant units in these projects do not show the efficiency to remove the pollutants properly.


Let Ω be a set of pairwise-disjoint polyhedral obstacles in ℝ3 with a total of n vertices, and let B be a ball in ℝ3. We show that the combinatorial complexity of the free configuration space ${cal F}$ of B amid Ω, i.e., (the closure of) the set of all placements of B at which B does not intersect any obstacle, is O(n2+ε), for any ε > 0; the constant of proportionality depends on ε. This upper bound almost matches the known quadratic lower bound on the maximum possible complexity of ${cal F}$. The special case in which Ω is a set of lines is studied separately. We also present a few extensions of this result, including a randomized algorithm for computing the boundary of ${cal F}$ whose expected running time is O(n2+ε),for any ε > 0.


ABSTRACT In this work, by using the energy released during the supercritical water oxidation process (SCWO) as the heat source, a cogeneration system producing heating, power and clean water is proposed. The system is modeled, and the performances under energetically self-sufficient operation are simulated. For the proposed system, parametric sensitivity analysis is first performed. Then the system is evaluated from exergy and economic aspects. The results show that under the given working condition, the proposed system can produce 1832.2 kW of heat and 245.2 kW of power simultaneously. The proposed system is a "heat dominant" system, for a larger part of the energy is utilized as heat, with the thermal efficiency reaching 85.9%. The exergy efficiency of the system reaches 40.1%. The total investment cost is 9053.0 k$. The equipment cost of turbines is 5703.5 k$, which accounts for 60% of the total investment cost. The electricity revenue of the system is 252.21 k$. The heat revenue is 867.94 k$. The clean water revenue is 31.73 k$. The obtained net annual income is 1124.78 k$. The dynamic payback period (DPP) is 12.31 years. While the simple payback period (SPP) is 9.03 years. This study may contribute to provide data support and theoretical basis for using the energy contained in organic wastewater.


New submount technology is essential for the development of conductively cooled high power diode laser. The simulation and experimental results indicate that thermal conductivity of submount for high power laser-diode must be at least 600 W/m/k or higher for stable operation. We have simulated several theoretical thermal model based on new submount designs and characterized high power diode lasers to determine temperature effects on the performances of laser diodes. The characterization system measures the beam power, output beam profile, temperature distribution, and spectroscopic property of high power diode laser. The characterization system is composed of four main parts: an infrared imaging camera, a CCD camera, a monochromator, and a power meter. Thermal characteristics of two commercial-grade CW 20-W diode laser bars with open heat-sink type were determined with respect to the line shift of emission spectra and beam power stability. The center wavelength of laser emission has a tendency to shift toward longer wavelength as the driving current and heat sink temperature are increased. The increase of heat sink temperature decreases the output power of the laser bar too. Such results lay the guidelines for the design of new submount for high power laser-diodes.


The role of depression in nonresident fathers' involvement with their infant children is poorly understood. A three-factor model of father involvement was evaluated, and its association with parental relationship quality and depressive symptoms in both parents were tested. Data on 569 families from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study were used. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor model of nonresident father involvement, which was then examined in a model consistent with Belsky's determinants of parenting framework. Noncohabitating mothers and fathers evidenced a significant correlation between their quantitative levels of depression. Relationship quality predicted all factors of father involvement and was negatively associated with depression in either parent. Disruptions in relationship quality mediated the link between depression in both parents and reduced father involvement. Perhaps because of depression's association with relationship quality, depressive severity was significantly correlated between nonresident mother and father.


This list of references is the second in an annual series of three lists relating to instruction at the elementary-school level. The preceding list, appearing in the October, 1957, number of the Elementary School Journal, contains items on the curriculum, methods of teaching and study, and supervision. The present list and the next list in the series include references on these same major aspects of instruction, but the items are grouped by subject fields. In this issue an additional aid for educational workers is supplied by a list of films appearing after the references to publications in the various subject areas.


Dulhasti Hydroelectric project is located on the river Chenab in the eastern part of J&K state. Dam at Dul and powerhouse at Hasti is linked by 10.6 km long Head Race Tunnel (HRT) which remained a critical activity and bottleneck due to unprecedented geological problems and poor logistic supports. Excavation of HRY which was started in 1990, has been completed in 2003. The tunnel is currently being lined before being put in operation. Though the project was extensively investigated for a long period, a risk and uncertainty was felt till end which was dealt during tunnelling either through known methods or through locally developed devices as per site conditions. Sometimes, locally adopted measures are more successful in achieving the targets. It is learned with experience that the geological problems should be tackled in advance in a short time otherwise there would be lapse of time for treatment. On the other hand, basic logistic supports viz. proper ventilation, dewatering, lighting arrangements and adequate equipments are the lifelines during construction for speedy tunnelling. These supports become more important when the tunnel is to be excavated through water charged medium that too for a longer stretch. Numerous teachings are to be remembered from this experience, the main of which being our modesty previsions of actual geological conditions along tunnel excavated in such young, active mountain ranges. Therefore, geological investigations ahead of the tunnel face appears a necessity to detect weaknesses in rock mass and adequate means of treatments shall be made available for a cost and time saving excavation. This experience also pinpoints the importance of selecting the suitable TBM with the geological context.


Objective  The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of methyl mercaptan concentration ratio on mass screening for periodontal disease in an elderly population.

Methods  One hundred and twenty-two individuals (73 males and 49 females) aged 75 years who had at least 20 teeth in 2003 were chosen from participants of the Niigata Elderly Study (longitudinal study since 1998). Volatile sulfur compounds (VSC) in their mouth such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), methyl mercaptan (CH3SH) and dimethyl sulfide ((CH3)2S) were measured, using portable gas chromatography (Oral Chroma®, Abilit Co Ltd, Osaka, Japan). The subjects were divided into periodontitis/no periodontitis groups based on having at least one site of pocket depth with more than 6 mm (PD 6+ mm). A CH3SH concentration ratio was defined as CH3SH/(CH3SH + H2S). The receiver operating characteristic curve was plotted to decide the best cut off point of the CH3SH concentration ratio for screening of subjects with PD 6+ mm.

Results and discussion  The best cut-off point of the CH3SH concentration ratio was 0.35, and the sensitivity and specificity of this cut-off point were 58.7 and 68.4%, respectively. The percentage of subjects with PD 6+ mm in the group of CH3SH concentration ratio ≥0.35 was 52.9 % (27 of 51) and that in the <0.35 group was 26.8 % (19/71), and, the groups were significantly different (P = 0.0059, χ2 test). It had been reported that VSC, in particular CH3SH concentration, was significantly higher in persons with periodontal disease than in periodontally healthy persons. Furthermore, in this study, the use of a portable gas chromatography enabled the VSC measurements for periodontal disease screening outside of the clinic.

Conclusion  These findings suggest that CH3SH concentration ratio may be useful on mass screening for periodontal disease in an elderly population.


Young peasant workers are involved in the village fields,folk net field,and city fields.The various habits developed in different fields affect their urbanization.The extent they adapt to city life and the income got from different fields also decides whether they can acculturate in city life.Therefore young peasant workers,in order to realize urbanization,have to integrate their living fields by getting rid of the rural living habits and gaining cultural and social knowledge.