Convolutional Neural Networks are being studied to provide features such as real time image recognition. One of the key operations to support HW implementations of this type of network is the multiplication. Despite the high number of operations required by Convolutional Neural Networks, they became feasible in the past years due the high availability of computing power, present on devices such as Graphic Processing Units. However, those implementations are unsuitable for energy constrained scenarios, such as embedded devices. FPGAs are programmable devices that are being considered as a low power alternative for GPUs. This work proposes and implement a generator of two fast combinatorial multipliers: Dadda and Wallace tree. Our generator is capable of generating structural descriptions of both designs for any operand width, an operation considered unfeasible by hand. We evaluated our generator using two low-cost FPGA platforms, easily found on the market.


Today's turbulent economic environment confronts the global tooling industry with serious challenges. Cost competition and the high demands of globalized value-adding chains put pressure on smalland medium-sized toolmakers. As an exclusive differentiation in price is not an option, new means for achieving sustainable competitive positions have to be found. A promising approach for differentiation is to enhance the existing range of products by offering customer-specific services within so-called industrial product-service-systems. However, the lack of local presence inhibits the toolmakers' abilities to deliver these services to their global customers. To address these challenges the European R&D-project TIPSS has the objective to develop suitable methods, techniques and technologies, for toolmakers to improve their local and global performance thus enabling them to offer industrial product-service-systems on a global scale. Based on an extensive survey, a global footprint of the existing service landscape and a


INTERNATIONAL REPORTING OF THE FALKLANDS WAR: CASE STUDIES FROM IRELAND, CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND SPAIN The present article explores the reporting of the Falklands war in leading daily newspapers of Czechoslovakia, Ireland and Spain. The issues examined include the importance of the war as a news story, the various aspects of the war that were reported, and the perspectives and attitudes adopted by the newspapers. The article reveals that, while each newspaper operated in very different political circumstances, some commonalities may be observed. Not only was the Falklands war a dominant news story in each case, each newspaper, to varying degrees, demonstrated a clear sympathy for one of the two belligerents: the Czech and Spanish newspaper both endorsed the Argentinean perspective, while the Irish newspaper was more sympathetic to Britain.


1. Introduction 2. The political process 3. Administrative efficiency 4. Competition among governments 5. Fiscal policy and redistribution 6. Fiscal coordination and incentives 7. Citizens and government 8. Checks, balances, and freedom 9. Acquiring and using knowledge 10. Ethnic conflict and secession 11. Data to the rescue? 12. Conclusion: rethinking decentralization.


Objective To summarize the clinical features of elderly patients with coronary artery ectasia(CAE).Methods The clinical and coronary arteriographic data about 525CAE patients were retrospectively analyzed.The patients were divided into ≥65years old group(n=129) and65years old group(n=396).Results The incidence of CAE was 0.33%in≥65years old group.The number of female patients and the incidence of mild coronary stenosis,3-vessel lesions and Markis typeⅣ were significantly higher in≥65years old group than in65years old group(P0.05,P0.01).No significant difference was found in coronary stenosis,1-or 2-vessel lesions,involved coronary arteries,Markis typesⅠ-Ⅲ,drug and intervention treatment,coronary bypass and hospital mortality between the two groups(P0.05).Conclusion The incidence of CAE is 0.33%in elderly patients.The risk factors for coronary heart disease and the clinical features of CAE are different in patients at different ages.


A balanced, broad-based economic recovery seems under way in all major regions of the world. Managing the recovery poses challenges in the short run but they appear relatively benign. Looking forward, however, the authors see a set of new risks: (1) Partly because of the crisis and partly because of subsequent low growth, public debt has reached postwar historical highs in many advanced countries; (2) productivity growth, and with it potential growth, has declined. Whether it remains low or picks up in the future is uncertain; (3) interest rates are expected to increase from their current low levels. By how much and at what pace is—again—uncertain; and (4) many advanced countries have strong populist movements (or even populist leaders) espousing risky macroeconomic policies. The authors warn that rising interest rates, combined with low growth, high debt, and populist pressure, would be a recipe for fiscal crises.ivity growth. If they avoid policy errors, President Trump or his successor could have the good fortune of presiding over a productivity revival.


What marginally motivated undergraduate student would not perk up at the thought of working with food or a "bomb", or both, in a thermodynamics laboratory experiment? Sure, our experience has shown that students express some slight disappointment when they find out that the experiment in question does not involve any loud explosions or flashes of light, and that the food amounts are miniscule (on the order of a few grams, sealed in an unappetizing gelatin capsule); but, overall, students greatly enjoy performing the experiment described in this paper, and along the way learn some important lessons about applying the First Law of Thermodynamics and its relevance to our everyday lives. In this paper we describe a thermodynamics experiment that involves measuring the energy content of a food sample, whose contents are unknown to the students. This is achieved by burning the sample in a combustion bomb, measuring the temperature rise of the water in the calorimeter, applying conservation of energy principles to estimate the energy value of the food sample in calories/gram and scurrying down supermarket aisles (or the internet) to collect nutritional information on a number of potential food items. The description will include an outline of the relevant measurements, calculations, engineering principles and their relevance to Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Program Outcomes.


The rising of nongovernmental organizations is a spectacular phenomenon since the adoption of reform and opening up policy in our society.They organize the grass root social resources,form public speech and public space,lead to the formation of a citizen society and contribute to the steady social transformation.But due to systematic reasons,this rising also gives rise to the disruption in social structure,and brings pressure to social integration and management.It is a crucial issue to present day social management to keep balance between establishing the legality of nongovernmental organizations with the integration of social resources and keeping the stability of the society.


The present invention provides a secondary battery capable of improving the cycle characteristics, storage characteristics and high rate characteristics. Is provided with an electrolyte solution with a positive electrode 21 and negative electrode 22, electrolyte is impregnated into the separator 23 is formed between the positive electrode 21 and negative electrode 22. The electrolyte is at least one of di-acid ester compound, a dicarboxylic acid compound, a disulfonic acid compound, at least one of lithium phosphate monofluorophosphate as lithium phosphate, and di-fluoro, and lithium hexafluorophosphate fluoride, lithium borate and imide lithium It includes.


One of the major problems in computer simulations of solvated macromolecules, like proteins in an aqueous environment, is the treatment of the solvent. The solvent influences the structural, thermodynamical and dynamical properties of the macromolecule considerably. The calculation of the interactions between the protein atoms and the atoms of the solvent (the so-called non-bonded interactions) are computationally very demanding, certainly if one performs a dynamical simulation of the solvated macromolecule. If the solvent is polar (like water or an electrolyte), the treatment of the solvent is even more difficult due to the long range nature of electrostatic interactions. ... Zie: General introduction


Abstract Coloured hearing synaesthesia (from the Greek syn [union] and aesthesis [sensation]), has been known to the scientific community for over 300 years and yet has gone relatively uninvestigated. In this review we chart recent research into the various forms of synaesthesia and contrast accounts of acquired and developmental forms of the condition. We also review the competing theories proposed to account for developmental forms, and conclude that preserved neonatal neural pathways between brain areas subserving audition and vision provide a likely explanation of the Condition.


Objective:To discuss the clinical effect of radio frequency identification(RFID)technology on outpatient and emergency infusion.Methods:37 681 patients with energeny infusion from May 2008 to May 2009 with the control group,and 43 251 patients from July 2009 to July 2010 were given RFID infusion system with experimental group.Developed and applied RFID infusion system by cooperating with Taiwan Foxconnco,we reengineer outpatient and emergency infusion process.We trained and assessed all nurses and improved monitoring and evaluating system to ensure the effects of implementation.Results:In control group there were 7 cases who were mistaken names or infused wrong parenteral solution,26 cases who had to get venipuncture again because being finished infusion ahead of time and 5 cases who were missed infusing 1 or 2 groups of parenteral solution.But there were no mistakes ih infusion in experimental group after the application of RFID.In comparison with the two groups,variance had statistical significance(P0.05).In control group time was(51.4±3.2)s on verifying names,but it was(15.1±2.4)s in experimental group.On time of queuing of payment,getting medicine and being infused,it was(120±27.4)min in control group,but(90±6.4)min in experimental group,comparision of the two groups,the difference was statically significant(P0.05).There were no statistical significance on mistakes of infusing medicine without cutantests on patients while it was requsted(P0.05).The ratio of complaint was 14∶2 and the percentage of satisfaction was 79.8% to 92.4% in comparison between control group and experimental group.Conclusion:The use of RFID technology on outpatient and emergency infusion has effectively solved safety problems and defects of transfusion.It optimize the infusion process and should be promoted.Hospitals should maintain and update the RFID system to make sure the safety of infusion in patients.


An observer simulation and a within-subjects variable (i.e., size of reward) were used to examine the effects of reward contingency and performance feedback on intrinsic motivation. Subjects assessed the intrinsic motivation and task competence of two actors who performed a task for monetary rewards. Relatively large, task-noncontingent rewards and rewards determined by the quantity of performance (i.e., task contingent) undermined the attribution of intrinsic motivation. In contrast, rewards contingent on the quality of the actor's performance (i.e., performance contingent) produced an incentive relation between the size of the reward and intrinsic motivation. Estimated task competence was influenced only when the amount of the reward was determined by the quality of task performance.


Emily Dickinson's love for her dog, Carlo, reveals an earthy aspect of the poet that children will understand. She was not just a pristine introvert dressed in white; Dickinson had a vibrant, sixteen-year relationship with a large, muddy-pawed canine. She named him, romanticized him, confided in him, drew strength from him, and grieved acutely when he died.


Objective - Sustainable Community Economic Development (SCED) has gradually changed overtime from production philosophy to the welfare ideology of assuring a better future for a resilient community in business and economics. SCED contributesto poverty alleviation, employment generation, sustainable community design, disaster control and resilience, biodiversity protection, and much more.The objective of this study is to conduct a literature review of this concept fromthe global and Bangladeshi perspective.

Methodology - Peer reviewed publications in English language were considered indexed on the Scopus and Web of Science database. The study designed 2timelines of SCED concept evolution based on the information derived from the existing peer-reviewed publications.

Findings - Both timelines (global and Bangladeshi) were found interrelated on some points, especially the third phase of the global SCED connected with the first phase of Bangladesh's SCED timeline, immediately after the Liberation War.

Novelty - The study concludes that SCED is an ever-changing area of research and future research would reveal more sustainable features that would increase the sustainability and resilience of the business community.

Type of Paper - Review

Keywords: Economic Development; Community Economic Development; Sustainable Community Economic Development (SCED); Bangladesh; NGOs; MFIs.

JEL Classification: F63, O1, O50.


With the remarkable development and progress of earth-observation techniques, remote sensing data keep growing rapidly and their volume has reached exabyte scale. However, it's still a big challenge to manage and process such huge amounts of remote sensing data with complex and diverse structures. This paper designs and realizes a distributed storage system for large-scale remote sensing data storage, access, and retrieval, called RSIMS (remote sensing images management system), which is composed of three sub-modules: RSIAPI, RSIMeta, RSIData. Structured text metadata of different remote sensing images are all stored in RSIMeta based on a set of uniform models, and then indexed by the distributed multi-level Hilbert grids for high spatiotemporal retrieval performance. Unstructured binary image files are stored in RSIData, which provides large scalable storage capacity and efficient GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) compatible I/O interfaces. Popular GIS software and tools (e.g., QGIS, ArcGIS, rasterio) can access data stored in RSIData directly. RSIAPI provides users a set of uniform interfaces for data access and retrieval, hiding the complex inner structures of RSIMS. The test results show that RSIMS can store and manage large amounts of remote sensing images from various sources with high and stable performance, and is easy to deploy and use.


Deformation simulation methods allow to show the deformation processes of the objects without certain kind of functional description by defining dynamic deformation parameters. Deformation is applied to the space where object exists, and allows to retrieve the accurate changes of an object. The one of such models class is policoordinate methods, namely, polypoint transformations. The efficiency of the process essentially depends on the accuracy of the algorithm for finding the coordinates of the deformed object's points and the selected minimization function. Polypoint transformations allow to process the deformation changes of the object. The processing of the deformation changes may be divided into predetermined number of subprocesses. The output of each subprocess is presented as the transformed geometrical object, so this functionality becomes an indispensable, e.g. to quick generation of the predetermined number of the unique objects. Using of the polypoint transformations along with the present functionality makes the process of creating three-dimensional scenes efficient and fast.


The determination of the distribution of the local liquid volume fraction (LVF) in non-evaporating diesel sprays was achieved using Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF). The LVF distribution developing during the primary and secondary atomisation was investigated as a function of rail pressure, physical properties and needle lift. Samples of conventional diesel and light kerosene were injected through an optically accessible mini-sac type injector, employing a custom diesel fuel injection system. The optical arrangement facilitated the acquisition of images with an image resolution of 28μm/pixel using a high speed camera operating at 10 kHz. The analysis is focused on images obtained at different injection stages (1.8ms, 3.7ms, 5.6ms after start of injection (SoI)). The results revealed that the diesel spray developed an asymmetric structure, especially at the intermediate and later stages of the injection. The LVF decreases with increasing axial distance and the primary atomisation occurs immediately after the spray enters the surrounding gas. Lastly, the findings of the phenomenological analysis suggests that conventional diesel shows a later primary and secondary atomisation than light kerosene, due to their difference in the physical properties.


The article is commenting on several cases that were promoted against Romania to the European Court of Human Rights, where plaintiffs have complained against the violation ofrights connected with family life, protected by article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The relations between a child and his or her family have been at the centre of the cases. The analysis shows that Romania has tried to provide good legislation, and improve it. Nevertheless the breach of the rights has occurred both to poor legislation and poor enforcement of the law with respect to what is considered to be "the superior interest of the child". What the best interest of the child was considered to be in relation with particular situations, even when the effect of the rules regarding children reached their adult life, is underlined.


Anxiety is a natural response of a person's body to stress, but if a person experiences excessive anxiety on a regular basis, it could develop into a mental condition. In this study, two algorithms were utilized and compared in order to analyze anxiety symptoms from speech from a male gender. The audio database that was utilized for this study was the CREMA-D database and selected 1,152 male audio files with emotions that are related to anxiety, which were, Anger, Fear, Sad, and Disgusted. Audio pre-processing techniques were done to the audio files in order to improve the audio quality, as well as feature extraction techniques in order to obtain better accuracy from the models. The algorithms used in this study for recognizing anxiety symptoms were the SVM model and the Convolutional Neural Network. The SVM and CNN models performed well on the dataset, with accuracy scores of 62 percent and 78.1 percent, respectively, but it can be concluded that the CNN model outperformed the SVM model. For CNN, we were able to transform the audio datasets into pictures of heat maps of each audio file. It was then separated into two folders in an 80:20 ratio. While for the SVM, the researchers used the audio files themselves. The researchers used Python and BandLab as tools for the research.


Modeling the spine behavior plays a key role in understanding mechanisms leading to spinal disorders and injuries. The goal of this article is to develop a new model to obtain 3D spine movement patterns. High degrees of freedom of the system, a great many of muscles involved in the spine movements and its unstable intrinsic behavior make the control problem more difficult. New theories in computational motor control suggest optimal control as a useful tool for modeling Central Nervous System (CNS) to provide appropriate control signals while it computes the neural interactions with biological sensors. Therefore, CNS is modeled as an optimal controller. Our simulations illustrate the movement behavior and muscles force patterns which may be used to relate to the risk of injury in both joints and muscles.


The differential cross sections for 16O(He,He)16O resonant elastic scattering at 3.034 and 3.078 MeV have been measured using stoichiometric thin (100 A) and thick (6000 A) SiO2 layers formed on Si(100) wafers by thermal oxidation at 900 °C under H2 and O2 flows. We have determined the resonance widths (Γ) and interaction radii (a), which are the parameters defining the cross sections in the partial wave analysis, by best fitting the angular and energy dependent scattering yields from oxygen. A computer simulation program for Rutherford backscattering including the 16O(He,He)16O resonant scattering has been synthesized and applied to the elemental analysis of thin YBa2Cu4O8 and Nd1+xBa2−xCu3O7−δ films grown on SrTiO3 substrates. The present elemental analysis is compared with the transition temperatures of superconductivity (Tc) in the context of the oxygen deficiency. The accuracy of oxygen content is estimated to be better than 0.1 (a few %). How to improve the accuracies of the elemental analysis, in p...


Accretion processes around black holes almost inevitably involve rotating gas flows. Consequently, there is great interest in self–consistent solutions of the hydrodynamic equations of viscous differentially–rotating flows. Four solutions are currently known (see Chen et al. 1995 for a discussion). In these solutions viscosity transports angular momentum outward, allowing the accreting gas to spiral in toward the central mass. Viscosity also acts as a source of heat; some or all of this heat is radiated, leading to the observed spectrum. The most famous of the four solutions is the thin disk model developed by Shakura & Sunyaev (1973), Novikov & Thorne (1973), Lynden–Bell & Pringle (1974) and others (see Pringle 1981 and Frank et al. 1992 for reviews). The accreting gas forms a geometrically thin, optically thick disk, and produces a quasi–blackbody spectrum. The effective temperature of the radiation is in the range 10 − 10 K, depending on the black hole mass and the accretion rate (Teff ∝ M Ṁ). The thin disk solution has been used to model a large number of astrophysical systems. Shapiro, Lightman and Eardley (1976; hereafter SLE; see also Björnsson & Svensson 1991 and Luo & Liang 1994) discovered a second, much hotter self–consistent solution in which the accreting gas forms a two temperature plasma with the ion temperature greater than the electron temperature (Ti ∼ 10 K, Te ∼ 10 −10K). The gas is optically thin and produces a power–law spectrum at X–ray and soft γ–ray energies. The SLE solution is, however, thermally unstable (Piran 1978), and is therefore not considered viable for real flows. At super–Eddington accretion rates, a third solution is present (Katz 1977; Begelman 1978; Abramowicz et al. 1988; see also Begelman & Meier 1982; Eggum, Coroniti, & Katz 1988), in which the large optical depth of the inflowing gas traps most of the radiation and carries it inward, or "advects" it, into the central black hole. This solution is referred to as an optically thick advection–dominated accretion flow (optically thick ADAF). A full analysis of the dynamics of the solution was presented in an important paper by Abramowicz et al. (1988). A fourth solution is present in the opposite limit of low, sub–Eddington, accretion rates (Ichimaru 1977; Rees et al. 1982; Narayan & Yi 1994, 1995a, 1995b; Abramowicz


A competitive market is considered an ideal form of market while the concept of monopolistic competition is more realistic than perfect competition and pure monopoly. The study reviewed the extent of competitive condition of Nigerian banking sector for the period of 1986-2012. This period corresponds to a period characterized by substantial reform to restructure and consolidate the banking sector into a market-driven based economy, and to further liberalize and deregulate sufficiently the systems in order to integrate economically with the international financial market. With the adoption of concentration approach (Concentration ratio and Herfindahl-Herschman index - HHI), we discovered that the competitive behaviour of banks is not only related to the number of banks in a market or to their concentration but also related to other factors at work. Hence, the industry is heading towards monopolistic competitive condition. In our opinion, the more efficiency gains of bank competition could be realized if there is an even distribution of market share in the banking industry as opposed to the present situation where majorly three banks dominate and take the larger market share in the industry. This will help to improve the efficiency required to create a fully functional credit system as well as strengthen the effectiveness of monetary policy.


Once a humble, beloved, charity-based arm of the healthcare industry, hospice is now a multi-billion dollar industry, funded almost exclusively by Medicare, run by for-profit corporations answering to private equity investors and Wall Street, and more and more frequently plagued by fraud and abuse. This article gathers together for the first time in one place all of the publicly-available data related to law enforcement and regulatory enforcement of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. The author -- a well-known qui tam practitioner and False Claims Act scholar -- outlines the history and regulatory scheme of the Medicare Hospice Benefit and its payment provisions, the history and statutory scheme of the False Claims Act and its whistleblower provisions with particular emphasis on its use in the hospice fraud context, the relevant case law, and the joint efforts of whistleblowers and federal law enforcement attorneys and agents in ferreting out hospice fraud. The article includes in depth descriptions of representative cases as well as an exhaustive appendix which gathers information from cross-referenced sources and summarizes every publicly-available civil and criminal Medicare hospice fraud investigation.


Abstract Learning to read and write is a highly complex, cognitive process; yet too often literacy instruction treats it simplistically by emphasizing visual/psychomotor skill learning to the exclusion of thought development. Despite nearly three decades of research into cognitive processes which has yielded a plethora of information about how we learn (Russell, 1959; Hyden, 1969; Dalby and Gibson, 1981), classroom application lags seriously behind theory. Recently, research in metacognition, or how learning is regulated by the individual, suggests that knowledge of specific cognitive processes can aid teachers in improving the cognitive performance of students (Guthrie, 1982). How such improvement might take place through a holistic approach to education is the subject of this paper.


A microwave-hydrothermal process for the synthesis of crystalline zinc oxide powders has been developed in this study. Well-crystallized zinc oxide powders exhibiting different morphology, crystallinity, and particle size have been successfully prepared by controlling the process temperature and molarity of NH_4OH in the starting solution. With increasing process temperature and NH_4OH molarity during synthesis, the morphology of ZnO powders changes from flowerlike agglomeration to a well-developed rodlike shape. The band gap of ZnO powders increases with a decrease in the molarity of NH_4OH during synthesis. Vacuum ultraviolet radiation (VUV) excited luminescence studies for ZnO powders reveal an excitation band at 161 nm possibly due to the absorption of O^2- 2 p electrons in the valence band. The VUV excitation band of ZnO powders observed at 161 nm will be useful for excitation of gas-discharged plasma display devices.


The purpose of this study is to achieve a greater understanding of the perception of the use of Special Educational Needs Coordinators' (SENCOs') competence in school. The informants of this study ...


From the economic development in the 1970s, many of the population has been gathered in the urban areas which caused the massive supply of apartment houses. Facility noise is one of the major problems in living in those apartment houses, for their nature of shared walls and floors. In this study, complaints of residents in regard the facility noise were investigated Surveys on the types and the places of occurrence of the noise, impacts on the annoyance according to the time of day were performed. The degree of residents' complaint and annoyance level may be mitigated with the result and analysis of this study.


Three silica-based ion exchangers, containing monoamine (1), ethylenediamine (2) and diethylenetriamine (3) functionalities, have been examined for their capacity to recover the catalyst RhCl3, with emphasis on industrially important factors, such as kinetics and re-usability of the ion exchange materials. Ligand occupations have been found to lie between 40% and 55%
(some 40–50 mg Rh per g ion exchanger), suggesting the predominant formation of complexes of the type ML2. The recovery proved to be most efficient with diluted mineral acids, and the initially adsorbed Rh3+ has been removed almost quantitatively (>95%) from 1. All ion exchangers display excellent recovery kinetics, with t1/2 values of adsorption never exceeding 60 s. Successive Rh recovery experiments indicate stable recovery percentages after the first recovery cycle, but show a gradual build-up of residual Rh with ion exchangers 2 and 3. Rh3+ has been extracted with high selectivity up to pH values as high as pH 4 in the presence of other transition metal ions, like Cu2+ and Ni2+.


Summary. In vitro comparative evaluations were performed to study the efficacy of combinations of flucytosine and fluconazole in producing a postantifungal effect (PAFE) on Candida albicans. Initial studies were done to determine MIC, FIC (fractional inhibitory concentration) and optimal PAFE parameters. A turbidometric method was used to measure yeast cell growth following exposure to different concentrations of the two drugs for periods of 0.5, 1 or 2 h at temperatures of 30 d̀C and 37 d̀C. The PAFE was determined by the difference in time (h) required for growth of the control and test cultures to reach the 0.5 absorbance level following removal of the drug by dilution. Ten strains of C. albicans were then assayed (30 d̀C; 2 h exposure time) and a synergistic PAFE was evidenced with the two drugs at concentrations well below their individual MICs. PAFEs ranging from 3.8 to 10.5 h, which persisted for 1.2–2.5 h longer than those achieved with either agent separately, were evidenced when flucytosine and fluconazole were combined (flucytosine: fluconazole ratios of 1: 16–1: 32) at concentrations ranging from 0.024 to 0.098 μg ml‐1 and 0.78 to 1.56μg ml"1 respectively. The concentrations of each agent required to produce an optimal PAFE varied according to the C. albicans strain being assayed.


In order to improve the maize yields in south Liaoning province, contrast tests were conducted to study the application effect of sob-soiling in maize big ridge double line density planting. The results show that the applications of sob-soiling in maize big ridge double line density planting can boost the maize yields and farmers'income and contribute to the sustainable development in agriculture.


We discuss the crossover from two dimension (2D) to three dimension (3D) in presence of two different types of Josephson couplings in high-Tc superconductors. The crossover is estimated taking ab plane paraconductivity. In presence of the different coupling strengths an overlapping region is found in the case of ab plane paraconductivity where the system is neither 2D nor 3D. The role of two different types of couplings and anisotropic nature of the HTSC is discussed in controlling the overlapping region.


The paper discusses the economic life of plantation workers in north Sumatra. The workers under consideration are Javanese, descendants of the early plantation workers. While they receive subsistence wages, work on the plantation is nonetheless considered attractive. The main reasons for this are the sense of security that comes with permanent employment and the benefits of a rice ration and housing, which are crucial supplements to wages. The concept of tentrem (security) is used by the workers to express the sense of peace that comes with plantation work, and as an explanation for their remaining on the plantation.


The present paper aims at providing a first study of lenition- and fortition-type phenomena in coda position in Romanian, a language that can be considered as less-resourced. Our data show that there are two contexts for devoicing in Romanian: before a voiceless obstruent, which means that there is regressive voicelessness assimilation in the language, and before pause, which means that there is a tendency towards final devoicing proper. The data also show that non-canonical voicing is an instance of voicing assimilation, as it is observed mainly before voiced consonants (voiced obstruents and sonorants alike). Two conclusions can be drawn from our analyses. First, from a phonetic point of view, the two devoicing phenomena exhibit the same behavior regarding place of articulation of the coda, while voicing assimilation displays the reverse tendency. In particular, alveolars, which tend to devoice the most, also voice the least. Second, the two assimilation processes have similarities that could distinguish them from final devoicing as such. Final devoicing seems to be sensitive to speech style and gender of the speaker, while assimilation processes do not. This may indicate that the two kinds of processes are phonologized at two different degrees in the language, assimilation being more accepted and generalized than final devoicing.


In the last chapter on regression we discussed in somewhat vague terms the use and meaning of the regression line as a predictor. We talked about the value ŷ on the regression line as a theoretical average for some unspecified population of data that was similar to the actual data. We even discussed how this hypothetical data would be spread around the theoretical average value as determined by the regression. In scientific work it is common to make statements about an underlying population from information based on a sample. Probability theory is needed to make these statements precise.


This paper presents a fuzzy tracking control design based on H∞ performance for nonlinear systems. The Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model is employed to approximate a nonlinear system. Based on the H∞ tracking performance, the nonlinear system output is controlled to track a reference signal, and at the same time the tracking performance is attenuated to a prescribed level. Linear matrix inequalities (LMI) techniques are used to solve the fuzzy tracking control problem. The proposed method has been applied to control of a laboratory pendulum-cart system. Hence, the performance has been evaluated in simulations as well as in real-time control.


Brightness is an attribute of visual perception used to describe the intensity of the light entering the eye. Since human perception is not linearly related to light intensity, characterizing brightness is a challenging task. In standard dynamic range (SDR) imagery, brightness is often quantified using the average picture level (APL), which is the average of all pixels' code values normalized by the maximum allowed signal code value. APL provides a simple and commonly used brightness metric for SDR; however, its validity for high dynamic range (HDR) content has never been assessed. Due to the higher luminance range that HDR supports, HDR content is encoded using a different transfer function than SDR. Thus, a different distribution of pixel code values is to be expected between HDR and SDR content. In this work, we evaluate the efficiency of the APL metric to quantify the brightness of HDR content. We describe, using patches and professionally graded images, pixel distributions where the APL fails to distinguish relative brightness between pairs of images. To overcome APL shortcomings, we propose a brightness metric based on the geometric mean (GM) and variance of an image's luma code values. We then conduct two subjective experiments to compare the efficiency of APL and our metric. Results show that the proposed metric predicts more accurately the relative brightness between two frames. However, our results also suggest that a simple statistical model, although useful as a general guideline, cannot be considered accurate enough for HDR content. Therefore, we hypothesize that work on a spatial model might provide a still better fit in characterizing brightness in HDR.


Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have become ubiquitous in the public's daily lives. In the AR space, many notable industry players are engaged in bringing smaller, more ergonomic, and more powerful AR headsets and smart-glasses to the market, with the eventual goal of these devices to replace mobile phones for a wide variety of tasks. With the improvements in computing power on AR devices, a similar surge in AI-powered technologies running on these devices is also evident. In this work, we present an AR application that explores Human-AI interaction in a computer vision context by providing an integrated platform for video analytics and AI model fine-tuning.


In this paper,a total of 4 self-stressing concrete filled steel tube columns and 2 conventional concrete filled steel tube columns were tested under cyclic load.Their shear-resistance properties,looping curves and skeleton curves were analyzed to explain the influence of some factors that include axial pressure ratio,self-stress and concrete strength on aseismatic behaviors.The test results show that the main influencing factors are axial pressure ratio and self-stress.The ductility factor decreases with the increase of axial pressure ratio.And not only the ultimate horizontal load,but also the ductility factor under cyclic load are increased due to the influence of self-stress.


The technique necessary to interface one software language with another is not clearly defined. The significant increase in the size and complexity of embedded systems and the time and cost constraints imposed by both government and the market place require that software engineers develop a better understanding of the problems of multilingual software implementation.This paper focuses on the technique necessary to successfully interface the Ada* language with the C language in homogeneous or embedded computer systems. These two languages should dominate the software development arena for at least the next decade: Ada, because it is mandated by Federal law to be used in all Department of Defense contracts which require software, and C because it is the implementation language of choice for the vast majority of commercial off-the-shelf software systems.


The long-term use of immunosuppressive therapy in transplant recipients causes a well-known high susceptibility to opportunistic infections. Several cases of visceral leishmaniasis have been reported in immunosuppressed patients; cutaneous and, especially, mucosal involvement has rarely been described in the literature. We report a case of mucosal leishmaniasis, occurring in a renal transplant recipient, observed in Sicily, an endemic region for the Leishmania infantum. A 65-year-old white man, a farm labourer, was referred to our department because he had had, for 4 months, a painless, rapidly growing, infiltrating lesion localised in the lower lip. At the age of 59, he had received an orthotopic renal transplant for focal sclerosing glomerulonephritis and was started on cyclosporine A and methylprednisolone for immunosuppression. He had no history of cutaneous disease. He had never travelled out of Italy. Physical examination revealed a hard, diffuse enlargement of the left half of the lower lip, partially covered by small scabs (fig. 1a); granulomatous changes were visible on the internal side of the cheek (fig. 1b). There were no palpable lymph nodes, and no other lesions were noted on the body. Histology of two biopsy specimens, respectively from the vermilion area and the cheek, showed a dense dermal inflammatory cell infiltrate composed of lymphocytes and histiocytes. In the cytoplasm of the latter, numerous Leishman-Donovan bodies were present. Routine laboratory tests were within the normal ranges; human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) 1 and HIV-2 testing, serum venereal disease research laboratory and Leishmania serology performed by immunofluorescence were negative, as well as culture in NovyMcNeal-Nicolle medium. A bone marrow biopsy specimen was negative for Leishmania. The diagnosis of mucosal leishmaniasis was based upon history and histopathological examination, revealing Leishmania amastigotes in the dermis. Differential diagnosis, including trauma, fixed drug eruption, syphilitic chancre, Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome, granulomatous cheilitis, sarcoidosis and lymphoedema, were excluded on the basis of anamnestic, clinical and laboratory data.


For centuries, philosophy has been considered as an intellectual activity requiring complex cognitive skills and predispositions related to complex (or critical) thinking. The Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach aims at the development of critical thinking in pupils through philosophical dialogue. Some contest the introduction of P4C in the classroom, suggesting that the discussions it fosters are not philosophical in essence. In this text, we argue that P4C is philosophy.


The present invention relates to a method for transporting mailpieces, whereby the identification code is assigned to 該郵 flight thereof. Features of this method, mailpieces are delivered in a box of the electronic parcel post, the identification number of 該郵 flights material is to be stored is recorded in the electronic parcel post and / or a central database. The present invention is related further to an electronic parcel post, electronic parcel post is composed of a recording unit of the mail identification code, followed by, the transmission means of the identification code to the data processing unit for storing transport data .


The present invention relates to a surgical fastener applying apparatus having a shank, the shank having a trigger, which is pivotally attached to the handle and a trigger movable in a plane. The trigger has a top and a bottom portion extending from the shank portion disposed within the housing portion of the handle. The housing means having a staple, the staple housing having a proximal end attached to the handle, a longitudinal axis extending between the distal end of said proximal end and from the proximal and distal ends. A housing having a firing rod disposed therein, and the trigger is coupled to the firing bar. The device has a coupling member, the coupling member having a first end, said first end portion pivotally attached to the top of the trigger, the coupling member having a second end, the second end portion includes a slidable pin. Three-dimensional cam pin path disposed within the housing and engaging. The coupling member follows the motion of the distal and proximal movement of the top of the trigger, and the trigger pin is perpendicular to the sliding plane, three-dimensional cam along the path of travel.


With the emergence of networked devices, from the Internet of Things (IoT) nodes and cellular phones to vehicles connected to the Internet, there has been an ever-growing expansion of attack surfaces in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV). In the past decade, there has been a rapid growth in the automotive industry as network-enabled and electronic devices are now integral parts of vehicular ecosystems. These include the development of automobile technologies, namely, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) and electric vehicles. Attacks on IoV may lead to malfunctioning of Electronic Control Unit (ECU), brakes, control steering issues, and door lock issues that can be fatal in CAV. To mitigate these risks, there is need for a lightweight model to identify attacks on vehicular systems. In this article, an efficient model of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is developed to detect anomalies in the vehicular system. The dataset used in this study is an In-Vehicle Network (IVN) communication protocol, i.e., Control Area Network (CAN) dataset generated in a real-time environment. The model classifies different types of attacks on vehicles into reconnaissance, Denial of Service (DoS), and fuzzing attacks. Experimentation with performance metrics of accuracy, precision, recall, and F-1 score are compared across a variety of classification models. The results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms other classification models.


A high resolution parametric signal subspace algorithm for estimating the direction-of-arrivals of multiple wavefronts impinging on an array is presented. This algorithm is effective in both the incoherent and coherent wavefront case.<<ETX>>


The paper shows the possibility of using metal oxides W and Cu as a gas-sensitive material of a semiconductor hydrogen sulfide sensor. The results of studying the following metrological parameters of SCS-H2S are presented: calibration characteristic, selectivity, measurement range and basic error, the effect of pressure on the values of the input signal and the sensor's resistance to concentration overloads. The principle of operation of the developed semiconductor hydrogen sulfide sensor is to change the electrical conductivity of the gas-sensitive layer as a result of sorption of hydrogen sulfide.


Chitin in 0.25 and 0.5% level incorporated in a commercial poultry feed (control) was fed to broiler chicks and the weight gain was studied in comparison with control feed. The birds fed on diet containing 0.5% chitin showed significant increase in weight and decrease in feed conversion ratio. Analysis of the data showed that addition of 0.5% chitin in the commercial diet resulted in doubling the profit of the farmer. Weight gain with feed containing 0.25% chitin was not significant and also not economically beneficial compared to control. Similar studies conducted on white leghorn layers showed a drop in egg production in birds fed on diets containing 0.5% chitin compared to control diet.


A. Berrebi, M. Shtalrid, E.J. Vorst, Hematology Unit, Kaplan Hospital, 76100 Rehovot (Israle) Amiodarone is a benzofurane-derived antiar-rhythmic agent. The side effects of the drug include photosensitivity rash, peripheral neuropathy, and thyroid function disturbances [1]. Interaction with drugs has also been described, especially increased plasma digoxin concentration [2] potentiation of warfarin [3, 4], and adverse reaction with quinidine [5]. We would like to report a hitherto undescribed side effect of amiodarone. A 52-year-old male patient presented to our clinic with giant hematomas on his right arm which appeared a few days previously. He also complained of longstanding gingival bleeding and subcutaneous ecchymoses of his legs. On past medical history he had mild diabetes controlled by diet only and an old nonactive duodenal ulcer, non-treated. He suffered from a severe myocardial infarction 5 years earlier, and a coronary bypass operation was performed 4 years ago. At presentation he was on the following medication: Adalat (nifedipine), Isocardide (isosorbide dinitrate), Fusid (furosemide), Trasicor(oxyprenolol hydrochloride), slow K (potassium chloride), and Cordarone (amiodarone hydrochloride); Cordarone was taken for only 6 months. On physical examination, a giant ecchymose was seen on the right arm, and few other ecchymoses on his two legs. Further physical examination was normal. The laboratory findings were as follows: hemoglobin 16.0g/dl, hematocrit 0.49, leukocytes lO×lOVl with normal differential count, platelets 360×10Vl. Alkaline phosphatase, SGOT, SGPT, LDH, serum proteins and electrophoresis, bilirubin, serum lipids were all within normal limits. The coagulation tests revealed: fragile clot with poor retraction, prothrombin activity 100%, activated partial thromboplastin time 47 s (normal 35–55 s) fibrinogen 3.4 g/l. The euglobulin lysis time was normal, the bleeding time (Duke) > 15 min. Platelet aggregation tests showed a markly decreased reaction with aden-osine diphosphate, adrenalin, and ristocetin (fig. 1). In order to look for a drug as a causal agent of the thrombocytopathy, we decided first to stop the drug, that he had taken for the shortest time, i.e., Cordarone. Within 2 months after withdrawal the gingival bleeding stopped, the ecchymoses disappeared, and on testing the platelet aggregation again we found a clear improvement (fig. 1). To the best of our knowledge, no interaction between this drug and platelet function was described previously. Since amiodarone has been found to interact with other drugs, we cannot exclude such an interaction with one of the patient's medications, resulting in the disturbance of platelet function.


Modeling results of the external injection of electrons into wakefield excited by the ultrarelativistic ion driving bunch in plasma are presented. Capture and acceleration of the injected electron bunch in the wakefield are described by the system of relativistic dynamic equations. Initial parameters of the plasma and the ion bunch are similar to that in the experiment AWAKE which is currently carried out at CERN. Characteristics of the accelerated electron bunch (percentage of captured electrons and energy dispersion) are studied at small angle of injection relative to the direction of ion driver propagation and far enough from the driver where the wakefield structure is strongly nonlinear.


The positions of the reactive site and the disulfide bridges in fungal protease inhibitor F (FPI-F) from silkworm (Bombyx mori), which has a unique amino acid sequence and inhibitory specificity, were investigated. At pH 3.0, subtilisin BPN', which is one of target proteases of this inhibitor, specifically cleaved the peptide bond of the inhibitor at Thr(29)-Val(30). The cleaved bond was regenerated by subtilisin BPN' at pH 8.0. These results indicate that the Thr(29)-Val(30) bond of the inhibitor is the reactive site. The locations of disulfide bridges were determined to be Cys(3)-Cys(35), Cys(14)-Cys(27), Cys(18)-Cys(55), and Cys(37)-Cys(49). Based on the positions of the reactive site and the disulfide bridges, FPI-F is considered to be a member of a new family of serine protease inhibitors. We propose the designation Bombyx family for the new inhibitor family of which FPI-F is a member.


Background: Trials sequentially randomizing patients each day have never been conducted for renal replacement therapy (RRT) initiation. We used clinical data from routine care and trials to learn and validate optimal dynamic strategies for RRT initiation in the intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: We included participants from the MIMIC-III database for development, and AKIKI and AKIKI2 (two randomized controlled trials on RRT timing) for validation. Participants were eligible if they were adult ICU patients with severe acute kidney injury, receiving invasive mechanical ventilation, catecholamine infusion, or both. We used doubly-robust estimators to learn when to start RRT after the occurrence of severe acute kidney injury given a patient's evolving characteristics - for three days in a row. The "crude strategy" aimed to maximize hospital-free days at day 60 (HFD60). The "stringent strategy" recommended initiating RRT only when there was evidence at the 0.05 threshold that a patient would benefit from initiation. For external validation, we evaluated the causal effects of implementing our learned strategies versus following current best practices on HFD60. Results: We included 3 748 patients in the development set (median age 69y [IQR 57-79], median SOFA score 9 [IQR 6-12], 1 695 [45.2%] female), and 1 068 in the validation set (median age 67y [IQR 58-75], median SOFA score 11 [IQR 9-13], 344 [32.2%] female). Through external validation, we found that compared to current best practices, the crude and stringent strategies improved average HFD60 by 13.7 [95% CI -5.3-35.7], and 14.9 [95% CI -3.2-39.2] days respectively. Contrasted to current best practices where 38% of patients initiated RRT within three days, with the stringent strategy, we estimated that only 14% of patients would. Conclusion: We developed a practical and interpretable dynamic decision support system for RRT initiation in the ICU. Its implementation could improve the average number of days that ICU patients spend alive and outside the hospital.


A common problem among bridge owners/managers is the need to reduce spending whilst attempting to operate and maintain an increasingly ageing bridge stock which is subject to a loading intensity for which, in many cases, it was not designed. The problem is compounded by the ever increasing trend in motorway traffic frequency. As a result the past decade has seen increased interest by bridge owners and managers in the use of probabilistic methods for the assessment of their bridges specifically within the context of documentation of higher load carrying capacities such that unnecessary repairs/rehabilitations can be avoided. Employed once a deterministic assessment has rendered a repair/rehabilitate/replace now scenario, the methods have been demonstrated to provide significant cost savings where the required safety of the structure at higher load levels can be demonstrated by probabilistic methods. This paper presents the practical implementation of probability based assessment methods to a selection of road and rail bridge structures. For the structures analysed, modelling of the critical limit states is described as are the statistical techniques employed in modelling the loads and resistances. Ultimately the benefits to bridge owners/managers of performing probabilistic assessments are apparent from the results, which consistently provided (a) higher load ratings for the bridges considered and (b) considerable financial savings (both direct and indirect) through the avoidance of unnecessary repair/replacement of serviceable highway structures. Examples presented in the paper demonstrate direct monetary savings in excess of $30ml (USD).


Low rank and sparsity decomposition have shown potential for salient object detection. In existing methods, nuclear norm is used to approximate rank minimization and l1 norm is selected as sparse regularization. Two deficiencies, however, still exist for nuclear norm and l1 norm. First, both always over-penalize large singular values or large entries of vectors and result in a biased solution. Second, the existing algorithms very slow for large-scale applications. To address these problems, we propose a novel weighted matrix decomposition model with two regularizations: (1) Schatten-2/3 quasi-norm that captures the lower rank of background by matrix factorization technique, and (2) The l2/3 -norm that is capable of producing consistent salient object within the same image patches by effectively absorbing both image geometrical structure and feature similarity. In addition, we equip the weighting matrix with a high-level background prior map based on the color, location and boundary connectivity, which can indicate the probability that each image region belongs to the background. The proposed model can be solved by perform SVDs on two much smaller factor matrices. Experiments on three broadly used datasets by detailed comparisons show that our proposed approach has potential in salient object detection.


The aim of this work was the introduction of the basic characteristics of contemporary polymerization light sources for composite resin curing. Two basic groups of available curing technologies are introduced. First are those that produce white light (conventional halogen lamps and plasma arc polymerization units). The second group comprises "blue light" curing devices that produce blue light at the origin of the light source. Lights belonging to this group include the blue LEDs and argon laser. Information about main characteristics of light sources (irradiance, wavelength range) and their proper choice could have a significant impact on polymerization quality and on long-life of composite restoration.


We recently reported the expression of scaffolding protein postsynaptic density‐95 (PSD95) in the rat cerebral vascular smooth muscle cells (cVSMC). PSD95 binds with the KV1 channels at the plasma membrane of cVSMC to mediate vasodilation. In this study, we explored whether the beta1 adrenergic receptor (β1AR) expressed in several vascular beds forms a signaling complex with PSD95 in cVSMC. By immunohistochemistry, we observed that β1AR is expressed in rat cVSMC and co‐localizes with PSD95. In pressurized cerebral arteries, isoproterenol‐induced vasodilation (EC50 ~ 200 nM) was blocked by a selective β1AR blocker, CGP20712, as well as KV1 channel blockers, correolide and 5‐(4‐phenylalkoxypsoralen). Next, we designed a membrane‐permeable peptide that mimics the carboxyl‐terminus of KV1 channels (KV1‐C) and competes for the binding to PSD95. Application of this KV1‐C peptide (10 μM) to pressurized arteries caused vasoconstriction and significantly blunted the vasodilation induced by isoproterenol. Interestingly, application of protein kinase inhibitor peptides (PKI, 1 μM) against protein kinase A elicited almost identical responses to those observed with KV1‐C peptide. Taken together, our study provides initial evidence that β1AR may be another key binding partner of PSD95 in cVSMC, and that PSD95 mediates β1AR‐KV1 vasodilator signaling pathway in cerebral arteries. Funded by NIH R01 HL097107 (SWR).


"No Supreme Court and no Judiciary will sit in judgment over the sovereign will of the Parliament...... Ultimately, the whole constitution is a creature of Parliament"Basic structure theory has governed the development of constitution law like no other judgement in the Indian legal system, but does it come from a valid legal source? How far has the judiciary been within the bounds of its powers to make laws when it created the theory? Was it the intention of the Constitution Assembly or a concept that a wafer thin majority of 7:6 fancied? These are a few questions this paper attempts to answer.


This note summarizes some results on associative //-spaces with the homotopy type of a finite CW-complex. Such spaces are called finitedimensional associative //-spaces. The main theorem generalizes a result of Serre [5] for the simple classical groups. A well-known theorem of Hopf [2] states that the rational cohomology Z/*(X, Q) of a finite-dimensional //-space is an exterior algebra MIN1 1 , . . . , X2NKI), where the dimension of X2Ni-1 is 2Nt 1 and Nx rg • ' • S NK. With this in mind, suppose that X is a finite-dimensional associative //-space with


71 Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) defines palliative care (PC) as an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing life-threatening illness. However, the public may be unaware of this definition. We assessed the Canadian public's knowledge and attitudes toward PC before and after being provided the WHO definition. Methods: We engaged a health research firm to distribute a cross-sectional survey to members of the Canadian public. Eligible participants were >18 years of age, could comprehend English or French, and were currently residing in Canada. We assessed participants' knowledge of and attitudes towards PC before and after reading the WHO definition of PC. Results were analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test. Results: Of 1518 participants (52% female), 45% (676/1518) stated they knew what PC was and could explain it, 32% (488/1518) knew about PC but could not explain it, 13% (198/1518) had heard of PC but did not know what it was, and 10% (156/1518) had never heard of PC. Of those who had heard of PC, 58% (784/1362) agreed PC is the last resort when other treatments have failed, 64% (877/1362) agreed PC means being close to death, and 67% (914/1362) believed PC meant being at "the stage that you can no longer take care of yourself". Before reading the WHO definition, 56% (774/1362) agreed/strongly agreed that referral to PC would make them feel afraid; after reading the definition, this percentage was reduced to 41%, and degree of fearfulness was reduced in 46% (p<0.0001). Fifty-nine percent (898/1518) stated they did not know, prior to reading the WHO definition, that PC could be involved early in the course of illness, and 45% did not know PC could be provided together with other treatments aimed at prolonging life. Eighty-nine percent (1344/1518) felt the PC definition helped them to better understand what PC is, and 91% believed that Canadians should be made aware PC can be included early in the course of a patient's illness. Conclusions: More than half of respondents had limited knowledge of PC and believed it was synonymous with end-of-life care. Provision of the WHO definition improved understanding and allayed fears of PC. Public educational initiatives may improve understanding and increase acceptance of PC.


Today there is a great focus on reusing the effluent water in the dyeing process. The objective of this research work is to effectively remove colour from textile wastewater using Electro Fenton (E-Fenton) process. E-Fenton process is the combination of Fenton and electrochemical processes. In this study decolorization of Congo red dye was investigated by E-Fenton process in a continuous reactor equipped with iron electrodes. Experiments were carried out in a reactor of working volume of 1L. The degree of decolourisation varies with the operating parameters. The optimal working conditions were maintained with an electrode potential difference of 2V, 40°C, pH 4. For Electro Fenton's process the parameters giving the highest efficiency were decolourisation percentage of 97%. The process parameters were optimized by using response surface methodology to understand the effectiveness of the interactions of variables when the maximum decolourization can be achieved. The experimental results proved that the combination of Fenton and Electrochemical process was an excellent method for treatment of textile wastewater.


The Raman and FTIR spectra of three metal guanidinium sulfates, [C(NH2)3]2MII(H2O)4(SO4)2, (MII = Mn, Cd and VO), are recorded. The observed spectral bands are assigned in terms of the fundamental modes of vibration of the guanidinium ions, sulfate groups and water molecules. The appearance of the sulfate tetrahedra's ν1 and ν2 modes in the IR spectra and the partial lifting of the ν4 mode in the Raman spectra indicate the distortion of the SO42− tetrahedra in the structure, so that its symmetry is lowered from Td to C1. The geometry of the sulfate group in guanidinium vanadyl sulfate does not deviate much from that of the average sulfate group. The distortion of the SO4 tetrahedra is stronger in GuCds than in GuMnS. The CN3 group in the guanidinium ion is planar (D3h point group) in GuCdS and GuMnS, whereas it is lowered in the vanadyl compound. Furthermore, the spectral analyses show the presence of weak hydrogen bonds in the structures. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract 5131 Argatroban represents a parentral antithrombin agent which is used in the management of anticoagulation in heparin compromised patients. Its main mechanism of action is mediated via inhibition of thrombin and its generation. While its effect on platelet activation inhibition by thrombin have been reported, very little information on the effects of this drug on thromboxane formation and Arachidonic Acid mediated activation of platelets is available. Argatroban and its generic versions namely Slovastan, Argaron and Gartban, may modulate Arachidonic Acid mediated platelet aggregation and release processes. To test this hypothesis a branded version of Argatroban (Mitsubishi – Tanade, Tokyo, Japan) and three generic versions of Argatroban namely Slovastan, Gartban, and Slovastan were compared for their effects on Arachidonic Acid mediated aggregation of platelets in normal healthy male and female volunteers (and n = 4). Other agonists such as Epinephrine, Collagen, and ADP were also used. The effect of Arachidonic Acid on serotonin release was also measured using an Elisa technique for the measurement of serotonin. All of the generic and branded versions of Argatroban produce varying levels of the inhibition of the Arachidonic Acid mediated aggregation of platelets, ranging from the 24 to 36 percent in comparison to the control at a concentration of 1 mg/ mL (p value Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Tanzania has the 3rd highest number of reported AIDS cases of any country worldwide. The causative agent HIV is spread mainly through heterosexual contact which appears to be taking place at relatively young ages. The Tanzanian National AIDS Control Program AIDS Surveillance Report of August 1991 notes that 44.3% of new cases have presented between ages 15-29 with the highest prevalence in ages 25-29 at the rate of 169/100000 population. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania Diocese in Arusha Region has implemented a Child to Child health peer education program at 10 primary schools in the country. In response to surveillance data on AIDS and the corresponding need to check the spread of HIV the Diocese completed its existing program with an AIDS education and awareness component designed to reach youths before they initiate high-risk sexual activity. Training materials were developed by a group of primary school teachers in conjunction with hospital personnel and members of the Diocesan AIDS Committee which include skits role playing pictures and small group discussion. Teachers were then trained over a period of 3 days to subsequently teach students in the 3 uppermost classes each for an average period of 4 hours. 418 males and female students of whom 48% were between ages 10- 15 51% between ages 16-20 and 1% aged 21-25 were ultimately trained in the program. While the students demonstrated an high initial level of knowledge about AIDS their awareness and understanding nonetheless increased as a result of the training program. Participants specifically gained knowledge on symptoms modes of transmission and the realization that HIV status can not be determined by whether one appears health or not.


The paper proposed a solution of Ethernet and video data multiplexer adapted to FSO(Free space optical) system,which makes a full use of the capability of digital multiplexer in broadening the transfer capacity and raising the channel efficiency.FSO technology also shows the advantage of large bandwidth,quick deployment and low cost in the solution.Simulation indicates that the solution performs well in transferring all kinds of data signal based on FSO.


This paper intends to present an outer approximation method based on a "visibility" assumption borrowed from location theory,called the optimal visible point algorithm,so that the global optimal solution of the original problem is achieved,and the convergence of the algorithm is analysed.


Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has a high propensity for metastasis. The purpose of this study was for us to determine whether serglycin expression can be used to predict distant metastases.


The three speeches made by Jiang Zemin are based on the idea that philosophical social science is also productivity . The speeches confirm the position and rule of philosophical social science in the development of economy.


The industries's research and development have the function of producing or perfecting products according to the needs of the market, in order to arrive at a product with quality in the consumer's home. This paper describes the historical evolution of detergent and its preparation methodology, showing its main raw materials. The additives that were proposed in this monograph will help in the physicochemical problems that comes presenting the liquid soap for clothes. So, the objective of this project is to improve the formulation. Initially, was performed the analysis of determination of the total hardness, calcium and magnesium of the water to verify the required concentration of sequestrant, and afterwards, tests were carried out with different concentrations of hydrotrope and thickener. In short, a mixture planning was carried out, in order to obtain the stability in the final product, in view of the cost-benefit ratio of the said formulations which were appropriate.


New York University offers a Study Abroad Program in Florence, Italy, where participants examine food and nutrition from historical, cultural, and culinary perspectives. Although the course was not originally designed to influence dietary practices, participants reported changes in attitudes and behaviors related to food shopping, cooking, eating, and dietetics practices after returning home. This report describes the Study Abroad Program and results from a pilot survey of participants' behavioral changes 6 months after the experience. These findings highlight the potential value of encouraging the pleasures of meal planning, food shopping, cooking, and sharing meals at the dinner table to nurture lifelong healthy eating habits.


Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 started in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and was declared pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. Globally, majority of nations worldwide with Nigeria inclusive were on lockdown. Variations exist in the way the public responded to the lockdown.Objective: The study is to determine the public perception on the impact of the lockdown due to COVID-19Methods: Pretested survey form prepared using the Google form app and distributed via social media - WhatsApp, Facebook, email and Instagram. Sample size was determined as 510. The data collected was exported to Microsoft Excel. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Inferential analysis was done using chi square, and fisher exact test at 95% confidence interval. Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital Health Research and Ethics Committee, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.Results: A total of 510 respondents participated in the study. The results revealed 52.2% female respondents. The data revealed 60% were employed with majority residing in the South Western part of Nigeria and are in a relationship. While self-employed participants comprised 25.9%. Respondents aged between 40-49 years were 28.6%, while 61.57% were postgraduate degree holders. The current data showed that 59.6% of the respondents think that the lockdown, irrespective of the dimension taken prevented the spread of the diseaseConclusion: A significant percentage of the public are of the opinion that the lockdown was effective.


Energy consumption for traction depends on specific factors (speed, axle load, train weight). The author presents calculations to determine the influence of these factors on specific energy consumption for traction. The method presented can be used to establish fuel and electric energy consumption standards for traction.


The focus of this work was on investigating and comparing two methods for calculating the cross sections of muons produced by the decay of heavy-flavor hadrons in pp collisions, which cover the interval 2 < p T < 20 GeV/c at a center-of-mass energy of s = 7 TeV. One method involves using the fixed-order plus next-to-leading logarithms (FONLL) approach to scale the measured p T-differential cross section of muons from heavy-flavor hadron decay in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of s = 5.02 TeV. The other method involves using FONLL calculations to extrapolate the published measured p T-differential cross section at s = 7 TeV to higher p T. In these two methods, we can use the published measured p T-differential cross section at s = 5.02 TeV and s = 7 TeV, which cover the interval 2 < p T < 20 GeV/c and 2 < p T < 12 GeV/c, respectively. In terms of consistency within uncertainties, the results from both methods were compared not only to pQCD-based FONLL calculations but also to each other. Because they provide the necessary pp reference, these calculations are critical for determining the nuclear modification factor of muons from heavy flavor decays in heavy-ion collisions.


A new endemic species of Gynura is described and illustrated. Gynura tambuyukonensis is found exclusively ('obligate') on ultramafic soils between bare peridotite bedrock at 2450-2550 m above sea level on Mount Tambuyukon (Kinabalu Park) in Sabah (Malaysia) on Borneo Island. On the basis of the morphological features, this new taxon appears to be related to G. sundaiaca F.G. Davies of the Lesser Sunda Islands and Timor. The diagnostic morphological characters are discussed and information about its habitat, ecology and distribution is provided.


In a device (1) for rapid pressure-freezing an aqueous sample (3), such as a biological specimen, a pressurized cooling medium can be fed into a high-pressure chamber (11) into which a sample holder (30) containing a sample (3) is inserted and which is sealed with a pressure-tight seal, to the location of the sample holder (30) held therein. The high-pressure chamber (11) comprises a viewing window structure (2) with a pressure-tight window (20), through which light can be directed from the outside onto the sample (3) located in the sample holder (30). The window (20) can comprise a transparent window element made of a high-pressure-resistant material, wherein the window element (20) is held by a pressure- and temperature-resistant window bearing provided in the high-pressure chamber.


The basic requirements of the valve-control coupling for control valves are quick response, high flow capacity, and anti-blocking ability. In this article, a pure water hydraulic test-bed is built, and the pressure distribution characteristics between the throttle nozzle and the pilot valve, as well as the flow characteristics in the throttle orifice are researched. Following that, the water medium low pressure large-flow pilot operated solenoid valve is designed. The influences of throttle nozzles' diameter and other parameters on the dynamic and static characteristics of the valve are analysed via AMESim simulation software. The optimized combination of parameters of the solenoid valve group is determined. The experiment results show that the normal working pressure drop of the designed solenoid valve group is approximately 0.07 MPa, the opening time is 0.3 to 0.4 s, the closing time is approximately 1 s; it possesses better low pressure characteristics and rapid response characteristic, which can satisfy the requirements of valve-control coupling.


Objective: To study the method and effect of nutritional therapy of cancer with Diabetes Mellitus(DM).Methods: The nutritional therapy was used and its curative effect was observed in 155 cases of cancer with DM.Results: All patients' fasting blood glucose and postprandial 2h blood glucose were decreased significantly than before nutritional therapy(P0.05).All of the cases had completed the chemotherapy,radiotherapy and operation.Conclusion: Reasonable nutritional support is important to control blood glucose,improve nutritional status and increase toleration of chemotherapy,radiotherapy and operation in cancer patients with DM patients.


This study examines demographics, job characteristics, job satisfaction, intention to leave, and their causal relationships in knowledge workers and blue-collar workers in Taiwan and the United States. Based on data from an international survey, the characteristics of knowledge workers in each country were compared to those of blue-collar workers of the same country, and those of knowledge workers of the other country. Many significant findings were revealed. Knowledge workers demonstrated stronger learning and autonomy characteristics than blue-collar workers. A multi-sample model of causal relationships among the variables was also found for the two countries.


An electron microscope study was performed on three virus isolates that caused hematopoietic necrosis in salmonid fishes: infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN), Oregon Sockeye Disease (OSD), and Sacramento River Chinook Salmon Disease (SRCD). All three isolates were examined by negative staining of fathead minnow (FHM) monolayer tissue culture concentrates and IHN virus was also examined in thin sections of FHM cells. Viruslike particles were observed in infected tissues, but similar structures were not found in uninfected cultures. All three isolates were bullet-shaped, but oval and truncated forms were also observed. Mean measurements of particles from IHN-virus-infected tissue were 158 × 90 mμ. They consisted of an outer coat 15 mμ thick, a core 60 mμ in diameter, subunits about 5 mμ, and an axial pore about 20 mμ in diameter. These particles also were seen budding from the cytoplasmic membrane. Similar particles from SRCD were 159 × 90 mμ and isolates from OSD were 181 × 91 mμ. The three isolates we...


Abstract This is a single-institution retrospective cohort study designed to investigate the role of adjuvant radiotherapy in intracranial hemangiopericytoma.. Between 1995 and 2016, 53 patients received definitive surgery and diagnosed as intracranial hemangiopericytoma at the Seoul National University Hospital. There were 24 males and 29 females and median age of all the patients was 44 years. Of gross total resection (N=30), 14 received adjuvant radiotherapy. Among subtotal resection (N=23), 13 received adjuvant radiotherapy, 6 received stereotactic radiosurgery. Adjuvant chemotherapy was administered in 5 patients. With the median follow-up period of 44 months (range, 3-307 months), 19 patients (36%) had disease relapse (intracranial; 17, extracranial; 7). The 10-year Intracranial and extracranial failure free rate were 44.0% and 62.2%, respectively. In 17 patients with intracranial failure, total of 31 relapsed lesions were observed, 20 of which were at the surgical bed. The other 11 lesions were more than 1.5cm away from the surgical bed. Addition of adjuvant radiotherapy significantly lowered the surgical bed failure rate (p=0.025, 10-year surgical bed control: 58.2% vs. 37.8%). Both non-surgical bed failure and extracranial failure were not associated with adjuvant radiotherapy. The sites of extracranial metastases were bone(4), lung(3), liver(3), inguinal lymph node(1), and Kidney(1). Adjuvant radiotherapy to the surgical bed, obviously with residual tumor if confirmed, seemed to improve local control rate in intracranial hemangiopericytoma.


13 The removal and recycling of phosphorous from wastewater streams by electrochemical precipitation 14 of struvite is a new and exciting approach; however, previous studies showed low percent yields in 15 single cell batch experiments without pH adjustment. To investigate improvement of the percent 16 yield, the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the electrodes was increased by 1.9-fold; consequently, a 17 27% increase in struvite production was observed for the pure-Mg anodes, but only a 2% increase for 18 the AZ31 alloy. Potentiodynamic polarization experiments revealed 1.8-fold higher corrosion rates 19 for the AZ31 alloy, which is in contradiction with the 2.8-fold higher magnesium dissolution rates 20 calculated for the pure-Mg during struvite precipitation. This discrepancy between the techniques is 21 attributed to the difference in the electrochemical environment, where the formation of an insulating 22 layer of struvite on the anodes during the batch precipitation experiments is a critical difference. 23 Based on characterization of the morphology and chemical structure of the precipitate, studied by 24 Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy, pure struvite was 25 obtained with a particle size of ca. 73 μm in length and ca. 13 μm in width for pure-Mg and ca. 44 26 μm in length and ca. 8 μm in width for the AZ31 alloy anode, respectively. 27


The invention consists in depositing on the bottom 22 of a mold 10, a layer 24 of a fluid such as electrically conductive paint and then to be placed on this layer 24 a reinforcing member 20 such that a glass mat and then injecting a polymerizable material into the mold cavity 18. in the finished product, the surface layer 24 will hide the structure of the reinforcing member 20, and to obtain molded body parts having a good external appearance. the invention is particularly applicable to the manufacture of automotive body parts.


might hold (the authors of [6] claim that (4) has been tested by Ibstedt in the range x S 5 . 106 in [4J. Although I have read [4J carefully, I found no trace of the aforementioned computation!). In this note, we show that -I x is indeed the correct order of magnitude of ogx A(x). For any positive real number x let 7I"(x) be the number of prime numbers less then or equal to x, B(x) = xA(x) = 2: Sen),


State accommodation of plural identity has remained very much subject to the contestations of a majority/minority paradigm, through which autonomy and tolerance are still negotiated and filtered. These social reconfigurations, including those oriented towards internal self-determination and minority rights regimes, reveal glimpses of a dark neo-colonial underbelly to state rule. A comparison between the Ottoman millet system and the Israeli control system illustrates that imperial modes of 'divide and rule', or 'segmented pluralism', continue to operate, and are sometimes even enhanced, through the deployment of minority rights. Using a selective Marxist reading, this paper will initially explore the parallels between imperial and modern state rule in the face of pluralism before discussing the methods used for hegemony-maintenance, including: segmentation; dependence; and cooptation. Finally, a socio-legal discussion on the ways in which the forces of hegemony are heavily guised and sustained will follow.


ABSTRACT Monoclonal antibodies to human metapneumovirus (hMPV) were developed for direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) staining of nasopharyngeal aspirates from 40 infants with respiratory infections, as well as for hMPV identification in shell vial cultures. With reference to reverse transcription-PCR, DFA staining showed sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of 73.9%, 94.1%, 94.4%, and 72.7%, respectively. Monoclonal antibodies are useful for direct hMPV detection.


This paper presents preliminary results of a study of Japanese native speakers working with the Microsoft Word application in two modalities: the released Japanese version and a machine translated (MT) version (the raw MT strings incorporated into the MS Word interface). To explore the effect of translation modality on task completion, time and satisfaction, an experiment using an eye-tracker was set up with a group of 42 users: 22 native Japanese and 20 native English speakers. The results suggest that Japanese-native speakers have higher completion scores and are more efficient when working with the released versions of the product than with the MT version, but these differences are not significant. Their self-reported satisfaction, however, is significantly higher when working with the released product as opposed to the raw MT version.


Abstract: Increased intracellular adenosine 3′:5′‐monophosphate (cAMP) levels and activation of cAMP‐dependent protein kinases (ATP:protein phosphotransferase, EC 188.8.131.52) in vivo were correlated in mouse neuroblastoma cells grown in the presence of 1 mM‐6N.O2‐dibutyryl 3′:5′‐monophosphate (Bt2cAMP). The time course for activation showed that cAMP‐dependent protein kinases were activated by 30 min. A heat‐stable inhibitor protein inhibited a majority of activated cAMP‐dependent protein kinase. Activation of cAMP—dependent protein kinase caused additional phosphorylation of proteins when compared with untreated control cells, as demonstrated by endogenous phosphorylation of proteins in vitro using [γ‐32P]ATP and analysis by two—dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The phosphorylation data show selective phosphorylation of specific proteins by cAMP‐independent and cAMP‐dependent protein kinase. Among the proteins in the postmitochondrial supernatant fraction phosphorylated by cAMP‐dependent protein kinases, two proteins with a molecular weight of 43,000 were heavily phosphorylated. It is suggested that phosphorylation of cellular proteins by cAMP‐dependent protein kinases might be involved in the cAMP‐modulated biochemical changes in neuroblastoma cells.


The compiling standard of chemistry experiment teaching material was researched. Two problems should be considered on compiling the chemistry experiment teaching material: ①Enhancing completely students' chemistry accomplishment, providing students abundant knowledge of chemistry experiment, training students to have basic operation skills, good experiment habit and ability. ②The teaching characters of the outstanding experiment teaching material, paying attention to the law of recognition knowledge and technical ability, standardizing the basic operation and method of the experiment.


The investigation was conducted between 1956 and 1959 in a small, single-handed general medical practice situated in a pleasant residential area in south Manchester. Thirty-seven families were investigated for periods ranging from 12 to 24 months. Anterior nasal swabs were taken from all members of each household every six weeks-a purely arbitrary interval-while any intercurrent staphylococcal lesion was recorded and usually swabbed. The selection of families was partly influenced by the expectation that they would co-operate throughout a rather long study. On the basis of the limited knowledge of staphylococcal epidemiology then available it was not suspected that any bias would be introduced in this way, and analysis of the data obtained has not contraverted this belief.


Abstract : Radiographically sound welds in 3/4- and 1-in. thick plates depended on weld joint design. Pertinent design detail for jointttt t ed is given. Weld metal deposited in U.S.S. T-1 plate with Mil-E-19322 Type Mil 11018 electrodes ranged from 131.1 to 137.7 in. ultimate strength. Butt weld strength with these materials was 142.4 ksi, and bend tests showed the welded joints capable of 4 to 6% outer fiber elongation. (Author)


: Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a relatively uncommon disorder associated with autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). PG's prevalence ranges from 0.4 - 2.6% in patients with IBD. We describe a 34-year-old man with ulcerative colitis (UC) who was referred to our center with some small follicular and pustular lesions rapidly progressing into a painful necrotic ulcer in the right axilla. The ulcer was not responsive to broad spectrum antibiotics and topical cytotoxic agents like tacrolimus. Finally, a dramatic response was observed after initiating anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) treatment with infliximab (10 mg/kg) within a week. A significant reduction in size and necrotic tissue was achieved one month after the index date of the prescription of infliximab. A 2-month follow-up of the patient revealed complete healing of the lesion.


In utero MRI has been used to successfully discover anomalies in singleton pregnancies. Here, the authors performed that technique to study 51 multifetal pregnancies in which at least 1 fetus was suspected to be abnormal. They compared their results with those from sonography. There was a 66% agreement and a 34% disagreement between techniques with the most important issue being the status of the corpus callosum. They concluded that both techniques had similar rates of discrepancies when multifetal pregnancies were compared to singleton ones. Additionally, findings lead to terminations in 24% of cases. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: iuMR has been shown to increase the detection rate of developmental abnormalities of the CNS, though most reports are limited to singleton pregnancies. The hypothesis tested in this study was that iuMR performed in multifetal pregnancies will show additional information about fetal CNS abnormalities in a similar proportion of cases when compared with singleton pregnancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty women with multifetal pregnancies were recruited consecutively carrying at least 1 fetus with a suspected developmental fetal CNS abnormality on sonography. All had iuMR at the same center by using the same MR imaging protocol. When the sonography and MR imaging reports were discrepant, 1 fetomaternal expert assessed the reports independently to predict in what percentage a change in prognosis/counseling would have occurred if iuMR was included in the diagnostic pathway. RESULTS: There was agreement between the sonography and iuMR reports in 66% and disagreement in 34% of cases. The major cause for discrepancy was the presence or absence of the corpus callosum, which accounted for 10/17 of the disagreements. In 12/17 of the discrepant cases, the effect on management was judged to be significant. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that iuMR has a similar rate of discrepancy to sonography in multifetal pregnancies compared with the published data concerning singleton pregnancies. Our analysis of the effect on management shows that changes in the decision to consider termination of pregnancy would have occurred in 12/17 of the discrepant cases (ie, in 24% of our cases overall).


Description Tracing a path to ethylene Ethylene is produced industrially from fossil carbon sources, but plants and microbes produce small amounts through a handful of unusual enzymatic reactions. Copeland et al. studied a microbial ethylene-forming enzyme using oxygen isotope–tracing experiments and biochemical assays to test mechanistic proposals. This enzyme, which uses a non–heme iron center to activate oxygen, catalyzes two distinct oxidation reactions with different mechanisms. One reaction is entirely off-pathway and results in fragmentation of a co-substrate, arginine. The other reaction can completely fragment 2-oxoglutarate into ethylene, bicarbonate, and two molecules of carbon dioxide; however, it occasionally derails and yields an omega–hydroxy acid product. —MAF A non–heme iron enzyme leverages (peroxy)carbonate–linked intermediates to generate the plant hormone ethylene. Microbial ethylene-forming enzyme (EFE) converts the C3–C4 fragment of the ubiquitous primary metabolite 2-oxoglutarate (2OG) to its namesake alkene product. This reaction is very different from the simple decarboxylation of 2OG to succinate promoted by related enzymes and has inspired disparate mechanistic hypotheses. We show that EFE produces stereochemically random (equal cis and trans) 1,2-[2H2]-ethylene from (3S,4R)-[2H2]-2OG, appends an oxygen from O2 on the C1-derived (bi)carbonate, and can be diverted to ω-hydroxylated monoacid products by modifications to 2OG or the enzyme. These results implicate an unusual radical-polar hybrid mechanism involving iron(II)-coordinated acylperoxycarbonate and alkylcarbonate intermediates. The mechanism explains how EFE accesses a high-energy carboxyl radical to initiate its fragmentation cascade, and it hints at capabilities of 2OG-dependent enzymes that may await discovery and exploitation.


Abstract There is an emerging trend that stress, anxiety and depression will become the leading causes of disability in the workplace over the next 20 years. In this paper, a number of causes of work-related psychosocial stresses are examined, based on various theories and research findings. Reflection on how occupational therapy could be proactive in responding to this emerging issue will be explored to encourage further discussion about possible actions that could be taken by the occupational therapists.


Abstract This paper critically considers the responsibility of transnational enterprises in the process of globalization. The traditional state-centric approach with its separation of politics and business is not capable of explaining business behaviour in a globalized world. We review the theory of economic ethics by Karl Hornrom and emphasize the theoretical challenges that need tobe addressed by business ethics. In particular, business ethics has to integrate the political role that transnational enterprises are playing in global govemance processes


The discovery that ACE2 (angiotensin converting enzyme 2) is the receptor for severe acute respiratory syndromecoronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), the virus responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, raised the initial concern that therapeutic agents which putatively increase expression of this enzyme, such as the ACE-inhibitors and ARBs (angiotensin receptor blockers); jointly referred to as inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system (RASi), might increase risk of infection or severity of the disease. This would not only dictate discontinuation of RASi but also led to the suggestion that Ang II (angiotensin II) could be therapeutic. The latter speculation was predicated on the observations that Ang II binding to the AT1 receptor (AT1R) downregulates ACE2 via an ERK1/2 (extracellular signal regulated kinases 1/2) and p38 MAP (mitogen activated protein) kinase pathway and enhances ACE2 ubiquitination and transport to lysosomes and also postulating that ACE2 conversion of excess Ang II into Ang-(1-7) (angiotensin-[1-7]) would diminish availability of the enzyme as a SARS-CoV2 receptor. However, expression of ACE2 in alveolar cells is very low, and its activity is further diminished by viral binding with ensuing endocytosis and activation of proteolytic cleavage. Therefore, predominant entry of SARS-CoV2 into alveolar cells may take place via RGD (arginine-glycine-aspartate) motif-recognizing integrins, AT2R (angiotensin type 2 receptor) or the transmembrane glycoprotein CD147 instead. Most importantly, the effects of RASi on ACE2 are very variable, depending on organ and species, not consistently leading to overexpression of this enzyme. In contrast, decreased expression of ACE2 by the viral infection may favor severity of pneumonia or ARDS since ACE2 counteracts the proinflammatory actions of the Ang II-AT1R axis, which may facilitate the virally induced cytokine storm. ACE2 achieves this by diminishing availability of Ang I and Ang II (converted to Ang-[1–9] and Ang-[1–7], respectively), and by generating Ang-(1-7) that binds to 2 receptors, Mas, which promotes anti-inflammatory actions, and AT1, where it acts as a biased agonist promoting protective ß-arrestin rather than detrimental G-protein signaling. In this scenario, RASiinduced overexpression of ACE2 would be beneficial during COVID-19, so these agents should be continued or even started in subjects without a traditional indication. Many publications have reported that hypertension and all classes of antihypertensive agents are frequently overrepresented among patients with COVID-19, most likely because the disease is more severe in older subjects with comorbidities. Regarding use of RASi and outcomes, results of 26 published, e-published or preprinted observational studies available as of June 19, 2020 are in the Table. In the 17 studies with analyses adjusted for confounders, only those results are shown. There was a total of 39 161 participants and 46 assessed outcomes (mortality, severity, intensive care unit [ICU] admission, and ventilation). With the exception of one study reporting excess ICU admissions in 48 subjects, and another reporting excess intubations in 493 subjects, the remaining 44 results indicated no effect (34) or benefit (10) for patients with COVID-19 treated with RASi. As this evidence accumulated, an innumerable amount of reviews and opinion articles, as well as the official statements of 14 professional societies (United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia) issued the recommendation of not discontinuing RASi in COVID-19, unless the clinical situation precluded their use for reasons other than the etiology of the acute illness. In this issue of Hypertension, Pan et al32 report their experience with 996 patients with COVID-19 admitted to the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, 282 of whom had hypertension and 41 were on RASi. The hypertensive group had higher rates of comorbidities, target organ damage, complications during hospitalization, markers of immune dysfunction (eg, lymphopenia and circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines) and crude mortality (23.8% versus 7.3%), compared with controls. Mortality hazard ratios by Cox regression analyses were 1.80 (1.20–2.70) for all hypertensives and 2.24 (1.36–3.70) for 256 who were matched 1:1 to controls by propensity scores. Importantly, as opposed to a mortality rate of 26.1% in subjects not taking RASi, the rate in subjects taking these agents was much lower (9.8%) approaching that in the control group. Higher lymphocyte and CD4 counts and lower CRP levels in patients on RASi than in their non-RASi counterparts suggest that the anti-inflammatory effect of RASi may account for better prognosis in the former. The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the American Heart Association. From the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Correspondence to Fernando Elijovich, MD, FAHA, 2200 Pierce Ave 536 RRB, Nashville TN, 37232. Email fernando.elijovich@ vanderbilt.edu What Kind of Evidence Is Needed to Dictate Practice Regarding Inhibitors of the Renin-Angiotensin System in COVID-19?


The planar dechannelling of MeV He ions at misfit dislocations formed on the interface of epitaxial bi-crystals of PbS/PbSe was measured. The dechannelling cross-sections at dislocations for (100), (110) and (111) planar channetiling were almost independent of the energy of He ions ranging from 0.6 to 1.7 MeV. Using the modified continuum model of channelling in a distorted crystal, this deviation of the cross-section from √E-dependence, where E is the energy of the ions, is interpreted as being due to the superposition of displacement fields of misfit dislocations.