Datasets:

QueenieFi

/

Pes2ov3_dataset

like 0

Long-term oxidation of MoSi2-modified HfB2–SiC–Si/SiC–Si coating at 1700°C Slurry impregnation and gaseous Si infiltration were effectively used to produce compact MoSi2-doped Si–HfB2–SiC/Si–SiC (HMSS/SS) coatings with a thickness of 250 μm to protect carbon fibre reinforced carbon (Cf/C) composites from oxygen corrosion at 1700°C. The HMSS/SS coating obtained with a mosaic structure makes it possible to protect Cf/C composites at 1700°C for 276 h and the mass reduction is only 0.99%. The pinning effect of the embedded hafnia, the generated MoB together with the Hf, Mo co-doped Si-based glass layer, which successfully prevented the migration of oxygen, was attributed to the superior oxidation protection ability of the HMSS/SS coatings. This work provides a practical method for successfully extending the service life of Cf/C composites in the aerospace industry.

Self‐expanding and balloon expandable covered stents in the treatment of aortic coarctation with or without aneurysm formation Objectives: We describe our complete experience with covered stent implantation for aortic coarctation including short‐ to medium‐term outcomes. Background: Coarctation of the aorta is a heterogeneous disease process with multiple associated complications both with and without treatment. Covered stents have evolved to provide greater support to the aortic wall and a varied approach with choice of stent tailored to the anatomy of the patient is required. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed consecutive patient data from two congenital heart centers from March 2003 to October 2007. Results: We implanted 38 covered stents in 37 patients (20 female) of which three were self‐expanding stents. Median age was 29.6 years (9–65) with median weight of 71.5 kg (35–95). The indications for stent placement were native coarctation (n = 13); recurrent coarctation following surgical treatment (n = 11); aneurysm associated with previous coarctation surgery (n = 7); aorto‐bronchial fistula leading to acute hemoptysis (n = 2); stent fracture (n = 1); associated arterial duct (n = 2). One patient had a combination of acquired coarctation and false aneurysm. The median screening time was 10 min (3–22). The median systolic gradient of 26 mm Hg (10–60) was reduced to 4 mm Hg (0–20) postprocedure (P < 0.001). There were no deaths on median follow up of 11.5 months (1–56). One patient developed aortic rupture during the procedure and required emergency surgery. Conclusion: Covered stent implantation for treatment of aortic coarctation is safe and highly effective in selected patients. Self‐expanding stent grafts may be preferable to balloon expandable stents when there is aneurysm formation in the setting of aortopathy. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Comparison of New Jersey light traps for collection of adult Culicoides variipennis (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae). Comparisons between standard incandescent New Jersey and modified ultraviolet New Jersey light traps were made. Both trap types collected the same proportions of males, nulliparous, parous empty, gravid and blood engorged female Culicoides variipennis. Although both traps were highly attractive to females that had taken at least one blood meal, the black light trap collected ca. 10-fold more parous empty and gravid flies than the incandescent and would therefore be recommended for use in trapping C. variipennis for virus assay.

The discovery of non‐adrenergic, non‐cholinergic transmission: reply to the criticisms of G. Burnstock (2013) (GB) and Abbracchio et al. (2013) (A et al.) of M. Bennett's (MB) account of this history in Acta Physiol (2013) Feb; 207(2):236–43 To the editor: Thank you for the courtesy of forwarding to me the letters by Burnstock (2013) and Abbracchio et al. (2013) regarding my article titled ‘The discovery of a new class of synaptic transmitters in smooth muscle 50 years ago and amelioration of coronary artery thrombosis’ published in Acta Physiol (2013) Feb; 207(2):236–43. I would be grateful if you would publish the following response. Yours Sincerely, Max Bennett Professor of Neuroscience, University Chair, Founding Director Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney. Adjunct Professor of Neuropsychiatry, USC. GB: In his article MB provides a ‘misleading account.. of the discovery of non-adrenergic, noncholinergic (NANC) nerves and of purinergic signalling’. Reply: I dispute that. It is a highly personal but correct account of these discoveries. GB; A et al.: The discovery was the result of ‘a team effort under GB’s direction’. MB was only involved ‘as a part-time electronic technician’ but admittedly ‘indeed performed some of the experiments on which the purinergic hypothesis has been built’. Reply: I dispute that. I was the one who made the initial observations while carrying out experiments that I initiated. GB; A et al.: ‘MB states that “it did not take long ... to establish... the sucrose-gap technique” whereas in fact “this technique was developed 3 years earlier ... in the UK (Burnstock and Straub, 1958)”. Reply: GB’s claim that the sucrose-gap technique was ‘developed’ by him and Straub in 1958 is not correct. It was developed some 4 years earlier by Stampfli (1954). GB showed me how to use this technique and Mollie Holman how to use the microelectrode technique, both of which I then established in the laboratory by interfacing appropriate electronics with the techniques. It was this that I was originally employed to do as an electrical engineer. In retrospect, I should have mentioned this. GB: ‘The first paper to describe NANC neurotransmission was B et al. (1964)’. Reply: I disagree. This is an oversimplification as NANC transmission was established in three stages as follows. I. The first paper to show the key electrical (the ‘inhibitory junction potential’ or IJP) and mechanical (relaxation) components of what is now known to be a NANC response was that by Burnstock, Campbell, Bennett and Holman (1963). However, although the responses were shown to be atropine resistant, that is, non-cholinergic, the possibility that they might be mediated by noradrenaline was not excluded. II. The first paper to show that the mechanical response (relaxation) was also resistant to guanethidine or bretylium, that is, non-adrenergic, was that by Burnstock, Campbell, Bennett and Holman (1964). This was also the first paper to propose that the response might be mediated by neurons distinct from adrenergic and cholinergic neurons. However, the guanethidine sensitivity of the IJP was not examined. Also the guanethidine resistance of the mechanical response faded steeply with the stimulation frequency. III. The first paper to demonstrate conclusively that the IJP response is resistant to both atropine and guanethidine, that is, truly NANC, was that by Bennett, Burnstock and Holman (1966). A et al.: ‘it would also be important to acknowledge the contributions of ... Mollie Holman’. Reply: I completely agree and did so on p. 238. A et al.: ‘it would also be important to acknowledge the contributions of ... Edith Bulbring’. Reply: I disagree. B€ ulbring was at first hostile to the idea of NANC transmission and only came to acknowledge it some years after its discovery (see Bulbring & Tomita 1967). This is detailed in my review on the discovery of NANC transmission (Bennett, 1997). GB: ‘MB was not involved’ in ‘the first paper suggesting that ATP was a NANC transmitter’. Reply: I personally did not carry out experiments towards establishing ATP as a NANC transmitter. A et al.: ‘Key references are misquoted’. The Abstract says that ‘in 1968 Graeme Campbell showed that ATP relaxed the taenia coli muscle and in 1969 David Satchell showed that ATP was likely to be released from NANC terminals’. But there is no reference to either Campbell (1968) or to Satchell (1969) in the articles reference list, because these articles do not exist’. Reply: I do not refer to ‘Campbell (1968)’ or ‘Satchell (1969)’ but to the experiments they performed in those years. I mention each of them because their joint work in 1968–1969 does appear in the

Rhinolith in the fossa of Rosenmüller – a hidden stone This is a case report of an 80-year-old woman who presented to the ENT services with multiple non-specific upper aerodigestive tract symptoms. Despite extensive investigation and treatment, her symptoms remained unalleviated with significant impact on the psychological morbidity. During a routine flexible nasoendoscopy for worsening globus pharnygis, a mass was noted in the right Rosenmüller's fossa, where the Eustachian tube leaves the lateral wall of the nasopharynx. A CT scan showed this to be a 10 mm calcified entity within the right Eustachian tube. It was subsequently removed under local anaesthesia providing much relief to the patient. Histology showed this mass to be a rhinolith.

Hand-held portable desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization ion source for in situ analysis of nitroaromatic explosives. A novel, lightweight (0.6 kg), solvent- and gas-cylinder-free, hand-held ion source based on desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization has been developed and deployed for the analysis of nitroaromatic explosives on surfaces in open air, offering portability for in-field analysis. A small, inexpensive, rechargeable lithium polymer battery was used to power the custom-designed circuitry within the device, which generates up to ±5 kV dc voltage to ignite a corona discharge plasma in air for up to 12 h of continuous operation, and allowing positive- and negative-ion mass spectrometry. The generated plasma is pneumatically transported to the surface to be interrogated by ambient air at a rate of 1-3.5 L/min, compressed using a small on-board diaphragm pump. The plasma source allows liquid or solid samples to be examined almost instantaneously without any sample preparation in the open environment. The advantages of low carrier gas and low power consumption (<6 W), as well as zero solvent usage, have aided in developing the field-ready, hand-held device for trigger-based, "near-real-time" sampling/ionization. Individual nitroaromatic explosives (such as 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) can be easily detected in amounts as low as 5.8 pg with a linear dynamic range of at least 10 (10-100 pg), a relative standard deviation of ca. 7%, and an R(2) value of 0.9986. Direct detection of several nitroaromatic compounds in a complex mixture without prior sample preparation is demonstrated, and their identities are confirmed by tandem mass spectrometry fragmentation patterns.

A Course of History of Chemistry and Chemical Education Completely Delivered in Distance Education Mode during Epidemic COVID-19 The pandemic COVID-19 has brought the closure of schools of all levels and all universities in Italy, since early March 2020 up to the end of the teaching period (first half of June 2020). However, almost all universities guaranteed the continuity of educational and professional courses by using several distance education modalities. The purpose of this communication is to describe how a course of History of Chemistry and Basics of Chemical Education for first-year undergraduate students was reorganized and delivered during the COVID-19 emergency and to share several considerations that might be useful for the future. Positive and negative aspects emerged during this distance education experience are finally reported.

When Will Real-World Data Fulfill Its Promise to Provide Timely Insights in Oncology? Randomized trials provide high-quality, internally consistent data on selected clinical questions, but lack generalizability for the aging population who are most often diagnosed with cancer and have comorbid conditions that may affect the interpretation of treatment benefit. The need for high-quality, relevant, and timely data is greater than ever. Promising solutions lie in the collection and analysis of real-world data (RWD), which can potentially provide timely insights about the patient's course during and after initial treatment and the outcomes of important subgroups such as the elderly, rural populations, children, and patients with greater social health needs. However, to inform practice and policy, real-world evidence must be created from trustworthy and comprehensive sources of RWD; these may include pragmatic clinical trials, registries, prospective observational studies, electronic health records (EHRs), administrative claims, and digital technologies. There are unique challenges in oncology since key parameters (eg, cancer stage, biomarker status, genomic assays, imaging response, side effects, quality of life) are not recorded, siloed in inaccessible documents, or available only as free text or unstructured reports in the EHR. Advances in analytics, such as artificial intelligence, may greatly enhance the ability to obtain more granular information from EHRs and support integrated diagnostics; however, they will need to be validated purpose by purpose. We recommend a commitment to standardizing data across sources and building infrastructures that can produce fit-for-purpose RWD that will provide timely understanding of the effectiveness of individual interventions.

Rhinitis and its impact on work Purpose of reviewHealth-related work disability has been increasingly recognized as an important component of the economic and societal burden of a disease. The purpose of this review is to summarize recently published data pertaining to the impact of rhinitis on work disability. Recent findingsRecent studies have investigated the impact of rhinitis on both the amount of time missed from work (absenteeism) and the level of work effectiveness while on the job (presenteeism). These studies have shown that rhinitis has a rather modest effect on absenteeism, with estimated productivity losses of approximately 1–4% resulting from missed work time. By contrast, rhinitis is associated with substantial impairment in at-work performance. Estimates of lost productivity attributable to reduced on-the-job effectiveness ranged from 11 to 40%. The impact of rhinitis on work productivity is affected by symptom severity, and allergen exposure, and it can be reduced by second-generation antihistamines. SummaryThe impact of rhinitis on work productivity should be further characterized and taken into account for establishing cost-effective management strategies.

System Support for Interactive Workspaces While work has been done on connectivity, mobility and general rendezvous systems for ubiquitous computing environments , research has been hampered by the lack of higher level application abstractions. To identify what these might be, we constructed a prototype ubiquitous computing environment which we call an Interactive Workspace, and observed how application writers attempted to use its facilities. We also identify system support issues for ubiquitous computing that differ from their counterparts in " traditional " single-node computing , and use them to guide the design of a set of abstractions to support ubiquitous computing applications deployed in spaces such as ours. Our implemented prototype meta-operating-system, iROS, and several applications in daily use on top of it, suggest that we have made progress toward the goal of providing support for application-level ubiquitous computing abstractions in a way that is robust to transient failures, exten-sible, portable across installations, and easy to program. Finally , as we consider future work, we argue that the abstractions we identified—moving data around, moving interfaces around, and coordinating the behavior of existing monolithic applications—are fundamental to this style of ubiquitous computing generally.

A Study on the Customer Buying Behaviour on E-Commerce Websites with Respect to Electronics during Covid-19 During Covid 19, except for essential commodities, all physical outlets were shut, and e-commerce played an important role in catering electronics products to consumers. The factors taken into consideration were Income, Occupation, Education, Gender, Age, and Experience with respect to the customer buying behaviour. An overall study reveals that experience in using e-commerce websites is a major factor influencing customer buying behaviour, and other factors such as income, occupation, education, gender, and age do not have any effect on the buying decision. The inferences are, to a large extent, in the interest of e-commerce providers whose structure of the business solely relies on the behaviour of e-customers. The study attempts to analyze the influence of the extent of consumer buying behaviour during Covid 19 for e-commerce electronics products. This paper tests that e-com shopping was raised due to the coronavirus.

Deep Residual Network Based Medical Image Reconstruction Recent years have witnessed the development of medical imaging technology. However, the process of imaging, storage and transmission often makes the image quality reduced and affects the visual and post-processing effect. The degradation of medical image often leads to the interference of noise and the decrease of resolution. In order to reconstruct the degraded medical image, a deep residual network combined with perceptual loss and mean square error (MSE) loss is proposed to enhance image quality. As a result, a single network can handle de-noising and super-resolution in same time. By using the residual network, the number of network layers can be deepen while the gradient dispersion problem can be avoided. More image edges and details can be reconstructed with the joint loss. Experiments on one medical image data set TCIA show that the proposed method can jointly perform de-noising and super-resolution to restore more medical image texture details and get better visual effect, especially for restraining noise in the low-dose CT image.

[Acetylcholinesterase in aging of human erythrocytes]. Acetylcholinesterase possessed a different activity in the membranes of young, mature and old human erythrocytes - it was greatest in the mature and least in the old cells. In the young and mature erythrocytes the enzyme existed in the form of 3- and in the old ones in the form of 2-molecular components. The data obtained suggested that the changes in the structural organization of acetylcholinesterase in the red cell membrane had a direct relationship to the aging of these cells.

Extra-marital mating patterns in Caribbean family studies: a methodological excursus. The author questions some of the major theoretical assumptions concerning the causal factors responsible for the mating patterns and sexual practices among certain Caribbean societies. It is suggested that present-day patterns and family structures among West Indian societies can be attributed to the plantation system of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries rather than to the African origins of those concerned. (summary in FRE)

Millimeter-Wave Frequency Agile Synthesizer based on PLL In this paper, the Settling time of PLL are analyzed. Present a Millimeter-Wave Frequency Agile Synthesizer based on PPL with DDS interpolated; add the module of VCO voltage presets to changing the settling time controlled by MCU and DAC. Using this scheme, the frequency synthesizer is designed, and its output signal at the frequency range of 35–36Ghz with step of 10MHZ, Frequency-hopping time&#60;1us, and the phase noise performances in the above frequency range are better than −80dbc/hz@1khz.

The effective management of national hydrometric data: experiences from the United Kingdom Abstract Access to hydrometric information underpins many areas of effective water management. This paper explores the operational practices of one national hydrological information service, the UK National River Flow Archive, in collating, managing and providing access to river flow data. An information lifecycle approach to hydrometric data management is advocated, with the paper detailing current UK procedures in the areas of: monitoring network design and development; data sensing and recording; validation and archival; synthesis and analysis; and data dissemination. The methods and policies outlined herein are widely transferable to other hydrological data archives around the world. Editor D. Koutsoyiannis Citation Dixon, H., Hannaford, J., and Fry, M.J., 2013. The effective management of national hydrometric data: experiences from the United Kingdom. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (7), 1383–1399.

Support Vector Machines for Large Scale Text Mining in R SVM are an established tool in machine learning and data analysis. Though many implementations of SVM exist often specific applications require tailor made algorithms. In text mining in particular the data often comes in large sparse data matrices. Typical SVM algorithms like SMO do not take advantage of the sparsity, and do not scale well to data sets with millions of entries. In this paper we present an implementation of linear SVM’s for R that address both of these issues.

Leave-One-Out Approach for Matrix Completion: Primal and Dual Analysis In this paper, we introduce a powerful technique based on Leave-One-Out analysis to the study of low-rank matrix completion problems. Using this technique, we develop a general approach for obtaining fine-grained, <italic>entrywise</italic> bounds for iterative stochastic procedures in the presence of probabilistic dependency. We demonstrate the power of this approach in analyzing two of the most important algorithms for matrix completion: (i) the non-convex approach based on Projected Gradient Descent (PGD) for a rank-constrained formulation, also known as the Singular Value Projection algorithm, and (ii) the convex relaxation approach based on nuclear norm minimization (NNM). Using this approach, we establish the first convergence guarantee for the original form of PGD <italic>without regularization or sample splitting</italic>, and in particular shows that it converges linearly in the <italic>infinity norm</italic>. For NNM, we use this approach to study a fictitious iterative procedure that arises in the <italic>dual analysis</italic>. Our results show that NNM recovers an <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-by- <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d$ </tex-math></inline-formula> rank- <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r$ </tex-math></inline-formula> matrix with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {O}(\mu r \log (\mu r) d\log d)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> observed entries. This bound has optimal dependence on the matrix dimension and is independent of the condition number. To the best of our knowledge, none of previous sample complexity results for tractable matrix completion algorithms satisfies these two properties simultaneously.

On development of Hilbert-Huang Transform data processing real-time system with 2D capabilities Unlike other digital signal processing techniques such as the Fast Fourier Transform for one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) data (FFT1 and FFT2) that assume signal linearity and stationarity, the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) utilizes relationships between arbitrary signal's local extrema to find the signal instantaneous spectral representation. This is done in two steps. Firstly, the Huang Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is separating input signal of one variable s(t) into a finite set of narrow-band Intrinsic Mode Functions {IMF1(t), IMF2(t)... IMFk(t)} that add up to the signal s(t). The IMFs comprise the signal adaptive basis that is derived from the signal, as opposed to artificial basis imposed by the FFT or other heritage frequency analysis methods. Secondly, the HHT is applying the Hilbert Transform to each IMFi(t) signal constituents to obtain the corresponding analytical signal Si(t). From the analytical signal the HHT generates the Hilbert-Huang Spectrum. Namely, a single instantaneous frequency ωi(t) for signal Si(t) at each argument t is obtained for each of the k-Huang IMFs. This yields the Hilbert-Huang spectrum {ω(IMF1(t)), ω(IMF2(t))... ω(IMFk(t))} at each domain argument t for s(t) that was not obtainable otherwise. The HHT and its engineering implementation - the HHT Data Processing System (HHT-DPS) for 1D was developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The HHT-DPS is the reference system now used around the world. However, the state-of-the-art HHT-DPS works only for 1D data, as designed, and it is not a real-time system. This paper describes the development of the reference HHT Data Processing Real-Time System (HHTPS-RT) with 2D capabilities or HHT2 to process large images as the development goal. This paper describes the methodology of research and development of the new reference HHT2 Empirical Mode Decomposition for 2D (EMD2) system and its algorithms that require high capability computing. It provides this system prototype test results and also introduces the HHT2 spectrum concepts. It concludes with suggested areas for future research.

HEMOPTYSIS REVEALING INTRACARDIAC THROMBOSIS: A CASE REPORT OF BEHCETS DISEASE Behcets disease is a chronic multisystem disorder characterized by relapsing inflammation for which the underlying histopathology is an occlusive vasculitis. Intracardiac thrombosis is a rare complication of Behcets disease. The management of this involvement is difficult due to the risk of recurrence. We prresent the case of a young man admitted to our hospital for hemoptysis. We discovered a right ventricle thrombus on CT angiogram and we confirmed the diagnosis on echocardiography.

Development of a robotic arm for minimally invasive surgery During minimally invasive surgery (MIS), the movements of instrument handle are scaled and mirrored. Some surgical tasks, such as suturing and knotting, are difficult to finish due to the unnatural hand-eye coordination and limited degree of freedom (DOF). This paper presents a cable-driven arm for robot that can help surgeons in MIS. The robotic arm fulfills the requirements of MIS by the specially designed mechanical structure. Kinematic analysis and workspace analysis are discussed in the paper. The dexterity of the robot is shown by simulation method which can also be used to verify the kinematic equations.

Valproic Acid and Progestin Inhibit Lesion Growth and Reduce Hyperalgesia in Experimentally Induced Endometriosis in Rats Accumulating evidence suggests that endometriosis is an epigenetic disease. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of valproic acid (VPA) and progesterone (P4) in a rat model of endometriosis on serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels, hot plate and tail-flick latencies, lesion size, and body weight. We used 77 adult female rats, and endometriosis was induced by autotransplanting pieces of uterus (ENDO) or fat (SHAM) to the pelvic cavity. The BLANK group received no surgery. After 2 weeks, the ENDO group was further divided, randomly, into 5 groups, receiving, respectively, treatment with low- and high-dose VPA, P4 alone, VPA + P4, and no treatment. The SHAM rats received no treatment. The BLANK rats were further divided into 2 groups, one received VPA treatment and the other, no treatment. After 4 weeks, all rats were sacrificed. Response latency in hot plate and tail-flick tests, body weight, and serum TNF-α levels were measured before the surgery, before and after the treatment, along with lesion size. We found that induced endometriosis reduced response latency. ENDO rats receiving VPA and/or P4 treatment had significantly reduced lesion size as compared with untreated ones, and had significantly improved response to noxious thermal stimuli. They also had significantly increased weight gain. Serum TNF-α levels increased following surgery but eventually decreased regardless of treatment or not. In conclusion, VPA is well tolerated. Treatment with VPA significantly reduces lesion growth and improves sensitivity to nocifensive stimuli. The improvement is specific to endometriosis-induced hyperalgesia. Thus, histone deacetylase inhibitors may be a promising therapeutics for treating endometriosis.

Is cerebrospinal fluid shunting in idiopathic intracranial hypertension worthwhile? A 10-year review Background: The role of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) diversion in treating idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is disputed. Method: We conducted a 10-year, retrospective case note review to evaluate the effects of CSF diversion in IIH. Symptoms, signs and details of shunt type, complications and revisions were documented at baseline, 6, 12 and 24 months post-operatively. Results: Fifty-three IIH patients were shunted [predominantly lumboperitoneal (92%)]. The most common symptom pre-surgery was headache (96%). Post-operatively, significantly fewer patients experienced declining vision and visual acuity improved at 6 (p = 0.001) and 12 months (p = 0.016). Headache continued in 68% at 6 months, 77% at 12 months and 79% at 2 years post-operatively. Additionally, post-operative low-pressure headache occurred in 28%. Shunt revision occurred in 51% of patients, with 30% requiring multiple revisions. Conclusion: We conclude that CSF diversion reduces visual decline and improves visual acuity. Unfortunately, headache remained in the majority of patients and low-pressure headache frequently complicated surgery. Over half of the patients required shunt revision with the majority of these requiring multiple revisions. We suggest that CSF shunting should be conducted as a last resort in those with otherwise untreatable, rapidly declining vision. Alternative treatments, such as weight reduction, may be more effective with less associated morbidity.

Predictors of Complication Severity Following Adult Spinal Deformity Surgery: Smoking Rate, Diabetes, and Osteotomy Increase Risk of Severe Adverse Events Background Given the physical and economic burden of complications in spine surgery, reducing the prevalence of perioperative adverse events is a primary concern of both patients and health care professionals. This study aims to identify specific perioperative factors predictive of developing varying grades of postoperative complications in adult spinal deformity (ASD) patients, as assessed by the Clavien-Dindo complication classification (Cc) system. Methods Surgical ASD patients ≥18 years were identified in the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program from 2005 to 2015. Postoperative complications were stratified by Cc grade severity: minor (I, II, and III) and severe (IV and V). Stepwise regression models generated dataset-specific predictive models for Cc groups. Model internal validation was achieved by bootstrapping and calculating the area under the curve (AUC) of the model. Significance was set at P < 0.05. Results Included were 3936 patients (59 ± 16 years, 63% women, 29 ± 7 kg/m2) undergoing surgery for ASD (4.4 ± 4.7 levels, 71% posterior approach, 11% anterior, and 18% combined). Overall, 1% of cases were revisions, 39% of procedures involved decompression, 27% osteotomy, and 15% iliac fixation. Additionally, 66% of patients experienced at least 1 complication, 0% of which were Cc grade I, 51% II, 5% III, 43% IV, and 1% V. The final model predicting severe Cc (IV–V) complications yielded an AUC of 75.6% and included male sex, diabetes, increased operative time, central nervous system tumor, osteotomy, cigarette pack-years, anterior decompression, and anterior lumbar interbody fusion. Final models predicting specific Cc grades were created. Conclusions Specific predictors of adverse events following ASD-corrective surgery varied for complications of different severities. Multivariate modeling showed smoking rate, osteotomy, diabetes, anterior lumbar interbody fusion, and higher operative time, among other factors, as predictive of severe complications, as classified by the Clavien-Dindo Cc system. These factors can help in the identification of high-risk patients and, consequently, improve preoperative patient counseling. Clinical Relevance The findings of this study provide a foundation for identifying ASD patients at high risk of postoperative complications . Level of Evidence 4.

A note on windowing in the simulation of continuous-time communication systems Simulations of continuous-time systems are frequently used by designers of signal processing and communication systems. Windowed finite-impulse response models are often used in these simulations to model continuous-time linear filters. We investigate the performance of some common windows with respect to waveform fidelity, which is a primary goal in waveform simulation, and we also obtain the form of optimum windows for this criterion. Our results indicate that the rectangular window is generally a practical and reasonably good choice for waveform simulation.

Quantum transport properties of monolayer graphene with antidot lattice Quantum transport properties in monolayer graphene are sensitive to structural modifications. We find that the introduction of a hexagonal lattice of antidots has a wide impact on weak localization and Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillation of graphene. The antidot lattice reduces both phase coherence and intervalley scattering length. Remarkably, even with softened intervalley scattering, i.e., the phase-breaking time is shorter than intervalley scattering time, coherence between time reversed states remains adequate to retain weak localization, an offbeat and rarely reported occurrence. Whereas SdH oscillation is boosted by the antidot lattice, the amplitude of the SdH signal rises rapidly with the increasing antidot radius. But both effective mass and carrier density are reduced in a larger antidot lattice. A bandgap of ∼10 meV is opened. The antidot lattice is an effective dopant-free way to manipulate electronic properties in graphene.

Site-directed mutagenesis of type I collagen: effect on susceptibility to collagenase. A genetic approach to define the role of collagenase in physiological and pathological bone remodeling is to identify spontaneous mutations in the collagenase gene which alter enzymatic activity. Alternatively it is possible, though site-directed mutagenesis, to alter genes encoding critical amino acid sequences in the collagen substrate, in a manner analogous to the successful development of animal models for osteogenesis imperfecta. We have thus utilized this approach to alter the Col1a1 gene to encode amino acid substitutions in sequences around the known collagenase cleavage site (glycine-isoleucine at positions 775-776) in type I collagen, and transfect these genes into homozygous Mov-13 fibroblasts, in which the endogenous Col1a1 gene is inactive. Nonconservative substitutions of proline for isoleucine at the P1' site and double substitutions of proline for glutamine (P2) and alanine (P2') resulted in type I collagen resistant to hydrolysis by collagenase. Furthermore, in normal fibroblasts transfected with a mutant Col1a1 gene encoding collagenase resistance in which an additional methionine substitution at position 776 provided a marker for the mutant protein, mutant and wild type triple helical molecules were synthesized and secreted as heterotrimers. A single mutant alpha 1(I) chain did not prevent cleavage of the wild type alpha 1(I) chain but it is likely that the uncleaved alpha 1(I) chain would prevent dissociation of the triple helical fragments containing the other cleaved chains. Introduction of these genes into transgenic mice should result in abnormal phenotypes characterized by altered connective tissue remodeling.

An anthropomorphic model observer for spiculated masses Compared to micro-calcifications in breast tissue, spiculated masses (SpMs) are larger and include more details that are critical to their detection by a human observer. Therefore, the model observers designed for small and simple microcalcifications, such as channelized hoteling observers, cannot be used for SpMs anthropomorphic detection. We propose gauging the visibility of a SpM to a human observer by the visibility of its components, namely the edges (hence, the approach remains sound even in the absence of a dense central mass). To this end, we adapt Barten’s model for visibility of sinusoidal patterns to calculate the perceived strength for single frequency Marr-Hildreth edges (i.e., zero crossings after Laplacian of Gaussian band-pass filtering). Unlike the popular edge detector Canny, the proposed anthropomorphic edge maps are desirably sensitive to edge contrast and robust to noise. Several single frequency perceptual edge maps may be combined to cover the full range of spatial frequencies that human observers are sensitive to using, for example, the principal component analysis or the maximum strength rule. We form an anthropomorphic double-ended model observer based on the comparison of the perceptual edge maps for the given and the reference radiographs. Our results indicate that one can predict if a SpM in an input image is less (or more) visible with respect to the reference, when changing the contrast of the input image.

Fibrinolytic parameters in children with noncatheter thrombosis: a pilot study Although the incidence of pediatric thrombosis has increased over the last decade, noncatheter-related deep venous thrombosis (nCDVT) is rare in children. Congenital and acquired hypercoagulable states may play an important role in the pathogenesis of nCDVT. In this study, we evaluated fibrinolytic parameters by measuring individual concentrations of fibrinolytic proteins and by tissue factor initiated whole blood thromboelastography (TEG), in which a fibrin clot was lyzed by exogenously added tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). Children with nCDVT were compared with age and sex-matched controls. TAFI concentrations were significantly higher in the patient group but there was no difference in the PAI-1, tPA and lipoprotein (a) concentrations. Significantly decreased fibrinolysis was found on TEG in the patient group suggesting that hypofibrinolysis may play an important role in the pathogenesis of nCDVT in children. To our knowledge, this is the first pediatric study that has systematically evaluated the role of fibrinolysis in the pathogenesis of DVT. Given our results, the role of fibrinolysis in the pathogenesis of nCDVT in children should be further evaluated in larger studies.

E-readiness assessment of academic libraries: a case study in Iran Purpose The purpose of this study is to assess the e-readiness status of libraries in the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in terms of four dimensions – human resources, electronical infrastructure, network services and programs and enhancers of the networked world. Design/methodology/approach The study population consists of 11 libraries of the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, including the central library and 10 faculty libraries. The data collection instrument is a questionnaire prepared by the researchers that has been designed on the basis of the “e-readiness assessment of Iranian academic libraries model”. Depending on the respondents there are three parts to the questionnaire: questionnaire for managers, staff and information and communication technology (ICT) officials. Their reliability and validity have been proved. Findings The libraries of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences had an average to high status in terms of “human resources” with a score of 2.32, “electronic infrastructure” with a score of 2.48, “network services and programs” with a score of 2.09 and “networked world enhancers” with a score of 2.37 out of 4. In total, these libraries had an average to high status in terms of e-readiness, with a score of 2.29. Originality/value The findings of this study can help the library administrators and officials of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences to plan improvements to the situation of ICT.

[Possible role of the AMPA/KA receptors in cultured Müller cells]. AMPA (alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate)/KA (kainate) receptors have been demonstrated in cultured Müller cells in a study on cytosolic free calcium ions ([Ca2+]i). The action of these receptors may be expressed under pathological rather than physiological conditions. 1. Critical concentration in response to AMPA was determined in retinal neurons and Müller cells. At 0.05mM AMPA, in all neurons and in only a limited number of Müller cells (20%) cytosolic calcium transients occurred. 2. The level of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and the change in [Ca2+]i following AMPA administration were measured before and after exposure to 0.5mM KA. Neither morphological change nor leakage of LDH could be detected after 24 hours. When AMPA was administered, the responsive cell number was higher for KA-exposed cells than for control cells. Müller cells may be concluded to resist neurotoxic agents and may possibly be involved in the survival mechanism of retinal neurons.

Knowledge, perceptions, and consumption of whole grains among university students. PURPOSE Differences in knowledge, perceptions, and consumption of whole grains were compared between students who had taken an introductory university nutrition course and those who had not. METHODS The sample consisted of two groups: 109 students who had completed a nutrition course and 61 who had not. The two samples were drawn from second-year nursing students and students in second-year psychology courses, respectively. All students completed a 25-item questionnaire. Chi-square tests were used to identify associations between completion of a nutrition course and responses. RESULTS Nutrition education students had more knowledge of whole grain recommendations, of whole grains available in stores, and of whole grains as a factor in disease risk reduction (p<0.05). In contrast, non-nutrition education students had more knowledge of whole grain health claims, reported a greater preference for the taste of whole grains, and had a greater than mean intake of whole grain cereals (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS This prelimary study indicates that completion of an introductory nutrition course has a greater influence on positive perceptions of whole grains than on students' consumption frequency or knowledge of whole grains. Further study may provide more information on nutrition education and whole grains.

A general dentist's guide to proper dental implant placement from an oral surgeon's perspective. This article is designed to help the general or restorative dentist more accurately predict proper implant placement by using palatal stents for the maxilla and lingual stents for the mandible, as well as parallel pin guides and vacupress stents, which help ensure both precise location and angulation. Because these stents and pin guides are easily used during surgery, the restorative dentist can prescribe with accuracy the exact position where the implants should be placed. To further the predictability of implant placement, especially in the anterior maxilla, an abutment can actually be placed into the pilot hole in the bone and checked with a vacupress stent before making the implant socket.

[Anti-inflammatory activity of olive seed polyphenolic extract in the THP1-XBLUE-CD14 human monocytes cell line]. UNLABELLED The aim of this study was to assess the anti-inflammatory activity of a polyphenolic extract from olive pits. MATERIAL AND METHODS The THP1-XBlue-CD14 (invivogen) cellular line, 80,000 cells/well, was incubated and inflammation (activation of NF-kb) was produced with 0.1 mg/mL of LPS (lipopolysaccharide from E. coli) for 24 hours. We assessed the presence of the extract (10 and 50 mg/L, biologically safe concentrations) for 2 hours at 37º C, before (preventive effect) and after (therapeutic effect) the proinflammatory activation, and the activity of alkaline phosphatase, which is expressed under the control of the NF-kb transcriptional factor, was quantified by colorimetry. The percentage of activity of NF-kb as preventive effect and therapeutic effect was assessed by comparing it to control cultures of cells with LPS and without extract, which are considered 100% of NF-kb. RESULTS The preventive anti-inflammatory capacity of the extract at 50 mg/L was 25.5% (95% CI: 16.8-34.2) and the therapeutic effect 34.9% (95% CI: 25.3-44.4) for the same concentration, without any significant activity at 10 mg/L. CONCLUSION An activity of polyphenols extracted from olive pits is shown, both in preventing inflammation and therapeutically eliminating inflammation through inhibition of NF-kB factor previously activated by LPS at concentrations of 50 mg/L of polyphenols, which previously haven been shown to be safe.

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the parotid gland: the Mayo clinic experience. OBJECTIVE To determine clinical and histopathologic features of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the parotid gland, specifically, the relation of tumor stage and grade and treatment type with clinical outcome. DESIGN Retrospective clinical and histopathologic review. SETTING Tertiary care medical center. PATIENTS From 1940 to 1994, 128 patients were treated at our institution for parotid mucoepidermoid carcinoma. Eighty-nine of these patients had their first treatment at our institution; these cases were chosen for retrospective clinical and histopathologic review. INTERVENTION A head and neck pathologist independently reviewed the pathology specimens. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Age, symptoms, stage, treatment type, tumor grade, pathological features, disease progression, and survival. RESULTS Results of clinical staging were: T1 in 56 patients, T2 in 13, T3 in 1, T4 in 15, N0 in 85, N1 in 2, and N2 in 2. No patient had N3 or M1 disease. All patients underwent parotidectomy with or without neck dissection. Seven patients received postoperative radiotherapy. Tumor grade was low in 43 patients (48%), intermediate in 40 (45%), and high in 6 (7%). Only 5 patients had disease progression (local recurrence in 4, regional recurrence in 4, and distant recurrence in 2). At latest follow-up (mean follow-up, 14.7 years), 64 patients were alive without disease, 1 was alive with disease, 2 had died of mucoepidermoid carcinoma, and 22 had died of other causes. The Kaplan-Meier estimated cancer-specific survival rates at 5, 15, and 25 years were 98.8%, 97.4%, and 97.4%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS In our study, tumor grade and stage appeared to be less important than previously described. With adequate parotidectomy and appropriate neck dissection, patients with mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the parotid gland appear to do well, with few recurrences.

Tolerability of Azithromycin as Malaria Prophylaxis in Adults in Northeast Papua, Indonesia ABSTRACT Drug tolerability affects compliance. We evaluated the tolerability levels of azithromycin (750-mg loading dose plus 250 mg/day; n = 148 subjects), doxycycline (100 mg/day; n = 75), and placebo (n = 77) as prophylaxis against malaria in Indonesian adults over 20 weeks. Self-reported and elicited symptoms, health perception, hearing, hematology, and biochemistry were assessed. The loading dose was well tolerated. The frequencies (number per person-years [p-yr]) of all daily reported symptoms were similar in the three arms of the study: 40.2/p-yr for azithromycin, 39.7/p-yr for doxycycline, and 38.2/p-yr for placebo. Relative to those who received placebo, azithromycin recipients complained more often of heartburn (rate ratio = 10.5 [95% confidence interval, 2.8 to 88.1]), paresthesia (2.03 [1.08 to 4.24]), and mild (1.55 [1.01 to 2.48]) and severe (11.2 [1.34 to ∞]) itching but less often of fever (0.21 [0.09 to 0.49]) and tinnitus (0.09 [0.04 to 0.21]). Azithromycin recipients showed no evidence of clinical hearing loss or hematologic, hepatic, or renal toxicity. One azithromycin recipient developed an erythematous rash. Daily azithromycin was well tolerated by these Indonesian adults during 20 weeks of treatment.

(Sub-)mm-Wave Antenna Measurements Up to 668 GHz on the MetOp-SG Ice Cloud Imager in a Compensated Compact Range The antenna and geometric performance of the Ice Cloud Imager (ICI) radiometer, developed by Airbus Defence and Space Spain for ESA and EUMETSAT’s MetOp-SG program, has been verified. The measurements up to 668 GHz were performed in June 2022 in the Compensated Compact Range CCR75/60xi at Airbus Defence and Space in Ottobrunn, Germany. The first-of-its-kind instrument required an innovative antenna test setup.A new mechanical accommodation principle for accurate quasi-full-sphere pattern acquisitions was implemented. With help of the novel Search and Tracking System, frequency instabilities caused by ICI’s unlocked local oscillators were removed from the test signal. A measurement dynamic range of 65 dB at 668 GHz and up to 87 dB at 176 GHz was achieved.This paper presents the implemented test setup, exemplary correlation results between measured and simulated antenna patterns at ICI’s 325 GHz and 664 GHz channel, as well as a summary of the measured antenna and geometric performance.

Release of isoprene and monoterpenes during the aerobic decomposition of orange wastes from laboratory incubation experiments. The release of isoprene and 12 monoterpenes during the decomposition of orange wastes was studied under controlled aerobic conditions in laboratory for a period of 2 months. Monoterpenes (mainly limonene, beta-myrcene, sabinene, and alpha-pinene) dominated among the released volatile organic compounds, but isoprene was only a very minor constituent. Two time windows with peak microbial activity were indicated by CO2 emission fluxes and waste temperature, both of which reached their maximums 3-4 days and 15-20 days after the incubation, respectively. Although isoprene had only one emission peak synchronizing with the first peak microbial activity, monoterpenes had relatively high emission rates, but they decreased at the beginning without correlation to the first peak of microbial activity, due largely to direct volatilization of these monoterpenes primarily present in orange substrates as inherited constituents. However, after the initial decrease the emission rates of monoterpenes rose again in conjunction with the second peak of microbial activity, indicating secondary production of these monoterpenes through microbial activity. On the basis of monitored emission fluxes, the amounts of secondarily formed monoterpenes from microbial activity well surpassed those inherited in the orange wastes. Production of total terpenes reached 1.10 x 10(4) mg kg(-1) (dry weight), of which limonene alone was 63%. For either limonene or total terpenes, about 95% of their emission occurred in the first 30 days, implying that organic wastes might give off considerable amount of terpenes during early disposal under aerobic conditions before the conventional anaerobic landfilling, and emission measurements just in landfills might underestimate the waste-related emissions of reactive organic gases.

Prior-Information Associated Channel Parameter Estimation for Aeronautical Communications L-band digital aeronautical communication system (L-DACS) based on orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology is the best candidate for the future communication infrastructure of the air-to-ground (AG) communication system. How does the receiver can correctly and timely determine the channel change becomes the basis for ensuring the stable transmission of information in the aeronautical communication network. In this paper, we propose a channel parameter estimation algorithm using the statistical multipath delay information of takeoff and landing near the airport as a priori information in the navigation system and fixed aircraft scene. Simulation results have demonstra-ted that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the estimated performance on the basis of reducing the parameters to be estimated.

Optical Modem Technology for Seafloor Observatories Regional cabled observatories will bring broadband Internet to the seafloor around areas that include hydrothermal vent sites and other scientifically interesting features. The ideal platform for exploring these sites in response to episodic events is a remotely-piloted, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that is capable of sending back high-quality video or other high-rate sensor data. The combined requirement of remote command/control and high data rates argues for a bi-directional optical communications link capable of streaming data at 1-10 Mbit per second rates. In this paper, we present a preliminary design for an optical modem system based on an omnidirectional source and receiver. The functional requirements and system constraints driven by use case scenarios are first reviewed. This is followed by a discussion of the optical transmission properties of seawater and the resulting impact on detection in high-rate communications, including coding considerations. A link budget and the data rate versus range relationship are developed. Validation results in a test tank and in the ocean will then be reviewed

Time to Change Your Investment Model We demonstrate empirically that the gains from predicting corporate earnings, or consensus hits and misses—an activity at the core of most investment methodologies—have been shrinking fast over the past 30 years. We identify the main reasons for this loss of earnings relevance and propose an improved alternative to current investment methodologies, one that focuses on the “strategic assets” of the enterprise and their contribution to maintaining the company’s competitive edge. We demonstrate this investment methodology using subscription-based companies. Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest. Editor’s Note Submitted 24 November 2016 Accepted 26 April 2017 by Stephen J. Brown

Erk2-deficiency impairs the effector function of mature CD4+ T cells (IRM15P.455) Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (Erk2) is required for CD4+T cell development and positive selection in the thymus, however the role of Erk2 in mature CD4+T cells is unknown. Erk2 is a key player of the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway which, in T cells, transduces crucial signals such as TCR engagement, CD28 co-stimulation, and cytokine binding. Upon activation, these signals are carefully coordinated to initiate gene expression programs, thus directing the expansion and differentiation of Ag-specific cells. The exquisite control of these signaling mechanisms is needed to maintain tolerance; dysregulation can result in inappropriate immune responses. In this study we used a mouse model with T cell-specific deletion of Erk2 to determine the role of Erk2 for CD4+T cell function. Our results show that increased numbers of Erk2∆CD4+T cells from naïve mice express markers for activation (CD25, CD44, and CD69). Further, Erk2∆CD4+T cells are able to survive and expand in vivo and proliferate upon IL-2, IL-7, and IL-15 cytokine stimulation. Importantly however, although the frequency and magnitude of Ag-specific Erk2∆CD4+T cell responses was comparable with controls upon antigen recall, secretion of IFN-g and IL-17 was significantly impaired. As CD4+T cells orchestrate immune responses primarily via cytokine production, our results suggest that Erk2 is required for CD4+T cell effector function.

Intensity measure selection for vulnerability studies of building classes The selection of a scalar Intensity Measure (IM) for performing analytical vulnerability (loss) assessment across a building class is addressed. We investigate the ability of several IM choices to downgrade the effect of seismological parameters (sufficiency) as well as reduce the record‐to‐record variability (efficiency) for both highrise and lowrise sets of ‘index’ buildings. These characteristics are explored in unprecedented detail, employing comparisons and statistical significance testing at given levels of local engineering demand parameters (story drift ratios and peak floor accelerations) that relate to losses, instead of global variables such as the maximum interstory drift. Thus, a detailed limit‐state‐specific view is offered for the suitability of different scalar IMs for loss assessment. As expected, typical single‐period spectral values are found to introduce unwanted bias at high levels of scaling, both for a single as well as a class of buildings. On the other hand, the geometric mean of the spectral acceleration values estimated at several periods between the class‐average second‐mode and an elongated class‐average first‐mode period offers a practical choice that significantly reduces the spectral‐shape bias without requiring the development of new ground motion prediction equations. Given that record selection remains a site‐ and building‐specific process, such an improved IM can help achieve reliable estimates for building portfolios, as well as single structures, at no additional cost. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

EFFECT OF MOZART MUSIC ON HIPPOCAMPAL CONTENT OF BDNF IN POSTNATAL RATS 1. Cellular and Molecular Research Center, and Neuroscience Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2. Anatomy Department, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran. 3. Physiology Research Center (PRC), Tehran university of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 4. Institute for Cognitive Science studies (ICSS), Tehran, Iran. 5. Department of Material Science and Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

HSEpred: predict half-sphere exposure from protein sequences MOTIVATION Half-sphere exposure (HSE) is a newly developed two-dimensional solvent exposure measure. By conceptually separating an amino acid's sphere in a protein structure into two half spheres which represent its distinct spatial neighborhoods in the upward and downward directions, the HSE-up and HSE-down measures show superior performance compared with other measures such as accessible surface area, residue depth and contact number. However, currently there is no existing method for the prediction of HSE measures from sequence data. RESULTS In this article, we propose a novel approach to predict the HSE measures and infer residue contact numbers using the predicted HSE values, based on a well-prepared non-homologous protein structure dataset. In particular, we employ support vector regression (SVR) to quantify the relationship between HSE measures and protein sequences and evaluate its prediction performance. We extensively explore five sequence-encoding schemes to examine their effects on the prediction performance. Our method could achieve the correlation coefficients of 0.72 and 0.68 between the predicted and observed HSE-up and HSE-down measures, respectively. Moreover, contact number can be accurately predicted by the summation of the predicted HSE-up and HSE-down values, which has further enlarged the application of this method. The successful application of SVR approach in this study suggests that it should be more useful in quantifying the protein sequence-structure relationship and predicting the structural property profiles from protein sequences. AVAILABILITY The prediction webserver and supplementary materials are accessible at http://sunflower.kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~sjn/hse/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Early Indian Terracottas This publication considers Northern Indian terracottas from the third century BC to the first century AD. It was in these four centuries that, in the most literal sense of the word, the earth was prepared to form the necessary basis for the Buddhist, Brahmanic and Jain iconography for centuries to come. This survey introduces mainly complete figurines and plaques, rather than fragments. These should provide an insight into the refined art of the earlier Indian terracottas which until recently were considered more as pieces of ethnographic interest or folk art rather than art objects in their own right.

Salvage of Infected Expander Prostheses in Breast Reconstruction &NA; Periprosthetic infection is a devastating complication following breast reconstruction with prostheses. Traditional surgical principles dictate removal of the prosthesis to control infection. Although successful salvage of prostheses in the presence of periprosthetic infections has been reported in the plastic and other surgical literature, salvage procedures remain seldom practiced. Reports in the plastic surgery literature have been limited to implant salvage following cosmetic breast augmentation and subcutaneous mastectomy with implants. Salvage of salinefilled expander prostheses used in breast reconstruction following mastectomy for cancer has not been previously reported. The authors review their experience with implant salvage in patients with periprosthetic infections following breast reconstruction for a 6‐year period. Fourteen patients (13 with saline‐filled expander prostheses and one with silicone prosthesis) underwent implant salvage. Salvage of the breast reconstruction was successful in nine patients. Staphylococcus aureus infection was associated with poorer salvage rate (p = 0.023). Previous radiotherapy to the chest wall did not affect the salvage outcome (p = 0.50). In selected patients, immediate salvage of a breast reconstruction in the presence of prosthesisrelated infection remains an alternative to implant removal followed by delayed reconstrucion.

The complete mitochondrial genome of sable, Martes zibellina The complete mitogenome sequence of the Sable (NC_011579) was determined using long PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction). The genome was 16,523 bp in length and contained 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and 1 control region. The gene composition and order of which was similar to most other mammals. The overall base composition of the heavy strand in descending order is A (32.0%), C (27. 6%), T (25.8%) and G (14.7%). The base compositions present clearly the A–C skew, which is most obviously in the control region and protein-coding genes. The extended termination-associated sequence domain, the central conserved domain, and the conserved sequence block domain are defined in the mitochondrial genome control region of Sable. This mitogenome sequence data would play an important role in phylogenetics and systematics of Martes zibellina.

Effect of situational factors (control, convenience, time pressure, and order complexity) on customers’ self-service technology choices ABSTRACT Despite the increase in the utilization of self-service technology (SST), which has become a significant trend in the service sectors, including food service, the factors affecting consumers’ acceptance of and resistance to SST must still be identified. Thus, this study investigated the reactions of SST users to situational factors, namely control, convenience, time pressure, and order complexity, when ordering, evaluating, and opting for or against the service. The results revealed that the four SST situational factors significantly affected the perceived benefits, while only three (control, convenience, and time pressure) affected the perceived costs. The perceived benefits and costs positively influenced the perceived efficiency, which significantly affected the users’ approach and avoidance behaviors afterward. This study contributes strategic managerial guidelines to service providers who aim to gain competitive advantages in the food service industry via SST.

Evidence-Based Nursing and Gray Literature: Implications for Nursing Education abstract:Librarians play a key role in the understanding, retrieval, and assessment of gray literature (also spelled grey literature) as it pertains to evidence-based clinical practice, particularly nursing. With the rise of evidence-based research and curriculum-specific requirements in advanced nursing programs, gray literature instruction has become a necessity rather than a nicety. References to gray literature are not restricted to structured literature reviews but serve broader purposes within evidence-based nursing, which aims to use the best available evidence to make informed decisions about patient care.Given the vast landscape and varied types of gray literature, identifying resources specific to nursing and quantifying their role in evidence-based nursing are challenging. Citation analysis can be used to identify types of gray literature types commonly found in nursing studies. This article seeks to establish the need for gray literature instruction in nursing curricula.

Dual Three-Phase PMSM Loss Determination Using Synthetic Loading Traditional approaches to determining losses in an electrical machine require mechanically coupled active braking. An alternative to the bulky and expensive test bench is synthetic loading (SL) method, which is particularly suitable for multiphase machines with an even number of three-phase winding sets. This paper presents the SL method for a dual three-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) covering a wide operating range. The PMSM is fed by two inverters with a common DC link, supplying both three-phase sets in motoring and generating mode, respectively. Mechanical power is exchanged between the motoring and generating winding sets within the air gap. The measured difference between the input powers of the two winding sets corresponds to the machine losses. The main advantages of SL method are the elimination of mechanical coupling and the ability to conduct measurements in a steady state. The preliminary measurement results on traction PMSM with salient rotor across a wide operating range demonstrate the method's broader applicability.

The Laparoscopically Harvested Omental Free Flap: A Compelling Option for Craniofacial and Cranial Base Reconstruction Abstract Background Management of craniofacial and cranial base tumors is a challenge due to the anatomic intricacies associated with the calvarium, the pathological diversity of lesions that present, and the potential complications. Clinical outcomes in laparoscopically harvested omentum free flaps for cranial base and craniofacial reconstruction are presented in this paper, in the largest case series to date. Methods A retrospective single-center experience for over 10 years with laparoscopically harvested omentum flaps used to reconstruct craniofacial and cranial base defects. Results A total of 13 patients underwent craniofacial or cranial base reconstruction using laparoscopically harvested omentum free flaps. The mean patient age was 48 years. The anterior skull base represented the most common site of reconstruction. A total of 12 of the flaps survived (92%), with one flap failure due to infection. All patients demonstrated satisfactory aesthetic and functional outcomes. There were no perioperative or intra-abdominal complications. Conclusions The laparoscopically harvested omentum free flap is a safe and effective tool in the armamentarium of the reconstructive surgeon. It is the ideal option to treat complex, three-dimensional subcutaneous defects, such as those encountered in craniofacial and cranial base reconstruction. Its unique angiogenic and immunologic capacity makes it an excellent flap for the previously irradiated and/or infected wound bed.

Modern Japanese Philosophy: Historical Contexts and Cultural Implications Abstract The paper provides an overview of the rise of Japanese philosophy during the period of rapid modernization in Japan after the Meiji Restoration (beginning in the 1860s). It also examines the controversy surrounding Japanese philosophy towards the end of the Pacific War (1945), and its renewal in the contemporary context. The post-Meiji thinkers engaged themselves with the questions of universality and particularity; the former represented science, medicine, technology, and philosophy (understood as ‘Western modernity’) and the latter, the Japanese – ‘non-Western’ – tradition. Within the context, the question arose whether or not Japan, the only non-Western nation to succeed in modernization at the time, could also offer a philosophy that was universal in scope? Could Japanese philosophy offer an alternative form of modernity to the global domination of Western modernity? In this historical context, the philosophies of Kitaro Nishida and Tetsuro Watsuji, two of the tradition's most prominent thinkers, are introduced. Nishida is considered the ‘father of modern Japanese philosophy’ and his followers came to be known as the ‘Kyoto School’. The essay ends with a brief reflection on the influence of philosophy on culture, focusing on the aftermath of the tsunami catastrophe in 2011.

Dancing with Wolves: Towards Practical Event-driven VMM Monitoring This paper presents a novel framework that enables practical event-driven monitoring for untrusted virtual machine monitors (VMMs) in cloud computing. Unlike previous approaches for VMM monitoring, our framework neither relies on a higher privilege level nor requires any special hardware support. Instead, we place the trusted monitor at the same privilege level and in the same address space with the untrusted VMM to achieve superior efficiency, while proposing a unique mutual-protection mechanism to ensure the integrity of the monitor. Our security analysis demonstrates that our framework can provide high-assurance for event-driven VMM monitoring, even if the highest-privilege VMM is fully compromised. The experimental results show that our framework only incurs trivial performance overhead for enforcing event-driven monitoring policies, exhibiting tremendous performance improvement on previous approaches.

Frequency, risk factors, and responsible pathogenic microorganisms of asymptomatic bacteriuria in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Urinary tract infection is a serious problem in diabetic patients, and asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) in these patients is a risk factor for pyelonephritis and renal dysfunction. In the present study, we investigated the relationships between age, body mass index, duration of diabetes, HbA1c level, glucosuria, glomerular filtration rate and microalbuminuria in type 2 diabetic patients with ASB. One hundred and twenty-three patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were included in the study. The patients were divided into two groups according to ASB; Group I consisted of 22 patients with ASB, and Group II of 101 patients without ASB. There were no significant differences between the groups in regard to age, body mass index, creatinine clearance or microalbuminuria, while there were significant differences in HbA1c, duration of diabetes mellitus, glucosuria and pyuria (P < 0.05). The most commonly isolated microorganism was Escherichia coli. The present study identified the duration of diabetes, high HbA1c, glucosuria and pyuria as risk factors for ASB in type 2 diabetic patients.

Low b-value Diffusion Tensor Imaging to Analyze the Dynamics of Cerebrospinal Fluid: Resolving Intravoxel Pseudorandom Motion into Ordered and Disordered Motions. PURPOSE Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics may be beneficial for understanding the mechanisms and diagnosis of several neurological diseases. Low b-value diffusion tensor imaging (low-b DTI) is useful for observing the slow and complex motion of the CSF. Theoretically, a mathematical framework suggests that low-b DTI provides the variance of the pseudorandom motion of the CSF. Furthermore, low-b DTI could provide comprehensive information on fluid dynamics. Accordingly, we proposed an analysis technique that resolves intravoxel pseudorandom motion into ordered (linear) and disordered (random) motions based on the mathematical framework. METHODS The proposed analysis technique helps measure low-b DTI with multiple diffusion times and linearly fits its mean diffusivity (MD) with the diffusion time to obtain two parameters, double-slope Vv and y-intersect Dr, which represent the variance of the velocity distribution of linear motion and the diffusion coefficient of random motion, respectively. Seven healthy subjects were scanned to evaluate the proposed technique and investigate fluid dynamics in several representative ROIs. RESULTS The obtained data showed the validity of the technique, repeatability, and consistency across the subjects in ROIs, such as the lateral ventricle (LV), third ventricle (3V), fourth ventricle (4V), and Sylvian fissure (SF). The obtained parameters Vv and Dr highlighted different characteristics of fluid dynamics in the representative ROIs: low Vv and low Dr in the LV, high Vv and moderate Dr in the 3V, and moderate Vv and moderate Dr in the 4V and SF. CONCLUSION The proposed analysis technique will facilitate a comprehensive investigation of the complex dynamics of the CSF using resolved parameters representing ordered and disordered motions.

Learning Probabilistic Submodular Diversity Models Via Noise Contrastive Estimation Modeling diversity of sets of items is important in many applications such as product recommendation and data summarization. Probabilistic submodular models, a family of models including the determinantal point process, form a natural class of distributions, encouraging eects such as diversity, repulsion and coverage. Current models, however, are limited to small and medium number of items due to the high time complexity for learning and inference. In this paper, we propose FLID, a novel log-submodular diversity model that scales to large numbers of items and can be eciently learned using noise contrastive estimation. We show that our model achieves state of the art performance in terms of model t, but can be also learned orders of magnitude faster. We demonstrate the wide applicability of our model using several experiments.

Renal denervation for treatment-resistant hypertension Hypertension is a major public health concern that is increasing in prevalence. Lifestyle and pharmacological management are not always sufficient to control blood pressure and treatment-resistant hypertension is a recognized clinical challenge. Renal sympathetic denervation (RSD) represents a new frontier in the treatment of resistant hypertension. Results from the Symplicity HTN-1 and HTN-2 trials have demonstrated evidence that suggests RSD can safely reduce blood pressure in patients with this condition. More research is needed to verify these data, clarify unanswered questions and assess future applications of RSD. This review provides a detailed overview on the history of hypertension, treatment-resistant hypertension, the rationale behind RSD, current evidence and potential future applications of RSD. An overview of current and upcoming RSD devices is also included.

An efficient 13.56 MHz active back-telemetry rectifier in standard CMOS technology In this paper, we present the design of a high-frequency (HF) rectifier implemented in a 0.5-μm 3M/2P 5V standard CMOS process for wireless power transmission across short-range inductive links. The rectifier has been optimized for 13.56 MHz ISM band, and achieves power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ~83% and voltage conversion ratio > 92% in post-layout simulations. We have successfully incorporated a dual-mode back-telemetry capability in this rectifier with little area or efficiency overhead, which tolerates wide load-fluctuations at the secondary side. With these improvements, this active back-telemetry rectifier (ABTR) is geared towards increasing the overall system efficiency, data transfer rate, and reading range in applications such as implantable microelectronic devices (IMD) and radio frequency identification (RFID).

The Anatomy of Respiratory Structures in the Dorid Nudibranchs, Onchidoris Bilamellata and Archidoris Pseudoargus, With Details Of The Epidermal Glands The respiratory function of the naked body of sea slugs (Opisthobranchia) has long been recognized. The gross anatomy of the gills of dorid nudibranchs was first published by Hancock & Embleton (1852) and was later revised and corrected by Eliot in 1910 in his supplement to the Ray Society monograph by Alder & Hancock (1845–55). Herdman (1890) and Rao (1936) give histological details, but do not seriously add to the understanding of the function of dorid gills or their circulation system. While the gill ciliation of bivalves (Atkins, 1938) and prosobranchs (Yonge, 1947) has been thoroughly examined this is not so in dorid nudibranchs and only the ciliation of the notaspid Pleurobranchus membranaceus has been described in any detail (Thompson & Slinn, 1959; Thompson, 1976) and the dorsal mantle of some dorids (Kress, 1981). Much of the general anatomy of opisthobranchs is reviewed by Hoffman (1939).

Trail: a track-based logging disk architecture for zero-overhead writes A novel disk architecture called Trail is proposed to optimize the disk write latency without sacrificing the disk read performance. This architecture features a track-based logging technique, which essentially reduces a disk write latency to the transfer delay. In addition, this disk architecture allows concurrent read/write, and implicit write scheduling without compromising data integrity. Through a synthetic-trace simulation study, we have shown that for transaction processing workloads, the write latency improvement of Trail over conventional disk devices is at least an order of magnitude. Trail's read latency performance is also better in all cases, sometimes the improvement is also over an order of magnitude. In terms of disk bandwidth utilization, the Trail architecture has a close to 100% write bandwidth efficiency and a read bandwidth efficiency at least as good as a conventional disk.<<ETX>>

[Characteristics of cytokine and hormone status in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 during alimentary exposure]. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a main noninfectious disease, making significant influence on patients quality of life and life time. The medico-social role of diabetes is defined by wide prevalence of a disease in population and high risk of development of incapacitating complications. Therefore, considerable efforts of modern medicine focused on the study of etio-pathogenetic mechanism and the possibility of dietetic correction in this disease. In this review discusses efficacy of dietary therapy in type 2 diabetes, the role of insulin-like growth 1 (IGF-1)/insulin of pathogenesis microvascular complications. The role of inflammation in the development of microvascular complications, in the first place cytokines, act on the insulin signal pathway and affect the intracellular inflammatory kinase cascade was shown. Also, it is shown that adipose tissue inflammation modulates B-cell function and promotes progressive reduction of insulin secretion. When blood glucose levels are elevated, Glucagon-like peptide--1 stimulates insulin secretion, decrease glucagon secretion, improve B-cell function, and slows gastric emptying. It determines the necessity of fulfillment of further researches of cellular and humoral immunity in diabetes mellitus and the development of personal methods in prevention and treatment of this disease.

Urban Economic Policy Networks in Britain and France; A Sociometric Approach Local economic development policy networks in four cities in Britain and France (Leeds, Southampton, Lille, and Rennes) are compared by means of the technique of sociometric network analysis. The author's objective was to find out if, in an age of internationalisation and urban competition, networks still conform to the structure suggested by the classic Franco-British comparative studies, or whether they resemble the more open and interorganisational pattern characteristic of the new urban governance. After setting out the methods and the sociometric approach, the author identifies actors who have the ten highest centrality scores in the four cities, The author concludes that, in spite of continuing contrasts in the national institutional structures and differences in the politics and cultures of the four cities, there is a surprising similarity in the key actors involved in urban economic development; these actors include individuals from the locally elected authorities, central government bodies, and businesses. The new urban governance is based on the range of agencies responsible for economic development and upon the growing importance of business in policy formulation and implementation.

Optically active sol-gel microspheres for flat-panel color displays By the end of 1994, flat-panel displays for lap-top computers and televisions will exceed $4.0 billion in total sales. Currently, most such displays are based entirely upon an advanced liquid crystal technology requiring several precisely aligned LC layers. A new technology for flat- panel displays, based upon the solid-state luminescence of sol-gel derived microspheres has been proposed. Silica gel-derived microspheres can be prepared at near ambient temperatures, doped with either optically-active organic dye molecules or lanthanide ions. Microspheres doped to give red, blue, and green luminescence can be arranged in a pixel pattern to form the basis of a display screen. A single monochrome LC layer is used to modulate the excitation light, or pump source, that activates the fluorescence of each pixel.

Surface topography and distribution of cell types in the rat nasal respiratory epithelium: scanning electron microscopic observations. Several cell types were identified in the rat nasal respiratory epithelium using scanning electron microscopy. In addition to the previously described ciliated, nonciliated, and goblet cells, the nasal brush cell was identified based on its surface characteristics and its location between nonciliated epithelial cells. Scanning electron microscopy clearly showed the differences in distribution of cell types in the nasal mucosa. The ciliated cells increase in number from the anterior to the posterior areas of the respiratory epithelium with a corresponding decrease in nonciliated cells. However, even at a single cross-sectional area of the nasal cavity, the various surfaces have different proportions of ciliated versus nonciliated cells, e.g., the medial surface of the nasal concha has more ciliated cells than other surfaces. Brush cells are distributed between nonciliated cells of the respiratory epithelium on most surfaces of the nasal cavity including the conchae and the lateral wall. Based on the available information, scanning electron microscopy will be useful in future studies to determine the effects that inhaled toxicants have on cells and on the location of lesions.

Compensation of Linearization Approximation Error in Acoustic Inverse Scattering Problem: Quantitative Reconstruction of Attenuation and Sound Speed Images For the realization of the acoustic parameter quantitative reconstruction of biological tissues by ultrasonic diffraction tomography, the author recently developed the backward propagation Rytov approximation to overcome the limitation of the weak scattering condition of tissuelike objects. A sound speed image with sufficient quantitative precision was realized. The problem, however, was that the precision of the attenuation image was limited when the sound speed contrast of the object was large. In this paper, a method for compensating the weak scattering approximation error is presented so that a compatible reconstruction of both sound speed and attenuation images can be realized. From numerical verification, the precision of the attenuation image after compensation is verified to be more superior than that before compensation.

Race, Social and Environmental Conditions, and Health Behaviors in Men Although understanding race differences in health behaviors among men is an important step in reducing disparities in leading causes of death in the United States, progress has been stifled when using national data because of the confounding of race, socioeconomic status, and residential segregation. The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of disparities in health behaviors among African American and white men in the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities Study-Southwest Baltimore, which was conducted in a racially integrated neighborhood of Baltimore to data from the 2003 National Health Interview Survey. After adjusting for age, marital status, insurance, income, educational attainment, poor or fair health, and obesity status, African American men in National Health Interview Survey had greater odds of being physically inactive (odds ratio [OR] = 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 129-1.69), reduced odds of being a current smoker (OR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.65-0.90), and reduced odds of being a current drinker (OR = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.50-0.67). In the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities Study-Southwest Baltimore sample, African American and white men had similar odds of being physically inactive (OR = 0.79; 95% CI, 0.50-1.24), being a current smoker (OR = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.60-1.23), or being a current drinker (OR = 1.34; 95% CI, 0.81-2.21). Because race disparities in these health behaviors were ameliorated in the sample where African American and white men were living under similar social, environmental, and socioeconomic status conditions, these findings suggest that social environment may be an important determinant of health behaviors among African American and white men. Public health interventions and health promotion strategies should consider the social environment when seeking to better understand men's health disparities.

Multiple control of interleukin‐8 gene expression Interleukin (IL)‐8, a prototypic human chemokine, was detected more than a decade ago as the founding member of the chemokine superfamily. One of the most remarkable properties of IL‐8 is the variation of its expression levels. In healthy tissues, IL‐8 is barely detectable, but it is rapidly induced by ten‐ to 100‐fold in response to proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor or IL‐1, bacterial or viral products, and cellular stress. Recently, significant advances in the understanding of signaling pathways, which coordinately regulate IL‐8 transcription as well as mRNA stabilization in response to external stimuli, have been made. Maximal IL‐8 amounts are generated by a combination of three different mechanisms: first, derepression of the gene promoter; second, transcriptional activation of the gene by nuclear factor‐κB and JUN‐N‐terminal protein kinase pathways; and third, stabilization of the mRNA by the p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase pathway. In that way, cells are able to rapidly increase and at the same time, to fine‐tune the amount of IL‐8 secreted and thereby control the extent of leukocytes attracted to sites of tissue injury.

Relapsing Mycobacterium genavense infection as a cause of late death in a lung transplant recipient: case report and review of the literature. Mycobacterium genavense is recognized as a life-threatening pathogen in severely immunocompromised patients, mostly in those with advanced human immunodeficiency virus infection. We report a case of M. genavense infection in a lung-transplant recipient with late-onset death occurring from disseminated infection. In human immunodeficiency virus-negative patients, there exist only about 10 reports of disseminated M. genavense infection in immunocompromised hosts; and to our knowledge, this is a first reported case of M. genavense infection after a lung transplant. Diagnosis of M. genavense was obtained only with nucleic acid-based identification technique, as frequently observed in a few cases of human immunodeficiency virus-negative patients. A striking feature was the recurrence of this infection in our patient after a seemingly infection-free period of 3 years. Because M. genavense infection can be life-threatening, clinicians must be aware of the frequent requirement for nucleic-acid-based identification for its diagnosis.

Regression analysis and variable selection for two‐stage multiple‐infection group testing data Group testing, as a cost‐effective strategy, has been widely used to perform large‐scale screening for rare infections. Recently, the use of multiplex assays has transformed the goal of group testing from detecting a single disease to diagnosing multiple infections simultaneously. Existing research on multiple‐infection group testing data either exclude individual covariate information or ignore possible retests on suspicious individuals. To incorporate both, we propose a new regression model. This new model allows us to perform a regression analysis for each infection using multiple‐infection group testing data. Furthermore, we introduce an efficient variable selection method to reveal truly relevant risk factors for each disease. Our methodology also allows for the estimation of the assay sensitivity and specificity when they are unknown. We examine the finite sample performance of our method through extensive simulation studies and apply it to a chlamydia and gonorrhea screening data set to illustrate its practical usefulness.

[Unilateral multiple channels approach in percutaneous vertebroplasty for osteoporotic vertebral fractures]. OBJECTIVE To explore the therapeutic efficacy of unilateral multiple channels approach in percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) for osteoporotic vertebral fractures. METHODS A retrospective review (from March 2003 to October 2012) was conducted on 685 consecutive patients, a total of 885 vertebrae were involved. Eighty-two cases (99 vertebrae) with bone cement leakage when less than 0.3 ml bone cement was injected to fill the fracture were given PVP procedure by unilateral multiple channels approach. 38 cases were male (45 vertebrae) and 44 cases were female (54 vertebrae). The average age was 75.4 years old (from 69 to 92). The operation time, amount of injected bone cement and complications were recorded. Rate of excellent and good outcomes was studied by measuring the cement distribution on the X-ray film. The visual analogue scale (VAS) score and Oswestry disability index (ODI) system were used to evaluate the pain relief and improvement of daily activity function respectively at preoperation and 1 hour, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months after operation. RESULTS All these ninety-nine vertebrae were treated in 82 cases with PVP of unilateral multiple channels approach. The average operation time was 33 minutes. The rate of excellent and good outcomes of cement distribution was 98.8%. The VAS score was (8.40 +/- 0.73) before surgery,and (2.50 +/- 0.43), (2.00 +/- 0.33), (1.80 +/- 0.28), (2.10 +/- 0.17) at 1 hour, 1 month,3 months and 6 months respectively after operation. ODI was (40.94 +/- 2.72) before surgery, (9.64 +/- 2.60) at 1 month after surgery, (8.52 +/- 2.30) at 3 months after surgery and (7.77 +/- 2.15) at the final follow-up. The differences of the VAS and ODI between pre-operation and post-operation had statistical significance (P<0.01). No spine or nerve injuries occurred intraoperatively. CONCLUSION The unilateral multiple channels approach in percutaneous vertebroplasty can obviously relieve the pain and effectively improve the functional activity, provide a satisfied cement distribution in vertebral body with cement leakage after a small amount infusion.

Shielded or unshielded twisted-pair for high speed data transmission? Balanced transmission is the standard method for data transmission via twisted pair cables. A separate shield for the balanced twisted pair is used to improve the immunity or emission behavior of the transmission line. The different performance of shielded or unshielded twisted pairs is investigated by numerical calculation with CONCEPT, a program based on the method of moments. In addition, a two-dimensional model with length independent partial capacitances was used. The effect of a shield is discussed with respect to transmission characteristics and EMI-behavior. The additional shield has a less significant influence to data transmission aspects than attenuation and reflection. The model of partial capacitances shows that the shielded twisted pair provides a better symmetry of signal transmission and improves the suppression of crosstalk.

‘A fraud, a drunkard, and a worthless scamp’: estate agents, regulation, and Realtors in the interwar period Abstract The estate agency industry played a key role in the growth of the interwar property market. An important feature of the industry was the low barriers to entry, particularly in terms of regulating practitioners. Yet repeated attempts were made to introduce mandatory licensing of estate agents during this period, all of which failed. This article explores why these attempts were instigated, by whom, and why they failed. It utilises the comparison with the successful introduction of licensing for real estate brokers in the US. The article argues that the desire for a professional identity fuelled these regulatory efforts, and that industry specific endogenous tensions led to their failure. In doing so, this article informs our knowledge of both the interwar development of this key service industry, and of the concepts used to analyse regulation more generally.

B Cell Lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) in Serum Increased with Breast Cancer in Egyptian Women Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed female-specific cancer and shows an increasing trend in diagnosed cases worldwide. An estimated one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. BC is estimated to be the most common female cancer in Egypt, and the incidence rate among Egyptian women is 48.8/10. Evasion of cell death is now acknowledged as a hallmark of cancer, required to overcome the counterbalancing effects of cell death on enhanced cell proliferation. B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) gene involves in cell survival mechanism rather than cell proliferation and it prolongs cell life by preventing apoptosis via activating different signaling routes which are induced by various agents. We aimed in this study to investigate whether the Bcl-2 activities are associated with breast cancer in Egyptian women, and correlated to different clinicopathological features of the disease. The study was conducted on forty-five females; thirty women with different stages of breast cancer, and fifteen normal healthy females were included as a control group. All patients under study were subjected to full history taking and clinical examination. Fresh blood samples were obtained from all subjects, serum separation was done for measurement of Bcl-2 levels by ELISA technique. Our results showed that there were significantly higher serum Bcl-2 levels in breast cancer patients before surgery than in normal healthy controls. The results obtained also revealed that the mean value of Bcl-2 for the breast cancer patients was significantly higher than the control group. We almost can say that the Bcl-2 values would increase with advanced stages of breast cancer.

Highly reliable etching mask technology for high density fram Abstract It is well known that ferroelectric capacitors are degraded during etching process due to its highly energetic ion bombardment. The etching damage is considered as the major cause of degrading the ferroelectric properties. In order to achieve high yield of 4Mb FRAM, the etching damage should be minimized. Therefore, it is strongly desired to develop a new etching mask technology for reducing the severe etching damage. In this paper, we investigated several etching mask technologies to choose proper mask for etching the noble metal layers. It was found that TiO2/PSG/TiN and PSG/TiN masks are very effective in minimizing the etching damage and enhancing the etching ability. The Pr value of etch-damaged cell was greatly improved from 5 μC/cm2 to 25 μC/cm2 by using the novel etching masks, resulting in high yield of 4Mb FRAM. As observed in TEM pictures, the ferroelectric capacitors prepared by TiO2/PSG/TiN and PSG/TiN masks are completely protected by the new mask technology.

Photophysical properties of 5-methylcytidine Cytosine methylation, which determines the hot spots for DNA photo-damage, is shown to induce a red-shift of the nucleoside absorption spectrum, making the chromophore more vulnerable to solar radiation, and a tenfold increase of the fluorescence lifetime, making excited state reactions more probable. A femtosecond investigation of the excited state deactivation reveals a quite complex mechanism.

Potential Role of Polyphenols in the Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases: Molecular Bases. Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. It is widely accepted that oxidative stress plays a key role in their development and progression; hence oxidative damage might be abrogated by antioxidants. Polyphenols are phytochemicals showing extensively studied antioxidant properties in-vivo. Most representative sources of these compounds include fruits, greens, nuts, herbs, cocoa, tea and coffee. Epidemiological evidence suggests an association between the consumption of polyphenol-rich vegetables and the reduction of cardiovascular disease prevalence. This fact could be related to the anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic and vasodilatory effects of polyphenols. Even though these biological effects could be mainly attributed to the antioxidant activity of polyphenols, other pharmacological mechanisms should also be considered. The latter could comprise direct anti-inflammatory effects, modulation of intracellular signaling and gene expression, improvement of nitric oxide homeostasis, as well as platelet antiaggregation. However, it is noticeable that protocols of interventions to evaluate the properties of polyphenols have failed to show the same positive results reported from observational studies. At present, a controversy exists regarding the actual effectiveness of polyphenols in preventing cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, an improvement of the available knowledge about polyphenol pharmacokinetics, together with a better understanding of the mechanisms of action of these compounds, could be of great benefit. Thus, a rational support for the development of interventional designs could provide reliable evidence on the actual role of polyphenols in CVD prevention.

Immunogenicity of two diphtheria-tetanus-whole cell pertussis-hepatitis B vaccines in infants: A comparative trial Aim: Because of the high mother-to-infant transmissibility of hepatitis B (HB) infection, neonatal vaccination is necessary, but the further doses of HB vaccines can be combined with conventional diphtheria-tetanus-whole cell pertussis (DTPw) vaccines. We compared immunogenicity and reactogenicity of two tetravalent vaccines in Indian children, who after neonatal HB immunization, were vaccinated thrice with one of these vaccines. Methods: In this open-label randomized study, 287 infants received a dose of an Indian- (Q-VacTM ) or European-made (Tritanrix-HBTM ) tetravalent vaccine at age 6, 10, and 14 weeks. The ELISA antibodies were measured prior to the first and one month after the third dose. Immunogenicity was determined by measuring the seroprotection/seropositivity rates and geometric mean titres (GMT), whereas vaccine reactogenicity was elucidated with diary cards for 7 days following each dose. The potential unsolicited events were queried throughout the whole 3-month study period. Results: Out of the 250 subjects who completed the study, 123 received the Indian and 127 the European vaccine. After 3 doses, the seroprotection/seropositivity rates were 99 % and 100% for diphtheria, 98% and 95% for tetanus, 89% and 94% for pertussis, and 100% and 100% for hepatitis B, respectively. GMT of tetanus antibodies was significantly higher with the Indian vaccine. Low-grade reactogenicity was rather similar in the two vaccine groups, the most common events being local pain, redness, swelling, fever, irritability, unusual crying, drowsiness, and non-specific gastrointestinal symptoms. Conclusions: Since both immunogenicity and reactogenicity of the two vaccines were almost identical, the Indian vaccine poses a good alternative to the costlier competitor vaccines.

Book Review: Perspectives on Ecological Integrity patterns of thought and organisation are themselves instrumental to the survival of our own species. But to mock the search for higher levels of meaning at a time when humans seem to need all the support they can muster seems contradictory, or worse, downright vexatious. He might show instead that extending the literal ‘selfishness’ of the gene into the (homo)sapiential, or thinking, domain can do much more for us than manifest itself in highly ramified but ultimately mechanical evolutionary processes. Thinking is based on definitions which are themselves based on other definitions and at the imaginary level its rules are, contrary to Wilden, fair game.1 It therefore presents opportunities the like of which life has only just begun to discern, let alone know how to deal with. This latter dealing, however, implies a certain circumspection or presence of metathought in the translation of the products of thinking into action which, while not denying the unlimited possibilities of thought, recognises the same limitations in application as are represented by its enabling chemistry (itself a formalisation of just that action). Chemistry, and more generally science, therefore, are hardly representations of ‘heartless, witless’ amalgams of atoms: they are representations of meaning or value in search of rigour. The very search itself is a manifestation of that meaning. Why Dawkins should so desperately seek to crush such ‘higher’ reflections is beyond me, for his own writing lends so much to the very awe that propels science and indeed Dawkins himself. FRANK FISHER Grad. School of Env. Science/Management, Monash University Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia 1 Wilden, Anthony 1987. The Rules are No Game: The Strategy of Communication. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Enhancing Cyber-Threat Intelligence in the Arab World: Leveraging IoC and MISP Integration Cybercrime threat intelligence enables proactive measures against threat actors and informed, data-driven security decisions. This study proposes a practical implementation of cybercrime threat intelligence in the Arab world by integrating Indicators of Compromise and collecting security alerts from honeypot systems and open-source intelligence. The data collected are stored on the Malware Information Sharing Platform, an open-source platform used to create and share Indicators of Compromise. This study highlights the intuitive interface of the Malware Information Sharing Platform for data analysis, threat identification, and the correlation of Indicators of Compromise. In addition, machine learning techniques are applied to improve predictive accuracy and identify patterns in the data. The decision tree classifier achieves a high accuracy of 99.79%, and the results reveal significant potential cyber-threats, demonstrating the effectiveness of the platform in providing actionable information to prevent, detect, and respond to cybercrime. This approach aims to improve the security posture of the Arab region.

Pulmonary hypertension in end-stage renal disease and post renal transplantation patients. BACKGROUND Information regarding lung function parameters and functional capacity in renal failure and post renal transplantation patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the clinical characteristics of patients with PH who were receiving hemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD) or who had undergone renal transplantation. METHODS A prospective study was performed on 116 patients (HD =55, PD =17, and post renal transplantation =44) who underwent Doppler echocardiography. PH was defined as systolic pulmonary artery pressure (SPAP) ≥40 mmHg. Demographic information, clinical characteristics, pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and the six-minute walk test (6MWT) were collected and compared between the patients with and without PH. RESULTS Twelve (21.8%) patients receiving HD, four (23.5%) patients receiving PD, and eight (18.2%) post renal transplantation patients had PH. In the HD group, the physiological indicators (including pulmonary function test parameters, the final Borg score, and walking distance during the 6MWT) were all significantly lower in the patients with PH compared with those without PH (all P<0.0001). However, in the PD and post renal transplantation groups, no significant differences were noted in the demographic characteristics or in the physiological parameters when the PH patients were compared with those without PH (all P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS Among HD patients, marked aberrations in PFT results or walking distance may identify a subset of patients suffering from PH.

A Boy Unable to Move His Arm An 11-year-old boy presented with inability to move his right arm, back and neck pain, and fever. He has a history of recurrent vesicular rash on his face three times over the past two years. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed diffuse expansile cervical cord, leading to a diagnosis of transverse myelitis. After 3 days of intravenous solumedrol, the patient was discharged, but returned the following day with a vesicular rash to the right arm, as well as vomiting, malaise and diffuse pruritus.Wright-Giemsa stain of the vesicles revealed herpes group virus and culture was positive for herpes simplex type 1.

PPAR- g Activation Inhibits Angiogenesis by Blocking ELR+CXC Chemokine Production in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer 1 Activation of peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor- ; (PPAR- ; ) results in inhibition of tumor growth in various types of cancers, but the mechanism(s) by which PPAR- ; induces growth arrest has not been completely defined. In a recent study, we demonstrated that treatment of A549 (human non small cell lung cancer cell line) tumor-bearing SCID mice with PPAR- ; ligands troglitazone (Tro) and pioglitazone significantly inhibits primary tumor growth. In this study, immunohistochemical analysis of Tro-treated and Pio-treated tumors with factor VIII antibody revealed a significant reduction in blood vessel density compared to tumors in control animals, suggesting inhibition of angiogenesis. Further analysis showed that treatment of A549 cells in vitro with Tro or transient transfection of A549 cells with constitutively active PPAR- ; (VP16–PPAR- ; ) construct blocked the production of the angiogenic ELR +CXC chemokines IL-8 (CXCL8), ENA-78 (CXCL5), and Gro- A (CXCL1). Simi-larly, an inhibitor of NF- K B activation (PDTC) also blocked CXCL8, CXCL5, and CXCL1 production, consistent with their NF- K B–dependent regulation. Conditioned media from A549 cells induce human microvascular endothelial cell (HMVEC) chemotaxis. However, conditioned media from Tro-treated A549 cells induced significantly less HMVEC chemotaxis compared to untreated A549 cells. Furthermore, PPAR- ; activation inhibited NF- K B transcriptional activity, as assessed by TransAM reporter gene assay. Collectively, our data suggest that PPAR- ; ligands can inhibit tumor-associated angiogenesis by blocking the production of ELR+CXC chemokines, which is mediated through antagonizing NF- K B activation. These antiangiogenic effects likely contribute to the inhibition of primary tumor growth by PPAR- ; ligands. co-opt the existing vasculature, an angiogenic switch (i.e., the production of factors that induce angiogenic sprouting of the vasculature) is required for propagation, invasion, and subsequent metastasis of the tumor. A variety of factors, including ELR+CXC chemokines, are implicated in the growth and maintenance of new vasculature serving the tumor. In this study, we demonstrate the role of PPAR- g in the regulation of ELR+CXC chemokine expression in NSCLC cells.