Search

La qualité des noix brutes de cajou est un facteur déterminant dans la fixation de leurs prix d’achat et de vente. L’objectif de cette étude est d’évaluer la qualité des noix de cajou afin de contribuer à l’amélioration des traitements post-récoltes desdites noix et la revalorisation des revenus des planteurs. Sur 208 échantillons du département de Korhogo, les paramètres de qualité ont été déterminés selon la norme ivoirienne PNI 4595. La valeur minimale des taux d’humidité moyens est 5,6±1,4% tandis que la valeur maximale est 5,8±1,8% avec une moyenne globale de 5,7±1,8%. Les grainages moyens sont 182±13 noix/kg, 179±13 noix/kg, 180±15 noix/kg, 179±12 noix/kg et 181±12 noix/kg respectivement pour les zones 1 ; 2 ; 3 ; 4 et 5 avec une valeur moyenne de 180±13 noix/kg. Concernant les taux de défauts moyens, ils varient entre 11,96±4,59% et 13,90±5,65% avec pour moyenne générale 13,10±5,08%. Les valeurs de l’out-turn oscillent entre un minimum de 44,87±3,65 lbs et un maximum de 45,90±2,62 lbs avec une moyenne globale de 45,42±2,78 lbs. Les proportions de noix de bonne qualité sont 54%, 66%, 64%, 64% et 69% respectivement pour les zones 1 ; 2 ; 3 ; 4 et 5 avec une proportion globale de 64%. La qualité des noix de cajou produites dans le département de Korhogo, est moyennement bonne. English title: Assessment of the quality of cashew nuts (Anacardium occidental L.) produced in the division of korhogo in Côte d’Ivoire The quality of raw cashews is a determining factor in setting their buying and selling prices. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of cashew nuts in order to contribute to the improvement of post-harvest treatments of said nuts and the revaluation of the income of the growers. On 208 samples, from the division of Korhogo, the quality parameters were determined according to the Ivorian standard PNI 4595. The minimum value of the average moisture contents is 5.6±1.4% while the maximum value is 5.8±1.8% with 5.7±1.8% as the overall average of the division of Korhogo. The average grainings are 182±13 nuts/kg, 179±13 nuts/kg, 180±15 nuts/kg, 179±12 nuts/kg and 181±12 nuts/kg respectively for zones 1; 2; 3; 4 and 5 with an average value of 180±13 nuts/kg. Concerning the average defect rates, they vary between 11.96±4.59% and 13.90±5.65% with the general average being 13.10±5.08%. The out-turn values fluctuate between a minimum (44.87±3.65 lbs) and a maximum (45.90±2.62 lbs). The average of this parameter in the division of Korhogo is 45.42±2.78 lbs. The proportions of good quality nuts are 54%, 66%, 64%, 64% and 69% respectively for areas 1; 2; 3; 4 and 5 with an overall proportion of 64%. The quality of the cashew nuts produced in the Korhogo division is moderately good.

Extracellular recordings are typically analysed by separating them into two distinct signals: local field potentials (LFPs) and spikes. Previous studies have shown that spikes, in the form of single-unit activity (SUA) or multiunit activity (MUA), can be inferred solely from LFPs with moderately good accuracy. SUA and MUA are typically extracted via threshold-based technique which may not be reliable when the recordings exhibit a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Another type of spiking activity, referred to as entire spiking activity (ESA), can be extracted by a threshold-less, fast, and automated technique and has led to better performance in several tasks. However, its relationship with the LFPs has not been investigated. In this study, we aim to address this issue by inferring ESA from LFPs intracortically recorded from the motor cortex area of three monkeys performing different tasks. Results from long-term recording sessions and across subjects revealed that ESA can be inferred from LFPs with good accuracy. On average, the inference performance of ESA was consistently and significantly higher than those of SUA and MUA. In addition, local motor potential (LMP) was found to be the most predictive feature. The overall results indicate that LFPs contain substantial information about spiking activity, particularly ESA. This could be useful for understanding LFP-spike relationship and for the development of LFP-based BMIs.

Mapping and localizing presystolic Purkinje potentials are crucial for determining the optimal ablation site for fascicular premature ventricular contractions (PVCs). Here we present a case of PVCs originating from the distal left anterior fascicle (LAF). Activation mapping using a multipolar catheter with small electrodes demonstrated early presystolic Purkinje potentials during the PVCs. A moderately good pace-map match was also obtained near the successful ablation site. This case demonstrates the activation pattern of PVCs originating from the distal LAF and the usefulness of multipolar catheters with small electrodes for the mapping of fascicular PVCs.

A group of milk components that has shown potential to be predicted with milk spectra is milk minerals. Milk minerals are important for human health and cow health. Having an inexpensive and fast way to measure milk mineral concentrations would open doors for research, herd management, and selective breeding. The first aim of this study was to predict milk minerals with infrared milk spectra. Additionally, milk minerals were predicted with infrared-predicted fat, protein, and lactose content. The second aim was to perform a genetic analysis on infrared-predicted milk minerals, to identify QTL, and estimate variance components. For training and validating a multibreed prediction model for individual milk minerals, 264 Danish Jersey cows and 254 Danish Holstein cows were used. Partial least square regression prediction models were built for Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, Se, and Zn based on 80% of the cows, selected randomly. Prediction models were externally validated with 8 herds based on the remaining 20% of the cows. The prediction models were applied on a population of approximately 1,400 Danish Holstein cows with 5,600 infrared spectral records and 1,700 Danish Jersey cows with 7,200 infrared spectral records. Cows from this population had 50k imputed genotypes. Prediction accuracy was good for P and Ca, with external R2 ≥ 0.80 and a relative prediction error of 5.4% for P and 6.3% for Ca. Prediction was moderately good for Na with an external R2 of 0.63, and a relative error of 18.8%. Prediction accuracies of milk minerals based on infrared-predicted fat, protein, and lactose content were considerably lower than those based on the infrared milk spectra. This shows that the milk infrared spectrum contains valuable information on milk minerals, which is currently not used. Heritability for infrared-predicted Ca, Na, and P varied from low (0.13) to moderate (0.36). Several QTL for infrared-predicted milk minerals were observed that have been associated with gold standard milk minerals previously. In conclusion, this study has shown infrared milk spectra were good at predicting Ca, Na, and P in milk. Infrared-predicted Ca, Na, and P had low to moderate heritability estimates. A group of milk components that has shown potential to be predicted with milk spectra is milk minerals. Milk minerals are important for human health and cow health. Having an inexpensive and fast way to measure milk mineral concentrations would open doors for research, herd management, and selective breeding. The first aim of this study was to predict milk minerals with infrared milk spectra. Additionally, milk minerals were predicted with infrared-predicted fat, protein, and lactose content. The second aim was to perform a genetic analysis on infrared-predicted milk minerals, to identify QTL, and estimate variance components. For training and validating a multibreed prediction model for individual milk minerals, 264 Danish Jersey cows and 254 Danish Holstein cows were used. Partial least square regression prediction models were built for Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, Se, and Zn based on 80% of the cows, selected randomly. Prediction models were externally validated with 8 herds based on the remaining 20% of the cows. The prediction models were applied on a population of approximately 1,400 Danish Holstein cows with 5,600 infrared spectral records and 1,700 Danish Jersey cows with 7,200 infrared spectral records. Cows from this population had 50k imputed genotypes. Prediction accuracy was good for P and Ca, with external R2 ≥ 0.80 and a relative prediction error of 5.4% for P and 6.3% for Ca. Prediction was moderately good for Na with an external R2 of 0.63, and a relative error of 18.8%. Prediction accuracies of milk minerals based on infrared-predicted fat, protein, and lactose content were considerably lower than those based on the infrared milk spectra. This shows that the milk infrared spectrum contains valuable information on milk minerals, which is currently not used. Heritability for infrared-predicted Ca, Na, and P varied from low (0.13) to moderate (0.36). Several QTL for infrared-predicted milk minerals were observed that have been associated with gold standard milk minerals previously. In conclusion, this study has shown infrared milk spectra were good at predicting Ca, Na, and P in milk. Infrared-predicted Ca, Na, and P had low to moderate heritability estimates.

As a highly important affective variable, motivation has always been a focus of research in second/foreign language (SL/FL) learning and proved to play a critical role in SL/FL learning. Even so, considering the complex and dynamic nature of SL/FL motivation, it always deserves research. Guided by the newly proposed framework of L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009), the present mixed-method study hence explored Chinese English majors’ L2 motivational self. One hundred and one English majors from a prestigious university in Beijing answered the questionnaire and 15 of them were interviewed in the present study. Analyses of the data revealed the following main findings: (1) the participants were generallyhighly motivated to learn English, had vivid images of themselves as proficient English users in the future, had positive appraisals of their L2 learning experiences, and had a moderately good perception of their ought-to L2 self, (2) senior students reported having significantly higher ideal L2 self and held more positive attitudes towards English learning experience. Based on these findings, some pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Developing high performance non-Pt oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts is vital for the practical applications of fuel cell but it still remains a grand challenge. Herein, an in-situ pyrolysis strategy was explored to prepare hybrid Co3O4/N-doped carbon nanotubes catalyst supported on the surface of Ti3C2 (Co3O4/NCNTs/Ti3C2). Owing to the synergistic effects of constituent components, as-prepared Co3O4/NCNTs/Ti3C2 exhibited superior ORR activity (diffusion limited current 5.41 mA cm−2 and half-wave potential 0.79 V) to the commercial Pt/C (diffusion limited current 5.14 mA cm−2 and half-wave potential 0.78 V). Meanwhile, the Co3O4/NCNTs/Ti3C2 catalyst demonstrated moderately good stability. Compared with the loss of current (∼54%) of commercial Pt/C, 48% current decrease was observed for Co3O4/NCNTs/Ti3C2 after the chronoamperometric measurement for 6 × 103 s. In view of the enhanced activity and stability, Co3O4/NCNTs/Ti3C2 holds high potential as a practical ORR electrocatalyst.

Introduction: Oxytocin is commonly used for induction of labor. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge and practice regarding oxytocin administration during the first stage of labor in maternity ward. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses of maternity ward of Patan Hospital, Nepal. Data was collected by using self-administered structured questionnaire for the knowledge assessment. Observation checklist was used to record the practice. Descriptive and inferential data analysis was done by SPSS version 16.The association and correlation between variables were measured by chi-square and Pearson correlation coefficient respectively. Result: Out of 31 nurse participants, majority (87.1%) had good knowledge and showed moderately good practice (in 70%) regarding oxytocin administration. The correlation between knowledge and practice on use of oxytocin among the staff nurses had positive relationship(r=0.051). Conclusion: Majority of nurses had good level of knowledge and moderate level of practice on use of oxytocin.

Background & Objective(s): Egypt is reported to have the fastest growing epidemic of HIV in the Middle East and North Africa Region. Nurses who play a crucial role in delivering health care to persons with HIV/AIDS should be equipped with adequate knowledge about HIV/AIDS, in order to have sense of comfort to enable positive attitude towards such patients. To assess knowledge and attitude regarding HIV/AIDS among nursing students in Sohag University. Methods: Across-sectional study was conducted among 324 randomly selected students of Faculty of Nursing, Sohag University, Egypt during the academic year 2019/2020. A self-administered questionnaire was used for collecting data about socio-demographic characteristics, HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitude of the study participants. Results: Most of the participants (78.4%)had a good overall knowledge about HIV/AIDS. However, some misconceptions were found as only 12.7% of them knew that HIV/AIDS cannot be prevented by vaccine. About 19% of the respondents mentioned that HIV cannot be transmitted by using toothbrushes. Less than one third were aware that HIV cannot be transmitted by either mosquito bites or by using swimming pools or toilets with infected persons and that persons may be symptoms free for more than 10 years. Concerning attitude, more than half of the students (52.6%) had negative attitude towards HIV/AIDS patients. On conducting logistic regression analysis, male sex and residing in urban areas were significant predictors of good knowledge and positive attitude towards HIV/AIDS, respectively. Information about HIV/AIDs was gained from TV (60.6%) followed by internet (45%), university curriculum (27%), friends (22%) and family (18%) Conclusion: The studied nursing students had moderately good general knowledge about HIV, but several misconceptions were prevalent among them. However, more than half of them exhibited negative attitude towards HIV/AIDS indicating urgent need for training programs to improve their knowledge and change their attitude towards persons with HIV/AIDS.

Background:Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is influenced by a wide variety of factors, one of which is hemolysis. Serious hyperbilirubinemia may lead to a kernicterus with detrimental neurologic sequelae. Patients suffering from hemolytic disease have a higher risk of developing kernicterus. Carbon monoxide (CO), a byproduct of hemolysis or heme degradation, was described by Sjöstrand in the 1960s. It is transported as carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) and exhaled through the lungs. We were interested in a potential correlation between COHb and total serum bilirubin (TSB) and the time course of both parameters.Materials and methods:We used a point of care (POC) blood gas analyzer and did a retrospective analysis of bilirubin and COHb data collected over a 60-day period.Results:An arbitrary cut-off point set at 2% COHb identified four patients with hemolytic disease of different origins who required phototherapy. In one patient with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), COHb preceded the rise in bilirubin by about 2 days. Despite this displacement, there was a moderately good correlation of COHb with TSB levels Conclusions:COHb might be useful as a marker for high hemoglobin turnover to allow an earlier identification of newborns at risk to a rapid rise in bilirubin.

Drivers’ Stress and Safety Practices (SSP) are very important for transportation organizations to save people’s lives, reduce fines and keep insurance premiums low. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the SSP level of heavy commercial passenger vehicle drivers in a transport organization using Multi-Grade Fuzzy (MGF) approach. The overall SSP index was calculated as 5.51 which indicate that the case transport organisation’s practice level is ‘moderately good practices’ and has scope for improvement. The stress and safety practice attributes are classified based on Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). The results found that the weaker attributes of the case transport organisation were work timing, pragmatic trip scheduling, work-life balance and degree of freedom at work, which the organization has to improve. Using this framework, the any transport organisation can better evaluate their drivers’ SSP level.

L’eau est indispensable pour satisfaire les besoins domestiques et alimentaires, mais sa disponibilite permanente est une preoccupation reelle en milieu urbain notamment dans les quartiers defavorises des pays en developpement. Le manque d’eau et la qualite de celle-ci exposent les populations particulierement les enfants aux maladies hydriques. L’objectif de ce travail est d’identifier les differentes sources d’approvisionnement en eau et d’evaluer la perception de la qualite de l’eau et son impact sur la sante par les populations de la commune des Parcelles Assainies de Dakar. La methodologie adoptee dans cette etude est basee sur une enquete qui a consiste a administrer aux menages un questionnaire pre-valide. La methode des quotas a permis de selectionner 400 menages repartis dans les differents quartiers de la commune. Les resultats indiquent que 82,3 % de la population de la commune s’approvisionnent avec l’eau du robinet et 70,5 % utilisent des pompes manuelles en cas de coupure d’eau. L’eau du robinet sert essentiellement de boisson (73 %) et celle des pompes manuelles pour la douche, le linge et les travaux menagers. La majorite de la population (56 %) trouve que la qualite de l’eau est moyennement bonne, 24 % indiquent qu’elle est bonne et 20 % considerent qu’elle est mauvaise. L’odeur est le parametre organoleptique le plus utilise par la population (68 %) pour apprecier la qualite de l’eau suivi du gout (63 %) et de la couleur (62 %). Cette situation justifie le traitement de l’eau a domicile avant usage avec l’eau de javel (66,7 %), de comprimes desinfectant Aquatabs® (32,2 %), la filtration et la decantation (21,9 %). Par ailleurs, 75 % des enquetes trouvent que la frequence des maladies diarrheiques chez les enfants est liee a la qualite de l’eau. L’analyse des resultats montre une diversite des sources d’approvisionnement liee au manque de moyens economiques associes aux frequentes coupures d’eau du robinet, une mauvaise perception de la qualite de l’eau et une frequence elevee de maladies liee a l’eau chez les enfants. Water is essential to meet domestic and food needs, but its permanent availability is a real concern in urban areas, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods in developing countries. The lack of water and its quality exposes populations, particularly children, to water-borne diseases. The objective of this work is to identify the different sources of water supply and to evaluate the perception of water quality and its impact on health by the populations of the commune of Parcelles Assainies de Dakar. The methodology adopted in this study is based on a survey that consisted of administering a pre-validated questionnaire to households. The quota method made it possible to select 400 households distributed in the different neighborhoods of the commune. The results indicate that 82.3 % of the commune's population is supplied with tap water and 70.5 % use hand pumps in the event of water cuts. Tap water is mainly used for drinking (73 %) and hand pumps for showering, laundry and housework. The majority of the population (56 %) finds the water quality to be moderately good, 24 % indicate that it is good and 20 % consider it to be poor. Odour is the organoleptic parameter most used by the population (68 %) to assess water quality, followed by taste (63 %) and color (62 %). This situation justifies treating water at home before use with bleach (66.7 %), Aquatabs® disinfectant tablets (32.2 %), filtration and decantation (21.9 %). In addition, 75 % of respondents felt that the frequency of diarrheal diseases in children is related to water quality. Analysis of the results shows a diversity of sources of supply linked to the lack of economic means associated with frequent tap water cuts, poor perception of water quality and a high frequency of water-related illnesses among children.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Fractional concentration of Nitric Oxide in the exhaled air (FeNO) is a moderately good biomarker of type-2 airway inflammation, and its measurement is feasible also in children. The available evidence is still not enough to support the routine use of FeNO to diagnose or manage asthma in every patient in clinical practice. However, its role in identifying asthma with eosinophilic inflammation is of particular interest in the management of severe asthma. RECENT FINDINGS In healthy subjects, FeNO levels increase with age and height, particularly in males, and are also influenced by ethnicity. FeNO measurement can support asthma diagnosis and help in predicting asthma development later in life in young children with recurrent wheezing. FeNO-guided asthma management is effective in reducing asthma exacerbations but may result in a higher daily dose of inhaled corticosteroids. FeNO can also be used as a marker to evaluate adherence to asthma treatment and predict response to different biologicals, especially Omalizumab and Dupilumab. SUMMARY This review outlines recent data on the application of FeNO in childhood-onset asthma diagnosis and management, as well as in phenotyping subjects with severe asthma who may benefit from monoclonal antibodies administration.

This research aims to determine the characteristics of items for the Math National Standardized School Exam (NSSE) in Junior High School (JHS) in grade 9. This study is descriptive-explorative quantitative research. The samples chosen were 293 ninth-grade students’ answers at state JHS of 3 Pati with a package of questions consisting of 30 items. The data collected is an NSSE test instrument and participants’ answers at State JHS of 3 Pati 2018/2019, collected by documentation. Experts validated the NSSE instrument, and the characteristic items of the NSSE instrument were analyzed using the classical test theory approach using Quest program. The question items of the math NSSE test at state JHS of 3 Pati are generally moderately good. Based on the classical theory approach, the result of instrument validity from expert judgment was 0.924, while the validity of items was 17 (56.7%) of items were very valid. The reliability was 0.78 (reliable category). Generally, Math NSSE items are in the easy category with a percentage of 83.3%. The discrimination index results indicate that, in general, the NSSE items are in a moderate category with a percentage of 60% (18 items). The distraction effectiveness shows that NSSE items are in the functional category with a percentage of 50%.

Temporal point process (TPP) models have hitherto been moderately good at nowcasting hashtag popularity, but have been very poor at forecasting due to insufficient modeling of Twitter microdynamics. Recent studies have shown that the highly fluctuating nature of hashtag popularity dynamics is due to the influence of two external factors: (i) hashtag-tweet reinforcement and (ii) inter-hashtag competition. In this paper, we propose a marked TPP based on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) which can seamlessly incorporate the assistive information necessary to capture the above effects and successfully forecast distant popularity trends. To achieve this, we employ a unique linear semi-autoregressive model for mark generation and couple the time and mark generative aspects. On seven diverse datasets crawled from Twitter covering several real-world events, our model yields remarkably stable performance in predicting hashtag popularity in diverse situations and offers a substantial improvement over the existing state of the art generative models.

Purpose The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the social support and psychological resilience levels perceived by nurses in Turkey during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Design and methods The study was descriptive and cross-sectional. Findings The level of social support perceived by the nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic was very good, and the perceived psychological resilience level was moderately good. Moreover, their psychological resilience was found to increase as the social support perceived by them increased. Practice implications Psychiatric nurses should determine the social support resources of nurses, especially during the epidemic period. Individual and institutional studies should be conducted to increase nurses' psychological resilience.

Load profiles that characterise neighbourhoods can be usefully constructed using both detailed measurement data from mid-voltage stations and neighbourhood population density. This neighbourhood characterisation allows for the identification of similar mid-voltage stations and can help inform the roll-out of, amongst other topics, advanced measurement equipment. Neighbourhood population density and address density are found to be relatively simple and moderately good descriptors for load profile class compared to a large number of other characteristics. A novel classification for neighbourhood density is created that matches cable density and time durations curves observed in the neighbourhoods.

An investigation is carried out to analyze the underground water quality of 26 villages in Bapatla mandal for their quality parameters and comprehensively arriving at a single water quality index. The irrigation water samples were collected manually from the bore wells which are approximately equally distributed all over 26 villages of Bapatla mandal. The samples were analyzed using standard procedures in the laboratory (APHA, 1985). The parameters analyzed during the analysis are pH, EC, Chlorides, Calcium, Magnesium (Mg), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Hardness (TH). The final output has been given in the thematic representation of irrigation water quality attributes using SURFER 7.0 for individual as well as weighted Water Quality Index. From the investigation, it is clearly evident that the groundwater of the area needs some degree of treatment before consumption. Based on the investigations carried out, it is observed that Asodivaripalem, West Bapatla, Cheruvujamulapalem, Murukondapadu, Muthayapalem, Maruproluvaripalem and Vodarevu villages contain water quality very poor for irrigation purpose due to over salt accumulation. Necessary measures are to be taken to gain safe irrigation and drinking water to the people living in the villages. Total hardness was found to be very high in Murukondapadu, and Muthayapalem villages. Very high concentrations of chloride, calcium and magnesium were found in West Bapatla, Cheruvujamulapalem, Murukondapadu and Muthayapalem villages. The water quality is good in Jillelamudi, Mulapalem, Etheru, Bhartipudi, Tsundurupalli, Gopapuram, Appikatla, East Bapatla, Kondubotlavaripalem and Poondla villages based on Water Quality Index. The water quality was found moderately good in Vedullapalli, Bethapudi, Pinniboinavaripalem, Gudipudi, Stuvartpuram, Kankatapalem, Marripudi, and Narasayapalem villages

BF3·OEt2 mediated inverse electron demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) reaction of chalcones with aryl acetylenes is reported for the synthesis of symmetrical and unsymmetrical 2,4,6-triarylpyrylium ions. The protocol provides an effective one-pot method for the utilization of readily available simple substrates under mild reaction conditions leading to a diverse array of pyrylium ions in moderately good yield.

Aims Limb salvage for diabetic foot infections often require multiple procedures. Some patients will eventually end up with below knee amputation (BKA) when all limb salvage attempts fail. We seek to study the patients’ ability to return to normal life, functional status, prosthesis usage and perspectives on multiple limb salvage procedures that culminated in BKA to review if they would undertake a similar path if their situation was repeated. Patients and Methods A total of 41 patients who underwent BKA between July 2011 and June 2013 were reviewed. They were divided into primary and creeping (prior multiple salvage procedures) amputations. The Barthel’s Index (BI) and the Reintegration to Normal Living Index (RNLI) were used. A questionnaire was used to identify whether the patient would undergo the same multiple attempts at limb salvage again if faced with the same problem. Results All patients had a good mean BI of 14.2 (3 to 20) and RNLI of 73.2 (31 to 100). There was no difference in prosthesis usage, BI and RNLI between both groups. We found that 16 (94.1%) out of 17 patients with creeping amputation would undergo the same multiple salvage procedures if given a similar option. Conversely, only 15 (62.5%) patients with primary amputation would do the same again while the other nine (37.5%) patients choose to do everything possible to save their leg if faced with a similar situation (p = 0.001). Conclusion Most patients preferred to undergo multiple procedures to salvage the limb from diabetic foot infection even if it ultimately concluded with a BKA. All the patients had a moderately good functional outcome and ability to return to normal living after BKA. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:1502–7.

Background Ayurveda is one of the most ancient and widely practiced forms of medicine today, along with Traditional Chinese Medicine. It consists of determining an individual's constitution or Prakriti and current imbalance(s) through the use of multimodal approaches. Ayurveda practitioners may choose to include either a self-reported or structured interview constitutional questionnaire as part of the Prakriti assessment. Currently, there is no standardized or validated self-reported constitutional questionnaire tool employed by Ayurveda physicians or western Ayurveda educational institutions. Objectives To examine test-retest reliability of three self-administered constitutional questionnaires at a one month interval and internal consistency of items pertaining to a single constitution. Materials and methods Three constitutional questionnaires were administered online. 19 participants completed three questionnaires at two time points, one month apart. Age range was 21–62 years old with a mean age of 34. Of the 19, 5 were male and 14 female. Vata, Pitta, and Kapha scores obtained from each questionnaire were standardized to give a vector of three relative percentages, summing to 100. These percentages were further translated from numerical values to one of ten possible dosha diagnoses. Results Analysis indicated that the three questionnaires had moderately good test-retest reliability according to numerical scores, but highly variable reliability according to discrete Ayurveda diagnosis. Internal consistency pertaining to individual constitutions within one questionnaire was poor for all three primary doshas , but especially for Kapha . Conclusion Further research is necessary to develop a reliable and standardized constitutional questionnaire.

Purpose To determine the diagnostic value of B-scan echography in optic nerve head (ONH) cupping estimation in children. Methods The medical records of pediatric patients who had previously undergone examination under anesthesia and for whom both adequate B-scan echography images and optic nerve head (ONH) photographs and were available were reviewed retrospectively. The cup:disk ratio was estimated with a grading scale of 0-1.0 and rounded to the nearest tenth; degree of cupping was estimated from B-scan echography (small, medium, or large) by 5 masked graders (3 glaucoma specialists and 2 ophthalmic sonographers) on 2 separate occasions. Inter- and intraobserver agreement in echographic and photographic cupping assessment by the masked graders as well as correlation of echographic and photographic cup size estimation was evaluated. Results A total of 36 children were included. Glaucoma specialists reliably assessed cup:disk ratio with moderately good consistency across specialists (average intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] for intraobserver agreement, 0.86; average ICC for interobserver agreement, 0.71). Sonographers were extremely reliable in assessment of cup size when examining echographic images (ICC for both inter- and intrarater variability, 1.0). Echographic estimate of cup size correlated poorly with cup:disk ratio (ICC, 0.34). Conclusions B-scan echography is a reliable and consistent diagnostic tool in estimating the degree of ONH cupping in children and can be very useful in patients in whom direct visualization is not feasible. Failure to account for disk size may have contributed to the poor correlation between echographic cup size and photographic cup:disk ratio.

Estimating accurate above ground biomass AGB of oil palm plantation in Malaysia is crucial as it serves as an important indicator to assess the role of oil palm plantations in the global carbon cycle, particularly whether it serves as carbon source or sink. Research on oil palm AGB in Malaysia using remote sensing is almost insignificant and it has known that remote sensing provides easy, inexpensive and less time consuming over larger areas. Therefore, this study focuses on evaluating the potential of Landsat Thematic Mapper TM data with combination of field data survey to predict AGB estimates and mapping the oil palm plantations. The relationships of AGB with individual TM bands and various selected vegetation indices were examined. In addition, various possibilities of data transform were explored in statistical analysis. The potential models selected were obtained using backward elimination method where R2, adjusted R2R2adj, standard error of estimate SEE, root mean squared error RMSE and Mallows’s Cp criterion were examined in model development and validation. It was found that the most promising model provides moderately good prediction of about 62% of the variability of the AGB with RMSE value of 3.68 tonnes t ha-1. In conclusion, Landsat TM offers the low cost AGB estimates and mapping of oil palm plantations with moderate accuracy in Malaysia.

Adherence to therapy plays a key role in treatment optimization and clinical outcome in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The adherence to inhaled medications is poor, ranging from 20% to 60%. In this study we searched Medline and PubMed literature regarding factors that could have an impact on therapy adherence in COPD patients, using the key words “COPD” or “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” and “adherence”. The search was limited to the English language article published between January 2013 and December 2019. Review papers, study protocols, and meta-analyses were excluded. The final material included 25 articles. The evaluation was performed using the Cochrane Review Manager guidelines. The 25 articles represented 29 countries from 5 continents. We assessed adherence to therapy and the impact of selected factors on the adherence in 27,660 COPD patients (60.9% of whom were male, mean age 64 years). The factors affecting adherence were broken down into three categories: sociodemographic, clinical, and psychological. There were two standardized instruments used in the analyzed studies: Test of Adherence to Inhalers (TAI) and self-reported Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). We found that 46.3% of patients had a moderately good level of adherence to inhaled therapy (TAI range around 50 points), while 41.6% of patients had a high level of adherence to oral therapy. The nature of non-adherence was in most cases inadvertent rather than an erratic or deliberate demeanor (48.5% vs. 38.9% vs. 42.4%, respectively). We conclude that standardized instruments enable the prediction of adherence to therapy and should be used in clinical practice. The assessment of adherence is essential for undertaking interventions to counteract plausible non-adherence. Collaboration between an educator and a psychologist is required to evaluate the patient’s motivation and to ensure his comprehension of treatment prescribed.

Information products provide agents with additional information that is used to update their actions. In many situations, access to such products can be quite limited. For instance, in epidemics, there tends to be a limited supply of medical testing kits or tests. These tests are information products because their output of a positive or a negative answer informs individuals and authorities on the underlying state and the appropriate course of action. In this paper, using an analytical model, we show how the accuracy of a test in detecting the underlying state affects the demand for the information product differentially across heterogeneous agents. Correspondingly, the test accuracy can serve as a rationing device to ensure that the limited supply of information products is appropriately allocated to the heterogeneous agents. When test availability is low and the social planner is unable to allocate tests in a targeted manner to the agents, we find that moderately good tests can outperform perfect tests in terms of social outcome. On the policy side, we use a numerical study of an evolving epidemic to confirm our theoretically derived insight that in the early stages of an epidemic with low test availability, releasing a moderately good test can be an optimal strategy.

OBJECTIVES To compare the efficacy of using an eyelash manipulation technique to the traditional eyelash epilation and subsequent microscopic examination technique, when investigating for the presence of Demodex folliculorum in a clinical setting. METHODS Four hundred twenty-eight eyelashes of 107 subjects were chosen to compare the quantity of D. folliculorum visible on eyelash manipulation with the slitlamp biomicroscope to that counted on microscopic examination of the same epilated eyelash. One eyelash from each eyelid was rotated with sterile forceps in situ, and the number of D. folliculorum seen emerging from the follicle was counted. The same eyelash was then epilated, and the number of D. folliculorum on the epilated eyelash was counted. Data were analyzed to check for agreement between the two techniques. RESULTS Intraclass correlation coefficient showed moderately good agreement for assessing the quantity of D. folliculorum (0.78) between the techniques. However, the Bland-Altman plot suggested that consistently higher quantities were found on eyelash manipulation. The overall mean quantity of D. folliculorum was also greater on eyelash manipulation (1.45 mites; range, 0-13 mites) than on microscopic examination of the epilated eyelash (0.81 mites; range, 0-16; P=

Background Pseudouridine modification is most commonly found among various kinds of RNA modification occurred in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. This biochemical event has been proved to occur in multiple types of RNAs, including rRNA, mRNA, tRNA, and nuclear/nucleolar RNA. Hence, gaining a holistic understanding of pseudouridine modification can contribute to the development of drug discovery and gene therapies. Although some laboratory techniques have come up with moderately good outcomes in pseudouridine identification, they are costly and required skilled work experience. We propose iPseU-NCP – an efficient computational framework to predict pseudouridine sites using the Random Forest (RF) algorithm combined with nucleotide chemical properties (NCP) generated from RNA sequences. The benchmark dataset collected from Chen et al. (2016) was used to develop iPseU-NCP and fairly compare its performances with other methods. Results Under the same experimental settings, comparing with three state-of-the-art methods including iPseU-CNN, PseUI, and iRNA-PseU, the Matthew’s correlation coefficient (MCC) of our model increased by about 20.0%, 55.0%, and 109.0% when tested on the H. sapiens (H_200) dataset and by about 6.5%, 35.0%, and 150.0% when tested on the S. cerevisiae (S_200) dataset, respectively. This significant growth in MCC is very important since it ensures the stability and performance of our model. With those two independent test datasets, our model also presented higher accuracy with a success rate boosted by 7.0%, 13.0%, and 20.0% and 2.0%, 9.5%, and 25.0% when compared to iPseU-CNN, PseUI, and iRNA-PseU, respectively. For majority of other evaluation metrics, iPseU-NCP demonstrated superior performance as well. Conclusions iPseU-NCP combining the RF and NPC-encoded features showed better performances than other existing state-of-the-art methods in the identification of pseudouridine sites. This also shows an optimistic view in addressing biological issues related to human diseases.

This researchi is want to knowithe test quality of items in the mid semester for XII Grade of SMA Negeri 1 PematangsiantarIin academic yearI 2020/2021 basic on terms of reliability test, validity, difficulty index, descriminationi index and disctractor. The research have used thecollecting data’s method was documentation and to collect some of test item, student answer sheet, answer key and so do interview to chemistry teachers in this school. Research used subject in this school were grade XII Science 1,2,and 3 of the science students of SMA Negeri 1 Pematangsiantar with total of subject 108 students based on purposive sanpling that researcher which has been used. The research have used method ofIanalyzed was quantitative descriptiveIconducted and it has used softwere program based of SPSSIversion 25 and Anates version 4.0.9. The result of the research concluded that the quality of the test item has some of category such as showed 2 items (10%) had very good quality and 2 items (10%)too had poorIquality of test and extremely poor quality in same test and should be suggest to thrown awayand 8 items (40%) known that has good quality, 4 (20%) has moderately quality, 3 (15%) has poor quality of item test and conclude that the quality of item test had moderately good quality based on this research.

Cereal bars are nutritious food composed of several ingredients including cereals, fruits, nuts and sugar among others. Thus, this study aimed to develop cereal bars containing pineapple peel flour. A completely randomized design was used with four treatments, as follows: Control (0% flour); T1 (3% flour); T2 (6% flour); and T3 (9% flour), for the variables moisture, ash, protein, fat, crude fiber and carbohydrates. It was observed that the higher the pineapple peel flour content, the greater the crude fiber content in the cereal bars was, evidencing the significant amounts of crude fiber in the pineapple peel. In the texture analysis, although an increase in bar consistency was observed with increasing concentrations of pineapple peel flour, no differences were observed up to 6% flour addition when compared to the control. With respect to the sensory attributes, the samples scored among the hedonic terms 7.0 (moderately good) and 9.0 (very good). It can be concluded that the pineapple peel flour is a good alternative to be introduced in human diet, in addition to significantly reduce waste generation in the pulp industries. Practical Applications In this study, we produced cereal bars using different concentrations of pineapple peel flour (PPF), a co-product of the fruit industry. We observed that the addition of up to 6% PPF in the cereal bars did not alter the sensory acceptance and increased the fiber content. We believe that these findings may be useful for the production of cereal bars with healthier characteristics and reduce the environment impact caused by industrialization of pineapple.

Heterocyclic compounds are the most attractive class for researchers due to their biological activities. In the undertaken research, a number of N -(5-chloro-2-methoxyphenyl)-4-(5-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-ylthio)butanamide (6a–k) compounds were prepared by converting multifarious phenyl/aryl/aralkyl/heterocyclic organic acids ( 1a–k) consecutively into the corresponding esters (2a–k) , hydrazides (3a–k) and 5-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-thiols (4a–k) . Finally, the target compounds 6a–k were synthesized by stirring 5-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-thiols (4a–k) with N -(5-chloro-2-methoxyphenyl)-4-bromobutanamide (5) in the presence of N , N -dimethylformamide (DMF) and sodium hydride (NaH). The structure elucidation of the synthesized compounds was processed through 1 H-NMR, IR and mass spectral data. The synthesized compounds were screened against lipoxygenase enzyme (LOX) and showed moderately good activities relative to the reference standard Baicalein.

A new macrocyclic oxamido-nickle(II) complex Na2NiL was synthesized. L denotes the doubly deprotonated forms of (13Z, 19Z)-16-methyl-6,7-dioxo-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrotriben-zo[b,f,l][1,4,8,11]tetraazacyclotetradecine- 13,20-dicarboxylate. Based on the complex ligand Ni(L2–), two heterometallic complexes [Ca2(NiL)2(H2O)8] · 10H2O (I) and [Co(NiL)2(H2O)2][Co(H2O)6] · 2.8H2O (II) were prepared. X-ray single crystal analyses (CCDC nos. 914618 (I), 914616 (II)) revealed that [Ca2(NiL)2(H2O)8] in I is a molecular box and the trinuclear complex anion [Co(NiL)2(H2O)2]2–in II is centrosymmetric. Thermogravimetric analyses showed that I exhibited moderately good stability and Co(II) catalyzed the thermal decomposition of II.

In this study, environment friendly nonionic surfactants were synthesized from sugar base and their structure was characterized by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and FT-IR. The newly synthesized SA08 series surfactants showed excellent interfacial properties such as low CMC, surface tension and interfacial tension, and superior foam stability. Detergency tests using three different types of artificial soils have revealed that the synthesized surfactants showed moderately good detergency presumably due to excellent interfacial properties and stereoscopic molecular structure of SA08 series surfactants. Environmental compatibility test showed that SA08-07 surfactant exhibited low toxicity compared with conventional nonionic and anionic surfactants and excellent biodegradability.

The recently proposed low-rank representation (LRR) method has been empirically shown to be useful in various tasks such as motion segmentation, image segmentation, saliency detection and face recognition. While potentially powerful, LRR depends heavily on the configuration of its key parameter, $\lambda$ . In realistic environments where the prior knowledge about data is lacking, however, it is still unknown how to choose $\lambda$ in a suitable way. Even more, there is a lack of rigorous analysis about the success conditions of the method, and thus the significance of LRR is a little bit vague. In this paper we therefore establish a theoretical analysis for LRR, striving for figuring out under which conditions LRR can be successful, and deriving a moderately good estimate to the key parameter $\lambda$ as well. Simulations on synthetic data points and experiments on real motion sequences verify our claims.

We report on the structure and mass transport properties of liquid Al–Cu alloys predicted by two recently-developed empirical many-body potentials: MEAM (Jelinek et al., 2012) and EAM-ADP (Apostol and Mishin, 2011), and by the well-known Gupta potential. Total and partial pair correlation functions, angular distribution functions, densities, coordination numbers and self-diffusion coefficients are compared with published experimental and ab initio results for a number of temperatures above the liquidus. Prevalent local orderings are characterized by means of Voronoi analysis. Densities and the temperature coefficient of density are compared with experiment for different compositions of the alloy. All three studied potentials, and EAM-ADP and MEAM in particular, display marked difficulty in describing mixed (Al–Cu) interactions. EAM-ADP mispredicts Cu-rich alloys to re-solidify at all temperatures studied, while MEAM’s predictions for the density and its temperature dependence are poor for Al-rich compositions. Overall, the best description of liquid Al–Cu is offered by the Gupta potential, which is found to give a reasonable picture of short-range order and predicts mass transport coefficients and densities in moderately good agreement with experiment.

Spectral population synthesis (PS) is a fundamental tool in extragalactic research that aims to decipher the assembly history of galaxies from their SED. However, until recently all PS codes were restricted to purely stellar fits, neglecting the essential contribution of nebular emission (NE). With the advent of FADO, the now possible self-consistent modelling of stellar and NE opens new routes to the exploration of galaxy SFHs. The main goal of this study is to quantitatively explore the accuracy to which FADO can recover physical and evolutionary properties of galaxies and compare its output with that from purely stellar PS codes. With this in mind, FADO and STARLIGHT were applied to synthetic SEDs that track the spectral evolution of stars and gas in extinction-free mock galaxies that form their stellar mass ($M_\star$) according to different parametric SFHs. Spectral fits were computed for two different set-ups that approximate the spectral range of SDSS and CALIFA data. Our analysis indicates that FADO can recover the key physical and evolutionary properties of galaxies, such as $M_\star$ and mass- and light-weighted mean age and metallicity, with an accuracy better than 0.2 dex. This is the case even in phases of strongly elevated sSFR and thus with considerable NE contamination. As for STARLIGHT, our analysis documents a moderately good agreement with theoretical values only for evolutionary phases for which NE drops to low levels. Indeed, fits with STARLIGHT during phases of high sSFR severely overestimate both $M_\star$ and the mass-weighted stellar age, whereas strongly underestimate the light-weighted age and metallicity. The insights from this study suggest that the neglect of nebular continuum emission in STARLIGHT and similar purely stellar PS codes could systematically impact $M_\star$ and SFH estimates for star-forming galaxies., Comment: 26 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

BackgroundAlthough individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) have a significantly shorter lifespan than the general population, there is sparse evidence on cause of death when alcohol dependent people die prematurely. Especially the somatic causes of death are shed less light on.AimTo determine the cause of premature death in individuals with AUD based on recent studies.MethodsThis systematic review summarizes evidence from the last 10 years with cohort studies consisting of AUD patients with the subsequent outcome of cause of death and with at least two years of follow-up.ResultsNine studies were included of which only two were assessed to be of good quality. Furthermore, two studies were of moderately good and acceptable quality, respectively. This review found increased mortality in AUD individuals with the main causes of death being malignancy, and problems of the cardiovascular- and the digestive system.ConclusionMalignancy was the most common cause of death in the included AUD cohorts, but the overall quality of the included studies in this review is low. There is a need for high-quality studies to better understand cause-specific mortality among AUD individuals.

The aim of the study was to estimate the rates of preconception care in Turkish pregnant women, the affecting factors and the quality of care. The cross-sectional study was carried out in the clinics of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of a State Hospital in the east of Turkey. Between the February 2017 and July 2017, 1050 pregnant women became the samples of the study. The received preconception care rate was 17.3%.When the quality of the received preconception care; From the components of the preconception care, it was identified that the order of the most frequently asked topics are; The ages of the mother and father (68.1%), past pregnancy status (91.8%) and delivery status (84.1%), the presence of a systemic disease such as DM or HT (%74.2), the presence of a drug that must be used consistently (63.7%), the presence of a contagious disease (47.8%) and tetanus vaccination (33.5%), consanguinity with husband (72%), the status of smoking and alcohol consumption (64.3%). It was determined that the folic acid tablets (85.2%) were prescribed the most in the antenatal health supplement component. The rate of preconception care in pregnant women was very low and it can be said that the quality of received care was moderately good.

Toward a new era of X-ray astronomy, next generation X-ray optics are indispensable. To meet a demand for telescopes lighter than the foil optics but with a better angular resolution less than 1 arcmin, we are developing micropore X-ray optics based on micromaching technologies. Using sidewalls of micropores through a thin silicon wafer, this type can be the lightest X-ray telescope ever achieved. Two new Japanese missions ORBIS and GEOX will carry this optics. ORBIS is a small X-ray astronomy mission to monitor supermassive blackholes, while GEO-X is a small exploration mission of the Earth’s magnetosphere. Both missions need a ultra light-weight (

As an extension to an activity introducing Year 5 students to the practice of statistics, the software TinkerPlots made it possible to collect repeated random samples from a finite population to informally explore students’ capacity to begin reasoning with a distribution of sample statistics. This article provides background for the sampling process and reports on the success of students in making predictions for the population from the collection of simulated samples and in explaining their strategies. The activity provided an application of the numeracy skill of using percentages, the numerical summary of the data, rather than graphing data in the analysis of samples to make decisions on a statistical question. About 70% of students made what were considered at least moderately good predictions of the population percentages for five yes–no questions, and the correlation between predictions and explanations was 0.78.

Kazuhiko Mori, Yoko Ikeda, Yuko Maruyama, Shigeta Naruse, Morio Ueno, Shigeru Kinoshita Department of Ophthalmology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan Purpose: To report the cases of six consecutive patients who underwent amniotic membrane (AM)-assisted trabeculectomy (TLE) to treat refractory glaucoma with severe corneal disorders. Methods: This study involved six patients (three males and three females, mean age: 69.5±15.8 years) with refractory glaucoma and severe corneal disorders. The surgical procedure for each patient involved trabecular tissue being excised, and human AM then being placed epithelial side up on the corneal surface, sutured at the limbal sclera, and flipped over onto the sclera to cover the TLE area. The remaining edge of the AM was then inserted into the subconjunctival space and sutured. Medical records of all cases were reviewed with regard to intraocular pressure (IOP), visual acuity, and condition of the filtering bleb and ocular surface. Results: The mean observation period was 69.5±15.8 months, and mean IOP at presurgery and at 1, 3, and 7 years postoperative was 40.3±6.9, 23.0±12.1, 25.6±12.8, and 28.5±19.1 mmHg, respectively. Glaucoma medications decreased from 3.0±1.1 drugs (presurgery) to 0.8±1.0 drugs (7 years postoperative). However, in some cases, ocular surface conditions or visual acuity worsened during the follow-up period. Conclusion: Using AM as an internal patch for TLE, moderately good IOP control was obtained initially for the refractory glaucoma with severe corneal disorders; however, ocular surface conditions required special care, and the long-term IOP control was limited in some cases. Keywords: amniotic membrane, refractory glaucoma, trabeculectomy

In this paper, the concentration, the size distribution, and the formation of dimethylaminium (DMA+) and trimethylaminium (TMA+) ions in atmospheric particles were studied during a cruise campaign over the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea of China in May 2012. The concentrations of DMA+ and TMA+ in particles smaller than 11 µm were 4.4 ± 3.7 and 7.2 ± 7.1 nmol m−3, respectively. The two ions had a good correlation (R2 = 0.86), and both had a moderately good correlation with chlorophyll a fluorescence (R2 = 0.66–0.67). The observed concentrations were from one to three orders of magnitude larger than the concentrations reported in other marine atmospheres. They were also much larger than the values observed at a coastal site neighboring the Yellow Sea in May–June 2013. The high concentrations of DMA+ and TMA+ observed in the marine atmosphere were probably associated with local biogenic activity instead of the long-range transport of these species from adjacent continents. The calculated mole ratios of (DMA+ + TMA+) to in different-sized particles over the seas indicated that (DMA+ + TMA+) most likely played an important role in neutralizing acidic species in particles less than 0.43 µm but not in particles of other sizes. Size distributions of DMA+ and TMA+ in the marine and coastal atmospheres were analyzed in terms of the respective contribution of gas–particle partitioning, cloud/fog processing of TMA+ and DMA+, bioaerosols, and sea-salt aerosols to the observed concentrations of the two ions over the seas.

Research has shown that the overall climate in a school can encourage or deter learning. One significant factor promoting a positive climate is the use of motivational language by school leaders. This article presents empirical evidence of teachers’ perceptions of motivational language used by school principals and the effects of this language on perceptions of school climate. The aim is to make principals aware of the importance of language choices. The approach used involved survey responses and correlational analysis. Teachers’ perceptions of the motivational language of school principals, as well as the climate in schools, were independently examined, and the impact of the language on perceptions of school climate was tested. The study reveals that climate, in a range of public schools in Kuwait, is rated by teachers as moderately good; similarly, motivational language forms used by school principals were rated as only modestly effective. Comparative analysis showed that a school leader’s motivating language in all forms affects public school climates in Kuwait. It is proposed that with further testing it is likely that this will be revealed as a more general finding. The study recommends further training and experience with motivational language for school principals in Kuwait.

著者人数: 15名, Accepted: 2018-09-05, 資料番号: SA1180175000

AimTo newly describe a spectral-domain (SD) optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) for the cornea and directly compare two OCTA system scans of the same eyes with corneal vascularisation.MethodsCross-sectional, observational, comparative case series. We performed sequential OCTA scans (10 eyes of 10 subjects with corneal vascularisation,4 scans each eye) repeated using split-spectrum amplitude decorrelation algorithm angiography system (SSADA, AngioVue; Optovue Inc, USA) and SD OCTA (Angioscan; Nidek Co. Ltd, Japan) in the same region of interest. We analysed all scan images for repeatability, image quality and vessel density measurements and compared OCTA systems.ResultsWe obtained substantial interobserver repeatability in terms of image quality score (κ=0.86) for all 80 OCTA scans (median age 49 years, 50% women). The correlation was moderately good (r=0.721) when comparing vessel density measurements between OCTA systems, but greater in the SSADA compared with SD OCTA system (mean vessel density 20.3±4.9% vs 15.1±4.2%, respectively; pConclusionIn this pilot clinical study, we describe successful delineation of corneal vessels with substantial image quality using a new SD OCTA system. The vessel density measurements were greater using the SSADA compared with SD OCTA system in the same area of corneal vascularisation. Further studies are required to confirm the advantages, limitations and differences between these OCTA systems for the anterior segment.

Fundamentos: Los indicadores perinatales de peso relativo como pequeño y grande para la edad gestacional (PEG, GEG) son preferibles frente a medidas de peso absolutas (bajo peso, macrosomia). El objetivo de esta investigación fue evaluar si los datos del Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) tienen la fiabilidad suficiente para estimar indicadores de peso relativo y si la calidad de la información que comunican los progenitores varía según sus características sociodemográficas. Métodos: Se comparó la información de 6.339 nacimientos del Hospital Clínico San Carlos de Madrid (2005-06) con el registro de nacimientos del INE (con un éxito del 95%). Se evaluaron medidas de validación y acuerdo para los indicadores de bajo peso (BP 4.500 gr), PEG (percentil 90). Se realizó un análisis de regresión logísticas Resultados: Las prevalencias estimadas con los datos del hospital fueron: BP (6%), macrosomia (0,5%) PEG (1%) y GEG (15%) y con datos del INE: 5% 0,5% 2% 12%, respectivamente. La especificidad: 80%, 78%, 24%, 82%. El estadístico Kappa: BP (83%), macrosomia (79%), PEG (24%) y GEG (82%). La omisión e incorrecta declaración varió según la nacionalidad y la situación laboral de los padres (OR entre 1,5 y 2,2). Conclusiones: El INE sobreestimaría la prevalencia de PEG e infraestimaría la de GEG. El acuerdo entre las fuentes es muy bueno para BP, macrosomia y GEG y moderadamente bueno para PEG. Tanto la omisión como los errores en la declaración del peso y la edad gestacional varían en función de las características sociodemográficas de los padres.

Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) measurements are critical in patients with hepatic cirrhosis but potentially erroneous when based on serum creatinine. New equations for estimated GFR (eGFR) have shown variable performance in cirrhotics, possibly because of inaccuracies in reference methods for measured GFR (mGFR). The primary objective was to compare the performance of 4 improved eGFR equations with a 1-compartment, 2-sample plasma slope intercept 99mTc-DTPA mGFR method to determine whether any of the eGFR calculations could replace plasma 99mTc-DTPA mGFR in patients with cirrhosis. The secondary objective was to test the hypothesis that mGFR using voluntary voided urine collections introduces error compared with plasma-only methods. Methods: Fifty-four patients with hepatic cirrhosis underwent mGFR determinations from 2 plasma samples at 1 and 3 h after intravenous administration of 185 MBq of 99mTc-DTPA. GFR was also generated by a UV/P calculation derived from blood and urine samples. These mGFRs were compared with the eGFRs generated by 4 estimating equations: MDRD (Modified Diet in Renal Disease), CKD-EPI (Chronic Kidney Disease-Epidemiology Collaboration) (serum creatinine [SCr]), CKD-EPI (cystatin [CysC]), and CKD-EPI (CysC+SCr). eGFRs were compared with mGFRs by Pearson correlation, precision, bias, percentage bias, and accuracy (eGFRs varying by

Following the recent rapid increase in the reports of tetrapod tracksites in the Cretaceous, especially from the Lower Cretaceous, of China and other parts of East Asia, notably South Korea, a review of the ichnofaunal database from these regions is presented as the basis for comparisons with other Lower Cretaceous ichnofaunas that are abundant and reasonably well documented. These areas include parts of North and South America, especially the western USA, and parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom, Northern Germany, Spain, Italy and Croatia. The Chinese database presently includes about 70 Cretaceous sites, the majority of which are Early Cretaceous in age. Although abundant data are available from many regions, much of it has yet to be synthesized in detail or in standard formats. Moreover, ichnotaxonomy may be variable (provincial) between different regions. Thus, while comprehensive lists of sites are available for some regions (China and South America), in other regions such as South Korea and the western USA data have been compiled primarily on a formation by formation basis. The record for Europe is moderately good, but scattered in the primary literature and in need of further synthesis. The record for Australia and Africa is sparse and also in need of synthesis. The most notable regional differences between ichnofaunas appears to be in the relative abundance of distinctive bird and pterosaur track ichnotaxa in China and Korea in comparison with their scarcity or absence in other regions. The distinctive ichnogenus Minisauripus is also known only in China and Korea as are the majority of known dromaeosaurid track occurrences. Ornithopod-dominated and ornithopod-rich ichnofaunas are widespread and particularly abundant in the late Early Cretaceous Barremian to Albian, of some regions. Most well documented Early Cretaceous ichnofaunas are associated with siliciclastic facies and evidently differ from those associated with carbonate facies. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 113, 770–789.

The aim of the work was to select pollinators for sweet cherry cultivars: ‘Vanda’, ‘Techlovan’, ‘Syl–via’ and ‘Regina’, which are of great economic significance in Poland. As pollinators, three or four different cultivars with the same or similar flowering time as the pollinated cultivars were evaluated annually. The pollinators belonged to different incompatibility groups. Pollination was carried out over four consecutive seasons. Assuming that for a good yield more than 20% of the flowers should develop fruits, a good polli–nator for the cv. ‘Vanda’ was ‘Techlovan’, and for the cv. ‘Regina’ - ‘Sylvia’. The cv. ‘Techlovan’ was pollinated to best effect by ‘Vega’, and the cv. ‘Sylvia’ by ‘Regina’, but the setting of fruits in the last two combinations was moderately good. Low to moderately good fruit setting but depending on the year was observed in the combinations ‘Sylvia’ x ‘Summit’, ‘Regina’ x ‘Summit’, and ‘Regina’ x ‘Rainier’. Cultivar ‘Summit’ for ‘Sylvia’, and ‘Summit’ and ‘Rainier’ for the cv. ‘Regina’ should not be used as pollinators because the low percentage of fruit set obtained annually does not guarantee a satisfactory yield.

Background Risk stratification after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) event is recommended to guide intensity and timing of investigation and management. The Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) investigators have published several scores for predicting patient risk both at hospital admission and discharge. Objective To evaluate the performance of the admission-to-6-month and discharge-to-6-month GRACE scores for predicting myocardial infarction (MI) and mortality in a contemporary cohort of patients admitted with ACS. Methods The cohort comprised 3743 consecutive patients admitted to cardiology services in two large New Zealand hospitals with an ACS between 2007 and 2011. Risk score data was collected in an electronic registry and linked anonymously to national hospitalisation and mortality records. Results Between admission and 6 months, 160 patients died and another 269 were rehospitalised with an MI. The GRACE admission-to-6-month total mortality and mortality/MI scores both overestimated event rates approximately twofold. The discharge-to-6-month mortality equation was better calibrated. Global discrimination was very good for both admission-to-6-month and discharge-to-6-month mortality scores (c=0.805 and c=0.795, respectively) and moderately good for the corresponding mortality/MI equations (c=0.652 and c=0.624, respectively). Conclusions In a contemporary ACS cohort, the GRACE discharge-to-6-month mortality score has very good discrimination and accurately predicts mortality rates, whereas the admission-to-6-month equation, despite good discrimination, overestimated risk. Recalibration or more dynamic modelling of inhospital risk which includes variables such as time from admission to risk assessment are needed to support use of ACS risk assessment inhospital.

Anxiety difficulties and disorders are common in children and youth people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), but only a few studies have specifically examined informant agreement in non-referred samples. The present study examined informant agreement between 38 Singaporean caregiver–child dyads using the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale Parent Version (SCAS-P) and the SCAS Child self-report (SCAS-C) respectively. The young people with ASD (mean age 12 years 10 months) completed the SCAS-C, while their caregivers completed the SCAS-P, the Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised and the Developmental Behavior Checklist. There was overall moderately good agreement between caregivers and children's reporting of anxiety symptoms. Intra-class correlations were highest in the Separation Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety and Physical Injury subscales. Fourteen of the 38 SCAS items, most of which described overt anxiety symptoms, showed strong or moderate inter-rater agreement. Higher severity of autism symptoms was associated with poorer agreement in the Generalized Anxiety, Panic and Obsessions/Compulsions SCAS subscales. These preliminary findings suggest that the SCAS may be a useful measure for reporting anxiety symptoms in terms of satisfactory agreement between caregivers and young people in non-referred settings. Implications for screening for anxiety in non-referred young people with ASD are also discussed.

The academic development that, in the area of ​​music, has taken place in the symphonic musical composition in the country, has made a significant number of composers flourish that account for a large volume of works of different formats. These works deserve to be studied, analyzed, played in public, recorded and disseminated, both nationally and internationally. Our project that still continues, has consisted of a methodology to collect, analyze, study, rehearse and record Colombian works that, through the same investigative process, can be described as a level of international competence, in order to make known its artistic and aesthetic value. Indeed, we want to leave posterity the sound testimony of works that, having been executed a greater number of times and having escalated to a certain notoriety, some of them; some others that have achieved a decent premiere in the country or others that have been able to reach a first audition but without sufficient public or specialized criticism and, like the previous ones, do not yet have sound records., El desarrollo académico que, en el área de la música, se ha dado en la composición musical sinfónica en el país, ha hecho florecer un número significativo de compositores que dan cuenta de un volumen grande de obras de diferentes formatos. Estas obras merecen ser estudiadas, analizadas, tocadas en público, grabadas y difundidas, tanto en los escenarios nacionales como en los internacionales. Nuestro proyecto que aún continúa, ha consistido en una metodología de recopilar, analizar, estudiar, ensayar y grabar las obras colombianas que, mediante el proceso mismo investigativo, pueden calificarse como de un nivel de competencia internacional, con el fin de poder dar a conocer su valor artístico y estético. En efecto, se quiere dejar a la posteridad el testimonio sonoro de obras que, habiendo sido ejecutadas un mayor número de veces y habiendo escalado hasta una cierta notoriedad, unas de ellas; algunas otras que han logrado un decoroso estreno en el país u otras que han podido llegar a una primera audición pero sin suficiente público o crítica especializada y que, como las anteriores, no tienen todavía registros sonoros.