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Copyright of Die Unfallchirurgie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background The National Institute for Health and Care Research call for research partnerships was designed to build research capacity in palliative and end-of-life care and to ensure that the research of the National Institute for Health and Care Research is conducted in areas of greatest need and where there are historically low levels of research. Northern Ireland has high levels of need, relatively underdeveloped services, and comparatively low levels of research. Aims To build palliative care and end-of-life research capacity in Northern Ireland, with a specific focus on less experienced sites, so that strong applications could be submitted to Part 2 of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Commissioned Call: building the evidence base. To create a sustained collaboration to support a programme of research focused on key areas of need in Northern Ireland that are also relevant to the rest of the United Kingdom. Methods The Partners were: Queen’s, Ulster and Open Universities; All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care; Marie Curie Hospice Care; Patient and Client Council; Kidney Care UK; the three Health and Social Care Trusts covering areas with greatest need; Northern Ireland Clinical Trials Unit; Palliative Care Research Forum Northern Ireland; Public Health Agency; Department of Health; Health and Social Care Board. The Partnership was co-led by Drs Peter O’Halloran and Clare McVeigh, senior lecturers at Queen’s University Belfast. A post-doctoral research assistant was employed 3 days a week in a support role. The Partners agreed the terms of reference for the Partnership and met six times over the following year. An expression of interest form was distributed to potential investigators, producing 13 responses. The Partnership then offered networking opportunities for investigators with specific partners, facilitated by the research assistant. The Partnership hosted a palliative care research conference on ‘Cross-sector Partnerships for Palliative and End-of-life Care Research’. This included presentations from the National Institute for Health and Care Research representatives on grant proposal preparation. A website and newsletter were published. Results Nine introductory meetings took place, mostly with early career researchers. Topics included symptom management, accessing palliative care for vulnerable groups, perinatal bereavement care and advanced care planning. Draft proposals were reviewed by the Partnership and one was prepared for submission to Part 2 of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Commissioned Call: an evaluation of an intervention to improve the readiness of people with end-stage kidney disease, healthcare professionals, and surrogate decision-makers to engage with advance care planning. Conclusions The Partnership took advantage of widespread interest and goodwill among the Partners and their organisations, and proved its usefulness by enabling one application to go forward under the Part 2 call, especially in facilitating patient and public involvement in the development of that application. However, the relatively small number of experienced researchers meant that few were placed to take full advantage of the opportunities offered during the funded lifetime of the Partnership. We believe that an investment over a longer period – for example, 3 years – combined with formal mentorship for potential principal and co-investigators, would be more likely to lead to the development of credible research proposals with a better chance of being funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Funding This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme as award number NIHR135291. Plain language summary Why does Northern Ireland need a Palliative Care Research Partnership? In Northern Ireland, a large number of people need help managing serious long-term illnesses and help at the end of their lives. Compared to the rest of the United Kingdom, research on how to help people in these situations (palliative care research) has been rarely funded in Northern Ireland. The National Institute for Health and Care Research funded a Palliative and End-of-life Research Partnership to support researchers in Northern Ireland so that they could make more applications for the National Institute for Health and Care Research research funding. What was the Partnership? The Partnership was led by two researchers in the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Queen’s University Belfast. It included patients, relatives of patients, patient organisations, university researchers, Health and Social Care Trusts, charities like Marie Curie and the Hospices, and the Department of Health. A specially trained research assistant was employed to support the Partnership and researchers for 1 year. What did the Partnership do? The Partnership met every 2 months. It helped to decide what were the most important things to research. The Partnership spread the news of what it was doing by making a website and sending out a newsletter. It invited researchers to join with the Partners to find good ideas for research. The Partners worked with researchers to help write applications to the National Institute for Health and Care Research for palliative care research funding. The Partnership also ran a conference on partnerships for palliative and end-of-life care research. This was opened by the Minister for Health in Northern Ireland and was well attended by patients and their families, clinical staff and researchers. With the help of the Partnership, one palliative care research application was submitted to the National Institute for Health and Care Research to test a new way to encourage advance care planning for adults with severe kidney disease.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been the subject of recent studies and is expected to be extremely important to the future growth of the Internet. The essential component of the IoT is the low-power and lossy networks (LLNs), which are necessary to connect hundreds or even thousands of devices. The IPv6 Routing Protocol for LLNs (RPL), the standard routing protocol for IoT, uses a variety of routing metrics to construct a destination-oriented directed acyclic graph (DODAG), which helps in selecting the Objective Function (OF). To designate the most efficient route to the destination, it must choose the best parent of the nodes. The two OFs used by the standard RPL have drawbacks as they only employ a single metric. As a result, several studies reveal RPL limitations, and just a few IoT applications gain from it. Therefore, in this paper, we will go over the drawbacks of using a single metric and the downsides of utilizing a composite metric by proposing an equilibrium optimizer-RPL (EO-RPL) protocol that selects the preferred parent using a novel optimization method known as an EO algorithm, which relies on a composite metric. The simulation results demonstrate that our novel OF outperforms its counterparts in terms of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), control overhead, end-to-end delay, and energy consumption. The results indicate that the average improvement ratios of the PDR of EO-RPL regarding Energy-based Path Cost-RPL (EPC-RPL), Energy Efficient RPL (E-RPL), and Energy Efficient Optimal Parent Selection-RPL (EEOPS-RPL) are 66.9%, 10.3%, and 8.3%, respectively. For control overhead, the improvement ratios of EO-RPL in comparison with EPC-RPL, E-RPL, and EEOPS-RPL are 37.7%, 22%, and 12.4%, respectively. Not only that but, the improvement ratios with regard to the end-to-end delay of EO-RPL are, in relation to EPC-RPL, E-RPL, and EEOPS-RPL, 77.06%, 45.6%, and 32.46%, correspondingly. Finally, for EPC-RPL, E-RPL, and EEOPS-RPL, the improvement ratios of EO-RPL are 16.09%, 14.1%, and 12.12% for energy consumption, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I would like to suggest that the anthropological proposal of Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, the famous nineteenth-century Danish author, offers a model that maintains and affirms religious diversity, recognizing its place in the life of the community, but without having to resort to the separation of the religious and the public, the typical response of liberalism that has been generally adopted in the modern world. Grundtvig's proposal - an ordained pastor of the Danish Church, but deeply influenced by English liberal ideas - represents an intriguing middle ground between secularization and pluralism. He understood that, in the new modern world, it was necessary to recognize not only the members of the official Church, but also the practitioners of other religions and even non-believers. The voice of the Church was just one among many. However, he also resisted excluding religion from public life, as is the case in traditional secularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The subscapular artery vascularizes a substantial region of the thoracic wall, and the significance of its distribution is well depicted in the diversity of reconstructive procedures that rely on its blood supply. The aim of this study is to present an uncommon anatomical variation of the artery and discuss the clinical implications of its presence. Case Report. This case report depicts a rare variant of compression and the kinking of the subscapular artery by the radial nerve on the posterior wall of the axilla that was encountered during dissection of a male cadaver of Greek origin. Conclusion. The use of autologous tissues in the reconstruction of defects and treatment of lymphedema is expanding, so the need to establish safer surgical dissections is also becoming more apparent. The case of entrapment of the subscapular artery by the radial nerve is extremely rare, however, utilizing tissues perfused by this artery for reconstructive purposes could potentially be futile and unsuccessful due to the inadequate blood supply or vessel thrombosis. Hence, the surgeon should adapt the treatment plan according to preoperative findings, as the presence of anatomical variants should always be suspected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Due to their medical and technology dependence, families of children with medical complexity (CMC) have significant costs associated with care. Financial impact on families in general have been described, but detailed exploration of expenses in specific categories has not been systematically explored. Our objective was to describe out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses incurred by caregivers of CMC and to determine factors associated with increased expenditures. Methods This is a secondary observational analysis of data primary caregiver-reported OOP expenses as part of a randomized control trial conducted in Ontario, Canada. Caregivers completed questionnaires reporting OOP costs. Descriptive statistics were utilized to report OOP expenses and a linear regression model was conducted. Results 107 primary caregivers of CMC were included. The median (IQR) age of participants was 34.5 years (30.5 to 40.5) and 83.2% identified as the mother. The majority were married or common-law (86.9%) and 50.5% were employed. The participant's children [median (IQR) age 4.5 (2.2 to 9.7); 57.9% male] most commonly had a neurological/neuromuscular primary diagnosis (46.1%) and 88% utilized medical technology. Total OOP expenses were $8,639 CDN annually (IQR = $4,661 to $31,326) with substantial expenses related to childcare/homemaking, travel to appointments, hospitalizations, and device costs. No factors associated with greater likelihood of OOP expenses were identified. A P-value of <0.05 was considered significant. Conclusion Caregivers of CMC incur significant OOP expenses related to the care of their children resulting in financial burden. Future exploration of the financial impact on caregiver productivity, employment, and identification of resources to mitigate OOP expenses will be important for this patient population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive consumption of sugary drinks negatively impacts the developing brain, producing long‐lasting behavioral and metabolic disorders. Here, we study whether treatment with the antihyperglycemic agent metformin prevents some of the anxiety and memory alterations produced by chronic sucrose consumption. Male Sprague–Dawley rats had unrestricted access to water (control group) and a bottle containing a 10% sucrose solution (sucrose group, SUC) for 35 days. In parallel, a group of animals from SUC received metformin (25 mg/kg or 50 mg/kg, orally; MET 25 and MET 50 groups, respectively). After 2 weeks of metformin treatment, the animals weighed less than controls. SUC and MET 50 groups compensated for the caloric intake from the sugary solution by consuming less chow. In contrast, total energy intake in MET 25 was higher than the rest of the groups, but they still weighed less than control and SUC groups, suggesting that at this concentration, metformin delays body growth. The animals were then tested for the open field (OF), elevated plus maze (EPM) and novel object location (NOL) tests. In the OF, SUC animals spent more time in the central zone of the arena, evidenced by an increased number of entries and the distance traveled there. In the EPM, SUC animals spent more time in the open arms and less time in the central square. Metformin treatment prevented the decreased anxiety observed in SUC animals in the OF and EPM. In the NOL test, SUC animals showed less interest in novelty and metformin treatment did not improve this alteration. The preference for open spaces in the OF and EPM were associated with increased serum triglycerides (TG) and malondialdehyde levels in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the hippocampus (HIP), while poor memory performance was associated with high basal blood glucose levels. In conclusion, the decreased anxiety‐like behavior produced by chronic sucrose consumption was prevented by metformin treatment, through a mechanism that probably involves normalization of TG levels and decreased oxidative stress in mPFC and HIP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives Research on racial and gender disparities in end-of-life care quality has burgeoned over the past few decades, but few studies have incorporated the theory of intersectionality, which posits that membership in 2 or more vulnerable groups may result in increased hardships across the life span. As such, this study aimed to examine the intersectional effect of race and gender on the quality of care received at the end of life among older adults. Research Design and Methods Data were derived from the combined Round 3 to Round 10 of the National Health and Aging Trends Study. For multivariate analyses, 2 logistic regression models were run; Model 1 included the main effects of race and gender and Model 2 included an interaction term for race and gender. Results Results revealed that White men were the most likely to have excellent or good care at the end of life, followed by White women, Black men, and Black women, who were the least likely to have excellent or good care at the end of life. Discussion and Implications These results point to a significant disadvantage for Black women, who had worse end-of-life care quality than their gender and racial peers. Practice interventions may include cultural humility training and a cultural match between patients and providers. From a policy standpoint, a universal health insurance plan would reduce the gap in end-of-life service access and quality for Black women, who are less likely to have supplemental health care coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Časopis za Zgodovino in Narodopisje is the property of University of Maribor and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on the official criminal data released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in 2019, this paper discusses the temporal-spatial distribution of various types of crimes in the special wards of Tokyo. The results show that: ① The times of high and low incidence of different types of crime differ significantly. Although vicious crime and violent crime present no obvious monthly distribution, property crime clearly differs between the first and second half of a calendar year. ② The month before the new year sees a surge in most types of crime. ③ Vicious crime peaks in the hours between night and early morning. Violent crime and property crime correlate positively with the frequency of human interaction and peak in the morning and evening commuting hours. ④ The spatial distribution of crime resembles the concentric circles of the three rings of the special wards of Tokyo, with a central high-incidence area, a center-peripheral low-incidence area, and a marginal high-incidence area. In addition, the center sees more personal crime than the periphery, whereas property crimes show the opposite trend. ⑤ A spatial autocorrelation analysis shows that the special wards of Tokyo may be grouped into the “high-high” and “low-low” agglomeration modes of different types of crime, with marked differences between the various types of crime. The crime can be divided into three types: central agglomeration, double central agglomeration, and decentralized agglomeration.

One of the main directions in the development of optical communication systems is associated with the use of optical fiber (ОF) for data reception and transmission. Therefore, manufacturers began to pay special attention to the creation of new brands of OF, improving their optical and operational characteristics. This makes it possible to improve existing optical fiber components that use OF as an active medium. The most widely used are two-wavelength 1 × 2 WDM multiplexers/demultiplexers designed to separate and combine optical carriers with wavelengths of 1310 and 1550 nm, corresponding to the second and third transparency windows of quartz OF. It should be noted that multiplexers and demultiplexers are the same optical devices, which are spectrally selective splitters. Such devices are distinguished by a sufficiently high level of optical characteristics at a relatively low cost of products. However, an analysis of the multiplexers produced in recent years shows that the characteristics of these devices do not sufficiently correspond to the set of modern requirements imposed by most system developers, in particular on permissible values of external influencing factors, insertion loss and the value of optical isolation of channels. Therefore, the development and research of WDM multiplexers with improved optical characteristics is relevant. One of the possible ways of optimizing such devices using new types of OF with resistance to bending losses, of which WDM multiplexers could be made. In this paper, we consider the possibilities of realizing fused single-mode multiplexers/demultiplexers based on combined fiber structures. The technology and equipment for the manufacture of these devices are presented. The optical characteristics of experimental samples of WDM multiplexers are investigated. The results of testing for the effect of temperature are given.

BackgroundOsteoporosis is a major public health problem associated with excess disability and mortality. It is estimated that 50-70% of the variation in osteoporotic fracture risk is attributable to genetic factors. The purpose of this hypothesis-generating study was to identify possible genetic determinants of fracture among African American (AA) women in a GWAS meta-analysis.MethodsData on clinical fractures (all fractures except fingers, toes, face, skull or sternum) were analyzed among AA female participants in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) (N = 8155), Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) (N = 504), BioVU (N = 704), Health ABC (N = 651), and the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project (JoCoOA) (N = 291). Affymetrix (WHI) and Illumina (Health ABC, JoCoOA, BioVU, CHS) GWAS panels were used for genotyping, and a 1:1 ratio of YRI:CEU HapMap haplotypes was used as an imputation reference panel. We used Cox proportional hazard models or logistic regression to evaluate the association of ~ 2.5 million SNPs with fracture risk, adjusting for ancestry, age, and geographic region where applicable. We conducted a fixed-effects, inverse variance-weighted meta-analysis. Genome-wide significance was set at P

Introduction: There has been a concern about the unintended doses to critical structures outside the treatment field due to the increased risk of radiation-induced second cancer following radiotherapy treatments. Today, Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is considered the most accurate method for dose calculations in different domains of medical physics. Material and Methods: The Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) code was used to create an MC model of 6MV Siemens Primus linac. Measurements were taken in a water phantom using an ion chamber to validate the MC model. Dose profiles outside the treatment field at 1.5 (dmax), 5.0 and10.0 cm depths for field sizes from 5×5 to 20×20 cm2 were measured in the present study. Out-of-field percentage depth dose (PDD) curves at 0.0, 5.0, and 7.5 cm off axis for field size 10×10 cm2 were investigated for both measurements and simulation. However out-of-field PDDs from 10 to 15 cm off axis for field size 10×10 cm2 were studied only by simulation. Results: The comparisons showed agreement between the measured and simulated doses for the out-of-field profiles along the in-plane direction for all considered field sizes and depths, as well as for the PDDs at 0.0 and 5.0 cm off axis, but with less agreement at 7.5 cm off axis. All the simulated out-of-field PDDs at distances ≥ 10 cm off axis had similar trend shapes. Conclusion: The developed MC model is considered a good representation of 6 MV Siemens Primus linac for the out-of-field dose calculation in lieu of measurements.

Aim: to study the spectral characteristics of blood plasma in pregnant women with benign ovarian formations (OF).Materials and Methods. A retrospective study conducted between 2021 and 2023 included 100 pregnant women aged 18 to 45 years. Two groups were identified: group 1 (main group) included 50 pregnant women with OF, group 2 (control group) included 50 pregnant women with normal pregnancy. Using the method of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), we determined and assessed the spectral features typical to OF, which are necessary for differential diagnosis of this pregnancy-related pathology.Results. Prominent inter-group differences in spectral intensities were revealed: OF was associated with significantly increased intensity of spectral peaks at 491 nm, 596 nm, 632 nm, 808 nm, 886 nm, 1132 nm and decreased intensity at the peaks of 725 nm and 1440 nm observed compared to control group. After OF removal, spectral pattern restored to near complete compliance with the spectral pattern observed in control group of pregnant women.Conclusion. The isolated and analyzed spectral features demonstrated an opportunity of using SERS in diagnosing OF in pregnant women.

Copyright of Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty is the property of Ataturk University Coordinatorship of Scientific Journals and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The main objective of Internet of Things (IoT) is to connect almost all the devices anywhere and everywhere in the world. IoT network is heterogeneous in nature, hence routing the data packets in this network is a big challenge. Routing Protocol for Low Power Lossy Network (RPL), has been designed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for such type of network. The existing design of RPL Objective Function (OF) is insufficient to cover all the issues of IoT applications. In this paper, the proposed OFs designs using various routing metrics are used to enhance the performance of the IoT applications. The analysis for various scenarios for these designs shows that only traditional hop and Expected Transmission Count (ETX) routing parameters will not fit for the smart applications need. The routing metric selection according to the application requirement is the principal idea of the proposed design. Three metrics ETX, Content and Energy, single and combination with each other are used to enhance the design of objective function of RPL for IoT applications. The enhanced triggering technique is added in these designs for the improvement of RPL. This technique will eliminate the cumulative effect of the short-listen problem of default trickle timer. The result analysis done using Cooja simulator along with Contiki Operating System (OS) states that, all the designs are performing well in one or other manner than the traditional OF. Energy combined with Content (EC) and aggregation with Enhanced timer (EC_En_Timer) design gives better result for Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and Latency Delay (LD) as compared to default OF design. Residual Energy (RE) combined with ETX (EE) and conjunction with Enhanced timer (EE_En_Timer) design works well for energy consumption. Overhead is very less in RE and ETX design. Conversion time is reduced by almost 50% in an En_Timer design. Higher PDR and low delay values of EC and EC_En_Timer design encourages its use in health monitoring application where reliability is essential. Low energy consumption results of RE, EE and EE_En_Timer designs are comfortable for forest monitoring application, as energy is a crucial aspect. This comparative result outcome will help to fulfill the IoT application requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the current research has been restricted to scalar sensor data based IoT applications. However, today's research and development activities rely on multimedia-based services and applications while this kind of applications has several requirements in terms of storage, bandwidth, latency, etc. Furthermore, protocols dedicated to IoT applications have proved their weakness in multimedia environments. Hence, a new paradigm called internet of multimedia things (IoMT) has been proposed to fulfill the requirements of multimedia applications. In this paradigm different multimedia things can interact and cooperate with each other over the Internet. Moreover, IETF ROLL working group standardized an IPv6 routing protocol for low-power and lossy networks (RPL for LLNs) for resource constrained devices. In this paper, we propose an enhanced version of RPL for IoMT called free bandwidth (FreeBW)-RPL in which the sensed data is essentially provided by multimedia devices. FreeBW-RPL protocol proposes a new objective function called FreeBW that takes the FreeBW calculation in the network layer. We set the QoS routing challenge as the amount of the bandwidth while selecting the routing path in order to measure the maximum FreeBW so as to deliver better performance of the multimedia applications. Simulations have been conducted over COOJA simulator. The obtained results proved that our proposal outperforms the basic ones in terms of end-to-end delay, throughput, packet delivery ratio and energy consumption and provides better performance than other protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although wind-generated power was estimated to be 4% of the entire world electricity usage, wind turbines are considered to be a growing technology with many experts considering new approaches to wind turbine design and farmland selection to increase the wind turbine output efficiency. When implementing a new wind turbine install on a farm, many concerns are taken into consideration such as environmental challenges and cost. Thus, the power of the wind turbine can be increased at least 10 times when the most efficient wind power location is selected before the wind turbine is placed. In this paper, we propose a novel software-defined quadcopter-6 wheeled industrial IoT (SDQ-6WI) architecture that is based on a developed quadcopter system to collect wind speed data from a mobile IoT vehicle base station that is based on a developed open flow (DOV) protocol operation. The mobile ground vehicle act as a wind speed measurement system that travels on a given set of waypoints to measure the best optimal wind speed quality and send the collected information to the quadcopter-based SDN controller then to the cloud for further processing. Our proposed system can handle a heterogeneous environment that lacks Wi-Fi and cellular coverage and uses the minimum total transmission power when sending data. The experiential results showed that the measured wind speed data could be collected in a time-efficient manner compared to a traditional process which is considered to be costly, time wasting, and non-effective. Our extensive testing showed that about 23.19% in power was reduced in the wind measurement process in comparison with the fixed sensor nodes. In essence, the proposed architecture help reduce the high cost of relocating wind turbines to an efficient location and increase the generated power by selecting the best optimal windy location.

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• The evolution of the proteome from the Ur-proteome (ribocytes obeying the primeval RNY code) to the proteome of progenotes (obeying extended RNA codes) just before the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) is presented. • This article represents an endeavor to build a bridge between the hitherto unknown proteome of ribocytes and progenotes, that presumably existed before the emergence of LUca. The attempt to delineate the essential features that characterized life in its beginnings and the understanding of how those features evolved, represent important scientific challenges. While there have been varied efforts in the elucidation of how the first biomolecules arose from a prebiotic environment, there remains important gaps towards the characterization of the complete repertoire of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). We portray a step-wise proteome evolution, by looking at the phenotype encoded by each one of the genetic codes that were appearing along evolution, beginning with the primeval genetic code and then with two intermediate Extended RNA codes, which finally shaped the current Standard Genetic Code (SGC). Notably, all molecules involved in translation, such as ribosomal proteins and all tRNA synthetases, were already present before LUCA. The metabolism belonged to extremophiles as hinted by the presence of reverse gyrase and acetyl coenzyme A synthase. Furthermore, we predict the structure and possible ligands of the proteins retrieved. We have forged a bridge between the hitherto unknown proteome of progenotes and the proteome of LUCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Subacute oral administration of GABA reduced stress-induced anxiety-like behaviors. • GABA administration reversed the increase of NO metabolites nitrate and nitrite in plasma and the decrease in brain induced by stressed. • Brain NO metabolites levels were negatively correlated with grooming behavior and anxiety index while positively correlated with moving time in GABA-treated rats. Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects and mechanism of repeated oral administration of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) on anxiety-like behaviors induced by emotional stress. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups (8 rats each): control, emotional stress model, three emotional stress + GABA-treated groups (0.5, 1, 2 mg/kg). The rats were given empty water bottles after the training of drinking water to induce emotional stress. Each group was treated with saline or different doses of GABA respectively for 21 consecutive days. Then open field and elevated plus maze were used to assess anxiety-like behaviors. Both frontal cortex and plasma NO metabolites nitrate and nitrite (NO x) levels were determined spectrophotometrically. Results showed that oral administration of GABA significantly reversed the stress-induced anxiety-like negative responses dose-dependently. The frontal cortex NO x levels were lower in stressed rats than in control group (P < 0.05), but higher in 2 mg/kg GABA-treated group than stress model group (P < 0.05). On the other hand, NOx levels in plasma showed a gradual decline trend. Collectively, these results suggest that short repeated oral administration of GABA has an anxiolytic-like effect possibly via preventing NO reduction caused by stress and improving availability of NO in the frontal cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibrous dysplasia (FD) and ossifying fibroma (OF) are fibro-osseous lesions (FOLs) having several overlaps that may make final diagnosis difficult by hematoxylin and eosin (H/E) alone. This study seeks to detect any association between Azan and Toluidine blue staining as compared with osteocalcin in FD and OF diagnosis. Forty formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) blocks of FD and OF were prepared for Azan, Toluidine blue and osteocalcin staining. Brown staining of calcified structures was considered as positive for osteocalcin. Scoring for Azan and Toluidine blue was evaluated based on intensity and localization. Level of agreement of original and revised diagnosis was determined. Six (40%) of 15 FD were corroborated by osteocalcin. Eight cases initially diagnosed as OF were revised to FD. There were 25 OF according to H/E, and 17 (68%) were validated by osteocalcin. Measure of agreement between histology and immunohistochemistry was 0.081; p =.608. Eleven (42.3%) OF expressed strong toluidine blue staining of the intervening fibrous connective tissue stroma while only 2 (14.2%) FD showed similar staining, this difference was statistically significant [p =.001]. Histomorphometric analysis with Toluidine blue may reduce diagnostic errors of OF and FD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Computer Measurement & Control is the property of Magazine Agency of Computer Measurement & Control and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The effects of fish oil for improving mental health have been reported. The present study was undertaken to compare the effects of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on anxiety-like behavior using a rat model. Experimental diets enriched in EPA or DHA as glycerides were prepared. Rats were exposed to social isolation stress and fed the experimental diet for 14 days. The results of behavioral tests revealed that rats fed the EPA-enriched diet exhibited less anxiety-like behavior than rats fed the control or DHA-enriched diets. Furthermore, EPA suppressed anxiety-like behavior only in socially isolated rats. The increase in EPA contents in the brain phospholipid fraction by feeding EPA-enriched diet was more significant than that of DHA by feeding DHA-enriched diet. These results suggest that dietary EPA is more anxiolytic than DHA in rats exposed to social isolation stress and is effective in increasing EPA content in brain membranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the fastest-growing marketing tactics used to persuade and win customers is management of recommendations through incentives to participants. However, these initiatives can raise questions, including ethical problems about credibility of the recommendation. With the aim of measuring the factors that influence acceptance of a wordof-mouth (WOM) recommendation, we propose a model able to relate and measure the impact of elements on acceptance of recommendations and the effect of participation in an organized WOM marketing program. We conducted a survey among 350 participants, using an instrument with a retrospective approach and presenting a hypothetical scenario. As results of the model, we highlight the expertise of the recommender and the similarity of this person with the receivers of the elements related with the recommendation message and their consequent willingness to accept it. We also identified that the existence of an incentive does not prevent acceptance of the recommendation, but it does reduce it, suggesting caution in use of this marketing tactic.

Table of Contents CL 32/2017

This article considers the prepositions in the common corpus from a diachronic perspective, focusing on by, of and for, three prepositions inherited from Old English. The corpus yields one occurrence of by introducing an agent, one instance of of linking a characteristic to the object it characterizes, and one instance of for introducing duration. Those constructions are not attested in Old English. A survey of the history of the three prepositions makes it possible to ascertain when they appeared and to explain, albeit tentatively, why they appeared. In Old English, by, of and for had a spatial sense – respectively "beside", "from" and "in front of" – as well as many abstract senses. Of linking a characteristic to the object it characterizes appeared in the 12th century; agentive by and durative for first occurred in the 14th century. Those evolutions were due both to internal processes and to the influence of French.

Abstract This paper propounds to examine the impact of the day week on the return of daily stock price using entire index, in Tehran Stock Exchange market during 1383 to 1388. In the literature review, a full explanation of the models and their shortcomings are discussed and propose a simpler specification and usable model for detecting the day of the week effect on the return of daily stock price entire index in Tehran Stock Exchange market. Recognizing that residuals of linear regressions are variant over time, and auto-correlated, we apply statically robust estimation methodologies, including bootstrapping and GARCH modeling. The paper concludes that using “Bootstrapping GARCH Regression” will lead to a negative effect on the returns on Sunday and positive returns on Tuesday.

Urban logistics seem to be a quite difficult issue, as it contains several levels of complexity. It consists of planning, coordination and controlling of logistic processes, and resources' flows within the urban areas. Besides, what is also very important, city logistics involve various stakeholders. Among them can be listed authorities, transportation operators, and retailers. Often these stakeholders have different aims and priorities. Local authorities are mostly interested in reducing pollution, noise or congestion, transport operators' aims focus on minimising costs while maintaining service levels. This may lead to enforcement of partial interest solutions concerning urban flow strategies. The possibility of success for an appropriate city logistics strategy depends on the specific city features and its characteristics and needs. The objectives of the article are: to systematize methods rationalizing goods' flows within the cities, to show the practical solutions for improving urban delivery of goods within the city logistics and indicate the best potential freight logistics measures that could be applied in Tri-city area (Poland). The methodological approach: the research is mostly based on the analysis of practical solutions in the field of city logistics in European urban areas, documents of the European Commission, and the publications prepared by industry association. Moreover, studies were carried out on the basis of investigating city board representatives and public road administrators in looking for the best solutions in freight logistics within the city area. The theoretical part of the paper is based on the existing materials from public resources and author's research experience. The results of the paper are: the analysis of effectiveness of the applied solutions in city delivery of goods, which shows the way of considering the right set of regulations and successfully implementing the most appropriate urban logistic strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]