Severe Mitracarpus scarber juice induced facial skin discolourations: A case report

This is a case report on a 24-year old dark-skinned lady with incidence of facial skin discolorations secondary to the application of Mitracarpus scaber (MS) juice for the purpose of treating an emerging but unclassified facial skin blemishes. Investigations showed that after several failed attempts to treat the blemishes with two known antifungi creams, she was advised by friends to use the MS juice. She macerated some leaves of MS between her palms to obtain its juice and then applied it on her face. Minutes after, she experienced a burning sensation on her face which subsequently resulted in obvious facial discolourations 48 hours later; forcing her to stop the MS juice application. She was then advised by friends to use a combination herbal therapy comprising honey and Aloe vera. The combination therapy proved to be effective as the discolorations disappeared by the 5th day from onset. Although the precise type of skin blemish and the mechanisms associated with the observed skin discoloration were not determined, the bioactive constituents in Mitracarpus scaber juice may have played a major role; prompting this reminder that self-medication must be avoided  especially the use of herbal medications if their appropriate doses have not been determined.Key words: Facial Skin, Discoloration, Herbal therapy, Mitracarpus scaber, Self-Medication

Subjective assessment for an advanced driver assistance system: a case study in China

Purpose – This study aims to propose a novel subjective assessment (SA) method for level 2 or level 2+ advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) with a customized case study in China. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed SA method contains six dimensions, including perception, driveability and stability, riding comfort, human–machine interaction, driver workload and trustworthiness and exceptional operating case, respectively. And each dimension subordinates several subsections, which describe the corresponding details under this dimension. Findings – Based on the proposed SA, a case study in China is conducted. Six drivers with different driving experiences are invited to give their subjective ratings for each subsection according to a predefined rating standard. The rating results show that the ADAS from Tesla outperforms the upcoming electric vehicle in most cases. Originality/value – The proposed SA method is beneficial for the original equipment manufacturers developing related technologies in the future

Magmatic record of India-Asia collision

This work was financially co-supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB03010301) and other Chinese funding agencies (Project 973: 2011CB403102 and 2015CB452604; NSFC projects: 41225006, 41273044, and 41472061).New geochronological and geochemical data on magmatic activity from the India-Asia collision zone enables recognition of a distinct magmatic flare-up event that we ascribe to slab breakoff. This tie-point in the collisional record can be used to back-date to the time of initial impingement of the Indian continent with the Asian margin. Continental arc magmatism in southern Tibet during 80-40 Ma migrated from south to north and then back to south with significant mantle input at 70-43 Ma. A pronounced flare up in magmatic intensity (including ignimbrite and mafic rock) at ca. 52-51 Ma corresponds to a sudden decrease in the India-Asia convergence rate. Geological and geochemical data are consistent with mantle input controlled by slab rollback from ca. 70 Ma and slab breakoff at ca. 53 Ma. We propose that the slowdown of the Indian plate at ca. 51 Ma is largely the consequence of slab breakoff of the subducting Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere, rather than the onset of the India-Asia collision as traditionally interpreted, implying that the initial India-Asia collision commenced earlier, likely at ca. 55 Ma.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Microscopic Investigation of a Copper Molten Mark by Optical Microscopy (OM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

AbstractA wide variety of physical and chemical detecting methods have been proposed for discriminating between and electric arc bead that caused a fire, versus one that was caused by the fire itself. The simplest proposed method claims that examination of the molten marks in a bead under a microscope will suffice to make the distinction. Generally, copper molten marks of the bead are examined by using optical (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In this paper, OM and AFM were employed to investigate a molten mark formed in laboratory. AFM observation reveals that AFM could be an auxiliary method to investigate the copper molten mark formed in the fire in order to confirm the reasons of the fire

Genetic diversity in Jatropha species from different regions of Brazil based on morphological characters and inters-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) molecular markers

Jatropha belonging to Euphorbiaceae family has around 170 species distributed throughout tropical semi-arid regions of Africa and the Americas. Some of its species include Jatropha curcas L. (Physic Nut), Jatropha pohliana Müll.Arg. (Brazilian Purging Nut) and Jatropha gossypiifolia L. (Black Physic Nut). Phenotypic and genetic studies of a population are important for plant improvements, helping in the characterization of accesses, as well as facilitating selection of parental for directed crossings. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate accesses of three Jatropha species from different regions of Brazil, through morphological characters and ISSR molecular markers, in order to group them according to the existing degree of divergence. A higher interspecific variability, rather than intraspecific, was observed among accesses, for morphological as well as molecular characters. Qualitative and quantitative characters showed variability between accesses and may serve as reference for future genetic studies. There was no relation between similarity patterns and geographical origin of accesses in the group analysis. Average percentage of polymorphism found for inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers between the studied accesses was 40.6%. A higher genetic variability interspecific was observed than intraspecific, suggesting the search for genetic variability among species Jatropha through interspecific crosses.Keywords: Germplasm, Jatropha curcas, Jatropha gossypiifolia, Jatropha pohliana, variability

Vehicle Communication using Secrecy Capacity

We address secure vehicle communication using secrecy capacity. In particular, we research the relationship between secrecy capacity and various types of parameters that determine secrecy capacity in the vehicular wireless network. For example, we examine the relationship between vehicle speed and secrecy capacity, the relationship between the response time and secrecy capacity of an autonomous vehicle, and the relationship between transmission power and secrecy capacity. In particular, the autonomous vehicle has set the system modeling on the assumption that the speed of the vehicle is related to the safety distance. We propose new vehicle communication to maintain a certain level of secrecy capacity according to various parameters. As a result, we can expect safer communication security of autonomous vehicles in 5G communications.Comment: 17 Pages, 12 Figure