A case of vertebral coalescence and lateral line deformity in Hypophthalamichthys nobilis (Richardson, 1844) obtained from aquaculture activity in Iran

Publisher's version. Journal homepage http://www.mrsntorino.it/cms/il-museo/attivita-editoriale.htmlVertebral coalescence and malformation in the lateral line are reported in a specimen of cultured cyprinid fish Hypophthalamichthys nobilis . Severe vertebral fusion was observed and described. Lateral line showed unusual undulation in the trunk region. Genetic and epigenetic causes may be implicated in these anomalies

Study on sex steroid-binding proteins (with emphasize on 17β-estradiol) in plasma of female and juvenile kutum (Rutilus frisii kutum)

A sex steroid-binding protein (SBP) that binds to 17β-estradiol with high affinity and moderate capacity was identified in the plasma of female and juvenile of kutum (Rutilus frisii kutum) sampled during the early stage of gonadal maturation in October and prior to spawning in March. Mean maximum specific binding (Bmax) and equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) of the fish were as follows: In early stage of gonadal development (October), Bmax= 5800±970 fmol E2/mg protein, Kd 4.1±0.6nM, and prior to spawning (March) Bmax= 4000±895 fmol E2/mg protein, Kd 2.9±0.3nM. In juvenile sampled in October Bmax= 1600±130 fmol E2/mg protein, Kd 2.1±0.2nM and in March samples Bmax= 3500±780 fmol E2/mg protein, Kd 2.2±0.2nM. Plasma estradiol binding characteristics of the adult samples in October and March differed from the juvenile samples in having both Bmax and Kd significantly higher than juveniles. Plasma SBP levels displayed a moderate correlation with GSI (r2= 0.52) and CF (r2= 0.51) and a weak correlation with HSI (r2 = 0.28). Affinity was moderately correlated with CF (r2 = 0.68) and HIS (r2 = 0.50). A strong correlation was obtained between Bmax and Kd, high Bmax values coincided with high Kd values and vice versa

Epidemiological characteristics of human brucellosis in Shahin Dezh, Western Azarbaijan, Iran, 2008-2012

Background: Brucellosis is still one of the most challenging issues for health and the economy in many developing countries such as Iran. Objectives: This study investigated the epidemiological features of brucellosis in Shahin Dezh, Western Azarbaijan province, North West of Iran. Patients and Methods: This study had across-sectional design and data was collected from private and public sectors over a five-year period (2008-2012). All cases were studied between years 2008 and 2012 in Shahin Dezh. Results: In total, 492 cases of brucellosis were reported. The prevalence of brucellosis decreased from 152 cases/100000 inhabitants in 2008 to 97 cases/100000 inhabitants at the beginning of 2012. About 52.3 of subjects were male, and most cases of brucellosis were aged 25-30 years. Eighty-one percent of subjects lived in rural areas. There was a statistically significant difference regarding contact with livestock between rural and urban areas (91.7 vs. 68.8) (P value <0.001). Raw milk was the most commonly consumed dairy product; consumed by 37 of cases. Finally, during winter and spring a high prevalence rate of brucellosis was reported. Conclusions: Comprehensive health-related interventions need to empower communities at risk, especially young men and young and adult women in the Shahin Dezh County. Health education is needed to raise awareness of people in the studied area. © 2015, Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center

Reviewing, indicating, and counting books for modern research evaluation systems

In this chapter, we focus on the specialists who have helped to improve the conditions for book assessments in research evaluation exercises, with empirically based data and insights supporting their greater integration. Our review highlights the research carried out by four types of expert communities, referred to as the monitors, the subject classifiers, the indexers and the indicator constructionists. Many challenges lie ahead for scholars affiliated with these communities, particularly the latter three. By acknowledging their unique, yet interrelated roles, we show where the greatest potential is for both quantitative and qualitative indicator advancements in book-inclusive evaluation systems.Comment: Forthcoming in Glanzel, W., Moed, H.F., Schmoch U., Thelwall, M. (2018). Springer Handbook of Science and Technology Indicators. Springer Some corrections made in subsection 'Publisher prestige or quality

CFA2: a Context-Free Approach to Control-Flow Analysis

In a functional language, the dominant control-flow mechanism is function call and return. Most higher-order flow analyses, including k-CFA, do not handle call and return well: they remember only a bounded number of pending calls because they approximate programs with control-flow graphs. Call/return mismatch introduces precision-degrading spurious control-flow paths and increases the analysis time. We describe CFA2, the first flow analysis with precise call/return matching in the presence of higher-order functions and tail calls. We formulate CFA2 as an abstract interpretation of programs in continuation-passing style and describe a sound and complete summarization algorithm for our abstract semantics. A preliminary evaluation shows that CFA2 gives more accurate data-flow information than 0CFA and 1CFA.Comment: LMCS 7 (2:3) 201

A mixed methods comparative evaluation of a low cost otoscope (Arclight) with a traditional device in twenty-one clinicians

According to the World Health Organisation estimate, the global burden of illness from chronic ear infection affects about 4% of the world population (up to 330 million) with ear discharge and 60% of whom (up to 200 million) suffer from significant hearing impairment.1 Alarmingly, over 90% of the burden of chronic ear infections is borne by low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs).PostprintPeer reviewe

COVID-19 publications: Database coverage, citations, readers, tweets, news, Facebook walls, Reddit posts

© 2020 The Authors. Published by MIT Press. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00066The COVID-19 pandemic requires a fast response from researchers to help address biological, medical and public health issues to minimize its impact. In this rapidly evolving context, scholars, professionals and the public may need to quickly identify important new studies. In response, this paper assesses the coverage of scholarly databases and impact indicators during 21 March to 18 April 2020. The rapidly increasing volume of research, is particularly accessible through Dimensions, and less through Scopus, the Web of Science, and PubMed. Google Scholar’s results included many false matches. A few COVID-19 papers from the 21,395 in Dimensions were already highly cited, with substantial news and social media attention. For this topic, in contrast to previous studies, there seems to be a high degree of convergence between articles shared in the social web and citation counts, at least in the short term. In particular, articles that are extensively tweeted on the day first indexed are likely to be highly read and relatively highly cited three weeks later. Researchers needing wide scope literature searches (rather than health focused PubMed or medRxiv searches) should start with Dimensions (or Google Scholar) and can use tweet and Mendeley reader counts as indicators of likely importance

One-counter Markov decision processes

We study the computational complexity of central analysis problems for One-Counter Markov Decision Processes (OC-MDPs), a class of finitely-presented, countable-state MDPs. OC-MDPs are equivalent to a controlled extension of (discrete-time) Quasi-Birth-Death processes (QBDs), a stochastic model studied heavily in queueing theory and applied probability. They can thus be viewed as a natural ``adversarial'' version of a classic stochastic model. Alternatively, they can also be viewed as a natural probabilistic/controlled extension of classic one-counter automata. OC-MDPs also subsume (as a very restricted special case) a recently studied MDP model called ``solvency games'' that model a risk-averse gambling scenario. Basic computational questions about these models include ``termination'' questions and ``limit'' questions, such as the following: does the controller have a ``strategy'' (or ``policy'') to ensure that the counter (which may for example count the number of jobs in the queue) will hit value 0 (the empty queue) almost surely (a.s.)? Or that it will have infinite limsup value, a.s.? Or, that it will hit value 0 in selected terminal states, a.s.? Or, in case these are not satisfied a.s., compute the maximum (supremum) such probability over all strategies. We provide new upper and lower bounds on the complexity of such problems. For some of them we present a polynomial-time algorithm, whereas for others we show PSPACE- or BH-hardness and give an EXPTIME upper bound. Our upper bounds combine techniques from the theory of MDP reward models, the theory of random walks, and a variety of automata-theoretic methods