Diego (DI) blood group genotyping is clinically important in Asian populations. Data of Diego blood type among southern Thais is still unknown. This study aimed to report DI*A and DI*B allele frequencies in southern Thai blood donors and to estimate potential risk of Di(a) incompatibility and alloimmunization in Thai populations. DNA samples obtained from 427 southern Thai blood donors were genotyped for DI*A and DI*B alleles by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primer. DI*A and DI*B allele frequencies among southern Thais were 0.0047 and 0.9953. Their frequencies were similar to those among American Native, Italian, Filipino, Alaska Native/Aleut and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations; while, the frequencies significantly differed from central and northern Thai, Southeast Asian, Brazilian, Southern Brazilian, Brazilian Japanese descendants, Japanese, Han Chinese, Chinese, and Korean populations (P < 0.05). The Di(a) incompatibility among southern Thais (0.93%) was lower than among central Thais (3.49%), corresponding to a significantly lower probability of Di(a) alloimmunization (P < 0.05). This is the first report of DI*A and DI*B allele frequencies among southern Thais, which is beneficial for not only creating information for estimating risk of alloimmunization, but also providing antigen-negative red cell donors to prevent both alloimmunization and adverse transfusion reactions.

I introduce a minimum innovation size required for patents into a Schumpeterian growth model. We show that to satisfy the patentability requirement for minimum innovation size, each research and development (R&D) firm targets only industries in which the incumbent's technology is of sufficient obsolescence. This is because the technological gap between innovator and incumbent is greater in industries using older technologies. Although the increase in minimum innovation size reduces the number of industries targeted for R&D, it also increases the amount of R&D investment directed at those targeted industries. Consequently, introducing a minimum innovation size has a nonmonotonic (or negative) effect on the aggregate flow of innovations. Further, by deriving the endogenous long-run distribution of innovation size, we show that an increase in minimum innovation size reduces the mean innovation size. This implies that even if the patent office only grants patents for superior innovations, it causes innovators to produce generally inferior-quality innovations.

In this work we complete a classification of pseudo-parallel hypersurfaces of S-n x R and H-n x R, that was partially given by F. Lin and B. Yang. As an application, we obtain a classification of pseudo-parallel hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature. In particular, we prove that a minimal pseudo-parallel hypersurface is either a totally geodesic hypersurface, a minimal rotation hypersurface or a cylinder over a generalized Clifford torus in S-n. Moreover, we prove that any pseudo-parallel hypersurface is a pseudo-symmetric manifold in the sense of R. Deszcz. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The tri- and divalent ytterbium distributions along the length of a CaF2 crystal with a nominal YbF3 content of 0.1 mol % have been assessed by absorption spectroscopy. Using the Gulliver-Pfann equation, the Yb3+ and Yb2+ distribution coefficients have been determined to be k = 0.977 and 0.925, respectively.

Among surgical procedures currently in use, tracheostomy has a particularly long history. The first written description of the procedure is due to Brasavola, and dates from 1546. Piero di Cosimo (1462-1522) was an early Renaissance painter who painted a work traditionally known as Cephalus and Procris or The Death of Procris (1495-1500). In this painting, a vertical tracheostomy can be observed in a young woman lying on the ground. A giant mass can be seen in the lower left neck with superficial venous vessels, suggesting a thyroid malignancy. This appears to be the first detailed depiction of a malignant cervical mass and a possibly therapeutic tracheostomy. We discuss the clinical differential diagnosis and also make some comments from an art history perspective.