The lateral septum (LS) is a brain nucleus implicated in the addictive process. This study investigated whether withdrawal from chronic amphetamine (AMPH) induces alterations in dopamine (DA) transmission within the LS. Male Sprague‐Dawley rats were injected with AMPH (2.5 mg/kg i.p.) or saline during 14 days and thereafter subjected to 24 hr or 14 days of withdrawal. After these withdrawal periods, we measured DA extracellular levels by in vivo microdialysis, DA tissue levels, and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and vesicular monoamine transporter‐2 (VMAT2) expression in the LS. Our results showed a significant decrease in K+‐induced release of DA in the LS of AMPH‐treated rats, 14 days after withdrawal compared with saline‐treated rats. There were no significant differences in DA tissue content and TH expression. Interestingly, there was a decrease of LS VMAT2 expression in AMPH‐treated rats, 14 days after withdrawal compared with saline‐treated rats. This is the first neurochemical evidence showing that withdrawal from repeated AMPH administration decreases K+‐induced DA release in the rat LS. Our results suggest that this decrease in DA releasability could be due to a decrease in DA vesicular uptake. The possibility that these neurochemical changes are associated with AMPH abstinence syndrome should be further explored. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Background: Acute appendicitis is the most common surgical emergency. In spite of sophisticated new investigations mainstay of diagnosis depends on clinical sign and symptoms, Sherren's triangle hyperaesthesia is very important sign with controversial efficacy about it in available literature. The aim of this study was to explore the significance of hyperaesthesia in Sherren's triangle in a treatment of acute appendicitis. Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted in 418 patients with 186 females and 251 males. Patients were of acute appendicitis operated for appendicectomy included in the study. Results: Sensitivity and specificity of hyperaesthesia in Sherren's triangle were 47.7% and 42.9% respectively with positive and negative predictive values were 92.1% and 5.56%. Conclusion: Hence it indicates that hyperaesthesia in Sherren's triangle is important sign to suspect to support diagnosis of acute appendicitis. It has minimal significance to rule out it. This sign plays very important role in a diagnosis of complicated appendicitis like obstructive appendicitis.


The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement in 2007 urging physicians to screen for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at 18 and 24 months. This study sought to identify the screening practices of pediatricians and family physicians (FPs) in following the AAP guidelines for ASD. A survey was mailed to 1,500 pediatricians and FPs in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Iowa. A total of 481 participants (32%) returned surveys. Results revealed 66 (17%) of the respondents routinely screened for ASD according to AAP guidelines and 162 (41%) respondents screened for ASD but did not follow the guidelines. Pediatricians were more likely to screen for ASD than were FPs. Respondents' pre-professional education in ASD was significantly associated with their tendency to routinely screen and be confident identifying warning signs of ASD. When physicians administer ASD-specific screenings and identify early signs, they can put children and families on the right path for receiving desperately needed services.


A quantitative analysis of the binding of dynorphin A-(1-9)-nonapeptide to the opioid Kappa-receptors of the guinea pig cerebellum [Paterson et al. (1986) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83, 6216-6220] shows that changes in electrostatic surface accumulation of the ligand fully account for the observed suppression of binding by a series of univalent and divalent salts. Binding to mu- and delta-receptors, on the other hand, is subject to additional ion-specific effects. These observations support the membrane locations for the receptor sites proposed by the "membrane compartments" theory for opioid receptor selection.


Abstract Monte Carlo simulations are very useful for many physical processes. The transport of particles was simulated by Monte Carlo calculating the basic parameters such as probabilities of transmitted–reflected and angular-energy distributions after interaction with matter. Monte Carlo simulations of electron scattering based on the single scattering model were presented in the medium-energy region for aluminium and silver matters. Two basic equations are required the elastic scattering cross section and the energy loss. The Rutherford equation for the different screening parameters is investigated. This scattering model is accurate in the energy range from a few keV up to about 0.50 MeV. The reliability of the simulation method is analysed by comparing experimental data from transmission measurements.


Until the middle of the 20th century, the discipline of climatology was a stagnant field preoccupied with regional statistics. It had little to do with meteorology, which itself was predominantly a craft that paid scant attention to physical theory. The Second World War and Cold War promoted a rapid growth of meteorology, which some practitioners increasingly combined with physical science in hopes of understanding global climate dynamics. However, the dozen or so scientific disciplines that had something to say about climate were largely isolated from one another. In the 1960s and 1970s, worries about climate change helped to push the diverse fields into contact. Scientists interested in climate change kept their identification with different disciplines but developed ways to communicate across the boundaries (for example, in large international projects). Around the turn of the 21st century, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change institutionalized an unprecedented process of exchanges; its reports relied especially on computer modeling, which became a center of fully integrated interdisciplinary cooperation.


It is difficult to give a definition of mystical experience that would satisfy every scholar. I use the expression mystical experience to mean an apparent experience of some reality greater than oneself that comes by transcending, to some degree, awareness of one's own physical and mental self and one's physical surroundings. This reality may be understood as God or some other spiritual being, brahman, Being, the universe, oneness, the void, or nirvana. I would distinguish for my purposes here between the phenomenon that is seen as the mystical experience itself and other more incidental phenomena that precede or accompany the mystical experience, such as visions of disks of light, the feeling of levitation, or bliss.


The evolution of complex composite quantum systems which can be reduced to systems with a small dimensionality of the Hilbert space (of the qutrit, ququart type, etc.) is considered. In the case of the interaction of an ensemble of two-level atoms with light, the conditions are found under which a qutrit is produced from the light and atomic states. The properties and possible applications of a qutrit based of the Fock states of light in which two photons are distributed among three modes are discussed. It is shown that this state has the nonclassical photon statistics, is entangled and can be used as a quantum channel for the teleportation, dense coding, and key distribution.


This article discusses four political tests imposed between 1641 and 1649. Using printed pamphlets and manuscript oath rolls, the article explores both the guidelines established by casuists and pamphleteers for swearing lawfully, and the responses of individual subscribers when confronted with conflicting demands for their political allegiance. In this way, the article demonstrates the importance of subscription returns as a source for political historians, as well as genealogists and demographic researchers. The article concludes that individuals often chose to equivocate or to refuse oaths, not because they found them politically unacceptable, but because they were afraid of forswearing themselves.


Inspired by Boolean Satisfiability Problems (SAT), Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP) are starting to use restart techniques associated with learning nogoods widely. Recent developments show how to learn nogoods from restarts and that these nogoods are of major importance when solving a CSP. Using a backtracking search algorithm, with domain-splitting branching, nogoods are learned from the last branch of the search tree, immediately before the restart occurs. This type of nogoods, named ds-nogoods, is still not proven to be effective in solving CSP. Nevertheless, information retained within dsnogoods can be used in heuristic decisions. Inspired by activity-based heuristics of SAT solvers, we propose and evaluate a variable selection heuristic based on ds-nogoods. Experimental results show that this allows some problems to be solved more efficiently.


Molecular response to imatinib in newly diagnosed CML patients correlates with intrinsic sensitivity to imatinib (IC50 imatinib ) which is related to imatinib intracellular uptake and retention (IUR). Imatinib cellular uptake is OCT-1 dependent and low OCT-1 activity in newly diagnosed CML patients is a major contributor to suboptimal response to imatinib. The cellular transport pathways for dasatinib, a more potent BCR-ABL kinase inhibitor, are yet to be defined. We have assessed dasatinib cellular transport pathways using mononuclear cells (MNCs) from newly diagnosed CML patients and cell lines. Dasatinib IUR was determined with 14 C-labelled dasatinib (Bristol-Myers Squibb) at 4°C and 37°C, with/without influx/efflux inhibitors. There was no significant difference in dasatinib IUR at 37°C and 4°C in KU812 cell line (27 ng vs. 26 ng) and MNCs of CML patients (17 ng vs. 17 ng, n=10), indicating cellular uptake was not temperature dependent and most likely passive. Prazosin and progesterone (OCT-1 and OCT-3 inhibitors) did not significantly reduce IUR and did not reduce inter-patient variation in dasatinib IUR in contrast to imatinib IUR (P=0.45 and P=0.93 respectively, Fig. 1). Procainamide (OCT-1 and OCT-2 inhibitor), nicotinamide (OCT-2) and corticosterone (OCT-3 inhibitor) reduced dasatinib IUR but this did not reach significance (P=0.42, 0.74, 0.79 respectively). These data suggest that dasatinib uptake is not OCT dependent. Using ABCB1 overexpressing cell lines, we found that dasatinib IUR is lower in K562-Dox (P dasatinib in K562-Dox cell line (100 nM vs. 16 nM) and increased IUR in VBL-100 (P=0.01) suggesting ABCB1 actively efflux dasatinib. Median IC50 dasatinib in 18 newly diagnosed CML patients was 2.20 nM (± 0.8), which is significantly below median plasma concentration achieved (100–200 nM). Interpatient variability in IC50 dasatinib and IUR is therefore unlikely to be clinically significant for newly diagnosed CML patients receiving dasatinib. In conclusion dasatinib cellular uptake is predominantly passive and may be OCT independent. dasatinib is effluxed actively by ABCB1 in cell lines over-expressing these proteins. Inter-patient variation in dasatinib intracellular uptake and intrinsic sensitivity may not be clinically significant in newly diagnosed CML patients receiving dasatinib, in contrast to recipients of imatinib.


Territorial systems are characterized by the relative longevity and stability of interactions between neighbouring individuals. Two abilities of signal receivers that can be seen as adaptations increasing the efficiency of territory defence will be discussed: identifying neighbouring individuals and ranging (i.e. determining the distance to) signallers. The costs involved in such discriminations will also be outlined. Although signalling has been traditionally considered as occurring between two individuals (signaller and receiver), long-range signals will be received by many individuals. In territorial systems a group of neighbours could be considered as a communication network: consisting as its simplest of a signaller and a number of receivers. The scope for low cost, low-risk information gathering in such networks by eavesdropping will be discussed with particular reference to territorial songbirds and electric fish.


The correlation between the stiffness and health of tissue is an accepted form of organ disease assessment. As a result, there has been a significant amount of interest in developing methods to image elasticity parameters (i.e. elastography). This work presents a technique that frames the elastography imaging problem within a non-rigid iterative image registration approach. Through the use of finite element modeling and mutual information, material properties are varied in order to optimize the registration between a post-compressed image and a model-generated compressed image. The results shown here demonstrate the strong connection between image similarity and appropriate tissue parameters and the algorithm's ability to detect contrast in tissue stiffness. By casting elasticity image reconstruction within the context of image similarity, the method is generalized to all forms of medical imaging.


My case study of "Caroline"—a 26 year old presenting with depression, PTSD symptoms, and a history of sexual abuse as a teenager—represents a "third way" between (1) a strict adherence to a manualized treatment, and (2) a principle-guided therapy, in which the therapy follows particular theoretical concepts, but depends on the therapist's clinical judgement to flexibly apply them to the individual case. Specifically, in my therapy with Caroline (Kramer, 2009), I employed Foa and Rothbaum's (1998) cognitive-behavioral, "Prolonged Exposure" (PE) manual for PTSD, but deviated from it in certain ways based upon my evaluation of Caroline's individualized goals and reactions using Grawe and Caspar's "Plan Analysis," which is a cross-theoretical model for assessment and treatment planning. In their commentaries on my case study of Caroline, Caspar (2009) and Haldimann-Balli (see Appendix in Kramer, 2009) support my use of this third way. On the other hand, the other commentators—Muller (2009) and Hembree and Brinen (2009)—critique my handling of the case, arguing that strict adherence to the Foa and Rothbaum manual would have resulted in a more cost-effective therapy. In this article, I respond to the important issues raised by the four commentators.


Background: Aescin, a natural mixture of saponins occurring in Aesculus hippocastanum, exhibits important flebotonic properties, being used in the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency in legs. The inclusion of aescin into cyclodextrins (CDs) is a technical solution for its incorporation into the textile of stockings, but details of the physicochemistry of these host–guest systems are lacking. This work investigates the inclusion of aescin into the cavities of two native cyclodextrins, β-CD and γ-CD. Results: The continuous variation method applied to aqueous-phase 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) has demonstrated that the preferred CD/aescin inclusion stoichiometries are 2:1 with β-CD and 1:1 with γ-CD. The affinity constant calculated for γ-CD·aescin was 894 M−1, while for 2β-CD·aescin it was estimated to be 715 M−1. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations on the interaction of aescin Ib with CDs show that an inclusion can indeed occur and it is further demonstrated that the wider cavity of γ-CD is more adequate to accommodate this large guest. ROESY spectroscopy is consistent with the formation of a complex in which the triterpenic moiety of aescin is included into the cavity of γ-CD. The higher stability of this geometry was confirmed by DFT. Furthermore, DFT calculations were applied to determine the chemical shifts of the protons H3 and H5 of the CDs in the optimised structures of the inclusion complexes. The calculated values are very similar to the experimental data, validating the approach made in this study by NMR. Conclusion: The combination of experimental data from aqueous-state NMR measurements and theoretical calculations has demonstrated that γ-CD is the most suitable host for aescin, although the inclusion also occurs with β-CD. The geometry of the γ-CD·aescin complex is characterised by the inclusion of the triterpene segment of aescin into the host cavity.


Nostra culpa. Not only did we foist a hastily conceived and incorrectly executed simulation on an overworked RECOMB conference program committee, but worse—nostra maxima culpa—we obliged a team of high-powered researchers to clean up after us! It was never our intention to introduce an alternative way of constructing synteny blocks; the so-called ST-synteny was only a (bungled) attempt to mimic Pevzner and Tesler's method, based on our reading or misreading of their paper [1]. Moreover, shortly after the conference, before preparing the full journal version of our article, we recognized through a back-of-an-envelope calculation that realistic values of the parameters in our simulations would not produce much increase in reuse rate. Consequently, our published article [2] develops only the main part of our communication, modeling and simulating the artifactual increase in reuse rates due to deleting synteny blocks but not that due to the construction of synteny blocks.

Unfortunately, our makeshift work distracted from the main point of our communication. The theme in our full article [2], in the RECOMB extended abstract, and elsewhere is not substantially confronted in the recently published PLoS Computational Biology paper by Glenn Tesler and colleagues [3]. Wherever high rates of breakpoint reuse are inferred, whether they are due to bona fide reuse or rather to violations in the assumptions justifying the use of particular algorithms (relating to the construction of synteny blocks or their size thresholds, or to the unrealistically limited repertoire of rearrangement processes recognized by the algorithm), there is a correspondingly high rate of loss in the historical signal.

While two genomes diverge without breakpoint reuse, the historical signal is conserved in the breakpoint graph, which consists entirely of four-vertex cycles, specifying exactly which pairs of breakpoints must be healed by reversals or translocations. As breakpoints are reused—as they eventually must be for finite gene orders, or for genomic sequence, where there are criteria for deciding when two breakpoints are too close together to be considered distinct—the four-vertex cycles are merged into larger structures, and the breakpoint graph becomes ambiguous concerning the rearrangements that produced it. The two divergent genomes eventually become randomized with respect to each other. But this randomization also occurs, even if divergence involves only distinct breakpoints, when the assumptions underlying the use of genome rearrangement algorithms are violated, which can happen in many possible ways [4,5]. And we cannot infer whether mutually randomized synteny block orderings derived from two divergent genomes were created through bona fide breakpoint reuse or rather through noise introduced in block construction or through processes other than reversal and translocation.

I illustrate this point with data on the human/mouse comparison from Pevzner and Tesler's more detailed paper [6]. We simulated 100 pairs of genomes constructed of 22 and 19 human and mouse autosomes, with 270 blocks distributed exactly as in the human and mouse genomes, except that the blocks were randomly permuted and sign—or strandedness—was assigned randomly to each block. Permutations are within, not between, chromosomes, assuring a realistic reversals/translocations ratio. Output from the standard rearrangement algorithm [7] is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1

Human/Mouse Comparison Resembles Randomized Genome Comparison

The human/mouse comparison parallels the randomized genomes, and both deviate drastically from the hypothetical case of 270 blocks evolving without breakpoint reuse. There is an excess of 22 four-cycles and three other small cycles in the real data, largely due to reversals within concatenated blocks from a single chromosome in both human and mouse, largely dispersed in the randomized chromosomes. These 25 are what remains of the detailed evolutionary signal; they account for the small differences in distance, in breakpoint reuse, and in the total number of cycles. The giant cycles celebrated in Pevzner and Tesler's paper [6] and Tesler and colleagues' paper [3] have almost identical structure in the human/mouse and randomized comparisons.

Note that in contrast to the autosomes, the rearrangement analysis of the human and mouse X chromosomes involves only short cycles, a breakpoint reuse rate close to 1.0 and a clear evolutionary signal.

In conclusion, I take issue neither with Pevzner and Tesler's ingenious method for constructing synteny blocks nor with the notion that genomes are spatially heterogeneous in their susceptibility to rearrangement; many types of genomic regions, as reviewed in a previously published paper [5], have documented elevated rates of rearrangement. Nevertheless, a high reuse rate in the output of rearrangement algorithms, which simply indicates loss of signal, is not good evidence for fragile regions. The output of comparisons of randomized genomes has the same characteristics—namely, similar rearrangement distance, similar cycle/path sizes, similar number of chromosomes touched by each large cycle, similar reuse rates, and similar estimates [8] of the number of translocations and reversals.


A hybrid fiber sensor for the simultaneous measurement of pressure and temperature is proposed. The sensor is constituted of a section of silica capillary tube (SCT) whereat access channels are created with two different methods: instilling a bubble on the fiber by employing successive arc discharges on the SCT whilst under pressure and splicing the SCT with another section of SCT with a smaller inner diameter. The reflection-based sensor enhances Fabry–Perot interference (FPI) and antiresonant (AR) guidance, simultaneously, in a single sensing element of a few millimeters. A comparison study between the access channel methods reveals higher spectral visibility for the bubble method and similar pressure and temperature resolutions. For a 2.58 mm long sensor with a bubble, the sensitivity to pressure is 4.09 ± 0.01 nm/MPa and −3.7 ± 0.1 nm/MPa for the FPI and AR, respectively, while its sensitivity to temperature is −0.20 ± 0.02 pm/°C and 24.0 ± 0.5 pm/°C, respectively, for the FPI and AR, which are within the numerically calculated sensitivities. The sensor is robust and has a convenient reflective probe with easy and low-cost fabrication, granting high competitiveness in actual applications.


Background : Study on epigenetics of urothelial carcinomas has expanded and allowed better understanding of their correlation with clinicopathologic features. The aim of this study was to determine reliable predictive epigenetic markers for patients with urothelial carcinoma of urinary bladder. Methods : In 64 urothelial carcinomas of the urinary bladder, methylationspecific polymerase chain reaction with RAS association domain family 1A (RASSF1A), adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), death-associated protein-kinase (DAPK), runt-related transcription factor 3 (RUNX3), p14, p16 and MGMT was performed and correlated the results with p53 mutations, DNA ploidy, clinicopathologic parameters and recurrences. Results : Hypermethyation of RASSF1A, APC, DAPK, RUNX3, p14, p16 and MGMT promoters was observed in 35 (54.7%), 29 (45.3%), 18 (28.1%), 18 (28.1%), 9 (14.1%), 2 (3.1%), and 6 (9.4%) cases, respectively. Hypermethylation of RUNX3 and APC was significantly associated with high histologic grades and aneuploidy. Methylation of DAPK was significantly associated with muscle invasion. Methylation of DAPK and RUNX3 genes was significantly associated with recurrence. In survival analyses, methylation of RUNX3 gene and methylation-high (methylation at two or more loci) phenotype was significantly associated with poor recurrence-free survival. Conclusions : Methylation of RUNX3 gene and methylation-high phenotype are significant indicator of recurrence.


For the purpose of studying the functional condition of the CNS the authors recorded the electrical activity of the brain (by the method of electroencephalography) in parallel with determination of the adrenal cortex function in patients with Itsenko-Cushing disease to whom diphenin was prescribed. Results of investigations showed reduction of the adrenal cortex function in patients with Itsenko-Cushing disease under the effect of diphenin to occur in parallel with reduction of irritation in the brain structures, detected by EEG. The data obtained confirmed an important role played by disturbances of the nervous regulation mechanisms in the appearance of this pathology.


The German electoral law to the federal parliament was reformed in 2011 and in 2013 . While political scientists have extensively evaluated consequences of these reforms, the role of the public discourse has been largely neglected . We analyze articles from three leading German newspapers (FAZ, SZ, Welt) on this topic and find the debate around the reforms to be dominated by parties and political institutions . Scientists, interest groups, and journalists have only played minor roles . Regarding content, the discourse largely focused on surplus seats, reform speed, and a proposal by the CDU/CSU‑FDP coalition government in 2011 . A broad public debate in which multiple social groups could participate has not taken place . From a normative perspective this is problematic since the lack of a public debate might have contributed to the poor quality of the reform's result .


High levels of contamination in the aquatic environment and wildlife within the Ontario portion of the St. Lawrence River at the Cornwall Area of Concern (AOC) have raised questions about potential impacts on wildlife health. Northern leopard frog embryos were raised in two wetland sites within the AOC and at two reference sites to assess differences in water and sediment quality on survivorship and deformity rates. Chlorinated hydrocarbons (total polychlorinated biphenyls, organochlorine pesticides), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nutrients and heavy metals were measured in sediment and/or water from the study sites. Levels of some metals such as aluminium, cadmium, chromium and copper, exceeded federal and provincial guidelines for the protection of aquatic life, especially in the two AOC wetlands. Early stage tadpole survivorship was significantly lower and deformity frequency significantly higher at wetlands within the AOC; however, differences were likely not biologically significant. Survivorship and deformity rates of leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) at metamorphosis did not differ significantly among sites. Onset of metamorphosis was accelerated in tadpoles raised in wetlands within the AOC. Tadpoles raised in wetlands within the St. Lawrence River AOC took significantly less time to complete metamorphosis (53‐55 days) than did tadpoles raised at reference sites (61‐64 days). The phenology of metamorphosis was also more synchronous in tadpoles raised in the AOC, with all tadpoles reaching metamorphosis within a space of 3 to 7 days, as compared to 9 to 12 days at reference wetlands; these differences could not be accounted for by water temperature. Differences in development and survivorship rates between AOC and reference sites may be related to contaminant concentrations in water and sediment. However, no strong evidence for beneficial use impairment in terms of reproductive impairments or elevated deformity rates were seen from caged leopard frogs in the two AOC wetlands.


BACKGROUND
As cognitive function declines with age, identifying factors affecting the trajectory of cognitive decline is an indispensable step toward developing intervention strategies to improve the quality of the elderly life.

OBJECTIVE
We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) focusing on memory function to explore single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with the rate of memory decline.

METHODS
Seven hundred and nine eligible non-Hispanic Caucasians from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) were included for analysis after quality control. GWAS was performed with linear regression. We subsequently tested whether the associations remained significant in subgroup analysis and also examined the impact of SNPs on the longitudinal changes in other neuropsychological measures and amyloid pathology.

RESULTS
We identified rs13374761-A in SLAMF1 gene associated with less memory decline (MAF = 0.071, β= 0.0103, p = 4.14×10-8). Subgroup analysis showed stability of results across groups with different diagnosis at baseline. Rs13374761-A also had protective effects on global cognition (p = 0.024), episodic memory (p = 0.024), and semantic memory (p = 0.042), and exerts protection against a decrease in CSF Aβ42 concentration (p = 0.0463) and an increase in Aβ loading in cerebral cortex (p = 0.00666) among minor allele carriers.

CONCLUSION
A novel variant in gene SLAMF1 affects the rate of memory decline in the aged population. Given the protective effect of this variant, SLAMF1 should be further investigated as a potential preventive and therapeutic target for monitoring cognition trajectories.


After the successful test of the first long Nb3Sn quadrupole magnet (LQS01), the US LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP) has assembled and tested a new 3.7 m-long Nb3Sn quadrupole (LQS02). This magnet has four new coils made of the same conductor as LQS01 coils, and it is using the same support structure. LQS02 was tested at the Fermilab Vertical Magnet Test Facility with the main goal to confirm that the long models can achieve field gradient above 200 T/m, LARP target for 90-mm aperture, as well as to measure the field quality. These long models lack some alignment features and it is important to study the field harmonics. Previous field quality measurements of LQS01 showed higher than expected differences between measured and calculated harmonics compared to the short models (TQS) assembled in a similar structure. These differences could be explained by the use of two different impregnation fixtures during coil fabrication. In this paper, we present a comparison of the field quality measurements between LQS01 and LQS02 as well as a comparison with the short TQS models. If the result supports the coil fabrication hypothesis, another LQS assembly with all coils fabricated in the same fixture will be produced for understanding the cause of the discrepancy between short and long models.


I attempt to find the causal effect of endogenous population size on quality of life. Quantity and quality of consumer amenities would increase with urban scale if not offset by congestion effects. To deal with endogeneity, I utilize a quasi-experimental design where I exploit the exogenous spatial distribution of mineral resources with Norwegian historical mines from the 12th till the 19th century. The findings suggest persistence in population patterns from early industrialization, and a positive urban scale effect on quality of life that pass multiple tests of confounding factors.


Poultry is a cheap source of animal protein and constituent of diets in Africa. Poultry can serve as a reservoir for Salmonella and cause food-borne infections in humans. This review describes Salmonella contamination of food, poultry, and the farming environment, antimicrobial resistance profiles, and serotypes of Salmonella, as well as the farming systems, antimicrobial use (AMU), hygiene, and husbandry conditions used to rear poultry in Africa. Using the PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis) guidelines, PubMed, Science Direct, and Web of Science databases were searched using a set of predefined keywords. Full-length research articles in English were examined for the period 2010-2020 and relevant information extracted for the narrative synthesis. Of the articles that met the inclusion criteria, 63.1% were conducted on farms and among households, while 36.9% were undertaken at government-controlled laboratories, which quarantine imported birds, processing plants, and retail outlets. The farming systems were intensive, semi-intensive, and extensive. AMU was described in 11.5% of the studies and varied within and across countries. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella isolates were detected in 30 studies and the prevalence ranged from 12.1% in Zimbabwe to 100% in Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa. A total of 226 different Salmonella serotypes were reported. Twenty-four (19.7%) of the studies reported food-borne Salmonella contamination in eggs, poultry, and poultry products at retail outlets and processing plants. The apparent extensive use of antimicrobials and circulation of MDR Salmonella isolates of various serotypes in Africa is a concern. It is important to implement stricter biosecurity measures on farms, regulate the use of antimicrobials and implement surveillance systems, in addition to food safety measures to monitor the quality of poultry and poultry products for human consumption.


Breast cancer is a disease with high incidence in Brazil and in the world. In this way, it is necessary the implementation of an effective health program for prevention and early detection of the disease. Infrared image can be used as an additional examination to aid the early detection of breast cancer, in order to reduce the mortality rate. Accurate values of thermophysical properties of the human tissues, specially of the breast, is a hard task, due  to the difficulty to measure such properties in vivo. Additionally, the breast tissue composition vary with the woman age. This article aims to estimate breast thermophysical properties: the thermal conductivity and the blood perfusion using the mapping of breast surface temperatures measured by the infrared image of the patient over a three-dimensional volume that represents the breast. The BioHeat Transfer Equation was used to calculate the breast temperature profiles. The Sequencial Quadratic Programming was used to estimate the thermal conductivity and the blood perfusion of the breast tissue and of the tumor. The results indicated that the refered method does not guarantee that the values obtained represent the global minimum of the objective function optimization problem.


Aromatherapy is one of the most common safer alternative treatments for psychiatric disorders with fewer side effects than conventional drugs. Here, we investigated the effects of cinnamon essential oil (CIEO) inhalation on mouse behaviors by performing different behavioral tests. CIEO inhalation showed anxiolytic effects in the elevated plus maze test, as inferred from increased time spent in open arms and decreased time spent in closed arms. Moreover, the CIEO treatment enhanced social behavior by increasing the total contact number, time spent in the center, distance traveled in the center, and total distance in the social interaction test. However, CIEO inhalation did not have any effect on performance in the open field test, tail suspension test, forced swimming test, and Y maze tests. The microarray analysis indicated that the CIEO treatment downregulated 17 genes and upregulated 15 genes in the hippocampus. Among them, Dcc, Egr2, and Fos are the most crucial genes that are involved in anxiety-related biological processes and pathways, including the regulation of neuronal death and neuroinflammation. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis revealed that cinnamaldehyde is the main component of CIEO. Cinnamaldehyde recovered MK-801-induced anxiety-related changes in the electroencephalogram power spectrum in zebrafish. Taken together, our findings suggest that CIEO and its main component cinnamaldehyde have an anxiolytic effect through the regulation of the expression of genes related to neuroinflammatory response and neuronal death.


This paper presents a performance modeling and optimization analysis tool to predict and optimize the performance of sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SpMV) on GPUs. We make the following contributions: 1) We present an integrated analytical and profile-based performance modeling to accurately predict the kernel execution times of CSR, ELL, COO, and HYB SpMV kernels. Our proposed approach is general, and neither limited by GPU programming languages nor restricted to specific GPU architectures. In this paper, we use CUDA-based SpMV kernels and NVIDIA Tesla C2050 for our performance modeling and experiments. According to our experiments, for 77 out of 82 test cases, the performance differences between the predicted and measured execution times are less than 9 percent; for the rest five test cases, the differences are between 9 and 10 percent. For CSR, ELL, COO, and HYB SpMV CUDA kernels, the average differences are 6.3, 4.4, 2.2, and 4.7 percent, respectively. 2) Based on the performance modeling, we design a dynamic-programming based SpMV optimal solution auto-selection algorithm to automatically report an optimal solution (i.e., optimal storage strategy, storage format(s), and execution time) for a target sparse matrix. In our experiments, the average performance improvements of the optimal solutions are 41.1, 49.8, and 37.9 percent, compared to NVIDIA's CSR, COO, and HYB CUDA kernels, respectively.


The association omeprazole/clarithromycin is of current wide use in the treatment of Helicobacter pylori associated gastroduodenal ulcer. This combination may result in increased levels of omeprazole with potential interactions with commonly associated drugs. Kinetic/metabolic changes occurring after omeprazole/clarithromycin were compared to those occurring after pantoprazole/clarithromycin in healthy volunteers. Eight healthy volunteers, all males, age 25-34 years, all EM for CYP2C19, participated in a randomized, double blind crossover study in two periods of 7 days, separated by a 14-day washout. In each treatment period, subjects took either omeprazole 20mg b.i.d. together with clarithromycin 500 mg b.i.d., or pantoprazole 40 mg b.i.d. with the same dose of the antibiotic. The pharmacokinetic parameters of omeprazole and pantoprazole were compared to those after intake of both agents alone. Kinetics of unchanged clarithromycin was evaluated at the end of the two periods. The mean value of the area under the plasma concentration versus time curve (AUC) of unchanged omeprazole increased almost two-fold after concomitant administration of clarithromycin; the average 5-OH-omeprazole AUC was instead significantly reduced by 42%. Omeprazole clearance and volume of distribution were reduced significantly by 75 and 56%, respectively, after administration of the drug with clarithromicyn. No significant changes of the kinetic of pantoprazole and metabolites were observed. Kinetics of clarithromycin did not differ after the two associated treatments. The administration of clarithromycin with two different proton pump inhibitors indicates that the antibiotic can markedly increase omeprazole, not pantoprazole, levels. This observation may result in a better therapeutic response to omeprazole, but it may also potentially affect either the metabolism of CYP3A4 substrates or interfere with the absorption of drugs requiring an intact gastric digestion system.


In this research, early strength development performance of early strength improvement type ordinary cement which is economically feasible early strength cement(Type Ⅲ), improved early strength ordinary cement(Type I), was estimated to derive minimum curing temperature and proper water to cement ratio according to cement for early strength development through examination of fresh concrete properties and compressive strength according to water to cement ratio curing 10℃, 15℃ and 20℃ to suggest fundamental data for practical use of early strength concrete.


attention has been paid to medical history. Many books have been published and many historical articles have' appeared in medical journals. The books are generally bulky and the journal articles necessarily scattered and devoted to isolated subjects. There is a need for a series such as that under review. The volumes are small enough to be carried in the coat pocket and the type is sufficiently large and clear. In the first volume W. R. Dawson, the author of "Magician and Leech," deals with "The Beginnings-Egypt and Assyria." He shows that embalming the dead body had a definite relation to the growth of medical science. Not only did it familiarize its users with much of the internal structure of the body and with the preservative properties of the salts and resins employed in the process, but it was an important means by which the prejudice against cutting the human body was overcome and which made systematic dissection possible. The author also points out that mummification of the body seemed to offer to men the means of averting extinction and of obtaining continuity of existence. The second volume, by Sir D'Arcy Power, is devoted to "Medicine in the British Isles." The history of medicine in Great Britain, as the author points out, is mainly a history of its corporate bodies. The third volume, "Anatomy," is by George W. Corner, and the fourth, by Sir Humphry Rolleston, deals with internal medicine. The fifth volume, on physiology, is from the pen of J. F. Fulton. This is most interesting; the five chapters are devoted to the ancients, the circulationof the blood, respiration, digestion and the physiology of the nineteenth century. The illustrations in these books' are good, but perhaps a trifie too few. The books will command a wide circulation, for many of the subjects are discussed from a new point of view; the writing is good, much of it is quite charming. We look forward to the appearance of the other volumes of the series.


This PhD project aimed to investigate the possibility of using Odorant Binding Proteins (OBPs) as sensing layers of chemical sensors, for the detection of organic compounds in both vapour and liquid phases. OBPs are small soluble proteins present in high concentrations in the olfactory system of vertebrates and insects. OBPs are attractive in the biosensor field since they can bind odorants and pheromones in a reversible way. They are resistant to high temperatures and protease activity and they can be easily expressed in large amounts. OBPs belonging to different species of mammals and insects were utilised for developing biosensors relied on different transduction mechanisms. Recombinant OBPs were grafted on the gold electrode of transducers by using Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols. The efficiency of the immobilisation method was proved by using electrochemical techniques. Quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs), screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) and interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) were employed for developing three types of OBP-based biosensors.I. QCMs functionalised with OBPs were tested against pheromones (i.e. bombykol and bombykal) and volatile compounds found in foodstuffs (i.e. pyrazine derivatives and geosmin) in vapour phase. The QCM based biosensors showed a good degree of selectivity and a detection limit of the order of parts per billion, in air. II. In liquid phase, impedimetric biosensors based on SPEs also showed a good selectivity and sensitivity being able to detect analyte concentrations of the order of 10-9 M. III. OBPs immobilised on the gold electrodes of IDEs were instead tested against S-(+) carvone vapour, proving that the binding activity of the proteins was preserved in vapour phase and can be quantified as variation of capacitance.The developed OBP biosensors showed good selectivity, sensitivity and stability over time in both liquid and vapour phase. The responses of the sensors were reversible, allowing to the device to be used several times. Moreover, the biosensors were label-free, hence the interaction between OBPs and ligand was directly detected without using auxiliary probes/species. With these findings, we envisage the use of our biosensors in several applications, including monitoring of the quality of food along the transportation and storage, controlling of pests and useful insects in agriculture, or as analytical devices for studying the dynamics in binding processes.


ABSTRACT In practice, the production temperatures of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) mixtures are determined based on practical experiences and recommendations. Thus, the focus of this study is to propose a temperature-sensitive compactabilty assessment method to quantify the temperature needs of WMA mixtures. Therefore, in this study, an image-based testing setup coupled with the Marshall Apparatus was developed to obtain the densification curve of asphalt mixtures considering its sensitivity to temperature changes. Further, the compactability indices typically derived for Superpave Gyratory Compactor (SGC) were adapted for Marshall Compaction. Accordingly, the effect of the temperature on the volumetrics, stability, and compactability indices were analysed for one Hot Mix Asphalt and four different WMA mixtures utilising the proposed methodology. Moreover, similar analyses were implemented for the same mixtures compacted with SGC and compared with the findings of the proposed methodology. While the analysis indicated that SGC compactability indices are not sensitive to relatively small temperature changes, it was concluded that the temperature-compactability relations obtained utilising the proposed methodology are considerably sensitive. Furthermore, the major findings of the study perfectly overlap with the field experiences.


Abstract Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical widely used as a monomer in polycarbonate, epoxy resin and thermal paper production, and as a stabiliser in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production. Thus, BPA is present in a wide range of common consumer products. Due to contact with BPA-containing products, humans are regularly exposed via different routes. BPA is an endocrine active substance and can potentially lead to different adverse health outcomes. In the present study, total BPA levels were analysed by on-line SPE-HPLC-MS/MS in spontaneous urine samples in order to investigate the exposure to an Austrian population aged 6-15 and 18-81 years. In the total study population (n=594), total BPA were found in 15.7% of all samples, with concentrations up to 17 μg/l (median: n.d., 95th percentile: 3.7 μg/l). These results show generally low BPA levels among the investigated study population. However, children and adolescents exhibited higher exposure levels. Daily BPA intakes were estimated and compared to acceptable exposure levels, whereat no exceedances could be identified. Although BPA exposure was shown to be low in the Austrian population, the wide distribution and the ongoing discussion related to possible negative health effects even at low doses indicate need for further monitoring and investigations.


Lipoxins, which are bioactive lipids derived from (cid:2) -6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, play important roles in various biological functions. In this study, the anti-inflammatory effects of lipoxin A 4 (LXA4; 5 S ,6 R ,15 S -trihydroxy-7,9,13- trans -11-eicosatetraenoic acid) were investigated in in vitro cultured cell experiments and in vivo animal experiments. In mouse peritoneal macrophages and mouse macro- phage cell line RAW264.7 cells, LXA4 reduced the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced increase in the mRNA expression level of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- (cid:3) . LXA4 also reduced the LPS-in-duced nuclear translocation of nuclear factor- (cid:1) B (NF- (cid:1) B). In an LPS-induced acute inflammation mouse model, the injection of LXA4 at 5 (cid:4) g/kg b.wt. led to down-regulation of the TNF- (cid:3) level in serum and the TNF- (cid:3) mRNA expression level in intestinal epithelial cells. Moreover, LXA4 reduced the LPS-caused phosphor- ylation of I (cid:1) B kinases, I (cid:1) B, and NF- (cid:1) B, the degradation of I (cid:1) B, and the nuclear translocation of NF- (cid:1) B in intestinal epithelial cells. In a coculture system using RAW264.7 cells and human colon carcinoma cell line Caco-2 cells, treatment with LXA4 to Caco-2 cells led to reduction of LPS-evoked TNF- (cid:3) production in RAW264.7 cells and interleukin-8 mRNA expression in Caco-2 cells. These results indicate that LXA4 exerts anti-inflammatory effects through inhibition of NF- (cid:1) B activation, and, therefore, LXA4 may be useful as a thera- peutic strategy against intestinal mucosa inflammation. the LPS-evoked nuclear translocation of NF- (cid:3) phosphorylation. The LPS-caused degradation phosphorylation of I (cid:3) reduced by LXA4. In inhibited the IKK (cid:2) / (cid:4) phosphorylation evoked by LPS. These results suggest that LXA4 can reduce NF- (cid:3) B activation through the inhibition of IKK (cid:2) / (cid:4)


Peritoneal exudate macrophages in guinea pigs and peripheral blood monocytes in man are the most readily available cells sensitive to the migration-inhibiting factor(s) (MIF) induced by tuberculin or insoluble concanavalin A in supernatants of stimulated lymphocyte cultures. The scarcity of MIF-sensitive cells is probably the main reason for the unsatisfactory results obtained with direct and indirect MIF tests when using white blood cells as indicator cells. Isolated horse monocytes represent an alternative sensitive source of indicator cells for human MIF assays, whereas guinea pig peritoneal exudate macrophages appear to be less sensitive and to show large individual variations in sensitivity to human MIF. The species specificity of MIF from various origins shows various patterns and is briefly discussed.


The transformation of normal cells into cancerous cells is an evolutionary process. Populations of precancerous cells reproduce, mutate, and compete for resources. Some of these mutations eventually lead to cancer. We calculate the probability of developing cancer under a set of simplifying assumptions and then elaborate these calculations, culminating in a simple simulation of the cell dynamics. The agent-based model allows us to examine the interactions of neutral and selective mutations, as well as mutations that raise the mutation rate for the entire cell. The simulations suggest that there must be at least two selectively neutral mutations necessary for the development of cancer and that preventive treatments will be most effective when they increase this number.


Recently, DNA nanotechnology has emerged as a promising and rapidly expanding method to utilize nucleic acids as a nanoscale building
 material. DNA origami is a major structural application of DNA nanotechnology, using DNA to construct two- and three-dimensional shapes.
 These structures have been employed for a variety of uses including DNA data storage. DNA is a promising material to address the impending
 shortage of silicon-based storage as data demands increase. There are many sequence-based methods of data storage, but digit Nucleic Acid
 Memory (dNAM) uses DNA origami as a breadboard and is read by super-resolution microscopy instead. dNAM uses DNA origami to spatially
 position DNA probe sequences in a matrix arrangement that can be read by DNA-PAINT. The prototype used 15 different origami structures
 to successfully encode and read "Data is in our DNA!\n".
 The dNAM prototype showed the feasibility of using DNA origami as a breadboard, however, the origami's size limits data capacity and
 reading efficiency. In chapter 2, we engineered a larger DNA origami rectangle for dNAM. First, we designed a larger node, with an 8x10
 matrix of potential data points, a 67% increase from the dNAM prototype. To construct this larger structure, we designed, cloned, produced,
 and tested a large, custom ssDNA scaffold. With this scaffold, we successfully folded larger origami as confirmed by AFM, and showed the
 correct positioning of DNA data point probes by DNA-PAINT. This larger structure enabled a 67% increase in the number of data points per
 origami, which allows for an 80% increase in the number of bits/node when encoding data. This larger node supports the scaling of dNAM,
 and will allow for more efficient production and reading.
 To take advantage of recent advances in array-based oligonucleotide synthesis, in chapter three we explore the use of pooled staples for
 dNAM. First, we tested the performance of pooled staples compared to individually synthesized staples using the original dNAM node with
 the M13mp18 scaffold. We showed that both sets of staples performed equally well in terms of folding origami, and arranging the matrix
 of data points. Next, we tested the formation of multiple origami structures using orthogonal scaffolds in the context of mixed pools
 of oligos. We compared the ability of two different scaffolds to fold into the appropriate origami with individual and mixed sets of
 staple strands. We showed that origami could be folded successfully with either one scaffold and both sets of staples ("random access")
 or both scaffolds and both sets of staples ("one-pot synthesis"). Finally, we designed multiple scaffolds that use orthogonal sets of
 staple strands and analyzed their orthogonality. Together, these results move dNAM towards taking advantage of pooled oligos, which will
 enhance scalability and efficiency. All moving dNAM towards real world applications.


Elevation of the posterior part of the tongue is important for normal deglutition and speech. The purpose of this study was to develop a new surface electromyography (EMG) method to non-invasively and objectively evaluate activity in the muscles that control lifting movement in the posterior tongue. Neck surface EMG (N-EMG) was recorded using differential surface electrodes placed on the neck, 1 cm posterior to the posterior border of the mylohyoid muscle on a line orthogonal to the lower border of the mandible. Experiment 1: Three healthy volunteers (three men, mean age 37·7 years) participated in an evaluation of detection method of the posterior tongue lifting up movement. EMG recordings from the masseter, temporalis and submental muscles and N-EMG revealed that i) N-EMG was not affected by masseter muscle EMG and ii) N-EMG activity was not observed during simple jaw opening and tongue protrusion, revealing the functional difference between submental surface EMG and N-EMG. Experiment 2: Seven healthy volunteers (six men and one woman, mean age 27·9 years) participated in a quantitative evaluation of muscle activity. Tongue-lifting tasks were perfor-med, exerting a prescribed force of 20, 50, 100 and 150 gf with visual feedback. For all subjects, a significant linear relationship was observed bet-ween the tongue-lifting force and N-EMG activity (P < 0·01). These findings indicate that N-EMG can be used to quantify the force of posterior tongue lifting and could be useful to evaluate the effect of tongue rehabilitation in future studies.


An outbreak of trichinosis following meals in a rural area of Provence is reported. The epidemiologic parameters reconstitute the contamination cycle (man-pig: fox-rat) which indicated indisputably the diagnosis, the appropriate therapy, and also evidenced a rural zoonosis of trichinosis in Provence. The clinical picture among twenty-one people included morbilliform rash in 38% of cases and an enanthema in 24% of cases, uncommon findings, with respect to their frequency, and the other usual signs. Early laboratory diagnosis was made possible by blood analysis for hypereosinophilia and immunoassay (ELISA) for antigen-specific IgE. Treatment with benzimidazoles was quite effective.


Our currecnt technique for lung lavage is described. This technique can be safely and effectively applied to patients with pulmonary alvelar proteinosis who require therapy. Normal saline alone is as effective a solution as one containing heparin and acetylcysteine. Chest percussion during lung lavage considerably enhances the yeild of each lavage and thus shortens the time required for the procedure. Lung lavage results in remarkable clearing of the chest roentgenogram and reversal of the physiologic defects and symptoms of the patient by the following day. In our experience this improvement lasts for at least one year.


This article presents a Takagi–Sugeno–Kang Fuzzy Neural Network (TSKFNN) approach to predict freeway corridor travel time with an online computing algorithm. TSKFNN, a combination of a Takagi–Sugeno–Kang (TSK) type fuzzy logic system and a neural network, produces strong prediction performance because of its high accuracy and quick convergence. Real world data collected from US‐290 in Houston, Texas are used to train and validate the network. The prediction performance of the TSKFNN is investigated with different combinations of traffic count, occupancy, and speed as input options. The comparison between online TSKFNN, offline TSKFNN, the back propagation neural network (BPNN) and the time series model (ARIMA) is made to evaluate the performance of TSKFNN. The results show that using count, speed, and occupancy together as input produces the best TSKFNN predictions. The online TSKFNN outperforms other commonly used models and is a promising tool for reliable travel time prediction on a freeway corridor.


To develop solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) capable of operating on sulfur-containing practical fuels at intermediate temperatures, further improvement of the sulfur tolerance of a Ni + BaZr0.4Ce0.4Y0.2O3-δ (BZCY) anode is attempted through the addition of some metal modifiers (Fe, Co, and Ag) by a one-pot synthesis approach. The effects of these modifiers on the electrical conductivity, morphology, sulfur tolerance, and electrochemical activity of the anode are systematically studied. As a result, the cell with Ag-modified Ni + BZCY anode demonstrates highest power output when operated on 1000 ppm H2S-H2 fuel. Furthermore, the Ag-modified anode displays much better stability than Ni + BZCY with 1000 ppm H2S-H2 fuel at 600°C. These results suggest that the addition of Ag modifier into Ni + BZCY is a promising and efficient method for improving the sulfur tolerance of SOFCs. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 4287–4295, 2017


The gene pool of five ethnic groups of the Central Asian population was characterized using nine human-specific polymorphic insertion/deletion loci (ACE, PLAT, APOA1, PV92, F13B, A25, B65, CD4, Mt-Nuc). It has been shown for the first time that at the CD4 locus, the frequency of Alu(-) is inversely related to the Mongoloid component of the population. For the Central Asian populations, the lowest and highest frequencies of the Alu deletion at locus CD4 were recorded respectively in Dungans (0.04), immigrants from China, and Tajiks (0.15). The coefficient of gene differentiation in the Central Asian populations for all the genes was 2.8%, which indicates a relatively low level of population genetic subdivision in this region. The unity of the gene pool of the Central Asian Caucasoids was shown.


In this paper we will discuss the emerging application of "low-power" computing in bio-medical systems, both for ultra-low-energy and low heat producing embedded implantable devices, as well as for low power dissipation but high performance embedded computing platforms which process the large data sets collected from the sensors and implants in realtime. We will discuss the power and real-time performance requirements of the embedded platforms. We will outline the path to developing and analyzing bio-medical benchmark suite and identify the computational and data characteristics of a selected application - both for implantable devices and for external portable data processing platforms. This paper will also include an in-depth look at available simulation and design space exploration tools for different processor micro-architectures which can be used to design the green bio-medical computation platform.


The possibility of the purified antibiotic, extracted from the Bac. mesentericus AB-56 culture liquid, application for the antitumoral vaccine preparation and standardization was established in experiment, conducted on the mice of Balb/c line.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two different pre-exposure procedures on adaptation to motion sickness in a rotating circular vection drum. The 45 subjects were randomly divided into three groups. The control group only had a standard 16-min exposure to the drum rotating at 60 degrees/s with no pre-exposure. The incremental exposure group had two separated 4-min pre-exposure periods at 15 degrees/s and 30 degrees/s in the rotating drum immediately prior to the standard 16-min exposure period in the drum rotating at 60 degrees/s. The abrupt-exposure group had the same pre-exposure procedure except the pre-exposure drum rotation speed was 60 degrees/s and was followed by the same standard exposure periods. Subjective motion sickness reports and a measure of gastric myoelectric activity (electrogastrogram, EGG) were obtained during the standard 16-min drum rotation period in all three groups. The results showed that subjects in the incremental exposure group reported significantly fewer motion sickness symptoms during the standard 16-min rotation period than did the subjects in the abrupt exposure group and the control group. Subjects in the incremental exposure group also had less tachyarrhythmia, abnormal gastric myoelectric activity associated with nausea, during the 16-min rotation period than did the subjects in the control and abrupt exposure group. Incremental exposure to motion stimuli may be a useful method for training resistance to visually-induced motion sickness.


We present the observed pulsation spectra of all known noninteracting ZZ Ceti stars (hydrogen atmosphere white dwarf variables [DAVs]) and examine changes in their pulsation properties across the instability strip. We confirm the well-established trend of increasing pulsation period with decreasing effective temperature across the ZZ Ceti instability strip. We do not find a dramatic order-of-magnitude increase in the number of observed independent modes in ZZ Ceti stars, traversing from the hot to the cool edge of the instability strip; we find that the cool DAVs have one more mode on average than the hot DAVs. We confirm the initial increase in pulsation amplitude at the blue edge and find strong evidence of a decline in amplitude prior to the red edge. We present the first observational evidence that ZZ Ceti stars lose pulsation energy just before pulsations shut down at the empirical red edge of the instability strip.


In the presence of glycerol or ethanol, SCPP (a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that expresses pectinolytic activity) is capable of utilizing galacturonic acid or pectins for growth purposes. We now establish a relationship between the pectinolytic power of various strains of S. cerevisiae and their ability to grow on a pectin/glycerol‐based medium. This property is further exploited for the detection of polygalacturonase‐producing strains of S. cerevisiae.


Abstract A request by a supervisory level paraprofessional at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Library presented a challenging and unique opportunity for both the paraprofessional and the Library to do what had never been done before-allow staff to telecommute coast to coast-from Seattle, Washington to Orlando, Florida. Not only was this a first for the Cataloging Department, but it was also the UCF Human Resources Department's first approval of such a request. A joint effort was required to set up every step from the proposal to the implementation. The team was comprised of Cataloging Department staff and librarians, Systems & Technology Department, and Library Administration. This paper focuses on the: (1) decision-making process, (2) approval process, (3) operational plan development, (4) implementation of the plan, (5) telecommuting experience, and (6) impact on the employee at the telecommuting site and on workflow in Cataloging.


Study Design. Retrospective review of a prospective cohort. Objective. To determine the incidence and risk factors for 30-day morbidity and mortality after pediatric deformity spinal surgery. Summary of Background Data. Pediatric deformity spinal surgery is generally considered a safe and effective treatment option. The rising costs associated with spinal surgery and related perioperative complications have received national attention. Few studies with standardized definitions and data collection methods exist. Methods. A large, multicenter clinical registry specifically designed to collect pediatric surgical outcomes was queried for all patients undergoing spinal deformity surgery in 2012. Current Procedural Terminology codes were used to select patients undergoing anterior, posterior, and combined fusions. Detailed patient and case characteristics were analyzed. Thirty-day morbidity and mortality rates were calculated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify patient characteristics, comorbidities, and operative variables predictive of complication. Results. In total, 2005 pediatric patients undergoing deformity spinal fusion were included. The rate of 30-day complications was 10.0%; with a mortality rate of 0.15% (3 patients), a morbidity rate of 8.4%, reoperation rate of 3.74%, and readmission rate of 3.94%. The morbidity rate was highest in the neuromuscular group (13.09%) and lowest in the idiopathic cohort (5.69%), P < 0.01). Compared with posterior fusions, anterior fusions and those extending to the pelvis were associated with higher complication rates (P < 0.01). Risk factors for complication included hepatobiliary disease (P = 0.03), cognitive impairment (P = 0.02), elevated American Society of Anesthesiologists class (P < 0.01), and prolonged operative time (P < 0.01). Conclusion. The overall rate of 30-day morbidity after pediatric spinal deformity surgery was 10%. Multiple patient comorbidities and surgical duration and invasiveness were associated with an increased complication risk. These data may aid in the informed consent process, facilitate patient risk assessment, and allow quality comparisons between surgeons and institutions. Level of Evidence: 2


BACKGROUND
Analysis of the DNA cell cycle and glutathione content cannot be performed on viable cells, because the fluorescence emissions of the DNA-specific probe Hoechst 33342 and the glutathione-specific probe monobromobimane overlap completely. We decided to explore whether the emissions could be resolved by the singlet excited state lifetimes of the probes.

METHODS
Viable cells were first incubated with Hoechst 33342 at 37 degrees C for 30 min and then with monobromobimane at room temperature for 10 min. Samples were excited with a sinusoidally modulated laser beam (10 MHz) in a flow cytometer. The Hoechst 33342 and monobromobimane lifetimes and fluorescence intensities were resolved by using phase-sensitive detectors.

RESULTS
The observed singlet excited state lifetimes were 1.5 ns for Hoechst 33342 and 12 ns for monobromobimane. The glutathione (GSH) content was shown to increase as cells (GM130, HL60, U937) progressed through the cell cycle. However, after the data were corrected for differences in cell volume, it was found that the GSH concentration was constant throughout the cell cycle of the exponentially growing cells.

CONCLUSIONS
Phase-resolved flow cytometry provides a means for the specific analysis of the GSH content/concentration as a function of the cell's position in the DNA cell cycle in viable cells.


Purpose: To study the effect of CBX4/miR-137/Notch1 signaling axis on the migration and proliferative capacity of breast cancer. Methods: Breast cancer MCF7 cell lines were cultured in vitro and transfected with CBX4- overexpressed plasmid and interfering plasmid, which served as CBX4 over-expressing group and CBX4 interfering group, respectively. A control group (blank plasmid transfection) was set up. The MCF7 cells were transfected with miR-137 over-expressed plasmid, miR-137 interfering plasmid and Notch1 interfering plasmid, which served as miR-137 over-expressing, miR-137 interference and Notch1 interference groups, respectively. Cell proliferation and migration capacity were determined with methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium (MTT) method and Transwell migration assay, respectively, while reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunoblotting were used to assay related gene expressions. Results: Cell migration in CBX4 over-expressing group was significantly raised (p < 0.05). The expression of miR-137 in CBX4 over-expressing group was markedly decreased (p < 0.05). Compared with the control group, mRNA and protein expressions of Notch1 (NICD), Hey2 and Jag1 in miR-137 over-expressing cells were increased in the miR-137 interfering group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: CBX4 level is increased in mammary cancer cells. Moreover, CBX4 enhances cell proliferation and migration through induction of Notch1 signaling route by inhibiting miR-137 expression. These findings provide a new strategy for clinical therapy of mammary


Background Antimicrobial drug therapy problems refer to incorrect and inappropriate utilization of antimicrobials which affect patient's health outcomes and results in bacterial resistance. Incorrect use of antimicrobial agents is a key driver for the spread of antimicrobial drug resistance. Improving drug therapy problems has an important effect on the patients' health, treatment costs, and enhancing patients' quality of life. Hence, the aim of the present study was to assess antimicrobial drug therapy problems among patients in the Outpatient Department of Ataye hospital, Northeast Ethiopia. Methods A hospital-based retrospective cross-sectional study design was used to assess antimicrobial drug therapy problems among patients in Ataye hospital from September 2018 to February 2019. Data were collected by trained graduating pharmacy students by reviewing medical records of patients using checklists and questionnaires. Results A total of 248 patient cards were included in this study. At least one antimicrobial drug therapy problem had occurred among 96 (38.7%) of the study participants. The most common drug therapy problem was the need for additional drug therapy which was incurred by 38 (15.3%) of the study participants and ineffective antimicrobial therapy was experienced by 22 (8.9%) of the patients. Tetracyclines 25 (26%), fluoroquinolones 19 (19.8%), and penicillins 18 (18.8%) were the most common classes of antimicrobials prone to drug therapy problems. Conclusion The current study revealed that nearly two-fifths of the study participants had experienced at least one form of antimicrobial drug therapy problem. The most common drug therapy problem was the need for additional drug therapy and the use of ineffective antimicrobial therapy. Tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, and penicillins were the main classes of antimicrobials involved in the drug therapy problem.


Background: Providing a favorable health status is of high importance for educational buildings and in particular schools. The aim of this study was to evaluate the school health and its accordance with national school health regulations in Kermanshah city, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study, the researchers randomized 200 schools and gathered data using a checklist comprising 87 questions, 74 of them on environmental health status and 14 of them on safety status of schools. This checklist designed based on the school health guidelines (developed by the health and work environment center of the Ministry of health, treatment and medical education). In this study, the researchers used only the former and filled out the checklist through visiting schools and interviewing with their staff. The collected data were transferred to the statistics software SPSS version 16.0 and Excel version 2010 and the outputs were presented in tables. Results: Out of the 200 schools surveyed, 66.5% were old(structural dating of more than 10 years), and only 33.5% (67 schools) were new (structural dating of less than 10 years). Among these schools, 99.5% (199 schools) provide healthy tap water places, 98.5% (197 schools) healthy hand washing facilities and 100% (200 schools) healthy toilets. The average level of school buffets health was observed58.5%. The health and optimization status of the studied schools was 92-100% in accordance with article 13 of the regulation. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, there were some problems that include the health status of school buffets, classrooms and toilets, as well as the safety status of theinvestigated schools, so that attention to the health of schools should be among the priorities of the government and the authorities.


We investigate intensity variations and energy deposition in five coronal loops in active region cores. These were selected for their strong variability in the AIA/SDO 94 Å intensity channel. We isolate the hot Fe xviii and Fe xxi components of the 94 Å and 131 Å by modeling and subtracting the "warm" contributions to the emission. HMI/SDO data allow us to focus on "inter-moss" regions in the loops. The detailed evolution of the inter-moss intensity time series reveals loops that are impulsively heated in a mode compatible with a nanoflare storm, with a spike in the hot 131 Å signals leading and the other five EUV emission channels following in progressive cooling order. A sharp increase in electron temperature tends to follow closely after the hot 131 Å signal confirming the impulsive nature of the process. A cooler process of growing emission measure follows more slowly. The Fourier power spectra of the hot 131 Å signals, when averaged over the five loops, present three scaling regimes with break frequencies near 0.1 min−1 and 0.7 min−1. The low frequency regime corresponds to 1/f noise; the intermediate indicates a persistent scaling process and the high frequencies show white noise. Very similar results are found for the energy dissipation in a 2D "hybrid" shell model of loop magneto-turbulence, based on reduced magnetohydrodynamics, that is compatible with nanoflare statistics. We suggest that such turbulent dissipation is the energy source for our loops.


Enterprise Architecture describes a high-level design of the structure of the organization, the roles, the processes and the functions, IT systems and IT infrastructure as well as their interrelationships, in order to realize the business goals and objectives. For a robust and coherent Enterprise Architecture it is necessary to use an EA framework. An EA framework is a set of structures for developing Enterprise Architectures. The EA frameworks contain guidelines, tools, common vocabulary and a method for designing the target state of the organization in terms of building blocks. Furthermore, they include a list of recommended standards and compliant products that can be used to implement the building blocks.
Nowadays the Cloud Computing paradigm motivates many organizations to adopt and use Cloud services in order to take advantage of the Cloud inherent characteristics. However there are many challenges and risks that Cloud Computing brings to the consumer organizations by extending significantly their traditional IT landscape and boundaries. Cloud transforms the business goals, operations, service offerings, processes, partnerships, and IT infrastructure, things which need to be addressed in the Enterprise Architecture. As a result Enterprise Architects' community needs to quickly understand the direct and indirect effects of the Cloud to EA. Despite the necessity of a Cloud-enabled EA framework there is not such a thing yet developed.
In this report we propose an EA framework for developing, managing and governing enterprise Cloud Ecosystems. The resulting approach is based on TOGAF (EA framework) and ArchiMate (EA modeling language) because they are the most popular EA approaches, applicable to Cloud Computing.
The resulting approach is called TOGAF for Cloud Ecosystems and is a Cloud-enabled version of TOGAF. The most important elements of the TOGAF for Cloud Ecosystems approach are two reference models and specific guidelines for every Phase of the ADM on how to develop, manage and govern enterprise Cloud Ecosystems with the use of these reference models.
The Cloud Ecosystem Reference Model provides taxonomy of Architecture Building Blocks(ABBs), organizational roles, services and their relationships in the Cloud Ecosystem. This reference model forms a common language to achieve integrity of the architectural descriptions and also it is the base to create architectural viewpoints and diagrams of the enterprise Cloud Ecosystem. By utilizing these ABBs, candidates Cloud services are identified for the enterprise Cloud Ecosystem. The Enterprise Ecosystem Model contains the relationships and dependencies between the different kinds of enterprise frameworks in order to manage the life cycle of these Cloud services. Next to them Cloud-specific guidelines are given for TOGAF ADM, which focus on the Cloud-enabled approach, steps and deliverables of each ADM Phase.
The TOGAF for Cloud Ecosystems approach is demonstrated in the context of the ArchiSurance case study in order to provide information on how to develop, manage and govern an enterprise Cloud Ecosystem with the Cloud Ecosystem Reference Model and Enterprise Ecosystem Model. ArchiMate is used to model the deliverables of every ADM Phase for the ArchiSurance CRM Cloud migration scenario.
Lastly the resulting approach is evaluated by interviewing three experts in the field of Cloud Computing and Enterprise Architecture, from one (1) Dutch and two (2) U.S. multinational companies. The feedback from the interviews is applied to the TOGAF for Cloud Ecosystems approach.


Gordon Douglas Rowley has had a massive influence in the world of succulents both here in the Uk and worldwide - indeed he was an internationally known celebrity. Gordon led a full and varied life but here a botanical career spanning an incredible 80 years can only be touched on briefly.
Gordon's legacy derives notably from his vast output of publications and to describe him as a prolific author greatly understates his productivity. Particularly significant are the 20 books and booklets he authored which are tabulated.


This article analyzes the phenomenon of learning. The author decided to focus her attention on the study of the contradictions that, on the one hand, are at the basis of this phenomenon, and, on the other hand, make its very existence and functioning possible as an integral part of educational process. In order to clarify the nature of conflicts causing the ambiguity (difficulty) of the phenomenon of learning, the author decided to refer to the theory of communication, which has been developed within the framework of sociology by N. Luhmann and in the framework of semiotics by Y. M. Lotman. Communication concept is used here as a kind of analog model, which serves to highlight some of the features of the phenomenon of learning. As a result of this compari son, the author comes to the conclusion that the source of inconsistency of the learning process is in the ambiguity (ambivalence) of its nature: it appears to us both as a social institution and as a "communicative event", an integral part of the communication process itself.


The endocrine cells of gastrointestinal tract of the Oreochromis niloticus were investigated using immunohistochemical techniques. 8 antisera were tested and 3 immunoreactivities were detected: Serotonin, glucagon and somatostatin immunoreactive cells. Substance P, insulin, gastrin, calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) and calbindin immunoreactive cells were not found.


Previously unpublished lectures from Wilfred Ruprecht Bion. The book consists of eight talks Bion gave at the Tavistock Clinic between 1976 and 1979. Topics explored include the importance of observation; dreams; art and psychoanalysis; and the significance of time in psychoanalysis. In addition, this volume includes an illuminating interview of Bion by Anthony G. Banet in 1976.'In your practice you will find yourself under pressure. You say whatever you have to say, and then there is an entirely new situation. You don't really know what is going on because it is an entirely new situation, things will not be the same. It is likely enough that the patient will say, "Why don't you say something?" Or if not the patient, the relatives - "Why don't you do something?" So you are always under pressure prematurely and precociously to produce your idea. Poor little thing! Pull it up by the roots and have a look at it - it hasn't got a chance. So you have to act as a sort of parent to the idea - protect it and give it a chance to grow in spite of these pressures; you have to be able to tolerate this state of ignorance.'- W.R. Bion


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether plain lateral cephalometric radiographs in the neutral position could be used as a diagnostic tool to investigate changes in the cervical spine related to juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Lateral cephalometric radiographs of 82 subjects, 21 males and 61 females (8-25 years old), affected with JIA were revised and compared with 82 healthy control subjects matched in age and gender. Changes inspected in the cervical spine were erosions of the dens and fusion of the apophyseal joints. Anterior atlantoaxial subluxation of the first vertebra in relation to the second was examined by measuring the anterior atlanto-dens interval (aADI). Atlantoaxial impaction (AAI) was studied by using the Sakaguchi-Kauppi method.

RESULTS
In the JIA sample, erosion was seen in 14.7%, (12 patients), of the patients and apophyseal joint ankylosis (fusion) in 18.3%, (15 patients). Three children and one adult had aADI more than 4.5 or 3 mm, respectively, which is considered to be abnormally increased, and AAI was noted in 13.0% of the subjects. In total, 35%, (29 children), of the children with JIA showed one or several radiographically visible changes as described earlier. Two of the control subjects showed ankylosis of the apophyseal joints, and one had aADI of 4 mm. Compared with the controls, significantly more changes were found in the JIA group.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that arthritic changes in the cervical spine can be detected at a young age on plain lateral cephalometric radiographs and should be evaluated when available.


Introduction : Working on shifts, and especially, on a night shift, influences the endogenous sleep regulation system leading to diminished sleep time and increased somnolence. This may be dangerous in some cases, especially in large scale constructions, such as tunnels. Aims and objectives : The aim of our study was to examine whether sleep duration and daytime sleepiness differed between day and night shifts among tunnel workers. Methods : In this study 42 male workers (during the last semester) in a tunnel construction were recruited and examined at workplace. They underwent spirometric control and they were asked to complete a questionnaire referring to demographic factors, status of health and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Results : The workers present a mean age of 42 years old and a mean Body Mass Index (BMI) of 27.2 kg/m 2 . 69% of them were active smokers, while 31% have never tried smoking. Interestingly, 93% of the tunnel workers were consuming two coffees per day at least, while the remaining 7% were not drinking coffee at all. Almost one third of them reported alcohol consumption on a daily basis. Severe cardiologic, respiratory or endocrine disease was not reported among the participants and neither were depression and anxiety disorders. Our results showed that almost all the workers had gathered a score less than 10 in the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (a score of 10 or more is considered sleepy), except for two subjects in which statistical analysis did not reveal any statistically significant correlation between somnolence and the work schedule (p=0.88). Conclusions : The rotating shift in a dark and demanding environment, as in the tunnel construction, does not play a significant role in daytime sleepiness.


This article presents the results of an exploratory study on housing preferences of 315 people with serious mental illness living in seven types of housing in Montreal. The overall portrait that emerged from the study revealed that 22,0 % of the participants prefer to live in their own apartment, 16,0 % in HLM or OSBL, 14,1 % in a supervised apartment, and 11,5 % in a foster home. In addition, 31,7 % prefer the type of housing they were living in at the time of the study. The authors conclude that a variety of housing resources are necessary to meet the diverse needs of consumers.


Software Engineering is an important course for software related majors; yet it's also the most hated and most "boring" course among the students; teachers have difficulties in arousing the interest of their students, and there's hardly any doable practices that can be performed within the time/environmental limitation of the class. To address this issue, proposes a performance-oriented design model of the content & style of Software Engineering textbook for undergraduate software related majors; code of ethics, project management, documentation and coding skills, and career planning etc are added to the course content; quality-oriented education is integrated; various layout styles and decorative elements are imposed on the composing of the content. The newly designed textbook (Introduction to Quality-Oriented Software Engineering) has been proven to be more easily handled for teachers, and students have also shown paying more attention when in the class.


The Andes of northern Peru are still widely covered with forests, but increasingly suffer from habitat fragmentation. Subsequent soil degradation often leads to the abandonment of overused forests and pastures. Ecological knowledge on the restoration potential, e.g., on dependencies of soil conditions and altitude, is scarce. Therefore, we compared soil and vegetation patterns along nine transects within the upper Pomacochas Basin, which is an important biodiversity corridor along the Andes, between remaining forests, succession sites and pastures. Anthropogenic successional and disturbance levels, geological substrate, and altitude have the most important ecological impacts on vegetation and tree species composition. Species responded to sandstone versus calcareous substrates, but also to depths of the organic soil layer, and light conditions. The absence of organic layers under pastures contrasted with the accumulation of thick organic layers under forest cover. Vegetation composition at succession sites revealed certain starting points (herbal stage, bush stage, or secondary forest) for restoration that will determine the length of regeneration paths. Pre-forest patches of Alchornea sp. and Parathesis sp. may act as habitat stepping stones for expeditiously restoring biocorridors for wildlife. The key findings can contribute to the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity in a fragile ecoregion.


System, base station and method for supporting frequency domain equalization for frequency domain equalization-capable mobile stations and supporting improved channel estimation for both time domain and frequency domain equalization-capable mobile stations on the forward link without the necessity of modifications to an air-interface specification of a legacy communication system. A first signal sequence is generated according to a first format and an offset vector is also generated. The first signal sequence and the offset vector are combined to form a second signal sequence according to a second format. The second signal sequence of said second format supports frequency domain equalization in one or more frequency domain-capable mobile stations. The second signal sequence maintains compatibility with one or more legacy mobile stations.


Survivin is a member of IAPs. YM155 is a compound that suppresses survivin, and has been shown to exhibit anti‐tumor activity in preclinical and clinical studies. The current analysis is designed to compare the pharmacokinetics (PK) of YM155 between US and Japanese patient populations using data obtained from two phase 1 trials, one done in Japan and the other in the US. Patients with a confirmed solid tumor or NHL (US only) that were refractory to standard therapy or for which no standard therapy was available participated in these trials. YM155 was administered as a continuous IV infusion for 168 hours, every 21 days. During the first two treatment cycles, serial blood and urine samples were collected for up to 48 hours after the discontinuation of YM155 infusion on Day 7. Forty‐one subjects in the US trial (including 5 subjects with NHL) and 33 subjects in the Japanese trial had adequate samples for PK evaluation. The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was 4.8 mg/m2/day and 8.0 mg/m2/day in the US and Japanese populations, respectively. In both populations, median YM155 concentration appeared to reach steady‐state 12–24 hours after the start of the YM155 infusion. After discontinuation of the YM155 infusion, plasma YM155 concentration declined rapidly in a biphasic pattern with mean terminal half‐life between 6 and 29 hours. The geometric mean ratio [90 % confidence interval(CI)] of steady‐state YM155 concentration (Css) and area under observed YM155 concentration‐time curve extrapolated to infinity (AUCinf) between cycle 2 and cycle 1 was 1.09 (0.99 –1.29) and 1.02 (0.90–1.16) in the US, and 0.98 (0.80 – 1.21) and 1.00 (0.97–1.03) in the Japanese populations, respectively, suggesting that there was no time‐dependence in YM155 exposure. The slope of regression of natural logarithm transformed Css and AUCinf on natural logarithm transformed dose (mean and 95% CI) was 0.66 (0.31–1.00) and 0.65 (0.29–1.00) in the US and 1.00 (0.86–1.14) and 0.99 (0.85–1.12) in the Japanese populations, respectively. At the US MTD dose of 4.8 mg/m2/day, Css (mean ± SD) during cycle 1 was 7.6 ± 2.6 ng/mL (n=24) in the US and 8.7 ± 1.4 ng/mL (n=6) in the Japanese populations. The geometric mean ratios (90 % CI) of AUCinf, Css, and clearance between Japanese and US populations were 1.06 (0.93 – 1.22), 1.14 (1.00 – 1.31) and 0.80 (0.70 – 0.92), respectively. In conclusion, data currently available suggests that PK of YM155 is time‐independent in both the US and Japanese patient populations; there appear to be no differences between U.S. and Japanese patients in terms of blood plasma YM155 concentration and its time course, although high variability was observed. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):C134.


Geometrical error of ultra precision machining due to spherical tool alignment error is analyzed. Deviation of spherical edge, ranged several ten micrometers, generates vertical and horizontal error of tool path and affects profile accuracy of machined surface. Simulation of machined error shows effect of tool alignment error and enables to estimate alignment error. This work provides technical insights into the minimizing of geometrical error of ultra precision machining.


Background: Optimal levels of intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) in the post-transplant period are not known due to insufficient data. Therefore, we aimed to describe secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) in Swedish renal transplant (RT) recipients and also report events of fractures and vascular events potentially related to levels of iPTH. Methods: Medical charts from 132 RT recipients were retrospectively reviewed. Laboratory/clinical data were obtained at regular points up to 12 months post RT. Three groups were created based on pre-RT levels of iPTH based on KDOQI recommended levels of iPTH in CKD 5. Results: One year post RT 69% had iPTH above levels recommended by KDOQI. A multiple regression analysis showed a strong relation between pre-transplant iPTH levels and iPTH levels at 12 months (β coefficient = 0.323, p < 0.001). Patients with low pre-transplant levels of iPTH had a higher rate of fractures during follow up compared to patients with higher pre-transplant levels of iPTH had a higher rate of fratures during follow-up compared to patients with higher pre-transplant levels of iPTH (p = 0.034). Conclusion: SHPT is common in Swedish RT recipients. Pre-transplant regulation of SHPT is of great importance to determine outcome post RT. Low levels of iPTH in the pre-transplant period could be associated with a high risk of fracture in the first post-transplant year.


We fabricated and characterized a thin photo-patterned micropolarizer array for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors. The proposed micropolarizer fabrication technology completely removes the need for complex selective etching. Instead, it uses the well-controlled process of ultraviolet photolithography to define micropolarizer orientation patterns on a spin-coated azo-dye-1 film. The patterned polymer film micropolarizer (10 mum x 10 mum) exhibits submicron thickness (0.3 mum) and has an extinction ratio of ~ 100. Reported experimental results validate the concept of a thin, high spatial resolution, low-cost photo-patterned micropolarizer array for CMOS image sensors.


The tetrablock, roughly speaking, is the set of all linear fractional maps that map the open unit disc to itself. A formal definition of this inhomogeneous domain is given below. This paper considers triples of commuting bounded operators (A,B,P) that have the tetrablock as a spectral set. Such a triple is named a tetrablock contraction. The motivation comes from the success of model theory in another inhomogeneous domain, namely, the symmetrized bidisc F. A pair of commuting bounded operators (S,P) with Gamma as a spectral set is called a Gamma-contraction, and always has a dilation. The two domains are related intricately as the Lemma 3.2 below shows. Given a triple (A, B, P) as above, we associate with it a pair (F-1, F-2), called its fundamental operators. We show that (A,B,P) dilates if the fundamental operators F-1 and F-2 satisfy certain commutativity conditions. Moreover, the dilation space is no bigger than the minimal isometric dilation space of the contraction P. Whether these commutativity conditions are necessary, too, is not known. what we have shown is that if there is a tetrablock isometric dilation on the minimal isometric dilation space of P. then those commutativity conditions necessarily get imposed on the fundamental operators. En route, we decipher the structure of a tetrablock unitary (this is the candidate as the dilation triple) and a tertrablock isometry (the restriction of a tetrablock unitary to a joint invariant sub-space). We derive new results about r-contractions and apply them to tetrablock contractions. The methods applied are motivated by 11]. Although the calculations are lengthy and more complicated, they beautifully reveal that the dilation depends on the mutual relationship of the two fundamental operators, so that certain conditions need to be satisfied. The question of whether all tetrablock contractions dilate or not is unresolved.


To elucidate the assumed relationship between hyperparathyroidism and pancreatitis, the pancreatic function was studied in 20 patients with hyperparathyroidism. In all cases removal of a parathyroid adenoma was followed by normalization of preoperative hypercalcemia. A modified Lundh's test with duodenal aspiration was performed before and after the operation. The volume of the aspirate and its content of electrolytes and pancreatic isoamylase were compared with findings in an age-matched control group. Preoperatively the volume of secretion was significantly less in the patients than in the controls. Carbonate levels were also decreased, but changes in enzymatic activity were slight. Postoperatively there was significant increase in aspirate volume and fall in the level of duodenal calcium. The results suggested an influence of hyperparathyroidism on exocrine pancreatic function, even when no symptoms of pancreatic disease are present.


The identification of two cell populations displaying different cytologic characteristics in the same fine needle aspiration (FNA), one with an epithelioid appearance and the other spindle cell morphology, is an extremely rare phenomenon and potentially represents a source of diagnostic confusion. Depending on the lineage and relationship of the two cell types, the differential diagnosis is broad and encompasses a wide spectrum of entities. The current case describes the presence of nests and clusters of neuroendocrine cells associated with rare spindle cell fragments of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) in the same fine needle aspiration of a duodenal mass. Our literature analysis revealed that such combined cytologic findings were hitherto never reported and the concurrence of well‐differentiated neuroendocrine tumor (NET) and GIST is almost pathognomonic for neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF‐1).


Today, globalisation has reached its peak not only due to economic integration, but also by the multiplier effect stemmed from digital communication technologies. The concept of «global village», mentioned nearly half a century ago by Marshall McLuhan, confronts us as actual reality. Of course, this approach creates radical impact on all management practices.

 Public relations is one of the management instruments which is affected most by the emergent change in approach within this context. In this volume, the authors define public relations through an international perspective within the context of both theory and practice. Consisting of fifteen sections, the book describes what intra- and extra-organisational public relation theories and practices correspond to in the present day.


The ventilation effectiveness concept has been extensively used in research, where it has long been recognised as a good indicator of air quality. Also, there are many examples of its parameters having been measured as an aid to monitoring the air quality in completed buildings, usually to solve an air quality problem. However, despite their value as a predictor of the air quality to be achieved by an air distribution system, ventilation effectiveness parameters are rarely used in design. This paper shows that ventilation effectiveness parameters can easily be included in the design calculations, both early in simple modelling, and at a detailed advanced stage by association with a CFD model. The interpretation of the parameters is also explained.