Salt marshes are the typical types of coastal wetlands found in the high latitude areas (i.e. the temperate climatic region). These wetlands are subjected to hydrodynamic forces and inundation by saline water during flood tides. Hence, salt marsh ecosystems are home to distinctive plant species that are resistant to these conditions. These salt marsh wetlands are of engineering significance acting as natural defence against storm surges and waves. In addition, they have great ecological value providing food and sheltered nesting places for birds and animals.
Hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics are important to the development of these salt marshes. The salt marsh plants increase the drag forces on tidal currents and wave actions. This way, salt marsh vegetation directly impacts the hydrodynamics and subsequently the sediment dynamics within the salt marsh wetlands. The sediment dynamics in the salt marshes help its lateral and vertical extension. Due to the continuous sediment deposition within the salt marsh vegetation, elevation gradients can be developed between the mudflat area at the seaward side and the elevated salt marshes at the landward side. This increasing gradient positively affects the growth of salt marshes as salt stresses and tidal currents are reduced in the higher elevated parts of the marsh. With the continuous accumulation of sediments in this elevated area, the slope at the edge of the salt marsh vegetation becomes increasingly steep, prone to the wave action. High energy waves, created by storms, can induce (substantial) erosion at the salt marsh edge, resulting in the formation of a cliff.
The erosive processes within the salt marsh environment are important to understand, as they determine whether a salt marsh will develop or decline. Two types of erosion processes can be distinguished: top soil erosion and cliff erosion. Topsoil erosion occurs all over the marsh surface and this process is determined by the bed shear stresses. The cliff erosion refers to the lateral erosion of the salt marsh cliff and is rather important in the gradual loss of the salt marshes. Knowledge about the cliff erosion process and the relevant parameters is still limited. Therefore, this study is dedicated to the quantification of cliff erosion rates, focusing on the impacts of sediment properties and vegetation characteristics on these rates while considering a wide range of field conditions. With this research, knowledge will be obtained about how the cliff erosion varies depending on the salt marsh vegetation species, their density and the amount of aboveground and belowground biomass. Additionally, this research will also consider the impact of the sediment grain sizes and organic carbon content on the cliff erosion.
Laboratory experiments were carried out to quantify the cliff erosion of salt marsh substrates. Samples were collected from five field sites covering three vegetation species: Spartina anglica, Scirpus maritimus and Phragmites australis. Moreover, within each site, samples were collected from three density zones: the densely vegetated zone, the sparsely vegetated zone and the mudflat (un-vegetated) zone. For all study sites, sediment sizes and organic carbon content were analysed and vegetation properties were quantified. Cliff like marsh edges were reconstructed in the experimental wave tanks. The generated wave conditions in the wave tank were representative for potential field conditions. The collected samples were placed in the wave tanks and at intervals pictures were taken of the eroded sediment samples to record the erosion of the sediments from time to time due to the wave action. Obtained pictures were processed with a 3D image analysis method using Visual SFM and Meshlab. This procedure resolved the sediment volumes that were eroded from the samples during every time interval.
The cliff erosion in this study was quantified using two characteristic coefficients: 'erosion maximum' and 'erosion rate'. The erosion maximum resembles the maximum amount of sediments that would be eroded from a sample if it would be exposed to the simulated wave actions for an infinite period of time. Erosion rate is a rate coefficient and measures the speed by which it approaches to erosion maximum.
The results of our research show clear differences in the maximum amount of sediment loss depending upon the salt marsh plant species, their density and the amount of aboveground and belowground biomass. Among the three species studied, the smaller erosion maxima were obtained for Spartina anglica with a 0.01-0.02
iv
volume fraction of the sample. The erosion maxima for the other two species, Scirpus maritimus and Phragmites australis, were around in same order of magnitude, 0.02-0.11 volume fraction. The presence of vegetation clearly caused the erosion maximum to reduce, with obtained erosion maxima for the densely vegetated zones in the range of 0.01-0.11, whereas the erosion maxima of the samples for the un-vegetated mudflat zone were 0.55-1.0 of the total sample volume. The erosion maxima of the salt marsh cliffs showed a clear relation with the vegetation species, the vegetation density, and the amount of dry belowground biomass present in the salt marsh substrates. The best relation was found for the amount of dry belowground biomass and the erosion maxima showing an exponential decrease with an increase of the amount of dry belowground biomass. Besides, the vegetation density also showed this type of exponential relation with erosion maximum. The grain sizes and the organic carbon content of the substrate showed linear relation with the erosion maxima only for the mudflat zones.
No significant relation was found between the erosion rates and different vegetation characteristics (i.e. vegetation species, vegetation density and the amount of aboveground and belowground biomass). Additional, no relation could be found between the erosion rates and median grain size or the organic carbon content of the salt marsh substrates. However, we found that the median grain size and organic carbon content are the best predictors of erosion rates for the mudflat sediments.
Overall, the erosion maxima of the salt marsh substrates are found to be significantly reduced by the presence of plants and their characteristics. Both erosion maxima and erosion rates, are influenced by median grain size and organic carbon content for mudflat locations, but similar relations could not be found for the vegetated areas because the effect of plants was dominated in these areas.
Cliff erosion of salt marshes is an intrinsic natural phenomenon in coastal wetlands. Cliff erosion is important to determine whether a salt marsh will extent laterally or retreat. The results of this study show how the cliff erosion relates to the presence of vegetation and its characteristics. Among the three species used for this research, Spartina anglica induced the slowest and least severe cliff erosion, meaning a more active contribution to coastal protection. Our results show that sediment properties such as grain size and organic carbon content do not affect cliff erosion from salt marsh substrates. Nevertheless, these properties are found to be important factors for the cliff erosion in mudflat areas. Un-vegetated sediments from the mudflat with smaller median grain size and larger amounts of organic carbon content are less prone to cliff erosion. The results were compared to the available results of Feagin et al., (2009). Feagin et al., (2009) found that the presence of salt marsh plants does not significantly reduce the cliff erosion, instead it improves the soil properties that reduces the cliff erosion. Our results hardly support the findings of Feagin et al., (2009). However, the output of this research still supports the concept that the presence of salt marsh plants help to reduce erosion by binding the soil and impart in the coastal management issues.


Considering the inappropriate use of synthetic pesticides on vegetables in West Africa, the rationale behind this research was to assess the extent to which consumers can function as demanders of risk reduced vegetables and hence act as innovators towards vegetable safety. Using the cases of Kumasi and Accra in Ghana, the study examined possible consumer responses to product certification that communicates freedom from pesticides (e.g., organic certification). Generally, search attributes such as the fresh and healthy appearance of a vegetable were found to be central to consumer choice. While consumers stress the importance of health value, they are mostly unaware of agro-chemical risks related to vegetable consumption.


A viable alternative to increase productivity in rice cultivation areas has been the investment in macronutrient fertilization. Sulfur (S) is an essential nutrient for plants, as it participates in the formation of several organic molecules, being essential to ensure high yields of rice. The aim of this paper is to analyze the rice crop performance in two types of irrigated floodplain soils under different doses of sulfur fertilization. The experiment was carried out on two lowland soils in Formoso do Araguaia-Tocantins, Brazil, under a randomized block design, in a 2 × 8 factorial arrangement, two soil types and eight sulfur doses, using ammonium sulfate as the source of S (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 kg ha-1 of S). The doses were applied when the plants were in the V3-V4 development stage in both soils. S provided plant a growth up to 40 kg ha-1, which is the economical feasible dose for plant height in soil 1. With the increase of the dose of S over 60 kg ha-1 in soil 2, there was a decrease in the number of panicles per m2. There was an increase in productivity in soil 2 and reduction in soil 1. The highest grain yield was obtained in soil with higher clay content. The dynamics of sulfur fertilization in floodplain soils requires further studies for a better understanding.


Bertram D. Wolfe was one of the foremost American authorities on Soviet history and politics. Several generations of students in dozens of countries have acquired their first understanding of the events and personalities that shaped modern Russia from Wolfe's landmark study, Three Who Made a Revolution. The twelve essays on Lenin and Leninism published in this volume were written during the last decades of Wolfe's life and reflect the unique blend of personal experience, thorough scholarship, and commitment to humanism that informed all of his writings. These essays, nine of which appear in print here for the first time, do not constitute an integrated or complete biography of Lenin. Rather they suggest the direction of Wolfe's research and thinking on the subject of Lenin's place in the twentieth century.


With the explosion in mobile telecommunications and increasing competition, mobile telephone service providers and vehicle makers are looking to develop new types of services for vehicle users. So far the services have included information about traffic conditions and support in case of breakdowns. In future digital broadcast and third generation telecommunication systems will be used to deliver interactive multimedia services into the vehicle. This paper looks at platform requirements for supporting the delivery of the new multimedia services. It considers the role of operating systems and networks in determining the flexibility and costs of the system.


This review was to aimed to access the prevalence of HIV recombinant forms in Russia and countries of the CIS, which have  close social and economic ties. We conducted a search in Russian  Science Citation Index and PubMed for a depth of 8 years. We  included 22 articles, which contained the results of 35 independent  cross-sectional studies, in our review. Meta-analysis of HIV  recombinant forms prevalence was conducted in Open Meta-analyst  with the use of Der Simonian & Laird method, arcsin transformation  and correction factor for zero values. Subgroup analysis was used  along with meta-regression (by date of collection). Pooled prevalence of HIV recombinant forms was 21.3% (95% CI 16.2–26.5) and was  highly heterogeneous. Blood samples from 3,494 HIV patients living  in various regions of the Russian Federation and CIS countries —  Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia,  Georgia — were examined. Among subtypes of HIV-1, the main  share was occupied by subtype A — 75.6% (n = 2643), subtype B —  5.5% (n = 193), C — 0.8% (n = 31), G — 0.2% (n = 7), F —  0.14% (n = 5). Among the recombinant forms (n = 616), the  fraction of CRF02_ AG was 39.6% (n = 244), CRF02_AG/A was  32.9% (n = 203), CRF63_02A1 was 15.9% (n = 98), CRF03_AB —  5.2% (n = 32), CRF06_cpx — 2.1% (n = 13). Unique recombinant  forms were 2.7% (n = 17), including URF63_A1 (2.5%). In Russia, the highest prevalence of recombinant forms of HIV-1 was  registered in the Siberian Federal District (33.2% (95% CI 12.2– 54.1), the lowest in the Northwest Federal District — 1.6% (95% CI  0.9–2.3). In the CIS countries, the highest prevalence of  recombinant forms of HIV-1 is found in a subgroup of the Central  Asian republics — Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan —  51.7% (95% CI 38.5–64.9). The significant upward trend was shown with a meta-regression. Our review is the first such research in  Russia and thus is of significant interest, but the result should be  applied with caution due to high risk of publication bias as well as significant heterogeneity of our results.


The ongoing discussion of telemedicine suggests that there are barriers to the widespread adoption of telemedicine technologies in clinical practice. The article is the first to classify the barriers of the introduction of telemedicine technologies into practice. There are 4 main barriers: technological, legal, economic and methodological. At the end of the description of each barrier, ways to overcome them are given. The technological barrier includes: the inconvenience of using existing tools, poor integration of telemedicine platforms with existing medical information systems (MIS), Poor standardization of information exchange protocols between sources (devices), information systems from different manufacturers, a small amount and low quality of digitized information about the state of human health and others. In the legal barrier, it is prohibited to make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment when providing medical care using telemedicine technologies, and also there are requirements for the workplace of a doctor providing TM-consultation. Financial barriers are represented by the difficulties of financing telemedicine - the lack of compulsory medical insurance tariffs, the erroneous opinion that telemedicine should reduce healthcare costs or does not require separate financing at all. The lack of methodological support for telemedicine - clinical studies, publications, methodological and clinical recommendations, training courses and programs on telemedicine for students, leads to a low commitment of doctors to use telemedicine in their work. The process of implementing telemedicine technologies is unavoidable. However, there is no doubt that telemedicine will eventually become a familiar and indispensable tool in the hands of doctors. Sooner or later, even without our active participation, these barriers will be overcome.


In this special issue, we explore the limits of existing theories for understanding migration governance from a Southern perspective and what the potential for rethinking border controls and their study, such as alternative epistemological and methodological approaches, might engender. We invited contributions to imagine what a 'Southern perspective' on the field of border criminologies would look like. In other words, what does it entail to study and theorise border control from the South? We organised a panel at the European Society of Criminology in September 2021 and then invited further authors. We sought to engage multiple disciplinary traditions and diverse case studies that speak to the various disciplinary perspectives and geopolitical dimensions of bordering. Many of the authors in this special issue are early career researchers who, through engaging with postcolonial theory and decolonial approaches, are fostering novel perspectives within border criminologies. Collectively, the articles bring together the different geopolitical, sociocultural and economic ways in which borders in the Global South are imagined, constructed, negotiated and reconstructed. The articles offer a wide range of epistemological and methodological insights for border criminologies to engage with, shifting our understanding from Northern perspectives.


The peculiarities of performance of the operative intervention for duodenal ulcer in 291 patients are presented. The technical difficulties encountered at the time of operative intervention in uncomplicated course of the disease can be conditioned by constitution of a patient, or peculiarities of the pathological process. It is expedient to conduct the operative treatment of the patients with an uncomplicated duodenal ulcer at a specialized therapeutic institution, where the choice of a type for forthcoming operation is made on the basis of the findings of preoperative examination, and operative intervention is performed by the highly qualified experts.


Developing software in a slightly different way can have a dramatic impact on soft error resilience. This observation can be transferred in a process of improving existing code by transformations. These transformations are of systematic nature and can be automated. In this paper, we present a framework for low level embedded software generation – commonly referred to as firmware – and the inclusion of safety measures in the generated code. The generation approach follows a three stage process starting with formalized firmware specification using both platform dependent and independent firmware models. Finally, C-code is generated from the view model in a straight forward way. Safety measures are included either as part of the translation step between the models or as transformations of single models.


Full nodes, which synchronize the entire blockchain history and independently validate all the blocks, form the backbone of any blockchain network by playing a vital role in ensuring security properties. On the other hand, a user running a full node needs to pay a heavy price in terms of storage costs. E.g., the Bitcoin blockchain size has grown over 215GB, in spite of its low throughput. The ledger size for a high throughput blockchain Ripple has already reached 9TB, and it is growing at an astonishing rate of 12GB per day!
In this paper, we propose an architecture based on 'fountain codes', a class of erasure codes, that enables any full node to 'encode' validated blocks into a small number of 'coded blocks', thereby reducing its storage costs by orders of magnitude. In particular, our proposed "Secure Fountain (SeF)" architecture can achieve a near-optimal trade-off between the storage savings per node and the 'bootstrap cost' in terms of the number of (honest) storage-constrained nodes a new node needs to contact to recover the blockchain. A key technical innovation in SeF codes is to make fountain codes secure against adversarial nodes that can provide maliciously formed coded blocks. Our idea is to use the header-chain as a 'side-information' to check whether a coded block is maliciously formed while it is getting decoded. Further, the 'rateless property' of fountain codes helps in achieving high decentralization and scalability. Our experiments demonstrate that SeF codes tuned to achieve 1000x storage savings enable full nodes to encode the 191GB Bitcoin blockchain into 195MB on average. A new node can recover the blockchain from an arbitrary set of storage-constrained nodes as long as the set contains ~1100 honest nodes on average. Note that for a 1000x storage savings, the fundamental bound on the number of honest nodes to contact is 1000: we need about 10% more in practice.


To address security issues in oilwell drillstring system, the drilling operation handling which is in generally not autonomous but ensured by an operator may be drill bit destructive or fatal for the machine. In drilling process, the drillstring control at the right speed is not sufficient and a rate of fluid mud is necessary. This paper studies coupling between torsional vibrations, as a wave equation, the drillstring slider displacement, and the fluid flow distribution. The design consists to couple the fluid behavior ODE and the drillstring torsional vibration phenomena PDE. In presence of damping in the wave equation, we show only a PDE-ODE system stability. Further, investigation of the wave equation without damping term coupled with the fluid dynamics is reduced to a difference equation, and the designed controller leads to an asymptotic stability of the torsional variable, the downhole pressure, and the annulus pressure. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the PDE-ODE coupled system stability.


We propose a new method for controlling macroscopic coherent phenomena by taking advantage of the characteristics of quantum dot (QD) ensembles. We demonstrate that the ensemble average of Rabi oscillations of excitonic polarization can be changed drastically by selecting the spatial distributions of input electric fields. We show that the changes in ensemble averages are caused by polarization interference; the results of our previous experiments agree with our calculations. This result demonstrates that a macroscopic coherent response from a QD ensemble can be controlled by changing the spatial distribution of excitation beams.


This paper describes a software agent developed specifically for integration with existing information retrieval interfaces and search engines. The software agent assists the user with query reformulation. The agent assistance is based on characteristics of the user population, user actions during the search process, information from retrieved documents, and historical information from past queries. With minor modification, the software agent can be integrated with a variety of interfaces and search engines.


The increasing prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in the human population in the Republic of Korea (= Korea) is due to various reasons such as an increase in meat consumption. However, the importance of cats in transmitting T. gondii infection through oocysts to humans has seldom been assessed. A total of 300 fecal samples of stray cats captured around Seoul from June to August 2013 were examined for T. gondii B1 gene (indicating the presence of oocysts) using nested-PCR. Fourteen (4.7%) of 300 cats examined were positive for B1 gene. Female cats (7.5%) showed a higher prevalence than male cats (1.4%). Cats younger than 3 months (5.5%) showed a higher prevalence than cats (1.5%) older than 3 months. For laboratory passage of the positive samples, the fecal suspension (0.2 ml) of B1 gene positive cats was orally inoculated into experimental mice. Brain tissues of the mice were obtained after 40 days and examined for the presence of tissue cysts. Two isolates were successfully passaged (designated KNIH-1 and KNIH-2) and were molecularly analyzed using the SAG5D and SAG5E gene sequences. The SAG5D and SAG5E gene sequences showed high homologies with the ME49 strain (less virulent strain). The results indicated the importance of stray cats in transmitting T. gondii to humans in Korea, as revealed by detection of B1 gene in fecal samples. T. gondii isolates from cats were successfully passaged in the laboratory for the first time in Korea.


Industrial construction project site selection, which shall focus on analyzing economical factor of much difference from various plans with consideration of the influences by social political, economical and environmental factors, put forward Multifactor Ranking Method. It combines the Analytic Hierarchy Process and Distance Comprehensive Evaluation Method based on Spatial Statistics together with working out weight of each factor by Analytic Hierarchy Process firstly, ranking the relative proximity of decision object by Distance Comprehensive Evaluation Method secondly, making best decision subsequently. Lastly, it is applied to ranking the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative sites of a power plant project and the results proved to be objective and effective.


Nanoscale properties of tribofilms formed at extreme loads under boundary lubrication were examined. The tribofilms were formed in-situ by decomposition of Zinc dialkyl dithiophosphate (ZDDP) in wear tests. Influence of detergents and antioxidants in the base ail on the wear performance was also studied. The results indicate that at lower loads the amount of phosphorus (between 0.05 to 0.1 wt%) does not affect the amount of wear occurring on the surface, on the other hand increased amounts of wear occurred at higher loads in oils with 0.05 wt% P. When detergents and antioxidants were added, relatively higher amounts of wear were observed across the board for different loads that indicate the overall antagonistic effect these additives have on the performance of ZDDP as an anti wear agent. Focused ion beam studies of the wear film indicate that the thickness of the tribofilm is approximately 100 nm and transmission electron microscopy analysis of the wear debris indicates that the tribofilm is constituted of an amorphous film of Zn-O-P-S glass with nanoparticles of Fe3O4 embedded in them.


Semantic annotation influence on coreference detection using perceptron approach The ConLL-2011/2012 evaluation campaign was dedicated to coreference detection systems. This paper presents the coreference resolution system Poly-co submitted to the closed track of the CoNLL-2011 Shared Task and evaluate is potential of evolution when it includes a semantic feature. Our system integrates a multilayer perceptron classifier in a pipeline approach. We describe the heuristic used to select the candidate coreference pairs that are fed to the network for training, and our feature selection method. We introduce a complementary semantic feature and evaluate the performances improvement. MOTS-CLES:Coreference, Perceptron multi-couches.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: Coronary allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a devastating sequela of heart transplant in which arterial intimal thickening limits coronary blood flow. There are currently no targeted therapies to prevent or reduce this pathology that leads to transplant failure. Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotypic plasticity is critical in CAV neointima formation. TET2 (TET methylcytosine dioxygenase 2) is an important epigenetic regulator of VSMC phenotype, but the role of TET2 in the progression of CAV is unknown. Methods: We assessed TET2 expression and activity in human CAV and renal transplant samples. We also used the sex-mismatched murine aortic graft model of graft arteriopathy (GA) in wild-type and inducible smooth muscle–specific Tet2 knockout mice; and in vitro studies in murine and human VSMCs using knockdown, overexpression, and transcriptomic approaches to assess the role of TET2 in VSMC responses to IFNγ (interferon γ), a cytokine elaborated by T cells that drives CAV progression. Results: In the present study, we found that TET2 expression and activity are negatively regulated in human CAV and renal transplant samples and in the murine aortic graft model of GA. IFNγ was sufficient to repress TET2 and induce an activated VSMC phenotype in vitro. TET2 depletion mimicked the effects of IFNγ, and TET2 overexpression rescued IFNγ-induced dedifferentiation. VSMC-specific TET2 depletion in aortic grafts, and in the femoral wire restenosis model, resulted in increased VSMC apoptosis and medial thinning. In GA, this apoptosis was tightly correlated with proliferation. In vitro, TET2-deficient VSMCs undergo apoptosis more readily in response to IFNγ and expressed a signature of increased susceptibility to extrinsic apoptotic signaling. Enhancing TET2 enzymatic activity with high-dose ascorbic acid rescued the effect of GA-induced VSMC apoptosis and intimal thickening in a TET2-dependent manner. Conclusions: TET2 is repressed in CAV and GA, likely mediated by IFNγ. TET2 serves to protect VSMCs from apoptosis in the context of transplant vasculopathy or IFNγ stimulation. Promoting TET2 activity in vivo with systemic ascorbic acid reduces VSMC apoptosis and intimal thickening. These data suggest that promoting TET2 activity in CAV may be an effective strategy for limiting CAV progression.


The purpose of the programme in combinatory logic is to rework the mathematical foundations of computer science on a theory of pure thought. It begins from the idea that, if logic is to be the science of correctly dealing with thought-objects, the underlying theory must be in some sense a part of, or at least a preliminary to, its structure, ie, a protologic. From this idea a combinatory algebra is constructed, using a programmatic mixture of the classical axiomatic and set-theoretic approaches. This text shows that sufficiently rich combinatory algebras can serve as a platform from which to develop the algorithmic aspects of many areas in computer science, mathematics and their applications. It should be of interest to those studying universal algebra, logic and computer algebra.


In 1998, there were 2,241,082 human poison exposures reported by the American Association of Poison Control Centers. Approximately 52.7% of these exposures were in children under the age of six, however 91 % of the fatalities were in adults. The most common poison exposures reflected availability of substances in homes, where more than 91 % of poison exposures occurred. Evaluation of fatal exposures provides information about substances with the greatest inherent toxicity, as well as exposures that are difficult to recognize or treat when misused or taken in overdose.


Since the 1970s, the contemporary period of the history of French higher education has been the subject of major French and foreign studies but has yet to benefi t from anywhere near as much research as the other levels of education. This article presents a critical panorama of research in this fi eld and proposes a typology by period for the contexts of production and the dominant thematics as well as considering the causes of this lesser interest. The presentation of current trends in research enables the author to suggest orientations in the areas which should be pursued in the coming years and lead her to advocate a global approach to the issue.


The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of product innovation, market sensing capability, and value co-creation on firms' performance. Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) Batik firms in Central Java are used as a sample. Sampling was done using a purposive sampling technique. Data were collected using a questionnaire given directly to the respondents. The total data that can be further analyzed comes from as many as 211 respondents. Data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling – (SEM) with the AMOS program assistance. The results shows that the product innovation has significant effects on value co-creation. In addition, value co-creation as a mediator in the product innovation relationship has significant effects on firms' performance.


In the course of continuing education for physicians on nongynaecological cytology, together with the topics about development and actual situation in clinical cytology, especially in Croatia, as well as those about the technical procedures in cytology, the clinicians' participation in the interpretation of cytological diagnosis was discussed. The term "clinicians" is used here for those physicians who need a rapid, accurate and nonaggressive morphological diagnostic method for the treatment of their patients. The central part of the course was a round-table discussion about the role of clinicians in making cytological diagnosis, with participation of cytologists and clinicians from various branches of medicine, who are either cytologists, or have a good contact with cytologists. They answered questions about the clinicians' information on cytology, about the contact and collaboration between cytologists and clinicians, and about their own experience in everyday cytological practice. The aim of this discussion was to provide sufficient information to clinicians on cytological diagnostics, and the emphasis on team-work was made.


Delay in diagnosis of carcinoma of the breast is a significant cause of medical malpractice suits in the United States. Although less than one-third of the patients with carcinoma of the breast are less than 50 years of age, more than two-thirds of these suits involve women less than 50 years of age. To see whether or not there are medical factors that make diagnosis in young women more difficult, we reviewed all patient visits to the East Carolina University (ECU) Breast Clinic between 1 January 1988 and 30 June 1991. Women less than 50 years of age had many more patient visits (1,567 versus 838 visits) and many fewer carcinomas detected (38 versus 100 visits) than women who were more than 50 years old. The sensitivity and positive predictive value of mammography were significantly lower in young women than older women (68 versus 91 percent, p < 0.005, and 28 versus 53 percent, p < 0.001, respectively). Physical examination in young women was also less satisfactory. Tumors were more ill-defined and the percent that were easily palpable were significantly lower (45 versus 72 percent, p < 0.01). Furthermore, there was a basic difference in the reason tumors were not palpable in each age group. In older women, tumors were nonpalpable because they were small (mean size 1.0 versus 4.1 centimeters, p < 0.01), whereas in younger women, the non-palpable tumors were large (mean size 4.0 versus 3.4 centimeters), suggesting that they were not palpable because of background mammary density or diffuse growth pattern rather than size. Data from the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project were analyzed and also suggested that carcinomas are more difficult to diagnose in young women. The percent of carcinomas that were not detectable by either mammogram or physical examination were inversely proportional to age and ranged from 36 percent at 40 years of age to 9 percent at 75 years of age. In addition, data from Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the ECU Breast Clinic indicated that it costs at least twice as much to diagnose each carcinoma in women less than 50 years of age. In conclusion, we believe that currently available techniques for diagnosis of carcinoma of the breast are not satisfactory for women less than 50 years of age and that this, rather than physician error, may account for the large number of malpractice suits in this age group.


This paper describes the designing and manufacturing process of a complex special utility vehicle (SUV) using the methodical design approach for which the basics were explained decades ago in Germany. The application steps of the design methodology with comprehensive data are clearly outlined and the experiences gained during the project along with the authors' experiences in design research and design practice over 25 years are generously shared. This paper contributes to the methodical approach laid by Pahl & Beitz with an industrial example proving its applicability in real engineering design applications. The proposed solutions for difficulties encountered in the process are especially valuable and applicable for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) in the field. Such details are reported with comprehensive discussions in this paper.


Bh horizons of Podzols formed from regoliths of sandstones, granites and gneisses in the Sudety Mountains are dark in colour, rich in organic substance, strongly acidic and slightly saturated with basic cations. They are also significantly enriched with organic and amorphous compounds of iron and aluminium. They meet all the morphological and physicochemical requirements of illuvial spodic horizons. Despite the evidence of lithological stratification of slope covers and possible polygenesis of B horizons, it is justifiable to classify these soils as Podzols, as adequately describing their morphology, basic properties and tendencies for present development. The soil cover of the Sudety Mountains is abundant in Cambisols [1], but favourable geological, climatic and biotic conditions facilitate the development of the podzolization processes [18]. Podzols have been identified, with regard to their morphological features and physicochemical properties, in almost every range of the Sudety Mountains [6, 10]. However, the genesis of Podzols in mountainous regions is controversial, due to lithological stratification of slope covers, and especially due to the occurrence of the upper slope cover (theta), which according to Kowalkowski [9] possesses the features of a master E horizon throughout the entire thickness. High concentrations of free iron and aluminium in regoliths of igneous and metamorphic rocks may result in saturation and immobilization of metalo-organic complexes, preventing podzolization of soils constituted from these regoliths [13]. The light colour of the surface soil horizons in the mountains, identified as the effect of podzolization, is sometimes reported to be an effect of water stagnation and periodic occurrence of reducing conditions [2]. In the majority of contemporary soil classification systems, the identification of Podzols is associated with the presence of an illuvial spodic diagnostic horizon, although the qualitative and quantitative criteria for its definition show many P O L I S H J O U R N A L O F S O I L S C I E N C E VOL. XXXIX/2 2006 PL ISSN 0079-2985


The emerging evidence that DNA vaccines elicit a protective immune response in rodents, dogs and cancer patients, coupled with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of an initial DNA vaccine to treat canine tumors is beginning to close the gap between the optimistic experimental data and their difficult application in a clinical setting. Here we review a series of conceptual and biotechnological advances that are working together to make DNA vaccines targeting molecules that play important roles during cancer progression (oncoantigens) a promise with near-term clinical impact.


We herein report a rare case of mycotic aneurysm of the superior mesenteric artery caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae. A 66-year-old man, a known case of hypertension and aortooesophageal fistula with stented aorta in 2010 and 2018, presented to the emergency department multiple times over 2 months with severe postprandial abdominal pain associated with vomiting and fever. On his last presentation, the obtained blood cultures grew ESBL positive K. pneumoniae and a repeated computed tomography (CT) showed a growing aneurysm at the origin of the ileocecal branch of the superior mesenteric artery measuring 17 × 10 mm (the aneurysm was 8 × 7.5 mm in the CT angiography on the previous admission). Extensive workup did not reveal the underlying cause of the mycotic aneurysm, thus we believe the cause to be the infected aortic stent, leading to bacteraemia and vegetations to the mesenteric artery causing the aneurysm. The management plan was placed by a multidisciplinary team consisting of vascular surgeons and infectious disease specialists along with review from a dietician to evaluate the patient's nutritional status. The patient was started on total parenteral nutrition due to his postprandial pain and on antibiotic therapy according to the infectious disease team's recommendation. He underwent surgical resection of the mycotic aneurysm, which showed a thrombosed aneurysm in the jejunoileal mesenteric area. The histopathology of the resected tissue demonstrated inflammatory aneurysm of the mesenteric artery. Following the surgery, the patient continued his antibiotic therapy and was discharged on the 13th post-operative day with followup appointments in the vascular surgery and infectious disease clinic. © 2021 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel


Soil respiration induced by biological soil crusts (BSCs) is an important process in the carbon (C) cycle in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, where vascular plants are restricted by the harsh environment, particularly the limited soil moisture. However, the interaction between temperature and soil respiration remains uncertain because of the number of factors that control soil respiration, including temperature and soil moisture, especially in BSC-dominated areas. In this study, the soil respiration in moss-dominated crusts and lichen-dominated crusts was continuously measured using an automated soil respiration system over a one-year period from November 2015 to October 2016 in the Shapotou region of the Tengger Desert, northern China. The results indicated that over daily cycles, the half-hourly soil respiration rates in both types of BSC-covered areas were commonly related to the soil temperature. The observed diel hysteresis between the half-hourly soil respiration rates and soil temperature in the BSC-covered areas was limited by nonlinearity loops with semielliptical shapes, and soil temperature often peaked later than the half-hourly soil respiration rates in the BSC-covered areas. The average lag times between the half-hourly soil respiration rates and soil temperature for both types of BSC-covered areas were two hours over the diel cycles, and they were negatively and linearly related to the volumetric soil water content. Our results highlight the diel hysteresis phenomenon that occurs between soil respiration rates and soil temperatures in BSC-covered areas and the negative response of this phenomenon to soil moisture, which may influence total C budget evaluations. Therefore, the interactive effects of soil temperature and moisture on soil respiration in BSC-covered areas should be considered in global carbon cycle models of desert ecosystems.


Privatisation is mainly encouraged by the World Bank and the IMF to offer solutions for the failures of public ownership (Shirley & Walsh, 2001). The transfer of ownership and control of public firms into private owners was presumed to bring outcomes like improved Management Control System [MCS] practices and performance. Proponents of privatisation have considered the internal and external contextual factors as unproblematic and would pose no problems. The literature also does not show how MCS changes actually take place and studies did not address whether privatisation results meet the expectations mainly from the context of developing countries. Furthermore, evidence from former studies has indicated that the outcomes of privatisation had been inconclusive both in the developed and developing countries. In fact, some studies have suggested that the success of privatisation is likely to be affected by MCS practices and contextual factors. Therefore, this study was conducted in Eritrea to shed light on the relations among privatisation, MCS change, and firm performance, while taking into account the influence of contextual factors. In this respect, we have developed suitable conceptual framework to guide our study. We have applied a qualitative research approach and used the case study method. Findings from our three case firms indicated that the MCS practices, firm activities and performance were significantly affected by contextual factors. Factors that played positive role include the capacity and experience and involvement of multinational and local owners. Conversely, factors that had negative effects were mainly government regulations and political uncertainty (war).


Context: Open Source Software (OSS) development is a highly distributed and collaborative activity and was initially performed by developers volunteering their time and effort. During the recent years, OSS has transformed to become a more mainstream and commercially viable software development approach. This is reflected in the increasing involvement from commercial firms. Currently, there exist little or no research literature examining how commercial firms collaborate across organizational boundaries and how this may affect community-based OSS projects. Objective: This thesis aims to help fill the identified gap by investigating the influence of organizational boundary on team collaboration and project evolution in community-based OSS projects by answering the following research questions: RQ1: How do commercial firms collaborate across organizational boundaries in community-based OSS projects? RQ2: How influential is firm awareness in community-based OSS projects? Method: A two-phased case study approach was adopted, compromising exploratory and descriptive analysis. The cases, Wireshark and Samba, were examined in a quantitative and qualitative approach using found documents and conducting interviews with firm-paid developers. Social network and thematic content analysis were applied. Results: This thesis provides the following three contributions: C1: Empirical data from two OSS projects providing knowledge related to how commercial firms collaborate with each others across organizational boundaries in community-based OSS projects. C2: A conceptual model illustrating commercial firm?s collaboration patterns across organizational boundaries in community-based OSS projects, extending Crowston?s onion model. C3: A set of recommendations to commercial firms that want to participate and utilize community-based OSS projects. Conclusion: Commercial firms participate and collaborate heavily in community-based OSS projects and are present in all the roles identified in Crowston?s onion model. Furthermore, independently of firm size and degree of involvement, the firms commonly have one person acting as a gatekeeper between the community and firm managing code, communication and/or bug issues. The findings indicate that firm awareness is a vital part of the firm cross-collaboration and mainly influence the development in a positive manner.


In this study, we investigate the classification problem of heart disease with incomplete datasets. Our pragmatic approach is to exploit the potential of complete data for selecting relevant features in incomplete datasets. We define our approach by implementing fuzzy-based particle swarm optimization to impute missing values with tuning the exist structure with the data which leads to better solution. The FCM clustering is applied to identify the similar records in the complete dataset. We compared the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) results of three different datasets with seven different ratios with range 1% to 20% of missing data. The experimental results provide the evidence that our approach performs better accuracy compared to other approach. The proposed method makes it possible to select relevant feature by offering good combination of its setting to classification of heart disease problem.


The distribution of radioactivity in the fetus and placental structures (fetal placenta, decidua, yolk sac) has been studied at different stages of gestation following the intravenous injection of Zn 65 into the mother. The uptake of radiozinc by the products of conception increased with advancing gestation but never exceeded 8% of the total dose given. The recovery rose sharply between the 20th and 22nd day, suggesting the maturation of a fetal acceptor organ or an increased efficiency of the placental transport mechanism. Evidence is presented that the fetal liver is mainly responsible for the increased fetal recovery in the later stages of pregnancy. In addition, the placental recovery of radioactivity following the removal of the fetuses is equal to that obtained from the combined fetuses and placentae in the control side of the uterus; this suggests that the removal of radiozinc from the maternal blood is not dependent on a fetal acceptor. The transfer of radiozinc from the maternal blood is almost entirely via the fetal placenta. The yolk sac plays an insignificant part in both the storage and transport of the metal. Retrograde transfer from the fetus to the mother has also been demonstrated.


Using the scattered elastic wavefield, a method to derive the power spectral density (PSD) of the heterogeneous compliance distribution, along the plane of a single fracture, is formulated. The method involves estimation of the stress field at the fracture depth from the scattered wavefield followed by least-squares optimization of the PSD of the stress field. We consider a 2D geometry and incident plane waves. The derivations are made in the frequency-wavenumber domain. To derive the relationship between the scattered wavefield and the PSD of the heterogeneous compliance, perturbation theory is used. In the forward modeling, the scattering response of the heterogeneous compliance is estimated, assuming a stationary random process. Numerical tests of the proposed method of PSD estimation offer important insights. The estimated PSD of the compliance (given by the standard deviation δ and the correlation length lc, assuming a Gaussian distribution) as a statistical measure of the heterogeneous fracture compliance is robust against fracture depth uncertainties. Furthermore, the sparse spatial sampling of the wavefield is not problematic as long as the data contain those wavenumber components which represent the slope of the PSD of the stress field. However, when the sampling interval is too large compared to the correlation length of the heterogeneous compliance distribution, it is difficult to estimate accurately the PSD of the compliance due to spatial aliasing and small amplitude variation within the available wavenumber. For a given spatial sampling, the use of higher frequencies results in a stronger amplitude variation in the scattered wavefield. This leads to better estimates of the PSD of the compliance via a least-squares optimization. In the presence of white noise, a change in the PSD of the stress field at the fracture depth significantly affects the PSD estimates. In this case, a data-driven amplitude correction improves the estimates of δ and lc.


The murine IgM anti-human CD3/TCR mAb T10B9 is an effective agent for the reversal of acute cellular renal allograft rejection which offers several advantages over conventional OKT3 therapy. These include reduced morbidity and a more rapid decrease in serum creatinine levels. In the studies presented here comparing T10B9 and OKT3, soluble T10B9 is shown to be a nonactivating anti-T cell mAb. Evidence for its lack of activating potential includes in vitro failure to stimulate PBMC proliferation either alone or in the presence of nonmitogenic doses of phorbol ester, failure to induce the expression of early and late activation antigens and failure to induce IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, IL-6 or IL-2 release. Analysis of acute renal allograft rejection patient plasma cytokine levels 2 h after the first dose support the hypothesis that T10B9 has reduced immunoactivation activity in vivo. Both TNF alpha and IFN gamma patient plasma levels are significantly reduced in T10B9 as compared to OKT3 therapy. However, T10B9 is capable of cellular signaling as demonstrated by its ability to induce apoptosis and IL-2 release in the human T cell line Sup-T13. Thus T10B9 retains the potent immunosuppressive activity of OKT3 with reduced immunoactivation.


The antigonadotropic and antithyreotropic activity of aqueous extracts from leaves of various species of Lamiaceae and Boraginaceae can be related to the oxidation products of phenolic ingredients like catechol or caffeic acid (1). In plants, the oxidation is catalyzed by an enzyme —catecholoxidase, an o-diphenoloxidase — during the extraction process (2), but also the oxidation with KMnO4 yields active products (3). It is the aim of the present study to separate and investigate the oxidation products of caffeic acid, oxidized by KMnO4, and compare them with the products of enzymatic oxidation.


It is believed that most modern mammalian lineages arose from a series of rapid speciation events near the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. It is shown that such a phylogeny makes the common ancestral genome sequence an ideal target for reconstruction. Simulations suggest that with methods currently available, we can expect to get 98% of the bases correct in reconstructing megabase-scale euchromatic regions of an eutherian ancestral genome from the genomes of approximately 20 optimally chosen modern mammals. Using actual genomic sequences from 19 extant mammals, we reconstruct 1.1 Mb of ancient genome sequence around the CFTR locus. Detailed examination suggests the reconstruction is accurate and that it allows us to identify features in modern species, such as remnants of ancient transposon insertions, that were not identified by direct analysis. Tracing the predicted evolutionary history of the bases in the reconstructed region, estimates are made of the amount of DNA turnover due to insertion, deletion, and substitution in the different placental mammalian lineages since the common eutherian ancestor, showing considerable variation between lineages. In coming years, such reconstructions may help in identifying and understanding the genetic features common to eutherian mammals and may shed light on the evolution of human or primate-specific traits.


Quantitative MRI still struggles to be used in clinical practice due to long acquisition times. We introduce EPIFANI, an ultrafast B1-corrected T1 mapping technique which uses EPI images acquired in two successive repetition times and a parametric map fit used in VAFI. Both a single-shot and a multi-shot version of EPIFANI were tested on phantoms and in vivo and report accurate T1 values.


There was offered and grounded the use of functional technological properties of the soya protein isolate in the technology of oil pasts. It will allows to increase the balance of the oil past composition additionally and will favor the decrease of extracting moisture during the storage term.

There was studied the dynamics of a gradient of the limit stress of soya protein: hydrated soya protein, hydrated soya protein with the temperature processing, hydrated soya protein with the preliminary keeping during 24 h, hydrated soya protein with the preliminary keeping during 24 h and temperature processing during 5 min, hydrated soya protein with the preliminary keeping during 24 h and temperature processing during 10 min; hydrated soya protein with the preliminary keeping during 24 h and temperature processing during 15 min.

It was established, that the hydrated isolate of soya protein is a plastic system, has enough strength.

The limit stress parameter at the variable velocity of deformation of model samples determines optimal technological parameters of preparing the soya isolate: hydromodule – 1: 8, temperature processing – (82±2) °С, process duration 10 min with preliminary keeping during 24 hours.

As a result of the studies, there were demonstrated technological parameters of preparing the soya protein isolate for obtaining the oil past by the direct mixing with the oil base.


a real-time brain computer interface (BCI) web browser was designed for the motion disabled. By collecting subjects' EEG signal of the cerebral cortex, System can analyze it to a result as the input control signal of web browser. Then people can visit the website through their thinking. The article introduces the visual evoked potential-based brain-computer interface for the web browser control. The type of brain-computer interface is the use of fixed-frequency in the monitor blinking objects generated EEG steady-state visual evoked it into three control signals, and then as a dedicated web browser control information input to achieve use browser's functionality.


Poor deformation behavior of commercial polycrystalline Ta sheet used for Sn diffusion barriers in Nb3Sn composite superconductors leads to the use of more Ta than may be necessary in these conductors, and to strand fracture during wire drawing. These problems arise because of nonuniform deformation of the Ta layer when co-drawn with Cu. The origin of the problem resides in the microstructure of the Ta and the code formation mechanics of relatively strong BCC Ta with weaker and more ductile adjacent FCC Cu. In an attempt to remedy this problem, we have processed 25 mm square bars of Ta by multi-axis severe plastic deformation (SPD) via equal channel angular extrusion, then rolled the bars to sheet and annealed the as-worked sheet. The processing is done to refine the microstructure and reduce nonuniformities in grain size and texture. Measurements of hardness, microstructure and mechanical properties are reported for bulk and sheet Ta. The results of SPD processing are encouraging.


This work investigates the use of Old Red Sandstone from South Wales, Gloucestershire, Avon and Somerset during the Roman period, for rotary querns. It is based on detailed petrographic studies of these rocks at both microscopic and macroscopic levels to define practical keys which allow types of Old Red Sandstone, and hence artefacts made from it, to be identified and provenanced to their geological formations. 1200 rotary querns of Old Red sandstone from 180 sites were analysed (stretching from southeast Wales in the west, to Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire in the east. It extends as far south as Dorchester (Dorset) and as far north as Coleshill (Warwickshire)). The petrological study also identifies the three major source areas in the Roman period as the Forest of Dean, the Bristol area and the Mendips and investigates the differences in the distribution of finds from each of these sources. A typological study is included, with a detailed description and analysis of the types of ORS querns manufactured, their dating and their distribution. The routes and mechanisms through which the querns were moved are also investigated and the production of ORS querns is also assessed.


This study "Effect of Income on Environmental Sustainability in Nigeria" is aimed at investigating whether sustainable environment is a major index of economic growth and to see if environmental sustainability affects economic growth; the study shall also establish whether Environmental Kuznets Curve exists in Nigeria. To achieve these, we have to check how the following variable per capita GDP affects the environmental factor Co2. The study then applied a simple regression analysis to test for the behavior of some variables. It was discovered that; environmental sustainability is a major indexes for sustainable development in Nigeria, On the other hand it was surprising to found that environmental degradation promote economic growth in Nigeria. The study also proved that there is the present of Environmental Kuznets Curve in Nigeria.


Institutional Animal Ethics Committees (AECs) are the principal means of ensuring the ethical use of animals in research in many countries, yet we understand very little about how they function and how effective they are in implementing policy and achieving their stated aims. To answer these questions, an ethnographic study involving participant observation and in-depth interviews with 28 members of four university AECs in western Canada was carried out. The major focus of protocol review by committee members was reducing harm to animals, with limited focus on the ethical justification of research despite this being stressed in policy as a goal of AECs. In part, this may be due to confusion over the relation between AEC review and scientific peer review by granting agencies, with some members believing that ethical justification is decided by scientific peer review. Members were also unclear on the distinction between the different elements that go into decisions about ethical justification. Use of costbenefit assessment, although prescribed by policy, did not cover the various other decisionmaking approaches that members described using (e.g. moral intuition). Comments by members identified several factors that could hinder application of the Three Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement); these include an incomplete understanding of the concepts, different interpretations of harm, and different beliefs about the moral significance of pain and suffering. Moreover, some ethical issues do not lend themselves to the utilitarian thinking underlying the Three Rs. Independence of the AEC from the institution (as required by policy) may not be realized because of the predominance of institutional scientists on AECs, recruitment of affiliated community members, and the potentially intimidating atmosphere for community members. Also, policy is unclear about the role of the community member. AEC effectiveness could be improved by clarifying the role of the community member, the relation between AEC and scientific peer review, and the elements of cost-benefit assessments, by expanding policy to acknowledge the various issues and approaches used in decision-making, identifying standards for assessing AEC performance, and expanding the Three Rs to respond to the range of views and values that enter into decisions by AEC members.


Introduction : Cuban nurses should be aware that their profession is a system historically constituted by an ordered knowledge whose veracity is checked and points out every day during the passing of research and nursing practice. Objective : To describe the level of empirical evidence of Patricia Benner's theory; from the beginner to expert. Material and Methods : This article is the result of an observational - descriptive study. To write this article, were used the method of analysis and synthesis, inductive - deductive, historical - logical, the hypothetical - deductive. It starts with a theory's chronological study where the theory's structure was broken down, and explained, treating one by one the proposals and main elements of the theory, applying it to the problem that bring about this article. Results : Patricia Benner has developed a descriptive and interpretative compendium about clinical nursing. Patricia Benner's theory; provides an opportunity to consider different ways of seeing and doing things, which is assumed as a stimulus to thought, in the opinion of the authors when it is studied the labor and professional progress of Nursing's Bachelor, we understood how the changes that resulted in the labor and social environment are influenced by technological, economic, social and political factors. Conclusions : The empirical evidence of Patricia Benner's theory; is overwhelming, we consider that helps to increase the knowledge and interpretation of reality and to systematize and give an order to knowledge. Keywords: Patricia Benner's Theory, beginner, advanced beginner, competent, efficacious, expert.


Abstract The complete mitogenome of the bighead pennah croaker Pennahia microcephalus was first determined in this study. It is 16,508 bp in length with the typical gene order and transcriptional direction in vertebrates containing 37 genes. The overall nucleotide composition is 27.5% A; 31.2% C; 16.0% G, and 25.3% T. The sizes of the 22 tRNA genes range from 68 to 75 bp. Two start (ATC and ATG) and three stop (AGA, TAG, and TAA/TA/T) codons were found in the protein-coding genes. In the Bayesian tree, all nodes were strongly supported based on the complete mitogenomes of 16 species from the family Sciaenidae. The phylogenetic results suggested P. macrocephalus has the closest relationship to the silver croaker P. argentata, a species from the same genus.


Every individual is unique and are born with some special abilities. Education is a powerful force which helps people to realize their potentials and nurture their inner abilities. When an individual is substantially limited in terms of one or more major life activity it is called disability. Like all other impairments, visual impairment disables a person to a great extent. In fact children with visual impairment face a number of challenges in acquisition of formal education which is considered as the most powerful weapon to overcome disability. In 20 century, it is of utmost importance for the society to bring all children regardless of caste, creed or abilities under the same umbrella educationally. This necessitates inclusive educational systems where general education is provided to all students through high-quality instructions, intervention, proper infrastructure and support. With the help of secondary data, the present study aims to explore the status of inclusive education in India, for visually impaired students. The objectives of the present study are to understand the concept of inclusive education in 20 century; know the difference between inclusive education and special education; enumerate the problems of inclusive education in India; and suggest ways and means to solve such problems. From an extensive review of related literature it has been found that it is difficult to have proper, functional inclusive set-ups in India. The major problems are lack of infrastructure, trained teacher, funding etc. However such education is important for visually impaired students because in India about 2.21% of the total population is disabled, out of which 19% are visually impaired. Nobody likes to be treated differently. Inclusion increases self confidence and helps these children to easily blend into the core of the society.


Background: MiR27a plays an important role in carcinogenesis, cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, migration and angiogenesis. Several studies have identified an important role of pre-miR27a (rs895819) A>G polymorphism in several types of cancer. This research aims to investigate the association of pre-miR27a (rs895819) A>G and breast cancer susceptibility, clinicopathological data and survival. Blood DNA samples of 143 Thai breast cancer patients and 100 healthy Thai women were studied for pre-miR27a (rs895819) A>G polymorphism using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment-length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Results: The results revealed that the frequency of pre-miR27a (rs895819) A>G genotypes was not statistically significant different between breast cancer patient and normal control subjects. The rs895819 A>G genotype was significantly associated with clinicopathological parameter of grade III differentiation (P = 0.006), progesterone receptor (P = 0.011) and triple negative (P = 0.031) in breast cancer patients, but not with breast cancer susceptibility. Conclusion: The pre-miR27a (rs895819) A>G genotype was significantly associated with poorly differentiated, progesterone receptor and triple-negative in breast cancer patients. Therefore, pre-miR27a (rs895819) A>G may be used as a biomarker for poor prognosis.


Background: Concerns have been expressed regarding the potential for caffeinated energy drinks to negatively affect mental health, and particularly so in young consumers at whom they are often targeted. The products are frequently marketed with declarations of increasing mental and physical energy, providing a short-term boost to mood and performance. Although a certain amount of evidence has accumulated to substantiate some of these claims, the chronic effects of energy drinks on mental health also need to be addressed. Methods: To review the relevant literature, PubMed and PsycINFO were searched for all peer-reviewed articles published in English that addressed associations between energy drink use and mental health outcomes. Case reports were also considered, though empirical studies investigating acute mood effects were excluded as a review of such articles had recently been published. Fifty-six articles were retrieved: 20 of these (along with eight more identified through other means) were included in the current review, and, because the majority addressed aspects of stress, anxiety, and depression, particular focus was placed on these outcomes. Results: Though a number of null findings (and one negative relationship) were observed, the majority of studies examined reported positive associations between energy drink consumption and symptoms of mental health problems. Conclusions: Though the findings imply that energy drink use may increase the risk of undesirable mental health outcomes, the majority of research examined utilized cross-sectional designs. In most cases, it was therefore not possible to determine causation or direction of effect. For this reason, longitudinal and intervention studies are required to increase our understanding of the nature of the relationships observed.


We demonstrate the realization of the high-brightness and high-efficiency light emitting diodes (LEDs) using dislocation-free indium gallium nitride (InGaN)/gallium nitride (GaN) multiquantum-well (MQW) nanorod (NR) arrays by metal organic-hydride vapor phase epitaxy (MO−HVPE). MQW NR arrays (NRAs) on sapphire substrate are buried in spin-on glass (SOG) to isolating individual NRs and to bring p-type NRs in contact with p-type electrodes. The MQW NRA LEDs have similar electrical characteristics to conventional broad area (BA) LEDs. However, due to the lack of dislocations and the large surface areas provided by the sidewalls of NRs, both internal and extraction efficiencies are significantly enhanced. At 20 mA dc current, the MQW NRA LEDs emit about 4.3 times more light than the conventional BA LEDs, even though overall active volume of the MQW NRA LEDs is much smaller than conventional LEDs. Moreover, the fabrication processes involved in producing MQW NRA LEDs are almost the same for conventional BA LED...


Consultations to the courts often extend beyond criminal competencies and may include implicit statements regarding the diversion of mentally disordered offenders to treatment facilities. Arguments for diversion are based on humanitarian interests and treatment needs. Arguments opposing diversion recommendations emphasize (a) the variability of opinions regarding treatability, (b) the lack of sufficient outcome data, and (c) the potential for negative consequences in offering unsolicited opinions on diversion. Initial data from 271 pretrial evaluations underscore the range in psychiatric use of diversion recommendations, although inpatient referrals in particular appear to be based on clinical status.


We discuss Iitaka's theory of quasi-Albanese maps in details. We also give a detailed proof of Kawamata's theorem on the quasi-Albanese maps for varieties of the logarithmic Kodaira dimension zero. Note that Iitaka's theory is an application of Deligne's mixed Hodge theory for smooth algebraic varieties.


This document describes a mechanism for compressing streams of groups of key-value pairs, often known as Headers in an HTTP session. See RFC 2616 [ RFC2616] or successors for more information about headers.


Background Extensive and intensive studies on the unfolding of proteins require appropriate theoretical model and parameter to clearly illustrate the feature and characteristic of the unfolding system. Over the past several decades, four approaches have been proposed to describe the interaction between proteins and denaturants, but some ambiguity and deviations usually occur in the explanation of the experimental data. Methodology/Principal Findings In this work, a theoretical model was presented to show the dependency of the residual activity ratio of the proteins on the molar denaturant concentration. Through the characteristic unfolding parameters k i and Δm i in this model, the distribution, transition and thermodynamic stability of protein conformations during the unfolding process can be quantitatively described. This model was tested with the two-state unfolding of bovine heart cytochrome c and the three-state unfolding of hen egg white lysozyme induced by both guanidine hydrochloride and urea, the four-state unfolding of bovine carbonic anhydrase b induced by guanidine hydrochloride and the unfolding of some other proteins induced by denaturants. The results illustrated that this model could be used accurately to reveal the distribution and transition of protein conformations in the presence of different concentrations of denaturants and to evaluate the unfolding tendency and thermodynamic stability of different conformations. In most denaturant-induced unfolding of proteins, the unfolding became increasingly hard in next transition step and the proteins became more unstable as they attained next successive stable conformation. Conclusions/Significance This work presents a useful method for people to study the unfolding of proteins and may be used to describe the unfolding and refolding of other biopolymers induced by denaturants, inducers, etc.


Background Noma, a rapidly progressing infection of the oral cavity, mainly affects children. The true burden is unknown. This study reports estimated noma prevalence in children in northwest Nigeria. Methods Oral screening was performed on all ≤15 year olds, with caretaker consent, in selected households during this cross-sectional survey. Noma stages were classified using WHO criteria and caretakers answered survey questions. The prevalence of noma was estimated stratified by age group (0–5 and 6–15 years). Factors associated with noma were estimated using logistic regression. Results A total of 177 clusters, 3499 households and 7122 children were included. In this sample, 4239 (59.8%) were 0–5 years and 3692 (52.1%) were female. Simple gingivitis was identified in 3.1% (n=181; 95% CI 2.6 to 3.8), acute necrotising gingivitis in 0.1% (n=10; CI 0.1 to 0.3) and oedema in 0.05% (n=3; CI 0.02 to 0.2). No cases of late-stage noma were detected. Multivariable analysis in the group aged 0–5 years showed having a well as the drinking water source (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.1; CI 1.2 to 3.6) and being aged 3–5 years (aOR 3.9; CI 2.1 to 7.8) was associated with being a noma case. In 6–15 year olds, being male (aOR 1.5; CI 1.0 to 2.2) was associated with being a noma case and preparing pap once or more per week (aOR 0.4; CI 0.2 to 0.8) was associated with not having noma. We estimated that 129120 (CI 105294 to 1 52 947) individuals <15 years of age would have any stage of noma at the time of the survey within the two states. Most of these cases (93%; n=120 082) would be children with simple gingivitis. Conclusions Our study identified a high prevalence of children at risk of developing advanced noma. This disease is important but neglected and therefore merits inclusion in the WHO neglected tropical diseases list.


The sedimentation and diffusion coefficients have been determined for Hemophilus influenzae transforming activity and DNA using P32-labeled DNA. The methods employed the Spinco fixed boundary separation cell for measurements of the sedimentation coefficient and the Northrop-Anson diffusion cell to determine the diffusion coefficient. There was a very close correlation between the amount of DNA and transforming activity sedimented or diffused. The sedimentation coefficient (s 20°), for both biological activity and DNA was 27 and the diffusion coefficient (D 20°) 1 x 10-8 cm2/sec. The molecular weight calculated from these coefficients gave a value of 16 million. There was no difference in the sedimentation coefficients for the two unlinked markers, streptomycin and erythromycin resistance, and the diffusion coefficients for single markers or the linked markers, streptomycin and cathomycin, were the same.


We present an experimental study of the influence of quenched disorder on the distribution of flux avalanches in type-II superconductors. In the presence of much quenched disorder, the avalanche sizes are powerlaw distributed and show finite-size scaling, as expected from self-organized criticality sSOCd. Furthermore, the shape of the avalanches is observed to be fractal. In the absence of quenched disorder, a preferred size of avalanches is observed and avalanches are smooth. These observations indicate that a certain minimum amount of disorder is necessary for SOC behavior. We relate these findings to the appearance or nonappearance of SOC in other experimental systems, particularly piles of sand.


The anatomical and functional links between the hormone stress axis and the cortico-limbic brain regions which integrate emotion and motivation are well documented. It is important, considering the consequences of stress on the brain, to take into account the regulatory buffer capacities of the personality-cognitive processes. Another point of interest is evaluation of the long term effects of repeated life events on chronic environmental pressures which induce brain negative feedback defects and, subsequently, insidious cellular changes in regions such as the hippocampus that lead to memory or adaptive impairments. An example is provided by perinatal stress that induces, later in life, both hormonal and cognitive deleterious changes.


Dermatological examinations in workers of the Dwelling Houses Factory were performed 1-5 years apart. On the whole 1011 subjects have been examined. The most frequent professional disease was oil acne brought about by the contact with anti-adhesive oils. The effects of the kind of anti-adhesive oils, the post at work (degree of exposure to the contact with oil) as well as the work period on the acne changes have been analyzed. It was found that the most acnogenic preparation was formol, then ceramic oil while isoform proved to be much less active. It was shown that the longer the work period the more decreased the oil acne morbidity. A low percentage of allergic contact eruption (1.8%) is probably related to the highly mechanized production cycle.


By analyzing archaeological evidence and radiocarbon dates, we studied the Neolithization of Far Northeast Europe (Russian Perm' region, Komi Republic, and Nenets autonomous district). Our study shows that this process in the eastern European forest zone was rather ambiguous. Taking into account the periodicity of settling and short duration of residence here, the term "Neolithization" in its traditional sense cannot be applied to some territories in this region. For instance, the emergence of ceramics—the most important feature of Neolithization here—did not affect considerably the way of life of the ancient population, which continued the traditions of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers well into the Early Neolithic. Such attributes as heat treatment of clay paste and siliceous rocks for changing physical features of natural materials, bifacial knapping, and construction of subterranean dwellings represent the archaeological evidence of Neolithization in the region.


1alpha,25(OH)(2)-Vitamin D(3) (1,25D) modulates osteoblast gene expression of bone matrix proteins via a nuclear vitamin D receptor (VDR) and also modifies the electrical state of the plasma membrane through rapid nongenomic mechanisms still not fully understood. The physiological significance of 1,25D membrane-initiated effects remains unclear. To elucidate whether the VDR is required for 1,25D-promoted electrical responses, we studied 1,25D modulation of ion channel activities in calvarial osteoblasts isolated from VDR knockout (KO) and WT mice. At depolarizing potentials, Cl(-) currents were significantly potentiated (13.5 +/- 1.6-fold increase, n = 12) by 5 nM 1,25D in VDR WT but not in KO (0.96 +/- 0.3 fold increase, n = 11) osteoblasts. L-type Ca(2+) currents significantly shift their peak activation by -9.3 +/- 0.7 mV (n = 10) in the presence of 5 nM 1,25D in VDR WT but not in KO cells, thus facilitating Ca(2+) influx. Furthermore, we found that 1,25D significantly increased whole-cell capacitance in VDR WT (DeltaCap = 2.3 +/- 0.4 pF, n = 8) but not in KO osteoblasts (DeltaCap = 0.3 +/- 0.1 pF, n = 8); this corresponds to a rapid (1-2 min) fusion in WT of 71 +/- 33 versus in KO only 9 +/- 6 individual secretory granules. We conclude that, in calvarial osteoblasts, 1,25D modulates ion channel activities only in cells with a functional VDR and that this effect is coupled to exocytosis. This is a demonstration of the requirement of a functional classic steroid receptor for the rapid hormonal modulation of electric currents linked to secretory activities in a target cell.


The accumulation of high throughput molecular profiles of tumors at various levels has been a long and costly process worldwide. Combined analysis of gene regulation at various levels may point to specific biological functions and molecular pathways that are deregulated in multiple epithelial cancers and reveal novel subgroups of patients for tailored therapy and monitoring. We have collected high throughput data at several molecular levels derived from fresh frozen samples from primary tumors and matched blood from approximately 110 breast cancer patients (the MicMa dataset) with information about presence of disseminated tumor cells (DTC) and long term follow-up. The MicMa set has been used in parallel pilot studies of whole-genome mRNA expression (1), arrayCGH (2), DNA-methylation (3), whole genome SNP-CGH array (4), whole-genome miRNA expression analyses (5), TP53 mutation status dependent pathways (6) and high throughput paired-end sequencing (7). We have explored the extent to which these new profiles, acquired by molecular analyses at various levels recapitulate the initially discovered expression subclasses and their prognostic potential. Further, we attempted to integrate these by modeling mRNA, CNAs, miRNAs, and methylation in a pathway context using Paradigm (Pathway Recognition Algorithm using Data integration on Genomic Models) (8). We were able to show that combining mRNA expression and DNA copy-number leads to better discrimination of patients with respect to prognosis than any of the molecular levels studied separately. The pathways whose perturbations most strongly contributed to this classification were ERBB4, also previously found deregulated in breast and ovarian cancers, FoxM1 transcription, deregulated also in the ovarian and glioblastoma TCGA datasets, Angiopoientin receptor Tie2-mediated signaling and most notably the immune response (TCR) and interleukin signaling, IL4, IL6, IL12 and IL23 signaling. Massive interleukin signaling and similar sub-classification was observed also in DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) together with extracellular matrix and cell-cell adhesion regulating pathways. 1. Naume B et al. (2007) Mol. Oncol. 1, 160-171. 2. Russnes HG and Vollan HK et al. (2010) Sci. Transl. Med. 2, 38ra47. 3. Ronneberg J A et al. (2011) Mol. Oncol. 5, 61-76. 4. Van LP et al. (2010) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 107, 16910-16915. 5. Enerly E and Steinfeld I et al. (2011) PLoS. One. 6, e16915. 6. Joshi H et al. submitted (2011). 7. Stephens P et al. (2009) Nature. 462, 1005-1010. 8. Kristensen V et al (2011)PNAS, 2001, Epub ahead Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4914. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4914


Structure learning of Gaussian graphical models is an extensively studied problem in the classical multivariate setting where the sample size n is larger than the number of random variables p, as well as in the more challenging setting when p>>n. However, analogous approaches for learning the structure of graphical models with mixed discrete and continuous variables when p>>n remain largely unexplored. Here we describe a statistical learning procedure for this problem based on limited-order correlations and assess its performance with synthetic and real data.


— A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a network consisting of a set of mobile hosts capable of communicating with each other without the assistance of base stations. The dynamic topology of a mobile ad hoc network poses a real challenge in the design of a MANET routing protocol. Over the last 10 years, a variety of routing protocols have been developed and their performance simulations are made by network researchers. An efficient approach is to consider routing algorithms in which network connectivity is determined in the process of establishing routes. The shortest path (based on a given cost function) from a source to a destination in a static network is usually the optimal route, this idea is not easily extended to MANET. Factors such as power expended, variable wireless link quality, propagation path loss, fading, multi-user interference, and topological changes, become relevant issues. The network should be able to adaptively alter routing paths to alleviate any of these effects. Hence, Performance is an interesting issue for different protocols. This paper describes some special characteristics of ad hoc on-demand routing protocols like DSR, AODV, and TORA, with their working and performance measurements of these protocols.


Purpose. To track the fate of micron-sized particles of iron oxide (MPIO) labeled mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vivo in a rat myocardial infarction model using 7T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Materials and Methods. Male MSCs (2 × 106/50 μL) dual-labeled with MPIO and CM-DiI were injected into the infarct periphery 7 days after myocardial infarction (MI). The control group received cell-free media injection. The temporal stem cell location, signal intensity, and cardiac function were dynamically assessed using a 7T MRI at 24 h before transplantation (baseline), 3 days, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks after transplantation, respectively. Results. MR hypointensities caused by MPIOs were observed on T2⁎-weighted images at all time points after MSCs injection. Cine-MRI showed that MSCs moderated progressive left ventricular remodeling. Double staining for iron and CD68 revealed that most of the iron-positive cells were CD68-positive macrophages. Real-time PCR for rat SRY gene showed the number of survival MSCs considerably decreased after transplantation. MSC-treated hearts had significantly increased capillary density in peri-infarct region and lower cardiomyocytes apoptosis and fibrosis formation. Conclusions. Iron particles are not a reliable marker for in vivo tracking the long-term fate of MSCs engraftment. Despite of poor cell retention, MSCs moderate left ventricular remodeling after MI.


The author comments on a review of his recent book NEW DIRECTIONS IN MIGRATION RESEARCH and reflects on theory and model specification problems of estimation and statistical inference realities of temporal and spatial heterogeneity choices of explanatory variables and the importance of broader political issues in migration studies. A core hypothesis is that market forces have declined as influences on internal migration in Canada over the last 30 years. Theoretical underpinnings include declining relevance of wage considerations in the decision to migrate on the assumption that marginal utility of money diminishes and marginal utility of leisure increases as society becomes wealthier. The author perceives the human capital model to have limitations and is especially troubled by the "as if" clause--that all migrants behave "as if" they calculate benefits and risks with equal rigor. The author has "shadowed" and not quantified the costs involved. He implies that normative frameworks for future migration research and planning should be established.


Target detection in hyperspectral imagery (HSI) is of great interest in the signal processing field. The key to the target detection methods lies in the proper estimation of a variety of measurement matrices that are estimated from the HSI. However, these matrices are usually ill conditioned due to the high dimension of the HSI or the inherent correlation between different image bands, which can result in inaccurate inverse matrices estimation. Therefore, how to handle the potentially inaccurate inverse calculation greatly affects the detection performance. This letter proposes a regularization framework that is suitable for the state-of-the-art measurement matrices used in target detectors. It adds a scaled identity matrix to these matrices in order to strengthen the stability of the inverse matrices, and, consequently, improve the detection performance. Extensive experiments were carried out on HSI that revealed the regularized detectors clearly outperformed the original detectors.


The main purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between personality traits and career choice and if these traits can affect the choice of major in the university/college. This study try to concentrate on the way jobs are chosen and the impact of personality traits on this process from the connection between how students seen their personality and the various choices they prefer. The target population of this study was 178 personnel consisting students were randomly selected from five secondary schools in Damascus. And the results indicate that there is a significant relationship between personality traits and career choice in the most cases as explored in the results section


Oil Price (OP) and revenue play a significant contribution to the income of oil producers. Saudi income is majorly sourced from the oil sector. Therefore, it is very important to see the influence of OP on income. Particularly, testing asymmetry is necessary to see whether increasing OP has the same effect on income or not as of decreasing OP. This present research cares about this issue using nonlinear cointegration techniques. We found the symmetrical effect of OP on income in the long-run and asymmetrical effects in the short-run. Moreover, increasing and decreasing OP have equal pleasant and harmful effects on income. Moreover, increasing OP has a more pleasant effect than that of decreasing OP harmful effects on income in the short-run.


The logistics of handling poultry manure often dictate that it be spread on land near to its source at rates far in excess of what would constitute its efficient use as fertilizer. This study measured, at various times during the growing season, the concentrations of soluble salts, ammonium, nitrates, and nitrites in the upper horizons of a common Piedmont soil which had received yearly up to 100 metric tons of poultry manure per ha for 5 years. During spring and summer, concentrations of soluble salts (up to 4,064 ppm) and nitrite-N (up to 60 ppm) were high enough to be toxic to corn (Zea mays, L. cultivar Pioneer 3369A). Ammonium-N was detected at up to 800 ppm in April, but decreased to less than 100 ppm by July. Both stand establishment and subsequent growth of corn were very poor on the heavily manured plots. As seedlings, corn plants on these plots exhibited burned leaf tips and margins and stunted root growth associated with high levels of ammonia, nitrites, and total soluble salts. Severe moisture stress was evident throughout the growing season due to the effects of salinity and stunted root systems. Rapid leaching of salts and nitrates did not take place until after September. Denitrification appeared to be responsible for some losses of nitrates. Despite the accumulation of nitrites, especially in May and July, most probable number determinations failed to show any consistent inhibition of the populations of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter.


A two-mode laser cavity in which the optical paths of two modes can be separated and affected by different but correlated multiplicative noises (external disturbances) with the help of a noise introducing device is proposed. Through a corresponding mathematical model, it is found that the statistical properties of laser intensities depend strongly on the relationship between the noise correlation coefficient and the mode coupling constant.


Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), an aprotic solvent, is found to be useful as a topical agent with antioxidant effects in treatment of chronic wounds. However, the effects of DMSO on matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) production in the presence of an inflammatory environment as in the case of disordered wound healing has not been previously investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate whether TNF-α-induced MMP-9 levels and MMP-9 mRNA expression from human keratinocytes (HaCaT) might be attenuated by DMSO. Human keratinocytes were treated with DMSO (0.1–1%) for 24 h and then exposed to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (10 ng/ml) for an additional 24 h. Expression and production of MMP-9 from HaCaT cells were determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and gelatin zymography, respectively. Results showed that DMSO inhibited production of both MMP-9 levels and MMP-9 mRNA expression in TNF-α-stimulated cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Inhibition of MMP-9 levels was statistically significant at DMSO concentrations of 0.75% and higher. Similarly, the increase of MMP-9 mRNA expression levels in TNF-α-stimulated cells was markedly reduced by DMSO. Data suggest that DMSO may attenuate the deleterious effects of MMP-9 through downregulation at the transcription level. Therefore, DMSO may provide a good strategy to prevent TNF-α-induced proteolytic activity in cutaneous inflammatory reactions.


This project tested the hypothesis that low attendance rates at a Sure Start child health surveillance session might increase if appointments were preceded by intervention home visits from research assistants drawn from the local community. The assistants would explain the purpose of surveillance and discuss problems preventing attendance. A randomised control trial showed no increase in surveillance attendance after two-thirds of the intervention group were successfully visited. This negative finding was despite the partnership with local people acting as research assistants working well. Other factors that might have influenced attendance were investigated at an evaluation interview undertaken by community members in homes after the surveillance date. Only 55 per cent of the families could be contacted for evaluation. Six out of 10 of those who had no evaluation were the same families who had not attended the surveillance session. The reasons why these families missed surveillance sessions is yet to be identified. Further research is needed that explores the reason why some families do come for surveillance, the nature of the barriers to attendance in those who do not attend and to look for opportunities for fresh interventions that might give more children access to pre-school facilities.


Several error sources are analyzed for 2-component PIV, including: calibration, magnification variation, perspective, resolution, and the correlation algorithm noise floor. Several of these error sources are compared with previously published estimates. New experimental data and methods for measuring the contribution of each source to velocity uncertainty are presented.The calibration uncertainty on the velocity measurement was found to be small (so long as reasonable care is taken in the calibration) and independent of the calibration target for a 2-component PIV setup. The perspective error and magnification variation were both calculated and experimentally found to be small. The light sheet thickness only has an effect when the thickness is greater than 1% of the distance from the light sheet to the camera lens plane. The spatial resolution may be so coarse as to not capture the smaller eddies in the flow, thus attenuating the measured fluctuations. The noise floor was found to contribute significantly to the uncertainty in the velocity measurements in sub-pixel displacement.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a protein deacetylases that is involved in regulation of cell metabolism, stress response and aging. Resveratrol, a polyphenol found in wines, it has been described as a potent activator of SIRT1 enzyme. Several studies have shown that resveratrol treatment can prevent progression of wide variety of age-associated diseases, including the pulmonary diseases. Therefore, we aim to investigate the mechanism by which SIRT1 might regulate the development and progression of lung fibrosis. Bleomycin-treated mice were gavaged with saline or with resveratrol daily. At the day 14 all mice were sacrificed, lung function was measured and lung tissues were excised and processed for further analysis. The results have shown increased survival rate of resveratrol-treated animals, as well as significantly improved lung function. Resveratrol treatment markedly reduced levels of fibrotic markers such as fibronectin, collagen I and collagen IV. Furthermore, our data have demonstrated that resveratrol treatment increased levels of autophagy markers LC3BII and Atg5. We have also shown that resveratrol-induced autophagy in human primary fibroblasts is SIRT1-dependent. Overexpression of SIRT1 in lung epithelial cells and fibroblast, increased expression of LC3BII and promoted formation of autophagosomes. Importantly, SIRT1 silencing led to increased deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins even in the presence of resveratrol. Taken together, these data provide evidences that resveratrol treatment decreases ECM deposition by regulation of autophagy and that this process is SIRT1-dependent. It is possible to hypothesize that SIRT1 expression and activity play a critical role during development of lung fibrosis.


Trk receptors and gene fusions of NTRK are targets in precision oncology. Classical Trk signalling concepts fail to explain ligand-independent signalling of intracellular TrkB or NTRK fusion proteins. Here, we show that abundance of the intracellular domain of TrkB is sufficient for ligand-independent autophosphorylation. This constitutive TrkB signalling reduced actin filopodia dynamics, could phosphorylate FAK, and changed cell morphology. Mutating Y705 in the kinase domain of TrkB alone specifically blocked these pathways. Engineered intracellular kinase domain proteins and a cancer-related intracellular NTRK2-fusion protein (SQSTM1-NTRK2) also underwent constitutive activation. In migrating glioblastoma-like U87MG cells, self-active TrkB kinase reduced cell migration. Moreover, we found evidences for constitutively active, intracellular TrkB in tissue of human grade IV glioblastoma. Structural modelling of the kinase domain let us postulate that 'release from cis-autoinhibition by abundance' is sufficient for TrkB/FAK/Actin signalling via Y705. These constitutive signalling pathways could be fully blocked within minutes by clinically approved, anti-tumorigenic Trk inhibitors. In conclusion, our data provide an explanation and biological function for TrkB kinase domain signalling in the absence of a ligand.