Type 2 diabetes is the main type of diabetes in diabetic population. Along with the rapid changes of life style and increased life expectancy, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes increases rapidly worldwide. However, strong evidences have shown that genetic factors play important roles in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, except for some rare subtypes of type 2 diabetes. The genetic patterns of the common forms of type 2 diabetes do not follow the role of classic Mendelian inheritance. Therefore, the type 2 diabetes is regarded as a complex disease caused by interaction between gene and environment. However, little progress has been made during past two decades in the genetic epidemiology of type 2 diabetes. This article reviews the current status of genetic epidemiology of type 2 diabetes and proposes strategies for future researches.


Manifest intertextuality is a fundamental aspect of all academic discourse, and, hence, this study purports to explore the myriad functions of citation in a representative and contrastive corpus drawn from 20 Literature Review chapters in the domain of Applied Linguistics, and equally divided among Ph.D. theses successfully defended in Sudan and Britain. A variety of typologies were utilized to elicit citations, including Thompson's (2005) classification of integral and non-integral citations, together with Hyland's (2002) designation of denotative and evaluative functions associated with reporting verbs. Groom's (2000) and Petric's (2007) notions of averral and attribution, propositional responsibility and knowledge transformation also inform this investigation. Results indicate that the dense deployment of citations and the predilection both corpora have for integral structures, verbatim quotations and present active Discourse reporting verbs are largely dictated by the discursive and human-imbued nature of Applied Linguistics. On the other hand, the findings reveal that Sudanese candidates formally and functionally employ citations in manners markedly different from their British peers. Thus, the Sudanese corpus is characterized by blatant errors, repetition and awkwardness in both documenting sources and reporting the findings of research. Moreover, naive unwarranted quotations and authorial evaluations were ubiquitously observed, as compared to the British corpus. More significantly, there were ample variations in the way in which the two groups conceive of the role of the Literature Review. While the British adopted a range of Writer-oriented and metadiscoursal strategies to amalgamate and integrate the cited materials within their mainstream arguments, the Sudanese candidates were strictly concerned with unmediated and uncontested attribution of ideas to their authors. Such is the synthetic nature of the resultant type of this Literature Review that the writer's textual voice is submerged under the sheer burden of successive descriptive citations, thus eclipsing almost all of the objectives of this chapter in critiquing sources and subordinating the cited literature to the overarching transformative perspective of the thesis writer. The Discussion is illuminated through extensive quotations from the two corpora.


Aim of the study The incidence of melanoma is increasing rapidly worldwide. Metastatic melanoma is still an incurable disease, although an era of new drugs is approaching. Current methods to predict outcomes in patients with advanced, metastatic melanoma are limited. A retrospective analysis of a contemporary large group of advanced melanomas was performed to determine clinical prognostic factors that accurately predict survival in patients with metastatic melanoma before the era of new targeted/immunological therapy. Material and methods The retrospective analysis of 427 patients with metastatic melanoma treated between 1995 and 2005 at two reference oncological centres. Results The median overall survival time (OS) was 7.1 months (95% CI: 6.7–7.9) and the 1-year, 2-year and 5-year survival rates were 32.3%; 12.5%; 3.9%, respectively. The median progression-free survival time (PFS) after the first line of treatment was 3.5 months (95% CI: 3.1–3.8). There were 19.1% objective responses (CR – 6.1%, PR – 13.0%) and SD – 45.5% after the first line of therapy. The most common adverse events were anaemia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, nausea and vomiting. In multivariate analyses: PS (performance status) 0–1, normal serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and aspartate transaminase (AspAT), older age in women, palliative surgical treatment and palliative radiotherapy, type of the first line of therapy (DTIC), and metastatic melanoma of unknown primary site were independent positive predictors for survival. Conclusions The survival rate of patients with metastatic melanoma has not changed significantly over the last years. We identified a set of independent positive predictors for OS treated with systemic therapy. DTIC still may be useful in treatment of patients in a good general condition and with normal serum levels of LDH. Because the results of treatment of metastatic melanoma are still not satisfactory, the majority of patients should be treated within prospective, randomized clinical trials.


A droplet of sodium alginate dripped into calcium chloride solution results in plate or boat shaped hydrogels. Both exhibit several minute-long self-propelled motion on the liquid surface without any extra fuel added, offering a new method to making active materials. By changing the initial concentrations, we are able to tune the transient dynamic activities from translational to rotational or stop-and-run motion. Dynamics are governed by osmotic pressure induced Marangoni effect, depending on the density difference and initial concentrations.


This work presents a new implementation of the mixed potential integral equation (MPIE) for planar structures that can include ferrite layers arbitrarily magnetized. The implementation of the MPIE here reported is carried out in the space domain. Thus it will combine the well‐known numerical advantages of working with potentials as well as the flexibility for analyzing nonrectangular shape conductors with the additional ability of including anisotropic layers of arbitrarily magnetized ferrites. In this way, our approach widens the scope of the space domain MPIE and sets this method as a very efficient and versatile numerical tool to deal with a wide class of planar microwave circuits and antennas.


The Murray Darling Basin Plan (Murray Darling Basin Authority 2012) represents the largest investment by government in an Australian environmental management challenge and remains highly conflicted owing to the contested allocation of diminishing water resources. Central to the decision to reallocate consumptive water to environmental purposes in this Plan was the case made to maintain the freshwater character of two lakes at the terminus of the Murray Darling Basin, in South Australia. This freshwater state was identified as the natural condition on the basis of selected anecdotal evidence and was enshrined in the site's listing under the Ramsar Convention. The commitment to the freshwater state was challenged under drought when sea water was seen as a means of averting acidification when low river flows risked the exposure of sulfidic sediments. Independent evidence from water quality indicators (diatoms) preserved in lake sediment records, however, attested to an estuarine, albeit variable, condition before the commissioning of near-mouth barrages in 1940. This interpretation for a naturally estuarine history, published after peer review, was overlooked in a report to the South Australian government, which argued, without the provision of new evidence from the lakes, that they were fresh for their entire history. This revised interpretation is widely cited in the scientific literature, government reports and online discussion and underpins a watering strategy aimed at a freshwater future for the Lower Lakes. The allocation of large volumes of fresh water to achieve this condition presents significant difficulties owing to the highly contested nature of water use across the Basin.


Density functional theory has been used to investigate the adsorption of small molecules on Fe-based multi-component clusters. The energetic, electronic and structural properties of CO and H2 on the catalyst surfaces are calculated. It has been found that Cr, Mn, Mo, Zr and Re could be used as additional elements in the Fe-based catalysts, since the activation of CO and H2 molecules is increased as compared with the unsupported Fe catalyst. The obtained results are in agreement with available experimental data that confirmed the validity of selected calculation method and models.


In this paper we consider the problem of bootstrapping a class of spatial regression models when the sampling sites are generated by a (possibly nonuniform) stochastic design and are irregularly spaced. It is shown that the natural extension of the existing block bootstrap methods for grid spatial data does not work for irregularly spaced spatial data under nonuniform stochastic designs. A variant of the blocking mechanism is proposed. It is shown that the proposed block bootstrap method provides a valid approximation to the distribution of a class of M-estimators of the spatial regression parameters. Finite sample properties of the method are investigated through a moderately large simulation study and a real data example is given to illustrate the methodology.


Nacre is a biomaterial that has shown osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties in vitro and in vivo. These properties make nacre a material of interest for inducing bone regeneration. However, information is very limited regarding the introduction of nacre to dental implant surgery for promoting osteogenesis. This study investigated the potential of nacre powder for peri-implant bone regeneration in a porcine model. Ninety-six dental implants were placed into the tibia of twelve male domestic pigs. The dental implants were coated with nacre powder from the giant oyster before implantation. Implantations without nacre powder were used as control groups. Euthanization took place at 2, 4 and 6 weeks after implantation, after which we measured bone-to-implant contact (BIC) and bone volume density (BVD) of the implanted bone samples using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), and examined the histology of the surrounding bone using histological sections stained with Stevenel's blue and Alizarin red S. The micro-CT analyses showed that the BIC of dental implantations with nacre powder were significantly higher than those without nacre powder, by 7.60%. BVD of implantations with nacre powder were significantly higher than those without nacre powder, by 12.48% to 13.66% in cortical bone, and by 3.37% to 6.11% in spongy bone. Histological study revealed more peri-implant bone regeneration toward the surface of the dental implants after implantation with nacre powder. This was consistent with the micro-CT results. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using nacre to promote peri-implant bone regeneration in dental implantation.


Infections continue to be the most important cause of death in patients with serious burns, and recent experience reveals that this complex problem has not been entirely solved by the use of effective antimicrobial agents. Despite the important role of certain documented, but presently untreatable abnormalities of host defense in the genesis of these infections, much can be done to control their incidence and seriousness. Helpful measures are tangential excision of the burn wound eschar to aid in early grafting, subeschar injection of antibiotics to treat established burn wound sepsis, restricted use of systemically administered antibiotics, avoidance of tracheostomy, vaccination procedures against selected pathogens such as Pseudomonas, and rational approaches to environmental control and the use of topical antimicrobial agents.


Despite a growing need for knowledge about the effects of race and ethnicity in organizations, relatively little research on these issues has been performed and few research reports have been published in the major management journals. A literature review and a survey of authors in the field indicate that factors responsible for this problem fall into two categories: factors limiting the amount of work done on these issues, and factors hindering the publication of completed work. Underlying many of these factors is the tendency for the effects of personal biases among authors, reviewers, and editors to be especially severe with respect to this topic. Moreover, issues of racioethnic relations and heterogeneity, including the problem of racism, have never really been resolved in American society generally. Following an analysis of the problems, suggestions are provided to aid scholars in effectively conducting and evaluating research on this topic.


Exploring sample relationships within each mini-batch has shown great potential for learning image representations. Existing works generally adopt the regular Transformer to model the visual content relationships, ignoring the cues of semantic/label correlations between samples. Also, they generally adopt the"full"self-attention mechanism which are obviously redundant and also sensitive to the noisy samples. To overcome these issues, in this paper, we design a simple yet flexible Batch-Graph Transformer (BGFormer) for mini-batch sample representations by deeply capturing the relationships of image samples from both visual and semantic perspectives. BGFormer has three main aspects. (1) It employs a flexible graph model, termed Batch Graph to jointly encode the visual and semantic relationships of samples within each mini-batch. (2) It explores the neighborhood relationships of samples by borrowing the idea of sparse graph representation which thus performs robustly, w.r.t., noisy samples. (3) It devises a novel Transformer architecture that mainly adopts dual structure-constrained self-attention (SSA), together with graph normalization, FFN, etc, to carefully exploit the batch graph information for sample tokens (nodes) representations. As an application, we apply BGFormer to the metric learning tasks. Extensive experiments on four popular datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.


In our research, we view human behavior as a structured sequence of context-sensitive decisions. We develop a conditional probabilistic model for predicting human decisions given the contextual situation. Our approach employs the principle of maximum entropy within the Markov Decision Process framework. Modeling human behavior is reduced to recovering a context-sensitive utility function that explains demonstrated behavior within the probabilistic model. In this work, we review the development of our probabilistic model (Ziebart et al. 2008a) and the results of its application to modeling the context-sensitive route preferences of drivers (Ziebart et al. 2008b). We additionally expand the approach's applicability to domains with stochastic dynamics, present preliminary experiments on modeling time-usage, and discuss remaining challenges for applying our approach to other human behavior modeling problems.


Clubfoot is a birth defect that may be related to muscle weakness or imbalance. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among muscle and tendon size and embryonic motility in a paralyzed chick embryo model of clubfoot and arthrogryposis. Decamethonium bromide, a neuromuscular blocking agent, was administered to a series of embryos in five dosage groups, producing a cohort of embryos with various degrees of paralysis and atrophy of tendons and muscle. Embryonic movement frequency was monitored, and after death in late gestation, the cross-sectional areas of the calf musculature and the gastrocnemius tendon proximal to the ankle were measured histologically. Significant correlations were found between embryonic motility and both muscle (r2 = 0.52) and tendon (r2 = 0.77) areas. In addition, a significant correlation (r2 = 0.74) was found between muscle and tendon areas, suggesting that a measurement of one may be used to predict the other.


This article considers the role of gardens in Tacitus Annales Book11 as performative and transgressive space. Tacitus' account posits garden space as a nexus of narrative uncertainty between historia and fabula . This relationship is considered in the context of the transformative potential of performative space and concludes that the narrative interaction between gardens, transgression, and transformation both reference and foreshadow Julio-Claudian mythic enactments and the politics of performance.


The induction of cell differentiation and growth inhibition of HL-60 cells by Bc-4, an active principle from Boswellia carterii, was studied in vitro and in vivo. The proliferation of HL-60 cells was found to be inhibited by Bc-4 at a concentration of 5-10 micrograms/ml. Under the action of Bc-4, the acid phosphatase and NBT reduction activities in HL-60 cells were increased, and phagocytosis of cells was also induced. All these activities were concentration dependent. The HL-60 cells were induced by Bc-4 to differentiate into more mature cells morphologically. The in vivo growth of HL-60 cells in mouse subrenal capsules (SRC) and in diffusion chambers inoculated into mice was inhibited by Bc-4 at a dose of 50 mg/kg. The morphology of HL-60 cells treated by Bc-4 in diffusion chambers exhibited characteristics of mature granulocytic cells.


Following  the  rapid  growth  in  science,  many  things  have  been  changed.  One  of  them  is  the  industrial revolution 4.0. In this era, the demand of manpower is decreasing and is replaced by computer and machine. For Indonesian millennials, this is a challenge for their futures. However, despite this concern,  there  is  tremendous  opportunity  for  Japanese  language  learners  which  is  part  of  the millennials generation. In the fieldwork and as tourist guide, there is significant need for manpower.   The amount of expatriates living in Jakarta, business trips from Japanese businessmen, and the growing information of Indonesian tourism, has made the demand of Japanese tourist guide speaker increased. As a result, tourism lecture was created, especially for students who want to master to become Japanese tourist guide. In this lecture, not only the ability of students, but also the lecturer should prepare well for  the  course  with  a  good  flow,  starting  from  greetings,  guiding,  and  closing.  In  addition,  lecturer should understand the general concept of tourism and how to guide tourists properly.   Keywords:  Japanese skill, guiding, tourism


This article explores political transgression in Kinshasa's media space and informal and official reactions to these. Ethnographic material will exhibit violation and regulation in the context of two highly popular media genres, call-in shows and short reportages about life in the city. In order to extend our understanding of political mediation, I argue we need to pay attention to the management of public information, to the parties involved in the negotiations about what can and should be publicly (re-)presented and what not, and to the ways in which political actors balance between containment and exposure. I present two types of media rebellion in order to illustrate in some detail the variety of ways in which political conflict and mass media interact in present-day Kinshasa, and how certain television journalist defy the borders between "the speakable" and that what should remain hidden.


In order to use as a new functional honey, we analyzed the chemical components including the organic compounds, minerals and vitamic C of hairy vetch that is knowing as eco-friendly green manure crop recently in South Korea. The condensed rate of methanol extraction in honey was 84.48% and main organic compounds that extract by organic solvents in GC-MS analysis were trichloromethan, acetidin, propyl carbinol, methylolpropane, cyclopentane, dipropylmethane etc. Also, main aromatic compounds that extract by organic solvents in SPME analysis were hydrazine, n-dimethylhydrazine, carbamide resin, benzoguanamine, gentanol, cyclotrisiloxane, enanthaldehyde, heptaldehyde, silane, cinchoninaldehyde, quininaldehyde and so on. As proximate composition, crude ash content was higher than acacia honey(0.05%) by 0.2613%, and crude protein was higher than acacia honey (0.10%) by 0.28%, and crude fat was higher content than acacia honey(0.44%) by 0.57%. Free sugar that analyze by HPLC consisted of fructose 35.31%, glucose 26.96%, and total sugars was 62.27%. Minerals by ICP analysis were detected total 22 kinds, K 4.9185ppm > Na 3.4915ppm > Zn 3.178ppm > Ca 1.8575ppm > B 0.8495 ppm > Mg 0.5635ppm etc. Vitamin C was not detected and antioxidation test result by DPPH freeradical scavenge effect was slight compared to acacia honey.


Ferromagnetic liquids containing 45A diameter tin or antimony coated iron particles dispersed in mercury have been prepared electrolytically. The fluids are found to have a magnetisation which is time dependent when an applied field is abruptly reduced. The characteristic decay time which is of the order of 60s cannot be attributed to magnetisation changes due to small noninteracting particles of 45A diameter but it is consistent with the presence of particle aggregates of 104A diameter. Measurements of sedimentation rates and viscosity are also consistent with the presence of aggregates of 104A diameter. Measurements of the sedimentation rate in a gravitational field show that if the particles are coated with tin and particularly antimony fluid stability is improved and aggregate size reduced. It is suggested that particle aggregation may be prevented by ensuring that the liquid contains a distribution of particles with a median diameter appreciably smaller than 45A and a small standard deviation.


Abstract : Current speech recognition systems tend to be developed only for commercially viable languages. The resources needed for a typical speech recognition system include hundreds of hours of transcribed speech for acoustic models and 10 to 100 million words of text for language models; both of these requirements can be costly in time and money. The goal of this research is to facilitate rapid development of speech systems to new languages by using multilingual phoneme models to alleviate requirements for large amounts of transcribed speech. The Global Phone database, winch contains transcribed speech from 15 languages, is used as source data to derive multilingual phoneme models. Various bootstrapping processes arc used to develop an Arabic speech recognition system starting from monolingual English models, International Phonetic Association (IP based multilingual models, and data-driven multilingual models. The Kullback-Leibler distortion measure is used to derive data-driven phoneme clusters. It was found that multilingual bootstrapping methods outperform monolingual English bootstrapping methods on the Arabic evaluation data initially, and after three iterations of bootstrapping all systems show similar performance levels


Interference at the radio receiver is a key source of degradation in quality of service of wireless communication systems. In this paper, we address the impact of imperfect inter-cell synchronization on the performance of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and filter bank based multicarrier (FBMC) multi-cellular networks. Based on computing the moment generating functions of the asynchronous interference power, a useful analytical method for computing the average error rates is derived considering the frequency correlation fading between adjacent interfering subcarriers.


This paper describes a pivoting heuristic based on tabu search and its integration into an enumerative framework for solving the Linear Complementarity Problem (LCP). The tabu pivoting heuristic works with basic solutions and performs pivot operations guided by two indicators, one concerned with the satisfaction of the complementarity conditions and the other with the feasibility of the solution. It incorporates the concept of tabu search employing a strategy that avoids the repetition of recent moves. The heuristic ends when a solution to the LCP is found or after a specied number of iterations. In the latter case, an enumerative algorithm is applied which integrates the tabu pivoting heuristic within a branching framework. Computational experience on test problems is reported to highlight the eciency of the proposed methodology for solving the LCP.


Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), secreted from target tissues, binds and activates TrkB receptors, located on axonal terminals of the innervating neurons, and thereby initiates retrograde signaling. Long-range anterograde transport of TrkB in axons and dendrites requires kinesin-mediated transport. However, it remains unknown whether anterograde TrkB transport mechanisms are the same in axons versus in dendrites. Here, we show that c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase-interacting protein 3 (JIP3) binds directly to TrkB, via a minimal 12 aa domain in the TrkB juxtamembrane region, and links TrkB to kinesin-1. The JIP3/TrkB interaction selectively drives TrkB anterograde transport in axons but not in dendrites of rat hippocampal neurons. Moreover, we find that TrkB axonal transport mediated by JIP3 could regulate BDNF-induced Erk activation and axonal filopodia formation. Our findings demonstrate a role for JIP3-mediated TrkB anterograde axonal transport in recruiting more TrkB into distal axons and facilitating BDNF-induced retrograde signaling and synapse modulation, which provides a novel mechanism of how the TrkB anterograde transport can be coupled to BDNF signaling in distal axons.


We studied the clinical and microbiological parameters associated with candidal sepsis in neonates and identified possible predictors of poor outcome. Observational study of all cases admitted to NICU between October 2009 and July 2011, proven to have candidal growth in blood culture. Thirty six cases were identified during the study period. Odds of very low birth weight babies (3.1% vs 0.43%; OR 7.41; 95%CI 3.82, 14.39; p<0.0001) and preterm neonates (1.4% vs 0.32%; OR 4.56, 95%CI 2.08, 10.03; p<0.0001) admitted to NICU to acquire fungal sepsis were significantly more. Candida glabrata was the offending agent in 16 (44.4%) cases. Non albicans species was associated with higher mortality. Presence of candiduria was a significant risk factor for death (OR 5.14, 95% CI 1.17,22.49 P=0.04). Candida glabrata caused the most number of cases of fungal septicemia. Non albicans species and isolation of fungus from two normally sterile body sites are associated with higher risk for mortality.


Summary
Recombinant plasmids containing dimeric inserts of tomato golden mosaic virus (TGMV) DNA component A (pA2), DNA component B (pB2) and both DNA components (pA2B2) were constructed. When inoculated onto Nicotiana benthamiana plants, mixtures of uncut pA2 and pB2, or uncut pA2B2 alone, induced symptoms typical of TGMV infection. Infections induced by the uncut dimeric clones were very similar to those induced by the excised monomeric clones, as judged by symptom development, production of capsid protein, immunological reaction with antiserum to TGMV, production of circular double-stranded DNA and single-stranded DNA of genome size, and restriction analysis of supercoiled DNA. Infection with the dimeric DNA clones gave rise to a subgenomic DNA, derived from DNA A, which was not observed in infections with monomeric clones. The infectivity of excised monomeric DNA was shown to be dependent on the cloning site, but the uncut dimeric clones were as infectious as the most infectious monomeric clones.


The continuing proliferation of smartphones makes them an effective means to monitor the number of people within an area, for example, to gain insights into customer engagement in retail and to enable an intelligent traffic system in a city. However, current approaches to obtain this information are either invasive as they require to continuously run a dedicated smartphone app, or they compromise users' privacy by sniffing the MAC addresses of their smartphones. As a consequence, lawyers, authorities, and the population are very skeptical toward adopting such innovative systems. We present DevCnt, the first system that counts in real-time the number of Wi-Fi enabled smartphones in a non-invasive manner while preserving by design the privacy of the smartphone users. This paper details how DevCnt detects active Wi-Fi scans performed by smartphones on a ZigBee device, and how DevCnt uses the number of detected scans to estimate the number of Wi-Fi enabled smartphones. Results from controlled and real-world experiments show that DevCnt: (i) detects more than 99% of active Wi-Fi scans even under interference from multiple wireless technologies, (ii) achieves up to 91% accuracy in the estimated smartphone counts, and (iii) provides meaningful estimates in a real test run involving hundreds of Wi-Fi transmitters.


Stroke, whether ischemic or haemorrhagic, is one of the main causes of mortality and disability all over the world, which entails huge burdens in both healthcare environments as well as social and economic aspects of life. Therefore, there is a continuous search for novel reliable biomarkers that can enhance the recognition of stroke events in a timely manner and predict the clinical outcomes following a stroke event. Galectins are a group of proteins expressed by many types of cells and tissues including vasculature, certain immune cells, fibroblasts, and gastrointestinal epithelial cells. These proteins vary in their structure and configuration according to their type and have a diversity of functions according to the type of tissue they are expressed in. Among these proteins, a few studies investigated mainly the roles played by galectin-1 (Gal-1) and galectin-3 (Gal-3) in the molecular mechanisms of atherosclerosis and in brain tissue remodeling after a stroke event. In this review, we present an updated overview of the current understanding of Gal-3's functions and implications in stroke occurrence and the response of the brain tissue to stroke events, which may be a key to its utility as a predictor of stroke incidence and clinical prognosis in the future.


MRI is an important tool for investigating breast cancer. Although recognized as the method of choice for screening high‐risk patients, and for other indications the role of MRI for lesion characterization remains controversial. Recently some authors have advocated the use of morphologic and postcontrast features for this purpose. Quantitative breast MRI techniques have not been applied extensively in breast diseases. Magnetization transfer (MT) is a quantitative MR technique commonly used to investigate neurological diseases. In breast diseases the use of MT has been limited to improving visualization of areas of enhancement in postcontrast images. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and utility of MT in discriminating benign from malignant breast lesions. Fifty‐two lesions, BIRADS 4 and 5, from 49 patients, were prospectively evaluated using the MT ratio (MTR). Patients were divided into two groups: benign and malignant lesions. The MTR of fat, pectoralis major muscle, fibroglandular tissue, and breast lesions were calculated. A statistically significant difference was found between MTR from benign and malignant lesions (P < 0.001). Preliminary results suggest that MT can be used to evaluate breast lesions. Further studies are necessary to better define the utility and applicability of this technique. Magn Reson Med 59:1030–1034, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Systematic assessment of bulimia, alike the clinical definition of the disorder, is still meager and lacks reliability. Development of new evaluation instruments is the focus of many current researches. This article will distinguish: rating scales specific of bulimia, for screening in epidemiological surveys and clinical practice, as well as for measure of the severity of the symptoms; structured interviews for evaluation of bulimic patients, for clinical and research use; eating disorders rating scales, already used for anorexia nervosa; other rating scales of interest with bulimic patients; and more possible evaluation methods. Finally, we will review assessment measures for use in treatment studies of bulimia.


Income and wealth distributions can no longer be seen as mere outcomes of the general equilibrium of an economy. The central processes that determine resource allocation – through capital markets, through the political system, and through social circumstances – are influenced by the distribution of wealth in important ways. More unequal societies tend to develop larger groups of people who are excluded from opportunities others enjoy – be they a better education, access to loans, or to insurance – and who therefore do not develop their full productive potentials. Both theory and empirical evidence suggest that these incomplete realizations of economic potential are not of concern only to those who care about equity per se. They also affect aggregate economic potential, and therefore aggregate output and its rate of growth. The inverted-U relationship between growth and inequality suggested by Kuznets has not survived recent empirical scrutiny terribly well. Instead, it is gradually being replaced by a perception that the main flow of causation may be in the other direction, with inequality hampering the rate and quality of economic growth. The debate is not over, either conceptually or empirically. But its very liveliness attests to the importance of the question.


We study the optimal strategy for a sailboat to reach an upwind island under the hypothesis that the wind direction fluctuates according to a Brownian motion and the wind speed is constant. The work is motivated by a concrete problem which typically arises during sailing regattas, namely finding the best tacking strategy to reach the upwind buoy as quickly as possible. We assume that there is no loss of time when tacking. We first guess an optimal strategy and then we establish its optimality by using the dynamic programming principle. The Hamilton Jacobi Bellmann equation obtained is a parabolic PDE with Neumann boundary conditions. Since it does not admit a closed form solution, the proof of optimality involves an intricate estimate of derivatives of the value function. We explicitly provide the asymptotic shape of the value function. In order to do so, we prove a result on large time behavior for solutions to time dependent parabolic PDE using a coupling argument. In particular, a boat far from the island approaches the island at $\frac{1}{2} + \frac{\sqrt{2}}{\pi} = 95.02%$ of the boat's speed.


This essay questions the argument, advanced by some historians to explain anti-fraternalism in fourteenth-century England, that friars appeared as lax and even socially disruptive confessors because they placed less emphasis than secular parish priests on confession and penance as a means of social discipline and resolution of interpersonal conflict, emphasising instead the individual, psychological aspects of sin. To test this hypothesis, this study examines instructions for interrogating penitents about the sins of wrath/anger and the requirements for the reconciliation of enemies. It compares the Latin manuals of the Dominican, John of Freiburg, and the anonymous, Franciscan Fasciculus morum on the one hand with the Latin manual by the secular clerk William of Pagula and the Middle English manuals for secular clergy by John Gaytrick and John Mirk on the other. The findings challenge the supposed dichotomy between secular and mendicant approaches to penance. Manuals for both types of confessor addressed conflict and enmity and encouraged introspection that connected anti-social behaviour and discord with an individual's psychology and spiritual wellbeing. Nor can it be assumed that such introspection was imposed on the laity, which was accustomed to struggling with feelings of anger or hatred when attempting to make peace.


In the automotive industry, a reduction in CO2 and low fuel consumption are required from the environmental point of view. According to such demand, electric vehicle using an inverter fed motor is developed and widely used. However, partial discharge generates in motor winding, when the higher voltage is applied to the windings. Thereby, it may induce a fatal breakdown in the insulating coating layer of the windings. Judging from a published report, it was said that a decrease of partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) was strongly related with space charge accumulation in the insulating layer. However, only few studies about the space charge accumulation characteristic in the insulating coating for the windings has been carried out in the past. In this study, we proposed a new space charge distribution measurement technique using Pulsed Electro Acoustic (PEA) method to evaluate the space charge accumulation characteristics in such layer. Using this technique, we can observe the pace charge distribution in an insulating film during the application of square wave, square wave with surge shape and half-wave of AC voltages of 50 Hz to the film. Judging from the obtained results, we found that the space charge accumulated in the film by applying above mentioned the voltages, and it might cause of the reduction of PDIV.


Hypothalamic mechanisms of blood calcium homeostasis and their functional heterogeneity were investigated in rats. Electrical and chemical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA), the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH) induced hypocalcemia. The hypocalcemic effect of PVN stimulation was suppressed by vagotomy of the thyroid/parathyroid branches, while that of LHA and VMH stimulation was eliminated by gastric vagotomy. Immobilization (IMB) stress elicited hypocalcemia through VMH-gastric vagal activation. Both IMB- and LHA stimulation-induced hypocalcemia was antagonized by muscarinic antagonist and histamine H2 blocker. The former was also blocked by alpha-blocker and gastrin release inhibitor, while the latter was antagonized by an beta-blocker. The results suggest that hypothalamic nuclei are involved in regulation of blood calcium homeostasis via the gastric or thyroid/parathyroid vagus. Muscarinic, histamine H2, adrenergic and gastrin receptors mediate the hypocalcemic effect of the hypothalamo-vagal activation depending on behavioral conditions and receptor subtypes.


F unctional mapping techniques including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetoencephalography (MEG) can be used to study the function of the nervous system. Optical imaging is an emerging technique for functional imaging of the nervous tissue. Functional optical imaging can be classified into two major streams; intrinsic signal optical imaging (ISO) and voltage-sensitive dye optical imaging (VDO). ISO is related to hemodynamic changes such as hemoglobin concentration and oxygenation changes, cytochrome oxidation change, and light scattering. On the contrary, VOD measures changes in membrane potentials of neural cells. Therefore, ISO reflects metabolic activity of neurons, while VOD directly reflects neural activity. Recent advances in optical imaging opened the possibility of its application to clinical situations as well as basic researches. Further, development of optical imaging may greatly contribute to the understanding of the function of the nervous system. Abstract R11-2005-014)


The purpose of the present review was to describe evidence-based indications for Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) in patients with a diagnosis of skin cancer. Relevant studies were identified from a systematic MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews search of studies published from 1970 to 2017. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), prospective and retrospective comparative studies with greater than 30 patients, and single-arm retrospective studies with multivariate analyses were included. A total of 2 RCTs, 3 prospective studies, and 16 retrospective studies (14 comparative and 2 single-arm) were included. Data on recurrence rate, cure rate, complications, cosmesis, and quality of life were extracted. Surgery (with postoperative or intraoperative marginal assessment) or radiation for those who are ineligible for surgery should remain the standard of care for patients with skin cancer given the lack of high-quality, comparative evidence. MMS is recommended for those with histologically confirmed recurrent basal cell carcinoma (BCC) of the face and is appropriate for primary BCCs of the face that are >1 cm, have aggressive histology, or are located on the H zone of the face. The available evidence is difficult to generalize to all patients with skin cancer because the evidence did not adequately cover non-BCC skin cancers; however, those skin cancers can be considered on a case-by-case basis for MMS. MMS should be performed by physicians who have completed a degree in medicine or equivalent, including a Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Specialist Certificate or equivalent, and have received advanced training in MMS.


Treatment claims not supported by data

Recently Sabel, Kenkel, and Kasten co-authored a report showing that vision restoration therapy does not improve field defects in patients with cortical lesions.1 This finding was a disappointment because it dashed hopes that vision restoration therapy might benefit patients who suffer visual field loss from stroke, tumour, or trauma involving the occipital lobe. In a new twist, Sabel and colleagues have now written an editorial stating that "we have no objections to the data as presented" (an unusual remark from the co-authors of a study), followed in the next breath by a long argument repudiating the main thrust of their report.2 If readers are confused, they are not to blame.

Vision restoration therapy was described previously in a series of papers by Sabel and colleagues.3–8 In brief, it attempts to restore visual field defects by having patients practise perimetry every day at home using a software package loaded onto their personal computers. The idea is that repeated visual stimulation, especially just inside a scotoma boundary, can salvage neurons in damaged cortex at the fringe of a lesion. Sabel's previous studies suffered from a major flaw: eye movements were not recorded or controlled. Patients with homonymous field loss often compensate by making surveillance saccades into their blind hemifield. Although Sabel and colleagues used the blind spot position to monitor fixation, they never reported fixation losses, false positives, or false negatives in their papers. Moreover, the blind spot position is an imperfect method for detecting small saccades, and useless for fixation assessment in an eye with a temporal hemianopia. For these reasons, most neuro-ophthalmologists were sceptical of Sabel's claims for vision restoration therapy.

To his credit, Sabel responded by undertaking a collaborative study with scientists employing the scanning laser ophthalmoscope.1 This …


Abstract The problem of optimal capacitor placement (OCP), or the determination of both the optimal bus locations and sizes in radial distribution systems (RDS) has been solved in this article using a new metaheuristic algorithm named as the hybrid grey wolf optimizer (HGWO). The grey wolf optimizer (GWO) is hybridized with the addition of mutation and crossover, to create the hybrid grey wolf optimizer (HGWO). The enhanced performance of the HGWO has been proved by comparison of the solutions and the convergence curves of GWO and HGWO. The objective of the OCP problem—a discrete, non-convex optimization problem—is minimization of the cost of capacitor installations and total real power loss. The proposed HGWO approach has been applied to solve the IEEE 34-, 69-, 119 bus RDSs and a practical 22-bus RDS. Comparisons of the results obtained against those reported in the literature show that the HGWO performs very well, and hence is a highly suitable optimization approach for solving OCP problems.


To explore the mechanism of graphene chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth on a catalyst surface, a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of carbon atom self-assembly on a Ni(111) surface based on a well-designed empirical reactive bond order potential was performed. We simulated single layer graphene with recorded size (up to 300 atoms per super-cell) and reasonably good quality by MD trajectories up to 15 ns. Detailed processes of graphene CVD growth, such as carbon atom dissolution and precipitation, formation of carbon chains of various lengths, polygons and small graphene domains were observed during the initial process of the MD simulation. The atomistic processes of typical defect healing, such as the transformation from a pentagon into a hexagon and from a pentagon-heptagon pair (5|7) to two adjacent hexagons (6|6), were revealed as well. The study also showed that higher temperature and longer annealing time are essential to form high quality graphene layers, which is in agreement with experimental reports and previous theoretical results.


Semantic segmentation is one of the most important tasks in remote sensing. However, as spatial resolution increases, distinguishing the homogeneity of each land class and the heterogeneity between different land classes are challenging. The Markov random field model (MRF) is a widely used method for semantic segmentation due to its effective spatial context description. To improve segmentation accuracy, some MRF-based methods extract more image information by constructing the probability graph with pixel or object granularity units, and some other methods interpret the image from different semantic perspectives by building multilayer semantic classes. However, these MRF-based methods fail to capture the relationship between different granularity features extracted from the image and hierarchical semantic classes that need to be interpreted. In this article, a new MRF-based method is proposed to incorporate the multigranularity information and the multilayer semantic classes together for semantic segmentation of remote sensing images. The proposed method develops a framework that builds a hybrid probability graph on both pixel and object granularities and defines a multiclass-layer label field with hierarchical semantic over the hybrid probability graph. A generative alternating granularity inference is suggested to provide the result by iteratively passing and updating information between different granularities and hierarchical semantics. The proposed method is tested on texture images, different remote sensing images obtained by the SPOT5, Gaofen-2, GeoEye, and aerial sensors, and Pavia University hyperspectral image. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method shows a better segmentation performance than other state-of-the-art methods.


The management and retrieval of Web data has received significant attention. Among the various approaches, systems have been proposed whose main goal is to provide a framework to integrate different and heterogeneous information sources into a common domain model. The Web-At-A-Glance (WAG) system falls into this category, its key characteristic being that instead of requiring an explicit description of the sources, it attempts to semi-automatically classify the information gathered from various sites based on the conceptual model of the domain of interest. The initial WAG prototype dealt exclusively with "standard" Web pages, which typically are HTML or XML documents and present non- or semi-structured information, and they vary widely in their means of presenting information to the user. We present the extension of the WAG system to deal with form pages. In particular, we describe how the system semiautomatically first extracts a conceptual schema for the form page, and then fills and submits the form in consequence of a user query expressed on the domain conceptual schema.


Introduction: Increasing incidence of breast cancer, higher awareness in the society about this condition and easy availability of screening procedures has effected increased number of cases with breast-related symptoms for evaluation in clinical practice. Mammography and fine needle aspiration cytology are the main screening tests in evaluation of any breast lump. This study is carried out to compare the predictability of various breast lesions by individual screening test and by combined diagnostic approach utilizing Triple Test Score (TTS). Aims and Objectives: The aim was to evaluate the role of TTS in palpable breast masses over individual screening test. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was carried out from April 2015 to December 2016 in a tertiary care hospital in rural area as a combined effort involving the Departments of Pathology, Surgery and Radiology of a medical college. All cases were first evaluated clinically and then referred for mammography and FNAC of the breast mass, which were later diagnosed by histopathological examination. In the study period of 21 months, total 45 cases were studied where all three parameters of screening were utilized, i.e. clinical examination, mammography and FNAC followed by histopathological confirmation. TTS was then calculated in the evaluation of these lesions. The statistical parameters of sensitivity, specificity, Positive predictive value (PPV) and Negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated separately for malignant and non-malignant condition for each parameter of screening modality. Also a diagnosis match percentage was calculated for each parameter of screening modality, including TTS, irrespective of nature of disease (malignant or nonmalignant) as per final histopathological diagnosis. This statistical data was compared to find out the better diagnostic modality of any breast lesion. Results: Sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV was the best (>92%) irrespective of nature of the disease in TTS as compared to other screening modalities. Also the diagnosis match showed the best correlation with TTS (93.3%) than clinical (66.7%), radiological (51.1 %) or cytology (84.4%) score. Conclusions: Triple test (TTS) is a very reliable method of evaluation for any palpable breast masses, whether benign or malignant, than utilizing fine needle aspiration cytology or mammography alone as a screening test. Histological correlation may be avoided before definitive treatment if Triple Test Score (TTS) is applied to all cases of breast lumps. However, it will require multiple as well as large scale studies from different part of the world to be implemented as a protocol for diagnosis and treatment.


The mechanically adaptable connective tissue of echinoderms (Mutable Collagenous Tissue—MCT), which can undergo drastic nervously-mediated changes in mechanical properties, represents a promising model for biomaterial design and biomedical applications. MCT could be a source of, or an inspiration for, new composite materials whose molecular interactions and structural conformation can be changed in response to external stimuli. MCT is composed mostly of collagen fibrils, comparable to those of mammals, plus a variety of other components, including other fibrillar structures, proteoglycans and glycoproteins. This contribution presents the preliminary results of a detailed analysis of MCT components in the sea-urchin Paracentrotus lividus , focusing on biochemical characterization of the fibrils and biomolecular analysis of the presumptive glycoproteins involved. The final aims will be to confirm the presence and the role of these glycoproteins in echinoids and to manipulate simpler components in order to produce a composite with mutable mechanical properties.


Enzymatic and structural properties of white croaker fast skeletal muscle myosin were determined and compared with those of walleye pollack counterpart. Ca2+-ATPase activity of white croaker myosin was decreased to approximately 70% of the original activity during 1 day of storage at 0°C and pH 7.0 in 0.5 M KCl and 0.1 mM dith iothreitol, whereas that of walleye pollack was decreased to approximately 20% under the same condition. The activation energy (Ea) for inactivation of white croaker myosin calculated by the Arrhenius plot for inactivation rate constant (KD) was 1.2-fold higher than that of walleye pollack. While Ca2+-ATPase showed a similar KCl-dependency for the two species, the maximal activity was observed at pH 6.2 and 6.3 for white croaker and walleye pollack, respectively. Actin-activated myosin Mg2+-ATPase activity of white croaker was approximately half that of walleye pollack at 0.05 M KCl and pH 7.0, although the two myosins showed a similar affinity to Factin with Km of 1.7 and 1.4, respectively. Limited proteolysis with α-chymotrypsin cleaved heat-denatured white croaker myosin mainly at heavy meromyosin/light meromyosin (HMM/LMM) junction, whereas walleye pollack myosin was cleaved at several sites in LMM as well as at the HMM/LMM junction.


Shipping is one of the most globalized industries in the world economy and the
leading means of transport. Modern shipping is a highly international, multicultural
and technological industry with strong demands on economic efficiency and
profitability. The ship crews are multinational and a growing number of crewmembers
come from emerging seafaring nations, such as the Philippines and China. Despite
advances in technology, some 80 % of all accidents are, according to studies, caused
by human error.
The purpose of this paper, is to present all the conditions, the legal framework and the
process of selecting the right people in order to become the crew in ships. The issue of
selecting crews for merchant ships, in conjunction with the selection and ensuring
adequate staff and workers on ships, will be analyzed. The people selected, will have
to fulfill the necessary knowledge and experience requirements, in order to ensure
maritime safety.


AIM
The aim of this study was to determine if stomatognathic functions correlate with alterations in walking function, that are detectable through the analysis of walking.

METHODS
The study enrolled 24 Caucasian adult females (mean age 27.9+/-4.5), asymptomatic for temporomandibular and muscular disorders and 20 Caucasian adult females with temporomandibular joint disorders (TMDs). The analysis of walking was performed under three different experimental conditions: 1) mandibular rest position (RP); 2) habitual dental occlusion (DO); 3) cotton rolls between the upper and the lower dental arches (CRs).

RESULTS
The mean pressure during walking, measured as g/cm(2), on the theoretical barycentre, the percentage of loading on the left and the right feet (measured as %) and the loading surface, measured as mm(2), under the right and the left feet, were recorded as posturographic parameters. Generally, no difference was found in any of these parameters in the mean pressure during walking in the different considered conditions; only when two cotton rolls were positioned between the dental arches the load pressure was found to be significantly higher in the TMD patients than in the control subjects (P<0.05). In addition, in the same condition, TMD subjects showed a significantly smaller loading surface than control subjects, both under the right and the left feet.

CONCLUSION
TMDs seem to be associated to detectable alterations of the walking function.


Warm asphalts are asphalts produced at significantly lower temperatures than the approximately 160 degrees Celsius that is typical of a hot mix plant. Depending on the technology used, laying and compaction may also be possible at significantly reduced temperatures. The report gives a summary of current warm asphalt technologies, followed by details of costs, temperature reductions and energy savings. A comparison is made of potential environmental costs and benefits of hot mix manufacture and the different warm mix methodologies. (a)


Objective. To determine if there are differences in opioid prescribing among generalist physicians, nurse practitioners (NPs), and physician assistants (PAs) to Medicare Part D beneficiaries. Design. Serial cross-sectional analysis of prescription claims from 2013 to 2016 using publicly available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Subjects. All generalist physicians, NPs, and PAs who provided more than 10 total prescription claims between 2013 and 2016 were included. These prescribers were subsetted as practicing in a primary care, urgent care, or hospital-based setting. Methods. The main outcomes were total opioid claims and opioid claims as a proportion of all claims in patients treated by these prescribers in each of the three settings of interest. Binomial regression was used to generate marginal estimates to allow comparison of the volume of claims by these prescribers with adjustment for practice setting, gender, years of practice, median income of the ZIP code, state fixed effects, and relevant interaction terms. Results. There were 36,999 generalist clinicians (physicians, NPs, and PAs) with at least one year of Part D prescription drug claims data between 2013 and 2016. The number of adjusted total opioid claims across these four years for physicians was 660 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1⁄4 660–661), for NPs was 755 (95% CI 1⁄4 753– 757), and for PAs was 812 (95% CI 1⁄4 811–814). Conclusions. We find relatively high rates of opioid prescribing among NPs and PAs, especially at the upper margins. This suggests that well-designed interventions to improve the safety of NP and PA opioid prescribing, along with that of their physician colleagues, could be especially beneficial.


The restrictions imposed by both chemistry and three-dimensional space on the structures of inorganic crystals can be analysed using the bond-valence model and space-group theory. The bond-valence model is used to construct a bond graph (connectivity table) from which the multiplicities and possible site symmetries of each atom can be assigned. These are matched to Wyckoff positions of the three-dimensional space groups, selecting the matching space group with the highest possible symmetry. High-symmetry structures such as NaCl, perovskite and garnet are readily derived from the chemical formula and, with a little more effort, the same can be done for structures of intermediate symmetry such as wurtzite, corundum and rutile. For other compounds a relationship between the site symmetry and the multiplicity of an atom can severely restrict the possible structures.


Abstract An important feature of every financial system throughout history is its capability to facilitate transfer of money in a secure and cost efficient manner. Cryptocurrencies as sources of innovative solutions – especially Bitcoin as their most prominent representative – have offered a completely new transmission system for a piece of information that can contain and carry value. There are many approaches to evaluate (un)successfulness of Bitcoin as money, and arguably one of the most important is to assess the fulfilment of its inventor's original proposition: can it be used to send money directly and securely abroad, to international destinations, without fear of double-spending? Moreover, by removing institutions and their fees from the system hierarchy, can it be done for a lower price? The objective of creating Bitcoin network (among others) was to promote democratization of finance by enabling monetary transactions over the internet without unnecessary intermediaries inserting and charging multiple layers of fees. In decentralized, distributed blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum subjects are incentivized to collectively maintain the public ledger (blockchain) by collecting block rewards ("coinbase") and transaction fees. Block-chain maintenance is known as mining, and miners are compensated for their effort in the form of fees (and coinbase rewards) for verifying transactions. The objective of this paper is to examine and compare fees for transferring money internationally by means of Bit-coin network, in contrast to using traditional pathways, mostly banks, and in this manner to scrutinize the proof of concept and one of the cryptocurrency solutions to the issue of money transfer. By doing so we are attempting to provide answers to the questions of functionality and cost-effectiveness of an alternative financial system based on the blockchain technology. Transaction fees for international payments made by Bitcoin are compared by analysing a novel dataset obtained from World Bank and Croatian National Bank (CNB). CNB's data is not publicly available, and was attained for this paper specifically. It contains 1.400 types of fees charged by the 23 banks operating in Croatia for the period of October 2018 to February 2022. Bank fees for international transactions were matched with Bitcoin fees in the same period, with the data taken from Blockchain.com online service. On average, to send 1,000 USD abroad by using Bitcoin network required approx. three times less in fees than by using banks in Croatia. The calculation structure of bank fees, also presented in the paper, required higher costs for sending lower amounts (in terms of percentage); when transferring 200 USD banks worldwide charged on average approx. 30 times more in fees than Bitcoin miners. Additionally, transaction fees for international remittances were analysed with quarterly data from World Bank. Comparative analysis of these and Bitcoin fees was made, and it is clear that (on average) sending money abroad via Bitcoin network bears significantly lower costs for the end user, especially when transferring lower amounts. Due to the non-normality of the distributions of the underlying variables, non-parametric tests were applied and the null hypothesis that transaction costs have identical medians was rejected. In conclusion, when needing to transfer money internationally users can obtain significantly lower costs by using decentralized technologies such as Bitcoin's blockchain. This finding validates one of the key propositions of the distributed ledgers. Rather than focusing on wild daily Bitcoin price swings and its volatility, Bitcoin network functions as a cost-effective international payment system and proves itself as an alternative to traditional money transfer schemes.


Background: Lower socioeconomic groups and country residents are more likely to experience dental disease. Previous research has found that it is generally more cost effective to provide subsidised dental care through publically employed dentists when compared to subcontracting the work out to the private sector.
Objective: The primary objective of this study was to identify and rank areas of relative need for new public dental care facilities across Australia. The secondary objective was to gauge how many of these areas arelocated in the vicinity of an existing public hospital (medical) with a view to utilise existing infrastructure for future service rollout.
Methods: Usual resident population, employment status and socioeconomic distribution data was downloaded from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website at Statistical Area 1 level. A mathematical weighing formula was applied to those variables, which subsequently allowed for ranking of the results based on magnitude of the product values. The findings were considered in terms of proximity to existing public health infrastructure.
Results: A total of 49 SA1 areas were identified and preselected as potential sites for new public dental clinics across Australia. Eighty per cent of the identified areas of relative need were located outside metropolitanareas. Fifty per cent of those were found to be in close proximity to an existing public hospital (medical).
Conclusion: Offering subsidised dental care through existing public hospitals may be an option. Such an approach has a potential to improve access to subsidised dental care in regional centres while minimising capitalexpenditure on infrastructure.
Abbreviations: ABS – Australian Bureau of Statistics; ASGS – Australian Statistical Geography Standard; SEIFA – Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas


This paper presents an ultra-compact W-band 4-bit phase shifter integrated in a 5-layer wafer-scale assembly phased array system. The phase shifter was implemented using a reflective-type circuit topology, consisting of a 3 dB Lange coupler and a pair of reflective loads. GaAs HEMT switches were used for switching the loads to achieve the desired phase shifts. On-wafer measurements of the single-bit test cells show phase deviations of 2.5deg from the target phase shifts and an insertion loss of 1.5 plusmn 0.7 dB at 91.5 GHz, while the measured 4-bit phase shifter data shows an insertion loss of 6.9 plusmn 1.1 dB and better than 10 dB return loss at 94 GHz. With its ultra-compact size, two 4-bit phase shifters can be fit into a 1.6 mm times 1.6 mm array-cell. This phase shifter combines state-of-the-art performance and size. To our knowledge, this is the first reported W-band phase shifter fabricated for multilayer wafer-scale assembly in a phased array system.


The majority of donor blood in Zimbabwe comes from school-based donors. Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV prevalences in the world and the age at which the infection is acquired is decreasing. This is a serious threat to the safety of blood supply. The prevalence of HIV has been low among the youth the majority of whom are still going to school and between the ages of sixteen and nineteen years. However, due to the changing socio-economic environment, sexual behavioural patterns have also changed. It is now necessary to evaluate these changes in order to guarantee safe blood transfusion. To determine the prevalence of HIV among adolescent donors during the period between 2002 and 2003. Cross-sectional retrospective study, National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS). All school based donors and others between 16 and 19 years of age. The number of donors who were HIV positive in this age group. Data on donors was collected from computer files at the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) Information Technology (IT) department. Prevalence of HIV was determined and categorised according to gender, age and the type of school the donor attended. The prevalence of HIV in 2002 and 2003 were 0.48% and 0.38%, respectively. Sixty-six per cent (66%) of HIV positive donors had donated for the first time. The prevalence in both periods was much higher in female donors than male donors. In 2002 males and females had prevalence of 0.28% and 0.66%, respectively. In 2003 males and females had prevalence of 0.18% and 0.55%, respectively. The overall highest prevalence (0.90%) was found between the 16-19 year age group who were not going to school (others). In 2002 female day schools had the highest (0.87%). The lowest prevalence (0%) was found in male boarding schools. In 2003 the highest prevalence (1.61%) was found in the 16-19 year age group who were not going to school (others). The lowest prevalence (0) in the same year was found in male boarding scholars. It can be concluded that the majority of HIV positive school based donors are first time donors. Female scholars and those of the same age group who are not going to school have the highest risk of donating HIV positive blood than male donors. The prevalence of HIV in adolescent blood donors decreased with age. It is recommended that active donor recruitment should be in favour of the low prevalence groups.


We investigate reentrant and dielectric loaded cavities for the purpose of extending the range of axion cavity haloscopes to lower masses, below the range where the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) has already searched. Reentrant and dielectric loaded cavities were simulated numerically to calculate and optimize their form factors and quality factors. A prototype reentrant cavity was built and its measured properties were compared with the simulations. We estimate the sensitivity of axion dark matter searches using reentrant and dielectric loaded cavities inserted in the existing ADMX magnet at the University of Washington and a large magnet being installed at Fermilab.


The main purpose of this research is to analyze the job satisfaction level in relation to the collective effectiveness and harmonious life of lecturers in IPG
Gaya Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The research involved 80 lecturers of IPG Gaya as respondents. The research involved survey through the use of questionnaires. Analysis of data was conducted through the use of descriptive statistic and
infancy such as to find the frequency. percentage, mean, T-test ANOVA One way test and Pearson. T- test was use to find out the differences of the level of lecturers satisfaction mean based on gender. ANOVA one way test was used to find out the differences of job satisfaction mean of lecturers based on marital status, education level, teaching experience, subject taught and monthly income.
Pearson correlation was used to determine the strength of relations of the variables analyzed. The findings reveals that job satisfaction level and lecturers effectiveness are average while harmonious life is at a high level. T-test shows there is no significant difference in job satisfaction based on gender. ANOVA shows that there is no significant difference in job satisfaction based on marital
status. education level, teaching experience and subject taught. Sob satisfaction ANOVA based on monthly income shows significant difference and pos hoc shows that the group with the monthly income of RM3500-3599 with RM5000
above are significant different. Pearson correlation test shows there is a positive relationship with effectiveness
( r = .661) and job satisfaction with harmonious life
( r = .778)


Decreased expression of BRCA1 may play a role in the etiology of sporadic breast cancer. Deletion and point mutant analysis of proximal promoter elements in the BRCA1 1a promoter revealed a 22 bp region which was critical for the expression of the promoter in MCF-7 cells, but had a much reduced effect in T47D cells. The main transcription factor interacting with this site was identified as GABPalpha/beta, and a discrete DNA binding complex was only observed in nuclear extracts from MCF-7 cells. Cotransfection experiments with GABPalpha and beta1 expression vectors produced transactivation of this element in both lines. These results suggest that GABPalpha/beta is a critical activator of BRCA1 expression, and that its activity may differ in human breast cell lines.


OBJECTIVE
The focus of investigation in this study were the characteristics of participants and non-participants in a modern smoking cessation programme for inpatient rehabilitation centres as well as the effects of the programme on participants' smoking behavior.

METHODS
Smoking patients (N=313) from 10 Bavarian rehabilitation centres including 203 participants and 110 non-participants of a newly implemented group programme were asked about socio-demographics, smoking behaviour and willingness to change both at the beginning and at the end of their inpatient stay.

RESULTS
Univariate analyses showed there to be no difference between participants and non-participants with regard to socio-demographics and smoking behaviour. Multivariate analyses detected a higher intention to quit smoking, the stage of contemplation, and the marital status "single" to be significant predictors of participation. 42.6% of participants stopped smoking during their stay, 18.2% were abstinent until the time of discharge. These rates are significantly lower among non-participants (stop: 16.9%; abstinence 1.8%).

CONCLUSION
Participation in a smoking cessation programme essentially depends on a smoker's motivation to quit. The investigated programme can provide useful support for smokers willing to quit.


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a fatal disease with no effective or curative treatment options. In recent decades, cell-based therapies using stem cells or lung progenitor cells to regenerate lung tissue have experienced rapid growth in both preclinical animal models and translational clinical studies. In this review, the current knowledge of these cell therapies is summarized. Although further investigations are required, these studies indicate that cell therapies are a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.


Osteoporosis is a growing problem in Canada due to our aging population. It is associated with an increased frequency of fractures and disability. As medical therapies become available to help stabilize or prevent bone loss, it will be important to document bone mineral density before treatment and to ascertain the effectiveness of therapy. Studies such as single-photon absorptiometry, dual-photon absorptiometry, and quantitative computed tomography are all available for this purpose.


Introduction: Hyperuricemia is a condition in which uric acid level exceed normal limits, caused either by lower excretion, higher synthesis, or both. Guava is high in vitamin C and Cinnamon contains cinnamaldehyde compounds which can reduce uric acid levels. The study aimed to determine the effect of giving guava pudding with cinnamon water on uric acid level of hyperuricemic patients at Puskesmas Basuki Rahmat Palembang.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in 2 phases. The first phase used non-factorial complete design and the second phase used quasi experiment study with pre-test and post-test with two group. Population in this study were all outpatients with hyperuricemia at Puskesmas Basuki Rahmat Palembang. The study sample was selected by purposive sampling with thirty samples in the treatment group and thirty samples in the control group.
Results: showed the best pudding formulation is F2. Based on result of data analyze using paired sample t-test, there was effect between the treatment done and uric acid level of hyperuricemic patients (p=0,000). The independent t-test result indicated that there was significant comparison between the average of uric acid levels in treatment and control groups (p=0,042).
Conclusion: Guava pudding with cinnamon water has effect in decreasing uric acid level of hyperuricemic patient.


A case of hypernephroma in a horseshoe kidney is reported in a patient with total situs inversus organorum. The diagnostic procedures are discussed, and the significance of digital subtraction angiography for both diagnosis and treatment is emphasized, as the presentation of the arterial and venous supplies is of great value for guidance in the surgical intervention, particularly when congenital malformations are present.


Previous research has found an association between combat exposure and posttraumatic stress (PTS) among military veterans and between PTS and aggressive behaviors. The present study examined if these relationships extend to the prediction of counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Such research is needed to identify solutions that benefit military veterans, their co-workers, and organizations. Participants were 392 employed Gulf War-era II military veterans. Results provided support for the association between combat exposure and PTS, the association between PTS and CWB, and the partial indirect effect of combat exposure on CWB via PTS. Although it was anticipated that warriorism would weaken the relationship between combat exposure and PTS, results did not support this hypothesis. However, results did suggest that workplace belongingness weakens the relationship between PTS and CWB, which I interpret in light of a curvilinear relationship between belongingness and CWB. Theoretical implications, practical implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed. INDEX WORDS: Posttraumatic stress, Combat exposure, Counterproductive work behavior COMBAT EXPOSURE AND MILITARY VETERAN COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIOR: A MODERATED MEDIATION MODEL


This study proposes an adaptive method for components instantaneous frequency (IF) estimation of noisy non-stationary multicomponent signals, combined with the components time-support estimation method based on the shorttime Renyi entropy (STRE). Components localisation and separation are done using a double-direction component tracking and extraction method presented here, while the IF estimation is done using the adaptive algorithms based on the intersection of confidence intervals (ICI) rule and the relative intersection of confidence intervals (RICI) rule. The results obtained using the ICI and RICI rules are compared for various window types, signal-to-noise ratios and time-frequency distributions, both with and without using the information on components time support. Most of the errors in IF estimation using the ICI and RICI-based methods are caused by imprecise components time-support estimation. The proposed methods combined with the STRE have achieved a significant accuracy improvement in terms of the mean absolute error and the mean squared error, reducing them by up to 73 and 93%, respectively. The method has been applied to real-life signals and proven to be an efficient tool for IF estimation of noisy non-stationary multicomponent signals.


INTRODUCTION At the outset of this book we underlined the significant role that ecology plays in the study of languages in contact. The ecology paradigm, a metaphor from population genetics and biology, has been developed most recently in linguistic study by Salikoko Mufwene (2001, 2008). The earliest instances of its invocation – Voegelin, Voegelin and Schutz (1967) and Haugen (1971), and later Muhlhausler (1996) – use it in the sense of the social environment in which a language is spoken. Mufwene (2001: 153) is also influenced by its usage in macroecology as a cover term for diverse factors which are both external and internal to a species and bear on its evolution. These include population size, habitat requirements and genetic variation, as well as differences in initial conditions, stochastic (i.e. random) events, time lags, processes operating on different time scales and spatial subdivisions. In this chapter we engage in a detailed examination of the role of ecology behind two linguistic features: particles and tone. These features are germane to this book because they are extremely susceptible to contact. But, even more pertinently for this chapter, we highlight how a full appreciation of what happens with particles and tone requires us to look at the external factors which construe the ecology that creates the conditions for the dynamics of contact, and the close interplay between them. More specifically, we demonstrate how the identification of the substrates for certain features needs to call on an examination of demographic factors such as immigration patterns and population make-up at different points in time, as well as language policy. We also see how the founder principle in the ecology paradigm helps to shed light on otherwise puzzling patterns in the restructured variety. These linguistic features are extremely interesting to examine because they are features which can be seen to be quite distinctive for Asia. They are not exclusive to Asia, of course: particles are found in numerous languages of the world, and virtually all languages in Africa are tonal, with several clusters of languages with tones occurring in South, Central and North America.


Termites play an important ecological role. Thus, this study was carried out in the forest adjoining restaurant "the palm trees of the university campus of Cocody" to determine the species of termites and their impacts on the trees of this forest. Three transects of 100m long and 2m wide each subdivided into 20 sections and Tropical soil biology and fertility (TSBF) monoliths were developed. Then a systematic excavation was carried out along transects in search of termites. Then the plot containing transects was prospected in order to identify termite mounds and biogenic structures. After inventory, we identified 7 species of termites: Macrotermes bellicosus, Microtermes sp, Basidentitermes sp, Odontotermes sp, Pericapritermes sp, Amitermes guineensis and Ancistrotermes guineensis. Wood-feeders, fungus-growers and soil-feeders are the trophic groups found on the site. Fungus-growers were the group with the most species. We recorded a 25% attack rate on the trees from transects. A total of 13 nests were counted including 9 epigeal termite mounds and 4 arboreal nests. The low richness recorded shows that our plot is heavily anthropized. The conservation or maintenance of this site would allow species to recolonize this space.


Since September 11, 2001 the way that government goes about dealing with regulating security has changed drastically to meet the demands of the fearful citizens in society, who think another event could possibly happen again. The focus of this paper is to provide a different view of the mechanisms of security Post 9/11, and questions the validity of the supposed counter-terrorist tactics as they relate to the securing of personal safety. Highlighted throughout the paper are many of the various techniques employed by the State in their quest against terrorism. But a further examination of the methods they use raises many questions as to whether combating terrorism is the real goal of the government.


This paper reviews China's continuing efforts to enact a competition policy (antitrust) law. We focus on three issues: (1) What is the substance of the proposed law, and how does it differ from existing antitrust law in other countries, (2) How will the law be implemented or enforced, and how will those who must implement this law interpret their mandate, and (3) What will be the likely effects of this law given China's unique history and cultural heritage. We emphasize China's economic, legal and regulatory contexts in which an antitrust law may be enforced. Our central focus is the problem of establishing a substantive and procedural legal framework that is incentive-compatible with economic efficiency and growth.


This retrospective cross-sectional study was designed to identify risk factors associated with failed transfer of passive immunity (FTPI) and to determine differences in colostrum management between male and female dairy calves. Research technicians visited a total of 16 commercial dairy farms weekly. For each calf born on these farms, the farm personnel completed a birth record to document the colostrum management practices provided, level of calving assistance, calf sex, and time of birth. On the weekly visits to the farms, the technicians collected blood from calves that were 1 to 7 d of age. Serum was separated via centrifugation and the concentration of serum total protein (STP) was determined using a digital refractometer. Failed transfer of passive immunity was defined as calves having an STP of <5.2 g/dL. Data were available for 1,778 calves aged 1 to 7 d. Several differences were observed with respect to how male and female calves were managed. Male calves were more likely to receive a lower volume of colostrum, have colostrum delivered using a nipple bottle followed by an esophageal tube feeder, be fed pooled colostrum, and receive fresh colostrum rather than frozen colostrum relative to female calves. Serum total protein (STP) ranged from 3.6 to 9.7 g/dL with a mean of 5.7 g/dL (standard deviation, 0.7 g/dL) and 21.1% of the calves had FTPI. Using a mixed linear regression model, we identified that a calf being male (-0.14 g/dL), being delivered by a hard pull (-0.23 g/dL), and receiving the first feeding colostrum from a combination of a nipple bottle followed by an esophageal tube feeder (-0.12 g/dL) were associated with a lower concentration of STP. Feeding 6 L or more of colostrum in the first 24 h of life was associated with a 0.14 g/dL higher concentration of STP compared with feeding <3.9 L of colostrum. For FTPI, being delivered by a hard pull [odds ratio (OR) 2.21] and receiving the first feeding colostrum from a nipple bottle followed by an esophageal tube feeder (OR 1.83) were associated with higher odds of FTPI. Feeding >6 L of colostrum in the first 24 h of life was associated with a reduced odds (OR 0.65) of FTPI compared with feeding <3.9 L of colostrum. This study highlights the importance of certain management practices in reducing FTPI incidence and identifies discrepancies in colostrum management between male and female dairy calves.


The energy system within Great Britain has to decarbonise whilst maintaining security and affordability, and this requires coordinated action across the whole energy system. The energy system is already undergoing fundamental change due to a wide range of technological, social and economic drivers, and there is some consensus that direction of travel is towards decentralisation and the demand side. These changes are much closer to people and there is a need to recognise, and value, the central role that they play within the energy system, not only in terms of creating demand, but also in terms of adopting technologies, changing behaviour and accepting change in the places that they live and work. This paper explores these issues by taking a high level overview of the energy system and the pressures it faces and by examining how systems are beginning to change and how they might change. This leads to a number of key findings including the need to put end users at the centre of the energy system to enable engagement, gain meaningful consent and to build legitimacy and trust. In addition, the central role that governance plays in enabling this to happen is highlighted, along with its importance for facilitating a coordinated approach to a demand focussed, future energy system. This requires a new fit for purpose governance framework.


Intrinsic threshold voltage fluctuations introduced by local oxide thickness variations (OTVs) in deep submicrometer (decanano) MOSFETs are studied using three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulations on a statistical scale. Quantum mechanical effects are included in the simulations employing the density gradient (DG) formalism. The random Si/SiO/sub 2/ and gate/SiO/sub 2/ interfaces are generated from a power spectrum corresponding to the autocorrelation function of the interface roughness. The impact on the intrinsic threshold voltage fluctuations of both the parameters used to reconstruct the random interface and the MOSFET design parameters are studied using carefully designed simulation experiments. The simulations show that intrinsic threshold voltage fluctuations induced by local OTV become significant when the dimensions of the devices become comparable to the correlation length of the interface. In MOSFETs with characteristic dimensions below 30 nm and conventional architecture, they are comparable to the threshold voltage fluctuations introduced by random discrete dopants.


Simple Summary Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks second among the leading causes of cancer-related death. Since current therapeutic options are very limited, a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the tumor onset and progression of HCC holds great potential for improved therapeutic options. Although it has been shown that deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1) acts as a tumor suppressor whose allele is lost in 50% of liver cancers, alterations in gene expression initiated by DLC1 loss have not yet been the primary focus of liver cancer research. To identify novel gene targets that allow for a personalized medicine approach for HCC therapy, we performed gene expression profiling for HepG2 cells stably expressing DLC1shRNA. We provide evidence that TSPAN5 is required for HCC growth, migration and invasion, and dissected the underlying molecular mechanisms involving myocardin-related transcription factors. Thus, TSPAN5 represents a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of HCC characterized by DLC1 loss. Abstract Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the most lethal and common cancers in the human population, and new molecular targets for therapeutic intervention are urgently needed. Deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1) was originally identified as a tumor suppressor gene in human HCC. DLC1 is a Rho-GTPase-activating protein (RhoGAP) which accelerates the return of RhoGTPases to an inactive state. We recently described that the restoration of DLC1 expression induces cellular senescence. However, this principle is not amenable to direct therapeutic targeting. We therefore performed gene expression profiling for HepG2 cells depleted of DLC1 to identify druggable gene targets mediating the effects of DLC1 on senescence induction. This approach revealed that versican (VCAN), tetraspanin 5 (TSPAN5) and N-cadherin (CDH2) were strongly upregulated upon DLC1 depletion in HCC cells, but only TSPAN5 affected the proliferation of HCC cells and human HCC. The depletion of TSPAN5 induced oncogene-induced senescence (OIS), mediated by the p16INK4a/pRb pathways. Mechanistically, silencing TSPAN5 reduced actin polymerization and thereby myocardin-related transcription factor A- filamin A (MRTF-A-FLNA) complex formation, resulting in decreased expression of MRTF/SRF-dependent target genes and senescence induction in vitro and in vivo. Our results identify TSPAN5 as a novel druggable target for HCC.


Purpose
Spaced learning (SL) and experiential learning (EL) have been identified as being more efficient to long-term knowledge retention than other forms of learning. The purpose of this paper is to confirm these benefits of SL and EL in a work-based learning environment.

Design/methodology/approach
This case study research monitored changes in learning outcomes of a work-based EL training, the Model Warehouse, when adding SL. The Model Warehouse of the Karlsruher Institute for Technology, Germany intends to educate professionals in lean warehouse logistics. Following a pragmatic standpoint, two groups of students were considered and compared by using multiple-choice question based knowledge tests where one group participated in an additional SL session. The experiences and perceptions of students were assessed by conducting in-depth interviews.

Findings
Findings revealed that adding SL to the EL training resulted either in students' knowledge retention or knowledge improvement. Additionally, participants of the SL session did not perceive it as being required to strengthen understanding of lean warehouse management.

Practical implications
This study recommends considering SL as an effective means to significantly enhance long-term knowledge retention of any work-based or EL training.

Originality/value
This study confirms the benefits of SL and EL drawn from laboratory-based studies in a real business context. Adopting both learning theories in training programmes which converge with realities of the workplace results in a significant improvement of long-term knowledge retention.


The primary goal of the research presented in this thesis is to mitigate passing lane crash risks on two-lane rural highways. Medium-fidelity driving simulators are normally used to examine the potential safety and operational benefits of several measures. These measures include reducing the speed of drivers in the right lane while being passed and reducing the incidence of late, high-speed passes at the end of the passing lane. Alternatives considered in this study include a mix of explicit behavioral interventions, such as regulation (enforcing lower speed limits) and advanced warning (advisory signage upstream from and at the passing lane) as well as passive speed reduction measures such as alternative striping and pavement marking. Results from the driver simulator experiments suggest that regulatory speed reduction signs result in slower speeds for vehicles driving in the right lane. The results also show that passive speed reduction measures have little or no impact on the speed of the drivers. The research shows that the presence of surrounding traffic seems to have no impact on the effectiveness of passive speed resection alternatives. Finally, an analysis of the 2008-2012 state of Idaho reported crashes indicates that, while crash rates at the passing lane merging segments (0.5-mile downstream from the passing lane) are higher than that for the passing lane and for the two-lane highway segments, these differences are not statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.


During the eukaryote cell cycle the nuclear envelope displays a series of major morphogenetic changes, the most significant of which include its breakdown and reconstitution as cells move up to, pass through and emerge from division. The three polypeptides, lamins A, B and C, are major components of the nuclear pore complex-lamina fraction of the nuclear envelope and their association with the nuclear membrane or their dispersal in the cytoplasm reflects the existing balance between polymerization and depolymerization in the envelope. We have perturbed the lamina polymerization cycle by means of cell fusion between mitotic and interphase cells, following the redistribution of nuclear lamina protein by means of immunofluorescence techniques. In these heterophasic heterokaryons changes in the distribution of lamina occur as a function of (1) the time elapsed after fusion; (2) the ratio of mitotic to interphase elements in the cell, and (3) the stage in the cell cycle occupied by the interphase partner at the time of fusion. Depolymerization of nuclear lamina occurs most rapidly in cells with high ratios of mitotic to interphase elements, and especially in G1 rather than S-phase nuclei. While lamina depolymerization predominates early after fusion, at later times lamina is deposited around both the original metaphase and interphase nuclear masses and this is associated with the resumption of interphase activity in the form of limited DNA synthesis. These observations lead us to conclude that lamina depolymerization is under positive control mediated by diffusible factors in the cytoplasm of the metaphase partner. Repolymerization is likely to be associated with the inactivation of these factors as the heterokaryons age and, as a result, pass into an interphase-like state.


Using a standardized epidural anesthetic technic, we compared levels of sensory anesthesia in patients undergoing cesarean section and in nonpregnant women undergoing elective surgery. When equal volumes of local anesthetic solutions were injected (either 15 ml or 20 ml of 0.75% bupivacaine without epinephrine), there was no statistically significant difference in sensory levels in pregnant and nonpregnant patients.


BACKGROUND
The definition of the degree of lymph node metastasis (n-classification) for gastric cancer differs greatly in the new Union Internationale Contre le Cancer--TNM classification (5th edition) and the Japanese gastric cancer classification (JGC). The feasibility of the new TNM classification is evaluated in comparison with the JGC.

METHODS
At Chiba University, 940 patients who underwent a gastrectomy were retrospectively classified into appropriate stages with both the TNM and JGC systems, and the survival curves of the respective stages were also compared.

RESULTS
Patients with 1 to 6 metastatic nodes (TNM-pN1) showed similar survival rates whether the metastases were limited to the perigastric area (JGC-n1) or reached distant areas (JGC-n2). The patients with node metastasis that was limited to the perigastric area (JGC-n1) had significantly different survival rates, depending on the number of metastatic nodes (TNM-pN1 or pN2, P = .022). A similar phenomenon was also observed in patients with TNM-N2 and JGC-n2. A multivariate analysis indicated the TNM N-classification, rather than the JGC n-classification, as an independent prognostic factor.

CONCLUSIONS
The new TNM classification appears to be a better prognostic indicator than the JGC system for patients with gastric carcinoma.


The paper deals with the spectral analysis of both phase and frequency modulated digital signals with correlated messages, where correlation is obtained by encoding. Also, a possible general filtering of the baseband digital signal is taken into account. The method of computation is fast, since the computational complexity increases linearly with the baseband pulse duration. The main result is concerned with frequency modulation. It is shown that for some well-known baseband encoding schemes, such as bipolar, pair selected ternary, high density bipolar, and bipolar with n zeros substitution, the spectrum exhibits lines no matter what the value of the modulation index.


Phosphorylated and methylated ribosomal proteins were identified in vegetatively growing amoebae and in the starvation-induced, aggregation-competent cells of Dictyostelium discoideum. Of the 15 developmentally regulated cell-specific ribosomal proteins reported earlier, protein A and the acidic proteins A1, A2, and A3 were identified as phosphoproteins, and S5, S6, S10, and D were identified as methylated proteins. Three other ribosomal proteins were phosphorylated and 19 others methylated. S19, L13, A1, A2, and A3 were the predominant phosphoproteins in growing amoebae, whereas S20 and A were the predominant ones in the aggregation-competent cells. Among the methylated proteins, eight (S6, S10, S13, S30, D, L1, L2, and L31) were modified only during growth phase, six (S5, S7, S8, S24, S31, and L36) were altered only during aggregation-competent phase, and nine (S9, S27, S28, S29, S34, L7, L35, L41, and L42) were modified under both phases. Five proteins (S6, S24, L7, L41, and L42) were heavily methylated and of these, the large subunit proteins were present in both growing amoebae and aggregation-competent cells. These findings demonstrate that covalent modification of specific ribosomal proteins is regulated during cell differentiation in D. discoideum.


The atlas-axis complexes of four of the major groups of the mammal-like reptiles are discussed. These represent the four principal types of occipital condyle found in the Synapsida: hemispherical in the pelycosaurs, kidney-shaped in the gorgonopsids, trefoil-shaped in the dicynodonts and double in the cynodonts. In each case the possible movements of the skull are analysed in detail. It is shown that the central theme of the wide variation of this structure found within the synapsid reptiles is the manner in which the problem of achieving rotation of the head about a longitudinal axis was solved.

An attempt is made to elucidate the functional evolution of the atlas-axis complex within these reptiles and the significance of the differences between the reptilian and the mammalian complexes is noted.