AACR Annual Meeting-- Apr 12-16, 2008; San Diego, CA

3280

The transcription factor forkhead box M1 (FoxM1) is an important master cell cycle regulator gene. FoxM1 controls the expression of many downstream targets involved in apoptosis, angiogenesis, metastasis, proliferation and the G2/M checkpoint. Primary breast cancer tumours and several other cancer cells often express elevated levels of FoxM1, whereas FoxM1 expression is undetectable in terminally differentiated cells. Therefore, it makes FoxM1 an attractive molecular candidate for targeted therapeutics. In this study, a member of the thiazole antibiotics family has been identified as a novel anti-tumour agent. The thiazole compound specifically down regulates FoxM1 protein expression in breast cancer cell lines in a dose-dependant manner in western blot analysis. However, the expression of FoxO3a, a closely related forkhead family member was not inhibited. RT-qPCR also showed a down-regulation of FoxM1 mRNA level in the presence of the thiazole compound over a 24 hour time period. Varying lengths of FoxM1 promoter, ApaI (0.3kb), HindIII (1.4 kb), PvuI (0.3 kB), Trident (2.4 kb) and FoxO3A promoter (1.5kb) were transfected separately into MCF-7 cells. Following thiazole drug treatment, luciferase assays showed that the thiazole compound inhibited the FoxM1 promoters transcriptional activity specifically, whereas the FoxO3a expression was not affected. A construct containing FoxM1 gene fused into CMV promoter was also transfected into COS-1 cells. FoxM1 was over-expressed in COS-1 cells under the regulation of CMV promoter, but both FoxM1 protein and mRNA expression was not inhibited in the presence of the thiazole compound. Thus, confirming that the thiazole compound specifically inhibits the FoxM1 promoter activity. The thiazole compound also inhibited in vitro invasiveness of MDA-MD-231 cells by reducing soft agar colony formation by up to 30%. Furthermore, the thiazole compound also completely inhibited cell migration of MCF-7 cells in the wound healing assay. Importantly, the thiazole compound also selectively activated apoptosis via both caspase 8 and caspase 9 induction in several breast cancer cell lines including MCF-7, BT474, SKBR-3, MDA-MB-231, T47D and ZR-75-1, but not in the normal breast epithelial cell line MCF-10A. FACS and BrdU analysis showed that the thiazole compound reduces the number of active S-phase cells, followed by a G2/M arrest before inducing apoptosis in MCF-7 cells. Critically, the thiazole compound had no effect on the cell cycle of MCF-10A. In conclusion, the thiazole compound selectively induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells through the inhibition of FoxM1 expression. Mice studies are been carried out to determine its effectiveness under in vivo models.


Preeclampsia (PE) is one of the most common and serious complications of pregnancy. In women with a history of PE the risk of cardiovascular disease is increased, and atherosclerosis can be induced even during fetal development. The exact mechanisms by which PE increases future cardiovascular risk are unknown, although multiple similarities between mechanisms responsible for cardiovascular disease and PE are reported. Risk factors for PE, such as obesity, insulin resistance, thrombophilia, changes in the lipid spectrum are similar to those for atherosclerosis, which allows us to compare these two conditions to clarify the specifics and is important for understanding the pathogenesis of both pathologies. PE, as well as atherosclerosis, manifests as endothelial dysfunction, abnormal immune function, oxidative stress, activation of inflammation, changes in lipid metabolism. Recent studies have provided a broader understanding of the problem, although there are still many open questions. The etiology and pathogenesis of these diseases, their possible relationship are not fully understood. The article provides a summary of possible common mechanisms of PE and atherosclerosis.


We have synthesized ZnCNi3 in which Zn replaces Mg of the superconducting intermetallic perovskite MgCNi3 ( K). Dc-resistivity and magnetic measurements show that ZnCNi3 is a paramagnetic metal without onset of superconductivity down to 2 K. Furthermore, even though the two compounds have the same lattice structure and carrier density, their low temperature specific heats are substantially different. We consider possible origins of these observations and show that the strikingly different Tc can be understood within the BCS theory.


t Background:: A single study showed that iron supplementation in Gambian pregnant women withh sickle-cell trait {HbAS) is associated with increased susceptibility to malaria and decreased hematologicall responses compared to pregnant women with the normal (HbAA) phenotype. It is unknownn if a similar interaction exists in children. Objective:: To determine the influence of the sickle-cell hemoglobin phenotype on hematological responsess and malaria following iron supplementation in anemic children aged 2-35 months (Hb 70-109g/L). . Design:: Children (115 HbAS, 408 HbAA) were enrolled in a double-blind randomized placebocontrolledd trial of intermittent preventive treatment with 4-weekly sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPT) andd daily-supervised iron for 12 weeks. Results:: The mean difference in hemoglobin concentrations at 12 weeks between children assigned ironn and placebo-iron, adjusting for the effect of IPT, was 9.1g/L (95% confidence intervals [Cl]:6.411.8)) and 8.2g/L (95%CI:4.0-12.4) in HbAA and HbAS children respectively (P-value interaction term=0.68).. Although the incidence of malaria parasitemia and clinical malaria was greater in HbAS childrenn in the iron than placebo-iron group, this difference was not statistically significant; incidenceratee ratios (95%CI) adjusted for the effect of IPT: 1.23(0.64-2.34) and 1.41(0.39-5.00), respectively. Thee corresponding incidence-rate ratios in HbAA children were: 1.07(0.77-1.48) and 0.59(0.351.01).. The interactions between the effects of iron and hemoglobin phenotype on malaria parasitemiaa (P=0.70) or clinical malaria (P=0.20) were not significant. Conclusions:: There was no evidence for clinically relevant modification by hemoglobin-S phenotype off the effects of iron supplementation in the treatment of mild anemia. The benefits of iron supplementationn are likely to outweigh possible risks associated with malaria in children with either HbAAA or HbAS. Ironn and sickle cell trait in children 1J_5 Introduction n Anemiaa (Hb <110g/L) has a prevalence of 50-75% among pre-school children in sub-Saharan Africaa (1, 2) and is predominantly caused by iron deficiency and malaria (3, 4). Despite the well recognizedd public health burden of anemia and the beneficial impact of iron supplementation onn hematological status (5-7), the use of iron supplementation for treatment of anemia in subSaharann Africa remains a topic of debate (5, 6, 8, 9). Whereas iron deficiency causes a number off biochemical abnormalities and impaired cell mediated immunity with increased susceptibility too infections (10-12), concerns have also been raised that iron therapy exacerbates infections, in particularr malaria (5, 6, 9). A meta-analysis of 13 clinical trials showed that the hematological benefitss of iron supplementation outweigh the statistically significant increase in malaria parasitemiaa and non-significant increase in the risk of clinical malaria (8). The International Nutritionall Anemia Consultative Group (INACG) re-affirmed in 1999 that iron supplementation shouldd be pursued in the context of an integrated strategy for prevention and treatment of anemiaa in malaria endemic areas (6). AA remaining concern is whether the sickle cell trait phenotype, as well as other hemoglobinopathiess that offer protection against malaria, modify the effect of iron supplementationn (5, 6, 9). It has been suggested that in populations with a high prevalence of hemoglobinopathies,, depending on type and zygosity, a potential deleterious effect of iron on malariaa might be either masked due to the protective effect in carriers, or aggravated due to carrierss losing their pre-existing protective effect, and thus being predisposed to malaria (13). Thee effect of sickle cell trait on the response to iron supplementation was addressed as part of a placebo-controlledd trial of daily oral iron supplementation in multigravid women in The Gambia. Inn contrast to the observed beneficial effect of iron on hemoglobin levels and birthweight in HbAAA women, iron supplementation in women with the sickle cell trait resulted in lower hemoglobinn levels and birthweights. HbAS women assigned to the iron group were also at an increasedd risk of placental malaria, whereas HbAA women were not (14). To our knowledge, no otherr studies have addressed this potential interaction between iron supplementation and HbS phenotype. . Inn Asembo Bay, an area of intense perennial malaria transmission on the shores of lake Victoria inn western Kenya, the sickle cell trait offers significant protection from severe malaria morbidity andd mortality in children aged 2-16 months (15). We previously conducted a randomized placebocontrolledd treatment study among anemic pre-school children in this area to compare the efficacy off single and combined therapy with 12 weeks of daily-supervised iron supplementation and/or 4weeklyy intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPT) in improving hemoglobinn concentrations. Their effect on the risk of malaria was also assessed. The methods andd results of this study were reported in detail elsewhere (16). Iron supplementation alone was associatedd with marked hemoglobin improvements, without increased risk of malaria. IPT


A line x tester analysis using 12 lines and three testers was carried out to study the combining ability and gene action in sesame for seed yield and 14 quantitative traits. Analysis of variance for combining ability revealed significant differences among the mean squares due to lines, testers and lines x testers for all the characters except oil content, which indicated the existence of genetic diversity among the parents and hybrids. General and specific combining ability variances showed the involvement of both type of gene actions in the inheritance of these characters. Among the lines, IC-81564, NIC-75, Borda-1 and among testers, G.Til-10 were good general combiners for seed yield per plant and some of its contributing traits. The cross combination, IC-81564 x G.Til-10 showed significant and positive sca effect for seed yield per plant and involved good x good combining parents. It was followed by AT-238 x G.Til-10, NIC-75 x G.Til-4, TNAU-12 x G.Til-4, Keriya-2 x G.Til-3 and Keriya-2 x G.Til-10 which involved either good x good, good x poor or poor x poor combining parents. These crosses have been identified as best hybrids for improving seed yield per plant and could be evaluated under different environment to confirm their superiority.


Until recent decades, labour-intensive subsistence farming was a way of life and livelihood in the hill communities of Uttarakhand, India. However, the nature of agriculture falls far short of the expectations of the main labour force, the rural youth, leading to their mass migration to non-agricultural occupations. The large-scale youth migration has left many hill farming landscapes depopulated and farmlands abandoned. As youth have special stakes in food systems, they must be included in the sustainable transformation of food systems. By doing so, the migration-prone hill region may be transformed into a place where rural youth have more options for work and income. Therefore, the agriculture sector needs to change and develop into a more engaging and youthful workplace. There are opportunities to explore and barriers to be removed. Besides identifying priority research areas on local food systems, in this exploratory research, we investigate opportunities to involve rural young people in the transformation of the food system. We document information by conducting focus group discussion (FGD) meetings in about 100 villages in the Uttarakhand hills, representing all major farming landscapes. This study mainly focuses on improving the production and consumption aspects of local food, which not only benefits the health and wellbeing of local communities but also has many positive economic, social, and environmental effects. In addition, we explore opportunities for reviving mountain agriculture through agri-ecotourism, which is a symbiotic relationship between tourism and agriculture. Making home- or farm stays in agri-ecotourism a subsistence strategy for local youth will contribute to a more prosperous rural economy. Recognising Uttarakhand's rich culture and heritage while exploring the culinary travel opportunities in homestays will provide opportunities to focus more on traditional food systems, exposing various tangible and intangible aspects of the host region's food culture to tourists. The findings of this study will aid in identifying specific policy issues for consideration by planners and policymakers at the local and state levels. Additionally, this exploratory study will assist young, motivated researchers in conducting follow-up, in-depth investigations and producing empirical data in their specialised fields.


The objective of this study was to prospectively compare intraoperative fluoroscopy time and clinical and radiological results in pediatric femoral shaft fractures treated with titanium elastic nailing (TEN) using a small-incision, blind-hand reduction vs closed reduction. From February 2008 to December 2009, sixty-eight children were enrolled in the study. Patients were divided into 2 groups: group A comprised 34 patients treated with a small-incision, blind-hand reduction technique and group B comprised 34 patients treated with a closed reduction technique. Operative time, intraoperative fluoroscopy time, fracture union time, and complications were recorded in both groups. Clinical and radiological results were assessed using the TEN scoring system. Mean operative time was 30.5±8.5 in group A and 53.0±15.0 minutes in group B, and mean fluoroscopy time was 28.4±18.5 seconds in group A and 65.0±28.5 seconds in group B. Operative time and fluoroscopy time were significantly longer in group B (P<.001). According to the TEN scoring system, the results were excellent in 31 patients and good in 3 patients in group A and excellent in 29 patients and good in 5 patients in group B. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of clinical and radiological results. There was also no significant difference in terms of fracture healing time, weight-bearing time, and complications. The small-incision, blind-hand reduction technique provided similar clinical results as closed reduction. This technique could be an alternative to closed reduction because it significantly reduced intraoperative radiation exposure and operative time.


When sustained firing of a neuron is similar in different types of motor programs, its role in the generation of these programs is often similar. We investigated whether this is also the case for neurons involved in phase transition. In the Aplysia feeding central pattern generator (CPG), identified interneuron B64 starts firing at the transition between the protraction and the retraction phases of all types of motor programs, and its firing is sustained during the retraction phase. It was thought that B64 functions as a protraction terminator as it provides strong inhibitory input to protraction interneurons and motoneurons. Furthermore, premature activation of B64 can lead to premature termination of the protraction phase. Indeed, as we show here, B64 can terminate the protraction phase regardless of the type of motor program. However, B64 actually only functions as a protraction terminator in ingestive-like but not in egestive-like programs. This differential role of B64 results from a differential timing of the initiation of B64 spiking in the two types of programs. In turn, this differential timing of the initiation of B64 firing is determined by the internal state of the CPG. Thus, this study indicates the importance of the timing of initiation of firing in determining the functional role of a neuron and demonstrates that this role depends on the activity-dependent state of the network.


An attempt has been made to give a detailed review of strained silicon technology. Various device models have been studied that consider the effect of strain on the devices, and comparisons have been drawn. A review of some modeling issues in strained silicon technology has also been outlined. The review indicates that this technology is very much required in nanoscale MOSFETs due to its several potential benefits, and there is a strong need for an analytical model which describes the complete physics of the strain technology.


Invasive micropapillary carcinoma (IMC) is a variant of infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast associated with poor outcome. In this study, we report 16 carcinomas of the feline mammary gland displaying histologic features that correspond to IMC of the breast in women. The clinicopathologic findings, overall survival time, disease-free survival time, and nuclear DNA content of these cats were compared with 65 more common invasive mammary carcinomas (other feline mammary carcinoma [FMC]) of nonspecified type. IMC was associated with larger tumor size, higher histologic grade (P < .0001), deeper muscle invasion (P = .004), and more frequent lymphovascular invasion and nodal metastases (P = .009 and P = .001, respectively) than other FMCs. The aneuploid pattern was more frequent in IMC lesions. IMCs were also associated with lower survival rates. In summary, all cases of feline IMC were associated with clinicopathologic features of high biologic aggressiveness and should be classified as independent histologic types of FMC.


ALG6-CDG is a form of congenital disorders of N-linked glycosylation characterized by feeding problems, mild-to-moderate neurologic involvement with hypotonia, poor head control, developmental delay, ataxia, strabismus, and seizures, ranging from febrile convulsions to epilepsy. Retinal degeneration has also been reported. A minority of patients show other manifestations, particularly intestinal (such as protein-losing enteropathy) and liver involvement. The disease is caused by loss of function mutations of the gene ALG6 (1p31.3).


The purpose of this study was to investigate whether exercise could induce calpain activation by altering the Ca2+ required for half-maximal activity (pCa50) and/or susceptibility of digestible muscle protein substrates. Rats (225 g) were assigned to control, exercise (25 m/min, 0% grade), and 24-h recovery groups. Exercise resulted in a generalized 48 +/- 18% loss of muscle glycogen and a twofold increase in plasma creatine kinase levels (P < or = 0.05). Exercise increased total caseinolysis of diethylaminoethyl Sepharose-prepared low (u) and high (m) Ca2+ calpain isoforms by 22 and 30%, respectively (P < or = 0.05). The pCa50 of u- and m-calpain with exercise increased from 5.98 +/- 0.12 to 6.20 +/- 0.15 (P > or = 0.05) and from 3.63 +/- 0.10 to 3.90 +/- 0.16 (P > or = 0.05), respectively. In vitro, calpain-mediated degradation/disappearance rates (i.e., percentage of protein degraded in 10 min) for control tropomyosin and alpha-actinin were 69 and 30% compared with 92 and 61% after exercise (P < or = 0.05). The results of this study confirm that level running increases total nonlysosomal Ca2+ specific protease activity, which may promote exercise-induced muscle damage or fatigue.


This article puts into academic circulation the materials of the little-described migrational Shtokavian dialects in the Shijak (Durrës) and Myzeqe (Fier, the villages of Rreth Libofsha, Hamil, etc.) areas collected during a linguistic expedition in July and August 2021. The Sandžak region (Novi Pazar, Tutin and Sjenica, modern Republic of Serbia), where the Shtokavian Novi Pazar-Sjenica dialects have been traditionally spoken, is considered a homeland for the descendants of the Myzeqe Muslim Slavs. The Muslim Slavs from the Shijak region (Borake and Koxhas villages) migrated to Albania from the vicinity of Mostar (modern Bosnia and Herzegovina). Their linguistic origin is from Central Herzegovinian dialects (mostly to the east of the Neretva River) between the younger Ikavian and Eastern Bosnian dialects. The generations-long contact with the Albanian language intensified as a result of increased social mobility resulting from socio-political changes in Albania in 1990. These changes led to a number of quantitative and, to a lesser extent, qualitative changes in the migrational dialects at different language levels. Since the Albanian language is a part of the Balkan sprachbund, some of the changes support balkanizing processes in the structure of the dialects. Our material shows some signs of analytisation in the morphosyntactic / syntactic system (the prevalence of prepositional phrases over bare cases, infi nitive reduction, clitic doubling, etc.), which are associated with Albanian contact infl uence. The article also describes the principles we adhered to when collecting linguistic data, as well as the topics of ethnolinguistic questionnaires. Examples of dialect recordings are included in the appendix.


In a non-randomized study the authors administered Tamoxifen to 17 patients with benign prostate hyperplasia who met the criteria for administration of the drug. In the group of patients no significant change of symptoms according to Goldenberg's score was recorded nor changes of prostate size and postmiction residues. In uroflowmetry the significant change of values of maximum flow (p < 0.05) was not associated with a change in the mean flow. The authors assume that monotherapy with Tamoxifen is not effective enough and recommended administration of antioestrogen only in combination with other drugs.


As CMOS technology is scaled down to nanometer feature size, process variations such as random dopant fluctuation (RDF) are crucial to the performance of integrated devices and circuits because of its effect on threshold voltage VT. Therefore, it is urgent to model their behavior and predict their characteristics in early IC design stage. In this paper, a model for estimation of delay variability for nano-scale CMOS inverter due to RDF is proposed applying an improved average drain current law. The standard deviation is derived based on propagation of variation from analytical expression of delay. The presented model is verified and compared to Monte Carlo simulations with HSPICE using industrial 65nm technology. The derived model is very simple and effective to predict delay variation for nano-scale CMOS inverter.


The behavior of interstitial Mg atoms at an edge dislocation is studied in the wurtzite-type GaN crystal by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Parameters for a two-body interatomic potential are determined by the Hartree–Fock ab initio method. First, an edge dislocation extending to the [0001] direction is generated in an MD basic cell composed of about 11,000 atoms. Second, Mg atoms are placed at substitutional and interstitial positions in the MD basic cell, and the Mg atoms are traced. It is found that the diffusivity of Mg atoms at a dislocation is enhanced along the dislocation. At 1000 K, the diffusivity of interstitial Mg atoms inside the dislocation core is approximately three orders of magnitude larger than that of interstitial Mg atoms located outside the dislocation. The enhanced diffusion along the dislocation originates from unbalanced atomic forces between the Mg atom and surrounding atoms.


Abstract This study proposes a holistic approach to investigate activity preference patterns of international tourist market in Shanghai, China. The authors establish a second-order factor model of activity preference represented by activity segments. The second-order model is further compared across business and leisure tourist groups. The results indicate that the pattern of the second-order model across business and leisure tourist groups to Shanghai is consistent. The tourists in both groups show the highest interests in seeing local life, followed by entertainment, special tourism, and traditional attractions. This study leads to a more efficient allocation of resources in destination development and provides guidance regarding promotional strategies.


Metabolism is a major determinant of the pharmacokinetic properties of most drugs and is often behind bioavailability problems, drug-drug interactions, and metabolic idiosyncrasies. Cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes are a superfamily of microsomal hemoproteins catalysing the metabolic reactions of several exogenous compounds. The majority of crucial steps within drug metabolism are in connection with CYP enzymes. In the present study, in vivo, in vitro, and in silico approaches were applied and characterised to evaluate the effects of chemical entities on CYP-mediated metabolism. CYP2B6 was used as a target enzyme for these studies. For evaluation of the CYP inhibition potential of new chemical entities, a novel in vitro test system utilising the n-in-one approach was developed. This method proved to be robust and applicable to screening purposes. Validation of the n-in-one assay was done by comparing its performance to commonly used in vitro techniques using six structurally diverse drugs. All assay types yield remarkably similar results with the majority of the CYP forms tested. Several chemicals were screened in vitro and in silico in order to find potent and selective chemical inhibitors for CYP2B6. Ticlopidine, thioTEPA and 4-(4-chlorobenzylpyridine) were found to be highly effective inhibitors of CYP2B6. The selectivity of thioTEPA proved to be very high, whereas ticlopidine and 4-(4-chlorobenzylpyridine) also inhibited other CYPs. At a concentration level of 1 μM for ticlopidine and 0.1 μM for 4-(4-chlorobenzylpyridine), the inhibitory effect towards other CYPs was negligible. Due to wide clinical use and relevance, clopidogrel and ticlopidine were selected for further in vivo interaction studies. Both clopidogrel and ticlopidine significantly inhibited the CYP2B6catalysed bupropion hydroxylation and patients receiving either clopidogrel or ticlopidine are likely to need dose adjustments when treated with drugs primarily metabolised by CYP2B6. The effect of impaired kidney function on CYP2B6 activity and on bupropion pharmacokinetics was also explored. In patients with kidney disease, the bupropion AUC and Cmax were significantly higher and the apparent oral clearance of bupropion was notably lower compared to healthy controls. The present results indicate that the in silico and in vitro methods used are helpful in predicting in vivo drug-drug interactions. The effective utilisation of these models in the early phases of drug discovery could therefore help to target the in vivo studies and to eliminate metabolically unfavourable drug candidates.


Abstract. Land use change can have negative or positive effects on soil quality. Our objective was to assess the effects of land uses changes on the dynamics of selected soil physical and chemical properties. Soil samples were collected from three adjacent soil plots under different land uses, namely forestland, grazing land, and cultivated land at 0–15 cm depth. Changes in soil properties on cultivated and grazing land were computed and compared to forestland, and ANOVA (analysis of variance) was used to test the significance of the changes. Sand and silt proportions, soil organic content, total nitrogen content, acidity, cation exchange capacity, and exchangeable Ca2+ content were higher in forestlands. Exchangeable Mg2+ was highest in grazing land, while clay, available phosphorous, and exchangeable K+ were highest in cultivated land. The percentage changes in sand, clay, soil organic matter, cation exchange capacity, and exchangeable Ca2+ and Mg2+ were higher in cultivated land than in grazing land and forestland. In terms of the relation between soil properties, soil organic matter, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, and exchangeable Ca2+ were strongly positively correlated with most of soil properties, while available phosphorous and silt have no significant relationship with any of the other considered soil properties. Clay has a negative correlation with all soil properties. Generally, cultivated land has the least concentration of soil physical and chemical properties except clay and available phosphorous, which suggests an increasing degradation rate in soils of cultivated land. So as to increase soil organic matter and other nutrients in the soil of cultivated land, the integrated implementation of land management through compost, cover crops, manures, minimum tillage, crop rotation, and liming to decrease soil acidity are suggested.


Damage-specific DNA-binding (DDB) protein heterodimer has been extensively studied in the context of nucleotide excision repair. However, the smaller subunit, DDB2, is also implicated in tumor suppressor p53-mediated processes, although the precise details of the DDB2 - p53 interactions are unknown. Here, we report that Ddb2(-/-) and Ddb2(+/-) mice have shortened lifespans and increased frequency and spectrum of spontaneous tumors. Notably, Ddb2 deficiency enhances lung and mammary adenocarcinomas. Ddb2(-/-) mice are smaller than normal. Whereas weights of kidneys and livers are reduced proportionately, spleens from Ddb2(-/-) mice gradually enlarge with age due to lymphoid proliferation. Ddb2(-/-) mice also have larger testes, and the testicular germ cells show significantly decreased spontaneous apoptosis. These changes parallel reduced levels of p53 and its serine 15 phosphorylation in testicular germ cells. Since tumors that appeared in heterozygous Ddb2(+/-) mice conserve the wild-type Ddb2 allele, Ddb2 RNA expression and Ddb2 exon sequence, Ddb2 heterozygosity can facilitate tumor development as a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor. These results demonstrate that in whole animals as in cultured cells Ddb2 can regulate apoptosis and tumor incidence.


Glass has high theoretical strength; however, microcracks on the surface of the glass greatly decrease the strength. Various methods to alleviate the effects of these cracks have been devised, including ion-exchange, mechanical abrasion, and acid etching. The goal of this experiment was to compare these methods by quantifying the strength via three-point bend testing to determine the modulus of rupture. Optical microscopy confirmed results, including the data that indicated that ion-exchange had the largest effect on strength by either widening or forcing shut cracks. Acid etching produced a moderate improvement in modulus of rupture by smoothing cracks. Finally, mechanical abrasion decreased strength but provided a more uniform strength distribution.


Relaying is a promising technique to extend coverage and improve throughput in wireless networks, but its performance is degraded in the presence of co-channel interference. In this paper, we consider coordinated relay beamforming to suppress interference and improve the date rates of two-hop interference networks. We first propose optimal coordinated relay beamforming algorithms to characterize the achievable rate region and maximize the sum-rate. By imposing a constraint on the desired signals, a low-complexity iterative algorithm is then proposed to maximize the sum-rate. Through performance comparison, we show that the proposed relaying strategy provides a promising tradeoff between complexity and performance. To further reduce design complexity, we propose a new interference management scheme, interference neutralization, to cancel the interferences over the air at the second hop. We show that this scheme yields a closed-form solution for the beamforming design and provides good performance especially at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).


Oral genetic diseases and rare diseases are special oral diseases with low prevalence, complex clinical characteristics and serious condition. In addition to regular oral diagnosis and treatment, multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment including genetic counseling should also be carried out for such diseases. This article reviews the basic content of genetic counseling, the current application status of genetic counseling in the field of stomatology in China and the problems faced, such as the lack of genetic counseling personnel and the popularization of genetic counseling knowledge. Aims to promote the application of genetic counseling in dental practice in the future, it is proposed to carry out genetic training for stomatologists, promote the integration of medical genetic expertise and oral knowledge, as well as discipline cooperation, and strengthen the standardization of genetic counseling for oral diseases.


The area around the city of Vijayanagara saw a large-scale expansion in irrigation works between the mid-fourteenth and late sixteenth centuries. Of these, reservoirs or 'tanks' played an important role in extending farming into areas beyond the reach of perennial irrigation. Reservoirs were linked to Hindu temples, not only through networks of patronage, but also physically, in aspects of form and decoration. Indeed, reservoirs can be thought of as temples themselves, as well as statements of power and authority, functional objects, and tangible connections to larger social and conceptual worlds. This paper presents reservoirs in four ways: as agricultural features, as (political) monuments, as oceans, and as temples. This juxtaposition is made possible only because of the intersection of textual representation and material form, different modes of representation which may be critically evaluated and compared. Reservoirs formed one part of a complex rural landscape of devotion that included field shrines, hero stones, and even archaeological sites of earlier eras. Through the long-term use-lives of reservoirs, we can see the ways in which rural devotion and practice both responded to the specifics of local histories and, over time, reshaped regional landscapes.


AIM
To use the voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) method to explore the underlying functional network brain-activity in patients with ophthalmectomy.

METHODS
A total of 32 ophthalmic surgery patients (10 women and 22 men), and 32 healthy subjects (10 women and 22 men) highly matched in gender, age, and the same operation method. Everyone experienced a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. The spontaneous brain activity could be assessed by DC. Correlation analysis was used to explore the relationships between the average DC signal values and behavior performance in different regions. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was utilized to differentiate between ophthalmectomy patients and healthy controls (HCs).

RESULTS
Compared with HCs, ophthalmectomy patients had greatly reduced DC values in left lingual gyrus, bilateral lingual lobe, left cingulate gyrus, and increased DC values of left cerebellum posterior lobe, left middle frontal gyrus1, right supramarginal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus2, right middle frontal gyrus. However, we did not find that there was a correlation between the average DC values from various brain regions and clinical manifestations.

CONCLUSION
Dysfunction may be caused by ophthalmectomy in lots of cerebral areas, which may show the potential pathological mechanism of ophthalmectomy and it is beneficial to clinical diagnosis.


The self-consistent computation of electronic polarization in organic molecular crystals is extended to include, in first order, corrections in the continuous gas-phase charge distribution ρG(r). The potential ΔΦa(ra) at molecule a in the crystal is due to the difference between ρG(r) and a point-charge approximation. ΔΦa(ra), which represents atomic multipolar contributions, is evaluated for crystals of anthracene and perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA). The corrections to the polarization energies of molecular cations are P+(1) = -0.25 and -0.14 eV for anthracene and PTCDA, respectively, while P−(1) = 0.25 and 0.18 eV for the anions. The leading term of atomic multipoles is the ΔΦa(ra)-charge interaction that corresponds to the charge-quadrupole term in the submolecular approach. There are also new contributions in ΔΦa(ra)-redistributed charge and coupling of induced dipoles to gradients of ΔΦa(ra). First-order correction to electronic polarization is a general approach that combines the advantages of discrete charges for self-consistent treatment of crystals with accurate electrostatic potentials based on the best available molecular charge distribution.


We have investigated, both experimentally and theoretically, the efflux of carboxyfluorescein (a self-quenching fluorescent dye) from vesicles of different sizes and lipid species (POPC, DOPC) after having added the bee venom peptide melittin. This comprises quantitative analyses regarding the extent of lipid-associated peptide, the mode as well as the temporal progress of dye release and the possible leakage mechanism. Our results indicate a graded efflux characterized by a single-pore retention factor reflecting the formation of pores whose lifetimes are rather small (millisecond range). The observed fluorescence signal arising from the dequenching of effluent dye has been converted to the number of pore openings over the course of time. All the resulting curves exhibit a pronounced slowing down of the pore formation rate revealing two distinct relaxation steps at about 20 and 200 s, respectively, being largely independent of vesicle type and peptide to lipid ratio. The pore formation rate itself increases in proportion to the amount of membrane bound peptide. We give a quantitative account of our experimental findings based on a novel reaction scheme applicable to any of our various liposome systems. It implies that the pore formation rate is controlled by a passage through two intermediate monomeric peptide states. These states are thought to become well populated in the initial stage of lipid bilayer perturbation, but would practically die out after some time owing to a restabilization of the membrane system.


Obese patients with type II diabetes who undergo bariatric surgery revert to normal blood glucose and insulin levels, and develop a dramatic increase in insulin sensitivity. However, the mechanisms involved are unknown. This study characterized pancreatic islet and duodenojejunal enteroendocrine cells in normal mice and those with diabetes induced by a high‐fat diet (HFD) following duodenojejunal bypass (DJB).


Shakespeare's final play, The Two Noble Kinsmen, contains profound psychological insights. Like all of Shakespeare's reworkings of old material, the result is not merely a variation on a theme but a psychological statement in and of itself, which respects and revisits the past even as it presents a new and original statement. In this paper I argue that the transformation of the Chaucerian into the Shakespearean has a premonition of the Freudian in it also: Shakespeare not only delivers insights on development and sexuality, he anticipates an important Freudian concept in his introduction of the theme of the jailer's daughter whose "love-sickness" requires on understanding of transference before sense can be made of it!


Two‐terminal metal/insulator/metal (MIM) memristors exhibiting threshold resistive switching (RS) can develop advanced key tasks in solid‐state nano/micro‐electronic circuits, such as selectors and integrate‐and‐fire electronic neurons. MIM‐like memristors using multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) as dielectric are especially interesting because they have shown threshold RS with ultra‐low energy consumption per state transition down to the zeptojoule regime. However, the factors enabling stable threshold RS at such low operation energies are still not fully understood. Here it is shown that the threshold RS in 150 nm × 150 nm Au/Ag/h‐BN/Au memristors is especially stable because the temperature in the h‐BN stack during operation (i.e., at low currents ≈1 μA) is very low (i.e., ≈310 K), due to the high in‐plane thermal conductivity of h‐BN and its low thickness. Only when the device is operated at higher currents (i.e., ≈200 μA) the temperatures at the h‐BN increase remarkably (i.e., >500 K), which produce a stable non‐volatile conductive nanofilament (CNF). This work can bring new insights to understand the performance of 2D materials based RS devices, and help to develop the integration of 2D materials in high‐density nanoelectronics.


Reflecting a prodigious amount of research in primary and secondary sources, this book examines the efforts of American abolitionists to bring northern religious institutions to the forefront of the antislavery movement. John R. McKivigan employs both conventional and quantitative historical techniques to assess the positions adopted by various churches in the North during the growing conflict over slavery, and to analyze the stratagems adopted by American abolitionists during the 1840s and 1850s to persuade northern churches to condemn slavery and to endorse emancipation. Working for three decades to gain church support for their crusade, the abolitionists were the first to use many of the tactics of later generations of radicals and reformers who were also attempting to enlist conservative institutions in the struggle for social change. To correct what he regards to be significant misperceptions concerning church-oriented abolitionism, McKivigan concentrates on the effects of the abolitionists' frequent failures, the division of their movement, and the changes in their attitudes and tactics in dealing with the churches. By examining the pre-Civil War schisms in the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist denominations, he shows why northern religious bodies refused to embrace abolitionism even after the defection of most southern members. He concludes that despite significant antislavery action by a few small denominations, most American churches resisted committing themselves to abolitionist principles and programs before the Civil War. In a period when attention is again being focused on the role of religious bodies in influencing efforts to solve America's social problems, this book is especially timely.


This paper aims to create a high-quality surface based on the linear contact material removal mechanism. For this paper, a piezo-driven, flexure-based micro-motion stage was developed for the vibration-assisted roll-type precision polishing system. Meanwhile, the compliance matrix method was employed to establish the amplification ratio and compliance model of the flexure mechanism. The dimensions of the mechanism were optimized using the grey wolves optimization (GWO) algorithm, aiming to maximize the natural frequencies. Using the optimal parameters, the established models for the mechanical performance evaluation of the flexure stage were verified with the finite-element method. Through closed-loop test, it was proven that the proposed micro-motion stage performs well in positioning micro motions. Finally, high quality surface using silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic with 36 nm Sa was generated by the independently developed vibration-assisted roll-type polishing machine to validate the performance of the established polishing system.


Crack sealants are widely used in Texas to prevent water from entering into lower structural layers thereby extending pavement life. However, most current crack sealants have been reported to have a very short life mainly due to adhesive failures. Although adhesive failure is known to be the major failure mechanism very little attention has been paid to measuring this property in the laboratory. The main objective of this project was to develop a performance related adhesion test using the Texas Department of Transportation's Overlay Tester. In this report the crack sealant adhesion test protocol developed in year 1 of this study was finalized. The final test protocol includes a molding jig, a detailed sample preparation procedure, an adhesion test protocol, and criteria for interpreting the results. In this study 13 sealants (some of them have never been used in Texas) were evaluated following the proposed test protocol. The results clearly showed that the crack sealant adhesion test can effectively differentiate the poor sealants from the good ones. Furthermore, based on these test results, a draft crack sealant special specification was proposed. This is different from the current specification, which is mainly based on crumb rubber content. The new special specification is based on the results of the new adhesion test. In addition to this performance test other complementary factors such as flash point, softening point, and viscosity have been included in the new specification. In the proposed specification, the sealants are classified as: Type A (min. 100 cycles to failure at 45 oF), Type B (min. 400 cycles to failure at 45 oF), and Type C (min. 400 cycles to failure at 33 oF). In addition, preliminary recommendation on optimum sealant types were made for each district in the state based on climatic conditions (freeze thaw cycles). Finally, an experimental test plan was developed to validate the draft special specification.


Nitrate contamination is a common problem in groundwater of the North China Plain (NCP) owing to overuse of fertilizers and discharge of wastewater. Accordingly, it is important to investigate nitrate contamination in recharge areas to understand the fate of nitrate in the plains area. In this study, the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of nitrate and factors contributing to its sources and transformation in shallow groundwater of the Beiyishui River watershed, NCP, were analysed by a combination of multiple regression and multi‐tracer methods. The nitrate concentration of 79% of the samples exceeded the natural environmental standard of 13.3 mg l−1, while that of 23% of the samples exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water standard of 50 mg l−1. Groundwater age estimation of the hill regions based on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) revealed a mix of young water from 1982 to 1990 and old, low CFC water. The analysis based on the variations in land use in past years revealed that part of the grassland was converted into woodland between 1980 and 1995; therefore, the land use at the recharge time was used to determine which surface conditions influence groundwater nitrate concentrations. Multiple regression analysis showed that point source pollution contributed to the high concentration of nitrate in the hill region. Fertilizer application associated with land use change from grassland to woodland was also related to the present nitrate concentration. In the plains area, the contribution of fresh water from fault fractures and denitrification led to 31 to 72% and 6 to 51% reductions in nitrate concentrations, respectively. Our results suggested that controlling point source contamination and fertilizer input to hilly regions of the study will prevent groundwater of the plains area from deterioration in future years by mixing fresh water into the aquifers and decreasing denitrification, and therefore nitrate concentrations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The project world is plagued with the interest and influence of diverse stakeholders shaping major project policy strategies. From deception, strategic manipulation to illusions of control, stakeholders using power and any other means to influence project strategies to achieve their desired ends: the tribalism and Machiavellianism of the project world. Governing tribalism or Machiavellianism especially at the front-end of projects is absolutely essential for project policy success. But how does a project manager shape a major project policy into success? The purpose of this research is to investigate tribalism and Machiavellianism and implement the necessary governance mechanisms to shape the implementation of project policies to optimize its success. This requires a deep understanding of human relational behavior. A case study approach was adopted that investigated Australia's largest infrastructure program in history, the AUD $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution (BER) program, which was plagued with power and politics and Machiavellianism of the project world. Factors such as collective institutional leadership with formal and informal governance mechanisms in rationalizing decisions were identified as essential aspects from the case study. It was also revealed that if the factors are implemented at the front-end of project policies and managed appropriately it could significantly limit the potentness of the tribal or Machiavelli plague and optimize the chances of project policy success.


The rare-earth (RE)-modified bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3 or BFO) family of ferroelectrics have uncomplicated lead-free chemistries and simple perovskite structures. Due to the high Curie transition temperature of the parent BiFeO3 perovskite (∼830 °C), they are promising piezoelectric materials for use at elevated temperatures. However, the influence of the specific RE species on the electromechanical behavior at high temperatures and above the coercive electric-field is not widely reported. Here, structural analysis over multiple length scales using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and piezoresponse force microscopy is coupled with a high electric-field cycling study and in situ converse d33 measurements up to 325 °C for three RE–BFO ceramic compositions, Bi0.86Sm0.14FeO3, Bi0.88Gd0.12FeO3 and Bi0.91Dy0.09FeO3. The ceramics exhibit different phase assemblages with varying amounts of polar rhombohedral R3c and intermediate antipolar orthorhombic Pbam phases as a function of the RE species. During electric-field cycling at electric-fields with amplitudes of 160 kV cm−1, peak-to-peak strains of 0.23–0.27% are reached for all three compositions. However, there are qualitative differences in the field-induced strain and electric current behavior as a function of electric-field cycling and the materials exhibit an electrical-history dependent behavior. Bi0.91Dy0.09FeO3 possesses an improved d33 stability as a function of temperature relative to the parent BFO perovskite and the highest depolarization temperature among the three RE–BFO compositions, with a stable d33 of ∼22 pC N−1 up to 325 °C.


The 5‐HT autoreceptors have received considerable attention as potential targets for the development of antidepressants. With the purpose of designing new chemical entities with enhanced antagonist potencies against 5‐HT1A and 5‐HT1B, a QSAR study carried out on thienopyrimidinone derivatives as antagonists of serotonin autoreceptors is presented. The developed models were validated by standard QSAR parameters and through a detailed structural analysis on how the QSARs reproduce and explain the differences in the experimentally known activity data. The developed models showed a good correlative and predictive ability having a squared cross validated correlation co‐efficients (r2cv) of 0.780 for 5‐HT1A and 0.638 5‐HT1B antagonism. The squared conventional correlation co‐efficients (r2) were found to be 0.824 for the 5‐HT1A model and 0.745 for 5‐HT1B antagonism. The study indicated that the 5‐HT autoreceptor antagonistic activity exhibited by the series is largely explained by steric factors of substituents which underline the role of size and shape of thienopyrimidinones in making effective antagonist‐autoreceptor interaction chemistry. A detailed comparative investigation was made between the two models and the insights gleaned from the study could be usefully employed to design dual antagonists with a much more enhanced potency and selectivity.


Background Diabetes is a chronic pathology of high prevalence and a large number of associated comorbidities that have an impact on patients' quality of life. In the hospital environment, poor insulin adherence may lead to episodes of hyperglycaemia or severe hypoglycaemia, increasing long-term complications, as well as morbidity and mortality. Purpose To evaluate the clinical results obtained after the implantation of the insulinisation protocol in non-critical patients in our hospital. This protocol recommends the suspension of oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs) at admission, and if blood glucose >150 mg/dl, baseline insulin control is recommended along with control of preprandial glycaemias by administering rapid-acting insulin. Material and methods On 25 November 2015, a cross-sectional study (submitted to the Ethical Committee for Clinical Research) was carried out. In this study, all patients diagnosed with diabetes who were hospitalised and who had undergone validation of pharmacological treatment were located. The Electronic Clinical History (SELENE®) and the Pharmacy Service Managing Software (FARMATOOLS®) were used for the location and collection of clinical data. Results A total of 132 patients were evaluated. Sixty-four per cent and 36% of them were males and females respectively, with an average age of 69 years (range 29–93) and an average weight of 80 kg at admission. Fifty per cent of patients' weight was not registered and this is a vital fact for the evaluation of the patients' nutritional status and the calculation of the dose of insulin. Ninety per cent of patients had type-2 diabetes and 3% of them were diagnosed during their hospital admission. 46.4% of patients were treated with OADs in monotherapy, 15.2% with OADs plus insulin and 10.4% under a basal-bolus pattern. The overall compliance rate of the treatment to the basal-bolus pattern was very low (32%). These results are in line with the rest of the studies carried out in hospitalised diabetic patients. Conclusion In spite of gaining better glycaemic control with the basal-bolus regimen, the adherence to it was low. In the future, the suspension of the OADs, or their change to insulin after admission, will be a difficult target that we have to reach. References and/or Acknowledgements I would like to express my very great appreciation to the staff of the service. No conflict of interest


Technological development in digital world has led to a huge increase in the popularity of digital images in all domains of life. However, sophisticated and easy to use photo editing software tools have made manipulation of images very easy. Thus there is a need to authenticate images especially in legal matters. The field of image authentication and forgery detection has gained huge popularity lately. A key domain in this regard is copy-move forgery detection. Copy move forgery involves copying a portion of an image and pasting it to a different location in same image, with a purpose to conceal facts. In this paper we attempt to review recent developments in the field of copy move detection. This paper dwells on the detection of copy move forgery based on block based and key point methods, and give a detailed comparison of the state of art techniques.


Consulting relationships between medical school faculty and the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries offer the potential to advance research and promote the translation of academic discoveries into technologies that can benefit the health of individuals and populations. Such relationships are common, and studies suggest that faculty with industry relationships are more productive than their peers without such relationships. These benefits notwithstanding, numerous academic studies, government hearings, and litigation have called attention to the potential risks associated with these relationships. Consulting includes a broad range of activities in which a faculty member provides advice or services to a company related to his/her area of professional expertise, typically in exchange for payment. Many universities permit faculty members to devote a portion of their faculty time to consulting (e.g., one business day per week), and faculty members are typically paid directly by the company, rather than through the university.


The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between two United States Quantitative Easing programs (Quantitative Easing one and two) and the existence of positive abnormal returns among eight major financial markets which are the eight variables in this study: the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) World Index, the Standard and Poor (S&P) 500, the JP Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index (EMBI) Spread, the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100, Deutscher Aktien Index (DAX), Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), 10 Year Treasury Yield, and Gold. This research aims to test the purpose of market efficiency, only focusing on the Semi-Strong form hypothesis. The daily closing price data from each financial market was collected from the Bloomberg database during the periods running from 17 June 2008 to 2 December 2008 and 13 April 2011 to 28 September 2011 respectively. The Unit Root Test by Augmented Dickey Fuller is applied. It is carried out by the EViews 5.1 program. This research follows the Correlational Research Methodology, which includes the Event Study Methodology and the use of Microsoft Excel. Statistically significant Total Standardized Abnormal Returns, Cumulative Total Standardized Abnormal Returns, Z-Statistic, and P-Value determination were used to present the test results. All eight variables became stationary data at first difference level. The Event Study Methodology interpreted the Total Standardized Abnormal Returns (TSARs) as not equal to zero, which means that both US Quantitative Easing programs had an effect on major financial markets. However, Quantitative Easing two had an excessive leakage. The Cumulative Total Standardized Abnormal Returns (CTSARs) is significant.


A data reduction program and ignition model developed for the analysis of data generated by the frictional heating test facility at WSTF is presented. Based on transient temperature data measured from the stationary cylinder, the model can be used to generate an effective friction coefficient, activation energy and reactive flux constant for different metals/alloys at various test conditions. Data of 15 tests conducted for carbon steel are analyzed to illustrate the capability of the present model. The effective friction coefficient is observed to decrease with increasing oxygen pressure, suggesting that the formation of oxide layer and the oxide's lubrication property have important effects on the ignition process for carbon steel. The activation energy is estimated to be 46600 cal/gmole. The reactive flux constant is observed to increase with oxygen pressure, suggesting that either the diffusion of ions through an oxide layer or the adsorption of oxygen at the oxide-gas interface is the primary physical process controlling the ignition. The Pv product (which is the mechanical energy input into the system) required for ignition is shown to first decrease and then increase with oxygen pressure, suggesting that at low oxygen pressure, the reactive flux constant is the important parameter controlling the energy input required for ignition while at high oxygen pressure, the reduction in friction coefficient due to the formation of oxide is the dominant physical process.


The goals of childhood asthma treatment are straightforward: facilitation of parent/patient understanding and acceptance of the disease prevention of patient physical and emotional disability. Patient/family education should be instituted at the time diagnosis is made, such that the patient and involved family members are familiarized with the short-term and long-term care that will be necessary. Setting realistic goals for asthmatic children that allow for a normal life-style (regular school attendance, participation in physical activities, etc) is helpful.
 Successful management of childhood asthma requires knowledge, experience, and time. The demands on the physician can be tremendous. Patient management will be dictated by the age of the patient, the severity of the disease, and the social and financial resources of the involved family. The pediatrician with extra effort can provide appropriate care for the child with mild asthma. The moderate to severe asthmatic child (particularly those with evidence of chronic obstruction) are probably best managed by a team approach. Referral to a subspecialist who has the experience, updated knowledge, and time to institute both an educational and treatment program will benefit the patient with moderate to severe asthma (Table 1). The subspecialist assists in appropriate alteration of treatment plans in accordance with patient progress and may serve as a useful advisor to the pediatrician.


In this study, the fine specificity and MHC restriction of a CTL response specific to the trinitrophenyl (TNP) hapten was analyzed. Based on the structure of peptide/Kb complexes and ternary TCR/Ag/MHC complexes, four TNP peptides, two octamers, and two nonamers were chosen for eliciting anti-TNP CTL responses. Hapten was conjugated at position 4 in the octamers and at position 5 in the nonamers, positions which should allow engagement of the hapten by TCRs. Potent CTL activity for each of the TNP peptides was obtained that was highly hapten-specific; however, there were considerable differences in the extent of cross-reactivity with other TNP peptides, with the octamers generating more cross-reactive CTL than the nonamers. MHC restriction analysis suggested that anti-hapten responses were less dependent on MHC recognition than anti-peptide responses. This was evidenced by the relative ease of detecting cross-reactivity to haptenated peptides presented by allo-MHC and by the relative insensitivity of anti-hapten vs anti-peptide CTL to mutations in the Kb molecule at potential TCR interaction sites. One potential explanation for this insensitivity to MHC mutation was the finding that the anti-hapten response appeared to be of higher avidity, since a > 100-fold difference in the amount of Ag required to sensitize target cells was found between these two types of Ags.


Background Blowout fracture is one of the most common facial fractures, and patients usually present with accompanying ocular complications. Many studies have looked into the frequency of persistent ocular symptoms, but there is no study on assault patients and related ocular symptoms. We evaluated the incidence of residual ocular symptoms in blow-out fractures between assaulted and non-assaulted patients, and sought to identify any connection among the degree of enophthalmos, defect size, and assault-related injury. Methods A retrospective review was performed for any patient who sustained a unilateral blowout fracture between January 2010 to December 2014. The collected data included information such as age, gender, etiology, and clinical ocular symptoms as examined by an ophthalmologist. This data was analyzed between patients who were injured through physical altercation and patients who were injured through other means. Results The review identified a total of 182 patients. Out of these, 74 patients (40.7%) have been struck by a fist, whereas 108 patients (59.3%) have sustained non-assault related injuries. The average age was 36.1 years, and there was a male predominance in both groups (70 patients [94.6%] in the assaulted group and 87 patients [80.6%] in the non-assault group). Diplopia and enophthalmos were more frequent in patients with assault history than in non-assaulted patients (p<0.05). Preoperatively, 25 patients (33.8%) with assault history showed diplopia, whereas 20 patients (18.5%) showed diplopia in the non-assaulted group (p<0.05). Preoperative enophthalmos was present in 34 patients (45.9%) with assault history, whereas 31 patients (28.7%) showed enophthalmos in the non-assaulted group (p<0.05). Conclusion Patients with an assault history due to a fist blow experienced preoperative symptoms more frequently than did patients with non-assault-related trauma history. Preoperative diplopia and enophthalmos occurred at a higher rate for patients who were assaulted. Surgeons should take into account such characteristics in the management of assaulted patients.


Twenty years of the European Union's (EU) action as a strategic actor in the process of political and economic reforms of former communist countries has created enough experience based on which it is possible to thoroughly analyse the influence that the European integration has had on the success of transformation of these countries. In a self-imposing comparison, the process of European integration of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries can be evaluated as much more successful than it is the case with the Western Balkan countries. Such course of events can only be explained by an overall consideration of all the factors having a decisive influence on the relationship between the EU and the Western Balkan countries. This paper implies that the concept of Europeanization based on the external incentive is not enough to explain such a course of the European integration process of the Western Balkan countries. Another important factor is the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) action that contributed not only to the spreading of phenomenon of unfinished countries in the Western Balkans but also to the decreased efficiency of the instruments of enlargement policy itself.


An important aspect of vesicular arbuscular (VA) mycorrhizal research, which is attracting attention, is the possible use of mycorrhizal fungi as biological control agents (Schenck, 1981; Dehne, 1982). Baltruschat et al. (1973) indicated that Endogone mosseae had an antagonistic effect on Meloidogyne incognita in tobacco. In a survey of soybeans in Florida, Schenck and Kinloch (1974) found that spore counts of endomycorrhizal fungi were consistently low when associated with high population densities of root knot nematodes. The sequence in which plants become colonised by mycorrhizal symbionts and infested by nematodes may affect the interaction between these organisms (Hussey and Roncadori, 1982). A study conducted earlier in this laboratory indicated that inoculation with VA mycorrhiza followed by root knot nematodes reduced galling on tomato (Bagyaraj et al., 1979). This paper reports further observations on the effects of successive application of a VA mycorrhizal fungus, Glomus fasciculatum (Thaxter sensu Gerd.) Gerd. and Trappe and the root knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid et White) Chitw. on the development of each other and their effects on the growth and chemical composition of tomato plants.


Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common tumors in the world and has a high mortality rate. This study elucidates the mechanism of hepatocellular carcinoma- (HCC) related development. The HCC gene expression profile (GSE54238, GSE84004) was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus for comprehensive analysis. A total of 359 genes were identified, of which 195 were upregulated and 164 were downregulated. Analysis of the condensed results showed that "extracellular allotrope" is a substantially enriched term. "Cell cycle", "metabolic pathway" and "DNA replication" are three significantly enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomespathways. Subsequently, a protein-protein interaction network was constructed. The most important module in the protein-protein interaction network was selected for path enrichment analysis. The results showed that CCNA2, PLK1, CDC20, UBE2C and AURKA were identified as central genes, and the expression of these five hub genes in liver cancer was significantly increased in The Cancer Genome Atlas. Univariate regression analysis was also performed to show that the overall survival and disease-free survival of patients in the high expression group were longer than in the expression group. In addition, genes in important modules are mainly involved in "cell cycle", "DNA replication" and "oocyte meiosis" signaling pathways. Finally, through upstream miRNA analysis, mir-300 and mir-381-3p were found to coregulate CCNA2, AURKA and UBE2C. These results provide a set of targets that can help researchers to further elucidate the underlying mechanism of liver cancer.


Statistical problems in which the available experimental observations are not necessarily exact have been described previously by means of a probabilistic-possibilistic approach based on the concept of the fuzzy information system. When Zadeh's probabilistic definition (1978) is adopted, the gain of information about the state of nature or parameter contained in a fuzzy information system and the uncertainty associated with an inference from it could be quantified in this approach by means of several concepts. The author proves that the fuzziness in the experimental observations entails a loss of information about the state or parameter space, whatever the quantification of the gain of information or the uncertainty may be.


The use of fast neutral atom beams to heat toroidally confined plasmas is discussed. The conditions governing the beam power and energy requirements are given, and the limitations on the beams used to achieve these are discussed. The interaction of these beams with the plasma involves several classical collision processes which are described by a Fokker-Planck equation, all the terms of which have now been checked experimentally. The transfer of momentum to the plasma is described, one particular aspect of which is the creation of a beam-driven current. The existence of this current has now been established both experimentally and theoretically and may allow the construction of a continuously operated tokamak reactor.


Microtubule poisons inhibit spindle function, leading to activation of spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) and mitotic arrest. Cell death occurring in prolonged mitosis is the first target of microtubule poisons in cancer therapies. However, even in the presence of microtubule poisons, SAC and mitotic arrest are not permanent, and the surviving cells exit the mitosis without cytokinesis (mitotic slippage), becoming tetraploid. Another target of microtubule poisons-based cancer therapy is antiproliferative fate after mitotic slippage. The ultimate goal of both the microtubule poisons-based cancer therapies involves the induction of a mechanism defined as mitotic catastrophe, which is a bona fide intrinsic oncosuppressive mechanism that senses mitotic failure and responds by driving a cell to an irreversible antiproliferative fate of death or senescence. This mechanism of antiproliferative fate after mitotic slippage is not as well understood. We provide an overview of mitotic catastrophe, and explain new insights underscoring a causal association between basal autophagy levels and antiproliferative fate after mitotic slippage, and propose possible improved strategies. Additionally, we discuss nuclear alterations characterizing the mitotic catastrophe (micronuclei, multinuclei) after mitotic slippage, and a possible new type of nuclear alteration (clustered micronuclei).


While tissue-engineered blood vessels have already been successfully used in surgical practice, artificially restoring lymphatic circulation when needed is still far to be realized. Stability of arterial vessel wall depends on proper fibrillin deposition; fibrillin in fact is the scaffold for elastic fiber formation. In lymphatic vessels fibrillin is probably implied in lymph formation in response to interstitial requirements. This study was designed to verify whether fibrillin deposition is influenced by the topography of the substrate on which blood and lymphatic endothelial cells grow. Blood and lymphatic endothelial cells were cultured on microstructured surfaces with different topography: stripes of different widths (25, 50, and 100 microm), squares and rectangles, and spiral geometry, obtained by the photoimmobilization of Hyaluronan (Hyal) on aminosilanized glass. Cell orientation and fibrillin deposition were influenced by the topography of the microstructure. Blood endothelial cells deposited fibrillin as a bundle running parallel to the major axis of stripes and spirals, whereas the irregular network of fibrillin deposited by lymphatic endothelial cells was affected by the topography of the substrate only in the smallest stripes. These data bring a contribution to the basic knowledge required to design tissue-engineered blood and lymphatic vessels capable of adapting to the functional requirements of the surrounding environment.


We studied the effect of the 2',3'-dialdehyde derivative of NADPH on the activation of superoxide-producing oxidase in a cell-free system of pig neutrophils. The system consisted of a membrane fraction, two cytosolic fractions prepared by gel filtration, and arachidonic acid. Preincubation of one of the cytosolic fractions with the derivatives of NADPH and NADP+ caused the loss of its ability to activate the enzyme. The inactivation was effectively prevented by the addition of NADPH and NADP+. Neither the membrane fraction nor the other cytosolic fraction was affected by the derivatives. The results indicate that the NADPH binding component of the oxidase is present in the cytosolic fraction and may be translocated to the membrane fraction during the activation process in the cell-free system.


A major topic of the Rech Conference on Christian Graduate Training in Psychology was that of the "Christian virtues" as potentially powerful therapeutic factors that should be manifested in the lives of Christian psychologists. Yet, the Christian training programs do little to intentionally develop such virtues. This paper is a case study examining the virtue of wisdom as one of the central characteristics that should be encouraged in psychology graduate students. I begin by suggesting a way of defining or thinking about the nature of wisdom from a Christian perspective. A wise human person is someone who truly understands what it is to be human and the nature of the possible ways of existing that confront human beings. Understanding what it is to be human is inextricably tied to knowing and understanding God. Selection of those students who have the greatest potential of growing in wisdom during their graduate training is then discussed. I conclude with suggestions for fostering growth in wisdom during the years of graduate study.


PurposeThe advancement of equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education is dependent on institutional culture changes in academia. Faculty equity, diversity and inclusion efforts must engage departmental leadership. The purpose of this paper is to describe the growth and expansion of the ADVANCE leadership program at the University of Washington (UW) for department chairs that was designed to provide department chairs the skills, community and information needed to be agents of change within the academy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper chronicles the program's growth from a campus-based workshop program to national workshops (LEAD) to a web-based toolkit (LiY!) to support institutions in running their own UW ADVANCE-inspired leadership workshops.FindingsThe paper demonstrates the success of each growth stage and the expansion of program impact.Practical implicationsThe paper offers recommendations for growing a model from a local to national scale and adapting the described leadership development model at other institutions.Originality/valueThe paper shares a successful model for equipping department chairs to be advocates of gender equity, diversity and inclusion in STEM and to be change agents in higher education.


PURPOSE
This study was conducted to assess the quality of impressions and tooth preparations sent to dental laboratories in Jordan and to determine the technical capabilities of these laboratories to construct fixed partial dentures.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A sample of 136 impressions and stone casts were examined for clinical errors in 35 laboratories that construct fixed partial dentures. They were sorted into unusable, unsatisfactory, acceptable, or satisfactory categories. The type of impression material and tray, opposing arch impressions, and occlusal records were noted. Instructions to technicians were assessed for completeness and clarity. Information regarding laboratory staff and equipment were collected.

RESULTS
Half of the specimens inspected were categorized as unusable or unsatisfactory; these were found in commercial laboratories. They showed at least one clinical error such as drags or indefinite finishing lines in impressions and inadequate reduction, undercuts, or obvious taper on stone casts. Alginate impression material was used for 65% of the cases. Only 27% of specimens were accompanied with instructions; of these 22% were graded poor. No occlusal records were available with 54% of the specimens and no articulators were used except in dental school laboratories. The dental schools and some commercial laboratories had the best staff and equipment and were more capable of fabricating fixed partial dentures than those of the Ministry of Health and the Royal Med cal Services.

CONCLUSION
The quality of abutment preparation and impressions were unsatisfactory or unusable in 50% of cases. Of the 37 available instructions 8 were not clear. The dental schools and some commercial laboratories were technically capable of producing good quality fixed partial dentures.


The aim of this review paper is to know more about the service quality of Banking Sector available in Konkan Region through literature survey. In the 21st century, service quality and customer satisfaction are directly proportional to each other for achieving success in any industry and the same is applied to the banking sector in India. Customers play an important role in Banking Industry in India. Therefore Banks in India are responsible to fulfill needs of customers to retain survival and success in today's modern era. Success of any organization depends upon their services quality and customer relationship with an organization. Retention of customer and business is totally depends upon services provided by banks to solve the complaints of customers instantly. This review paper summarizes the relationship between services quality, customer satisfaction and success of organization through literature survey in Banking Sector.


During the last few decades, designers have been educated to develop designs with restricted geometry so that parts can be made easily. The revolutionary aspect of Rapid Manufacturing will be that geometry will no longer be a limiting factor. The introduction of Rapid Manufacturing will have a number of effects on Design . It will be possible to have re-entrant shapes without complicating manufacturing, no draft angles, variable wall thickness, no split lines and fewer parts leading to easier assembly and lower stock. The individual designer's method of working will change with the introduction of Rapid Manufacturing and also there will be changes to the overall design process. Examples will be the elimination of prototype and pre-production stages, as end part manufacture will occur as soon as the CAD is finished. This will affect project management practices and sign-off procedures.


Perceived social support has been reliably related to lower rates of morbidity and mortality. However, studies modeling C-reactive protein (CRP) as an important biological pathway linking social support to health have produced inconsistent results. Given purported ethnic/racial differences in sensitivity to social resources, the present study tested if ethnicity/race moderated the link between perceived support and CRP in a diverse community sample of 300 participants from the North Texas Heart Study. Consistent with prior research, there was no overall link between social support and CRP levels. However, the association between social support and high sensitivity (hs)-CRP levels was moderated by ethnicity/race as perceived support predicted lower hs-CRP levels primarily in African Americans. These results suggest the importance of considering how ethnicity/race may inform models on the complex biological mechanisms linking social support to health.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

Endosialin (CD248), a transmembrane protein expressed in stromal fibroblasts and activated pericytes during embryonic development, is expressed in human carcinomas. Although its function is unknown, due to its highly specific expression pattern endosialin represents a promising anti-tumor target. To unravel the role of endosialin during tumor progression and metastasis, we employed systematic loss-of-function approaches in stromal fibroblasts in vitro as well as in subcutaneous and orthotopic tumors in vivo. These experiments revealed an important role of endosialin in regulating fibroblast proliferation and in orchestrating an inflammatory response by modulating the secretion of inflammatory cytokines (IL6) in stromal fibroblasts. The proinflammatory environment created by activated fibroblasts is thought to support tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. Experiments in endosialin-deficient mice confirmed an important role of endosialin in tumor progression in highly stroma-recruiting orthotopic pancreatic tumor models. Finally, lung metastases were dramatically decreased in endosialin-deficient mice supporting a role of a proinflammatory tumor stroma in tumor dissemination. Taken together, our experiments identify endosialin as an important modulator of stromal responses that are crucial for tumor progression and metastasis. Endosialin may therefore represent a novel target for development of anticancer therapies for solid tumors.

Citation Format: Sven Christian, Vijaysahankar Sivanandam, Michael Strerath, Heiner Apeler, Holger Hess-Stumpp, Hellmut G. Augustin. Stromal endosialin modulates the proinflammatory tumor microenvironment and is crucial for the growth of orthotopic pancreatic tumors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4953. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4953


The article deals with the terminology of mixed and distance learning, the theory and method of distance learning, which should take into account the changes that have taken place in the educational information structure of modern society, which determines the relevance of the development and implementation of new educational services based on ICT and remote technologies. Distance education today is especially relevant in the field of training young people with a different age, cultural, social level and different motives of education. Distance learning can be considered as a means of modernizing the education system. The structure of online and full-time learning forms, trends in the implementation of a mixed form of learning is analyzed. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.28925/2414-0325.2017.3.28387


Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the spiritual well-being and spiritual care of hospice team members. Method: Between December 2005 and February 2006, a questionnaire was given to 192 hospice team members. The instruments used in this study were the Spiritual Well-Being Scale(SWBS) developed by Paloutzian, & Ellison(1984), and a Spiritual Care Performance Scale developed by the authors. Results: The levels of spiritual well-being were relatively high: significantly lower in the 25-29 years old, in the unmarried, and in the 1-2 million won income groups, and significantly higher in Protestants, Catholics, clergy, and volunteers. The levels of performance of spiritual care were intermediate; significantly higher in clergy, and those with 10 or more years of experience. There was a positive correlation between: levels of spiritual well-being and age; levels of spiritual well-being and performance of spiritual care; and levels of performance of spiritual care and age. The factors affecting the levels of spiritual well-being included religion, age, and performance of spiritual care. The factors affecting the levels of performance of spiritual care were the years of hospice experience and spiritual well-being. Conclusion: Because there was a positive correlation between levels of spiritual well-being and performance of spiritual care, there is a need to develop a strategies to increase the spiritual well-being of hospice team members.


A 1978 case report in the Journal described a 25-year-old man with disseminated osteogenic sarcoma whose metastases regressed after treatment with diet and intensive meditation. Thirty years later, there has been no recurrence of his cancer, and a recent pneumonectomy for chronic bronchiectasis revealed mature cancellous bone in the resected lung. The man is otherwise well.


Chronically ill and healthy persons are compared as to social roles, dominant concerns, and in coping with stress. The comparison is based on a longitudinal analysis of data which was collected in the Bonn Longitudinal Study of Aging (BOLSA). The empirical analysis indicates that both groups show great success in mastering life situations and in coping with challenges and restrictions. This competence persists over the eight measurement points. The empirical analysis also makes clear that chronically ill patients often cope actively with stress, that they are able to accept restrictions and to look simultaneously for new possibilities in life. Social contacts have a predominant position in coping with chronic disease. Intrafamilial and extrafamilial contacts are important and helpful for chronically ill patients. As the longitudinal analysis reveals, coping with challenges and demands of life is influenced by the individual life-style. The analysis points to the aging process as a process of growth and of new potentials. This applies not only to persons who are in good health, but to chronically ill persons as well.


The title of this article is testimony to the challenge every academic active in the domain of Belgian public law from time to time has to face. Sooner or later he or she will be quizzed about Belgian politics and its accompanying constitutional state of affairs: "How does it work?" The very prominence of this question as well as the bewilderment in the eyes of those asking it are sure signs of an unusual situation. Explaining Belgian political and constitutional particulars and vicissitudes is no easy task at the best of times, and a foreign readership in particular likely cannot see the wood for the trees. We are dealing with a very complex society, divided in many respects: linguistically, ideologically, culturally, regionally, economically, etc. These divisions are politically highly relevant and come with an equally complex constitutional design. "No country but Belgium offers so many job opportunities to lawyers specialising in constitutional law", Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Ruppo recently said during the presentation of a new treatise on constitutional law.


ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Ankle taping (AT) is effective in preventing ankle sprain injuries in most common sports and is employed in rehabilitation and prevention sports. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of AT to restricting excessive frontal plane ankle movements in semi-professional basketball players throughout the training session. DESIGN AND SETTING: A cross-sectional study was performed at the Universidad Europea de Madrid. METHODS: Forty male and female semi-professional basketball players were divided into two groups. The ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (ROM) and interlimb asymmetries in a weight-bearing lunge position were evaluated at four time points: 1) with no tape, 2) before practice, at 30 min of practice, and 3) immediately after practice. RESULTS: In male basketball players, no differences were observed in the right and left ankles between the baseline and 30 min and between baseline and 90 min of assessment. In female athletes, significant differences were reported between baseline and pre-training assessments for the right ankle and also significant differences between baseline and 90 min in both ankles. CONCLUSIONS: Ankle taping effectively decreased the ankle dorsiflexion ROM in male and female basketball players immediately after application. However, ROM restriction was very low after 30 and 90 min, as assessed in a single basketball practice. Therefore, the classic taping method should be revised to develop new prophylactic approaches, such as the implementation of semi-rigid bracing techniques or the addition of active stripes during training or game pauses.


This research exhibits a novel construction method for Freeform surfaces with plywood, without using metal joints and bending. By introducing the perspective of Japanese Tsugite-Shiguchi, the research aims for a drastic change from node-oriented thinking to module-oriented thinking. This paper focuses on the investigation of how to simplify fabrication processes, how to realize the environmental capabilities of Freeform wood structures, and how to provide redundancy and stability to the whole architectural system. In order to challenge these problems, we examined three discretion methods. As a result, we have been successful to produce a double-layered surface, filled with triangular mesh, implemented only by cutting one sheet of plywood. Moreover, the system has also acquired a new nature: local-reconfigurability, wherein it can react and adapt to fit local parameters and requirements.


The metaphor of evolution is commonly invoked in phonological theory, particularly with regard to the notion of markedness. However, Blevins' Evolutionary Phonology denies markedness, attributing change to parses of perceptual ambiguity. The current paper seeks to enhance the power of the Evolutionary model by investigating an additional type of ambiguity based on the linearity problem in speech perception. It is shown how divergent parses of CV transitions, encoded as the Vocalic Onset node in the representations of the Onset Prominence framework, account for cross-linguistic differences in the evolution of seemingly unrelated phonetic properties.


This paper presents a memory binding algorithm for behaviors, used in application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), that are characterized by the presence of conditionals and deeply nested loops that access memory extensively through arrays. Unlike previous works, this algorithm examines the effects of branch probabilities and allocation constraints. First, we demonstrate, through examples, the importance of incorporating branch probabilities and allocation constraint information when searching for a performance-efficient memory binding. We also show the interdependence of these two factors and how varying one without considering the other may greatly affect the performance of the behavior. Second, we introduce a memory binding algorithm that has the ability to examine numerous bindings by employing an efficient performance estimation procedure. The estimation procedure exploits locality of execution, which is an inherent characteristic of target behaviors. This enables the performance estimation technique to look at the global impact of the different bindings, given the allocation constraints. We tested our algorithm using a number of benchmarks from the parallel computing domain. A series of experiments demonstrates the algorithm's ability to produce bindings that optimize performance, meet memory allocation constraints, and adapt to different resource constraints and branch probabilities. One limitation of our algorithm is that, in its current form, it is not well suited for system-on-a-chip synthesis where there is complex communication between general-purpose microprocessors that use custom-designed arrays. Results show that the algorithm requires 41% fewer memories with a performance loss of only 0.2% when compared to a parallel memory architecture. When compared to the best of a series of random memory bindings, the algorithm improves schedule performance by 22%.


Photoelectron holography requires a large data set covering a wide energy range. Changes in experimental conditions and sample surface regeneration during the course of measurement are often unavoidable or necessary, which can result in variations in measured intensity that must be normalized out before data processing. This normalization procedure can introduce a significant error, resulting in image degradation. To eliminate this problem, two methods of intensity self-normalization are introduced, one based on branching ratio measurements and the other based on logarithmic derivative measurements. The As-on-Si~111! system is chosen as a test case for these methods. Both the As and Si core levels are used to reconstruct the three-dimensional atomic structure for the top three atomic layers. The results from these two methods are mutually consistent and in good agreement with other available experimental and theoretical results. This paper also contains an analysis in regard to the use of an inner potential to account for surface refraction. Images are generated without refraction for an estimate of its effect on image quality. Similar analyses are carried out for the proper use of energy and angular window functions in the holographic transform, and for the effect of scattering phase shift that has been a major problem for direct data inversion. @S0163-1829~99!10047-X#


Situated in the main tracks of typhoons in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean, Taiwan frequently encounters disasters from heavy rainfall during typhoons. Accurate and timely typhoon rainfall prediction is an imperative topic that must be addressed. The purpose of this study was to develop a Hadoop Spark distribute framework based on big-data technology, to accelerate the computation of typhoon rainfall prediction models. This study used deep neural networks (DNNs) and multiple linear regressions (MLRs) in machine learning, to establish rainfall prediction models and evaluate rainfall prediction accuracy. The Hadoop Spark distributed cluster-computing framework was the big-data technology used. The Hadoop Spark framework consisted of the Hadoop Distributed File System, MapReduce framework, and Spark, which was used as a new-generation technology to improve the efficiency of the distributed computing. The research area was Northern Taiwan, which contains four surface observation stations as the experimental sites. This study collected 271 typhoon events (from 1961 to 2017). The following results were obtained: (1) in machine-learning computation, prediction errors increased with prediction duration in the DNN and MLR models; and (2) the system of Hadoop Spark framework was faster than the standalone systems (single I7 central processing unit (CPU) and single E3 CPU). When complex computation is required in a model (e.g., DNN model parameter calibration), the big-data-based Hadoop Spark framework can be used to establish highly efficient computation environments. In summary, this study successfully used the big-data Hadoop Spark framework with machine learning, to develop rainfall prediction models with effectively improved computing efficiency. Therefore, the proposed system can solve problems regarding real-time typhoon rainfall prediction with high timeliness and accuracy.


Much has been written about the link between HR and performance, however consensus has yet not been found concerning the understanding on how that relationship comes together.   Empirically, no direct impact has been found and research has only suggested an indirect impact. Consequently, the Strategic HRM field is particularly interested on the understanding of the mediating variables that impact the organization performance. Besides the integrated and business strategy alignment of the HR function, it should be considered that it is the people (HR) of the organization and not their practices that determine the company´s competitive advantage.  (Messersmith & Guthrie, 2010) argue that it is the impact of those practices that represent "the true resource and enable a sustainable advantage over industry rivals". The objetive of this research proposal is to study the impact of strategic human resources practices on the organization performance through a case study methodology, supported by longitudinal data. Namely, the project aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the variables that affect the process stream during strategy implementation. How the HR practices impact on people? And why human resources are the most valuable asset? These core premises are in line with the most recent economic concerns about people productivity, employment policies and labor flexibility.


6.4) in cirrhotic patients and 4.35 days (95% CI: 4.314.39) in non-cirrhotic patients. The mean adjusted difference in total hospitalization charges was $16,116 (95% CI: $860 $11,372, P , 0.05), and the mean adjusted difference in total hospitalization costs was $11,506 (95% CI: $360$2,651, P , 0.05). Patients with cirrhosis had higher likelihood of shock (3.84% vs 1.57%, aOR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.11-2.51, P , 0.05), AKI (18.52% vs 12.07%, aOR 1.35, 95% CI: 1.10 – 1.65, P , 0.01), ICU admission (6.72% vs 3.15%, aOR 1.50, 95% CI: 1.10 – 2.04, P , 0.05) and less likely to be discharged home (aOR 0.76, 95% CI: 0.64 – 0.92, P , 0.01). Conclusion: We found that cirrhosis had a significant impact on hospital outcomes of PE. They were more likely to have complicated hospital course with AKI, shock, and ICU admission, and were less likely to be discharged home. This possibly implies that cirrhotic patients are more likely to have hemodynamically unstable PE. This warrants early triaging, careful monitoring, and multidisciplinary approach to management of such patients. Future studies are needed to further explore the outcomes in such patients to guide clinical care.


Fragmented health care delivery is recognized as increasingly problematic. Integrated care has been advanced as a reform that will improve quality of care and lower costs. Despite the application of integrated care systems in the United States, there has been a limited amount of empirical work explicating the most effective health care pathways. Stepped care has been proposed as a framework by which to implement coordinated team-based care and has gained preliminary empirical support. In this manuscript a rationale for team-based stepped care is presented, tools for implementation are provided, and future research directions are suggested.