Antimicrobial resistance is currently one of the greatest threats to global health, food security, and development. In this aspect, medicinal plants have been studied to support the development of viable alternatives to prevent and treat infectious diseases. This study aimed to perform a review of the literature comprising the antimicrobial activity of vegetable species from Brazilian biomes. We selected 67 original scientific publications about extracts, fractions, or isolated molecules from plants in the Brazilian biomes, published between 2016 and 2020 in Pubmed, ScienceDirect, and Scielo. Data demonstrated that 98 plant species, especially collected in the Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, and Caatinga biomes, were tested against 40 fungi and 78 bacterial strains. Bioactive fractions of Eucalyptus globulus methanolic stump wood extract were active against Candida albicans and C. tropicalis (MIC 2.50 µg/mL). The catechin purified from Banisteriopsis argyrophylla leaves had activity against C. glabrata (MIC 2.83 µg/mL) and ethanolic extract obtained from Caryocar coriaceum bark and fruit pulp exhibited MIC of 4.1 µg/mL on Microsporum canis. For bacteria, compounds isolated from the dichloromethane extract of Peritassa campestris, lectin extracted from a saline extract of Portulaca elatior and essential oils of Myrciaria pilosa exhibited significant effect against Bacillus megaterium (MIC 0.78 µg/mL), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MIC 4.06 µg/mL) and Staphylococcus aureus strains (MIC 5.0 µg/mL), respectively. The findings support the antimicrobial and bioeconomic potential of plants from Brazilian biodiversity and their promising health applications.


Background Quadriceps muscle weakness is a well-defined characteristic of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to be highly prevalent in COPD but its association with quadriceps strength in this group is unknown. Objectives To investigate the effects of Vitamin D status on quadriceps strength. To validate measurements of quadriceps strength by handheld dynamometer (HHD) against the gold standard isokinetic dynamometer (IKD) in a sub-population. Methods 30 patients with COPD Gold Stage II and above were recruited. Quadriceps muscle strength was tested using the HHD in all subjects. Eight of the subjects were also tested using the IKD for validation purposes. Vitamin D status and a range of potentially confounding measures were assessed. A multivariate analysis was performed to determine which variables were associated with quadriceps strength. Results A very strong and positive correlation (r=0.92, 95%, p<0.0001), existed between the HHD and IKD measurements. Serum 25-hydroxyvitaminD was not associated with quadriceps strength (r=0.17, p=0.20). The male gender (β 36.7, 95% CI 14.0 to 59.4, p=0.002) and pack year history (β −0.15 95% CI −0.2 to −0.05, p=0.003) were independently associated with quadriceps strength. Conclusions The portable and inexpensive HHD is a valid method of testing quadriceps strength in patients with COPD. Serum 25-hydroxyvitaminD is not associated with quadriceps strength in patients with COPD, although male gender and a decrease in pack year history are significantly associated.


Abstract Context: Liverworts (Marchantiophyta) are the second largest group of bryophytes exhibiting promising pharmacological and biological activities. They have been used as remedies for cuts, fractures, burns, bruises, open wounds, inflammation and pneumonia. Objective: In the present study, eight liverwort species [Corsinia coriandrina (Spreng.) Lindb. (Corsiniaceae), Mannia androgyna (L.) A. Evans (Aytoniaceae), Plagiochasma rupestre (J.R. Forst et G. Forst) Steph. (Aytoniaceae), Porella cordaeana (Huebener) Moore (Porellaceae), Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff. (Porellaceae), Reboulia hemisphaerica (L.) Raddi (Aytoniaceae), Riccia fluitans L. (Ricciaceae), and Targionia hypophylla L. (Targioniaceae)] have been investigated for their phytochemical composition and pharmacological effects as a function of anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive potentials, in connection with the major volatile components of the extracts. Material and methods: The chemical compositions of these species and major constituents were identified using GC/MS. In addition, carrageenan-induced paw edema and p-benzoquinone-induced abdominal constriction models were used for the activity assessments. Results: Sesquiterpenes were detected as common constituents of all liverworts. The in vivo experimental models revealed that P. cordeana, P. rupestre and R. haemispherica show significant inhibitory effect on carrageenan-induced paw edema with the inhibition values of 25.4, 27.2 and 29.4%, respectively. Porella cordaeana, P. platyphylla, P. rupestre and R. haemispherica exhibit promising suppressing effect on p-benzoquinone-induced abdominal constriction animal models with the values of 27.6, 31.5, 44.6, and 41.1%, respectively. Discussion: It is suggested that the sesquiterpenes are partly responsible for mentioned activities of the liverworts. Conclusion: The present study confirms the claimed anti-inflammatory activity of liverworts in a scientific platform.


In the present study, the structural, mechanical, electronic and optical properties of all-inorganic vacancy-ordered double perovskites A2Sn1−xTixY6 (A = K, Rb, Cs; Y = Cl, Br, I) are explored by density functional theory. The structural and thermodynamic stabilities are confirmed by the tolerance factor and negative formation energy. Moreover, by doping Ti ions into vacancy-ordered double perovskite A2SnY6, the effect of Ti doping on the electronic and optical properties was investigated in detail. Then, according to the requirement of practical applications in photovoltaics, the optimal concentration of Ti ions and the most suitable halide element are determined to screen the right compositions. In addition, the mechanical, electronic and optical properties of the selected compositions are discussed, exhibiting the maximum optical absorption both in the visible and ultraviolet energy ranges; thus, the selected compositions can be considered as promising materials for application in solar photovoltaics. The results suggest a great potential of A2Sn1−xTixY6 (A = K, Rb, Cs; Y = Cl, Br, I) for further theoretical research as well as experimental research on the photovoltaic performance of stable and toxic-free perovskite solar cells.


We establish an asymptotic connection between vanishing rth-power distortion and shrinking cell diameters for vector quantizers with convex cells. As a consequence, a number of shrinking cell conditions may be easily verified by showing that the quantizers in question have distortion tending to zero. This also plays an important role in the asymptotic analysis of a common greedy growing scheme for tree-structured vector quantizers.


Pain intensity, disability, and depressive symptoms are hallmarks of chronic pain conditions, but little is known about the relationships among these symptoms in the transition from acute to chronic pain. In this study, an inception cohort of men with low back pain (N = 78) was assessed at 2, 6, and 12 months after pain onset. At 6 months, pain intensity, disability, and depressive symptoms were predicted only by their respective levels at 2 months after pain onset. At 12 months, pain intensity and depressive symptoms were predicted by heightened disability at 6 months after pain onset; 12-month depressive symptoms also were predicted by 2-month disability. Pain intensity was not predictive of changes in disability or depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that functional disability plays a more prominent role than pain intensity in the transition from acute to chronic pain. A "failure to adapt" conceptual model is presented to account for these results.


To determine the involvement of purinergic receptors in coronary endothelium-dependent relaxation, the response to acetylcholine (1 × 10-8 to 3 × 10-7<smlcap>M</smlcap>) was recorded in isolated rat hearts perfused according to the Langendorff procedure before and after 30 min of ischemia and 15 min of reperfusion and after the inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis with <smlcap>L</smlcap>-NAME (10-4<smlcap>M</smlcap>), in the absence and presence of the antagonist of purinergic P2X receptors, PPADS (3 × 10-6<smlcap>M</smlcap>), and of the antagonist of purinergic P2Y receptors, Reactive Blue 2 (3 × 10-7<smlcap>M</smlcap>). In control conditions, the relaxation to acetylcholine was not altered by PPADS or Reactive Blue 2. The relaxation to acetylcholine was reduced after ischemia-reperfusion, and, in this condition, it was further reduced by treatment with PPADS or Reactive Blue 2. Likewise, the relaxation to acetylcholine was reduced by <smlcap>L</smlcap>-NAME, and reduced further by Reactive Blue 2 but not by PPADS. These results suggest that the relaxation to acetylcholine may be partly mediated by purinergic receptors after ischemia-reperfusion, due to the reduction of nitric oxide release in this condition.


The triple diagnosed are AIDS patients who are also substance abusers and mentally ill. Such a combination raises roadblocks to care that any of the conditions alone would not cause. A team approach throughout the home care community, however, seems to overcome the obstacles.


Background on HIV in South Africa
South Africa is an upper-middle-income country with the second-largest economy in Africa. In mid 2015, the population was estimated at 54.96 million; 51.0% were women and 30.2% were younger than 15 years of age. The population density, age and gender structures, however, vary significantly. South Africans have a high burden of communicable diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis, as well as non-communicable chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer. Life expectancy has seen progressive increases over the years, in part due to the rapid and effective scale-up of HIV and tuberculosis care in the country. In 2015, life expectancy was 60.6 years for men and 64.3 years for women. However, maternal and child mortality rates are relatively high compared to other middle-income countries. The latest UNAIDS estimates for 2015 indicated that almost 7 million [6.7-7.4 million] South Africans were living with HIV.6 In the 15-49-year age group, prevalence was as high as 19.2%, with women the worst affected. In the 0-14-year age group, 240 000 children are estimated to be living with HIV. Antiretroviral therapy coverage is expanding, with approximately 3.4 million South Africans currently receiving antiretroviral therapy and close to 4 million predicted to be on antiretroviral therapy in the 2016 and 2017 fiscal year.


The aim of this study was to determine phospholipase A2 (PLA2) kinetics and activity in the mare's endometrium during the oestrous cycle and early pregnancy. Phospholipase A2 is responsible for the liberation of arachidonic acid from phospholipids, which is the first limiting step in prostaglandins synthesis. Phospholipase A2 activity was measured using an assay based on the liberation of oleic acid from 1-palmitoyl-2-[(14) C] oleoyl phosphatidylcholine. The enzyme was shown to be calcium dependent, to have an optimum pH of 8 and an apparent Michaelis constant of 127 μM. Enzyme activity was low in the endometrium of early luteal phase tissue but increased significantly (p < 0.001) during the late luteal phase (5.39 ± 0.16; 3.48 ± 0.33, 6.85 ± 0.59, and 9.96 ± 1.23 nmol oleic acid released/mg protein at oestrus, and Days 3, 8 and 14 after ovulation, respectively). The mean PLA2 activity in endometrial tissue from pregnant mares (4.23 ± 0.74) was significantly lower (p < 0.01) than from cyclic animals during late dioestrus (9.96 ± 1.23). The results indicate that PLA2 activity in equine endometrium changes with the stage of the oestrous cycle and thus may be influenced by systemic hormone concentrations. The inhibitory effects of conceptus products on secretion of prostaglandin during early pregnancy were associated with a competitive inhibitor that decreased endometrial PLA2 activity.


The In-Vessel corium Retention (IVR) through the External Reactor Vessel Cooling (ERVC) is mean for maintaining the reactor vessel integrity during a severe accident, by cooling and retaining the molten material inside the reactor vessel. By doing this, significant portion of severe accident negative phenomena connected with reactor vessel failure could be avoided. In this paper, analysis of NPP Krško applicability for IVR strategy was performed. It includes overview of performed plant related analysis with emphasis on wet cavity modification, plant's site specific walk downs, new applicable probabilistic and deterministic analysis, evaluation of new possibilities for ERVC strategy implementation regarding plant's post-Fukushima improvements and adequacy with plant's procedures for severe accident mitigation. Conclusion is that NPP Krško could perform in-vessel core retention by applying external reactor vessel cooling strategy with reasonable confidence in success. Per probabilistic and deterministic analysis, time window for successful ERVC strategy performance for most dominating plant damage state scenarios is 2.5 hours, when onset of core damage is observed. This action should be performed early after transition to Severe Accident Management Guidance's (SAMG). For loss of all AC power scenario, containment flooding could be initiated before onset of core damage within related emergency procedure. To perform external reactor vessel cooling, reactor water storage tank gravity drain with addition of alternate water is needed to be injected into the containment. ERVC strategy will positively interfere with other severe accident strategies. There are no negative effects due to ERVC performance. New flooding level will not threaten equipment and instrumentation needed for long term SAMGs performance and eventually diluted containment sump borated water inventory will not cause return to criticality during eventual recirculation phase due to the lost core geometry.


Abstract. Open burning of household and municipal solid waste is a
frequent practice in many developing countries. Due to limited resources for
collection and proper disposal, solid waste is often disposed of in
neighborhoods and open-burned in piles to reduce odors and create space for
incoming waste. Emissions from these ground-level and low-temperature burns
cause air pollution, leading to adverse health effects among community
residents. In this study, laboratory combustion experiments were conducted to
characterize gas and particle emissions from 10 waste categories
representative of those burned in South Africa: paper, leather/rubber,
textiles, plastic bottles, plastic bags, vegetation (with three different
moisture content levels), food discards, and combined materials. Carbon
dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) were measured in real time to
calculate modified combustion efficiencies (MCEs). MCE is used along with
video observations to determine fuel-based emission factors (EFs) during
flaming and smoldering phases as well as the entire combustion process. Fuel
elemental composition and moisture content have strong influences on
emissions. Plastic bags have the highest carbon content and the highest
combustion efficiency, leading to the highest EFs for CO2. Textiles
have the highest nitrogen and sulfur content, resulting in the highest EFs
for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Emissions are
similar for vegetation with 0 % and 20 % moisture content; however, EFs
for CO and particulate matter (PM) from the vegetation with 50 % moisture
content are 3 and 20–30 times, respectively, those from 0 % and 20 %
moisture content. This study also shows that neglecting carbon in the ash
and PM can lead to significant overestimation of EFs. Results from this
study are applicable to emission inventory improvements as well as air
quality management to assess the health and climate effects of household-waste open burning.


Here the effect of tea tree and manuka essential oils (EOs) on the mechanical properties and antibacterial activity of electrospun polylactic acid (PLA) fibres is investigated. It is found that the essential oils work as plasticisers for PLA, lowering the glass transition temperature of the resulting composite fibres up to 60% and increasing elongation-at-break and tensile strength up to 12 times. Manuka EO is particularly successful in blocking the formation of biofilms of Staphylococcus epidermidis that is typically involved in nosocomial infections associated with implanted devices. The results demonstrate that natural extracts can be used to control the mechanical behaviour of PLA fibres and to confer antibacterial activity.


OBJECTIVE
To ascertain the risk of locoregional lymph node metastases from colorectal cancer, we compared microscopic pathological characteristics of the primary tumor with the expression of the nm23-H1 protein.

METHODS
The nm23-H1 expression of 100 colorectal carcinomas and corresponding non-neoplastic mucosa was analyzed immunohistochemically at the time of primary curative surgery (R0 resection). Conventional histopathological factors (depth of infiltration, grade of differentiation, invasion of lymph vessels or veins) that are proven indicators for metastatic involvement of locoregional lymph nodes were examined in all cases.

RESULTS
Of 45 tumors with lymph node metastases, 42 (93%) had a low nm23-H1 expression whereas only 35 (78%) were of high-risk histology (G3, G4, or lymphatic invasion). Therefore, nm23-H1 expression within the primary tumor indicated the lymph node status with a sensitivity of 93% and a negative predictive value of 92%. The classic pathohistological factors (high risk vs low risk) had a sensitivity of 78% and a negative predictive value of 77%, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Reduced expression of nm23-H1 within primary colorectal carcinomas could serve as an additional independent marker in estimating the nodal metastatic potential of these tumors.


Worldwide, around 40,000 people progressively lose their eyesight as a consequence of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) caused by pathogenic variants in the ADGRV1 gene, for which currently no treatment options exist. A model organism that mimics the human phenotype is essential to unravel the exact pathophysiological mechanism underlying ADGRV1-associated RP, and to evaluate future therapeutic strategies. The introduction of CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing technologies significantly improved the possibilities of generating mutant models in a time- and cost-effective manner. Zebrafish have been recognized as a suitable model to study Usher syndrome-associated retinal dysfunction. Using CRISPR/Cas9 technology we introduced a 4bp deletion in adgrv1 exon 9 (adgrv1rmc22). Immunohistochemical analysis showed that Adgrv1 was absent from the region of the photoreceptor connecting cilium in the adgrv1rmc22 zebrafish retina. Here, the absence of Adgrv1 also resulted in reduced levels of the USH2 complex members usherin and Whrnb, suggesting that Adgrv1 interacts with usherin and Whrnb in zebrafish photoreceptors. When comparing adgrv1rmc22 zebrafish with wild-type controls, we furthermore observed increased levels of aberrantly localized rhodopsin in the photoreceptor cell body, and decreased electroretinogram (ERG) B-wave amplitudes which indicate that the absence of Adgrv1 results in impaired retinal function. Based on these findings we present the adgrv1rmc22 zebrafish as the first ADGRV1 mutant model that displays an early retinal dysfunction. Moreover, the observed phenotypic changes can be used as quantifiable outcome measures when evaluating the efficacy of future novel therapeutic strategies for ADGRV1-associated RP.


Abstract Brachyuran decapods (crabs) are rarely preserved in coastal environments and have not been documented in close association with dinosaur fossils. A crab referable to the Necrocarcinidae Förster, 1968, is here described from the Cenomanian Bahariya Formation, Bahariya Oasis, Egypt. The occurrence of a crab in a mangrove setting in association with terrestrial vertebrates is extremely unusual in the fossil record. Review of decapod occurrences from the region has resulted in placement of Portunus sp. of Roger (1946) within the Raninidae de Haan, 1839, and Lophoraninella cretacea (Dames, 1886) into the Galatheoidea Samouelle, 1819. The crabs of the Bahariya Formation were probably scavengers, feeding on vegetation and other organic material and were possibly a food source for fish and other vertebrates and invertebrates in the environment.


Oral bunazosin hydrochloride, a new alpha 1-blocker, for 12 weeks was given to ten outpatients diagnosed as having essential hypertension associated with hypercholesterolemia. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) triglyceride, HDL3 cholesterol, and apolipoprotein E levels were significantly decreased by bunazosin treatment. The decrease in HDL triglycerides was a result of the decrease in HDL3 triglyceride levels. There were no significant changes in the other components. The ratio of cholesterol to triglycerides in the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and HDL fractions was increased significantly after bunazosin treatment. Furthermore, the ratio of HDL2 cholesterol to HDL3 cholesterol after bunazosin treatment was significantly higher than before treatment. The results suggest that the catabolism of triglycerides in lipoprotein and the reduction in tissue cholesterol increase, and that bunazosin hydrochloride does not adversely affect the lipid component in hypertensive patients with hypercholesterolemia.


[1] Superposed epoch analyses of magnetospheric plasma analyzer (MPA) data from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) satellites are performed to reveal the density, temperature and flow velocity behavior of the hot ion plasma (0.1–45 keV), the hot electron plasma (0.03–45 keV) and the cold ion plasma (1–100 eV) at geosynchronous orbit following the arrival of high speed solar wind streams at the dayside magnetopause. The analyses reveal three striking features. (1) The arrival of a high density solar wind plasma at the leading edge of a high speed solar wind stream induces a sharp enhancement in magnetospheric convection which leads to the delivery of a hot, dense "plug" of fresh plasma sheet ions and electrons to the inner magnetosphere. On average, this superdense plasma is observed at geosynchronous orbit for ∼20 h following convection onset. There follows an extended period when exceptionally hot plasma sheet ions and electrons of more usual density are continually convected to the inner magnetosphere - a environment that persists at geosynchronous orbit while the high speed stream prevails. (2) Flow velocities and convection speeds of eroded cold plasma moving toward the dayside magnetopause are calculated from MPA statistical analyses. Average convection speeds of 8–12 km s−1 are typical in plume material moving sunwards following the arrival of high speed solar wind streams at the magnetopause. (3) The density of plume material convecting to the dayside magnetopause during high speed streams which follow very calm periods (Kp ∼ 0) is around double that during high speed streams following periods when higher levels of convection persist (Kp ∼ 2).


Compartment syndrome is usually due to trauma but can also have atraumatic causes. It is defined as a compromise of neurovascular and muscle function that presents symptomatically with the six P's: pain, pallor, paresthesia, paralysis, poikilothermia, and pulselessness. Diagnosis is confirmed by a delta pressure of <30 mmHg (diastolic blood pressure minus the compartment pressure). This case details a 15-year-old male football player with atraumatic compartment syndrome in the lateral compartment of the right lower leg. Symptoms of swelling and pain began 2 weeks before presentation after the patient was "juked." The patient's symptoms improved after a week of rest but worsened when he returned to practice. In the emergency department, the patient was able to ambulate with pain and declined pain medication. Examination revealed severe tenderness, mildly decreased strength, decreased sensation, and edema in the lateral compartment via bedside ultrasound. Because of the concern for compartment syndrome, pressure was checked with a disposable manometer (Compass CT disposable pressure transducer) revealing a delta pressure of 26 mmHg. The patient consequently underwent fasciotomy, eventually returning to baseline function without deficits. Awareness of this atypical presentation of compartment syndrome will assist providers in making a critical diagnosis and preventing severe complications and disability. This case also demonstrates the potential of disposable pressure transducers for cost-effective and accurate diagnostic confirmation of compartment syndrome in the emergency department.


Introduction: Nephrotic syndrome is a disease of relapse and remission. Relapse rate is more than 80%. Hyperlipidemia and hypoalbuminemia are important characteristic of nephrotic syndrome. Hyperlipidemia persist even after remission of disease in frequent relapse nephrotic syndrome possibly due to frequent attack of disease and frequent use of steroid. Hyperlipidemia causes premature atherosclerosis, progressive renal injury leading to chronic renal failure, cardiac complications (myocardial infarction, hypertension), cerebrovascular disease and frequent relapse of nephrotic syndrome.
Objectives: The aim of study was to see the lipid profile and comparison of lipid profile among different types of steroid sensitive idiopathic relapsing nephrotic syndrome during active disease and in remission.
Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study included 120 ( 40 in each group) children aged 2-16 years with steroid sensitive idiopathic relapsing nephrotic syndrome patients who were admitted or attended in out patients department (OPD) in paediatric nephrology department Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, during December 2014 to December 2015. They were clinically examined and fasting lipid profile was done in each case during active disease and after one month of urinary remission. The study population were divided into three groups- Infrequent relapse nephrotic syndrome (IFRNS), frequent relapse nephrotic syndrome ( FRNS ) and steroid dependent nephrotic syndrome (SDNS) based on clinical response.
Results: Total patients were 120 (40 in each group). The study showed a male predominance with a male to female ratio 2.24:1, male patients were 69%, female 31%. In all cases, there were increased mean total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein ( LDL ) , triglyceride (TG) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) was normal during active disease, more raised in FRNS and SDNS.There was significant decrease in the mean level of total cholesterol, LDL and triglyceride during remission ( p <0.001). Cholesterol became normal but triglyceride and LDL remained elevated even after one month of urinary remission in FRNS and SDNS.
Conclusion: Hyperlipidemia persist during remission of steroid sensitive relapsing nephrotic syndrome. Children with FRNS and SDNS should be addressed with lipid lowering medication, healthy foods and healthy life style. Multicenter prospective studies with larger sample are needed for validating the findings of the present study.
Medicine Today 2022 Vol.34(2): 111-116


PURPOSE
To assay the effects of cyclosporin A on mucus secretion from goblet cells and on mucociliary transport in situ in rats.

METHODS
Twenty-one male Wistar rats were assigned to 3 groups: control (n = 5), saline (n = 8), and cyclosporin A (n = 8). After 30 days of drug therapy, the rats were killed, and the lungs were removed from the thoracic cavity. Mucus samples were collected, and the transport rate was evaluated in vitro using a bullfrog palate model. Mucociliary transport was timed in situ by direct view of particles trapped on the mucus moving across the respiratory tract. Finally, the amount of stored mucins in the goblet cells of the respiratory epithelium was measured.

RESULTS
Drug dosage measurements showed that cyclosporine blood concentration at the moment the rats were killed was 1246.57 +/- 563.88 ng/mL. The in vitro transport rate was significantly lower (P < .001) in the cyclosporin A-treated group. Also, the in-situ mucociliary transport rate was decreased in all cyclosporin A-treated animals when compared to the saline group (P = .02). Mucus quantity measurements showed a significant decrease on both acid (P = .01) and neutral (P = .02) mucus production from goblet cells in the animals submitted to cyclosporin A therapy. The correlation between the percentage of total mucus and in vitro transport rate was positive and significant (r = 0.706, P < .001), as was the correlation between the percentage of total mucus and the in situ mucociliary transport rate (r = 0.688, P = .001).

CONCLUSION
This study shows that cyclosporin A plays an important role in the impairment of the mucociliary clearance in rats by reducing both acid and neutral mucus production from goblet cells and causing a decrease in the mucociliary transport velocity.


A network of sea level gauges has been installed with about 40 km spacing in the Shumagin Islands in order to detect relative vertical motion, in particular, possible crustal motion precursory to an expected major earthquake. This required the development and deployment of a pressure sensor sea level gauge suitable for installation on remote and harsh coastlines. Data are collected in near-real-time via satellite, both in order to exploit fully any precursors that may be observed and to provide continuous information on the status of the instruments. Using Wiener filtering techniques, it has been determined conservatively that no relative vertical crustal motion greater than 0.1 m between stations has occurred during 1981-1985. This is consistent with independent geodetic leveling and trilateration data, though evidence exists for more rapid deformation during 1978-1980. The sea level data collected so far have an rms noise level of about 0.04 m after processing; this is limited in part by the pressure sensor and associated electronics. Improved prressure gauges with better long-term stability have recently been installed. A short-baseline tiltmeter operating in a tunnel has demonstrated that suitably designed and located land-based tiltmeters have a lower noise level, and hence better precursor detection characteristics than the sea level gauges, at monthly and shorter periods.


The most appropriate treatment for a patient with angina pectoris depends on the underlying pathophysiologic process and whether any associated illness is present. Each patient's clinical history must be carefully reviewed so the hemodynamic process responsible for the clinical picture is understood. If symptoms are produced mostly by an increase in myocardial oxygen demand, efforts should be directed toward reducing the demand or improving coronary blood flow to meet the demand. If symptoms appear to occur secondary to vasospasm, treatment should be directed toward relief of spasm with potent vasodilating agents, such as calcium channel blockers. Most patients have a clinical picture consistent with mixed angina and may require combination therapy. Treatment of associated illnesses and the safety of pharmacologic agents used in their presence should be carefully considered. Finally, if treatment is to successfully reduce the incidence of serious cardiac events and prolong life, the goal of therapy should be relief of the total ischemic burden on the heart.


Purpose of review The goal of this article is to evaluate developments in the knowledge of suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) protein ocular allergy and the potential of SOCS proteins as targets for therapeutic strategies. Recent findings The family of proteins designated SOCS proteins plays an important role in Th2-mediated allergic responses through the control of the balance between Th1 and Th2 cells. SOCS3 and SOCS5 are predominantly expressed in Th2 and Th1 cells, respectively, and they reciprocally inhibit the Th1 and Th2 differentiation processes. SOCS3 is highly expressed at the disease site of allergic conjunctivitis, and T-cell-specific expression of SOCS3 deteriorates clinical and pathological features of allergic conjunctivitis. Reduction of the expression level or inhibition of function clearly reduces the severity of allergic conjunctivitis. On the other hand, constitutive expression of SOCS5, a specific inhibitor of IL-4 signaling, results in reduced eosinophil infiltration. Moreover, negative regulation of the Th2-mediated response by dominant-negative SOCS3 and SOCS5 reduced the incidence of allergic conjunctivitis in a mouse model. Summary The present article summarizes recent findings in terms of a role of SOCS protein as a negative regulator in ocular allergy and its clinical application.


Global statistics estimate that 15% of all cases of lung cancer in men and 53% in women are not attributable to smoking, and these data indicate that worldwide, approximately 25% of patients with lung cancer are never smokers. The etiology of lung cancer is disputed. The present study reviews the genes associated with susceptibility to lung cancer among never smokers and suggests possibilities for the involvement of metabolic syndrome. The environment appears to have changed the genes susceptible to lung cancer. Classical genes associated with lung cancer are decreasing and novel emerging genes may reflect changes in lifestyle. We provide evidence that the genes associated with susceptibility to lung cancer in never smokers are very similar to those reported in patients with metabolic syndrome, and that simply quitting smoking is not sufficient as the primary means of preventing lung cancer.


Protein content is one of the main nutrition quality traits used to measure nutrition value in rice (Oryza sativa L.) Therefore, improving the protein content is a main target for nutrition quality breeding in rice. Previous studies have mainly focused on the total protein content in brown and polished rice using bi-parental segregating populations. Few researchers have focused on four different protein component traits (glutelin, prolamin, albumin, and globulin) in rice, and little is known regarding association analysis in natural populations. In this study, 329 japonica accessions (Oryza sativa L. subsp. japonica Kato) were collected from worldwide geographic distributions and genotyped using 154 microsatellite markers to detect the association between four protein component traits and relative markers in the tested panel. The Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 method was used to measure the phenotype of four protein components. A total of 845 amplified alleles were detected with allele number ranging from 2 to 9. The whole population was divided into three subgroups via software STRUCTURE 2.3.4. The scatterplot showed that the LD (linkage disequilibrium) decay distance was about 30 cM in the whole tested population. A total of 15 simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers were identified by using both the general linear model (GLM) and mixed linear model (MLM). These associated marker loci can provide a higher variety of choices in improving the nutrition quality of rice. In addition, the carrier materials with excellent alleles identified in this study can be used as parental genotypes in rice molecular breeding in the future.


For this paper, an improvement to a cogging torque reduction technique was studied in regards to integral slot numbers in a permanent magnet machine. An 18 slot/8 pole permanent magnet machine structure was selected and developed, and some axial channels were introduced to the machine's rotor core. The effects the axial channels had on cogging torque reduction were not studied in detail; however, it was noted that the channels did not disturb the machine's normal magnetic flux in regards to an air gap. Two slotting steps were used on the edge of the machine's permanent magnet with slot opening widths of 2 mm and air gap lengths of 1 mm; this was done in order to minimize cogging torque. Three different magnet structures for the permanent magnet machine were then analyzed and compared. The two steps for slotting were found to be best for cogging torque reduction among the three different structures. Finally, simulation results showed that improving slotting steps for magnet edges could significantly reduce cogging torque in permanent magnet machines by up to 98.80%.


This study evaluated the physicochemical properties of brown rice (BR) and germinated brown rice (GBR) in Korea. The protein content of BR was significantly higher than that of GBR. The amylose content of BR and GBR ranged from 17.42 to 18.48% and from 17.50 to 19.69%, respectively. The GBR contained higher -aminobutyric acid (GABA) content than that of BR. In an RVA examination, pasting temperatures of BR and GBR were . Texture analysis test showed that GBR Yeonghojinmi had the lowest hardness and highest stickiness. In conclusion, this study showed that compared to BR, GBR has a much softer texture, improved eating quality and increased GABA content.


Aims. By means of hydrodynamical models we do the first investigations of how the properties of planetary nebulae are affected by their metal content and what can be learned from spatially unresolved spectrograms of planetary nebulae in distant stellar systems. Methods. We computed a new series of 1D radiation-hydrodynamics planetary nebulae model sequences with central stars of 0.595 Msurrounded by initial envelope structures that differ only by their metal content. At selected phases along the evolutionary path, the hydrodynamic terms were switched off, allowing the models to relax for fixed radial structure and radiation field into their equilibrium state with respect to energy and ionisation. The analyses of the line spectra emitted from both the dynamical and static models enabled us to systematically study the influence of hydrodynamics as a function of metallicity and evolution. We also recom- puted selected sequences already used in previous publications, but now with different metal abundances. These sequences were used to study the expansion properties of planetary nebulae close to the bright cut-off of the planetary nebula luminosity function. Results. Our simulations show that the metal content strongly influences the expansion of planetary nebulae: the lower the metal con- tent, the weaker the pressure of the stellar wind bubble, but the faster the expansion of the outer shell because of the higher electron temperature. This is in variance with the predictions of the interacting-stellar-winds model (or its variants) according to which only the central-star wind is thought to be responsible for driving the expansion of a planetary nebula. Metal-poor objects around slowly evolving central stars become very dilute and are prone to depart from thermal equilibrium because then adiabatic expansion con- tributes to gas cooling. We find indications that photoheating and line cooling are not fully balanced in the evolved planetary nebulae of the Galactic halo. Expansion rates based on widths of volume-integrated line profiles computed from our radiation-hydrodynamics models compare very well with observations of distant stellar system. Objects close to the bright cut-off of the planetary nebula luminosity function consist of rather massive central stars (>0.6 M� ) with optically thick (or nearly thick) nebular shells. The half- width-half-maximum velocity during this bright phase is virtually independent of metallicity, as observed, but somewhat depends on the final AGB-wind parameters. Conclusions. The observed expansion properties of planetary nebulae in distant stellar systems with different metallicities are ex- plained very well by our 1D radiation-hydrodynamics models. This result demonstrates convincingly that the formation and accel- eration of a planetary nebula occurs mainly because of ionisation and heating of the circumstellar matter by the stellar radiation field, and that the pressure exerted by the shocked stellar wind is less important. Determinations of nebular abundances by means of photoionisation modelling may become problematic for those cases where expansion cooling must be considered.


The transfer of matter and energy from one organism to another and between organisms and their physical setting is a fundamental concept in life science. Not surprisingly, this concept is common to the Benchmarks for Science Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993), the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996), and most state frameworks and likely to appear in any middle-school science curriculum material. Nonetheless, while topics such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration have been taught for many years, research on student learning indicates that students have difficulties learning these ideas. In this study, nine middle-school curriculum materials—both widely used and newly developed—were examined in detail for their support of student learning ideas concerning matter and energy transformations in ecosystems specified in the national standards documents. The analysis procedure used in this study was previously developed and field tested by Project 2061 of the AAAS on a variety of curriculum materials. According to our findings, currently available curriculum materials provide little support for the attainment of the key ideas chosen for this study. In general, these materials do not take into account students' prior knowledge, lack representations to clarify abstract ideas, and are deficient in phenomena that can be explained by the key ideas and hence can make them plausible. This article concludes with a discussion of the implications of this study to curriculum development, teaching, and science education research based on shortcomings in today's curricula. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 538–568, 2004


In this paper we present a simple new algorithm to offset multiple, non-overlapping polygons with arbitrary holes that makes use of winding numbers. Our algorithm constructs an intermediate "raw offset curve" as input to the tessellator routines in the OpenGL Utility library (GLU), which calculates the winding number for each connected region. By construction, the invalid loops of our raw offset curve bound areas with non-positive winding numbers and thus can be removed by using the positive winding rule implemented in the GLU tessellator. The proposed algorithm takes O((n+k) logn) time and O(n+k) space, where n is the number of vertices in the input polygon and k is the number of self-intersections in the raw offset curve. The implementation is extremely simple and reliably produces correct and logically consistent results.


In this paper, a modified version of the directional bat algorithm (DBA) is proposed to fast and accurately extract the five parameters of the one-diode photovoltaic model from experimental data. In order to improve the exploit feature of the DBA, a random flight step based on the Lévy distribution is introduced. Additionally a dynamic procedure to correct any solution found which violates the established parameters bounds, during the solution process, is proposed. Tests were carried out on two commercial photovoltaic devices and the results demonstrated that for these two cases at least, the proposed algorithm named Lévy flight directional bat algorithm (LDBA), is more efficient and robust than the DBA and other well-established metaheuristic algorithms presented in the literature.


Purpose

To complement previous research on team performance, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of team performance and top management approval at the team level. In the proposed model, team performance and top management approval are influenced by the team leader's charisma, teamwork exhaustion, and goal clarity via the full mediation of team planning. The effects of the leader's charisma and goal clarity on team planning are moderated by teamwork exhaustion.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical testing of this model based on hierarchical regression modeling, by investigating team personnel in high-tech firms, confirms the applicability of team planning among these firms' work teams.

Findings

A team leader's charisma and goal clarity positively relate to team planning, while teamwork exhaustion is not associated with team planning. Team planning further positively relates to team performance and top management approval, respectively. A team leader's charisma negatively moderates the relationship between teamwork exhaustion and team planning, while goal clarity positively moderates the relationship between teamwork exhaustion and team planning.

Originality/value

While previous literature has focused in depth on team planning and its antecedents and outcomes, there still exists an important gap regarding potential moderation in the formation of team planning. This study provides some important findings that complement previous literature by examining three fresh exogenous determinants for explaining team planning, their interaction effects, and how they indirectly relate to team performance and top management approval via the full mediation of team planning.


The transverse energy distributions ($E_{T}$) have been measured for Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 62.4$ GeV by the STAR experiment at RHIC. They have been obtained from two measurements, the hadronic transverse energy ($E_{T}^{had}$) and the electromagnetic transverse energy($E_{T}^{em}$). $E_{T}^{had}$ has been measured from the tracks obtained by Time Projection Chamber (TPC) excluding the electrons and positrons. $E_{T}^{em}$ has been obtained by the STAR Barrel Electromagetic Calorimeter (BEMC) which measures the energy of electrons, positrons and photons. The measure of transverse energy gives an estimate of the energy density of the fireball produced in heavy ion collisions. $E_{T}$ per participant pair gives information about the production mechanism of particles.


The aim of this study was to assess carotid baroreflex responses during graded lower body negative pressure (LBNP). In 12 healthy subjects (age 29+/-4 years) we applied sinusoidal neck suction (0 to -30 mmHg) at 0.1 Hz to examine the sympathetic modulation of the heart and blood vessels and at 0.2 Hz to assess the effect of parasympathetic stimulation on the heart. Responses to neck suction were determined as the change in spectral power of RR-interval and blood pressure from baseline values. Measurements were carried out during progressive applications (0 to -50 mmHg) of LBNP. Responses to 0.1 and 0.2 Hz carotid baroreceptor stimulations during low levels of LBNP (-10 mmHg) were not significantly different from those measured during baseline. At higher levels of LBNP, blood pressure responses to 0.1 Hz neck suction were significantly enhanced, but with no significant change in the RR-interval response. LBNP at all levels had no effect on the RR-interval response to 0.2 Hz neck suction. The unchanged responses of RR-interval and blood pressure to neck suction during low level LBNP at -10 mmHg suggest no effect of cardiopulmonary receptor unloading on the carotid arterial baroreflex, since this LBNP level is considered to stimulate cardiopulmonary but not arterial baroreflexes. Enhanced blood pressure responses to neck suction during higher levels of LBNP are not necessarily the result of a reflex interaction but may serve to protect the circulation from fluctuations in blood pressure while standing.


AIM
The objective of our study is to present a rare case of two eterochronous primary gynaecological malignancies.

CASE
A 65-year-old para-2, white obese female, presented in our department 4 years ago, due to a single event of vaginal spotting. Curettage revealed an endometrial cancer. A total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed. Histology showed an endometrioid adenocarcinoma of endometrium stage Ib, moderately differentiated. No additional therapy was given. Twenty seven months later, a pathologic Papanicolaou smear came out on her routine follow-up. Although, recurrence on vaginal cuff was possible, the biopsies of anterior vaginal wall showed a poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the vagina. An exploratory laparotomy was performed, but tumor resection was not possible. The patient was classified as stage II vaginal carcinoma and underwent complete radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

CONCLUSION
This case indicates that female genital carcinomas of different histological origins may occur with minimal time-interval, even in the absence of known predisposing factors like previous chemo-radiotherapy, HPV infection or diethylstilbestrol exposure. The role of close follow up of hysterectomised patients should also be mentioned (Fig. 1, Ref. 15). Full Text (Free, PDF) www.bmj.sk.


Abstract. Synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) is an efficient technique for mapping the surface elevation and its temporal change over glaciers and ice sheets. However, due to the penetration of the SAR signal into snow and ice the apparent elevation in uncorrected InSAR digital elevation models (DEMs) is displaced versus the actual surface. We studied relations between interferometric radar signals and physical snow properties and tested procedures for correcting the elevation bias. The work is based on satellite and in-situ data over Union Glacier in the Ellsworth Mountains, West Antarctica, including interferometric data of the TanDEM-X mission, topographic data from optical satellite sensors and field measurements on snow structure and stratigraphy undertaken in December 2016. The study area comprises ice-free surfaces, bare ice, dry snow and firn with a variety of structural features related to local differences in wind exposure and snow accumulation. Time series of laser measurements of NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and ICESat-2 show steady state surface topography. For area-wide elevation reference we use the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA). The different elevation data are vertically co-registered on a blue ice area and an ice-free slope, surfaces not affected by radar signal penetration. The backscatter simulations with a multi-layer radiative transfer model show large variations for scattering of individual snow layers due to different size and structure of the scattering elements. The average depth-dependent backscatter contributions can be approximated by an exponential function. We obtain estimates of the elevation bias by inverting the interferometric volume correlation coefficient (coherence) applying a uniform volume model for describing the vertical loss function. Whereas the mean values of the computed elevation bias and the elevation difference between the TDM DEMs and the REMA show good agreement, a trend towards overestimation of penetration is evident for heavily wind-exposed areas and towards underestimation for areas with higher accumulation rates. The angular gradients of the backscatter intensity show also distinct differences between these two domains. This behaviour can be attributed to the anisotropy of the snow/firn volume structure showing differences in the size and shape of the scattering elements and in stratification related to snow accumulation and wind-driven erosion and deposition.


Recent technological advances have enabled the deployment of wide area applications against Internet accessible sources. A performance challenge to applications in such a setting is the unpredictable end-to-end latency of accessing these sources. We use passive information gathering mechanisms to learn end-to-end latency distributions and construct latency profiles (LPs). We hypothesize that a group of clients, within an autonomous system (AS), that are accessing a content server, in another AS, may be represented by (one or more) LPs. Related networking research on IDMaps, points of congestion, and BGP routes support such hypothesis. We develop aggregate LPs to provide coverage of groups (clusters) of client-server pairs. Using data gathered from a (limited) experiment we demonstrate the feasibility of constructing LPs.


Abstract Background the incidence of acute-on-chronic liver disease (AoCLD) is increasing. Objective to investigate the clinical features and risk factors of AoCLD and construct an effective prognostic nomogram model for older patients with AoCLD. Methods data from 3,970 patients included in the CATCH-LIFE study were used, including 2,600 and 1,370 patients in the training and validation sets, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to identify predictive risk factors in older individuals, and an easy-to-use nomogram was established. Performance was assessed using area under the curve, calibration plots and decision curve analysis (DCA). Results of the 3,949 patients with AoCLD, 809 were older with a higher proportion of autoimmune-related abnormalities, hepatitis C viral infection and schistosomiasis. In the older patient group, the incidence of cirrhosis, hepatic encephalopathy (HE), infection, ascites and gastrointestinal bleeding; neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), aspartate-to-alanine transaminase ratio (AST/ALT), creatinine and blood urea nitrogen levels were higher, whereas incidence of acute-on-chronic liver failure, white blood cell, platelet and haemoglobin levels; albumin, total bilirubin (TB), AST and ALT levels; international normalised ratio (INR), estimated glomerular filtration rate and blood potassium levels were lower than in the younger group. The final nomogram was developed based on the multivariate Cox analysis in training cohort using six risk factors: ascites, HE grades, NLR, TB, INR and AST/ALT. Liver transplantation-free mortality predictions were comparable between the training and validation sets. DCA showed higher net benefit for the nomograph than the treat-all or treat-none strategies, with wider threshold probabilities ranges. Conclusions our analysis will assist clinical predictions and prognoses in older patients with AoCLD.


For the improvement of N-carbamyl-D-amino acid amidohydrolase (DCase), which can be used for the industrial production of D-amino acids, the stability of DCase from Agrobacterium sp. KNK712 was improved through various combinations of thermostability-related mutations. The thermostable temperature (defined as the temperature on heat treatment for 10 min that caused a decrease in the DCase activity of 50%) of the enzyme which had three amino acids, H57Y, P203E, and V236A, replaced was increased by about 19 degrees C. The mutant DCase, designated as 455M, was purified and its enzymatic properties were studied. The enzyme had highly increased stability against not only temperature but also pH, the optimal temperature of the enzyme being about 75 degrees C. The substrate specificity of the enzyme for various N-carbamyl-D-amino acids was changed little in comparison with that of the native enzyme. Enzymochemical parameters were also measured.


This collection brings together published papers on key themes which book historians have identified as of particular significance in the history of twentieth-century publishing. It reprints some of the best comparative perspectives and most insightful and innovatively presented scholarship on publishing and book history from such figures as Philip Altbach, Lewis Coser, James Curran, Elizabeth Long, Laura Miller, Angus Phillips, Janice Radway, Jonathan Rose, Shafquat Towheed, Catherine Turner, Jay Satterfield, Clare Squires, Eva Hemmungs Wirten. It is arranged into six sections which examine the internationalisation of publishing businesses, changing notions of authorship, innovation in the design and marketing of books, the specific effects of globalisation on creative property and the book in a multimedia marketplace. Twentieth-century book history attracts an audience beyond the traditional disciplines of librarianship, bibliography, history and literary studies. It will appeal to publishing educators, editors, publishers, booksellers, as well as academics with an interest in media and popular culture.


It is tempting to assume that metacognitive processes necessarily evoke awareness. We review a number of experiments in which cognitive schema have been shown to develop without awareness. Implicit learning of a novel schema may not involve metacognitive regulation per se. Substitution of one automatic process by another as a result of the inadequacy of the former as circumstances change does, however, clearly involve metacognitive and executive processes of error correction and schema selection. We describe a recently published study in which we serendipitously discovered that a blindsight subject could change the schema with which he processed cue information in orienting spatial attention task without reporting any awareness of this change, or of the cues and targets which respectively directed and were the object his attention.


The present study aimed at developing a commercially viable protocol for in vitro corm production in saffron. Three-step sterilization process involving fungicides and sterilants ensured 94% clean viable cultures. Plant growth regulator (PGRs) ensuring initial bud sprouting, direct shoot regeneration from the base of the sprouted bud and cormlet production from multiple shoots have been standardized. MS Media supplemented with 0.5 mg/l naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 1.5 mg/l 6-benzyl amino purine (BAP) ensured maximum bud sprouting in September with direct multiple shoot primordia initiation on 6.5 mg/l BAP in November. 6.5 mg/l BAP + 0.2 mg/l NAA resulted in maximum shoot proliferation (24); however, at higher concentration, the PGRs were detrimental in arresting the growth. Viable shoot clumps established maximum in vitro corms in April after sub culturing on growth retardant (CCC) at 0.25% supplemented with 9% sucrose. Subculturing of non flowering in vitro corms on growth retardant with sucrose eliminated season dependence of in vitro protocols in the 2nd cycle of protocol. Primary and secondary hardening before field transfer ensured 100% corm viability. Keywords: Kashmir, corm, in vitro , saffron. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(25), pp. 3940-3946


Negative symptoms refer to the weakening or lack of normal thoughts, emotions or behaviour in schizophrenia patients. Their prevalence in first-episode psychosis is high, 50–90%, and 20–40% of schizophrenia patients have persisting negative symptoms. Severe negative symptoms during the early stages of treatment predict poor prognosis. The aim of the study was to review the current literature on the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. In June 2007, the following databases were searched: Web of Science, PubMed, PsycINFO, Medline (Ovid) and Scopus. The search included articles written in English and no time limit was determined. The studies were manually screened by one of the authors according to the title and abstract. About one in three schizophrenia patients suffer from significant negative symptoms. In these patients, negative symptoms constitute a key element of overall symptoms, weakening their ability to cope with everyday activities, affecting their quality of life and their ability to manage without significant outside help. About one in three schizophrenia patients suffer from significant negative symptoms. Attention should be focused on negative symptoms during the early phase of treatment, because they cause significant impairment to patients' quality of life. So far, no treatment appears to substantially improve negative symptoms narrowly defined. However, according to clinical experience, when treating negative symptoms, the best effect is achieved by optimizing the dose of medication and by complementing it with psychosocial therapies.


This study explored the effects of dietary calcium level and Hijikia fusiforme supplementation on bone indices and serum lipid levels using 36 female Sprague-Dawley rats as a model. Rats received low Ca diet for 3 weeks after ovariectomy. The rats were then divided into six dietary groups and fed low (0.1% Ca), normal (0.5% Ca) and high (1.5% Ca) Ca diets (CaL, CaN, CaH) and low, normal, high Ca diets with Hijtkia fusiforme supplementation (CaLH, CaNH, CaHH) for 3 weeks. After each experimental periods, 24 hour urine anclJor blood samples, left and right femurs were collected for analysis. Serum Ca concentration showed no significant difference by dietary Ca levels and Hijikia fusiforme supplementation. Alkaline phosphatase activity was significantly higher in normal and high Ca group compared to low Ca group. Serum total cholesterol, triglyceride and total lipid were not significantly different among groups. HDL-cholesterol showed no significant difference by Hijikia fusiforme supplementation. However, the normal and high Ca groups showed significantly higher HDL-cholesterol compared to the low Ca group. Urinary hydroxyproline and hydroxyproline/creatinine ratio were not significantly different among groups. The wet weight of the femur was significantly higher in low Ca group compared to normal or high Ca group. The dry weight, wet weight/body weight, length and breaking force of the femur were not significantly different among groups. Ash contents/wet weight of the femur was significantly increased as dietary Ca levels up and significantly higher in Htjikia fusiforme supplementation groups. The Ca content of the femur were significantly higher in the normal and high Ca groups than the low Ca group. However, there was no significant difference in Ca content by Hijikia fusiforme supplementation.


Oxygen consumption rates (MO2) were measured for 3 species of cave-dwelling crayfishes, Procambarus pallidus, Procambarus erythrops, and Troglocambarus maclanei. The MO2 values for the cave-dwelling species were compared to MO2 values measured previously over a broad range of masses in the surface-dwelling crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus. MO2 values reported for other surface crayfish are not different from Pacifastacus leniusculus of the same mass. The MO2 values for the cave species were all significantly below the MO2 values for the surface crayfish of the same mass, indicating that the cave crayfish have reduced aerobic metabolism. Critical oxygen tensions or Pcs (the ambient oxygen partial pressure (PO2) at which resting MO2 is no longer constant, but begins to decrease) measured for 2 of the cave species (P. pallidus, 29 Torr; T. maclanei, 25 Torr) were lower than those reported in the literature for surface species (35-40 Torr). The third cave species, P. erythrops, showed no decrease in MO2 down to an ambient PO2 of 20 Torr. The PO2 measured in water samples taken from 6 of the same submerged caves in which the crayfish were found showed great variability (mean = 71 Torr, range = 26-145 Torr), but was not lower than the PO2 of surface water samples taken outside of the caves. This suggests that low oxygen availability may not have been the primary selective force in the evolution of reduced oxygen uptake rates in cave crayfish.


INTRODUCTION
Streptococcus pneumoniae is responsible for most community acquired bacterial meningitis in adults. During the course of meningitis, the development of a new neurological focality can be a sign of an associated complication such as cerebritis.

CLINICAL CASE
We report a case of pneumococcal meningitis in a 40 year old woman who reported blurred vision one week after hospital admission. Ophthalmologic exploration was normal. Brain MR images showed areas of cerebritis.

CONCLUSION
Cerebritis is a rare complication of pneumococcal meningitis. We discuss the differential diagnosis and the utility of the different imaging techniques.


Congenital radial
club hand (CRCH) is a terminal deficiency characterized by the radial deviation
of the hand, marked shortening of the forearm, and generalized underdevelopment
of the extremity with an incidence rate of 1 per 100,000 live births. Both
sexes are nearly or equally affected. Challenges that the disease poses to the patient
are multifaceted, ranging from medical, social, cosmetic and functional issues
which also are the multidimensional treatment modalities. We report a case of a
2-month-old baby with the severe case of bilateral CRCH. The patient had the centralization of the left ulna with Kwire stabilization. About 160d of correction was achieved. He did well
and was discharged after two weeks at the orthopedic clinic for follow-up. Congenital
radial club hand though uncommon may be amenable to surgery. Centralization is
still the treatment of choice in severe cases and early intervention will offer
a better outcome.


We investigate intermediate unstable modes between two stream and filamentation instabilities. We detail the problem of the angle between the wave vector and its electric field and use an electromagnetic formalism allowing for any value for this angle. We display analytical results for 3 different models: cold beam-cold plasma, cold beam-hot plasma and cold relativistic beam-hot plasma. We demonstrate that plasma temperature prompts a critical angle for which waves are unstable at any k and show that for a relativistic beam, the most unstable waves are obtained for wave vectors which are neither normal nor perpendicular to the beam.


Reaction of copper(II) ion with 3,4-bis(dicyanomethylene)cyclobutane-1,2-dione dianion (cdcb2–) led to a copper(I) complex, [{Cu2(cdcb)(MeCN)2}n]. The crystal structure of this first complex of cdcb has been determined; it consists of layers of Cu2(cdcb)(MeCN)2 units parallel to the ab planes. The redox system of this complex, investigated by electrochemistry and ESR spectroscopy, is formed by the dianion, the radical anion, the neutral species of cdcb and the CuI–CuII system.


A 65-yr-old female developed cough, fever and dyspnoea following repeated exposure to a home ultrasonic humidifier. High-resolution computed tomography showed ground-glass opacity in both lung fields. Arterial blood gas analysis gave an oxygen tension of 8.38 kPa (63 Torr). Pulmonary function testing revealed restrictive ventilatory impairment with a reduction in the diffusing capacity. The diagnosis of extrinsic allergic alveolitis (EAA) was confirmed by radiographic findings, pathological evidence of alveolitis and reproductive development by a provocation test to the humidifier water. The yeast Debaryomyces Hansenii was the only microorganism cultured from the water of the humidifier. The double diffusion precipitating test and lymphocyte proliferative response was positive for an extract of D. Hansenii, providing evidence to incriminate this fungus. This is the first described case of EAA caused by D. Hansenii.


Business surveys often use complex sets of edit rules (edits, for short) to check returned questionnaires (records), locate suspicious or unacceptable responses, and support data cleaning operations prior to using the survey responses for estimation of the required target parameters. These sets of edits are complex because they may involve large numbers of survey questionnaires and variables, they may contain a large number of edits, and the edits may depend on a large number of tolerance parameters. When such sets of edits are used, they may cause large numbers of record failures and generate substantial costs of revision, especially if edit failures are dealt with by means of clerical operations, like reviewing original paper questionnaires or digital images of these, and re-contacting businesses for clarification and/or correction of the responses provided. Costs can be high both in terms of the resources required, as well as in terms of timeliness of survey processing, by delaying availability of the survey data for estimation and publication. In this paper we describe a generic tool, developed as a result of the collaboration between the University of Southampton and the ONS. This tool can help to assess the potential impact of changing the edits in a specified business survey. It is a SAS macro using the IML language which enables calculation of a number of edit performance and data quality indicators. Changes to the set of edits aiming to 'relax' the existing edits so that failure rates decrease and efficiency savings are achieved are assessed by means of several edit-related performance indicators, like failure and hit rates, false hit rates, etc.. Data quality indicators include proportion of errors missed and estimates of the bias resulting from missing errors for a specified revision of the set of edits. Edit designers and managers can then aim to fine tune their edits so that failure rates, false hit rates and editing costs are reduced, while data quality is preserved. An illustration is provided by the application of the tool to revise the edits used for the UK Annual Business Inquiry Part 2 to the reference year 2007.


In this paper, we develop a stochastic LWR model based on the influences of the driver's individual property on his/her perceived density and speed deviation. The numerical results show that the driver's individual property has great effects on traffic flow only when the initial density is moderate, i.e., at this time, oscillating traffic flow will occur and the oscillating phenomena in the traffic system consisting of the conservative and aggressive drivers is more serious than that in the traffic system consisting of the conservative (aggressive) drivers.


Benzylsuccinic acid (BS) and methylbenzylsuccinic acid (MeBS) isomers have been proposed as distinctive indicators of anaerobic toluene and xylene metabolism in fuel-contaminated aquifers; however, labor-intensive analytical procedures have limited their analysis at field sites. In this article, a rapid electrospray LC/MS/MS (liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry) method for benzylsuccinates is described that involves selected reaction monitoring, internal standard quantification with [ring-2H5]BS, small sample size (<1 mL), and no extraction/concentration steps. The highly selective LC/MS/ MS method was shown to be sensitive (detection limits ca. 0.3 microg/L), accurate, and precise. The method was used to characterize geographic and temporal distributions of BS and MeBS isomers in an anaerobic, hydrocarbon-contaminated aquifer. BS was never detected, and MeBS isomers were detected in the three wells with the highest concentrations of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes); MeBS concentrations ranged from <0.3 to 205 microg/L. A strong linear correlation (r2 = 0.94; n = 12) was found between concentrations of total MeBS isomers and their parent compounds, xylenes, which suggests that anaerobic xylene metabolism at this site was probably first-order rather than zero-order. The novel LC/MS/MS method for BS and MeBS isomers is a promising technique for rapid and reliable monitoring of in situ bioremediation of gasoline-contaminated groundwater.


This study's objective was to understand how chief executive officers' (CEOs) gender affects hotel businesses' survival. Female managers' influence has already been examined in other sectors, but researchers have not studied women CEOs' role in hotel management and survival. A sample of 2615 Spanish hotel companies was examined during the period 2005–2018 for how their survival was affected by the variables of financial aspects, years of experience and the principal hotel executive's gender. An econometrics-based survival analysis was conducted using a single complementary log-log model and panel data. The results indicate that some financial variables, such as sales, working capital to total assets ratio and each company's experience, influence hotel businesses' survival. The main finding was that women CEOs increase hotels' survival rate. This CEO gender study is a novelty in the literature on hotel survival.


This cross-sectional self-report study examined (1) whether family functioning (Family Functioning in Adolescence Questionnaire, FFAQ) and self-image (Piers–Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale) have independent associations with smoking and alcohol use and (2) whether self-image mediates the relationship between family functioning, smoking, and alcohol use among 1,598 Hispanic males and females in grades 7 through 12 in Los Angeles County, California, in 2001. The findings supported the main effects and, to some degree, the mediational effects that were hypothesized. Limitations and implications for this study are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested. This study was funded by the California Tobacco Related Disease Research Program.


1. The effects of vagal stimulation and applied acetylcholine were compared on the isolated sinus venosus preparation of the toad, Bufo marinus. 2. The effects of applied acetylcholine and of low‐frequency, or short bursts of high‐frequency vagal stimulation were abolished by hyoscine. 3. When intracellular recordings were made from muscle cells of the sinus venosus, it was found that applied acetylcholine caused bradycardia and a cessation of the heart beat which was associated with membrane hyperpolarization and a reduction in the duration of the action potentials. Much of the effect of acetylcholine can be attributed to it causing an increase in potassium conductance, gK. 4. When slowing was produced by low‐frequency vagal stimulation, only a small increase in maximum diastolic potential was detected. During vagal arrest the membrane potential settled to a potential positive of the control maximum diastolic potential. 5. In the presence of barium, much of the bradycardia associated with vagal stimulation persisted. Although the bradycardia produced by added acetylcholine also persisted in the presence of barium, the effects of acetylcholine that could be attributed to an increase in gK were abolished. 6. Addition of caesium ions produced bradycardia with membrane potential changes similar to those seen during vagal stimulation. 7. The results are discussed in relation to the idea that neuronally released acetylcholine reduces inward current flow during diastole. In contrast applied acetylcholine as well as reducing inward current flow during diastole also increases outward current flow by increasing gK.


The cancer stem cell (CSC) theory indicates that only a subset of the cancer cells is capable of tumor-initiation, self renewal and differentiation. CSC is also thought to be treatment resistant and responsible for recurrence. Different antigens are being used to identify CSC markers and are potential targets for CSC-based therapy. Due to the expression of the same antigens on normal stem cells it is of paramount importance that CSC-targeting cytotoxins are specifically and efficiently delivered to malignant tissues. Photochemical internalization (PCI) is a method for specific delivery of membrane impermeable macromolecules from endocytic vesicles to the cytosol of targeted cells. In this study we show that PCI increase the cytotoxic effect of immunotoxins (IT) targeting stem cell markers on different cell lines. The IT consists of a CSC-targeting mAb biotinylated to the ribosome inactivating plant (RIP) toxin saporin. TPCS2a-PCI of one of the ITs showed to be very cytotoxic at sub picomolar levels. Cytotoxicity of the IT was blocked by using excess concentration of unconjugated Ab. In addition, no difference in cytotoxicity was obtained between mAb-toxin and toxin alone in marker negative cell lines, confirming specificity. In order to asses enrichment of CSC-activity in vitro we used flow cytometry to sort cells based on the degree of expression of CSC-markers and compared the ability of different cell fractions to establish colonies in both 2D and 3D cell cultures growing in serum-free stem cell media. Cells with high expression of CSC-markers had significantly higher capacity to initiate colonies than low expressing cells. CSC enrichment was confirmed by an in vivo limiting dilution assay. The present study demonstrates that PCI is an efficient method for selective killing of cancer cells expressing stem cell markers and will be further explored for the targeting of tumors that express these markers. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3381. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-3381


This paper presents an industrial case study of using a Coarse Grain Reconfigurable Architecture (CGRA) for a multi-mode accelerator for two kernels: FFT for the LTE standard and the Correlation Pool for the UMTS standard to be executed in a mutually exclusive manner. The CGRA multi-mode accelerator achieved computational efficiency of 39.94 GOPS/watt (OP is multiply-add) and silicon efficiency of 56.20 GOPS/mm2. By analyzing the code and inferring the unused features of the fully programmable solution, an in-house developed tool was used to automatically customize the design to run just the two kernels and the two efficiency metrics improved to 49.05 GOPS/watt and 107.57 GOPS/mm2. Corresponding numbers for the ASIC implementation are 63.84 GOPS/watt and 90.91 GOPS/mm2. Though the ASIC's silicon and computational efficiency numbers are slightly better, the engineering efficiency of the pre-verified/characterized CGRA solution is at least 10X better than the ASIC solution.


This paper analyzes some recent cigarette tax policy changes and their effects on cigarette consumption and revenue in Kenya. These analyses provide evidence that the change in cigarette excise system from tiered specific to ad valorem with minimum specific floor in 2011 followed by improvement of the tax administrative capacity of the Kenya Revenue Authority led to significant increases in revenue. The Excise Duty Bill 2015 proposed simplifying the excise system further to uniform specific excise, but the Parliament proposed an Amendment to the Bill to reinstate the tiered specific excise system. Kenya now stands at the crossroads. If the uniform specific excise initially proposed in the Excise Duty Bill 2015 is implemented, then Kenya would stand out globally as a country with a tobacco tax system that is consistent with best practices. As a consequence, Kenya would benefit significantly from both reduced smoking and growth of revenue in the short to medium term via regular upward adjustment of the excise tax rate in line with inflation and income growth. In contrast, if Kenya were to reinstate the tiered specific excise, as proposed by the Amendment, this would constitute a backwards step leading to a reversal of recent benefits achieved by the uniform tax system. Ultimately, Kenya would incur greater losses in public health via higher levels of cigarette consumption and smoking prevalence as well as lowered levels of revenue.


Section I of this chapter summarizes the most important points of Chapters 2 to 5 and relevant portions of Chapter 10 (which concerns European issues) by addressing key findings that are relevant for juveniles' transition of offending from adolescence (up to age 18) into adulthood. Section I focuses on: (1) criminal careers, including criminal careers of special categories of offenders (e.g., drug dealers, homicide offenders); (2) explanations of persistence and desistance across adolescence and early adulthood; (3) vulnerable populations. Section II deals with practical issues and covers Chapters 6 to 9 and relevant portions of Chapter 10. The section focuses on six topics: (1) prediction and risk assessments to ascertain the risk of recidivism during the transition period between adolescence and adulthood; (2) legal boundaries between adolescence and adulthood and whether they need to be changed; (3) responses of the justice systems for juveniles and young adults; (4) preventive and remedial interventions outside of the justice system; (5) gender issues; and (6) ethnicity issues. Finally, Section III of this chapter contains the headline conclusions and recommendations for ways to move forward. Special sentencing and treatment provisions for young adult offenders and immaturity as mitigating factors are discussed.


The use of zinc in medicinal skin cream was mentioned in Egyptian papyri from 2000 BC (for example, the Smith Papyrus), and zinc has apparently been used fairly steadily throughout Roman and modern times (for example, as the American lotion named for its zinc ore, 'Calamine'). It is, therefore, somewhat ironic that zinc is a relatively late addition to the pantheon of signal ions in biology and medicine. However, the number of biological functions, health implications and pharmacological targets that are emerging for zinc indicate that it might turn out to be 'the calcium of the twenty-first century'. Here neurobiological roles of endogenous zinc is summarized.


On a way of structural analysis of total N-glycans linked to glycoproteins in royal jelly (Kimura, Y. et al., Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., 64, 2109-2120 (2000), Kimura, M. et al., Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem., 66, 1985-1989 (2002)), we found that some complex type N-glycans containing a beta1-3galactose residue occur on the insect glycoproteins. Up to date, it has been considered that naturally occurring insect glycoproteins do not bear the galactose-containing N-glycans, therefore, in this report we describe the structural analysis of the complex type N-glycans of royal jelly glycoproteins. By a combination of endo- and exo-glycosidase digestions, IS-MS analysis, and 1H-NMR spectroscopy, the structures of the beta1-3 galactose-containing N-glycan were identified as the following; GlcNAcbeta1-2Manalpha1-6[GlcNAcbeta1-2(Galbeta1-3GlcNAcbeta1-4)Manalpha1-3]Manbeta1-4GlcNAcbeta1-4GlcNAc, Manalpha1-3Manalpha1-6[GlcNAcbeta1-2(Galbeta1-3GlcNAcbeta1-4)Manalpha1-3]Manbeta1-4GlcNAcbeta1-4GlcNAc, and Manalpha1-6(Manalpha1-3)Manalpha1-6[GlcNAcbeta1-2(Galbeta1-3GlcNAcbeta1-4)Manalpha1-3]Manbeta1-4GlcNAcbeta1-4GlcNAc. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing that the Galbeta1-3GlcNAcbeta1-4Man unit occurs in N-glycans of insect glycoproteins, indicating a beta1-3 galactosyl transferase and beta1-4GlcNAc transferase (GNT-IV) are expressed in the honeybee cells.


The RF performance of InP-based lattice-matched high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) is improved by using a two-step-recess process. 0.07 µm gate HEMTs show a cutoff frequency (fT) of 300 GHz, a value previously achievable only with a gate length of 0.05 µm in the conventional gate structure, and a maximum frequency of oscillation fmax of 400 GHz. The high fT indicates that the effective gate length is successfully suppressed by the two-step-recessed gate structure. Moreover, owing to the selective etching property, this gate recess process provides high uniformity of the threshold voltage and the cutoff frequency of the HEMTs on a 3 in wafer.


A series of hybrids (CnH2n+1NH3)2MCl4 with quantum-well energy-band structure were synthesized by chemical reaction in HCl solutions, in which M(Co,Ni,Cu,Zn) and n(2,4,6,8,10,12) varied to adjust the quantum-well depth and the barrier width, respectively. The X-ray diffraction patterns and scanning electron microscopy images of the products demonstrate that they crystallize well with the typical layered structures. However, the analogues of Ni can not be successfully synthesized in the same way. Concerning the energy-band structure, the colors of the products reveal that the quantum-well depth is more important than the barrier width for controlling the properties of the hybrids.


Background and Aims: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) usually follows a pattern of more or less frequent relapses of alterable duration, interspersed with periods of remission. Various clinical predictors have been broadly studied, but the research study populations reported are mostly from Western countries. Methods: From January 2013 to December 2018, 106 new-onset Crohn's disease (CD) patients and 76 new-onset ulcerative colitis (UC) patients were followed up for a median of 12 months or until relapse. The predictors of clinical relapse were analyzed according to demographic, clinical, histological, endoscopic, and imaging variables. Results: In multivariate analysis, predictors of relapse were age of onset <35 years (hazard ratio [HR] = 5.236; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.252–22.222; P = 0.023) in CD patients and poor medication adherence (HR = 2.070; 95% CI 1.018–4.202; P = 0.044) in UC patients. Conclusion: Younger age of onset and poor medication adherence increases the risk of clinical relapse in CD and UC, respectively.


From the 2002 through 2009 years 419 health care workers of the Hospital of Lecco, occupationally exposed to X-ray, were invited to undergo a cancer screening programme for the early diagnosis of cervical, breast, colorectal and prostate cancers. A total of 341 subjects performed the screening tests with an overall compliance of 83,8%; the participation rate to each test was significantly higher than that of general population. Breast cancer was diagnosed and treated in 5 women, cervical premalignant lesions in 8 women and colorectal adenomas in 13 subjects; no prostate cancer was detected. The participation rate, the premalignant and malignant findings and the cost-effectiveness analysis are consistent with the possibility that cancer screening programme can be set out as health promotion activity in health care workers.


This thesis shows that weather conditions during the first year of establishment, strongly affect the composition of riparian plant communities. This is one of the factors determining if some goals of the Water Framework Directive and Natura 2000, reed beds and accompanying bird species, can be met. Increased summer drought due to climate change will make it more difficult to reach these goals. The composition of riparian plant communities establishing during a drawdown can vary largely. For example, in the Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve, Typha latifolia establishes in large numbers in one month, while a month earlier or later Senecio congestus or Chenopodium rubrum become abundant. This variation is not caused by variation the soil seed bank, which contains the same species everywhere. During a series of experiments, the effect of several simulated weather conditions on seedling emergence, establishment, growth and competition of various riparian plant species was tested. The various species have strongly different preferences for temperature and moisture conditions. For example, Phragmites australis and Typha latifolia prefer very wet growth conditions Senecio congestus prefers wet conditions and Chenopodium rubrum dry conditions. Using species preferences and observed weather conditions, it was possible to simulate the plant communities that established during a drawdown in the Oostvaardersplassen. Experimental results were coupled with climate scenarios, obtained from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. Increasing summer drought will make that Phragmites australis and Typha latifolia will not be able to establish often. A modified water level management will be needed to avoid a drawdown during periods that are too dry for these species.


In this thesis, a new multiple access scheme denoted as Block-Interleaved Frequency Division Multiple Access (B-IFDMA) is presented and investigated with respect to its suitability for an application in the uplink of future mobile radio systems. For that purpose, new algorithms are presented that complement the scheme. The properties of the scheme are analyzed and compared to the properties of other well-known multiple access schemes. At first, a new, general, digital system model is introduced that makes a joint description of B-IFDMA and various other well-known multiple access schemes that are related to B-IFDMA possible and enables a clear and proper illustration of their relations. Amongst other things, it is shown that B-IFDMA can be considered as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) with pre-coding of the data and with blocks of equal size of adjacent subcarriers that are equidistantly distributed over the total available bandwidth. Further on, it is identified that B-IFDMA can be regarded as a generalization of Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA). Based on the new system model, it is shown that, in the uplink, a simple receiver structure can be applied for B-IFDMA. The simple receiver structure is based on a separation of different users' signals in frequency domain and subsequent equalization applying frequency domain equalizers to the different users' signals, which leads to a low computational receiver complexity. Subsequently, different new algorithms are presented and discussed that make an efficient application of B-IFDMA in a future mobile radio system possible. In particular, an algorithm for B-IFDMA signal generation in time domain providing a low computational complexity, an algorithm for application of orthogonal and non-orthogonal Space-Time Codes to B-IFDMA providing a low computational complexity, an algorithm for application of Space-Division Multiple Access to B-IFDMA providing a low computational complexity, and an algorithm for a flexible and efficient accommodation of different data rates to the users within a mobile radio cell providing a low computational complexity and maintaining the orthogonality of different users' signals are described. Finally, in this thesis, the properties of B-IFDMA regarding the exploitation of diversity in frequency, time, space and among different users, pilot symbol overhead for channel estimation, robustness to carrier frequency offsets, power efficiency of the power amplifiers, and computational complexity are extensively investigated. It turns out that the properties of B-IFDMA in part strongly depend on the choice of the parameters. As an important result of the investigation of the properties of B-IFDMA, the scheme is shown to provide a good bit error rate performance due to a good exploitation of frequency diversity for the assignment of a high number of subcarrier blocks. This performance is further improved by the application of Space Time Coding. Thus, in contrast to multiple access schemes that are focused on the adaptation of the transmission to the current channel conditions, B-IFDMA does not require any channel state information at the transmitter. Consequently, B-IFDMA is especially suited for nonadaptive transmission which is required in scenarios where channel state information at the transmitter cannot be provided, e.g., due to a high change rate of the channel conditions caused by a high user mobility. It is shown that, compared to other schemes, B-IFDMA is more robust to carrier frequency offsets, provides lower pilot symbol overhead for channel estimation, provides a higher power efficiency of the power amplifier and is very flexible. Thus, it can be concluded that B-IFDMA is an interesting and well-suited candidate for the non-adaptive uplink of future mobile radio systems.


While CAR-T have demonstrated potent activity against hematologic tumors, less success has been seen with solid tumors. Here we report generation of TSCM-enriched allogeneic MUC1-C-specific CAR T cells, P-MUC1C-ALLO1, with potential for a broad range of solid tumors. The proliferative capacity and metabolic profile of TSCM CAR-T are well-suited to activity in the solid tumor setting. MUC1 is comprised of an N-terminal subunit (MUC1-N) tethered to a C-terminal subunit (MUC1-C), forming a stable complex on the cell surface. During tumorigenesis, MUC1 becomes both overexpressed and hypo-glycosylated on many carcinomas. Furthermore, MUC1 undergoes proteolytic cleavage in the tumor microenvironment, leaving behind a proteolytic 'stump' of MUC1-C that is over-represented in cancer, making it an attractive therapeutic target.P-MUC1C-ALLO1 is manufactured using the piggyBac® DNA Delivery System for CAR insertion and the Cas-CLOVER™ Gene Editing System to knockout both the TCR and MHC class I proteins. The addition of a selectable marker within the transposon allows for selection of a fully CAR-positive population while any residual TCR-positive cells are removed at the end of production to prevent TCR-mediated GvHD. Lastly, inclusion of a proprietary 'booster molecule' in our allogeneic process further improves cell expansion, along with phenotype and function, and enables the production of up to hundreds of patient doses from a single manufacturing run.Significant doses of P-MUC1C-ALLO1 products made from multiple healthy donors were achieved and comprised of an exceptionally high-percentage of desirable TSCM cells. Preclinical evaluation of these products showed potent tumor killing and cytokine secretion against MUC1-C-positive breast and ovarian tumor cell lines. P-MUC1C-ALLO1 demonstrates potent cytotoxicity against tumor cells, and minimal killing of normal MUC1-C-positive human primary cells. In a triple negative breast cancer xenograft model, MUC1C CAR-T eliminated established MDA-MB-468 tumor cells, mounted robust T cell expansion in peripheral blood and maintained a favorable TSCM percentage over time. Likewise, in an orthotopic ovarian cancer xenograft model, intraperitoneally administered MUC1C CAR-T eliminated established OVCAR3 cells to levels below the limit of detection. All together, these data demonstrated the efficacy of the MUC1C CAR-T cells and the robustness of the allogeneic platform.P-MUC1C-ALLO1 is an allogeneic TSCM CAR-T therapy that has a potential to treat multiple MUC1-expressing indications. P-MUC1C-ALLO1 displayed specificity for tumor vs. normal cells as well as in vivo efficacy against xenograft models of breast and ovarian cancer. This allogeneic cell therapy is advancing rapidly towards the clinic.


The spectroscopy and decays of the new particles are reviewed from the point of view of the charmonium model. The review proceeds from general features expected to be true in a wide class of spin /sup 1///sub 2/ constituent models to predictions that depend in more detail on the dynamics of the color SU(3) quark gluon theory. A list of important and unresolved problems is presented at the end.


INTRODUCTION
Urticaria is a clinical entity presenting as wheals, angioedema, or both simultaneously. Elevated D-dimer levels were reported in the course of chronic spontaneous urticaria. Data regarding D-dimer levels in acute urticaria in children are limited.

OBJECTIVES
To assess potential associations between duration of glucocorticosteroid (GCS) therapy and D-dimer concentrations in children with acute urticaria.

PATIENTS, MATERIALS, AND METHODS
Hospital records of 106 children (59 females), aged 5.57 ± 4.91 years, hospitalized in 2014-2018 were analyzed retrospectively. The study group consisted of pediatric patients admitted to the hospital due to severe acute urticaria resistant to antihistaminic treatment that was ordered in the ambulatory care (out-patient clinic). Patients were divided into subgroups: no GCS treatment, short-duration treatment (up to 5 days) and long-duration treatment (6 and more days) GCS treatment. Simultaneously, patients received antihistaminic drugs. D-dimer level and other inflammatory factors such as white blood cell (WBC) count, platelet (PLT) count, and C-reactive protein (CRP) in each group were analyzed.

RESULTS
The D-dimer level was elevated in 51% of cases. In the subgroup with longer GCS treatment, D-dimer concentration was significantly higher in comparison to patients with a shorter GCS course. There were no differences in the distribution of CRP, PLT, and WBC concentrations between these subgroups.

CONCLUSIONS
In the studied group of children, there was a tendency for higher D-dimer levels in patients, who required a longer GCS treatment. This finding is hypothesis-generating and requires further investigation to confirm if D-dimers can be used as a prognostic factor in acute urticaria in children.


Hypertensive patients often experience poor adherence to treatment, a frequent cause of uncontrolled blood pressure. In this study, we have evaluated whether or not the use of electronic monitoring for drug adherence is a useful approach to identify and correct compliance problems in hypertensive patients, which may ultimately enhance the effect of antihypertensive therapy. Sixty-nine treated patients with an office blood pressure greater than 140/90 mm Hg were enrolled in this study. With patient consent, current antihypertensive therapy was dispensed in electronic pillboxes that record the time and date of each opening without changing the drug regimen. The intention was to provide physicians with objective measurements of drug compliance. The monitoring of compliance per se without any other intervention induced a marked decrease of blood pressure in the whole group (from 159/104Â+/-23/12 mm Hg to 143/92Â+/-20/15, meansÂ+/-standard deviation, p less than 0.001). A complete normalization of blood pressure (less than 140/90 mm Hg) was obtained in one third of the patients (group 1, n=23) during the monitoring period. A significant improvement of blood pressure control was found in another third (group 2, n=23), whereas in the remaining patients (group 3, n=23) no change in blood pressure was observed. The distribution of individual compliance values, as well as the mean compliances was comparable in the three subgroups. Conversely, the compliance reports have identified several potentially overtreated patients in group 1, a large number of patients with a poor adherence to the prescribed therapy in all groups, and patients who clearly needed a change in pharmacotherapy mainly in group 3. Thus, our results suggest that electronic monitoring of compliance can considerably enhance the efficacy of antihypertensive therapy in patients with uncontrolled hypertension. This procedure should be used more extensively in clinical practice whenever the blood pressure response to therapy appears insufficient. (c)2000 by Le Jacq Communications, Inc.


Entoloma virescens , a rare mushroom with deep blue coloring and cuboid spores, is recorded for the first time in the Caatinga biome in Brazil. The relevance of this finding is that such area is characterized by an atypical environment for the occurrence of species normally considered from temperate and humid tropical regions. The record is fully described and illustrated. Also, a brief analysis of taxonomical features and geographical distribution of the taxon are included.