Identification and characterization of the proteins that regulate the transition from the resting stage (G0) through G1 to S phase of the cell cycle are of central importance to understand the control of cell proliferation and chromosome replication. Unlike in lower organisms, where relatively small numbers of key factors are involved in this process, the factors involved in the same control mechanisms in mammalian systems are much more complex. Furthermore, accumulating lines of evidence now suggest that the nuclear matrix and chromatin organization also play an essential role for the cell cycle control in mammalian cells. To gain a better understanding of the overall dynamics and changes of the protein factors in the context of matrix/chromatin organization, we examined the protein profiles of the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells in different cell cycle compartments. The methods used in this study included subcellular fractionations (cytosol, nuclear extraction, chromatin, and nuclear matrix), two‐dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2‐D PAGE), silver staining, and immunoblotting. As expected, significant changes of protein profiles were observed when cells entered into proliferating stages from G0. Among approximately 1200 protein spots analyzed by 2‐D PAGE, at least 12 showed marked increase or decrease at this transitional period. Further cell‐cycle progression from G1 to S phase showed less dramatic changes of overall protein protile. However, the profile of certain proteins showed rather dramatic changes of their subcellular localization during this transitional period. In particular, the levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in the nuclear matrix and chromatin dramatically increased in mid‐G1 and in the beginning of S phase, respectively, while the overall PCNA level was relatively constant throughout the cell cycle.


Mathematical models of biological systems must strike a balance between being sufficiently complex to capture important biological features, while being simple enough that they remain tractable through analysis or simulation. In this work, we rigorously explore how to balance these competing interests when modeling murine melanoma treatment with oncolytic viruses and dendritic cell injections. Previously, we developed a system of six ordinary differential equations containing fourteen parameters that well describes experimental data on the efficacy of these treatments. Here, we explore whether this previously developed model is the minimal model needed to accurately describe the data. Using a variety of techniques, including sensitivity analyses and a parameter sloppiness analysis, we find that our model can be reduced by one variable and three parameters and still give excellent fits to the data. We also argue that our model is not too simple to capture the dynamics of the data, and that the original and minimal models make similar predictions about the efficacy and robustness of protocols not considered in experiments. Reducing the model to its minimal form allows us to increase the tractability of the system in the face of parametric uncertainty.


Received 25 October 2020 Received in revised form 05 February 2021 Accepted 08 February 2021 The most important development period in cereal plants is the initial stage, that is, seed germination and early seedling development. Even if the barley is thought to be a partially salt-tolerant plant, it may be severely affected when exposed to salinity at initial developmental periods. Pre-treatment and preparation of seeds before sowing have an important in agriculture. Nano-seed priming treatment is a new approach used to increase germination, emergence and seedling growth recently. In this study, the effects of nano-TiO2 (0, 100, 200 mg L n-TiO2) pre-application and ongoing/combination application under salinity (0, 100, 200, 300 mM NaCl) on germination and early seedling growth of barley plants were investigated. Root lengths (RL, mm), germination rates (GR, %), radicle emerging (RE, %), number of coleoptiles (CN) were measured depending on the day (1, 2, 3 days). At the end of the third day, seedling fresh and dry weights (FW,DW mg) were measured. The relative growth index (RGI) of root and mean germination time (MGT) were calculated. It was determined that the application of 100 mg L n-TiO2 increased root length and RGI compared to control groups. It was observed that the application of 100 mg L n-TiO2 significantly increased the germination percentage, biomass and root length especially in 100 mM salt conditions. Also, 100 mg L n-TiO2 increased the RE too in 100 mM salt conditions (1st day). In this study, it was determined that 300 mM NaCl was inhibitory dose, and also germination remained below 20% in 200 mM NaCl in all groups.


Abstract An overdenture is a denture supported partly by soft tissues and partly by retained teeth or implants. Magnetic tooth-retained overdentures are used to increase support, retention, and stability but also prevent alveolar ridge resorption. Magnetic attachments increase the retention of partial or complete dentures regardless of the path of the insertion and, in addition, can be used for abutment teeth with periodontal disease. This paper discusses two oral rehabilitation cases with total and partial tooth-retained overdenture.


I. Introduction THE double-fed asynchronous machine has become important in recent times as fan drive with wide speed range. The system consists of five main machines and the fan (see figure 1). It has many springs, masses, and dampings and therefore many natural frequencies. In order to determine these frequencies, i.e. the dynamic stability of the system, the damping and synchronizing torques of all parts of the system have to be known. Some papers have been published concerning the torques of the synchronous machine. It is easy to determine torques for the D.C. machines of the system. The object of this paper is to derive formulas for the damping and synchronizing torque of the double-fed asynchronous machine. As in the case of the synchronous machine, a complicated derivation and complicated results cannot be avoided.


By using critical point theory, some new criteria are obtained for the existence of a nontrivial homoclinic orbit to a higher order difference system containing both many advances and retardations. The proof is based on the mountain pass lemma in combination with periodic approximations. Related results in the literature are generalized and improved. c ©2017 All rights reserved.


An association between Crohn disease and gastric carcinoma has not been described before. However, we report four patients with documented Crohn disease in whom gastric carcinoma developed later. In three of the four patients, onset of Crohn disease occurred after the age of 40. All of the patients had nonspecific constitutional symptoms and/or complaints referable to the upper gastrointestinal tract. No clinical evidence of active Crohn disease was present. In each patient, barium examination and CT showed either a mass (two cases) or other radiologic features of malignancy (two cases). Endoscopy with biopsy was performed in three patients and findings were misleading in two patients. The possibility of an increased risk of malignancy in sites remote from inflamed bowel segments has been reported. The findings in this study suggest that patients with Crohn disease, particularly disease of late onset, may be predisposed to the development of gastric carcinoma.


Background: Clinical interview comprises a method for of psychiatric disorders diagnosis. Given the cost, time, and expertise required for clinical assessment; alternative tools to accurately substitute clinical interviews are having high value. We conduct this study to compare the screening accuracy of GHQ-28, BSI, and MMPI. Materials and Methods: Considering a diagnostic value, this study was conducted on 983 students and 3 psychiatric screening tools; GHQ-28, BSI, and MMPI were completed by students. Among the whole participants, 237 students were interviewed by the clinical psychiatrists on the basis of DSM-IV-IR Criteria. Based on ANOVO and Chi-square, results compare was made. Kappa correlation -coefficient was calculated in a pairwise manner; eventually the diagnostic accuracy of each tool was determined by the means of ROC analysis. Results: The diversity of psychiatric disorders by GHQ-28, was about 39.1, on the basis of BST was 44.8% and 44% for MMPI. The sensitivity and specificity of GHQ-28 was 85.9% and 87.8% considering 21.5 as the cut-off point; respectively. Considering 41/5 as the cut-off point for the BSI test, sensitivity and specificity were 81.2% and 90.8%; respectively, and 88.2% and 91.4% for the MMPI test with the cut-off point of 63.5 compared to clinical interview, the MMPI test was associated with the greatest accurate staging, ranging about 90.3%. Conclusions: The results of this study according to clinical assessment reveal that GHQ-28, BSI, and MMPI psychiatric tools have high sensitivity and specificity and MMPI possessed the greatest efficiency compared to other evaluated tools.


Although the importance of oral production in language learning is recognized,it remains a challenge to convince students to speak. Certainly, this is about daring to take risks, because to speak is to "expose one's face". Indeed, when pupils speak, they are placed in relation to their classmates and in relation to the teacher. We cannot therefore rely on the apparent simplicity of speaking in the foreign language class. The research problem presented in this article concerns, among other things, the possible reasons why some students of French as a foreign language remain silent during conversation classes. To this purpose, the findings of the FLCAS questionnaire are presented. This survey tool enabled to nominate one basic reason for the above-mentioned reluctance to speak – language anxiety


In order to advance the technology and drive further development, applications need to be found where virtual reality is beneficial, or at least not detrimental. Flight simulators and phobia treatment are two such applications, but they are niche applications with very specific audiences. Education has been proposed as an application area where VR might be broadly applicable and have far reaching effects, but studies of this area are still in their early stages. This dissertation examines the learning potential of the virtual gorilla environment.
First, other educational virtual environments are examined to determine what lessons can be learned from them. Since an important aspect of the virtual gorilla environment is virtual gorillas that interact as real ones do, other animal simulations were evaluated for useful ideas for building virtual gorillas.
A simulation of the gorilla environment of habitat 3 at Zoo Atlanta was constructed, emphasizing educational goals designed jointly with Zoo Atlanta. Two groups of students were given pre- and post-tests on gorilla identification, behaviors, and social interactions, with one group exploring the virtual habitat between tests. A statistical analysis showed that student performance improved on some topics after exposure to the virtual gorilla environment, but not others.


Carpal tunnel syndrome is the compression neuropathy in upper extremity. Several researches have been done to see the effect of various treatments separately. But very little research work is available for comparison of treatments. So the study was aimed to study the clinical and electrophysiological findings and their Comparision before and after various treatments. NCS was carried out in 200 CTS patients before and after 6weeks of treatment. Patients were divided into 4 groups. Group I- operative, Group II-medicinal treatment, Group III-exercise, Group IV-medicine+exercise. Clinical and electrophysiological parameters all groups were compared before and after treatment. Group (I), showed significant changes in all parameters except SNAP in operated Rt. Hand as compared to Lt. Hand. Group-II showed significant changes in DML,DML(diff.),DSL,DSL(Diff.)except CMAP,SNAP,&SCV in Rt. Hand but in Lt. hand DML,DML(diff.)DSL showed significant changes where as DSL(Diff.) CMAP,SNAP,&SCV were non-significant. Group-III showed significant changes in DML, DML(diff.),DSL,DSL(Diff.) but SCV,SNAP and CMAP were non-significant in Rt. hand but in Lt. hand only DML(diff.) was significant . Group-IV showed significant changes in all parameters except SCV in Rt. hand but in Lt. hand DML, DML (diff.),DSL, DSL(Diff.) were significant , where as SNAP, CMAP, and SCV were non-significant. It was concluded that maximum improvement was observed in clinical and electrophysiological parameters in operative group, then Medicine + exercise Group, then exercise Group and minimum in Medicinal treatment Group. So operative method is the method of choice for CTS; however the duration of treatment should be more so that further improvements can be seen in all parameters.


Using photo-thermo sensitive genie male rice (PTGMS) Pei' ai 64S, W7415S, W6154S, N26S, Annong S, Nongken 58S, 7001S and 5088S as female parents and conventional indica lines 8258 and U89 as male parents, the factors affecting outcrossed seed-setting were analyzed. The PTGMS had obstacles in outcrossed seed setting influenced by inheritance and environment at varying degrees. Environmental temperature was regarded as the main factor that resulted in the outcrossed seed-setting obstacles. The sensitive stage was at the early stage of grain filling for outcrossed seed setting. There existed remarkable differences at the sensitivity stage, the duration of sensitive period, the sensitive level and the effective level of outcrossed seed-setting obstacles caused by environmental temperature among different PTGMS lines. Therefore, attention should be paid to outcrossed seed-setting obstacles in selection and utilization of PTGMS lines.


The Membrane Attack Complex (MAC or C5b-9) is an important effector of the immune system to kill invading microbes. MAC is formed when complement enzymes on the bacterial surface convert complement component C5 into C5b. Although the MAC is a membrane-inserted complex, soluble forms of MAC (sMAC, or terminal complement complex (TCC)) are often detected in sera of patients suffering from infections. Consequently, sMAC has been proposed as a biomarker, but it remains unclear when and how it is formed during infections. Here, we studied mechanisms of MAC formation on bacteria and found that sMAC is primarily formed in human serum by bacteria resistant to MAC-dependent killing. Surprisingly, C5 was converted into C5b more potently by MAC-resistant compared to MAC-sensitive Escherichia coli strains. Both the increase in C5 conversion and sMAC generation were linked to the expression of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O-Antigen in the bacterial outer membrane. In addition, we found that MAC precursors are released from the surface of MAC-resistant bacteria during MAC assembly. Release of MAC precursors from bacteria induced lysis of bystander human erythrocytes in the absence of other serum components. However, serum regulators vitronectin (Vn) and clusterin (Clu) can prevent this bystander lysis. Combining size exclusion chromatography with mass spectrometry profiling, we show that sMAC released from bacteria in serum is a heterogeneous mixture of complexes composed of C5b-8, up to 3 copies of C9 and multiple copies of Vn and Clu. Altogether, our data provide molecular insight into how sMAC is generated during bacterial infections. This fundamental knowledge could form the basis for exploring the use of sMAC as biomarker.


Transport phenomena in clean ferromagnet-superconductor- ferromagnet trilayers are studied theoretically for a general case of arbitrary relative orientation of in-plane magnetisations and interface transparencies. Generalised expressions for scattering probabilities are derived and differen- tial conductance and magnetoresistance are computed using solutions of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. We focus on size and coherence effects that characterise ballistic transport, in particular on the subgap transmission and geometrical oscillations of the conductance. We find a monotonic dependence of conductance spectra on the angle of misorientation of magnetisations as their alignment is changed from parallel to antiparallel. In contrast to the diffusive case, no substantial impact of long-range spin-triplet superconducting correlations on the conductance has been found.


In 2005 the UN General Assembly unanimously endorsed the doctrine of a Responsibility-to-Protect (R2P) human rights. This initiated a series of debates about whether two fundamental principles of international law, international human rights protections and state sovereignty, could still be thought of as compatible with one another. These debates suggest that the values of human rights and self-determination are on a collision course: if one values the international protection of human rights then one must accept that this may undermine the self-determination and sovereign equality of states, and if one values popular sovereignty and self-determination then one must accept that this may undermine the international protection of human rights. I defend the view that human rights and sovereignty are not antithetical values, but must be seen as mutually reinforcing principles of international law. On this basis I offer an account of the international community's Responsibility to Protect human rights that is more demanding than the currently acknowledged account. I also show how my more ambitious account does not have to be purchased at the price of undermining the sovereign equality of states.


Nitric oxide (NO) has recently been found to function as an intra and extra cellular messenger by activating guanylate cyclase. Its role in sperm hyperactivation was examined by adding to the capacitating medium a classical donor of NO (Sodium nitroprusside, NP) in two different concentrations (150 microM and 300 microM). In both treatments, the percentage of motile cells was evaluated, showing a significant decrease on motility and viability at 90 and 120 minutes when sodium nitroprusside was used in a concentration of 300 microM; no modifications were observed with 150 microM. The effect obtained with 300 microM of sodium nitroprusside was avoided by hemoglobin (20 micrograms/ml), a scavenger of the NO. The percentage of hyperactivated spermatozoa in the presence of 300 microM sodium nitroprusside increased significantly more than the control during the first 30 and 60 minutes of capacitation; but with 150 microM sodium nitroprusside a significant increase was observed at 60 and 90 minutes of incubation. Thus, the data strongly suggests that nitric oxide plays an important role in sperm hyperactivation "in vitro".


The Quick Response (QR) code was first developed in 1994 by Denso Wave Incorporated, Japan. From that point on, it came into general use as an identification mark for all kinds of commercial products, advertisements, and other public announcements. In scholarly journals, the QR code is used to provide immediate direction to the journal homepage or specific content such as figures or videos. To produce a QR code and print it in the print version or upload to the web is very simple. Using a QR code producing program, an editor can add simple information to a website. After that, a QR code is produced. A QR code is very stable, such that it can be used for a long time without loss of quality. Producing and adding QR codes to a journal costs nothing; therefore, to increase the visibility of their journals, it is time for editors to add QR codes to their journals.


Quercus infectoria oliv is an important medicinal plant of family Fagaceae comprises of galls called Oak galls. This is one of the traditionally used plant in Asian countries in the treatment of mouth ulcers, sores, and fungal infections. It is used as astringent, in anti-diarrhea preparations, ulcerative colitis and its dry extract is used as analgesic, hyperglycemic and has sedative hypnotic efficacy. The present study was aimed to carry out the phytochemical screening, antibacterial activity and formulation development of aqueous extract of the galls of Quercus infectoria oliv. The present study involved the collection, authentification, organoleptic, physicochemical, and gravimetric evaluation, soxhlet extraction of dried powdered galls of Quercus infectoria oliv using distilled water, preliminary phytochemical screening, determination of MIC and antibacterial activity of the aqueous extract by agar well diffusion assay followed by formulation of an antibacterial gel and its antibacterial evaluation. The major constituent of the galls are gallotannic acids and carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, saponins, phenolic compounds and tannins were found in small amounts. Aqueous extract of Quercus infectoria oliv and the formulated gel showed significant antibacterial activity against Psedomonas aeruginosa spp. It was found that the galls are rich in tannins which mainly contribute the antibacterial property. The aqueous extract of Quercus infectoria oliv and the formulated gel have significant antibacterial activity. The gel was found to be non irritant to skin on application.


Twenty-eight earthquakes in the Baffin Bay region have been relocated using the method of Joint Hypocenter Determination. The revised locations indicate two parallel, linear trends, one along the northeast coast of Baffin Island and the other in the western part of Baffin Bay. The seismicity does not appear to be controlled by glacial rebound but may be a remnant of sea-floor spreading which occurred 40 to 60 m.y. ago. Early P arrivals at near seismograph stations (Δ < 20°) can be explained by a high-velocity (8.5 km/sec) upper mantle in the Baffin region.


This paper presents the results of the research of the team SITE at the computer science laboratory center LORIA in Nancy, France, within the framework of the collaboration of the research team with NetLor-Cocept Enterprise. The aim of this research is to retro design databases so that they can be realized with new DBMS and queried on the Web. Our article will present first, using many examples, the problems of reverse engineering of databases in a context of query on the Web and also the design of data warehouse. In a second part we will clarify more in detail the algorithm of data mining that enables us to redesign databases. Finally we will clarify how we will design a set of tools that integrates the results of this research undertaken by our research team SITE


Anecdotes suggest that tourism experiences may affect the migration decisions of retirees. Seasonal migration by retirees may be an intermediate step between tourism and permanent migration. A review of the literature on seasonal migration finds that some seasonal migrants become permanent migrants. In general, seasonal and permanent migrants come from two separate migration streams and are two different lifestyles. Seasonal migration generally does not lead to permanent migration.


Fatality from coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is a major problem globally and so identification of its underlying molecular mechanisms would be helpful. The combination of COVID-19 clinical data and genome sequence information is providing a potential route to such mechanisms. Here we took a candidate gene approach to UK Biobank data based on the suggested roles of endothelium and membrane proteins in COVID-19. We focussed on the PIEZO1 gene, which encodes a non-selective cation channel that mediates endothelial responses to blood flow. The analysis suggests 3 missense PIEZO1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with COVID-19 fatality independently of risk factors. All of them affect amino acids in the proximal N-terminus of PIEZO1, which is an unexplored region of the protein. By using molecular modelling we predict location of all 3 amino acids to a common outward-facing structure of unknown functional significance at the tips of the PIEZO1 propeller blades. Through genome sequence analysis we show that these SNPs vary in prevalence with ethnicity and that the most significant SNP (rs7184427) varies between 65 to 90% even though the reference amino acid is evolutionarily conserved. The data suggest PIEZO1 as a contributor to COVID-19 fatality and factor in ethnic susceptibility.


This report presents the results of a project funded by LIRG and Elsevier to explore accounting practice and networks in UK universities. The project had two phases: preliminary fieldwork consisted of interviews with computer service
staff in universities in Edinburgh and Glasgow; with librarians in Edinburgh, Southampton, Newcastle and Southampton, and with researchers in London, Bath and Glasgow. The second phase was a postal questionnaire in July. and questionnaires were sent to the library and to the computer service in each listed institution (excluding individual colleges in Oxford and
Cambridge and the teaching hospitals and research institutions of the London University). Sixty-five
were returned, a response rate of 34%.


Liquid waste is the main source of contamination of water bodies, especially river water. This pollution causes decreased water quality in water bodies. One of the wastewater treatment treatments is the Multi Soil Layering (MSL) method. Some of the advantages of using the MSL method are that it is known to be cheap in terms of cost, easy to implement, does not require complicated maintenance so that it can be used continuously, and is also environmentally friendly. One of the constituent materials of the MSL reactor is andesol soil, gravel, and pearlite. MSL has two wastewater treatment zones, the aerobic zone, and the anaerobic zone. The article review aims to compare the efficiency of reducing the levels of pollutant parameters from aerobic and anaerobic processes in MSLmethod in wastewater.


The Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) postdoctoral fellowship programme was initiated in 1992 with the goal of promoting excellence in Canadian gastroenterological research. With backing from multiple pharmaceutical partners and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 87 fellows were funded over the next ten years for a total investment of $8,730,101. Between 1992 and 2000, fellows authored 247 articles; 176 being original research articles, 31 (17.5%) of which appeared in journals with impact factors of greater than 10. As testament to the program's success in developing young scientists, 31 former fellows (36%) have progressed to faculty positions. The fellowship programme continues to be an outstanding success and the flagship of CAG research activities.


Television drama is an important tool to present hypothetical scenarios and imagine various ways to deal with them, while testing the viability of ethical theories that could guide moral judgements and practical decisions made in real life. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) left an important legacy in Popular Culture captivating viewers worldwide and still being relevant 20 years later. The aim of this article is to revisit Buffy's Season 4 and analyze it through a libertarian perspective. Over this season, a great number of relevant subjects are discussed, such as the form and function of the state, its relationship with society, the subversion of public authorities and the morality of law and punishment. It is expected that the successful adoption of libertarian ethics and principles to understand this TV show might bring out Libertarianism as a valuable philosophical alternative to be taken into account when looking for solutions to current issues.


Dry-column flash chromatography is a safe, powerful, yet easily learned preparative chromatography technique. It has proven useful in research, and an adaptation of the technique for use in large teaching laboratories (general chemistry, organic chemistry) is described here. The student version is similar to vacuum filtration, uses the same compact, readily available glassware, and inexpensive and safe solvents (ethyl acetate and hexane) and adsorbent (Merck grade 60 silica gel). The technique is sufficiently simple and powerful that a beginning student can successfully resolve diastereomers on sample scales ranging from 100 mg to >1 g.


ABSTRACT What are the implications of changes in measurement standards of GDP for global convergence debates? What are the political economy implications? To answer the former question, we examine the changes in national accounting standards from the early 1990s. Revisions to the System of National Accounts (SNA) – the international standard for constructing GDP – include several major changes to how production is measured, including the reclassification of financial intermediation services, R&D, and weapons systems as productive activities – all areas in which countries in the West has had an advantage in recent decades. In addition, there has been an increase in the proportion of imputations in the 1993 and 2008 revisions, which privileges the economic structures of the West. Overall, we find that these changes have had the effect of boosting the GDP of the West relative to the rest of the world and thus to an underestimation of global convergence compared to previous measures of GDP. To answer the second question, the paper unpacks the political economy implications of national accounting standards favouring Western economies along several axes, including the impacts on voting shares in international institutions, domestic policy incentives and epistemological debates about sustainable development.


The rheological and tribological performances of two different polyisobutenes and a heavy viscous naphthenic oil (T 4000) were studied using a new tribometer. The results were compared with measurements carried out by a more established tribometer, a Mini Traction Machine. A general agreement between the two tribology techniques used, the Mini Traction Machine from PCS Instruments and the tribo-cell from Paar Physica, was obtained. All three high viscosity lubricants showed good lubrication properties at lower speeds for both Steel/PTFE and Steel/Steel contacts. The range of speeds where good lubrication was achieved increased with temperature as the viscosity of the lubricants decreased. The behavior of T 4000 was more or less similar regardless the running temperature, while in the case of polyisobutenes the dependency on the temperature was more obvious.


Air valves are usually sized by heuristic methods or, sometimes, even oversized. Although the technical literature has long focused on the correct sizing of air valves to reduce the overpressure generated by the filling of a pipe, the phenomenon is complex and does not seem to be representable by physically based equations in an easy way, to be of practical use for technicians and designers. In this paper, air valve design is approached through an alternative data-modelling approach, based on evolutionary polynomial regression, with the aim to provide symbolic formulas of variable complexity and accuracy, suitable for physical interpretation, and at the same time easy to be used and applied for design purposes. The present investigation suggests a design formula that, given the geometric parameters of the pipeline system where the air valve is installed, provides the maximum tolerable overpressure, thus allowing the optimal air valve orifice size to be identified.


The chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a polysymptomatic syndrome resulting from the reduction of active nephrons. It is estimated that the disease affects from 4.7-20% of adults. According to the actual knowledge, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) less than 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 is a significant risk factor for the cardiovascular diseases. The aim of our study was to assess the frequency of using the serum creatinine level and the estimated GFR (eGFR) as the indices of renal function in clinical practice. The study was performed amongst physicians working in non-academic departments of internal disease in the region of lubelskie voivodeships in 2008. An anonymous questionnaire of own composition consisting of 18 open and closed questions was used. The questions concerned the use of eGFR and serum creatinine level in everyday practice. 162 physicians were asked to fill the questionnaire, the percent of positive answers was 27.78% which is 45 questionnaires. The best parameter in evaluation of renal function, according to the asked physicians, was serum creatinine level (49% of all answers), eGFR (47%) and serum urea level or microalbuminuria (4%). Despite the actual recommendations, the serum creatinine level still remains the most popular routine parameter used to evaluate renal function. It seems that the knowledge concerning the diagnosing of CKD and the prophylaxis of its progression among physicians is insufficient. It concerns mainly physicians with no special training, working rather in profiled than in general medicine departments. Therefore, current educational programs concerning preventing and early diagnosis of CKD should be destinated mainly to these groups of physicians.


E-waste has been identified as the fastest growing waste stream in the world at present. Rapid socioeconomic development and technological advancement are the main drivers of this trend. The hazardous chemical components of e-waste have potential adverse impacts on ecosystems and human health if not managed properly. This represents an imminent challenge to achieving sustainable development goals. Although technologically developed countries are the main source of e-product production and e-waste generation, the generated volume has also been increasing in developing countries and those in transition due to transport and transfer from e-waste source countries. Consequently, developing countries are in a vulnerable situation due to their lack of inventory data, waste management policies and advanced technology for environmentally sound management.


Abstract This paper assesses the fundamental relation between the Islamic-political movements and establishment of the Islamic law (Shari'a). I argue against the critiques of western foreign policy and show that the Islamic State (Caliphate) is both a result of the historical process of the people of a region and the extreme interpretation of the text and Sunna which emphasizes on the traditional Sharia law and the concept of Jihad by fortifying political Islam qua militant Islam. I argue that the Islamic revival aims to a certain political order which threatens the world security and peace. Moreover, I argue that the structural violation of Human Rights is rooted in the traditional concept of Islamic law or Sharia, which obtains its immunity by an illegitimate power. This traditional Islamic law is the inalienable character of authoritarian/totalitarian regimes. This paper is based on the assumption that the extreme ideological/theoretical interpretation implies the empirical objectives of Militant Islamic community with or without any external influential elements. In this sense, we can address the question: how different interpretations and traditions in executing the Islamic Sharia give the social and political grounds a seed for the emergence of violence and terrorism. At the end, this paper ends with a propose which emphasizes on the role of international cooperation to find a resolution and also on the education as a long-term plan to defeat extremism and terrorism.


An exploration of trainees' abilities to identify question types, their function and the process of questioning was carried out with 25 trainees who were studying for either a Diploma in Cognitive Therapy or a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. The results showed that trainees were best at determining the functions of questions, but were poor overall at identifying the different elements of questioning. This study highlights the absence of terminology for breaking down therapeutic dialogue into its component parts. It is concluded that research is needed to explore ways in which the components of questioning can be better articulated and conceptualized so as to aid our ability to reflect on questions in a meaningful way.


Higher order nonlinear and dispersive effects are obtained by the reductive perturbation method for kinetic Alfven waves and ion-acoustic waves starting from a set of equations, which lead to a linear dispersion relation coupling a kinetic Alfven wave and an ion-acoustic wave. Higher order solitary wave profiles are obtained for both waves. Graphs are plotted showing the variations of both Mach number and soliton width against soliton amplitude. It is found that solitary kinetic Alfven waves move with a faster speed and solitary ion-acoustic waves with a slower speed than the speeds predicted by KdV theory, and the width of the higher order soliton is greater than that of the KdV-soliton.


Domain generalization (DG) is about learning models that generalize well to new domains that are related to, but different from, the training domain(s). It is a fundamental problem in machine learning and has attracted much attention in recent years. A large number of approaches have been proposed. Different approaches are motivated from different perspectives, making it difficult to gain an overall understanding of the area. In this paper, we propose a causal framework for domain generalization and present an understanding of common DG approaches in the framework. Our work sheds new lights on the following questions: (1) What are the key ideas behind each DG method? (2) Why is it expected to improve generalization to new domains theoretically? (3) How are different DG methods related to each other and what are relative advantages and limitations? By providing a unified perspective on DG, we hope to help researchers better understand the underlying principles and develop more effective approaches for this critical problem in machine learning.


Mobile wireless makes the transition to data and video-dominated broadband. Unprecedented demands are placed on operator networks. Thus, 4G LTE networks are deployed worldwide mainly in macro environments to serve the increasing demand of data throughput for all kinds of mobile users at any places. However, specifically for in-tunnel applications, deployment of 4G network has just started. The purpose of this white paper is to review the design challenges for in-tunnel LTE applications and to analyze the key performance indicators. The document summarizes the results of a comprehensive measurement campaign focusing on intunnel LTE performance based on RFS RADIAFLEX radiating cables. Furthermore, a number of test cases have been executed to investigate the applicability of MIMO technology in tunnel environments and to identify its individual requirements. The white paper gives insight to the individual test configurations as well as the results which have been achieved.


A diverse range of techniques have been used to survey mammals. Spoor counts and camera trapping are increasingly common survey tools used to detect the presence of species of interest in an area (occupancy). Given the significant time and financial investments in such surveys, and the management decisions based on their conclusions, it is imperative that confidence can be assigned to the results. It is therefore important to increase our understanding of the accuracy and constraints of each technique to allow managers and researchers to select the most suitable method for each situation. Here we compare results collected simultaneously using spoor and camera-trap surveys at a human—wildlife interface in northern Botswana. While our spoor survey and camera-trap surveys detected a similar number of mammal species (17 and 15, respectively), the species detected by each method differed. Of the 21 species detected overall, only about half (52.4%) were detected by both methods, and these co-detected species had significantly higher occupancy estimates than those species detected by only one method. Moreover, the direct comparison showed that some tracks were missed or misidentified by the spoor survey. Our results suggest that over short time frames, neither method is ideal for detecting species at low densities, and that researchers should consider combining multiple methods in such circumstances.


The Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) was commissioned by Family Day Care Australia to conduct research into quality in family day care. Six high quality services agreed to participate in the study. At each service, the SPRC research team conducted interviews with families, educators, coordination unit staff and representatives from managing organisations, comprising a total of 44 interviews with 52 people. All interviewees were strongly committed to providing quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) and had a belief in family day care's unique strengths. The interviews explored ideas about the distinctive nature of quality in family day care, strengths and challenges, and how quality can be best supported. The data was analysed to reveal common themes across the services.


This paper presents the analysis of inductive links for remote powering of implantable devices and a method to improve the power link efficiency by modifying the geometrical parameters of planar spiral inductors. The analysis of the inductive links includes a model for the inductors, which is more accurate for larger bandwidths. The corresponding equations for the power and voltage transfer functions in the inductive links are solved by using MATLABpsilas Symbolic Math Toolbox. These equations are verified in Agilent ADS, and the results perfectly match. Besides the analysis, a method to improve the power efficiency by changing the geometrical parameters of the spiral inductors is proposed.


Streaming media content such as movies and songs which are stored locally in the phone or PC directly to TV wirelessly sanctions us to disseminate information to wider audience in a convenient way. In this paper, we discuss the current situation in media streaming from mobile phone to TV and incipient possibilities in this field. A mobile application that enables people to stream media files which are stored in the phone directly to TV utilizing coalescence of UPnP technology and Google Chromecast. To achieve that, we have developed the M2TV algorithm and built a mobile application utilizing the algorithm. We utilize different scenarios to illustrate the possibilities and usefulness of the application predicated on M2TV architecture. The application is now available on Google Play store with the name "Vbio" for anyone to download and in addition to that, the application has been downloaded and relished by thousands of users around the world with very good reviews.


The main goal of this paper is to compare efficiency of higher education systems in European countries using Data Envelopment Analysis. The Data Envelopment Analysis is a nonparametric approach based on linear programming, which allows calculation of the efficiency of decision-making units with multiple inputs and outputs. Inputs included in this analysis are: research and development expenditure as percentage of GDP by country, total public expenditure on education as percentage of GDP by country, number of employees in higher education by country, number of students and number of researchers by country. On the side of outputs, three variables were included: number of publications by country, number of graduates and number of graduates at doctoral level by country. The data were collected from the Eurostat, UNESCO and Scimago database.


Megastigmus zebrinus Grissell (Hymenoptera: Torymidae) is reported for the first time from Argentina, associated with galls of Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnhardt (Myrtaceae) induced by the gall-forming wasp, Leptocybe invasa Fisher & LaSalle (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), in Buenos Aires. Megastimus zebrinus was previously found in Australia, its home country, and South Africa.


Understanding how the cellular niche controls the stem cell phenotype is often hampered due to the complexity of variegated niche composition, its dynamics, and nonlinear stem cell–niche interactions. Here, we propose a systems biology view that considers stem cell–niche interactions as a many‐body problem amenable to simplification by the concept of mean field approximation. This enables approximation of the niche effect on stem cells as a constant field that induces sustained activation/inhibition of specific stem cell signaling pathways in all stem cells within heterogeneous populations exhibiting the same phenotype (niche determinants). This view offers a new basis for the development of single cell‐based computational approaches for identifying niche determinants, which has potential applications in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.


Abstract The present study focuses on serially occurring narrations of 'everyday' life, more specifically on birthing as narrated by mothers on online forums; the underlying idea being that these narrations happen against the background of cultural narratives. The present paper uses word embedding models to detect typical topics and actors in these narrations. The calculation of word embeddings automatically constructs semantic spaces, where semantic relations (synonymy in particular) can be modeled. This method offers a way to think of synonymy as 'functional equivalence in discourse'. The present study relies on previous work with n-grams (Bubenhofer, 2018). N-grams are sequences of words that often appear together; their sequential order in different narrations gives insight in narrative patterns. A further step in the analysis is the construction of 'narrative topoi', which is achieved through clustering neighboring vectors. The emerging clusters can in turn be grouped into five narrative elements of 'telling a birth story': 1) disruption of daily life, 2) personnel, 3) body, 4) fear, 5) joy. While it seems obvious that certain themes 'belong' into the narration of a delivery, it is less obvious with what vocabulary these themes are expressed. The presented method of clustering word-embedding-profiles adds tremendously to the modelling of a narrative. Its advantages lie in its potential to show lexical variation, as it also includes rare, non-conformative orthographical variants. Furthermore, it allows for a discourse-specific (and usage-based) view on semantic relations. The same applies to relations between semantic clusters. Seen from a discourse linguistics or cultural analysis perspective, word embeddings renew our understanding of semantics. This shows particularly fruitful if used to analyze (discourse dependent) derivations between semantic spaces.


Understanding the drug interactions between antiretrovirals and opioid therapies may decrease toxicities and enhance adherence with improved HIV outcomes in opioid-dependent individuals. The authors report the results of a clinical pharmacology study designed to determine whether significant pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic interactions occur between the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, delavirdine (DLV), and either methadone or levo-alpha acetyl methadol (LAAM) (n = 40). DLV significantly decreased methadone clearance (p = .018) and increased the methadone elimination half-life (p < .001) with a resultant increase in AUC of 19% and C(min)of 29%. The combined effect of DLV on the total concentration of LAAM and its active metabolites, norLAAM and dinorLAAM, was to significantly increase AUC by 43% (p < .001), C(max) by 30% (p = .013), and C(min) by 59% (p = .004) while decreasing T(max) (p = .05). Cognitive deficits over the seven-day study period as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination, opioid withdrawal symptoms as measured by the Objective Opioid Withdrawal Scale, or complaints of adverse symptoms were not observed. Methadone and LAAM did not affect DLV concentrations. The findings from this study show that DLV treatment in methadone- or LAAM-maintained individuals results in altered opioid pharmacokinetics with an increased exposure and potential risk for opioid toxicity with methadone or LAAM treatment and an increased risk of cardiac toxicity with concomitant LAAM and DLV administration.


This study was carried out to examine the antioxidant effects of cheonggukjang combined with Phellinus linteus extract. The electron-donating activity (EDA) of cheonggukjang containing 0.3% P. linteus extract (0.3% CPLE) was higher than that of cheonggukjang only. EDA of the ethanol extract from cheonggukjang was higher than that of the water extract. The water and the ethanol extracts showed strong antioxidant activity with regard to peroxide value. However, the ethanol extract showed a higher peroxide value than the water extract. The nitrite scavenging activity of the ethanol extract was greater than that of the water extract, corresponding to the EDA and peroxide values for each extract. Therefore, the antioxidant effects were enhanced by adding 0.3% of extract from P. linteus in manufacturing cheonggukjang. It is suggested that P. linteus extract could be put into practice as an effective antioxidant agent.


The band structures of the layer compounds SnS2, SnSe2, CdI2 and PbI2 are calculated by the tight-binding method. They are in closer agreement with experimental results and previous pseudopotential calculations than previous tight-binding results have been. A universal band structure for the family is found by use of approximate algebraic band energies. For the 16-electron crystals a Gamma 2- to L1+ indirect gap and a main optical transition due to anion p-cation p orbitals is found, whilst for PbI2 the gap is direct at A.


Background Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) are a type of tumors with the characteristics of easy metastasis and recurrence. Till date, the risk factors affecting the prognosis are still in the debate. In this study, several risk factors will be discussed combined with our cases and experience. Methods Thirty‐three patients diagnosed as pNETs were enrolled and the clinical features, blood tests, pathological features, surgical treatment, and follow‐up data of these patients were collected and analyzed. Results In this study, operation time of G3 cases was longer than G1/G2 cases (P=0.017). The elevated level of tumor markers such as AFP, CEA, Ca125, and Ca19‐9 may predict easier metastasis, earlier recurrence, and poor prognosis (P=0.007). The presence of cancer embolus and nerve invasion increases along with the TNM stage (P=0.037 and P=0.040), and the incidence of positive surgical margin increased (P=0.007). When the presence of nerve invasion occurs, the chance of cancer embolus and lymph node metastasis also increases (P=0.016 and P=0.026). Conclusions pNETs were tumors with the features of easy recurrence and metastasis and many risk factors could affect its prognosis such as the elevated levels of tumor markers and the presence of nerve invasion, except some recognized risk factors. If one or more of these factors existed, postoperative treatments may be needed to improve prognosis.


Background: WHO estimates that every year 500,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year worldwide representing 12% of all cancers in females, and more than half of them die from it. Regular screening for cervical cancer with PAP smears or VIA/VILI has been shown to reduce the risk of cervical cancer development. Workplace cervical cancer education and screening have been identified as useful prevention interventions. Objectives: To assess the current knowledge of cervical cancer, attitudes and practices towards cervical cancer screening among the flower farm workers in Naivasha, Kenya. Design: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Methods: A random sample of 391 flower farm workers in five farms in Naivasha were interviewed using a standard questionnaire. Knowledge about cervical cancer, attitudes towards cervical cancer screening and practices regarding screening were measured. Results: Of the 391 respondents, 32.2% were aware of cancer of the cervix, 72.2% of these knew that the disease is preventable. Fourty five point five percent associated cervical cancer causation with multiple sexual partners and HPV infection. Only 3.3% were aware of HPV vaccine. Seven point two percent of the female respondents had ever been screened for cervical cancer and of these 78.6% were screened within the past 1 year. Fourty six percent were screened voluntarily (own request) and another 46% were screened on providers' advice. Of the male respondents, only 25% had partners who had ever been screened. Conclusion: The knowledge of cervical cancer and prevention by screening was low amongst the flower farm workers. The screening rate amongst the workers was very low. The findings of this survey warrant a very strong recommendation for the setting-up of workplace policies and mechanisms for cervical cancer education, screening and prevention interventions. Keywords: Cervical cancer, Awareness, Prevention, Workplace


Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is defined as an asymptomatic state characterized by normal serum levels of free thyroxine and elevated serum concentrations of thyrotropin (> 4.0 µU/ml). The association between SCH and type 2 diabetes has been well established. Proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) that is characterized by neovascularization is a leading cause of visual loss in adults worldwide. However, whether SCH is related to PDR has not been studied. This study thus aimed to evaluate the relationship between SCH and PDR in type 2 diabetes. A total of 371 type 2 diabetic subjects were enrolled: 187 subjects with PDR and 184 subjects without diabetic retinopathy (with HbA1c above 6.5% and at least 10 years of diabetes duration). Subjects with PDR had higher blood pressure, higher serum levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and thyrotropin, and higher urinary albumin excretion rate. Of the 371 diabetics, 83 subjects (22.4%) were diagnosed as SCH (male 12.1% and female 29.9%). The prevalence of SCH in the PDR group (51/187, 27.3%) was higher than that in the subjects without diabetic retinopathy (32/184, 17.4%). Logistic regression analysis showed that after adjusting for compounding variables, SCH was independently related with PDR (p = 0.032, adjusted OR = 2.485). These results indicate that type 2 diabetic patients with PDR are at an increased risk of SCH. A routine screening for thyroid function may thus be considered advisable in PDR subjects. This may be helpful in investigating new strategies preventing or treating PDR in clinical practice.


We synthesized a long-chain phenylazopyridine ligand and used it to obtain three new amphiphilic trinuclear ruthenium acetate clusters. The amphiphilicity and anisometric form of the long-chain ligand allowed the complexes to self-assemble at the liquid–air interface and enabled their deposition by the Langmuir–Blodgett technique. We obtained the linear complex [Ru3O(C2H3O2)6(py)2L]+ [L = 4-(4-dodecyloxyphenylazo)pyridine, py = pyridine], which was more stable than the triangular [Ru3O(C2H3O2)6L3]+ and more suitable for application in electrochromic switching devices, as attested by its fast switching and optical changes in the near-IR region. Indeed, our electrochromic device remained stable for hundreds of switching cycles.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the safety and role of prophylactic administration of magnesium in preventing arrhythmias.

METHOD
This double blind randomized placebo controlled clinical trial was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital on coronary artery bypass surgery patients. All patients were connected to holter monitor before induction of anaesthesia and this monitoring continued for 24 hours. Study drug containing either 2-grams of magnesium or normal saline was given after intubation. Levels of serum magnesium was checked preoperatively and then in ICU at 0, 6, 12, and 24 hours. Independent t-test and chi square test were used for analysis. Statistical significance was defined as p-value < 0.05.

RESULTS
A total of 104 patients consented to participate in the study, 53 patients were randomly allocated in magnesium (Mg) group and 51 in placebo group. Two (3.77%) patients in magnesium group and five patients (9.8%) in placebo group developed atrial fibrillation. Incidence of ventricular and supraventricular tachycardia was also slightly higher in placebo. Mg level after arrival in CICU (Cardiac Intensive Care Unit) showed mean of 2.1 in magnesium group and 1.6 in placebo group (p = 0.6).

CONCLUSION
Low magnesium levels were noticed in the placebo group after cardiopulmonary bypass and although prophylactic administration of magnesium sulphate was relatively safe but significant benefit on prevention of arrhythmias could not be attained.


We hypothesize that individuals who self-identify with one racial group but are routinely perceived by observers as "looking like" another racial group may experience negative outcomes associated with this stressful situation. Since American Indians experience very high rates of misclassification, we use them as our case in point. Drawing from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, our analyses compare young American Indian adults who are perceived as another race by an observer to those who are correctly classified, using several indicators of psychological distress: depression, suicidal thoughts, use of psychological counseling services, suicide attempts, and fatalism. We also investigate differences in racial attitudes and behaviors, such as belonging to an ethnic solidarity organization or believing it is important to have a committed relationship with someone of the same race. The evidence suggests that, onthe whole, misclassified American Indians have higher rates of psychological distress. We conclude by discussing our findings and their wider implications, especially in the context of an increasingly heterogeneous and multiracial society.


Sparse representations allow modeling data using a few basis elements of an over-complete dictionary and have been used in many image processing applications. We propose to use a sparse representation and an adaptive dictionary learning paradigm to automatically classify Multiple Sclerosis (MS) lesions from MRI. In particular, we investigate the effects of learning dictionaries specific to the lesions and individual healthy brain tissues, which include White Matter (WM), Gray Matter (GM) and Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF). The dictionary size plays a major role in data representation but it is an even more crucial element in the case of competitive classification. We present an approach that adapts the size of the dictionary for each class, depending on the complexity of the underlying data. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on clinical data demonstrating improved classification.


We present a comparative study of nonsequential double ionization (NSDI) of N2 and Ar exposed to nearsingle-cycle laser pulses. The NSDI process is investigated using carrier-envelope-phase-tagged electron-ion coincidence spectroscopy. The measured NSDI spectra of N2 and Ar exhibit a striking resemblance. In particular, the correlated two-electron momentum distribution arising from NSDI of N2 also displays a cross-shape very similar to that reported for Ar [Bergues et al., Nat. Commun. 3, 813 (2012)]. We interpret our results in terms of recollision-excitation with subcycle depletion and discuss how this mechanism accounts for the observed similarities and differences in the ionization behavior of the two species.


The organized gut-associated lymphoid tissue (the Peyer's patches [PPs] of domestic ruminants) is an important site of lesions caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. To investigate the association between PP morphology and the lesions of paratuberculosis in goats, two experiments were performed. Five healthy kids aged 4-5 weeks were examined and the morphology of organized lymphoid tissue in the small intestine was described. Morphological similarities were observed between the ileocaecal-valve PP (ICVPP) and the jejunal PPs (JPPs), with pear-shaped follicles, large submucosal interfollicular T-cell areas, and many intraepithelial leucocytes in the follicle-associated epithelium. The ileal PP (IPP) consisted of elongated follicles, small T-cell areas and few intraepithelial leucocytes. The association between these three locations of PPs and lesions of paratuberculosis was then studied in seven goats inoculated with M. a. paratuberculosis at 5-8 weeks of age and killed 2 years later, while in the subclinical phase of infection. Gross lesions were recorded in five animals and microscopic lesions were observed in the intestine and mesenteric lymph nodes of six animals. The lesions in the small intestine were mainly located in the PPs of the mid-jejunum (JPPs) and ICVPP. Lesions were not present in the intestinal segments that had contained IPP, which had undergone involution during the first 12-18 months of life. These observations indicate that the persistent organized lymphoid tissue in the JPPs and ICVPP, but not the involuted IPP, sustains the development of granulomatous inflammation due to paratuberculosis during the subclinical phase of infection.


We consider a model of a molecular junction made of BDT (benzene dithiol) molecule trapped between two Au(100) leads. Using the ab initio approach implemented in the SIESTA package we look for the optimal configurations of the molecule as a function of the distance between the leads. We find that for distances long enough the energy of the system is minimized when the molecule is bonded asymmetrically, i.e. chemisorbed to one of the leads, whereas for distances shorter than 12 Å the energy is minimized when the molecule sits in the middle between the leads. We discuss possible consequences of the above findings for the transport properties of the junction. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Abstract : We have developed a robust transgenic mouse model (P0-GGF 3 mice) in which overexpression of the growth factor neuregulin-1 (NRG1) results in the reproducible development of plexiform neurofibromas which subsequently progress to become MPNSTs. We hypothesized that comprehensively characterizing alterations in the genomes and gene expression profiles of peripheral nerve sheath tumors arising in our P0- GGF 3 mouse model will identify candidate driver genes mediating plexiform neurofibroma pathogenesis and neurofibroma-MPNST progression, thereby identifying new therapeutic targets in the equivalent human tumors. To test this overarching hypothesis, we are using a comprehensive multi-tiered process to identify candidate driver mutations in P0-GGF 3 neurofibromas and MPNSTs, establish gene signatures defining distinct tumor subtypes and functionally test the role of selected driver mutations characteristic of specific subtypes. Potential driver mutations within relatively large regions of chromosomal gain or loss will be identified using high density array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) and cross-species comparisons of this data with aCGH findings from human neurofibromas and MPNSTs. Smaller mutations (missense mutations, nonsense mutations, small indels and fusion events) will be identified using a combination of transcriptome (RNA-Seq) and exome sequencing in these same murine tumors. The contribution of selected candidate driver mutations characteristic of specific tumor subtypes will be validated by manipulating the function of these genes and examining the effect this has in vivo, using orthotopically allografted tumor cells, and a variety of in vitro functional assays. We will validate the relevance of these mutated mouse genes in human neurofibromas and MPNSTs by determining whether these same genes are mutated in human tumors.


: Mosquitoes host diverse bacterial communities influenced by the sex of the mosquito, tissue, and developmental stages, among other factors. Consequently, the mosquito microbiota may impact on several aspects of the host biology, including nutrition, development and reproduction. We have recently revealed a shared core microbiota among different mosquito species, although interesting inter-and intra-species differences were detected. Additionally, we showed deep divergences between genera, underlining microbiota specificity and adaptation to their host suggesting that the holobiont of different mosquito species may significantly vary. Moreover, mosquito species are characterized by distinctive microbiota in different organs, likely reflecting different functions and/or adaptation processes. Understanding of the microbiota of mosquitoes in relation to sex, developmental stage and tissue, may ultimately provide crucial insights and novel targets for possible application of symbionts in innovative strategies for the control of vector borne diseases, globally named Symbiotic Control (SC). Here I report some advances in the study of microbial symbiosis in mosquitoes with particular reference to the acetic bacterium Asaia, the best characterized Anophe-line symbiont, for which some conditioning on the biology of the host are proposed, including, for example, a possible impact on insecticide-resistance mechanism sdeveloped by mosquitoes.


As a part of a larger project called "The Challenge of Change: Rethinking Law as Discipline," the authors seek "to identify and examine current challenges to the conceptual underpinnings and methodology of the traditional legal paradigm." In focusing on the construction of "'fact," the meanings of knowledge and the interplay between cultural understandings and the law of evidence, the authors note that the shifting boundaries of the discipline of law are engendering debates about what is marginal and what is core. They draw on challenges posed by the increasing diversity of producers and consumers of law in searching for the core idea of what lawyers do in contrast to, for instance, anthropologists, and argue that a core idea of law is to engage in legal reasoning that pays attention to the value of human rights in their broadest sense. In examining methods whereby the knowledge which grounds legal factual determinations can be made consistent with fundamental human rights such as equality and access to justice, the authors draw on a variety of legal topics-Aboriginal rights claims, sexual assault, contracts and self-defence.


The Metropolis-Hastings algorithm is a method of constructing a reversible Markov transition kernel with a speci ed invariant distribution. This note describes necessary and su cient conditions on the candidate generation kernel and the acceptance probability function for the resulting transition kernel and invariant distribution to satisfy the detailed balance conditions. A simple general formulation is used that covers a range of special cases treated separately in the literature. In addition, results on a useful partial ordering of nite state space reversible transition kernels are extended to general state spaces and used to compare the performance of two approaches to using mixtures in Metropolis-Hastings kernels.


Leadership is defined as a process by which an individual attempts to influence other group members towards achieving group goals. Leadership is also viewed as a process which people use to bring out the best in themselves and others. National culture is said to play a pivotal role in determining the effectiveness of leadership styles. Literature on leadership identifies transformational leadership, transactional leadership and laissez-faire leadership as the three common leadership styles in the current climate, with transformational leadership and transactional leadership being the most dominant. Literature suggests that an employee's job satisfaction is strongly influenced by leadership style. Current leadership styles are related to job satisfaction by varying degrees. Several studies have indicated that transformational leadership results in higher levels of job satisfaction than transactional or laissez-faire leadership. The overall aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between leadership styles and employee job satisfaction levels within the organisation. A quantitative study was conducted to accomplish the objectives of the study. Questionnaires were administered to employees within the selected target population in the organisation. The data received were analysed using statistical packages. The results of the study show that there are statistically significant relationships between overall transactional leadership and job satisfaction, overall transformational leadership and job satisfaction and laissez-faire leadership and job satisfaction. However, two attributes of transformational leadership best explain job satisfaction. Intellectual stimulation contributed most to explaining job satisfaction, followed by individualised consideration. The remaining attributes of transformational leadership, transactional leadership and laissez-faire contribution to job satisfaction.


Abstract For people who self-injure, the internet can provide an anonymous environment where users feel safe to divulge feelings and experiences which are not usually socially sanctioned. However, internet users can encourage each other to engage in self-destructive behaviour. This qualitative study aimed to simulate a typical search an adolescent might perform if he/she was looking for support and information about self-injury. The aim was to determine whether the resulting content was helpful or harmful. Seven queries – 'cutting', 'self injury', 'self-injury', 'self harm', 'self-harm', 'self-mutilation', and 'self mutilation' – were entered into www.google.com and each link from the first webpage from each search was opened and judged for relevancy. Thirty-nine links were analysed and grouped into five categories: websites (n=5); webpages (n=11); book results (n=8); news results (n=11); and other (n=4). Examination of the quality and content of the links obtained from our search showed mainly recovery oriented, supportive information about self-injury. Despite this positive outcome, more specific searches such as 'pro-self-injury' would likely result in less encouraging results. Mental health professionals should be aware that their self-injuring clients have probably used the internet for support and information, and consider how this use might impact on therapy. Mental health professionals could use the results of this study to recommend quality internet sites to their clients.


Solution generating techniques for 2+I-dimensional nonlinear integrable systems
given by the integrability condition of linear problems (Lax pairs) are
presented. According to certain symmetries of these linear problems a distinction
between generalized Darboux and Darboux-Levi transformations
is made. In the 1+1-dimensional limit the link to twisted and untwisted
Kac-Moody algebras as prolongation algebras and the well-known N-soliton
Ansatz is discussed. It is shown that the Moutard theorem and the dromion
solutions for the Davey-Stewartson equation I are contained within this approach.
Moreover, the applicability of an extended version of the generalized
Darboux-Levi transformation to a Loewner-type system is demonstrated
which leads to localized soli tonic solutions of a 2+1-dimensional sine-Gordon
system (Konopelchenko-Rogers equations).


One of the important goals of trade facilitation is to lower the costs of trade that serve as a barrier to the developing countries from enjoying the benefits of increased trade and becoming integrated into global supply chains that account for nearly 60 percent of global trade today. The high trade costs that are plaguing most developing countries is mainly incurred from the lack of adequate trade-related infrastructure and low quality of institutions that hinder the efficient flow of goods across and within borders. Therefore, the trade facilitation rules that are contained in FTAs among bilateral trading partners are inevitably aimed at deepening their participation in the global value chain network. However, an observation of the FTAs concluded by Korea and the trade facilitation rules contained therein shows that the current trade facilitation rules in bilateral FTAs may be of little practical use for countries that lack the capacity to be involved in the international production activities in the first place. From the development perspective, the recently concluded WTO agreement on trade facilitation which takes full account of the special and differential treatment needs of the less developed country members appear more likely to contribute to providing the trading environment that is free from the barriers to trade that have inhibited the less developed countries from integration into the global supply chains and the benefits thereof.


Abstract Questions concerning moral problems caused by the lifesciences and concerning the adequate methods and instruments to solve these are timely and urgent; especially in the face of intense debates on the acceptability of research on human embryonic stem cells and preimplantation diagnostics, to name only two applications developed from research in the life-sciences. Unfortunately, the constant and accusing demand that life-scientists must behave morally does not give us a clue on how ethics may help in establishing guidelines for moral behaviour. In this heated situation the foundation of ethics-committees seems to be the motto of the day. But instead of functioning as necessary and fruitful scientific advisory boards, these committees run the risk of being misused as a fashionable (and soon forgotten) weapon in the battle for political opinion-leadership. In the following article, the view is defended that ethics is a scientific enterprise and has an important role to play in political decision making on lifesciences issues.


Summary: Classifications cannot be final, and the same group of organisms may be sorted and arranged in many different ways. The species is man-made, and since it cannot be defined the creation of taxa of higher categories based on species makes an absurd situation. The type method (a nomenclatural device) is inapplicable to bacteriology, and more use should be made of the population concept.
Bacteriological nomenclature is full of absurdities, many derived from the Botanical Code. In particular, the principles of priority and the retroactive application of new rules are criticized, especially when they are applied to the names of well-established taxa.
Two new principles of heretical taxonomy are described.


By means of macro-microscopic and histologic methods an intraorgan vascular bed of the human prostate gland was studied in postnatal ontogenesis. Components of microcirculatory bed were demonstrated, its ontogenetic transformations were followed up, the specific volume of the vascular bed, connective tissue framework and parenchyma was estimated.


A low-complexity decoupled detection MIMO receiver structure is proposed for wireless systems with frequency-selective channels. This receiver structure is termed the decoupled Viterbi algorithm (DVA). In this structure, all the transmitted data streams are completely decoupled at the receiver and are detected independently. This structure can also be viewed as a variation of a MIMO minimum mean square error decision feedback sequence estimator (MMSE-DFSE) structure. Moreover, a certain MMSE optimization constraint, namely L-tap forward interference control (L-tap FIC), is needed to achieve complete decoupling of the transmitted data streams at the receiver. It is shown that the complexity of the DVA is "linear", meaning it increases only linearly with the number of transmitted data streams. Compared with other receivers that have "linear" complexity, such as partitioned Viterbi algorithm (PVA) (Miller, C. et al., IEEE Trans. on Commun., vol.49, no.11, 2001), DVA provides an attractive alternative since it does not require interchange of tentative decisions between different detection branches.


Congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency is one of the most common inherited metabolic diseases. We studied 52 Japanese 21-hydroxylase deficiency patients corresponding to 49 families (98 chromosomes) to detect the mutations in 21-hydroxylase genes using Southern blotting, PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism, and a direct sequencing method. Among the 52 patients (49 families), 35 patients (33 families) were diagnosed as the salt-wasting type, 12 (12 families) as the simple virilizing type, and 5 (4 families) as the nonclassical type. Our findings were as follows. 1) The complete genotype that had homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations was determined in 43 of 49 families (87.8%). Among the remaining patients, no mutation was found in the structural gene of either allele in 3 cases, and a mutation was detected in only 1 allele in 3 cases. This means that at least 9 of 98 alleles have some unusual mutations or recombinations that we cannot detect by our method or gene defects outside of the structural gene. 2) Although the common mutation of Caucasian nonclassical patients is V281L, none of our 4 nonclassical families showed this mutation, and 3 of them had the P30L mutation at least on 1 allele. 3) We identified a putative new mutation, homozygous deletion of adenine at codon 246, in a salt-wasting patient. Although we have not analyzed the functional consequence of this mutation, it causes substitution noncoding for Met(256) in exon 7 and premature termination of the mRNA before the heme-binding region of the P450 polypeptide, which would result in a completely nonfunctional enzyme.


A statistical treatment of energy transfer from one ferroelectric chain to another through the mechanism of domain-wall solitons is presented. Two one-dimensional ferroelectric chains are considered which have a junction point enabling energy exchange between the chains. The contribution of domain-wall mechanism in the energy transfer process is compared to the contribution due to the mechanism of linear excitations in the chains.


MR examinations of the extremities occupy the first place in whole body examinations via MR. Highest accuracy quotas in this area with an average of 93.8% were obtained for tumours, trauma and necroses of the bones. These high accuracy quotas, however, were achieved only if sufficient preliminary information was available. Other statistically significant factors were found to be the field strength, the combined use of spin echo and fast imaging sequences and the use of the multislice technique.


Tamoxifen administration to postmenopausal women has been described as being associated with various endometrial and other gynecological pathologies. However, different coexisting gynecological pathologies in such patients have not yet been described. In the present study, we assessed the histopathological conditions diagnosed in endometrium, myometrium, and ovaries of 28 postmenopausal breast cancer patients who were treated with tamoxifen (study group) and compared the findings to those obtained from 14 similar patients without tamoxifen treatment (control group I) and from 28 age-matched healthy postmenopausal controls (control group II). All specimens were removed by total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for various indications. The overall incidence of two or more different coexisting gynecological pathologies was significantly higher among the study group (92.9%) than in control group I or in control group II (42.9 and 50%, respectively; p = 0.0001). There was no significant statistical difference between the control groups. Overall endometrial (and endometrial-like) origin of pathological conditions was significantly more common in the study group (92.6%) than in control group I (50%; p = 0.00072) and control group II (32.1%; p = 0.0000), while there was no significant difference between the latter two groups. These findings suggest that there might be an association between postmenopausal tamoxifen exposure and the development of such different coexisting or specific single gynecological pathologies originating from the endometrium.


Abstract Objectives: to estimate the prevalence of drug abuse in pregnant women and to associate with the variables education, family income, race and number of pregnancies. Methods: descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative research. Developed in the municipality of Bandeirantes-PR, from June 2016 to December 2017. The population was 114 pregnant women and the dependent variables were alcohol / tobacco use and illicit drugs and the independent variables were education, race, family income and number of pregnancies. The analysis was the comparison between the variables and Microsoft Excel 2007 and SPSS 20.0 was used. It was approved by the Ethics Committee. Results: the use of drugs of abuse during pregnancy was 19.2%, presenting as a sociodemographic profile characterization the age between 19 to 29 years, predominance of nonwhite race, with study time ≤ 9 years, with income from 1 to 2 minimum wages and multiparous women. The most commonly used drug of abuse was alcohol, followed by tobacco. Concomitant use between drugs was significant with alcohol and tobacco / illicit drugs and tobacco. Conclusions: drug use had a prevalence of 19.2% and acts in conjunction with social issues and this case, intervening is necessary with an individualized care plan, thus ensuring the promotion and prevention of maternal and child health.


International humanitarian law (IHL) does not prohibit military action resulting in the loss of civilian life at large. As long as its rules on the protection of civilians and their property are followed, the incidental causation of civilian loss is legal. Why is this so? The not-so-naive answer is that contemporary military operations would be made difficult, if they were to be carried out under legal norms leaving no room for civilian casualties whatsoever. Such severe constraints were as undesirable for states developing ius in bello through history as the total absence of constraints. That apart, incidental and lawful civilian losses within the framework of IHL could be seen as indispensable signs in a symbolic order fettering violent conflicts in communities. With this text, I would like to outline how this possibility might be researched in a future, more comprehensive project. In choosing targeting as an area, I believe that I am close to an archetypical norm on the fettering of violence in the laws of war. The present text features two distinct steps.First, I explore central norms on targeting in contemporary IHL, as the ultimate point of a historically grown body of thought on the lawful killing of certain civilians. This reading of the law emphasises its central ambiguities, and tries to lay bare the chains of equivalence between military objective and civilian death it constructs. A central concern is the open question of civil-political objective to be pursued through IHL-abiding war. All this will be done in the consecutive Section 2.Second, to argue that casualties are perceived as necessary preconditions for peace in an international community, I introduce a theory explaining how the causation of incidental death of civilians, rather than the willed death of enemy combatants, plays a pacifying role in the symbolic order of international law. I wish to explore targeting norms as part of a contemporary victimisation ritual, offering the civilian casualty in exchange for divine appeasement of an international community. This approach draws on the work of Rene Girard explaining how communal violence is contained through ritual acts of sacrificial killings. This projection of Girardian theory on IHL norms will be performed in Section 3. A brief conclusion will be drawn in Section 4.


Background RA is associated with high societal costs. While disability predicts costs in RA, little is known about the relations between costs and disease activity or health-related quality of life. Objectives To study the associations between costs, disability, disease activity, and health-related quality of life. Methods RA patients receiving anti-TNF therapy in southern Sweden (n=2504; median disease duration 11y) were monitored between July 2005 and December 2010. At each visit (n=15732) HAQ, DAS28 and EQ-5D scores were collected, while costs of anti-rheumatic drugs, healthcare use and productivity losses were calculated from 30 days before to 30 days after the visit using nationwide registers. Associations between the clinical measures and healthcare (all patients, applying individual means) and work loss costs (patients <65y; n=1806) were studied by linear regression, adjusting for demographics and disease characteristics, and by Spearman correlation. Confidence intervals were estimated by non-parametric bootstrapping. Due to the inclusion criteria, anti-TNF cost varied little between patients and was excluded from the analyses. Results Over 60 days, the mean (SD) healthcare cost of patients with ongoing anti-TNF therapy was €3189 (1290), encompassing an anti-TNF cost of €2470 (502; 77%). In patients <65y, the mean work loss cost amounted to €4235 (3450). By linear regression, both healthcare (excl. anti-TNF) and work loss costs were most closely related to HAQ scores, while the association with work loss costs was also higher for EQ-5D than DAS28. Spearman results were similar, but did not detect a closer correlation of healthcare costs with HAQ than DAS28. Healthcare (excl. anti-TNF) costs: B = €440 (95%CI 324-557), 143 (85-201) and -652 (-948 to -355) for each 1.0 difference in HAQ, DAS28 and EQ-5D, respectively (p=0.030 for HAQ vs. DAS28 and p=0.027 for HAQ vs. EQ-5D by comparison of standardised B); rS=0.23, 0.18 and -0.16 for HAQ, DAS28 and EQ-5D, respectively (p=0.085 for HAQ vs. DAS28 and p=0.020 for HAQ vs EQ-5D). Work loss costs: B = €2574 (95%CI 2342-2807), 794 (668-919) and -4817 (-5392 to -4243) (p<0.01 for HAQ vs. DAS28/EQ-5D, p=0.027 for EQ-5D vs. DAS28); rS=0.52, 0.32 and -0.40 (p<0.001 for HAQ vs. DAS28/EQ-5D, p=0.008 for EQ-5D vs. DAS28). Figure 1 Conclusions In RA, work loss costs are more closely related to disability than to disease activity or health-related quality of life. HAQ disability is also a better marker of healthcare costs than health-related quality of life, while disease activity was not consistently inferior to HAQ in this regard. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.1466


The transmission of a 4 × 10 Gbit/s OTDM data sequence is demonstrated for the first time over 406 km of non-dispersion shifted fibre. Four wave mixing in a 2 mm long semiconductor optical amplifier was used to compensate for dispersion via mid-span spectral inversion. A record 45 dB signal-to-noise ratio in a 0.1 nm bandwidth was obtained for the spectrally inverted signal.


The aim of this book is to give a rigorous introduction for the graduate students to Analysis on Wiener space, a subject which has grown up very quickly these recent years under the new impulse of the Stochastic Calculus of Variations of Paul Malliavin.


Further food production may be limited by the reduced availability of water resources. Since irrigated agriculture is the productive sector that presents a higher demand of water, this sector has been under intense pressure in order to ensure food production with improved efficiency of water use. This study aimed to use the Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) technique to measure percolation losses and to determine water application efficiency of banana (Musa spp.) trees using microsprinkler irrigation systems. Three systems were studied: (i) one 32 L h-1 microsprinkler for four plants; (ii) one 60 L h-1 microsprinkler for four plants; and (iii) one 60 L h-1 microsprinkler for two plants. Systems that replace water to the soil with the lowest variation of infiltrated water depths at different distances from plant pseudostem were the most efficient. The water application efficiency of microsprinkler irrigation systems using the (i), (ii), and (iii) microsprinkler systems were 85%, 80 % and 90 % respectively.


This project has the objective of familiarising with Rhapsody, a Unified Modeling Language (UML) based development tool. The additional goal of embedding the developed software in a TMS-320LF2407 board has appeared to be out of the scope of the project. It turned out that Rhapsody assumes a Real Time Operating System (RTOS) at the target, for which the TMS board did not qualify. During the project, the Rapid Objec-Oriented Process for Embedded Systems (ROPES) has been followed. This method prescribes 'cyclic prototyping', an iterative approach allowing early testing of analysis models, even though they are not complete (Douglas, 2000). To discover the possibilities of this tool, it has been chosen to use it to model a Cruise Control (CC). The objective of getting acquainted with Rhapsody proved to be successful. A fully functional CC has been developed and comprehensive knowledge of the tool has been gathered and documented. It is recommended that further research is dedicated to improve the control law used for speed maintenance, as well as to development of a graphical user interface allowing plotting of the system output and easy event insertion. Furthermore, development of a framework for Rhapsody, allowing embedding in non-RTOS, is recommended.


In this contribution we will review our present understanding of the matter equation of state in the density and temperature conditions where it can be described by nucleonic degrees of freedom. At zero temperature, all the information is contained in the nuclear energy functional in its isoscalar and isovector channels. At finite temperature, particular emphasis will be given to the specificity of the thermodynamics in the nucleonic regime, with the simultaneous presence of long range electromagnetic and short range nuclear interactions. The astrophysical implications of the resulting phase diagram, as well as of different observables of exotic nuclei on the neutron-rich side, will be touched upon.


The probability of perception of prey may depend on the previous experience of the predator, its expectations and its search tactics. In this study we investigated the role of the search area. Based on previous results and on known facts about foraging ecology, we hypothesised that crested tits ( Parus cristatus ) would perform better when searching larger areas for cryptic prey compared with coal tits ( Parus ater ) that have been found to search small areas for cryptic prey more successfully. In our experiments these two tit species were required to search for cryptic prey in large and small dishes. Both species detected cryptic prey less frequently in the larger dishes, however, crested tits performed better initially. Coal tits improved over time. Both species needed more time for detecting prey in large dishes, and crested tits searched longer in small dishes than coal tits. Giving-up times, when no prey was found, also reflected these differences. The results suggest that the tits search with speciesspecifically set search areas and 'time windows'. It also appeared that coal tits are more flexible in adjusting search to a given situation.


This paper analyses the development of the business and the legal and regulatory environment of the Brazilian accounting, including the accounting education, the structure of ownership, the development of the capital market, auditing and the accounting profession. Brazilian accounting was influenced by tax legislation. Nowadays, this influence is more strong by the corporate Law and the regulation from governmental    bodies. However, in recent years has undergone significant changes. Nevertheless, important differences between Brazilian accounting standards and international accounting remain, although efforts made by Brazilian bodies to adapt their accounting norms to the international financial reporting standards. Brazilian accounting profession and representative councils are not politically strong enough to influence the  government. The Brazilian accounting standards published by the Federal Accountancy Council  don't have legal  authority. Shortcomings in the education of accounting in Brazil have brought about the necessity for a proficiency examination and continued professional development under the Federal Accountancy Council.


A safety relay configuration system for configuring safety functions to be carried out by a safety relay is provided. The configuration system comprises a number of features that facilitate intuitive and simplified configuration of an industrial safety relay, including but not limited to features that guide the user through the configuration process using an intuitive sequential procedure that provides feedback and prompts based on user interaction, enforce design consistency throughout the configuration project by intelligently limiting user selections, and visually organize configuration and status information in a manner that efficiently utilizes display space and allows the user to quickly evaluate available configuration options.


The dynamic structure of chromatin is linked to gene regulation and many other biological functions. Consequently, it is of importance to understand the factors that regulate chromatin dynamics. While the in vivo analysis of chromatin has verified that histone post-translational modifications play a role in modulating DNA accessibility, the complex nuclear environment and multiplicity of modifications prevents clear conclusions as to how individual modifications influence chromatin dynamics in the cell. For this reason, in vitro analyses of model reconstituted nucleosomal arrays has been pivotal in understanding the dynamic nature of chromatin compaction and the affects that specific post-translational modifications can have on the higher order chromatin structure. In this mini-review, we briefly describe the dynamic chromatin structures that have been observed in vitro and the environmental conditions that give rise to these various conformational states. Our focus then turns to a discussion of the specific histone post-translational modifications that have been shown to alter formation of these higher order chromatin structures in vitro and how this may relate to the biological state and accessibility of chromatin in vivo.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of religiously accommodative mindfulness compared with traditional mindfulness on stress, anxiety, and depression in an evangelical Christian college sample using a randomized trial design. Volunteer participants (n = 78) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatment conditions. The Christian mindfulness training (CMT) group protocol was explicitly adapted to the evangelical Christian faith, while the conventional mindfulness training (MT) group protocol utilized typical mindfulness meditations. Participants completed 3 weeks of treatment that included psychoeducational group sessions and prescribed daily applications of the mindfulness techniques. Posttreatment differences between the 2 groups were then compared on the measures. Measures used included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS, Lee, 2012) and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS, Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Results indicated significant differences within and between groups, with the CMT group reporting lower levels of stress and depression compared to the MT group, as well as lower overall negative symptoms based on total DASS scores. CMT group participants also reported significantly greater treatment compliance in comparison with MT group participants. Findings provide preliminary support for potential differences in treatment outcomes when religious accommodations are made to mindfulness. Limitations and recommendations are considered.


Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), a potent immunoregulatory molecule, can down-regulate T-cell activation and inhibit anti-tumor immune response. This study showed that LPS-stimulated human dendritic cells (DCs) decreased the expression of HLA-DR, CD83 and costimulatory molecules (CD40, CD80 and CD86) following coculturing with CTLA-4+ breast cancer cells. Moreover, the suppressed DCs further inhibited proliferation of allogeneic CD4+/CD8+ T-cells, differentiation of Th1 and function of cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTLs). However, CTLA-4 blockade in breast cancer cells could recover DC maturation and cytokine production, elevate antigen-presenting function of DCs, reverse Th1/CTLs response and cytokine secretion. Subsequent study demonstrated that the activation of extracellular-signal regulated kinase and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 of DCs caused by CTLA-4+ breast cancer cells were the predominant mechanism of DC suppression. In addition, CTLA-4 blockade treatment also directly inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis of CTLA-4+ breast cancer cells. Collectively, CTLA-4 was expressed and functional on human breast cancer cells through influencing maturation and function of DCs in vitro, and CTLA-4 blockage not only recovered the antigen-presenting function of DCs and T-cells activation but also suppressed the biological activity of breast cancer cells themselves. This study highlights the clinical application of CTLA-4 blockade therapy in breast cancer.


Abstract Spiral patterns in some disc galaxies have two arms in the centre, and three or more arms on the periphery. The same result is also obtained in numerical simulations of stellar and gaseous discs.We argue that such patterns may occur due to fast cooling of the gas, resulting in formation of giant molecular clouds. The timescale of this process is 50 Myr, the factor of 10 shorter than of ordinary secular instability. The giant molecular clouds give rise to multiarm spirals through the mechanism of swing amplification.


More than 50% of patients with dermatitis of the lower legs have a contact allergy. In 60 of our out-patients, the most frequent allergens were found to be balsam of Peru, lanolin and terpentine, followed by benzocaine, p-phenylenediamine, neomycin, oxychinoline, and parabens. Contact sensitization should be chiefly suspected in patients showing resistance to treatment despite apparently adequate therapy, and in those complaining of intolerance to definite topical treatment. Further indices are vesiculation and oozing in the environment of the ulceration, or scattered foci of dermatitis in the face (blepharoedema) or on the hands. The importance of patch testing is emphasized. Suggestions for differential diagnosis and treatment are given.