Abstract. Wind energy is foundational for achieving 100 % renewable electricity production, and significant innovation is required as the grid expands and accommodates hybrid plant systems, energy-intensive products such as fuels, and a transitioning transportation sector. The sizable investments required for wind power plant development and integration make the financial and operational risks of change very high in all applications but especially offshore. Dependence on a high level of modeling and simulation accuracy to mitigate risk and ensure operational performance is essential. Therefore, the modeling chain from the large-scale inflow down to the material microstructure, and all the steps in between, needs to predict how the wind turbine system will respond and perform to allow innovative solutions to enter commercial application. Critical unknowns in the design, manufacturing, and operability of future turbine and plant systems are
articulated, and recommendations for research action are laid out. This article focuses on the many unknowns that affect the ability to push
the frontiers in the design of turbine and plant systems. Modern turbine
rotors operate through the entire atmospheric boundary layer, outside the
bounds of historic design assumptions, which requires reassessing design
processes and approaches. Traditional aerodynamics and aeroelastic modeling
approaches are pressing against the limits of applicability for the size and flexibility of future architectures and flow physics fundamentals. Offshore wind turbines have additional motion and hydrodynamic load drivers that are formidable modeling challenges. Uncertainty in turbine wakes complicates structural loading and energy production estimates, both around a single plant and for downstream plants, which requires innovation in plant operations and flow control to achieve full energy capture and load
alleviation potential. Opportunities in co-design can bring controls
upstream into design optimization if captured in design-level models of the
physical phenomena. It is a research challenge to integrate improved
materials into the manufacture of ever-larger components while maintaining
quality and reducing cost. High-performance computing used in high-fidelity, physics-resolving simulations offer opportunities to improve design tools through artificial intelligence and machine learning, but even the high-fidelity tools are yet to be fully validated. Finally, key actions
needed to continue the progress of wind energy technology toward even lower
cost and greater functionality are recommended.


Abstract:Shakespeare's sonnets lay claim to a quality of liveliness as both an effect of reading and an intrinsic feature of the verse that parallels the physical life of the human body. In this essay, I will argue that the term character provides one way to conceptualize both the sonnets' internal aspirations to immortality and the ways in which successive generations of readers participate in perpetuating their and their addressee's life, allowing the poems to create a temporal and physical present for themselves. The sonnets' treatment of the term character—and particularly their implicit allusions to the fashionable new skill of shorthand transcription of "taking by charactery"—highlights the practical and ethical challenges of locating poetic immortality between the engagement of readers and the liveness, and liveliness, of verse. As recording technology and as a method of writing that combines idiosyncrasy and, paradoxically, both secrecy and openness, shorthand provides a theoretical model for reading Shakespeare's sonnets. Understanding Shakespeare's use of the term character has broad implications not only for our understanding of the immortality topos but also for theories of reading and writing.


Abstract:Set against the background of uneven US-Japan postwar relations and a gendered media discourse, this article explores the early transformation of Japanese women's professional wrestling, focusing particularly on the blurred boundary between women's societal constraints and their own agency. Originating in 1948 on US military bases with a mixed-gender wrestling match between two older brothers and a younger sister seeking to support their family, the siblings, with a few others, soon shifted to presenting all-female bouts before American and Japanese audiences. The American female wrestlers' tour in 1954 sparked the proliferation of women's professional wrestling in Japan, inspiring more women to become wrestlers. In recent years, scholars of early postwar Japanese popular culture have applied a gendered lens to discourses of nation, sexuality, and intimacy. In keeping with this practice and to further complicate the field, this article argues that through the examination of the experience of women in the conspicuously gendered entertainment of wrestling, the tension between the "liberation" promoted by Americans and the patriarchal demands of postwar Japanese society is revealed.


The traditional analysis of the Soviet‐type economies denies the existence of markets to these economies. The usual argument is that these economies lack freedom and are characterized by the absence of private property. Additionally, the conventional analysis implies that theory of markets is a theory of free markets, one characterized by free economic interaction among economic units (individuals or businesses) regardless of the degree of market perfection. Argues that the conventional economic analysis is wrong in denying the existence of markets and capitalism to certain modern societies (e.g. the former Soviet bloc countries). The central thesis is that the environment in which buyers and sellers interact does not have to be free in the Western sense to be considered as a market. Points out that the economic systems of the former Soviet Union, China, Cuba and others may be characterized as totalitarian state capitalism.


Background Perineural invasion (PNI) is associated with a poor prognosis for cervical cancer and influences surgical strategies. However, a preoperative evaluation that can determine PNI in cervical cancer patients is lacking. Methods After 1:1 propensity score matching, 162 cervical cancer patients with PNI and 162 cervical cancer patients without PNI were included in the training set. Forty-nine eligible patients were enrolled in the validation set. The PNI-positive and PNI-negative groups were compared. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to build the PNI prediction nomogram. Results Age [odds ratio (OR), 1.028; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.999–1.058], adenocarcinoma (OR, 1.169; 95% CI, 0.675–2.028), tumor size (OR, 1.216; 95% CI, 0.927–1.607), neoadjuvant chemotherapy (OR, 0.544; 95% CI, 0.269–1.083), lymph node enlargement (OR, 1.953; 95% CI, 1.086–3.550), deep stromal invasion (OR, 1.639; 95% CI, 0.977–2.742), and full-layer invasion (OR, 5.119; 95% CI, 2.788–9.799) were integrated in the PNI prediction nomogram based on multivariate logistic regression. The PNI prediction nomogram exhibited satisfactory performance, with areas under the curve of 0.763 (95% CI, 0.712–0.815) for the training set and 0.860 (95% CI, 0.758–0.961) for the validation set. Moreover, after reviewing the pathological slides of patients in the validation set, four patients initially diagnosed as PNI-negative were recognized as PNI-positive. All these four patients with false-negative PNI were correctly predicted to be PNI-positive (predicted p > 0.5) by the nomogram, which improved the PNI detection rate. Conclusion The nomogram has potential to assist clinicians when evaluating the PNI status, reduce misdiagnosis, and optimize surgical strategies for patients with cervical cancer.


Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are known to be heterogeneous, but it is unclear whether, or how, different bone marrow (BM) microenvironments can imprint distinct HSC states. In the BM, quiescent HSCs have been found enriched in endosteal niches, whereas activated HSCs traffic in and out the BM through sinusoids localized further from bone. However, how these separate niches are integrally regulated to maintain BM homeostasis remains largely unknown. We have shown previously that sympathetic adrenergic nerve terminals innervating nestin+ mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) regulate HSC egress from BM to circulation (Mendez-Ferrer S et al, Nature 2008 and 2010). This regulatory network is required to control HSC proliferation and migration, since its damage caused by mutated HSCs can lead to the manifestation of diseases such as myeloproliferative neoplasms and its protection can block the progression of these disorders (Arranz L et al, Nature 2014). Here we aimed to study the possible cooperation of both branches of the autonomic nervous system, the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems, which have antagonistic actions in other systems, in HSC regulation in endosteal and sinusoidal niches. We describe for the first time different cholinergic neural signals derived from both autonomic branches that regulate spatially and temporally distinct BM HSC niches. We used mice deficient in cholinergic nerve fibers (secreting acethylcholine, the main postsynaptic neurotransmitter of the parasympathetic nervous system), due to the lack of the neurturin receptor Gfrα2, a member of the glial-cell-derived family of neurotrophic factors (Rossi J et al. Neuron 1999). We found that Gfrα2-/- mice exhibited a circadian-specific defect in HSC traffic. Parasympathetic deficiency caused exacerbated sympathetic tone, manifested by ~2-fold increased BM sympathetic adrenergic fibers and nocturnal urine norepinephrine. Circulating HSCs, measured by long-term competitive repopulating assays, were 3-fold higher in Gfrα2-/- mice only during the resting period, and this was rescued by deletion of the β3-adrenergic-receptor. Therefore, systemic parasympathetic cholinergic signals antagonize BM sympathetic adrenergic activity during the resting phase, contributing to β3-adrenergic-receptor-orchestrated circadian HSC traffic through sinusoidal niches. On the other hand, sympathetic cholinergic nerve fibers, described here for the first time in the BM and running along Haversian canals of bone, regulate HSC maintenance and quiescence in endosteal niches. In neonatal mice, we found that some endosteal sympathetic nerve fibers, sensitive to chemical sympathectomy by 6-hydroxydopamine, switch from catecholaminergic to cholinergic fate and help direct developmental HSC migration to BM. This migration, dependent in perinatal life on Cxcl12 produced by BM nestin+ MSCs (Isern et al, eLife 2014), was impaired in Gfrα2-/- mice, which exhibited one week after birth a reversible ~40% reduction in BM HSCs, associated with the lack of BM sympathetic cholinergic fibers. In adult mice, these sympathetic cholinergic fibers activate nicotinic receptors and induce Cxcl12 expression in bone-associated nestin+ MSCs, an effect reproduced in vitro with the MS-5 stromal cell line. Cxcl12 expression was 2.5-fold higher in Nes-GFP+ cells associated with the bone, compared with those that were not, and was 4-fold lower in Gfrα2-/- Nes-GFP+ cells localized only in the endosteal BM. Concomitantly, Gfrα2-/- mice exhibited reduced allocation of quiescent HSPCs in the endosteal BM, compared with control mice, in which the HSPC fraction in the G0 cell cycle phase was 2-fold higher in the endosteal than in non-endosteal BM. Moreover, HSCs from Gfrα2-/- mice showed increased proliferation, even 6 months after transplantation into secondary wild-type recipients. As a result, Gfrα2-/- mice exhibit accelerated hematopoietic recovery after myeloablation, a phenotype mimicked by mice deficient in the α7-nicotinic receptor. Increased HSC proliferation was associated with loss of self-renewal, since bone-associated HSCs from Gfrα2-/- mice exhibited 50% reduced reconstituting capacity and myeloid potential 24 weeks after competitive transplantation into wild-type recipients. Thus, both branches of the autonomic nervous system regulate HSC maintenance and function in temporally and spatially separate niches. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Multicasting communication serves as one critical operation to support many applications of Mobile Ad hoc networks (MANETs) that achieve group communication rather than pairs of individuals. Multicast routing protocols becomes increasingly important in MANETs because they effectively coordinate a set of nodes. Also, it provides efficient routing for multimedia applications such as video conferences, military and rescue operations. Such applications are highly demand for Quality of Service (QoS), which makes an efficient QoS multicast routing protocols is very important. In this paper, we propose a model that searches for QoS paths from a single source to a set of destinations. The physical area is partitioned into equal size hexagonal cells and a leader and backup leader nodes is elected to maintain up-to-date information about the network topology. Efficient routing is performed based on nodes positions to deliver data packets to all the receivers. The simulation results show that, comparing with the well-known multicast protocol ODMRP (Demand Multicast Routing Protocol), PBQMRP achieves less packet drop ratio with significant reduction in control overhead.


Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal neuromuscular disease caused by the absence of dystrophin. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a heparin-binding dimeric glycoprotein and principal angiogenic factor stimulating the migration, proliferation and expression of various genes in endothelial cells. Recently, VEGF was demonstrated to exhibit an antiapoptotic and direct myogenic effect, as well as to enhance muscle force restoration subsequent to traumatic injury. Therefore, the present study attempted to assess the muscle damage of VEGF overexpression in mdx mice. Adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9)-VEGF was administered intravenously to mdx mice. At 4 weeks after injection, VEGF was observed to be upregulated in the tibialis anterior muscle. In addition, the serum creatine kinase levels were significantly reduced and fatigue was slowed down, whereas the limb grip strength and weight of mice were markedly increased compared with the saline-treated mdx mice. Furthermore, significantly reduced inflammation and necrosis areas were observed in the muscle tissues of mice in the AAV9-VEGF group. These results suggested that AAV9-mediated VEGF gene overexpression was able to improve the muscle damage in mdx mice.


A phytochemical investigation of the 80% ethanolic extract of stem bark of Vismia orientalis Engl. (Guttiferae or Clusiaceae), a plant used in traditional medicine in Tanzania, resulted in the isolation and spectroscopic characterisation of 3-geranyloxy-6-methyl-1,8-dihydroxyanthraquinone, emodin, vismione D and bianthrone A1. Vismione D exhibited a broad range of antiprotozoal activities against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and T. cruzi (IC50 < 10 micrograms/mL), Leishmania donovani (IC50 0.37 micrograms/mL) and Plasmodium falciparum strain K1 (IC50 1.0 microgram/mL). However, it was also slightly cytotoxic against human L6 cells (IC50 4.1 micrograms/mL). Emodin showed antileishmanial activity (IC50 2.0 micrograms/mL), while its IC50 against L6 cells was 20.3 micrograms/mL. Other antiprotozoal activities observed for emodin against both Trypanosoma species and P. falciparum, for bianthrone A1 against T. b. rhodesiense and P. falciparum, and for 3-geranyloxy-6-methyl-1,8-dihydroxyanthraquinone against T. b. rhodesiense, L. donovani and P. falciparum were in the range of 10 to 50 micrograms/mL. None of the compounds showed antibacterial or antiviral (including also HIV) activity.


1176 Tranilast (N-[3, 4 - dimethoxycin-namoyl]-anthranalic acid) is used clinically in Japan as an anti-allergic agent and to control fibrotic disorders. The anti-fibrotic effect of tranilast is thought to be mediated through the inhibition of TGF-β1 and possibly other mediators. Tranilast has also been shown to inhibit the growth of many tumor cells, such as glioma cells, uterine leiomyoma cells, oral squamous cell carcinoma and pancreatic tumor. It is well tolerated and has few adverse effects as compared to conventional anticancer drugs. In the present study, we explored the anti-tumor effect of tranilast in experimental mammary tumor, as the metastasis of breast cancer very much depends on TGF-β1. BALB/c mice were inoculated with syngenic mammary tumor cells (4T1) in mammary fat pads and tranilast was given daily by gavage. Tumor volumes were measured at various time points. After 4 weeks, mice were sacrificed and various tissues were fixed for routine histology. Our results showed that tranilast markedly reduced (> 50 %) the growth of the primary tumor in vivo. The drug also drastically reduced (> 90 %) metastases to the lungs and liver. In addition, tranilast suppressed the growth of 4T1 cells in a dose-dependent manner in culture, without any cytotoxic effect. Growth of human MDA-MB-231 breast tumor cells and other cancer cells were also inhibited by tranilast in culture. Tranilast inhibited the epithelial to mesenchymal transdifferentiation of 4T1, which is important for metastasis. Thus, these results showed that the tranilast has potential to be an effective therapeutic agent in breast cancer.


The need for small-diameter grafts for replacing the damaged area of the blood pool is still very high. These grafts are very popular for coronary artery bypass grafting. Polymeric synthetic grafts are an alternative to autografts. A promising area of tissue engineering is the creation of a biodegradable graft. It can serve as the basis for de novo generation of vascular tissue directly in the patient's body. Optimization of the polymer composition of products has led to improved physicomechanical and biocompatible properties of the products. However, the improvements are still far from needed. One of the decisive factors in the reliability of a small-diameter vascular graft is the early formation of endothelial lining on its inner surface, which can provide atrombogenic effect and full lumen of the future newly formed vessel. To achieve this goal, grafts are modified by incorporating bioactive molecules or functionally active peptide sequences into the polymer composition or immobilizing on its inner surface. Peptide sequences include cell adhesion site – arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD peptide). This sequence is present in most extracellular matrix proteins and has a tropism for integrin receptors of endothelial cells. Many studies have shown that imitation of the functional activity of the natural extracellular matrix can promote spontaneous endothelization of the inner surface of a vascular graft. Moreover, configuration of the RGD peptide determines the survival and differentiation of endothelial cells. The linker through which the peptide is crosslinked to the polymer surface determines the bioavailability of the RGD peptide for endothelial cells.


The Nova Laser has completed its first year of operation. During this period, emphasis has been placed on activation of the facility and of the numerous target and beam diagnostics. Two separate target chambers are in use. Nova operation is separated into two broad functions: Laser Operations and Experiments. The Operations Group provides the laser system control, operation and data acquisition and the Experiments Group provides experiment definition, diagnostic instrumentation and overall data processing. On the Operations side, VAX 11/780 computers are used to set up diagnostic operating parameters and collect data recorded by the CAMAC and CCD modules. These data are delivered in files by electronic link to the Laser Experiments and Analysis Facility (LEAF) VAX 11/785 of the Experiments Group for processing. Film data are digitized at LEAF and the film data files are also processed on the LEAF VAX.


The paper investigates formation of a charity bank based on the notion of Wagf (physical and financial assets endowment). The basic idea here is to manage and invest these endowments, and use its net earnings for zero interest loans and for food and shelter donation to the destitutes in the society.To make the idea operational the paper illustrates a process of securitaization of the financial assets endowments.


Three manganese-containing phosphomolybdate hybrids (H2bpp)5[Na(Hbpp)]6H10{Mn[Mo6O12(OH)3(HPO4)4]2}4·14H2O (1), [Na4(H2bpp)2Mn(H2O)7]{Mn[Mo6O12(OH)3(HPO4)3(PO4)]2}·2H2O (2), and Na(H2O)2(Hbpp)3[Na2(bpp)(H2O)][Mn2(H2O)5]{Mn[Mo12O24(OH)6(HPO4)6(H2PO4)(PO4)]}·(HPO4)·H2O (3) (bpp = 1,3-bi(4-pyridyl)-propane) have been constructed and characterized. The inorganic moieties of the three hybrids consist of 'hourglass-shaped' anionic clusters, composed of two reduced polymolybdenum phosphate units [P4VMo6VO28(OH)3]9 {P4Mo6} bridged by one manganese ion. Preliminary experiments show that these hybrids, as a unique class of molecular catalyst, are highly active for promoting the inorganic electron transfer (redox) reaction of ferricyanide to ferrocyanide by thiosulphate with high rate constants under mild conditions. These catalysts maintain their structural identity both in solution and solid state and can be easily separated from the reaction solution for the next catalytic cycle.


This paper presents a new sensorless vector control system for high-performance induction motor drives fed by a matrix converter with nonlinearity compensation. The nonlinear voltage distortion that is caused by commutation delay and ON-state voltage drop in the switching devices is corrected by a new matrix converter model. A reduced-order extended Luenberger observer is employed to bring better response in the whole speed operation range, and a method to select the observer gain is presented. Experimental results are shown to illustrate the performance of the proposed system.


ABSTRACT.
 The Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus) is unique in being a determinate layer of an odd modal clutch size and in having a variable mating system in which female brood desertion occurs regularly. These traits make determining Snowy Plover offspring sex ratios important not only for long-term population stability, as the species is of conservation concern, but also for application to sex allocation theory. In this study, we determined Snowy Plover offspring sex ratios, examined differential costs of producing male and female offspring, and evaluated sex ratio variation in relation to maternal condition, habitat condition, and time during the nesting season on saline lakes of the Southern High Plains of Texas. Examination of 245 chicks from 118 clutches during 1999–2000 and 2008–2009 showed that male offspring were more costly to produce than female offspring; however, offspring sex ratio did not differ from parity, but was slightly male-biased in most years. The probability of producing a male offspring was greater both earlier and later in the breeding season than in the middle. As the availability of saline lake surface water and the subsequent availability of food vary unpredictably throughout the breeding season, depending on precipitation events, we suggest that sex ratio adjustment in unpredictable environments may not be straightforward and may follow nonlinear models and/or vary annually The effects such changes in sex ratios may have on population growth and stability remain unknown.


Background: As an important member of organic tin compounds, Trimethyltin (TMT) exists widely in industrial and agricultural productions. TMT can induce significant neurodegeneration in the limbic system, particular in hippocampus. However, the molecular mechanisms in TMT-induced learning and memory impairment are not fully clear. Thus, this research was to explore the role of Synaptophysin (SYP) and Ubiquitin-ligating enzyme Siah-1 in TMT-induced nerve impairment and the protective effect of hydrogen rich water (HRW). Methods: Male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: control group (saline, 4 ml/d, i.p.for seven days), HRW group (4 ml/d, i.p.for seven days) , TMT group (2.25mg/kg, i.p. at the seventh day ), and HRW plus TMT group. The spatial learning and memory was tested by Morris water maze, the protein level of SYP and Siah-1were determined by western blot& immunocytochemical analysis, and the tin contents were detected by ICP-MS. Results: The TMT-treated mice showed significant learning and memory disability. Moreover, TMT increased the level of Siah-1, reduced the expression of SYP in hippocampus and cortex. After 7 days of continuous pretreatment with HRW, the mice showed better memory ability, the expression of Siah-1 and tin content decreased accompanied with the increase of SYP. Conclusions: These results showed that HRW ameliorated the decrease of SYP and the nerve impairment induced by TMT, reduced tin content and up-regulated the expressions of Siah-1, and it might be an important role in the protection of neurodegenerative diseases induced by TMT.


Back pain during bed rest has frequently been reported. Until recently, studies concentrated mainly on length changes of the spine. Functional aspects such as reduced movements of the back, although anecdotally reported, could neither be quantified nor were they taken into account as a potential cause of back pain. In the present study the geometry of the spinal columns of eight healthy men was continuously recorded over 24 h before, during, and after a seven-day 6 degree head-down tilt period (Series 1). The approach is based on the measurement of skin distances between four pairs of miniaturized ultrasound transmitters and receivers fixed on the back in parallel to the thoracic and lumbar spine. After a four-week break, the entire study was repeated with the same subjects (Series 2). The major findings are: 1. The length increase of the spine segments investigated was virtually identical in both series. 2. During the bedrest period significantly greater pain occurred in Series 1 as compared to Series 2. Pain was generally confined to the lumbar region about 10 cm lateral of the spinous processes. 3. Pain was most prominent when trunk motions were minimal, while movements over the maximal range of the spine transiently reduced the pain remarkably. 4. During bed rest, the amplitude of voluntary movements of the lumbar segment was reduced in particular during Series 1. It is concluded that back pain during bed rest is induced by reduced amplitudes of spine movements rather than by increases in the spine length. It is suggested that isometric muscle contractions of low intensity are a primary course of back pain. Regular, slow, large-amplitude movements of the spine are recommended as a countermeasure.


T he finding that black Americans, compared with white Americans, have inferior 5-year survival rates and death rates from cancer has been noted for more than 40 years. Disparities in other causes of death were noted even earlier. Race and differences in health outcomes have been topics for politicians and scientists ever since. In many respects, the academic field of health outcomes research owes its creation to concerns about disparate outcomes among the races. In America, race is a difficult, volatile topic. Medical science and the interpretation of data have been affected greatly by America's obsession with race. The finding that there are disparities in cancer incidence and mortality is incontrovertible. The reasons for the disparities and even how to define the populations with disparities are not as clear and, indeed, are quite controversial. However populations are categorized, there are disparate influences on the cause of the disease. the course of the disease, and the outcome of the disease. Defining these influences is the most scientifically appropriate way to develop and test the interventions that may overcome these disparities.


This paper designs and develops a tool for detecting HABS from ENVI+IDL+ArcEngine.  With a friendly and artistic interface offered by third party control, this tool provides a function of HABs monitoring in East China Sea via Remote Sensing Images inversion.  Through rows of buttons on the menu bar, this tool allows calculating spectrum reflectance, browsing field work data, interpolating in situ measurement data, retrieving water property parameters, and detecting HABs position by the threshold of chlorophyll-a and sea surface temperature.  Data management module programmed in Structured Query Language (SQL) in our tool simplifies the data process and stores a large amount of information.  This paper elaborates the original design, functional modules, and multi data sources that gives a general view toward this tool. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i1.1881


The transformative promises and potential of Big and Open Data are substantial for e-government services, openness and transparency, governments, and the interaction between governments, citizens, and the business sector. From "smart" government to transformational government, Big and Open Data can foster collaboration; create real-time solutions to challenges in agriculture, health, transportation, and more; promote greater openness; and usher in a new era of policyand decision-making. There are, however, a range of policy challenges to address regarding Big and Open Data, including access and dissemination; digital asset management, archiving and preservation; privacy; and security. After presenting a discussion of the open data policies that serve as a foundation for Big Data initiatives, this paper examines the ways in which the current information policy framework fails to address a number of these policy challenges. It then offers recommendations intended to serve as a beginning point for a revised policy framework to address significant issues raised by the U.S. government's engagement in Big Data efforts.


Nanotechnology is the next-generation science revolutionized the world by providing many unpredicted outcomes. Though apparent beneficial,
nanomaterials may associate with severe unknown health issues. People are exposed to nanoparticles during production, storage, shipping,
utilization, and waste treatment process without adequate protection. Cadmium Sulfide Nanoparticles (Cd. nps) are used frequently to produce
hybrid solar cells, semiconductors, Ni-Cd batteries, preparing metal alloys and coatings, fluorescence imaging and biosensing, light-emitting diode
and plastic stabilizers. Toxicity of Cd. nps has raised a significant apprehension both, occupationally and environmentally yet no compiled data is
available to signify its possible toxicity. Consequently, the present review meticulously evaluated the available literature and summaries the
detrimental effect of cadmium sulfide nanoparticles. This attempt will specify existing knowledge of the toxic effects of cadmium-based
nanoparticles and will aware personnel to minimize direct or indirect exposure.


Between 1976 and 1983, 40 women with intraductal carcinoma of the breast without invasion underwent excisional biopsy and irradiation as an alternative to mastectomy. The median age was 53 years (range, 28 to 77 years) and the median follow-up time since initiation of radiation was 44 months (range, 14 to 97 months). Twenty-seven patients presented with a palpable mass; in 13 patients the tumor was detected only by mammography. A limited axillary dissection was performed in 13 patients, and all lymph nodes removed were negative. Treatment was administered to the breast and adjacent chest wall to a dose of 4,600 to 5,000 rad, with 26 patients also receiving a boost dose of 1,000 to 2,000 rad to the site of the primary. Four patients have developed a recurrence in the treated breast, at 17, 19, 35, and 63 months after the beginning of radiation therapy. The 5-year actuarial rate of local recurrence is 10%. Three of the recurrences were in those four patients who presented with a nipple discharge and a central primary. In two cases, the recurrence consisted of only intraductal carcinoma; in the other two, both intraductal and invasive cancer were found. All four patients with recurrence underwent mastectomy and are well without evidence of distant metastases at 1, 12, 15, and 15 months since mastectomy. Cosmetic results were excellent. No patient has developed distant metastases. Since the number of patients treated is small and the period of follow-up is short, one must be cautious in the interpretation of these results. Nonetheless, the treatment of intraductal carcinoma of the breast by excision and irradiation appears to give acceptable local control and excellent survival when suitable precautions of patient selection and evaluation are taken.


We continue the analysis of a probabilistic approach and the corresponding stochastic multi-parametric model of wave propagation in built-up areas with randomly distributed buildings. We concentrate on the influence of buildings' overlay profiles on signal spatial decay, and on path-loss dependence in the frequency domain within UHF/X-band urban propagation channels. Using different buildings' overlay profiles, the field-intensity attenuation along radio paths is examined, taking into account single-scattering and multiple-scattering phenomena, and diffraction from buildings' corners and rooftops, for various positions of receiver and transmitter antennas with respect to surrounding obstacles. The comparison between experimental and theoretical predictions was motivated by the proposed stochastic multi-parametric model and the experimental data obtained for actual areas in Jerusalem (Israel) and Lisbon (Portugal), as well as by other models of multiple diffraction. The discussion is presented for realistic elevations of both terminal antennas to assess the accuracy and limits of the proposed stochastic model. A sensitivity analysis of the influence on the path loss of built-up terrain parameters and the elevation of antennas relative to the buildings surrounding them is presented.


Recent research on the subject of information-gathering processes among pregnant women has revealed a shift towards online sources. Health professionals' knowledge about sources of information has been shown to improve the understanding and counseling of patients. The objective of this study was to create an overview of all types of sources relevant to information gathering and to put their role and perception into perspective. Methods: A total of 249 women were included in this study and recruited over a period of one month at the University Hospital of Zurich (USZ). Exclusion criteria included cases of fetal demise and late abortions. The survey on information-gathering processes was divided into three stages: pregnancy, birth, and puerperium. The different sources of information were compared based on women's characteristics. Results: The response rate was 78% (n = 197). The main findings include a significant difference in information gathering based on varying levels of education, with women at the lowest educational level using the Internet the least during pregnancy (p = 0.029). During puerperium, significant differences could be observed in the involvement of the gynecologist. Primipara women as well as women of lower educational levels contacted their gynecologist less in contrast to multipara women (p = 0.006) and women of higher educational levels (p = 0.011). Overall, health professionals were considered to be the most important source of information. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that parity and educational level influence the information-gathering process. As the most important source for information gathering, health professionals must use this advantage to better assist their patients in accessing reliable information.


Resistance to bacterial and fungal strains towards existing antimicrobial agents has become an increasing incietment for research and development of new molecules to guard them. Quinazoline ring system could be clubbed into many ring systems which lead to potent and highly active compounds. In this work, series of eighteen compounds were docked into the ecKAS III binding site (1HNJ, PDB ID) by using schrodinger software. Out of which, six derivatives showed highest glide score. A simple method has been developed for synthesis of six N'-(2{[2-substituted phenyl)-2-oxoethyl]sulfanyl }quinazolin-4-yl) pyridine-4-carbohydrazide derivatives by condensing N'-(2-sulfanylquinazolin-4-yl)pyridine-4-carbohydrazide with substituted phenacyl bromides. The structures of these synthesized compounds of 5A series are confirmed by elemental analysis and spectral data. Screening of some selected compounds was carried out for antibacterial and antifungal activities by serial dilution method. The result of title compounds revealed that most of the compounds possess high to moderate activity against tested bacterial and fungal strains. Morever it indicates that, among the prepared compounds, 5A2 and 5A3 have higher inhibitory effect at MIC ranging from 0.4 to 12.5 μg/ml, while compounds 5A1 and 5A6 have moderate inhibitory effect with MIC between 12.5-50 μg/ml on the growth of gram positive bacterial strains. Especially, compounds 5A2 and 5A7 were found to be highly active against fungi at MIC 0.8 μg/ml each comparable with ciprofloxacin and fluconazole respectively. Molecular modeling studies have suggested probable inhibition mechanism making it the most potent antimicrobial agents in the series.


This paper presents an adaptive refinement strategy based on a hierarchical element subdivision dedicated to modelling elastoplastic materials in transient dynamics. At each time step, the refinement is automatic and starts with the calculation of the solution on a coarse mesh. Then, an error indicator is used to control the accuracy of the solution and a finer localized mesh is created where the user‐prescribed accuracy is not reached. A new calculation is performed on this new mesh using the non‐linear 'Full Approximation Scheme' multigrid strategy. Applying the error indicator and the refinement strategy recursively, the optimal mesh is obtained. This mesh verifies the error indicator on the whole structure. The multigrid strategy is used for two purposes. First, it optimizes the computational cost of the solution on the finest localized mesh. Second, it ensures information transfer among the different hierarchical meshes. A standard time integration scheme is used and the mesh is reassessed at each time step. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The end‐of‐century projection of the snowfall characteristics over the Alps region is studied using the 50‐km resolution atmospheric global climate model, HiRAM (high‐resolution atmospheric model). The model is forced by three different patterns of projections in the sea surface temperature (SST) in order to assess the sensitivity of snowfall characteristics to theses patterns. It is found that the mean snowfall intensity and frequency is poorly affected by the differences in SST forcing. However, the projections of heavy snowfall events strongly depend on the SST scenario. The changes in temperature and frequency of precipitation and freezing days over the Alps were investigated. We found that these variables did not exhibit a clear dependence to the SST scenario and could not explain the differences observed in snowfall projections. Changes in the moisture transport from the Atlantic Ocean to Europe were found significantly different between each scenario and are assumed to be the main factor affecting the projections of snowfalls, by providing more or less moisture supply.


The subjects of this session range from physics through neurophysiology to epidemiology but can, without using too high a level of abstraction, be related by the underlying presumption that the separation of dissolved gas from solution upon decompression leads to the formation of bubbles in the body and that they, in turn, produce pathological effects. An increasingly large workforce was exposed to raised pressures during the second half of the nineteenth century particularly in building the foundations of a bridge by the method of Triger (1841), a method that used compressed air to exclude water from the workings. The disturbances caused by the application of pressure and, more seriously, following the reduction in pressure were described by many authors from France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and the United States of America. So there was a considerable body of observational data and hypothesis available by 1900 and the first experimental studies of decompression had been done by Bert (1878). He established that gas was indeed produced on decompression; that, after exposure to compressed air, the main constituent of bubbles was nitrogen and he thought it probable that such bubbles caused the signs and symptoms previously recognized as being associated with decompression.


In this paper, we propose a method for acquiring shape models of 3D objects from range data of objects in a class. Since objects in a class have various kinds of structures, a shape model is generated for every structure. First, a range image is segmented into parts based on the curvature of a surface, and the part is approximated as superquadrics. Superquadrics are parametric representation for a 3D shape; their parameters can be criterion for similarity between 3D shapes. Next, integration of parts is required because the segmentation based on curvature makes excessive parts. For this purpose, ``Part agent'' is assigned to the part, and integrates parts by interaction based on a fitting error. From the results, input objects are clustered into groups. This clustering method is based on interaction by ``Object agent'', which is assigned to the object. First, the object agents in charge of same structured objects make a group. An object agent evaluates groups based on an evaluation function, then move to the group with highest evaluation. The evaluation function is based on the fitting error in the case of belonging to the group, the distance from the average shape of the group, the scale of the group, and the number of parts. A clustering result is obtained when the agents do not move. Since each cluster includes only same structured objects, the object in the cluster can be represented as the same number of parameters. Therefore, a shape model is generated by manipulating parameters. Finally, the experimental results show that the proposed method can acquired valid shape models and can improve segmentation results.


This paper uses a quasi-natural experiment to study how houseowners' borrowing costs were affected by the housing value fluctuation in China using a novel micro-level data from an online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform. The impacts on other equilibrium loan variables such as borrowing duration and numbers of lenders are also examined. By taking the housing purchase restriction policy shock as an exogenous event, we employ a difference-in-differences (DD) identification strategy. It is found that the equilibrium interest rate decreased, the growth rate of the deal completion time reduced and the number of investors went up for borrowers with house properties from the cities implementing the restriction policy. It echoes from a further triple differences (DDD) when considering city-specific effect based on samples with houseowners and nonhouseowners. In addition, we estimate the heterogeneous effect for both household and city-level characteristics. Our dynamic analysis indicates that effects on houseowners' P2P borrowing activities persist for 9 months. The channel of the effect was from the collateral effect rather than the pure wealth effect.


Septins are part of the cytoskeleton and polymerize into non-polar filaments of heteromeric hexamers or octamers. They belong to the class of P-loop GTPases but the roles of GTP binding and hydrolysis on filament formation and dynamics are not well understood. The basic human septin building block is the septin rod, a hetero-octamer composed of SEPT2, SEPT6, SEPT7, and SEPT9 with a stoichiometry of 2:2:2:2 (2-7-6-9-9-6-7-2). Septin rods polymerize by end-to-end and lateral joining into linear filaments and higher ordered structures such as rings, sheets, and gauzes. We purified a recombinant human septin octamer from E. coli for in vitro experimentation that is able to polymerize into filaments. We could show that the C-terminal region of the central SEPT9 subunit contributes to filament formation and that the human septin rod decreases the rate of in vitro actin polymerization. We provide further first kinetic data on the nucleotide uptake- and exchange properties of human hexameric and octameric septin rods. We could show that nucleotide uptake prior to hydrolysis is a dynamic process and that a bound nucleotide is exchangeable. However, the hydrolyzed γ-phosphate is not released from the native protein complex. We consequently propose that GTP hydrolysis in human septins does not follow the typical mechanism known from other small GTPases.


The effects of drought on the photosynthetic characteristics of three Mediterranean plants (olive, Olea europea L.; rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis L.; lavender, Lavandula stoechas L.) exposed to elevated UV-B irradiation in a glasshouse were investigated over a period of weeks. Drought conditions were imposed on 2-year-old plants by withholding water. During the onset of water stress, analyses of the response of net carbon assimilation of leaves to their intercellular CO2 concentration were used to examine the potential limitations imposed by stomata, carboxylation velocity and capacity for regeneration of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate on photosynthesis. Measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence were used to determine changes in the efficiency of light utilization for electron transport, the occurrence of photoinhibition of photosystem II photochemistry and the possibility of stomatal patchiness across leaves. The first stages of water stress produced decreases in the light-saturated rate of CO2 assimilation which were accompanied by decreases in the maximum carboxylation velocity and the capacity for regeneration of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate in the absence of any significant photodamage to photosystem II. Leaves of rosemary and lavender were more sensitive than those of olive during the first stages of the drought treatment and also exhibited increases in stomatal limitation. With increasing water stress, significant decreases in the maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II photochemistry occurred in lavender and rosemary, and stomatal limitation was increased in olive. No indication of any heterogeneity of photosynthesis was found in any leaves. Drought treatment significantly decreased leaf area in all species, an important factor in drought-induced decreases in photosynthetic productivity. Exposure of plants to elevated UV-B radiation (0.47 W m(-2)) prior to and during the drought treatment had no significant effects on the growth or photosynthetic activities of the plants. Consequently, it is predicted that increasing UV-B due to future stratospheric ozone depletion is unlikely to have any significant impact on the photosynthetic productivity of olive, lavender and rosemary in the field.


Purpose – Formal quality review processes are a necessary part of any digital imaging workflow. This article illustrates a set of quality review processes implemented in the Indiana University Digital Library Program's Digital Media and Image Center.Design/methodology/approach – A methodology for automatic batch review of large numbers of images is presented, along with rationale and procedures for supplemental visual review. The initial stages of an effort to further automate and centralize image quality control at Indiana University are described.Findings – Automation of checks for objective image criteria, together with formal visual review of a sample of digitized images, is an effective means of implementing a quality review process.Originality/value – The methodologies described can be used as a model for other institutions performing digital imaging projects of any size.


Survival and physiological measures alone do not represent the full experiences of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Reducing the personal and social burden of disease by improving patients' symptoms, functional status and quality of life are also important goals. There has been a substantial increase in the use of newly developed tools that measure health status and it is important for clinicians and researchers to understand these instruments' strengths and weaknesses in providing insight into a patient's condition and experience. Relying only on mortality and physiological outcomes could blind a clinician to significant benefits patients may receive from a treatment. A growing body of research utilises end-points assessed directly by patients whose self-reported health status includes health-related quality of life and functional status. This article reviews major concepts and methods in health-status assessments for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which will have an important role in assessing the efficacy and effectiveness of new treatments.


The article reveals challenges and prospects of Ukraine in the conditions of transitive world order crisis in Eastern European context. The issue of strengthening national security and protection of the territorial sovereignty of the post-Soviet countries and Eastern European countries in connection with the aggression of Russia and the occupation of part of the Ukrainian territories has been mainstreamed. The confrontation between Russia and the post-Soviet countries is a conflict of two civilizational systems, the struggle of two opposing worldviews and paradigms of a new world order. It has been proved that Russia's Eurasian integration projects were aimed at attracting Ukraine and maintaining it in the sphere of Russia's geo-economic and geopolitical influence. The creation of integration associations in the post-Soviet space is intended to become one of the instruments of revival of the Eurasian empire, in particular at the expense of the destruction of the national economy and the sovereignty of Ukraine.
A key result of the Revolution of Dignity was the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU which destroyed Russia's strategy to engage Ukraine in the Eurasian integration area. It is confirmed that after the Russian Federation's unsuccessful actions to involve Ukraine in Eurasian integration structures through the use of managed pro-Kremlin power, Moscow abandoned this option and switched to a scenario under which the strategy of fomenting and supporting separatism in the south-eastern regions of Ukraine was implemented. The strategy to create a pseudostates on the territory of Ukraine in one way or another involves the issues of infrastructure and transit of Russian energy resources to the European Union. The formation of Novorossiya at the expense of Ukrainian sovereignty also included support from individual EU Member States to accelerate the construction of energy infrastructure bypassing Ukraine as a failed state. The annexation of Crimea became a non-standard geostrategic step in Russia, which led to the violation of the border of the sovereign state for the first time since the end of World War II. In general, the Crimea is an important sacred phenomenon and a geostrategic asset for the Russian Federation. Given the opening of new military bases in Belarus, the preservation of the Russian military contingent in Transnistria and the Donbas, as well as the creeping geopolitical
displacement of Ukraine from the Black and Azov Sea, the latter automatically finds itself in a kind of geopolitical "garrotte" while losing access to the sea.
In the end, Russian aggression aimed at destabilizing Ukraine also had internal political significance for Russia, since Europeanization of Ukraine and its political and economic success would become a new geopolitical trend and would call into question the effectiveness of the authoritarian regime of Russia and other post-Soviet countries. All this would become a clear example for the Russian society of the positive consequences of the democratic transformations of the great Orthodox state. However, while the Russian Federation has achieved some tactical advantages in Ukraine, thereby slowing its rapprochement with the EU and NATO, designing instability strategically prevents any involvement of Kyiv in Eurasian integration projects, further alienating it from Russia, making Ukraine more pro-Western and anti-Russian.
Keywords: Ukraine, foreign policy, national security, Russian Federation, Eastern Europe, ODED-GUAM, Baltic-Black Sea Commonwealth


This study evaluated aerosolized cyclosporine as rescue therapy for lung transplant recipients with unremitting chronic rejection. Nine patients with histologic active obliterative bronchiolitis and progressively worsening airway obstruction refractory to conventional immune suppression received aerosolized cyclosporine. Improvement in rejection histology was seen in seven of nine patients. We compared the changes in the FVC and FEV1 over time using linear regression analysis in these seven histologic responders and nine historical control patients. During the pretreatment period for both the experimental and control groups, the FVC and FEV1 declined at comparable rates. After aerosolized cyclosporine there was stabilization of pulmonary function, whereas in the controls there was continued decline. Cyclosporine blood levels were less than 50 ng/ml 24 h after an aerosolized dose of 300 mg in five patients receiving oral tacrolimus. Nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, and a greater than expected rate of infection was not observed. This study suggests that aerosolized cyclosporine is safe and may be effective therapy for refractory chronic rejection in lung transplant recipients.


Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition in which the upper airway collapses during sleep, is strongly associated with metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Little is known how OSA affects the cerebral circulation. The goals of this study were 1) to develop a rat model of chronic OSA that involved apnea and 2) to test the hypothesis that 4 wk of apneas during the sleep cycle alters endothelium-mediated dilations in middle cerebral arteries (MCAs). An obstruction device, which was chronically implanted into the trachea of rats, inflated to obstruct the airway 30 times/h for 8 h during the sleep cycle. After 4 wk of apneas, MCAs were isolated, pressurized, and exposed to luminally applied ATP, an endothelial P2Y2 receptor agonist that dilates through endothelial-derived nitric oxide (NO) and endothelial-dependent hyperpolarization (EDH). Dilations to ATP were attenuated ~30% in MCAs from rats undergoing apneas compared with those from a sham control group (P < 0.04 group effect; n = 7 and 10, respectively). When the NO component of the dilation was blocked to isolate the EDH component, the response to ATP in MCAs from the sham and apnea groups was similar. This finding suggests that the attenuated dilation to ATP must occur through reduced NO. In summary, we have successfully developed a novel rat model for chronic OSA that incorporates apnea during the sleep cycle. Using this model, we demonstrate that endothelial dysfunction occurred by 4 wk of apnea, likely increasing the vulnerability of the brain to cerebrovascular related accidents.


ABSTRACT We performed a scoping review to identify the extent of the literature describing the use of iloprost in the treatment of frostbite. Iloprost is a stable synthetic analog of prostaglandin I2. As a potent inhibitor of platelet aggregation and vasodilator, it has been used to address the post-rewarming reperfusion injury in frostbite. The search using iloprost and frostbite as key words and MeSH terms yielded 200 articles. We included in our review the literature examining iloprost for the treatment of frostbite in humans in the form of primary research, conference proceedings and abstracts. Twenty studies published from 1994 to 2022 were selected for analysis. The majority were retrospective case series consisting of a homogeneous population of mountain sport enthusiasts. A total of 254 patients and over 1000 frostbitten digits were included among the 20 studies. The larger case series demonstrated a decrease in amputation rates relative to untreated patients. Primary gaps in the literature include a paucity of randomised trials and relatively limited study populations to date. While the case evidence is promising, a multi-centre collaboration would be crucial to adequately power prospective randomised studies to definitively determine if iloprost has a role in the treatment of frostbite.


Abstract Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) often presents with pronounced behavioral symptoms that contribute to family Care Partner (CP) burden and psychological strain. FTD-specific interventions that support the unique challenges of FTD-CPs are lacking. The present focus group study (Phase 1), elicited feedback from twelve CPs of persons with FTD on the multi-component video-based STELLA intervention (Support via TEchnology: Living and Learning with Advancing ADRDs), to inform the revision and adaptation of STELLA for FTD-CPs (Phase 2). Using Thomas's (2006) analytic approach to evaluation data, the investigators reviewed the raw text from two focus groups and used an inductive approach to create categories that informed future STELLA adaptation and revision. To address trustworthiness, each investigator independently analyzed the transcripts and CP-annotated STELLA booklets. Six commonalities emerged. Three address the caregiver experience: Burden and living with complex behaviors; Difficulties in getting a diagnosis; and Barriers to participation. The other three reflect specific intervention adaptations: Make a Roadmap, STELLA-FTD Structure, and Booklet edits. The focus group findings offer practical suggestions to create a revised STELLA intervention to address the needs of families living with FTD. The suggestions are nested in the intense caregiving experience of living with complex behavioral symptoms, feeling burdened, isolated, and "living in darkness." Both the investigators and caregivers appreciate the difficulty in crafting an intervention that meets the needs of all families living with FTD, but the caregivers encouraged the team to develop "something": "…You won't be able to solve every problem or meet every need… [but] please, please do something."


Intelligent Power Management Interface (IPMI) defines common interfaces to "intelligent" hardware used to monitor a server's physical health characteristics, such as temperature, voltage, fans, power supplies and chassis. These capabilities provide information that enables system management, recovery, and asset tracking which help drive down the total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase reliability in today's HPC market. The new interfaces in IPMI v1.5 facilitate the management of rack-mounted HPC servers and systems in remote environment over serial, modem and LAN connections. New capabilities combined with the remote management functionality allow HPC IT managers to manage their servers and systems, regardless of system health, power state or supported communication media. IPMI compliant servers essentially eliminate the need for external hardware to perform the same function, thus saving costs. This paper will introduce the specification, the benefits of IPMI with respect to HPC and other clusters and how it could be used to generate alarms to a monitoring system before hardware failures become severe enough to cause cluster failure.


Outdoor Advertising (outdoor advertising) can be viewed at around the city, either in the form of billboards or ads that are placed on the body of the bus. Unwittingly, the ad - that ad became one of the view that decorate the city. This research aims at describing the ordering system, especially that there are billboards on bus stops / bus shelters at PT IKRA sandalwood latitude, an advertising company that provides media production services Outdoor Advertising, located in the numbers Tebet, South Jakarta.


Northern Ireland has its own distinctive party system, formed mainly in the proportional representation elections that have been in place there for decades now. However, the Westminster elections always raise new issues for Northern Ireland, and never more so than when these 18 MPs' votes could be crucial in a hung Parliament. Paul Mitchell of the LSE Government Department looks at the possible results for seats across Northern Ireland, and the role the winning MPs might play.


In this work the mathematical foundations of the mechanics of elastic undamageable materials are presented. In particular the governing differential equations are derived for both the scalar and tensorial cases. In the isotropic case it is found that the resulting scalar differential equations are simple and easy to solve. However, in the anisotropic case the tensorial differential equations are complicated and unsolvable at this time. The current work presents the solution in the form of explicit nonlinear stress-strain relations for the simple one-dimensional case. However, the general solution of the three-dimensional case remains unattainable at the present time. Only the governing tensorial differential equations are derived for this latter case.

It is to be noted that the term "undamageable" is reflected in the context of the material stiffness and not the property of indestructibility due to various loading conditions. Thus, the undamageable material reflects that no microcracks or microvoids occur as well as no plastic yielding in the material. To illustrate this concept, a last section is added on applications.


Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a multi-step reprograming process resulting in a phenotype switch from an epithelial to a mesenchymal state. This phenotype switching of cells, long been studied for its role in development, is now emerging as a crucial process that endows tumor cells with migratory and invasive properties, enriches stem cell-like attributes, enhances drug resistance, prevents apoptosis and contribute to immunosuppression. A comprehensive understanding of EMT cellular program will enable identification and development of potential EMT-targeted antitumor therapeutic strategies. This Editorial briefly describes recent evidence of EMT as a driver of malignancy and evaluates various strategies to target EMT in cancer.


Sharing information between multiple tasks enables algorithms to achieve good generalization performance even from small amounts of training data. However, in a realistic scenario of multi-task learning not all tasks are equally related to each other, hence it could be advantageous to transfer information only between the most related tasks. In this work we propose an approach that processes multiple tasks in a sequence with sharing between subsequent tasks instead of solving all tasks jointly. Subsequently, we address the question of curriculum learning of tasks, i.e. finding the best order of tasks to be learned. Our approach is based on a generalization bound criterion for choosing the task order that optimizes the average expected classification performance over all tasks. Our experimental results show that learning multiple related tasks sequentially can be more effective than learning them jointly, the order in which tasks are being solved affects the overall performance, and that our model is able to automatically discover a favourable order of tasks.


When a tourist destination goes into crisis, the news about the crisis immediately reaches visitors. However, in 2020 the coronavirus pandemic affected not only one destination, but also resulted in a global crisis throughout the entire tourism sector since governmental restrictions were introduced for the sake of worldwide security. As potential travellers were only able to plan their trips, mostly using online platforms, crisis communication, awareness raising, or even reminder campaigns on the part of tourist destinations began to gain in value. In 2021 the national regulations fundamentally affecting tourism determined what opportunities remained open or were instead closed to national destination management organizations (DMOs). As these decisions became endowments and factors that could not be influenced, we chose to focus our research on how the online communication of tourist destinations has changed due to the pandemic. In the study, we review both the pre-crisis communication of national DMOs of the European Union and their online activity during the coronavirus pandemic. Our goal is to explore the change between the two periods: the revealed differences in communication between the first and second waves of the pandemic. We will also examine the possibilities for recovery and formulate recommendations for a post-pandemic communication strategy.


Certain special classes of division algebras over the field of Laurent power series with arbitrary residue field are studied. We call algebras in these classes split and well-split algebras. These classes are shown to contain the group of tame division algebras. For the class of well-split division algebras we prove a decomposition theorem which is a generalization of the well-known decomposition theorems of Jacob and Wadsworth for tame division algebras. For both classes we introduce the notion of a -map and develop the technique of -maps for division algebras in these classes. Using this technique we prove decomposition theorems, reprove several old well-known results of Saltman, and prove Artin's conjecture on the period and index in the local case: the exponent of a division algebra over a -field is equal to the index of if , where is a -field. In addition we obtain several results on split division algebras, which, we hope, will help in further research of wild division algebras.


Precipitation is affected by soil moisture spatial variability. However, this variability is not well represented in atmospheric models that do not consider soil moisture transport as a three-dimensional process. This study investigates the sensitivity of precipitation to the uncertainty in the representation of terrestrial water flow. The tools used for this investigation are the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model and its hydrologically enhanced version, WRF-Hydro, applied over central Europe during April–October 2008. The model grid is convection permitting, with a horizontal spacing of 2.8 km. The WRF-Hydro subgrid employs a 280-m resolution to resolve lateral terrestrial water flow. A WRF/WRF-Hydro ensemble is constructed by modifying the parameter controlling the partitioning between surface runoff and infiltration and by varying the planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme. This ensemble represents terrestrial water flow uncertainty originating from the consideration of resolved lateral flow, terrestrial water flow uncertainty in the vertical direction, and turbulence parameterization uncertainty. The uncertainty of terrestrial water flow noticeably increases the normalized ensemble spread of daily precipitation where topography is moderate, surface flux spatial variability is high, and the weather regime is dominated by local processes. The adjusted continuous ranked probability score shows that the PBL uncertainty improves the skill of an ensemble subset in reproducing daily precipitation from the E-OBS observational product by 16%–20%. In comparison to WRF, WRF-Hydro improves this skill by 0.4%–0.7%. The reproduction of observed daily discharge with Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficients generally above 0.3 demonstrates the potential of WRF-Hydro in hydrological science.


Around the time concurrent programming was becoming a big deal, object-oriented programming was also gaining ground. Not surprisingly, people started to think about ways to merge synchronization into a more structured programming environment. One such approach that emerged was the monitor. First described by Per Brinch Hansen [BH73] and later refined by Tony Hoare [H74], the idea behind a monitor is quite simple. Consider the following pretend monitor written in C++ notation: monitor class account { private: int balance = 0; public: void deposit(int amount) { balance = balance + amount; } void withdraw(int amount) { balance = balance-amount; } }; Note: this is a " pretend " class because C++ does not support monitors , and hence the monitor keyword does not exist. However, Java does support monitors, with what are called synchronized methods. Below, we will examine both how to make something quite like a monitor in C/C++, as well as how to use Java synchronized methods. In this example, you may notice we have our old friend the account and some routines to deposit and withdraw an amount from the balance. As you also may notice, these are critical sections; if they are called by multiple threads concurrently, you have a race condition and the potential for an incorrect outcome. In a monitor class, you don't get into trouble, though, because the monitor guarantees that only one thread can be active within the monitor at a time. Thus, our above example is a perfectly safe and working 1


AIMS
This study was designed to detect the association between the history of alcohol drinking and suicidality in schizophrenia (SCZ) inpatients in a Chinese population.

METHODS
We recruited 616 male SCZ inpatients and collected demographic and clinical data. Five-factor model of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used to assess their psychopathological symptoms.

RESULTS
Our results showed that 31.33% of SCZ patients had a history of alcohol drinking. They had higher rates of lifetime suicide attempt and suicidal ideation than those without a history of alcohol drinking. Moreover, patients with a history of drinking were more likely to attempt suicide (14.51% vs. 7.09%; χ2  = 7.70, df = 1, p = 0.006), with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.22 and have suicidal ideation (29.02% vs. 17.49%; χ2  = 9.89, df = 1, p = 0.002), with an OR of 1.93. In addition, patients who used to drink alcohol were more likely to be smokers and had more severe positive and depressive symptoms (all p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Our study indicates that history of alcohol drinking may increase the prevalence of lifetime suicide attempt and suicidal ideation in male patients with chronic SCZ. Moreover, the history of alcohol drinking may be associated with some demographic data and clinical symptoms.


Abstract 897 Background: MYD88 is an adapter molecule which promotes Toll-Like Receptor and IL-1 Receptor signaling through the IRAK 1/4/TRAF6/NF-κB pathway. MYD88 L265P is a recently described somatic mutation that is widely expressed (>90%) in patients with Waldenstrom9s Macroglobulinemia (Treon et al, NEJM 2012). The signaling pathway by which MYD88 L265P promotes WM growth and survival remains to be fully clarified. We therefore sought to identify pathway(s) responsible for MYD88 L265P pro-survival signaling. Patients and Methods: Primary WM-LPCs were isolated from bone marrow biopsy specimens from WM patients. Normal CD19 + B-cells were isolated from the peripheral blood of healthy donors. Western blot analyses was performed using total and phospho-specific antibodies in the MYD88 L265P expressing WM cell lines BCWM.1 and MCWL-1 following MYD88 knockdown by lentiviral transduction, and/or use of MYD88 or IRAK signal inhibitors. WM cells were also treated with the BTK inhibitor PCI-32765, in the presence or absence of an IRAK1/4 inhibitor. Cell survival was evaluated by Annexin V/PI staining and/or AlamarBlue® or ATPLite® assays after treatments with inhibitors. Synergistic interactions were assessed with CalcuSyn software. Results: Lentiviral knockdown of MYD88 and/or use of an inhibitor of MYD88 homo-dimerization led to decreased survival of MYD88 L265P expressing BCWM.1 and MWCL-1 cells, as well as primary WM LPCs expressing MYD88 L265P. In contrast minimal killing was observed in MYD88 Wild Type (WT) expressing Ramos, MM.1S, or healthy donor CD19 + selected B-cells. Phospho-specific western blot analysis showed decreased IRAK1, NF-kB and STAT3 signaling following inhibition of MYD88 signaling in L265P expressing WM cells. Conversely, use of an IRAK1/4 kinase inhibitor showed reduced tumor cell killing, NF-kB and STAT3 signaling. We therefore performed co-immunopreciptation experiments to identify other MYD88 binding partners in L265P expressing WM cells. These studies identified Bruton9s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) in complex with MYD88, with MYD88 showing more robust binding to phospho-BTK in L265P expressing WM cells. Lentiviral knockdown of MYD88 and/or use of an inhibitor of MYD88 homodimerization led to decreased BTK phosphorylation. Moreover, overexpression by lentiviral transduction of MYD88 L265P showed more robust BTK phosphorylation versus WM cells transduced with MYD88 WT. Lastly, the use of a BTK-inhibitor (PCI-32765) blocked NF-kB and STAT3 signaling, as well as induced WM tumor cell killing that was synergistically enhanced by the presence of an IRAK1/4 kinase inhibitor. Conclusion: MYD88 L265P promotes survival of WM cells by activation of BTK. These studies provide the framework for the investigation of BTK inhibitors in WM, as single agents and in combination with other MYD88 pathway inhibitors. Disclosures: Treon: Onyx: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Research Funding; Cephalon: Consultancy; Avila: Consultancy.


To the Editor. —The article entitled "Insensitivity of Rapid Antigen Detection Methods and Single Blood Agar Plate Culture for Diagnosing Streptococcal Pharyngitis" by Wegner and colleagues, 1 while attempting to assist clinicians in management of group A streptococcal infections, unfortunately reaches unjustified conclusions without taking a number of important factors into consideration. First and most important, it is very difficult to believe that experienced microbiologists can find group A streptococci on only 58% of the plates after 24 hours and on only approximately 70% of the plates after 2 days. Even if there is an accepted discordance rate (one positive and one negative) of about 10% when using two swabs as shown in reference 8 of the article, this still indicates that those who read the single plates missed about 20%. This is unacceptably high for a laboratory. The authors could have attempted to explain this unexpected finding by performing


Sense of agency is the feeling of being in control of one's actions and their perceivable effects. Most previous research identified cognitive or sensory determinants of agency experience. However, it has been proposed that sense of agency is also bound to the processing of affective information. For example, during goal-directed actions or instrumental learning we often rely on positive feedback (e.g., rewards) or negative feedback (e.g., error messages) to determine our level of control over the current task. Nevertheless, we still lack a scientific model which adequately explains the relation between affective processing and sense of agency. In this article, we review current empirical findings on how affective information modulates agency experience, and, conversely, how sense of agency changes the processing of affective action outcomes. Furthermore, we discuss in how far agency-related changes in affective processing might influence the ability to enact cognitive control and action regulation during goal-directed behavior. A preliminary model is presented for describing the interplay between sense of agency, affective processing, and action regulation. We propose that affective processing could play a role in mediating the influence between subjective sense of agency and the objective ability to regulate one's behavior. Thus, determining the interrelation between affective processing and sense of agency will help us to understand the potential mechanistic basis of agency experience, as well as its functional significance for goal-directed behavior.


Author(s): Trugman, Daniel T | Advisor(s): Shearer, Peter M. | Abstract: The complexity of the earthquake rupture process makes earthquakes inherently unpredictable. Seismic hazard forecasts often presume that the rate of earthquake occurrence can be adequately modeled as a space-time homogenenous or stationary Poisson process and that the relation between the dynamical source properties of small and large earthquakes obey self-similar scaling relations. While these simplified models provide useful approximations and encapsulate the first-order statistical features of the historical seismic record, they are inconsistent with the complexity underlying earthquake occurrence and can lead to misleading assessments of seismic hazard when applied in practice. The six principle chapters of this thesis explore the extent to which the behavior of real earthquakes deviates from these simplified models, and the implications that the observed deviations have for our understanding of earthquake rupture processes and seismic hazard.Chapter 1 provides a brief thematic overview and introduction to the scope of this thesis. Chapter 2 examines the complexity of the 2010 M7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake, focusing on the relation between its unexpected and unprecedented occurrence and anthropogenic stresses from the nearby Cerro Prieto Geothermal Field. Chapter 3 compares long-term changes in seismicity within California's three largest geothermal fields in an effort to characterize the relative influence of natural and anthropogenic stress transients on local seismic hazard. Chapter 4 describes a hybrid, hierarchical clustering algorithm that can be used to relocate earthquakes using waveform cross-correlation, and applies the new algorithm to study the spatiotemporal evolution of two recent seismic swarms in western Nevada. Chapter 5 describes a new spectral decomposition technique that can be used to analyze the dynamic source properties of large datasets of earthquakes, and applies this approach to revisit the question of self-similar scaling of southern California seismicity. Chapter 6 builds upon these results and applies the same spectral decomposition technique to examine the source properties of several thousand recent earthquakes in southern Kansas that are likely human-induced by massive oil and gas operations in the region. Chapter 7 studies the connection between source spectral properties and earthquake hazard, focusing on spatial variations in dynamic stress drop and its influence on ground motion amplitudes. Finally, Chapter 8 provides a summary of the key findings of and relations between these studies, and outlines potential avenues of future research.


INTRODUCTION:
Recent advances in neurosciences have demonstrated that peripheral tissue injury may lead to long alterations in central processing with reduction in pain threshold, amplification of response to pain. Comparable alterations may also occur following surgical trauma, resulting in amplification and prolongation of postoperative pain.
Postoperative pain treatment should be an integral component of the routine surgical and anaesthetic management not only for humanitarian reasons but also because it can help to reduce morbidity and complications as well as accelerate rehabilitation. Good perioperative analgesia is an important avenue to attenuate the surgical stress response.
Post operative pain relief can be provided by pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods. Non pharmacological methods include hypnosis, cold or heat, relaxation therapy, splinting of wounds, Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation and pre-operative explanation and education. The pharmacological methods include simple analgesics, Non- steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs, Opioids (oral, intramuscular, intravenous, Patient Controlled Analgesia, Epidural or intrathecal) and Local anaesthetic agents (wound infiltration, nerve blockade, epidural, intrathecal).
Epidural anaesthesia is a central neuraxial block technique with many applications. Epidural anaesthesia can be used as sole anaesthetic for procedures involving the lower limbs, pelvis, perineum and lower abdomen. The advantage of epidural over spinal anaesthesia is the ability to maintain continuous anaesthesia after placement of an epidural catheter, thus making it suitable for procedures of long duration. This feature also enables the use of this technique into the postoperative period for analgesia, using lower concentrations of local anaesthetic drugs or in combination with different agents.
Clonidine an alpha – 2 agonist drug, which was introduced into clinical practice as an anti-hypertensive medication, can be used as an additive to local anaesthetics in nerve blockade and central neuraxial blockade. Following local anaesthetics and opioids, clonidine is the most studied drug used for human
neuraxial analgesia. Although the systemic administration of clonidine can provide analgesia, its primary site of antinociceptive action appears to be at the spinal level.
Alpha - 2 receptors at the spinal cord level are thought to be responsible for the analgesic properties of α2-adrenergic agonists.
This study was designed to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of bupivacaine and clonidine mixture given through lumbar epidural route in patients undergoing elective orthopaedic lower limb surgeries, comparing the quality of analgesia with epidural plain bupivacaine and also to calculate the number of post-operative aanalgesic doses required.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:
1. To evaluate the analgesic efficacy of bupivacaine and clonidine mixture given through lumbar epidural route for postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing elective orthopaedic lower limb surgeries, by calculating the number of doses of postoperative analgesics required.
2. To compare the quality and duration of analgesia of epidural bupivacaine - clonidine mixture with epidural plain bupivacaine intra and post- operatively.
3. To evaluate the hemodynamic response of epidural clonidine intra and post-operatively.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Patient selection:
The study population consist of ASA I & ASA II patients in the age group
of 18 years to 65 years admitted to undergo elective orthopaedic lower limb
surgeries at Govt. Stanley Hospital, Chennai during the period of January 2008 to June 2008. After getting approval by the institutional ethical committee and after obtaining written informed consent from each patient, the study was conducted.
Inclusion criteria:
1. Age Group 18 – 65 years.
2. ASA I and ASA II.
3. Elective orthopaedic lower limb surgeries.
4. Duration of Surgery between 2:00 to 2:30 hours.
Exclusion criteria:
1. Patient refusal.
2. Age 65 years.
3. ASA III and ASA IV.
4. Patient posted for emergency surgery.
5. Ischemic heart disease/ rheumatic heart disease.
6. Sinus bradycardia / heart blocks / conduction defects.
7. Preoperative hypotension.
8. Local infection at lumbar area.
9. Pre-existing neurological disorders.
10. Coagulation defects and patient on anticoagulants.
STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS:
Forty patients posted for Orthopaedic lower limb surgeries of ASA I and ASA II were taken up for the study. They were allocated randomly into two equal groups of 20 each. Group P receieved 1 ml of placebo along with the first dose of epidural 0.5% bupivacaine and Group C received 50 μg of clonidine diluted with normal saline to 1 ml along with first dose of epidural 0.5% bupivacaine. A standard anaesthetic technique was followed in all patients. The patients were assessed by the same observer in the postoperative period. All the data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD). Qualitative variables were compared with 'Chi-square test' and quantitative variables were compared with 'the student 't' test'. The level of statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.
CONCLUSION:
1. Single dose administration of clonidine and bupivacaine mixture given through lumbar epidural route provides effective postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing elective orthopaedic lower limb surgeries, without any hemodynamic instability.
2. Epidural clonidine significantly reduces the postoperative analgesic consumption.


In this study the situation of the sardinian language throught history is examined, as well as its relationship with italian. Attention is paid to the three periods of the italianization, wich begins with the pisan and genovese influences (centuries XI to XIX), being followed by the stage of the House of Savoy and by the situation going from year 1861, date of the National Unification, until the present time, in which there is a linguistic living together but with a level-dependent differentiation of use.


In this paper we propose to evaluate the microclimatic characteristics of a neighbourhood located in the city of Nablus (Palestine) and study how the wind impacts the energy demand for heating and cooling the buildings. The present paper proposes a methodology to couple a Canopy Interface Model (CIM) with the software CitySim. CIM provides high resolution vertical profiles of various meteorological parameters (wind speed, temperature and turbulent kinetic energy) while taking into account the vertical distribution of buildings as well as the density of different neighbourhoods. In order to measure the benefits of such a coupling, the results obtained with this methodology are compared back with the regular use of climatic conditions, showing how the prevailing winds flow inside the urban canyons and detailing their impact on the energy demand of buildings during the different periods of a year. The results from this study indicate that urban planning has a significant influence on the local meteorological conditions in highly dense areas. This in turn impacts the energy demand of the buildings via two main variables: the access to solar gains and the local estimated convective heat transfer coefficients. This paper initiates possible interesting studies that will be carried out in the future to determine with more precision how the proper modelling of these two variables can help in designing more sustainable neighbourhoods taking into account local climatic conditions.


What part of the inequality observed in a particular country is due to unequal opportunities, rather than to differences in individual efforts or luck? This paper estimates a lower bound for the opportunity share of inequality in labor earnings, household income per capita and household consumption per capita in six Latin American countries. Following John Roemer, the authors associate inequality of opportunity with outcome differences that can be accounted for by morally irrelevant pre-determined circumstances, such as race, gender, place of birth, and family background. Thus defined, unequal opportunities account for between 24 and 50 percent of inequality in consumption expenditure in the sample. Brazil and Central America are more opportunity-unequal than Colombia, Ecuador, or Peru."Opportunity profiles,"which identify the social groups with the most limited opportunity sets, are shown to be distinct from poverty profiles: ethnic origin and the geography of birth are markedly more important as determinants of opportunity deprivation than of outcome poverty, particularly in Brazil, Guatemala, and Peru.


In this study, the pantograph equation is investigated using the homotopy perturbation and variational iteration methods. The pantograph equation is a delay differential equation that arises in quite different fields of pure and applied mathematics, such as number theory, dynamical systems, probability, mechanics and electrodynamics. The procedure of present methods are based on the search for a solution in the form of a series with easily computed components. Application of these techniques to this problem shows the rapid convergence of the sequence constructed by these methods to the exact solution. Moreover, this technique reduces the volume of calculations by not requiring discretization of the variables, linearization or small perturbations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The work reported herein constitutes essentially a repetition of the well-known Luria-Latarjet experiment (Luria & Latarjet 1947; Latarjet 1948) employing the radiomimetic nitrogen mustard di(2-chloroethyl)methylamine, commonly known as HN2, in place of radiations. A more complicated experimental design than that employed by those authors had to be elaborated to overcome the problem of accurate dosimetry when using a chemical substance. The procedures adopted and the results afforded using, variously, bacteriophage T2r+ (wild-type) and an r mutant thereof together with Escherichia coli strains B and B/r are reported. Five main conclusions are drawn: (1) immediately after infection of the cell the phage material offers a more resistant target to HN2 than does the extracellular phage; (2) the first 2 or 3 min after infection see a small increase in sensitivity; (3) a striking increase in resistance occurs around the 8th min together with a change in form of the survival curves to a 'multi-hit' type; (4) thereafter, though the curves remain 'multi-hit' a second increase in sensitivity is manifested; (5) there is a component of the infected cell population which shows a high degree of resistance at all times. (1) and (2) are attributed to changes in the geometrical form of the phage deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) consequent upon its extrusion into the cell from the phage head; it is also considered that the early transient increase in sensitivity might be associated with the formation of a DNA-RNA complex; (3) is attributed to DNA replication which is known to occur at this time, thus providing a multiplicity of target, though it is not known if multiplicity reactivation takes place; (4) is thought likely to be the consequence of the condensation of phage DNA into discrete units having the same geometry as that of the fully formed phage. No explanation is currently offered for the occurrence of highly resistant complexes.


Effects of mullite on the structure, microhardness and machinability of fluorphlogopitemullite glass-ceramics were investigated by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and microhardness tester. Results show that the microhardness and machinability are related closely to its microstructure. The microhardness decreases remarkably with the increase of crystallization and the formation of interlocking structure. The addition of mullite can decrease the size of mica crystals, which results in the spoil of interlocking structure. The microhardness of the glass-ceramics is slightly increased and then decreased with the addition of mullite. When the content of mullite is 15wt%, the glass-ceramics shows good machinability after reheated at 1200°C for 2h.


We consider a fractional version of Gauss capillarity energy. A suitable extension problem is introduced to derive a boundary monotonicity formula for local minimizers of this fractional capillarity energy. As a consequence, blow-up limits of local minimizers are shown to subsequentially converge to minimizing cones. Finally, we show that in the planar case there is only one possible fractional minimizing cone, the one determined by the fractional version of Young's law.


Abstract A new two-dimensional TLC technique was developed to separate substituted anthraquinones on silica plates using n-pentanol-pyridine-methanol (6:4:3, v/v/v) and toluene-ethyl acetate-ethanol-formic acid (10:8:1:2, v/v/v/v) as eluents. The good separation power of the new technique was demonstrated by applying it to the analysis of complex anthraquinone mixtures isolated from the Scandinavian Derm ocybe sanguinea. Emodin, physcion, endocrocin, dermolutein, dermorubin, 5-chlorodermorubin, emodin-1-β-D-glucopyranoside, dermocybin-1-β-D-glucopyranoside and dermocybin, and five new, earlier in D. sanguinea unidentified compounds, 7-chloroemodin, 5,7-dichloroemodin, 5,7-dichloroendocrocin, 4-hydroxyaustrocorticone and austrocorticone, were separated and identified on the basis of Rf values, UV/Vis spectra and mass spectra.


The idea of sonifying anaesthetised patients' vital signs is gaining acceptance, but some anaesthetists are concerned about additional noise in the operating theatre. We tested the effect of ambient music (jazz, classical and rock) on participants' ability to monitor a simulated anaesthetised patient with sonification and visual monitors. Participants liked working with ambient music when workload was low. Participants preferred rock music, but reported working better with classical. Ambient music has less effect on participants' ability to monitor the simulated patient than a distractor task does. We discuss practical implications of these findings.


Metastatic disease in the kidney is relatively uncommon compared to other body sites. In most cases it presents as an unilateral and unifocal mass in the tubulointerstitial region. Intraglomerular metastases are even rarer, and their diagnosis is hampered by the limitation of imaging techniques to detect them. We describe the finding of intraglomerular metastases in a patient affected by a malignant melanoma considered to be in partial remission, with no evidence of melanoma progression on the previously performed computed tomography (CT) scan. This patient developed rapidly progressive kidney, failure, proteinuria and hematuria with dysmorphic red blood cells in the urine sediment. Kidney biopsy showed a marked crescentic proliferation caused by tumor cells, which even invaded the proximal convoluted tubule. Melanoma cells were also found in the lumina of the glomerular capillaries, distending their basement membranes. Our case describes the histologic and electron microscopic findings of this form of intraglomerular metastasis and reminds us of its inclusion in the differential diagnosis of rapidly progressive kidney failure.


Unity in Diversity as Indonesian motto turns into a saying which unifies the nation. Indonesia proudly presents many islands, races, ethnic groups, cultures, and also traditional languages. This symbolizes multiculturalism that has survived in the motherland.
Generally, an Indonesian applies traditional and Indonesian languages in daily life and learns English at school or course. Some have practiced other foreign languages such as Arabic as well since it becomes the language of Al-Qur'an. However, English is usually taught as the compulsory subject in every level of disciplines. English belongs to any states of the world.
In learning Islam, human being needs to learn and use English. Most references of Islamic studies are written particularly in Arabic and globally in English. Dealing with this issue, a teacher, in this case an Islamic religion teacher as a figure who educates students, should learn Islamic terms in bilingual versions beside his/her own competence.
The teacher is expected to have not only multi-skills but also multicultural education. Having diverse students from multiethnic society probably occurs. Afterward, multicultural education nowadays is being a part of the school curriculum and made a compulsory school subject. It offers the prospect for both the teacher and students to learn inclusion materials that contain fundamental principles, such as democracy, humanism, and pluralism or inclusive religious values.

All of those principles could be handed in Islamic Education Material Development Based Multicultural in order to build an inclusive religion at school. The materials are as follows (Salamah, 2011): First, the material of the Koran, in determining the choice of verses. Second, the jurisprudence material, can be extended to study fiqh siyasa (government). Third, the material character of the studies focus on the good-bad behavior against God, Apostle, fellow humans, ourselves, as well as the environment, critical to laying the foundations of nationhood. Lastly, SKI material, material that is rooted in historical fact and reality.
Furthermore, a kind of TV program is also possibly to be a medium to introduce multicultural education to children. They as one of cartoon mania on TV, for instance, know how to enjoy watching their favorite cartoon series (Upin & Ipin) while unconsciously learning the multicultural education in their early ages. Otherwise, Darwis Dance (collaboration of a Turkish dance and Javanese Gamelans) grows to be one more alternative approach in learning Islam and multicultural education.

Keywords: Multicultural education, Islamic Religion Teachers, Bilingual Islamic Studies


Field experiments, in which the researcher manipulates one or more variables in a naturally occurring setting, have sometimes been used in studies of social conflict and should probably be used more often. They are more useful than observational studies for assessing the impact of novel conditions, establishing cause and effect, and reducing confounding. And they are more useful than laboratory experiments for examining long-term effects and those that involve strong passions, and for establishing external validity. However field experiments also have their limitations. Some variables cannot be practically or ethically manipulated and require the use of observational methods, which are also more useful for looking at the relationships among a large number of variables and for estimating the strength of association between variables. Furthermore, laboratory experiments allow more control of conditions and greater flexibility in designing manipulations. What this suggests is that all three methods have their value.


With the development of mobile technology and the extensive use of intellectual mobile terminal, the mobile E-commerce has become a brand new method for the business activity for both individuals and enterprises. However, as the mobile E-commerce is in its infancy, its commercial environment is still not perfect and exist transaction security problems become a barrier in the rapid growth of mobile commerce subscriber. In order to make a way to select an appropriate solution to address M-commerce security problems, this survey completely focus on security issues in M-commerce and analyze the security requirements and important vulnerable of mobile e-commerce, existing security solutions are investigated in detail, the survey highlights important parameters and discusses the impact of the parameters on security, the survey identifies the open research issues regarding security and privacy in mobile e-commerce, and finally, state of the art taxonomy is presented.