A breeding programme was set up six years ago in Trentino as part of the Project "Scopazzi del Melo - Apple Proliferation" (SMAP) in order to obtain AP resistant apple rootstocks. Twenty-six hybrids generated from the crossings (Malus sieboldii, second generation, x Malus domestica) were micropropagated and studied in standardised conditions. An in vitro screening system for AP resistance previously set for the parents of the crosses was adopted and modified. Specific symptoms of the disease, as well as height and basal proliferation of the shoot and size of the leaves, were recorded in vitro at 3 months post-inoculation. At the same time, phytoplasma concentration was determined in the whole shoot by quantitative RT-PCR. An in vitro disease index taking into account all the above-mentioned parameters was developed. Each healthy genotype was graft-inoculated in triplicate with two different phytoplasma strains after plant rooting and acclimatisation. Phenotype and phytoplasma titre were evaluated in the roots the year after infection. Preliminary results indicated that the resistance trait segregates in the progenies. The resistant genotypes had lower phytoplasma concentrations than the susceptible controls, did not show AP-specific symptoms and their growth was not affected by infection. By comparing the resistant behaviour of the same genotypes, the in vitro screening allows for a quick selection of genotypes that are worth evaluating in the field for agronomic traits.


The purpose of this document is to define how the working group on Competence Maintenance, Education and Training (CMET) can support the IGD-TP Vision "2025". Also it was and it is still intended for outlining the activities of this working group and Joint Activity (no 14) during 2013-2016. In connection with its Vision statement (IGD-TP 2009 Vision Report) the IGD-TP committed to among its other goals to "Facilitate access to expertise and technology and maintain competences in the field of geological disposal for the benefit of Member States". The CMET working group was established in 2012 when its first Terms of Reference (ToR) version was approved by the IGD-TP Executive Group (EG). During 2013-2015 resourcing to support the group was received under SecIGD2 project with the EURATOM FP7 grant and with a direct contribution from the IGD-TP Executive Group members. This document was planned for production already during the first SecIGD2 project year. It was to be based on the needs of the IGD-TP's Joint Activities that were already deployed or planned to start in 2012, and on the needs of the CMET group members. The role of CMET group was to address Competence Maintenance, Education and Training needs from the demand side. However, at the early stage of deployment, it was somewhat difficult to express or the identify competence gaps in the activities or they had already been identified and resourced at the beginning of the joint activity. Thus there was not adequate amount of input for the first CMET working group meeting as a direct basis for a strategy formulation beyond the action plan, which had been prepared for the SecIGD2 project proposal. The SecIGD2 project's Work Package 3 in the project's description of work (DoW) that was originally prepared in alignment with the CMET Terms of Reference included the main action plan for the CMET group. With the exception of this document, the actions foreseen to be carried out by the CMET in the action plan have been implemented according to the original timetable. The actions are described in this report and two other public project documents, which are included in this report's references. The CMET working group members have contributed to the content of this report either directly via email commenting or by participating in the work group meeting discussion providing input to this report. The editors mentioned on this report's front page have been the persons who have produced this report document itself. The document represents the views of the authors and of the CMET working group. This document does not represent the views of the IGD-TP Executive Group.


1. Seabirds killed incidentally in Australia's eastern tuna and billfish (ETBF) longline fishery between September 2001 and June 2006 were examined to evaluate species composition and to relate, where possible, capture events to operational and environmental factors. 2. During this period 2.129 million hooks on 2202 shots were observed, and 369 birds were reported killed. The majority (78%) of these were flesh-footed shearwaters ( Puffinus carniepes ), 53% of which were male and 44% female. Smaller numbers of medium to large sized albatrosses ( Diomedeidae , predominantly female) and other shearwaters ( Puffinus spp.) and petrels ( Pterodroma spp.) dominated the remainder of the bycatch. 3. Of the 369 birds reported taken as bycatch, 280 were available for necropsy, and species identifications performed in situ by observers were assessed. While observer identifications were generally correct for common species, performance was poor for less common ones. 4. The geographical location (latitude) of shots, season, time of day at which shots were set, and bait type and life status (dead or alive) influenced the seabird bycatch rate. The majority of captures (87% overall) occurred between 30 and 35°S, with bycatch being lowest in winter, and remaining at similar levels across the other seasons. 5. The use of live fish bait was generally associated with increased captures of both seabirds overall, and flesh-footed shearwaters in particular.


Optogenetics can control specific molecular events in living systems, but the penetration depth of light is typically limited at hundreds of micrometers. Focused ultrasound (FUS), on the other hand, can deliver energy safely and noninvasively into tissues at depths of centimeters. Here we have developed an acoustogenetic approach using short-pulsed FUS to remotely and directly control the genetics and cellular functions of engineered mammalian cells for therapeutic purposes. We applied this acoustogenetic approach to control chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells with high spatiotemporal precision, aiming to mitigate the potentially lethal "on-target off-tumor" effects of CAR T cell therapy. We first verified the controllability of our acoustogenetic CAR T cells in recognizing and killing tumor cells in vitro, and then applied this approach in vivo to suppress tumor growth of both lymphoma and prostate cancers. The results indicate that FUS-based acoustogenetics can allow the noninvasive and remote activation, without any exogenous cofactor, of different types of CAR T cells for cancer therapeutics.


(1) Exodus xxiv 9-11 is identifiable as a separate unit of tradition within the Sinai pericope. Of the present introduct on to these verses in Exodus xxiv 1-2, verses 1b-2 are not original. Whether verse 1a forms the original introduction will be discussed in a later article. (2) The tradition in Exodus xxiv 9-11 neither knows of nor implies the existence of a covenant between Israel and 'the God of Israel'. It is a theophany tradition and the expression at its conclusion, 'they ate and drank', is best understood, as in other cultic contexts in the Old Testament, as meaning that those who experienced this remarkable manifestation of God 'rejoiced' or 'worshipped' in the presence of God. (3) This theophany tradition is unique among and independent of other theophany traditions contained elsewhere in the Sinai narrative: it knows nothing of the mountain of the theophany being enwrapped in cloud, smoke, etc.; though it implies that the usual consequences of seeing God were fatal (verse 11a), it states in the most direct manner that a delegation of Israel's ancestors saw God, whereas in other theophany traditions in the Sinai narrative the hiddenness of God from human view is emphasised; finally, the figure of Moses in this tradition is strikingly 'reduced' when compared with the dominating role he plays in other theophany traditions. Here in Exodus xxiv 9-11 he cannot even be said to be primus inter pares.


In his analysis of the 1956 Hungarian uprising against Soviet control, Georges Devereux argued that social movements exist not because members exhibit attitudinal uniformity but because in the "same" collective act individuals serendipitously find a socially acceptable expression for their worldviews. Any number of individual meanings and motivations come to be "accidentally" actualised alike. Devereux's insights are pertinent regarding the elective decision in Britain to leave the EU, and more broadly for a social-anthropological approach to stereotypes of "Britishness." There are certain customary discourses by which social life in Britain is "ego-syntonically" conducted, whose competency represents both a sign of belonging and means to navigate everyday interactions. Six discourses of Britishness of this kind might be identified: class; ethnicity; nationality; islandness; privacy; and football. But one is careful to distinguish between such discourses of Britishness — how it is stereotypically, formulaically, to be "British"; how it is publicly, customarily, to express and take part in "Britishness" — and the diversity of individual identities that inhabit and animate those discourses. Equally, one is careful to distinguish between the kinds of violence or violation that the expression of individual worldviews by way of stereotypic collective discourses might embody: "democratic violence" as against "nihilistic violence."


Many experimental evidences indicate that infection with Trypanosoma cruzi delays or inhibits the growth of malignant tumors in different strains of mice and in rats. These facts were verified by different workers. Although earlier workers proposed that this effect would be due to a toxin of T. cruzi, most of the accumulated evidences do not agree with such proposal. This present hypothesis agrees with the experimental data and proposes that the liberation of many endocellular antigens by destruction of some cancer cells, infected with T. cruzi, gives rise to an autoimmune response against antigens of analogous cancer cells, which limits or inhibits tumor growth. This point of view is supported by experimental studies on Chagas' disease which showed the role of T. cruzi, to induce autoimmune reactions against target organs of the disease. On the basis of this hypothesis I postulate a new way to stimulate the immune system of the host against cancer.


We propose an efficient algorithm for sparse signal reconstruction problems. The proposed algorithm is an augmented Lagrangian method based on the dual problem. It is efficient when the number of unknown variables is much larger than the number of observations because of the dual formulation. Moreover, the primal variable is explicitly updated and the sparsity in the solution is exploited. Numerical comparison with the state-of-the-art algorithms shows that the proposed algorithm is favorable when the design matrix is poorly conditioned or dense and very large.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To adapt the CONNECT Instrument for use in the paediatric population, to assess validity of this instrument after its adaptation and to assess concordance between mothers' perception of their child's illness and providers' understanding of mothers' perceptions.

BACKGROUND
The CONNECT Instrument (Patient Education and Counseling, 73, 2008, 232-239) was validated in an adult outpatient population to characterise both patients' perspectives and physicians' understanding of their patients' perspectives for several dimensions of the illness experience. However, this did not include the paediatric population or advanced practice providers.

DESIGN
A two-part prospective, cross-sectional, observational study to assess the validity of CONNECT for Pediatrics and to assess perception of illness.

METHODS
The CONNECT Instrument (Patient Version) was adapted from its original form and modified to CONNECT for Pediatrics to facilitate use in the inpatient paediatric population. Eighty-five participants were enrolled including mothers, advanced practice providers and physicians from 2013-2014 during a child's scheduled admission to a paediatric epilepsy monitoring unit. Principal components analysis and inter-item reliability were analysed, and differences in the six mean domain scores were assessed using repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA). Reporting of this research adheres to the STROBE guidelines (See Appendix S1).

RESULTS
Our analysis indicated that the modifications made provided a relatively valid and reliable instrument. There were overall statistically significant differences between the mother and physician groups, specifically in the domains of meaning and preference for partnership.

CONCLUSIONS
Paediatric advanced practice providers and physicians do have an understanding of mothers' perception of illness.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
The ability of physicians and advanced practice providers to understand mothers' perceptions of illness is increasingly important in a changing healthcare environment. CONNECT for Pediatrics facilitates the identification of mothers' perception of their child's illness and provides the opportunity for paediatric advanced practice providers and physicians to understand parents' perception of illness.


In this paper, we aim to explore the impact of the Planck scale corrections and the Holographic quintessence on the shadow behavior of non-rotating black holes. To do this, we consider the quantum-corrected Schwarzschild black hole surrounded by the quintessence field inspired by the Kazakov-Solodukhin and the Kiselev ideas, and we call this combination the Kazakov-Solodukhin-Kiselev (KSK) black hole. We conclude that the quintessence field as the candidate of dark energy in the black hole can be interpreted as Holographic quintessence. To find the geodesic equations of the black hole, we employ the Hamilton-Jacobi approach and also, the Carter procedure. We discover that the size of the shadow of this black hole, which depends on its central mass, is also determined by the Planck scale effects and Holographic quintessence.


Cryogenic slush fluids, such as slush hydrogen and slush nitrogen, are two-phase, single-component fluids containing solid particles in a liquid. Since their density and refrigerant capacity are greater than those of liquid-state fluids alone, there are high expectations for use of slush fluids as functional thermal fluids in various applications, such as fuels for spacecraft engines, clean energy fuels to improve the efficiency of transportation and storage, and as refrigerants for high-temperature superconducting equipment. In this research, a three-dimensional numerical simulation code (SLUSH-3D), including the gravity effect based on the thermal non-equilibrium, two-fluid model, was constructed to clarify the flow and heat-transfer characteristics of cryogenic slush fluids in a horizontal circular pipe. The calculated results of slush nitrogen flow performed using the numerical code were compared with the authors' experimental results obtained using the PIV method. As a result of these comparisons, the numerical code was verified, making it possible to analyze the flow and heat-transfer characteristics of slush nitrogen with sufficient accuracy. The numerical results obtained for the flow and heat-transfer characteristics of slush nitrogen and slush hydrogen clarified the effects of the pipe inlet velocity, solid fraction, solid particle size, and heat flux on the flow pattern, solid-fraction distribution, turbulence energy, pressure drop, and heat-transfer coefficient. Furthermore, it became clear that the difference of the flow and heat-transfer characteristics between slush nitrogen and slush hydrogen were caused to a large extent by their thermo-physical properties, such as the solid-liquid density ratio, liquid viscosity, and latent heat of fusion.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists among total serum and lipoprotein cholesterol concentration, the severity of amphotericin B (AmpB)-induced renal toxicity, and the serum pharmacokinetics of AmpB in hypercholesterolemic rabbits administered AmpB and AmpB lipid complex (ABLC). After 10 days of cholesterol-enriched diet (0.50% [wt/vol]) or regular rabbit diet (control), each rabbit was administered a single intravenous bolus of AmpB or ABLC (1.0 mg/kg of body weight). Blood samples were obtained before administration and serially thereafter for the assessment of serum pharmacokinetics, kidney toxicity, and serum lipoprotein distribution. Rabbits were humanely sacrificed after all blood samples were obtained, and tissues were harvested for drug analysis. Before drug treatment, cholesterol-fed rabbits demonstrated marked increases in total serum cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels compared with levels in rabbits on a regular diet. No significant differences in triglyceride levels were observed. A significant increase in serum creatinine levels was observed in cholesterol-fed and regular diet-fed rabbits administered AmpB. However, the magnitude of this increase was 2.5-fold greater in cholesterol-fed rabbits than in regular diet-fed rabbits. No significant differences in triglyceride levels were observed. A significant increase in serum creatinine levels was observed in cholesterol-fed and regular diet-fed rabbits administered ABLC. Whereas AmpB pharmacokinetics were significantly altered in cholesterol-fed rabbits administered free AmpB, similar AmpB pharmacokinetics were observed in both rabbit groups administered ABLC. Renal AmpB levels were significantly increased in cholesterol-fed rabbits administered AmpB compared with those in all other groups. Hepatic and lung AmpB levels were elevated in cholesterol-fed rabbits administered free AmpB compared to controls. In addition, hepatic, lung, and spleen AmpB levels were significantly decreased in cholesterol-fed rabbits administered ABLC compared to controls. An increased percentage of AmpB was recovered in LDL–very-low-density lipoprotein fraction when free AmpB was administered to cholesterol-fed rabbits compared with those in all other groups. These findings suggest that increases in cholesterol, specifically, LDL cholesterol levels, modify the disposition and renal toxicity of free AmpB. However, the pharmacokinetics and renal toxicity of ABLC were independent of elevations in total and LDL cholesterol levels.


14 MeV neutron activation analysis, based on the 82Se(n,2n)
Se81m nuclear reaction, has been investigated for the measurement
of selenium in environmental waters. The levels of the selenium
present in environmental waters and the relatively high limit of
detection achievable with fast neutron activation analysis
resulted in the need to develop a concentration procedure for the
extraction of selenium from large volumes of environmental water
before neutron activation. [Continues.]


Abstract:The authors report in this article on the excavation and skeletal analyses of 81 graves containing the remains of 133 individuals in a 17th-century cemetery in the Panayia Field at Ancient Corinth. Two distinct styles of burial reflect Orthodox Christian and Muslim traditions. Osteological analyses revealed a preponderance of adult males over females; more young and middle-aged males and fewer small children than might be expected; and numerous instances of physical violence, including two obvious cases of punishment. The presence of iron boot-heel reinforcement cleats and the mixing of Christian and Muslim burial practices suggest that the cemetery may have served a garrison population in Corinth under Ottoman rule during the early 17th century.


This paper proposes an algorithm for increasing data persistency in large-scale sensor networks. In the scenario considered here, k out of n nodes sense the phenomenon and produced ? information packets. Due to usually hazardous environment and limited resources, e.g. energy, sensors in the network are vulnerable. Also due to the large size of the network, gathering information from a few central hopes is not feasible. Flooding is not a desired option either due to limited memory of each node. Therefore the best approach to increase data persistency is propagating data throughout the network by random walks. The algorithm proposed here is based on distributed LT (Luby Transform) codes and it benefits from the low complexity of encoding and decoding of LT codes. In previous algorithms the essential global information (e.g., n and k) are estimated based on graph statistics, which requires excessive transmissions. In our proposed algorithm, these values are obtained without additional transmissions. Also the mixing time of random walk is enhanced by proposing a new scheme for generating the probabilistic forwarding table of random walk. The proposed method uses only local information and it is scalable to any network topology. By simulations the improved performance of developed algorithm compared to previous ones has been verified.


The histologic and clinical characteristics of 54 patients with osteosarcoma are reviewed. The association of rapid linear bone growth with the occurrence of this tumor is confirmed, and evidence for increased growth in these adolescent patients is presented. A significant increase in female survival is seen in this study, and the literature relevant to gender and survival is reviewed. A histologic characterization of six predominant tumor patterns is presented with correlation to survival. Increased survival is seen with two specific histologic patterns, but there is great variability in the histology and sampling of osteosarcomas, and the series is small.


A pattern synthesis technique for low sidelobe difference and scanned beams in small phased arrays is presented. The approach is based on adaptive array theory and is a development of a technique used for beam synthesis in an ideal, λ/2 spaced, isotropic array. The method has been applied to measured element pattern data from a five element linear array, which includes the effects of pattern corruption by mutual coupling. The successful synthesis of low sidelobe sum and difference beams are demonstrated, with the look direction on and scanned off boresight.


We read with interest the article by de Havenon et al.1 In this study, the authors performed a post hoc analysis in patients with thrombectomy to examine the relationship between premorbid disability and outcome of endovascular therapy by using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). They found that patients without premorbid disability were more likely to accumulate further disability than those patients with premorbid disability, but patients with premorbid disability had a higher mortality. The modified Rankin Scale is used to evaluate the neurologic recovery of patients with stroke2 and is also widely used in clinical practice including cerebral infarction,2 cerebral hemorrhage,3 and cardiac arrest.4 However, the reasons for patients' prestroke disability and death after 90-day follow-up were unclear. Epidemiologic studies show that primary causes of disability vary across different age populations. Ischemic heart diseases and stroke are the primary causes of disability in 50–74-year-olds and those who are aged 75 years and over, respectively.5 In this study, it was unclear whether ischemic heart diseases or other noncerebrovascular causes were the main cause of prestroke disability and death. Additional investigations are needed to identify the indications and contraindications for endovascular therapy in patients with anterior circulation occlusion, which will benefit treatment of patients with stroke.


Back ground: Atherosclerosis is a disease of large and medium-sized muscular arteries and is a progressive disease characterized by the accumulation of lipids and fibrous elements in the large arteries.Objective: This study was undertaken to assess the effect of vildagliptin on atherosclerosis via interfering with inflammatory and oxidative pathwaysMaterials and Methods: 18 local domestic male rabbits were included in this study. The animals were randomly divided into three groups (6rabbits in each group): Group I rabbits fed normal chow (oxiod) diet for 12 weeks. Group II rabbits fed 1% cholesterol enriched diet for 12 weeks. Group III rabbits fed with cholesterol enriched diet for 6 weeks, and then continued on cholesterol enriched diet and treated with vildaglipin 50mg/kg/day orally for the next 6 weeks. Blood samples were collected at the start of the study, at 6weeks of the study and then at the end of treatment course to measure Serum lipids profile [(TC), (TG), (HDL)] , hsCRP and TNFα. At the end of the study the aorta were removed for measurement of aortic MDA ,glutathione,  sectioning for histopathology and measuring  aortic intima- media thicknessResults: Treatment of rabbits with vildagliptin for 6 weeks results in a significant reduction (P<0.05) in serum level of TC, TG, hsCRP and TNFα and a significant increase (P<0.05) in serum HDL level. There was a significant reduction (P<0.05) in aortic MDA and intima-media thickness, in comparison to the rabbits in the induced untreated control group. vildagliptin treatment cause significant increment (P<0.05) in aortic GSH   in comparison to induced untreated group  .Regarding histopathological results, vildagliptin treatment for 6 weeks results in a significant reduction (P<0.05) in atherosclerotic lesions in comparison to the induced untreated group and significant reduction in aortic intima- media thickness(P<0.05)Conclusions : vildagliptin reduced  atherosclerosis progression in hyperlipidemic rabbit via its effect on lipid parameters  and interfering with inflammatory and oxidative stress pathway.


The Eynard-Orantin recursion formula provides an effective tool for certain enumeration problems in geometry. The formula requires a spectral curve and the recursion kernel. We present a uniform construction of the spectral curve and the recursion kernel from the unstable geometries of the original counting problem. We examine this construction using four concrete examples: Grothendieck's dessins d'enfants (or higher-genus analogue of the Catalan numbers), the intersection numbers of tautological cotangent classes on the moduli stack of stable pointed curves, single Hurwitz numbers, and the stationary Gromov-Witten invariants of the complex projective line.


Stimulus identity differentially influences the perception of space and time Devin Gill Illinois State University J. Scott Jordan Illinois State University Abstract: Previous data indicate that individuals who continuously track a stimulus that suddenly vanishes indicate a vanishing point further ahead from where the stimulus actually vanished in the direction of momentum (Hubbard, 1995b). Implied forces (e.g., friction; Hubbard, 1995b) and typical motion (Reed & Vinson, 1996) have been shown to affect the perceptual planning associated with tracking a stimulus. Participants controlled an arbitrary stimulus (i.e., a bullet-train vs. a house) in two implied friction contexts (i.e., no surface and surface below), indicated the vanishing point of the stimulus, and made estimates of trials times after every trial. There was a main effect of friction on spatial displacement but not on time. Concepts, however, influence the perception of space and time differently. Participants controlling a bullet-train indicated less time per trial than participants controlling a house. This finding is further verified by no differences between concepts in actual trial times.


Abstract In the last decade, the use of drones has proven to be the major innovation for studying various aspects of waterbird breeding biology, overcoming the environmental obstacles inherent in monitoring their breeding sites. The Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides) represents an example of the aforementioned difficulties, since it nests in impenetrable reed beds and nearby bushes, trees and shrubs. The present work reports the results of drone assessment of nest counting and reproductive success of the Squacco Heron in a colony in the Po Delta (NE Italy). At the beginning of the breeding season, far more nests (46) were found using drones than by eye from the nearest embankment (12). After four weeks (estimated hatching period), only ten nests were relocated by drone, due to vegetation overgrowth. All relocated nests were placed directly either within reed beds or on lower branches of shrubs, but always without higher branches obstructing the view from above. Finally, in the fledging period, no nest was relocated on drone imagery, due to further vegetation growth. Only 27 juveniles were found by drone, mostly perching on the canopy, without any evidence of nest failure, suggesting a critical underestimation. In conclusion, drone use improves accuracy of counting nesting Squacco Herons, but fails to assess productivity.


Vitiligo - specific, common, often heritable, acquired disorder characterized by circumscribed milky white cutaneous macules.. The disease shows no racial/gender predilection and can occur at any age. The incidence is found to be 1-2%. Among the various theories available for explaining the pathogenesis of vitiligo, this study evaluates the role of oxidative stress in the disease pathogenesis In this study 100 cases of vitiligo patients were evaluated in two age groups as follows Children (8-17 years) Young adults(18-30years) Serum levels of malondialdehyde, catalase, zinc were estimated in these patients. The values of these parameters were compared with 100 healthy controls who were grouped in the same way as cases on the basis of age. There was a statistically significant increase in serum malondialdehyde and decrease in serum catalase and serum zinc in the both groups of cases as compared to their age based controls. Thus it can be concluded that oxidative stress is the primary and also the major factor contributing to the pathogenesis of vitiligo. Thus the use of antioxidant therapy in vitiligo patients could yield a better outcome in this psychologically disturbing depigmenting disorder


The basic response ability of an array sensor based on plasma-deposited organic film-coated quartz crystal resonators (QCRs) was investigated with a view to their use for indoor air monitoring. The array of plasma-deposited organic film-coated QCRs was applied to detect and separate volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including alkanes, aromatic carbons, chlorocarbons, ketones, and alcohols. Continuous monitoring tests were tried in a real room environment (a refreshment area and a smoking area) with an array of plasma-deposited organic film-coated QCRs along with commercial sensors for indoor monitoring, a relative humidity/temperature sensor, a carbon dioxide sensor, and a three-dimensional micro-ultrasonic airflow meter. To provide a comparison commercial VOC detectors based on a photo-ionization detector and a semiconductor for indoor monitoring tests were used. The plasma-deposited organic film-coated QCRs exhibited fast pulse responses to volatile compounds in the room air along the baseline shift correlated with relative humidity changes and more sensitive responses compared with commercial organic gas detectors.


BACKGROUND
the communication of children with Down syndrome (DS) is frequently impaired due to difficulties in the phonological, syntactic and semantic aspects of language. In order to compensate these difficulties, many children use gestures for a longer period of time than children who present typical development (TD).

AIM
to verify the performance of children with DS regarding their communicative profile (verbal, oral and gestural) during a play situation and a spontaneous interaction with an adult.

METHODS
28 children with DS were studied in two different play situations: with a speech-language therapist and with the adult caregiver. Pragmatic theories were used to analyse the data. To determine the statistical significance of the results, the statistical tests of Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon and the confidence interval were used with a significance of 5%.

RESULTS
the verbal communication mean was used mostly during the interaction with the caregivers and the gestural communication mean was used mostly during the interaction with the therapists.

CONCLUSION
considering that the verbal communication mean is the one which is socially more used, the play situation with the caregiver was the most effective. However, although less verbal communicative acts were produced during the interaction with the speech-language therapist, the child used gestures to communicate, that is, the lack or little verbal communication did not stop the child from communicating with the interlocutor.


In order to undertake a flood risk analysis, the performance of different flood defence struc- tures under varying load conditions needs to be represented. This paper reports on work undertaken through the FLOODsite Project (Task 4) in bringing together available information on failure modes for a number of repre- sentative flood defence structure types, to support the development and implementation of system wide models for flood risk assessment. The work comprised a review of structures and failure modes which have occurred in the past, and an investigation of limit state equations and associated uncertainties for both the models and the input parameters. Summaries of all failure modes were combined to create a single reference document; it is hoped that this will be maintained and updated into the future as knowledge on different failure mechanisms evolves. Additional research into selected failure modes and embankment processes was also undertaken and is summarised in this paper, including recommendations as to areas where future research should be focussed.


Abstract Eurasian Collared-doves (Streptopelia decaocto) have colonized small rural towns throughout Colorado. We document their occurrence in 23 towns in Weld and Larimer counties in northeastern Colorado during the 2004 breeding season. Estimated population sizes in these towns ranged from 0 to 154 birds. Population increases were detected in 17 towns across the 2-month breeding season (Jun–Aug) with these increases ranging from 1.1- to 6.9-fold. We interpret these data as indicating successful breeding and expanding populations. These are the first reliable data on population sizes of Eurasian Collared-dove in North America and may benefit management strategies for this invasive species in Colorado and elsewhere in the Great Plains.


BACKGROUND
The role of the T-regulatory cells (Tregs) marker forkhead box Protein 3 (FOXP3) in mycoses fungoides (MF) pathogenesis is unclear and the results of previous studies are inconclusive.

OBJECTIVE
We aimed at ascertaining the possibility that FOXP3 expression may serve to predict MF stage and response to therapy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Immunohistochemistry staining for FOXP3 was performed on 30 skin biopsies from patients with MF, and FOXP3 expression level was quantitatively graded. Disease stage, progression, and response to treatment were determined based on clinical and imaging evidence, and association with FOXP3 expression was assessed.

RESULTS
FOXP3 expression in the dermis correlated with poor response to treatment (P=0.047). A negative non-significant relationship between epidermal FOXP3 expression and clinical stage severity was observed (P=0.17).

CONCLUSIONS
Dermal FOXP3 expression in MF lesions could be used to predict response to treatment in patients with MF.


Ethyl diazoacetate (EDA) is one of the most prominent diazo reagents. It is frequently used in metal-carbene-type reactions. However, EDA can also be used as a nucleophile under base catalysis. Whilst the addition of EDA to aldehydes can be performed using organic bases, the addition of EDA to other carbonyl electrophiles requires the use of organometallics such as lithium diisopropylamide (LDA). The generated ethyl lithiodiazoacetate is highly reactive and decomposes rapidly, even at low temperatures. Herein, we report a continuous flow protocol that overcomes the problems associated with the instantaneous decomposition of ethyl lithiodiazoacetate. The addition of ethyl lithiodiazoacetate to ketones provides direct access to tertiary diazoalcohols in good yields.


The blackface minstrel troupes who toured preindustrial South Africa contributed to the preservation of both the boundaries of racial difference in the British colonies of that country and the racial hierarchies of the Cape and Natal colonies.


Significance Neurocranial fractures and their aftermath took a toll on people in premodern societies, much like today. Archaeological information on skeletal trauma, however, typically consists of mere tallies of injuries, much like other disease-related lesions. We quantify the increased risk of dying for men with healed cranial vault fractures, an approach that can be adapted to any pathological condition. In medieval to early modern Denmark, head-injured men experienced a relative risk of dying about double that of modern people, probably in large part because of differences in medical care and social support. This approach provides a means of measuring the extent, hence consequences, of excess injury and disease-related mortality across the full range of human societies extending into the distant past. To date, no estimates of the long-term effect of cranial vault fractures on the risk of dying have been generated from historical or prehistoric skeletons. Excess mortality provides a perspective on the efficacy of modern treatment, as well as the human cost of cranial injuries largely related to interpersonal violence in past populations. Three medieval to early modern Danish skeletal samples are used to estimate the effect of selective mortality on males with cranial vault injuries who survived long enough for bones to heal. The risk of dying for these men was 6.2 times higher than it was for their uninjured counterparts, estimated through a simulation study based on skeletal observations. That is about twice the increased risk of dying experienced by modern people with traumatic brain injuries. The mortality data indicate the initial trauma was probably often accompanied by brain injury. Although the latter cannot be directly observed in skeletal remains, it can be inferred through the relative risks of dying. The ability to identify the effects of selective mortality in this skeletal sample indicates it must be taken into account in paleopathological research. The problem is analogous to extrapolating from death register data to modern communities, so epidemiological studies based on mortality data have the same inherent possibility of biases as analyses of ancient skeletons.


Chemometrics/informatics, and data analysis in general, are increasingly important in x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) because of the large amount of information (spectra/data) that is often collected in degradation, depth profiling, operando, and imaging studies. In this guide, we present chemometrics/informatics analyses of XPS data using a summary statistic (pattern recognition entropy), principal component analysis, multivariate curve resolution (MCR), and cluster analysis. These analyses were performed on C 1s, O 1s, and concatenated (combined) C 1s and O 1s narrow scans obtained by repeatedly analyzing samples of cellulose and tartaric acid, which led to their degradation. We discuss the following steps, principles, and methods in these analyses: gathering/using all of the information about samples, performing an initial evaluation of the raw data, including plotting it, knowing which chemometrics/informatics analyses to choose, data preprocessing, knowing where to start the chemometrics/informatics analysis, including the initial identification of outliers and unexpected features in data sets, returning to the original data after an informatics analysis to confirm findings, determining the number of abstract factors to keep in a model, MCR, including peak fitting MCR factors, more complicated MCR factors, and the presence of intermediates revealed through MCR, and cluster analysis. Some of the findings of this work are as follows. The various chemometrics/informatics methods showed a break/abrupt change in the cellulose data set (and in some cases an outlier). For the first time, MCR components were peak fit. Peak fitting of MCR components revealed the presence of intermediates in the decomposition of tartaric acid. Cluster analysis grouped the data in the order in which they were collected, leading to a series of average spectra that represent the changes in the spectra. This paper is a companion to a guide that focuses on the more theoretical aspects of the themes touched on here.


In this paper, we report on a study with the aim of automatically detecting phoneme-level mispronunciations in 32 French speakers suffering from unilateral facial palsy at four different clinical severity grades. We sought to determine if the Goodness of Pronunciation (GOP) algorithm, which is commonly used in Computer-Assisted Language Learning systems to detect learners' individual errors, could also detect segmental deviances in disordered speech. For this purpose, speech read by the 32 speakers was aligned and GOP scores were computed for each phone realization. The highest scores, which indicate large dissimilarities with standard phone realizations, were obtained for the most severely impaired speakers. The corresponding speech subset was manually transcribed at phone-level. 8.3% of the phones differed from standard pronunciations extracted from our lexicon. The GOP technique allowed to detect 70.2% of mispronunciations with an equal rate of about 30% of false rejections and false acceptances. The phone substitutions detected by the algorithm confirmed that some of the speakers have difficulties to produce bilabial plosives, and showed that other sounds such as sibilants are prone to mispronunciation. Another interesting finding was the fact that speakers diagnosed with a same pathology grade do not necessarily share the same pronunciation issues. Index Terms: pronunciation automatic assessment, Goodness of Pronunciation, disordered speech


Abstract : A model for UHF radiowave propagation through a forest of tree trunks, branches, and leaves is developed using the discrete scattering theory of Foldy and Lax. The forest is represented as a time-invariant ensemble of tree trunks, branches, and leaves all having prescribed location and orientation statistics. Tree trunks are modelled as infinitely-long, circular, lossy- dielectric cylinders; branches as finitely-long, circular, lossy-dielectric cylinders; and leaves as flat, circular, lossy-dielectric discs. Mathematical expressions are found for the effective dyadic susceptibilities of the equivalent continuous medium and for the specific attenuation associated with the (coherent) fields. Using biophysical parameters typical of a deciduous, hardwood forest, these expressions are found to be in reasonable agreement with experimental results. An anisotropic half-space model of the forest is reflected-, and lateral wave components of the mean field presented for a pulse of a few nanoseconds duration and a frequency of 600 Magahertz. A preliminary analysis shows the importance of the random (incoherent) field at a distance of one kilometer and at frequencies above 100 Megahertz. (Author)


Histone deacetylases (HDACs) remove acetyl groups from histones and other proteins, leading to alterations in protein activity and gene expression. Drugs that target these enzymes (HDAC inhibitors or HDACis) are currently approved for the treatment of specific cancers and are under study in numerous additional clinical trials. These drugs work by causing cell cycle arrest, differentiation or apoptosis. However, less is known about their potential effects on cancer cell migration and invasion, processes implicated in metastasis. There are eleven human zinc dependent histone deacetylases and many HDACis target several of these structurally related proteins in cells. Our studies are focused on HDACs1 and 2 which reside in large protein complexes, one of which is the Sin3 complex. This complex is important for promoter-mediated histone deacetylation, transcriptional repression and cell cycle control. We previously found that specific HDACis disrupt the function of the Sin3 complex in distinct ways. Here we describe the function of a novel subunit of the Sin3 complex, a previously uncharacterized protein, named "Family with sequence similarity 60, member A" (FAM60A). We find that FAM60A represses expression of genes linked to cancer cell migration and invasion. Moreover, we show that loss of FAM60A, or a core subunit of the Sin3 complex can increase the migration of lung cancer cells. This suggests that not all HDAC-related functions are cancer promoting, and adds to data suggesting that some HDAC-related functions may act in steps in metastasis suppression pathways. This suggests that some HDACis could increase the potential for metastasis. Current studies are focused on delineating the cancer-promoting functions of the complex from those that are tumor or metastasis suppressive and testing the effects of specific HDACis on cancer cell migration and invasion. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-267. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-LB-267


In This paper, we have employed a double-ion exchanged diffraction grating, to generate experimentally Fourier spot plane arrays. The grating-length-to-beam-width ratio (d/w0) is found to be an important parameter in determining device performance. With beam width 20μm (w0=20μm), center wavelength of λ=0.6328μm, and changing in interaction length (d) and incident angle several basic results are predicted. We compared our results with the numerical solution using fast Fourier transform beam propagation method (FFTBPM) and there is a good agreement between them.


This study investigated the muscle activity during the preparatory (anticipatory postural adjustment, APA), execution (online postural adjustments, OPA), and compensatory (compensatory postural adjustment, CPA) phases during standing with eyes opened or closed on an elevated platform. Eight healthy young women stood in the upright position, with eyes opened or closed, and did as-fast-as-they-could shoulder flexions on the ground and on 1-m-height-portable-elevated-platform. The surface EMG of trunk (lumbar extensor, and rectus abdominis) and lower limb (rectus femoris, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius lateralis) muscles during this task were recorded (1 kHz sampling frequency) and compared during these three phases. Analysis of variance was applied to compare the effects of height (floor and elevated platform), vision (open and closed), and postural adjustment (APA, OPA and CPA) into the activity of each muscle. These muscles were more active during OPA (p<0.0001) and less active during APA. On the elevated platform, these postural muscles presented more activty during APA (p<0.001). During the most stable condition (on the ground with eyes opened), muscle activity during APA and OPA was negatively correlated, and not correlated between OPA and CPA. Our results suggest postural control adapts to sensory, motor, and cognitive conditions. Therefore, the increased demand for postural control, generated due to the height of the support base, provokes the need for greater flexibility of postural synergies and causes a change in muscle activity. Summary Statement We discuss how postural muscle activity behaves before and after a fast upper arms movement when someone stands on a elevated platform or on the ground.


Tetrodecamycin (1) is a novel α-(𝛾-hydroxyacyl) tetronic acid based polyketide antibiotic isolated from the culture broth of Streptomyces nashvillensis MJ885-mF8 by Takeuchi et al. in 1994. Compound 1 shows potent inhibitory activity against Gram-positive bacteria including Bacillus anthracis and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). It was proposed that an Aldol reaction of trans-decalin core 2 and tetronic acid derivative 3 followed by a face selective epoxidation and a subsequent epoxide-opening reaction would deliver the 6,6,7,5-skeleton of tetrodecamycm (1). To investigate this proposal, the silyl enol ether 5 was prepared from cycloheptene 4 in 7 steps. An unusual domino silyl enol ether reaction sequence was observed when the silyl enol ether 5 was submitted to a Diels-Alder reaction. It afforded cycloadduct 6, which was converted to the key intermediate 2 after another 3 steps (Scheme 1). Concurrently, double functionalisation of simple cyclic silyl enol ethers was investigated. Because of some difficulties in reproducing good overall yields to the cycloadduct 6, a second synthetic route was proposed. It was envisaged that a palladium-catalysed oxidative cyclisation or an organoselenium-mediated cyclisation reaction of compound 8 would construct the 6,6,7,5- skeleton 7, which would be converted to tetrodecamycin (1) via dihydroxylation followed by an introduction of the exo-methylene group. The intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction of trienal 11 afforded trans-decalin 10, which was converted to β-keto ester 9 in 2 steps. A Dieckmann-type cyclisation of 9 afforded compound 8 in good yield. However, so far transformation to compound 7 has not been achieved (Scheme 2).


The sulfate uptake and accumulation in mouse digestive organs were studied by light microscopic radioautography. Two litters of normal ddY mice 30 days after birth, each consisting of 3 animals, were studied. One litter of animals were sacrificed 30 min after the intraperitoneal injections with phosphate buffered Na2(35)SO4, and the other litter animals were sacrificed 12 hr after the injections. Then several digestive organs, the parotid gland, the submandibular gland, the sublingual gland, antrum and fundus of the stomach, the duodenum, the jejunum, the ileum, the caecum, the ascending colon and the descending colon were taken out. The tissues were fixed, dehydrated, embedded in epoxy resin, sectioned, picked up onto glass slides, coated with radioautographic emulsion by a dipping method. AFter the exposure, they were developed, stained with toluidine blue and analyzed by light microscopy. As the results, many silver grains were observed on serous cells of the salivary glands, mucosa and submucosa of the stomach, villous cells and crypt cells of the small intestines and whole mucosa of the large intestines at 30 min after the injection. Then at 12 hr after the injection silver grains were observed on mucous cells of the salivary glands, some of the stomach glands, and mucigen granules of goblet cells in the small intestines and the large intestines. The numbers of silver grains observed in respective organs at 30 min were less than those at 12 hr. From these results, it is concluded that glycoprotein synthesis was demonstrated in several digestive organs by radiosulfate incorporation. In the salivary glands the silver grains were more observed in serous cells at 30 min, while in mucous cells more at 12 hr than 30 min after the injection. In other organs the silver grains were more at 30 min than at 12 hr. These results show the time difference of glycoprotein synthesis in respective organs.


Progress in natural language interfaces to databases (NLIDB) has been slow mainly due to linguistic issues (such as language ambiguity) and domain portability. Moreover, the lack of a large corpus to be used as a standard benchmark has made data-driven approaches difficult to develop and compare. In this paper, we revisit the problem of NLIDBs and recast it as a sequence translation problem. To this end, we introduce a large dataset extracted from the Stack Exchange Data Explorer website, which can be used for training neural natural language interfaces for databases. We also report encouraging baseline results on a smaller manually annotated test corpus, obtained using an attention-based sequence-to-sequence neural network.


The original description of Archaeonossa, from beds considered Early Cambrian but now dated as early Middle Cambrian, included at least two unrelated forms of trace fossils. The ichnogenus and the type ichnospecies are redefined, a lectotype is designated, and the type material is reiilustrated, along with topotype material from Yoho National Park, British Columbia. Although this trace fossil was originally attributed to movement by a gastropod, it is concluded, on the basis of restudy, that the type occurrence should not be used as evidence of activity by Gastropoda.


Finding the Standard Model scalar (Higgs) boson is arguably the single most important mission of the LHC. I review predictions for the Higgs boson mass based on stability and perturbativity arguments, taking into account neutrino oscillations. Other topics that are briefly discussed include the CMSSM, extra dimensions, and primordial inflation based on the Coleman‐Weinberg potential.


Background: Older adults with hematologic malignancy (HM) are a growing demographic with heterogenous health needs. Chronologic age, performance status and comorbidities impact the selection and intensity of treatments but may not accurately predict treatment toxicity or resiliency. Here, we conducted longitudinal measures of clinical frailty and epigenetic age to explore the relationships between physiologic aging and fitness.
 Methods: Newly diagnosed patients >60 years with HM were enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study with biomarkers procured at baseline (pre-therapy) and end-of-study (EOS). EOS was defined as the earliest of the following events: progression, transplant, or 1-year from baseline. Peripheral blood was collected, CD3+ T-cells isolated, and DNA extracted using a column-based commercial nucleic acid kit. Peripheral blood T lymphocytes samples were also procured from healthy controls using identical methods. PBTL was extracted, bisulfite converted, and methylation was quantified using the Illumina 850K EPIC methylation array at the TruDiagnostic core laboratory. Raw data was processed using the minfi pipeline, followed by normalization, batch correction, and KNN-based imputation using the GMQN and impute R packages. Principal-component (PC) PhenoAge measures were calculated using the processed methylation values. Measured clinical phenotypes of fitness included ECOG, independent activities of daily living, physical health scores, comorbidities, cognition (BOMC) and objective measures of function (SPPB).
 Results: 94 patients with HM (acute leukemia n=35, lymphoma n=23, CLL = 6, plasma cell n=30) with PBTL and clinical fitness data were evaluated. The median chronologic age was 70.55 years (range 28.71 yrs, IQR = 10.84). mPhenoAge was higher in patients with HM (Median = 49.59 yrs, Range = 71.245, IQR = 12.52) than healthy donors (Median = 30.46; Range = 75.58, IQR = 32.83). Patients with acute leukemia had the highest mPhenoAge (57.10 yrs, Range = 61.97, IQR = 30.03; p=3e-04). mPhenoage was lower in patients with ECOG 0 vs ECOG 1 (p=0.011). Patients with Acute leukemia also showed a decrease in mPhenoage at EOS (p=0.034), which was not seen in other HMs. Patient IADLs (p=0.032) and comorbidities (p=0.009) were positively correlated with Epigenetic Age Acceleration (EAA). Patient cognitive score (p=0.053) negatively correlated with EAA. mPhenoAge decreased more in patients who received hypomethylating therapies than those who received high-dose multi-drug chemotherapy, low-dose multi-drug chemotherapy or targeted agents.
 Conclusions: Physiologic age, as measured by PBTL mPhenoAge, is increased among older adults with HMs relative to healthy controls. PBTL mPhenoAge is highest among HM patients with acute leukemia and changes are associated with clinical phenotypes. PBTL mPhenoAGE decreased with hypomethylating agents in patients with acute leukemia.
 Citation Format: Ashley E. Rosko, Kaitlyn Dvorak, Jennifer Woyach, Varun Dwaraka, Ryan Smith, Ryann Finlayson, Alice Mims, Christin Burd. Epigenetic age acceleration in older adults with hematologic malignancies [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 3010.


Wound healing is a dynamic process that involves a complex interaction of inflammatory cells, cytokines and mediators of extracellular matrix [1]. One of the processes that occur during tissue regeneration is angiogenesis and it is considered to have a pivotal role in wound repair. Previous studies have shown that a topical application of proteins and sodium hyaluronate to wounds can expedite the repair of damaged tissue [2]. The aim of this preliminary study is to evaluate the efficacy of Aminogam® gel (A®) (ErreKappa Euroterapici SpA, Milano), a topical medication which contains 4 amino acids (glycine, leucine, proline, lysine) and sodium hyaluronate, used to improve and accelerate gingival flap healing following molar extraction by analyzing collagen fibers amount, orientation and microvascular distribution (MVD). Ten patients (mean age 49ys) were included in the study. Two teeth (38 and 48) were extracted at an interval of 30 days. The "test" site (AM) was treated with A® while the "control" site (no AM) was not. Dental extraction was performed and the flaps were sutured with a consequent excess of tissue for histological processing (T0). A® had been applied only at the AM site for 10 days post-extraction. At suture removal, a gingivoplasty was performed and the exceeding tissue was histologically analysed (T1). Paraffin blocks were cut and slides were stained with haematoxylin-eosin and Sirius Red. No signs of inflammatory infiltrate or necrosis were observed. Sirius Red staining highlighted a lower degree of organized collagen fibers at T1 vs T0. At T0 the fibers were organized in closely packed and well-oriented bundles. At T1-no AM fibers were thin and formed a disorganized grid. At T1-AM fibers appeared thicker and the tissue appeared more mature compared to T1-no AM. Immunohistochemistry against CD31 was performed to mark endothelial cells and to calculate MVD by stereological method [3]. MVD resulted highest at T1-AM. The T1 data normalized on T0 presented a statistically significant difference (p=0.012) between AM and no AM group. In conclusion, A® gel seems to increase new blood vessels formation and to promote collagen deposition and organization.


The review highlights the analysis of modern literature data from randomized multicenter controlled trials conducted in the world in order to determine the optimal strategy for perioperative fluid therapy in both planned and urgent interventions. To date, despite a large number of studies on the effect of perioperative infusion therapy volumes on treatment outcome in abdominal operations, conflicting data have been obtained. There is no convincing evidence about the benefits of restrictive, liberal regimes or goal-directed fluid therapy, although from both theoretical and practical points of view, none of the researchers doubts the fact that maintaining an optimal balance requires an individual approach, which could reduce many postoperative complications. Recently, researchers have pointed out the advantages of goal-directed infusion therapy as one of the components of the ERAS protocol, the strategy which based on the regulation of cardiac output (SV) and stroke volume (UO) and achieving intraoperative zero fluid balance, especially in high-risk patients with concomitant diseases of cardio-vascular system. Recent multicenter studies such as RELIEF compared the restrictive and liberal regimes of fluid therapy and concluded that perioperative fluid management in extensive operations should be achieved using a "conditionally liberal regimen" with positive water balance of one to two liters by the end of the operation. Researchers are revising the concept of fluid loss in the "third space" and the need for its compensation. The role of endothelial glycocalyx in maintaining the integrity of the endothelium, as well as the reaction of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) to volumetric fluid overload, which provokes platelet aggregation, increases vascular permeability and, as a result, manifests tissue edema, is shown. Large-scale RELIEF and OPTIMISE studies are continuing in this direction in order to offer the optimal regimen of perioperative fluid therapy for various surgical interventions.


The risk factors for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients who have achieved a long-term sustained viral response (SVR) to interferon (IFN) are not fully understood. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of patients who developed HCC after 10 years of achieving SVR. We retrospectively studied 5 patients with HCC which developed more than 10 years after the termination of IFN therapy. The clinical characteristics at the induction of IFN therapy were male gender, a mean age of 51.6±9.1 years, while 2 patients were moderate alcohol consumers. None of the 5 patients were positive for either HBs Ag or anti-HBc Ab. A histological examination at the initial IFN therapy showed the activity scores to be A2 in all cases, and the fibrosis scores at least F2. The clinical parameters at the diagnosis of HCC included fluctuating transaminase levels in all cases. These levels scarcely fell below the upper limits even after SVR was achieved. In 3 patients, liver tissues were obtained at the treatment of HCC. These tissues showed marked improvement in both activities and fibroses, but severe steatosis in 1 patient. To conclude, chronic hepatitis C patients who respond to IFN therapy should undergo long-term follow-up, even after the eradication of HCV, with special attention particularly to patients who had elevated transaminase levels and steatosis.


ERP and other systems projects are now commonly preceded or accompanied by reengineering efforts. Traditional reengineering projects use a 'clean sheet' approach, in which companies attempt to design ideal processes without being bound to existing processes and constraints. When reengineering is associated with information technology (IT) implementation, the more common approach is known as 'tool-driven' or 'system-enhanced' reengineering. Under this approach, the new processes are designed with explicit attention to the opportunities and constraints presented by the capabilities of the new information system. Although IT-related reengineering approaches have matured through time, they have not kept pace with current perspectives on corporate strategy and competitive advantage. The perspective on strategy to which they implicitly subscribe is an industrial organization or industry structure model that is not sufficient to guide reengineering efforts when strategic advantage is at stake. Drawing on current, resource-based theories of strategy, this paper describes factors the organizations should consider when they wish to take a more strategic approach to process reengineering—one explicitly oriented to the creation and maintenance of sustainable competitive advantage. ERPS AND STRATEGY: FIRST, DO NO HARM It is interesting to note that, in an era where it is expected that IS will align itself with the goals of the enterprise, the exact opposite is happening with ERPs—the enterprise must align its processes with those of its chosen ERP! (Glass, 1998)


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the clinical application and complication of the lyophilized small-segment allogeneic bone used in repairing bone defects caused by benign bone tumor and tumor-like lesions after resection and curettage.

METHODS
From December 1999 to December 2005, 230 patients (156 males, 74 females; age, 5-56 years, averaged 32. 8 years), who had bone defects caused by benign bone tumors and tumor-like lesions after surgical resection and curettage, were treated by the lyophilized small-segment allogeneic bones. The cavities left by the tumor curettage ranged in size from 1.0 cm x 0.8 cm to 10.0 cm x 2.0 cm, and the bone defects were about 1.0 to 3.5 cm in diameter after the localized resection of the bones. According to the bone defect degrees, the autogenous nonvascular iliac bone and the bone allograft (0.5-30.0 g) were implanted, followed by the drainage for 2-3 days and the use of antibiotics to prevent infection. The postoperative systemic and local reactions were observed, and the regular X-ray examinations were performed to observe the bone union.

RESULTS
There was no significant difference in the allergic reactions, such as postoperative temperature, drained amount, and body swelling, between this kind of transplantation and the autogenous bone transplantation. The wounds in 196 patients were healed by the first intension. The wounds in 34 patients had extravasate. Among them, the wound was healed by changing dressing in 30 cases; the wound had delayed healing in 4, including 3 whose wounds were healed by changing dressing for 3-4 weeks,and 1 whose wound was healed by taking out the implants. The follow-up for 6-60 months (average, 38 months) revealed that all the patients had the allograft unions of the bones within 6-18 months after the transplantation, and only 6 patients had recurrence of the tumor (3.0%). Evaluated by the Mankin,Komender and WANG Zhiqiang's standards, 196 (85.22%) patients were satisfied with their outcomes while the other 34 (14. 78%) patients were not satisfied.

CONCLUSION
The lyophilized small-segment allogeneic bone has a good compatibility and osteogenesis, when it is used in repairing bone defects caused by benign bone tumor and tumor-like lesions after resection and curettage. So, this kind of bone is a good, convenient and safe material for the bone transplantation. The important factors affecting the allograft union are as follows: the mechanical stability in the recipient region, local blood supply, and management of the bone cavity left by resection and curettage of the bone tumor.


The prevalence of barriers to the implementation of alternative and more integrated approaches to urban water management has been observed by many researchers and managers. This study analyses the interconnected nature of these barriers using a combination of interpretive structural modelling and systems thinking methods. Based on empirical data from an urban case study catchment this study shows that barriers not only reinforce each other, but also create persistent self-reinforcing effects within a barrier interaction network. Evidence of feedback structures was primarily found in the institutional and logistical management areas. These systemic feedback structures create resistance to the implementation of alternative urban water management strategies resulting in the status quo. Knowledge of barrier interactions provides a rational basis for targeted and prioritized management interventions.


Energy consumption is one of the important parameters to be optimized during the design of portable embedded systems. Thus, most of the contemporary portable devices feature low-power processors coupled with on-chip memories (e.g., caches, scratchpads). Scratchpads are better than traditional caches in terms of power, performance, area, and predictability. However, unlike caches they depend upon software allocation techniques for their utilization. In this paper, we present scratchpad overlay techniques which analyze the application and insert instructions to dynamically copy both variables and code segments onto the scratchpad at runtime. We demonstrate that the problem of overlaying scratchpad is an extension of the Global Register Allocation problem. We present optimal and near-optimal approaches for solving the scratchpad overlay problem. The near-optimal scratchpad overlay approach achieves close to the optimal results and is significantly faster than the optimal approach. Our approaches improve upon the previously known static allocation technique for assigning both variables and code segments onto the scratchpad. The evaluation of the approaches for ARM7 processor reports, average energy, and execution time reductions of 26% and 14% over the static approach, respectively. Additional experiments comparing the overlayed scratchpads against unified caches of the same size, report average energy, and execution time savings of 20% and 10%, respectively. We also report data memory energy reductions of 45%-57% due to the insertion of a 1024-bytes scratchpad memory in the memory hierarchy of a digital signal processor (DSP)


OBJECTIVE
Study of Once-daily LeVEmir(®) (SOLVE(TM)) was a 24-week international observational study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of initiating once-daily insulin detemir (Levemir) as add-on therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who failed treatment of oral anti-diabetic drugs (OAD).

METHODS
The present study was derived from the data of Chinese cohort. A total of 3272 patients with T2DM failing OAD were enrolled in the study. Determir were prescribed to the patients by the decision of the physician. Clinical data were collected at baseline, week 12 and week 24 to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of detemir.

RESULTS
The age of the patients was (56.2 ± 10.8) years with a diabetes duration of (7.1 ± 5.2) years. Their BMI was (25.3 ± 3.3) kg/m(2). No patient experienced any major or nocturnal hypoglycaemic event during the study. After 24 weeks of treatment, the glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) decreased from (8.33 ± 1.69)% to (7.16 ± 1.18)% with a mean change of -1.17%, the fasting plasma glucose decreased from (9.52 ± 2.59) mmol/L to (6.84 ± 1.42) mmol/L with a mean change of -2.7 mmol/L, and the 7-point blood glucose profile improved overall. Totally 49.1% of patients achieved HbA1c < 7%. The mean body weight decreased by 0.15 kg.

CONCLUSIONS
Insulin detemir administered once daily as add-on therapy in patients with T2DM failing OAD regimen significantly reduces the risk of major hypoglycemia, improves glycemic control, increases the percentage of patients achieving treatment target with neutral effect on body weight.


Background: School-age children consume less fruit and vegetables than the recommended daily requirement. The low consumption of fruits and vegetables is due to the low level of nutritional knowledge. Lack of knowledge will reduce the ability to apply nutritional information, so that the consumption of healthy food will decrease and become a negative impact on the nutritional status of school-age children. Objective To determine the effect of health education with the Busar game media on knowledge of fruit and vegetable consumption in 4th and 5th grades students at Elementary Public School (SDN) 07 Pagi Kebayoran Utara. Methods : Quantitative study using pre-experimental design with the type of one group pretest-posttest. The total population of this study was 128 students with a sample size of 56 students who were determined using the Slovin formula and selected by stratified random sampling. Bivariate data analysis was performed using the paired sample t-test. Results : A p value of 0.001 (≤0.05) was obtained which indicates that there is an impact of health education using the Busar game media on the level of knowledge of fruit and vegetable consumption. Conclusion : The busar game-based learning method is proven to be effective in increasing students' knowledge in understanding the importance of consuming vegetables and fruits.


Cardiovascular diseases represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetes. Of the many animal models used in the study of non-insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes, the JCR:LA-cp rat is unique in that it develops insulin resistance in the presence of obesity and manifests both peripheral and coronary vasculopathies. In this animal model, arterial vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from homozygous obese (cp/cp) rats, but not from age-matched healthy (+/+ or + /cp, collectively defined +/?) littermates, display an " activated" phenotype in vitro and in vivo and have an elevated level of cAMP phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity. In this report, we confirm that cp/cp rat aortic VSMCs have an elevated level of PDE3 activity and show that only particulate PDE3 (PDE3B) activity is elevated. In marked contrast to results obtained in + /? VSMCs, simultaneous activation of adenylyl cyclase and inhibition of PDE3 activity in cp/cp VSMCs synergistically increased cAMP. Although PDE3 inhibition did not potentiate the antimigratory effects of forskolin on +/? VSMCs, PDE3 inhibition did markedly potentiate the forskolin-induced inhibition of migration of cp/cp-derived VSMCs. Although PDE3 activity was elevated in cp/cp rat aortic VSMCs, levels of expression of cytosolic PDE3 (PDE3A) and PDE3B in +/? and cp/cp VSMCs, as well as activation of these enzymes following activation of the cAMP-protein kinase A signaling cascade, were not different. Our data are consistent with an increased role for PDE3 in regulating cAMP-dependent signaling in cp/cp VSMCs and identify PDE3 as a cellular activity potentially responsible for the phenotype of cp/cp VSMCs.


Oscillating electric fields in the megahertz range have been studied in a high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) plasma with the use of electric field probe arrays. One possible reason for these oscillations to occur is charge perturbation—or so-called modified two-stream instabilities (MTSIs). It is known that MTSIs give rise to acceleration of the charged plasma species and can give a net transport of electrons across the magnetic field lines. Measurements of these oscillations confirm trends, specifically of the frequency dependence on ion mass and magnetic field strength as expected from the theory of MTSI waves. These results help to explain the previously reported anomalous fast electron transport in HIPIMS discharges, where classical theory of diffusion using collisions to transport electrons has failed.


Port sustainability has become a main component of the international maritime transport. This sustainability concept should be integrated in the network design problem to reduce negative externalities for both port and sea activities and the average operational costs by using environmental indicators. The ocean carrier network design problem (OCNDP) will be solved using the triple bottom line of the port green approach to minimize operational costs. Therefore, this problem could be described as a sustainable ocean carrier network design problem (SOCNDP) and it will be solved using the software Microcity and a set of nine regional ports taking as a reference the Egyptian Port of Alexandria. The results show that a green sustainable route can be drawn among these nine ports while minimizing total shipping costs and reducing considerably gas emissions of the various ports.


Bhangra: Mystics, Music and Migration explores the origins of this folk song and dance from the Panjab in South Asia and its development into part of modern British culture in the hybrid soundscape of British Bhangra and beyond.

This book originated in academic research and the Heritage-lottery funded Bhangra Renaissance project. Through ethnographic research, oral history interviews, performances, photography, story-telling and community activity it celebrates the past contribution of all those involved in Bhangra.

This ground-breaking work provides an in-depth history of the spiritualism of performance and song, and an overview of the artists involved in influencing its development, as well as contemporaries leading the way of Bhangra's renaissance amongst the South Asian diaspora in the UK and around the world.


Duration of reproductive activities (courtship latency, courtship and mating) were studied in three (3) species of Giant African land snails (GALs) namely, Achatina fulica, Archachatina marginata and Achatina achatina using mature snails gathered from rural Nigeria. The snails were housed singly for 90 days to acclimatize; shed already fertilized eggs from previous mating and develop strong desire to mate. Thereafter, monocultures of each species were formed namely, A. fulica x A. fulica (F x F); A. marginata x A. marginata (M x M) and A. achatina x A. achatina (A x A) for pre-mating trials. These were observed for one week and any two snails that showed consistent association for more than 10 min were isolated and kept together as potential mating pairs. Parameters measured were duration of courtship latency (DCL), duration of courtship (DC), duration of mating (DM), duration from mating to oviposition (DMO), egg weight (EW), egg length (EL) and weight of hatchlings (WH). Number of mated pairs and ovipositors per species were noted and mating propensity was calculated as the percentage of tested snails that mated in each species. Result shows significant (P < 0.05) differences between snail species in all traits studied. Key words : Land snails, courtship, copulatory duration, tentacular contact, monocultures.


Colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) is the major cause of death in patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The gold standard treatment of CRLM is surgical resection. Yet, in the past, more than half of these patients were deemed unresectable due to the inadequate future liver remnant (FLR). The introduction of efficient portal vein embolization (PVE) preoperatively allowed more resections of metastasis in CRLM patients by stimulating adequate liver hypertrophy. However, several experimental and clinical studies reported tumor progression after PVE which critically influences the subsequent management of these patients. The underlying pathophysiological mechanism of tumor progression post-PVE is still not fully understood. In spite of the adverse effects of PVE, it remains a potentially curative procedure in patients who would remain otherwise unresectable because of the insufficient FLR. Currently, the challenge is to halt tumor proliferation following PVE in patients who require this technique. This could potentially be achieved by either attempting to suppress the underlying oncologic stimulus or by inhibiting tumor growth once observed after PVE, without jeopardizing liver regeneration. More research is still required to better identify patients at risk of experiencing tumor growth post-PVE.


Background: Gastroscopy procedures are frequently performed under general anesthetic to minimize discomfort. Patients who refuse a sedative injection may experience more discomfort and adverse reactions such as pain and nausea. These instances reduce patient compliance and willingness to participate in future procedures. Acupuncture has been shown to have an antinausea and analgesic effect, however there is limited data available that demonstrates acupuncture as effective when applied before gastroscopy. Methods: A total of 60 participants will be randomly assigned to the electroacupuncture (EA) group and the sham electroacupuncture (SEA) group at a ratio of 1: 1. Acupuncture treatment will be performed before gastroscopy for a duration of 30 minutes. All patients will complete detailed questionnaires at 30 minutes and 7 days post-procedure to record the severity of their symptoms. The primary outcome will be the average of 4 standard visual analogue scales (VAS) scores in the categories of nausea,vomitting, throat discomfort and agitation as reported by the patient. The secondary outcomes will be patient's anxiety as recorded by the 6 Item Short Form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S6) and Amsterdam Pre-Operative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS), preference in a future endoscopy, oxygen saturation (SaO2), heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP). Anxiety scales will be assessed before and after acupuncture, others will be complete at 30 minutes and 7 days post-procedure.Discussion: This randomized controlled trial will explore the feasibility of the further clinical application of electroacupuncture for the improvement of patient discomfort during gastroscopy without systemic sedation.Trial registration: This trial has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2020SHL-KY-11) and is registered with ChiCTR2000040726.


This fully revised 3rd edition offers an introduction to optimal control theory and its diverse applications in management science and economics. It brings to students the concept of the maximum principle in continuous, as well as discrete, time by using dynamic programming and Kuhn-Tucker theory. While some mathematical background is needed, the emphasis of the book is not on mathematical rigor, but on modeling realistic situations faced in business and economics. The book exploits optimal control theory to the functional areas of management including finance, production and marketing and to economics of growth and of natural resources. In addition, this new edition features materials on stochastic Nash and Stackelberg differential games and an adverse selection model in the principal-agent framework. The book provides exercises for each chapter and answers to selected exercises to help deepen the understanding of the material presented. Also included are appendices comprised of supplementary material on the solution of differential equations, the calculus of variations and its relationships to the maximum principle, and special topics including the Kalman filter, certainty equivalence, singular control, a global saddle point theorem, Sethi-Skiba points, and distributed parameter systems. Optimal control methods are used to determine optimal ways to control a dynamic system. The theoretical work in this field serves as a foundation for the book, which the author has applied to business management problems developed from his research and classroom instruction. The new edition has been completely refined and brought up to date.


Using a case-control design, an association of schizophrenia with the dopamine D3 receptor gene (D3RG) locus was investigated. Initial analysis of pooled results from published studies revealed a significant excess of individuals homozygous for either allele among the patients. The association was next tested in two cohorts ascertained independently at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and at Houston, Texas. The Pittsburgh sample was comprised of patients with schizophrenia (DSM-III-R) (n = 130). The controls belonged to two groups: adults screened for the absence of substance abuse or major psychiatric illness (n = 128), and neonates (n = 160). Multivariate analysis suggested an association with allele 1 of the biallelic D3RG polymorphism in comparison with the adult, but not the neonatal, controls. The association was most marked among Caucasian patients with a family history of schizophrenia (odds ratio 13.69, confidence intervals 1.80, 104.30). Survival analysis suggested an earlier age of onset among male patients homozygous for allele 2. The Houston cohort included Caucasian patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (DSM-III-R criteria, n = 50), and normal controls matched for gender (n = 51). In this group, no significant associations were noted among all the patients or among subgroups of patients based on family history or age of onset. Possible reasons for the discordant results are discussed.


It is proposed that Bessel light beams be used to pump optical parametric oscillators. The advantages of such pumping are demonstrated by a comparison with Gaussian light beams. In particular, the maximum mode coupling coefficient is achieved in a parametric oscillator pumped by a Bessel beam, which enhances parametric amplification. A nonlinear conversion regime that does not destroy the spatial structure of the intracavity fields is found. This opens up the possibility of increasing the efficiency of conversion of the energy of an input Bessel beam, compared with a Gaussian beam.


The development and study of strains of Penicillium chrysogenum that give high yields of penicillin has been a major project at the University of Wisconsin during the past 12 years. Many thousands of cultures have been screened for their penicillin-producing ability in the Botany Department of the University. The methods used for the production and screening of mutants, the genealogy of the outstanding strains and their cultural characteristics have been described recently by Backus and Stauffer (1955). In recent years, interest has centered on cultures that produce no pigment but give high yields of penicillin. Many of the superior cultures have been studied intensively both in shaken flasks and pilot plant fermentations in the Biochemistry Department (Anderson et al., 1953, 1956; Davey and Johnson, 1953; Soltero and Johnson, 1954; and Owen and Johnson, 1955). In the present paper we shall report on factors affecting penicillin production by some of the recent high-yielding strains. These are numbered W50-935, W50-1583, W51-20, W51-616, W51-20F3, and W51-20F3-64.


Summary The aim of the present work was to assess the influence of lisinopril on the glipizide action in healthy and streptozotocin induced diabetic albino rats using single and repeated treatments of selected doses (2.5 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg and 12 mg/kg) of lisinopril on the glucose lowering effect of glipizide. The whole study was divided into 3 phases. In the first phase the effect of lisinopril (2.5 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg and 12 mg/kg, p.o) and glipizide (5mg/kg) individually were on the blood glucose levels were established in normal healthy rats. In the second phase the effect of single and repeated treatments (7 days) of lisinopril on the hypoglycemic effect of glipizide in healthy rats were studied. In the third phase the possibility of drug-drug interaction between lisinopril and glipizide in diabetic conditions were explored by the above procedure using STZ induced diabetic rats. Blood samples were collected from tail vein initially at '0' hour and following drug administration at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0, 12.0, 18.0, 24.0 and 30.0 hours for estimation of blood glucose. Same above experimental protocol was repeated in STZ induced diabetic rats and blood glucose levels were analyzed as mentioned earlier. Lisinopril significantly altered the peak effect and enhanced the hypoglycemic activity in both normal and diabetic rats at single and repeated treatment without any change in onset of action of glipizide. The study suggests that, the dose and frequency of glipizide must be readjusted when it is to be used concomitantly with antihypertensive drug lisinopril in combined hypertension and diabetic conditions to avoid severe hypoglycemia due to lisinopril.


Although the role of calcium (Ca(2+)) in excitation-contraction coupling in the heart can be comprehensively studied at the cellular level, propagation of Ca(2+) signals intercellularly requires tissue-based investigations. To access cells below the epicardium, an optical-sectioning technique is necessary. Multi-photon microscopy allows reliable imaging for penetration to depths of up to 0.5 mm. Here, we provide a protocol that uses multibeam two-photon microscopy for measuring Ca(2+) signals in a Langendorff-perfused mouse heart.


Algebraic effects and handlers support composable and structured control-flow abstraction. However, existing designs of algebraic effects often require effects to be executed sequentially. This paper studies parallel algebraic effect handlers. In particular, we formalize {\lambda}p, an untyped lambda calculus which models two key features, effect handlers and parallelizable computations, the latter of which takes the form of a for expression as inspired by the Dex programming language. We present various interesting examples expressible in our calculus, and provide a Haskell implementation. We hope this paper provides a basis for future designs and implementations of parallel algebraic effect handlers.


Background and objective: The need to measure treatment outcomes in mental health services from the perspective of users and family members has been highlighted in the literature as a fundamental aspect to improve the care provided. The objective of this study was to measure the treatment outcome provided by a Brazilian Psychosocial Care Center from the perspective of outpatients and their family members.Methods: A correlational study was performed with 84 outpatients and 40 family members, between 2015 and 2016, interviewing them using the Satisfaction (SATIS-BR), Perception of Change (PCS), Independent Living Skills (ILSS) and Family Burden (FBIS-BR) scales.Results: There was a high index of satisfaction with the mental health service, with a mean of 4.23 for the users interviewed and 4.36 for the family members. The perception of change presented a mean of 2.58 for the patients and 2.19 for the family members. The independent living ability presented a mean of 2.52.Conclusions: The high indices of satisfaction suggest successes, as well as points to be improved in the mental health policy implemented in the municipality. However, reintegration into the labor market was presented as an aspect with a need for investments through health and labor policies, since it was related to the subjective burden.


Detailed petrological, whole‐rock geochemical, and zircon Hf isotopic researches were conducted on the Late Carboniferous–Triassic sedimentary rocks in the Bogda region to evaluate the effects of weathering, sorting, and alteration, as well as to understand their provenance and tectonic setting. These rocks show variable major element compositions, but most are generally similar to post‐Archean Australian shales. The relatively narrow range of TiO2–Zr variation and good correlation between Th/Sc and Zr/Sc signify no obvious sorting and recycling of the sedimentary rocks. The relatively high index of compositional variability (0.8–3.1) and low chemical index of alteration values (44.4–76.4) of the sedimentary rocks indicate that they are immature and probably undergo weak to moderate chemical weathering. In the chondrite‐normalized diagrams, almost all the samples are distinguished by moderately enriched light rare earth element and flat heavy rare earth element patterns with negative Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 0.5–0.8). In conjunction with their Th/Sc, Zr/Sc, La/Th, Zr/Al2O3, TiO2/Zr, Co/Th, and La/Sc ratios, we infer that the major sources of these sedimentary rocks were the intermediate–acidic igneous rocks from the North Tianshan and Yili–Central Tianshan. Combining the orientation of the Bogda region in the Palaeozoic that was roughly perpendicular to the Tianshan and/or East Junggar orogens with the sedimentologic, petrologic, and tectonic researches, we suggest that the Bogda region was a rift basin that occurs at high angles to the orogenic belt. On the other hand, the zircons from these sediments have minor Precambrian grains (<0.2%), positive εHf(t) values (mostly +7.1–+15.0) and young 2‐stage Hf model ages (major peak <1,000 Ma), suggesting that a juvenile continental crust exists as the basement of the Junggar Basin.


Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) offers temporary administrative relief from deportation for undocumented immigrant adolescents and young adults who were brought as children to the United States. Accordingly, DACA has contributed to creating a different landscape of opportunities for this group. However, DACA has been and continues to be highly contested in the national political climate. Threats to DACA give rise to considerable anxiety, fear, and distress among its recipients, who face significant barriers to accessing mental health care services. Thus, a group of psychologists partnered with a leading immigrant rights advocacy organization and formed a reciprocal collaboration to understand and meet the mental health needs of undocumented communities. A major focus of the collaboration is to foster learning and support members of the immigrant community in contributing to their own well-being. The collaborative developed and delivered a stand-alone web-based mental health education session to DACA recipients and their families and practitioners serving this population. The session presented the use of dialectical behavioral therapy skills, three emotion regulation and four distress tolerance skills, as a strength-based approach to managing painful emotions and distress. Session content was adapted to include culturally informed examples for each skill. Quantitative and qualitative findings show that those who participated in the web-based program benefited from the education received. Findings also underscored participants' need for learning culturally sensitive coping strategies for managing stress. We provide recommendations on the delivery of culturally congruent healing interventions for immigrants with a focus on enhancing access among immigrant communities.


Cumene is a high-production volume chemical that has been shown to be a central nervous system depressant and has been implicated as a long-term exposure carcinogen in experimental animals. The absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of [14C]cumene (isopropylbenzene) was studied in male rats and mice of both sexes after oral or intravenous administration. In both species and sexes, urine accounted for the majority of the excretion (typically ≥70%) by oral and intravenous administration. Enterohepatic circulation of cumene and/or its metabolites was indicated because 37% of the total dose was excreted in bile in bile duct-cannulated rats with little excreted in normal rats. The highest tissue 14C levels in rats were observed in adipose tissue, liver, and kidney with no accumulation observed after repeat dosing up to 7 days. In contrast, mice contained the highest concentrations of 14C at 24 h after dosing in the liver, kidney, and lung, with repeat dosing accumulation of 14C observed in these tissues as well as in the blood, brain, heart, muscle, and spleen. The metabolites in the expired air, urine, bile, and microsomes were characterized with 16 metabolites identified. The volatile organics in the expired air comprised mainly cumene and up to 4% α-methylstyrene. The major urinary and biliary metabolite was 2-phenyl-2-propanol glucuronide, which corresponded with the main microsomal metabolite being 2-phenyl-2-propanol.


Following the global financial crisis in 2008, the construction sector in UAE has been facing emergent criticisms for growing adversarial culture and rising prevalent claims and disputes between stakeholders. The complex, large size and fast track nature of construction projects in UAE, make project management very challenging under the commonly used traditional procurement routes. This paper aims to examine whether implementing collaborative procurement approaches can facilitate resolving the escalating number of claims and disputes in the UAE construction industry.,Considering the nature of the study, a quantitative method was selected to realize the research objectives. The questionnaire was uploaded using an online survey facility and distributed through e-mails and professional networks. The questionnaire was piloted with experts to assess whether the questions are unambiguous, easy to respond and intelligible. The feedback received was mostly positive with few comments and recommendations. The pilot responses were incorporated and the questionnaire was modified before the final sending out. The questionnaire survey consisted of six main sections to fulfill the research objectives.,Around three-quarters of the experts believe that the relationship is adversarial, with a lack of trust, win-lose attitude, with dismissive and opportunistic behavior. The survey reveals that the top causes of claims and disputes comprise the following: variations because clients initiated change requests; contractors selection on low bid only rather than including quality and performance considerations; and unfair risk allocation where majority of risks are transferred to contractors. The findings also identify eight collaborative practices, which have crucial positive impacts such as early identification of problems, better communication and enhanced trust and teamwork.,This research contributes to the enhancement of the management of claims and disputes for construction projects, which encompasses the following: the key characteristics of collaborative arrangements to improve the adversarial construction culture comprise: mutual respect, openness, fairness and non-opportunistic behaviors; the foremost roles of collaborative procurement in reducing claims and disputes embrace: early identification and resolution of problems, enhanced trust and teamwork spirit, improved relationships and better quality communication; the major practical barriers of implementing collaborative approaches incorporate: lack of awareness of their benefits, primitive legal framework of partnering arrangements and lack of transparency in procurement processes.


Chikungunya (CHIK) viral fever is a self-limiting illness that presents with severe debilitating arthralgia, myalgia, fever and rash. Neurological complications are rare. We present a case of a 36-year-old woman who presented with acute onset progressive difficulty swallowing and left arm weakness. She was diagnosed with CHIK viral fever 4 weeks prior to admission. After investigations, she was diagnosed with a pharyngeal–cervical–brachial variant of Guillain-Barré syndrome. In hospital, she required ventilator support. Her condition improved after five sessions of intravenous immunoglobulin with almost complete resolution within 6 months of symptom onset. With frequent CHIK outbreaks, the neurological complications are increasingly seen in the emergency department. The knowledge of these associations will result in early diagnosis and treatment.