We have previously demonstrated that the complex [(L1O)MoOCl(2)], where L1OH = (2-hydroxy-3-tert-butyl-5-methylphenyl)bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)methane, exists as both cis and trans isomers (Kail, B.; Nemykin, V. N.; Davie, S. R.; Carrano, C. J.; Hammes, B. S.; Basu, P. Inorg. Chem. 2002, 41, 1281-1291). Here, the cis isomer is defined as the geometry with the heteroatom in the equatorial position, and the trans isomer is designated as the geometry with the heteroatom positioned trans to the terminal oxo group. The trans isomer represents the thermodynamically more stable geometry as indicated by its spontaneous formation from the cis isomer. In this report, we show that for complexes of [(LO)MoOCl(2)], where LOH is the sterically less restrictive (2-hydroxyphenyl)bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)methane, only the trans isomer could be isolated, while in the corresponding thiolate containing ligand (2-dimethylethanethiol)bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)methane (L3SH) only the cis isomer could be observed. In addition, we have isolated and structurally characterized the complex [(L1O)MoO(OPh)(Cl)], a rare example of a species possessing both cis and trans phenolates. Using DFT calculations, we have investigated the origins of the differences in stability between the cis and trans isomers in these complexes and suggest that they are related to the trans influence of the oxo-group. Crystal data for [(LO)MoOCl(2)] (1) include that it crystallizes in the triclinic space group P(-)1 with cell dimensions a = 8.9607 (12) A, b = 10.596 (4) A, c = 13.2998 (13) A, alpha = 98.03 (2) degrees, beta = 103.21 (2) degrees, gamma = 110.05(2) degrees, and Z = 2. [(L1O)MoO(OPh)Cl].2CH(2)Cl(2) (2.2CH(2)Cl(2)) crystallizes in the triclinic space group P(-)1 with cell dimensions a = 12.2740 (5) A, b = 13.0403 (5) A, c = 13.6141 (6) A, alpha = 65.799 (2) degrees, beta = 64.487 (2) degrees, gamma = 65.750 (2) degrees, and Z = 2. [(L3S)Mo(O)Cl(2)] (3) crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pna2(1), with cell dimensions a = 13.2213 (13) A, b = 8.817 (2) A, c = 15.649 (4) A, and Z = 4. The implications of these results on the function of mononuclear molybdoenzymes such as sulfite oxidase, and the DMSO reductase, are discussed.


The paper presents the role of health education as an inseparable element of health promotion. Both concepts refer to activities that aim to provide support for people to control the factors which may influence their health and to create a healthy environment. The two concepts are different, how-ever, there is a link between health education and health promotion, human health, which is emphasized as being the common focus of these activities. The relationship between health education and health promotion is discussed on the basis of the National Health Programme for 2016–2020 and one of the habitats of a health promoting school. It is also emphasised that taking care of one's health is a lifelong process, which can be per-ceived in health education and health promoting activities. In conclusion, it is stated that health education is a necessary tool for health promotion; their combination in various habitats and the areas of social life may induce a synergic effect, contributing to an increase in the effectiveness of the applied health activities.


The legal protection of traditional knowledge (TK) – the know-how, skills and practices of indigenous and local communities – has recently become a focus of dialogue and scholarship at national and international stages. Intellectual property (IP) laws protect scientific and artistic creations. Patent laws in particular give exclusive rights over new (novel), inventive (non-obvious) and useful knowledge. Consequently, new 'modern knowledge' is protected through legal intervention that provides limited artificial monopolies while TK is considered to be 'old knowledge' that fails to meet the requirements of patent laws such as novelty and non-obviousness. TK was considered to be in the public domain free for anyone to use. However, there is a growing body of scholarship which argues that innovation and knowledge production does take place within traditional settings and that legal protection is required to conserve this valuable body of knowledge. While such arguments have mainly used approaches based on distributive justice and equity, this paper takes an economic analysis of law approach to propose a new justification for the protection of TK. In the year 2000 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) established the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) in response to calls from member countries for the creation of an international forum for deliberation on the topics. After more than a decade of negotiations, delegates in the IGC have managed to produce a draft instrument on the protection of TK. However, many aspects of the instrument remain controversial and have given rise to a divide between developed and developing countries. The meaning of protection, scope of rights and remedies are among the controversial provisions of the draft instrument. The protection of TK has also been discussed under the framework of the Convention on Biodiversity and the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous People, among others. This paper proposes an 'incentive to codify' justification distinguished from the currently dominant 'incentive to conserve' justification for the protection of TK. It posits that the incentive required in the case of TK is not for conservation of lifestyle as is claimed currently but for codification of the knowledge. Taking traditional medicinal knowledge as a case study, it argues that a carefully crafted legal protection for codified TK will encourage its systemic documentation and save this highly valuable body of knowledge from the alarming rate of loss it is face with. In addition to its inherent value, traditional medicinal knowledge has proved to be a valuable predictive tool in bioprospecting projects - the R&D efforts conducted on biological resources to discover new drugs. However, because of negative past experiences governments of countries in which indigenous and local communities reside have increasingly become restrictive with regard to access to TK. Thus, the codification and disclosure of such knowledge is of urgent importance. In order to support the claim for the 'incentive to codify' justification, TK is analyzed as a global public good with non-rivalrous and non-excludable features and subject to market failure. Analogy is also made to patent laws and the implication of such legal intervention on the codification of modern knowledge.


We present a model-based monitoring method for dynamic systems that exhibit both discrete and continuous behaviors. MIMIC (Dvorak & Kuipers 1991) uses qualitative and semi-quantitative models to monitor dynamic systems even with incomplete knowledge. Recent advances have improved the quality of semi-quantitative behavior predictions, used observations to refine static envelopes around monotonic functions, and provided a semi-quantitative system identification method. Using these, we reformulate and extend MIMIC to handle discontinuous changes between models. Each hypothesis being monitored is embodied as a tracker, which uses the observation stream to refine its behavioral predictions, its underlying model, and the time uncertainty of any discontinuous transitions.


A novel aromatic-doped polycaprolactone (Aro-PCL) material was synthesized through a facile PCL aminolysis-condensation polymerization incorporating the aromatic moiety to PCL chain and assessed by focusing on the dynamic aggregation and crystalline microdomains associated with the in vitro degradation properties, mechanical performance and biocompatibility. Characterizations by FTIR, NMR, UV-vis, DSC, WAXD, SAXS, POM, etc. illustrated that the incorporated aromatic and amine segments facilitated the formation of many low-oriented crystalline domains along the aliphatic chains. The results indicated that the evolution of mechanical performance is significantly associated with the chemical structure and the crystallization behavior of polymers. The Aro-PCL films possessed fast degradation rate, excellent biocompatibility and improved mechanical performance including augmented elongation at break, elastic modulus and radial strength. In particular, the Aro-PCL polymer films showed decrease in molecular weight at the beginning of hydrolytic degradation while maintaining mechanical support and stable mass. The Aro-PCL polymer has promising applications as a degradable biomaterial.


The dramatic transition to air breathing at birth represents a true challenge for the newborn infant mammal, a period in which neonatal respiratory diseases are common. Since the 1930s, fetal and newborn lambs have been the model of choice for whole-animal studies on neonatal respiration. The present review aims to illustrate the relevance of ovine models in studying the establishment of successful breathing at birth and its maintenance in the early postnatal period, as well as a number of abnormal conditions that can interfere with these processes.


One of the central tasks in managing, monitoring and mining data streams is that of identifying outliers. There is a long history of study of various outliers in statistics and databases, and a recent focus on mining outliers in data streams. Here, we adopt the notion of "deviants" from Jagadish et al. (1999) as outliers. Deviants are based on one of the most fundamental statistical concept of standard deviation (or variance). Formally, deviants are defined based on a representation sparsity metric, i.e., deviants are values whose removal from the dataset leads to an improved compressed representation of the remaining items. Thus, deviants are not global maxima/minima, but rather these are appropriate local aberrations. Deviants are known to be of great mining value in time series databases. We present first-known algorithms for identifying deviants on massive data streams. Our algorithms monitor streams using very small space (polylogarithmic in data size) and are able to quickly find deviants at any instant, as the data stream evolves over time. For all versions of this problem - uni- vs multivariate time series, optimal vs near-optimal vs heuristic solutions, offline vs streaming - our algorithms have the same framework of maintaining a hierarchical set of candidate deviants that are updated as the time series data gets progressively revealed. We show experimentally using real network traffic data (SNMP aggregate time series) as well as synthetic data that our algorithm is remarkably accurate in determining the deviants.


OBJECT
The authors evaluated an alternative method to avoid postoperative posterior tethering of the spinal cord following resection of spinal ependymomas.

METHODS
Twenty-five patients with spinal ependymoma underwent surgery between 1978 and 2002. There were 16 male and nine female patients whose ages at the time of surgery ranged from 14 to 64 years (mean 41.8 years). The follow-up period ranged from 6 to 279 months (mean 112.4 months). In the initial 17 patients (Group A), the procedure to prevent arachnoidal adhesion consisted of the layer-to-layer closure of three meninges and laminoplasty. In the subsequently treated eight patients (Group B), the authors performed an alternative technique that included pial suturing, dural closure with Gore-Tex membrane-assisted patch grafting, and expansive laminoplasty. In Group A, postoperative adhesion was radiologically detected in eight cases (47%), and delayed neurological deterioration secondary to posterior tethering of the cord was found in five cases. In Group B, there was no evidence of adhesive posterior tethering or delayed neurological deterioration. A significant intergroup statistical difference was demonstrated for radiologically documented posterior tethering (p < 0.05, Fisher exact test). Moreover, patients with radiologically demonstrated posterior tethering suffered a significant delayed neurological functional deterioration (p < 0.01, Fisher exact test).

CONCLUSIONS
This new technique for closure of the surgical wound is effective in preventing of postoperative posterior spinal cord tethering after excision of spinal ependymoma.


The DARWIN observatory is a proposed next-generation experiment to search for particle dark matter and other rare interactions. It will operate a 50 t liquid xenon detector, with 40 t in the time projection chamber (TPC). To inform the final detector design and technical choices, a series of technological questions must first be addressed. Here we describe a full-scale demonstrator in the vertical dimension, Xenoscope, with the main goal of achieving electron drift over a 2.6 m distance, which is the scale of the DARWIN TPC. We have designed and constructed the facility infrastructure, including the cryostat, cryogenic and purification systems, the xenon storage and recuperation system, as well as the slow control system. We have also designed a xenon purity monitor and the TPC, with the fabrication of the former nearly complete. In a first commissioning run of the facility without an inner detector, we demonstrated the nominal operational reach of Xenoscope and benchmarked the components of the cryogenic and slow control systems, demonstrating reliable and continuous operation of all subsystems over 40 days. The infrastructure is thus ready for the integration of the purity monitor, followed by the TPC. Further applications of the facility include R&D on the high voltage feedthrough for DARWIN, measurements of electron cloud diffusion, as well as measurements of optical properties of liquid xenon. In the future, Xenoscope will be available as a test platform for the DARWIN collaboration to characterise new detector technologies.


When they want to see how complex systems work, scientists often turn to asynchronous-time simulation models, which allow processes to change sporadically over time, typically at irregular intervals. While rarely used in finance today, such models may turn out to be valuable tools for understanding how markets respond to changes in the participation rates of different types of investors, for example, or to changes in regulatory or investment policies. The asynchronous, discrete-event, stock market simulator described here allows users to create a model of the market, using their own inputs. Users can vary the numbers of investors, traders, portfolio analysts, and securities, as well as their own investing and trading decision rules. Such a simulation may be able to provide a more realistic picture of complex markets.


Aims When human milk is not available for preterm infants, protein hydrolysate formulas are increasingly used because they are perceived as being tolerated better, and less likely to lead to complications, than standard cow's milk formulas. Protein hydrolysate formulas, however, are more expensive than standard formulas, and concern exists that their use in practice is not supported by high-quality evidence. We aimed to assess the trial evidence for the effect of feeding protein hydrolysate versus standard formulas on the risk of feed intolerance, necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), and other morbidity in preterm infants. Methods Cochrane systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). We used the standard search strategy of the Cochrane Neonatal Review Group. Two review authors assessed trial eligibility and risk of bias and extracted data independently. We analysed treatment effects as described in the individual trials and reported risk ratios (RR) and risk differences (RD) for dichotomous data, and mean differences (MDs) for continuous data, with respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We used a fixed-effect model in meta-analyses and explored potential causes of heterogeneity by performing sensitivity analyses. We assessed quality of evidence at the outcome level using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Results We identified nine trials. All were small (total participants 552) and had various methodological limitations including uncertainty about allocation concealment and blinding. Overall, the trials did not show any statistically significant effects on feed intolerance assessed variously as average pre-feed gastric residual volume, incidence of concerning gastro-intestinal signs, or time taken to achieve full enteral feeds (moderate or low quality evidence). Meta-analysis did not show a significant effect on the risk of NEC: typical RR 1.10 [95% CI 0.36 to 3.34]; RD 0.00 [95% CI 0.04, 0.04] (moderate quality evidence). Conclusions Currently available data from RCTs indicate that feeding preterm infants with protein hydrolysate versus standard formula does not affect the risk of feed intolerance or NEC. Further pragmatic RCTs could provide more precise estimates of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.


Xipamide, hydrochlorothiazide, andfurosemide were given to normal volunteers on a double‐blind basis. During maximal water diuresis, there was a reduction in free water clearance and an increase in osmolar clearance after administration of xipamide and hydrochlorothiazide, but not in the case of furosemide. During maximal hydropenia, both xipamide and hydrochlorothiazide increased free water reabsorption in a linear relationship to osmolar clearance, while furosemide increased osmolar clearance with little change in free water reabsorption. It was concluded, therefore, that, as with hydrochlorothiazide, the site of action of xipamide was on the distal convoluted tubule, and that of furosemide on the loop of Henle.


This paper reports a micro direct methanol fuel cell (¿DMFC) integrated with a heater and a temperature sensor to realize temperature control. A thermal model for the ¿DMFC is set up based on heat transfer and emission mechanisms. The ¿DMFC with a temperature control system is fabricated by using MEMS technologies, assembled with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) materials and Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) holders, and characterized in two methods, one with different currents applied and another with different methanol velocities. This work would make it possible for a ¿DMFC to enhance the performance by adjusting to an optimal temperature and employ in extreme environments, such as server winter, polar region, outer space, desert and deep sea area.


We have developed a robust and reliable method for determining borehole shape from six-arm caliper logs. Four- and six-arm calipers are the common caliper tools used in open-hole logging. They provide information about wellbore geometry that is important in petrophysical and geomechanical analyses. The analysis procedure for four-arm caliper logs is well-established, but the analysis for six-arm caliper logs can be troublesome in complex hole environments containing breakouts or keyseats when the tool is off center. The challenge with the six-arm caliper is how to remove the effect of tool decentralization, which cannot be handled properly by using conventional correction methods, which are developed based on the assumption of circular or elliptical boreholes. To resolve this issue, we have developed a new approach for tool decentralization correction. The new method is based on an assumption that the true borehole center should be the center of a circle that fits the caliper pad positions in the least-squares sense subjected to the restriction that the circle is confined within the six pads. We first compare the new method with the conventional chord method and ellipse-fitting method through numerical modeling. We numerically investigate the general performance of these three methods by using a Monte Carlo approach to generate a large number of simulations that mimic caliper logging run in boreholes with a variety of different wellbore geometry. We then study the applicability of the new method in field data analysis by applying it to a field logging data set acquired in a well that contains the breakout and the keyseat. The modeling and field-data results indicate that the new method can yield more reliable estimates of the virgin borehole center than the other two methods and thus can give clearer delineation of the borehole shape.


This paper studies intraday returns and variations in trading activity in the interest rate futures traded on London International Financial Futures Exchange. The intraday volume exhibits a significant asymmetric response of volume to price changes. This relationship is dynamic as the direction of asymmetry is reversed through out the trading day. Equity markets are known to exhibit an asymmetric effect, although the effect is static. The asymmetric volume-price relationship in equity market is primarily attributed to the short sale constraint, which imparts a positive correlation between volume and signed price changes. The empirical evidence on futures markets suggests that daily volume and price changes are uncorrelated. Since the short sale constraint is absent in futures, an asymmetric volume-return relation in futures has been ruled out. This paper presents evidence on a dynamic asymmetric relation in interest rate futures. The paper also provides an alternative explanation of the dynamic asymmetric relation that arises out of the joint action of scalpers, day traders, and position traders as they formulate their trading strategies.


Abstracts: 10th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium; September 8-9, 2014; Seattle, WA

Although prevention and early detection are the ultimate goals for ovarian cancer, the fact cannot be ignored that in 2014 21,980 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. 75% of these women will be confronted with a high stage tumor and a five-year survival rate of 45.5% (American Cancer Society, Atlanta). For these patients, improved treatment for residual disease following surgery, reduced complications during therapy as well as a decreased risk of cancer recurrence, would reduce mortality and improve their quality of life significantly. After surgery and first-line chemotherapy, 50% to 75% of responders will relapse within approximately 18 months and require further systemic therapy. Approximately 50% of women die due to carcinomatosis.

Exfoliated ovarian tumor cells are carried via peritoneal fluid to secondary sites in the abdominal cavity, where they attach, invade the submesothelial connective tissue and proliferate to create peritoneal micrometastasis. These cancer cells in effusions are not amenable to surgical removal, failure of their eradication is one of the main causes for unsuccessful treatment and recurrence.

The strategy of localized intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy targets these cells in particular and is therefore highly effective in preventing recurrence. According to the Cochrane database, IP chemotherapy successfully increased overall survival and progression free-survival, resulting in a 21.6% decrease in the risk of death. Therefore, the U.S. National Cancer Institute recommended consideration of IP chemotherapy for patients with advanced stage III ovarian cancer after optimal surgical debulking.

Integrins are heterodimeric receptors that evolved to mediate complex cell-ECM interactions. These interactions regulate the ability of cells to mechanically sense their environment by integrating multiple signaling pathways initiated by extracellular cues with the cell's cytoskeleton. Integrins (including αvβ3, αvβ5, α5β1 and αvβ6) have important roles in OC cell attachment, survival, migration, invasion and angiogenesis. However, the precise roles played by different integrin subunits in various aspects of tumor progression and why some integrins appear to be especially supportive of tumor progression are still not fully understood. Due to their pivotal roles in OC biology, integrins represent an attractive target for a novel form of OC therapy.

Disintegrins are among the most potent soluble ligands of integrins representing a class of cysteine-rich polypeptides originally isolated from snake venom, many of which contain a cyclic-Arg-Gly-Asp (c-RGD) motif. These polypeptides hold a significant translational potential as anti-cancer therapeutic agents based on their high affinity interaction with integrins as well as their excellent pharmacological properties. However, these polypeptides are extremely difficult to produce recombinantly. Previously the Markland group reported that a sequence-engineered RGD-disintegrin (called vicrostatin or VCN) can be reliably produced in large quantity. Through multiple integrin ligation (i.e., αvβ3, αvβ5 and α5β1), VCN targets both endothelial and OC cells. The use of small RGD peptides or multimeric cyclic RGD peptides for targeting of integrins for both therapy and imaging of tumors has been widely reported but there is a distinct advantage to the use of disintegrins such as VCN. VCN not only acts as an antagonist (in a manner identical to RGD peptides), VCN also elicits signaling responses through direct interaction with integrins.

Importantly, integrin αvβ3 is expressed at very low level on epithelial cells and mature endothelial cells, but is overexpressed on the endothelial cells of the tumor neovasculature and on tumor cells. Therefore, this integrin presents an attractive and tumor specific therapeutic target for rapidly growing solid tumors. In the present studies we delivered VCN formulated in a novel carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) polyethyleneoxide (PEO) gel (Oxiplex™) through IP delivery.

In studies described here we show that IP VCN delivery via Oxiplex™, following implantation of SKOV-3 sphereoids and confirmation of tumor growth by bioluminescent imaging, significantly reduced tumor growth and dissemination. In addition we have evaluated the dose of VCN delivered and the timing of the administrations and shown that a clinically relevant dosing schedule can be achieved.

Citation Format: S. Swenson, R. Minea, J. Moore, M. Mikhail, Z. Kirakosyan & Francis S. Markland Jr. Intraperitoneal delivery of the disintegrin vicrostatin (VCN) effectively limits ovarian cancer growth and progression [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 10th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium; Sep 8-9, 2014; Seattle, WA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2015;21(16 Suppl):Abstract nr POSTER-THER-1432.


The aim of the paper is to give a suggestion to the structural engineers to model masonry  infilled reinforced concrete frames. We made several experiments, and developed some  numerical models. Our previous papers [12–15] we showed three different FEM numerical models (equivalent diagonal strut model, orthotropic surface model and "suggested sophisticated model"), and we made a comparison study between the numerical results and the experimental tests in case of monotonic increasing lateral loads. The experiments were continued with cyclic lateral loads. Using the earlier proposed bi-linear σ - e curve of the masonry infill and the dierent Young's moduli to model unloading, which are based on EC6, shows good correlation with the test results, but unfortunately these are not enough precise to calculate the size of the areas under the load-displacement curves, so we obtained wrong  damage parameters. We suggest a new trilinear σ - e curve. Using this proposed trilinear σ - e curve of the masonry infill, which is based on EC6, using the "Suggested sophisticated model" with the equivalent struts of the mortar layer shows good correlation with the  experimental test results. Both of the calculated dissipated energies can be calculated in good approximation also before and after the yield point of the infill masonry, thus are already  usable to calculate the damage parameter D, which were determined by energy concept. With the help of the damage parameter D, a comprehensive damage-equivalent curve f (D) is  suggested to calculate the cyclic degradation of the two-storey, one-bay, masonry infilled RC frames.


This paper proposes a new interleaved current-fed resonant converter with significantly reduced high current output filter which is suitable for EV and HEV applications. The proposed interleaved converter has theoretically zero output filter capacitance, low input current ripple, ZCS turn on and off for all switches and diodes and zero di/dt at turn off of diodes when operated at load independent points. A two-stage power conversion technique is applied for wide input and output voltage range operation of EV and HEV. A 2kW prototype of the proposed converter has been built and tested to verify the validity of the proposed operation.


The tactile function of the human periodontal mechanoreceptors has mostly been studied by psychophysical approaches. It was concluded that periodontal mechanoreceptors play a major role in the tactile function of teeth. It must be noted however that the interocclusal tactile threshold is not solely determined by periodontal mechanoreceptors but also by pulpal, muscular or articular receptors. While temporomandibular joint receptors play a minor role, muscular receptors are important in the discriminatory ability for a mouth opening of 5 mm and more. To discriminate between the contribution of periodontal and other receptors in the oral tactile function, future studies should use appropriate psychophysical methodologies and well-defined stimulus parameters.


Modeling of gravity data along the ~1.1 Ga failed Mid‐Continent Rift System shows systematic patterns in magma volume between and along the rift's two arms. The volume of magma increases towards the Lake Superior region, consistent with magma flowing away from a hotspot source there. The west arm experienced significantly more magmatism. These patterns are consistent with a model in which the two rift arms acted as boundaries of a microplate. The volume of magma along the west arm increases with distance from the Euler pole, indicating that it acted essentially as a spreading ridge, whereas the much smaller magma volumes along the east arm are consistent with its acting as a leaky transform. This view of the rift system's evolution is compatible with the rift being part of an evolving plate boundary system rather than an isolated episode of midplate volcanism.


Based on long-term corrosion tests of 17GS steel samples of the pipeline installed in various soils of the taiga-marsh region in the central part of Western Siberia, it is shown that in the absence of cathode protection, the corrosion rate ranges from 0.11 to 0.06 mm per year, i.e. 0.085 mm per year averagely. The residual corrosion rate of samples under the cathode protection ranges from 0.01 to 0.004 mm per year or the 0.007 mm per year averagely, when the air limiting current density exceeds the oxygen limiting current density by a factor of 3-7. A further increase in the current of cathode protection leads to the intensive hydrogen release. The actual measured values of the cathode protection current density at its potentials (with the resistive component) from –1.79 V to 3.5 V exceed the oxygen limiting current density by 30–50 or more times. It is experimentally shown that at a cathode current density  exceeding the density of oxygen limiting current by 54.43 times, the acceleration of hydrogen pressure reaches 0.007 MPa per day in a closed cavity at a 20 mm vacuum pressure. It is shown that the acceleration of hydrogen pressure in micro- and macro-cavities of the near-surface layer of the pipeline is not determinant. The advantageous embrittlement of cathode hydrogen is the reduction of cohesive strength of the near-surface layer of the pipe wall.


Purpose: To identify causes of nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate in a Vietnamese population.Methods: In this study, 175 families with at least one case of cleft lip and/or palate were studied using the candidate genes TGFA, MSX1, and TGFB3.Results: Transmission distortion for alleles of MSX1 were demonstrated for the whole population and two missense mutations were identified, including one (P147Q) that is found in approximately 2% of the population. The P147Q appears to arise from a founder individual based on shared haplotypes in unrelated families.Conclusions: MSX1 contributes to nonsyndromic clefting in a Vietnamese population, and consistent with other studies, identifiable mutations in this gene cause about 2% of cases of nonsyndromic clefting.


Style—or the aesthetic dimensions of public presentation—is a dominant mode of symbolic expression. However, no one has explored how style functions as a coherent and generalizable symbol system influencing public conversations about athletic recruitment. The purpose of this essay is to fill this gap by developing a critical framework for theorizing the rhetoric of style in athletic recruitment discourse and significantly, how this is done through social media. We analyze sports journalism, recruiting websites, and the public messaging of athletic departments and athletes on social media according to five structural components: stylistic homologies, aesthetic rationales, primacy of text, imaginary communities, and market contexts. Our analysis offers practical lessons for athletes, journalists, and college athletic departments, but we also highlight several conceptual, methodological, and theoretical implications for scholars of communication and sport and social media interested in better understanding social influence in a dynamic and hyper-competitive context.


At the present, the ventilated façade is one of the most widely used and most innovative systems characterized by different energy saving features, but due to its complexity, the real performances are difficult to predict by numerical analysis. This work shows the results of the monitoring campaign conducted on two Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) test boxes equipped with different thermal coat technologies to realize the performances comparisons. In particular, the investigation focus on the evaluation of surface temperatures of the different wall layers and the indoor air temperature for: i) a micro ventilated façade and ii) two different ETICS solutions. The monitoring campaign has been conducted during the summer season on walls with equivalent thermal transmittance (U-value) and different thermal capacity. In detail, the experimental work has been performed to estimate the Isotec® wall micro ventilated façade performance in comparison with two traditional ETICS technology: the first one realized with EPS and the second one with high density rock wool insulation. The results show that due to the shading effect provided by the external layer, the temperature within the cavity of the ventilate façade is reduced by 8–10 °C, reducing the cooling loads through the wall by 30–40% with respect to ETICS with EPS. The shading and the ventilation effects balance the presence of thermal insulation with less heat capacity; consequently, it validates the good quality of Isotec® as wall technology with performances comparable to ETICS solution with high density rock wool insulation.


The first part of this chapter presents general considerations on soil invertebrates, such as their representativeness in the animal kingdom and the ways they are classified into groups, in addition to some morpho/physiological characteristics and habit requirements. The following section briefly describes the importance of the services provided by soil fauna in terrestrial ecosystems, highlighting the use of invertebrates in soil ecotoxicological assays, which are performed to assess the risk of potentially polluting substances for the terrestrial environment. This part also lists the species of soil invertebrates currently used in standard laboratorial ecotoxicological assays and the improvements that have been made in these type of assays, including the selection of new standard test species. Finally, several examples of the use of alternative species in the soil ecotoxicology testing are presented, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of their use. The main taxonomic groups considered in this discussion are Earthworms, Collembolans, Enchytraeids, Isopods and a few others with recognized potential for ecotoxicological assays.


The number of complex infrastructures in an industrial setting is growing and is not immune to unexplained recurring events such as breakdowns or failure that can have an economic and environmental impact. To understand these phenomena, sensors have been placed on the different infrastructures to track, monitor, and control the dynamics of the systems. The causal study of these data allows predictive and prescriptive maintenance to be carried out. It helps to understand the appearance of a problem and find counterfactual outcomes to better operate and defuse the event. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach combining the case-crossover design which is used to investigate acute triggers of diseases in epidemiology, and the Apriori algorithm which is a data mining technique allowing to find relevant rules in a dataset. The resulting time series causal algorithm extracts interesting rules in our application case which is a non-linear time series dataset. In addition, a predictive rule-based algorithm demonstrates the potential of the proposed method.


Objective: To report a case of somnambulism (sleepwalking) potentially precipitated by selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in an HIV-positive woman. Case Summary: A 34-year-old HIV-positive white woman without a prior history of somnambulism began sleepwalking following treatment for depression with two different SSRIs. The sleepwalking episodes disappeared completely with a reduction of the dosages of the SSRIs and began again when the dosages were increased. Discussion: Somnambulism has been associated with psychoactive drugs that affect the physiology of sleep, awareness, arousal, and memory. A biologic plausibility is supported by the fact that SSRIs alter electroencephalogram and sleep patterns and may be prone to precipitating somnambulism in susceptible individuals. Because people who sleepwalk may not be aware of their actions during such episodes, there is a potential for injury if this adverse effect were to occur. Conclusions: Given the widespread use of SSRIs, clinicians should be aware of the possibility that somnambulism may occur with this class of drugs.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia that arises on a neuropathological background of amyloid plaques containing β-amyloid (Aβ) derived from amyloid precursor protein (APP) and τ-rich neurofibrillary tangles. To date, the cause and progression of both familial and sporadic AD have not been fully elucidated. The autosomal-dominant inherited forms of early-onset Alzheimer's disease are caused by mutations in the genes encoding APP, presenilin-1 (chromosome 14), and presenilin-2 (chromosome 1). APP is processed by several different proteases such as secretases and/or caspases to yield Aβ and carboxyl-terminal fragments, which have been implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are associated with the cerebral accumulation of Aβ and α-synuclein, respectively. Some patients have clinical and pathological features of both diseases, raising the possibility of overlapping pathogenic pathways. Recent studies have strongly suggested the possible pathogenic interactions between Aβ, presenilins, and/or α-synuclein. Therefore, treatments that block the accumulation of Aβ and α-synuclein might benefit a broad spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders. This review covers the trafficking and processing of APP, amyloid cascade hypothesis in AD pathogenesis, physiological and pathological roles of presenilins, molecular characteristics of α-synuclein, their interactions, and therapeutic strategies for AD.


The dynamic and interactive character of computer simulations is often thought to be advantageous in vocational education. In the present study, video-recorded data from a course in anaesthesia care are analysed in order to explore the conditions for students to understand and act in simulation-based case scenarios. The results show that the students orient themselves to the simulation in three different ways, thereby constituting three different learning foci. Sometimes, when students use resources from their education, the properties of pharmacological preparations are in focus. On other occasions routines at work organise their approach, whilst at other times, they focus on the specific characteristics of the simulation's user interface. In the discussion of the constitution of this hybrid activity, two aspects are presented as especially relevant: first, the students' previous experiences from their education and of nurses' work and, secondly, how the teacher guides the students' orientations toward different resources. Finally, we argue that the simulation could function as a unique learning environment since it provides opportunities for linking experiences from work with more theoretical forms of reasoning in distinctive ways.


The influence of symmetry breaking in a planar metamaterial on transparency effect is numerically investigated. The planar metamaterial's cell is formed by three parallel metal wires. From numerical simulation results, we can see that the transparency effect results from the asymmetric coupling between the cut wires. The excited mechanism of the transparency effect is further analyzed by using the hybridization concept. It is found that the coupling fields between the cut wires play key roles and lead to the spectral splitting of the resonance, i.e., the classical electromagnetically induced transparency effect. The metamaterial sensor based on the refractive index variation of the surrounding material is also numerically demonstrated and yields a sensitivity of 9.47 mm/RIU and a figure of merit of 13.5. In addition, the spectral response of the metamaterial is quantitatively described via the "three-particle" model. The analytically calculated results of the model show a good agreement with the simulation results.


This case study at a large daily newspaper used non‐participant observation and focused interviews to describe the work routines of editors. Unlike earlier newsroom sociologies, this study did not find that editors used budget meetings to construct an organizational definition of newsworthiness or to advance their position in the hierarchy. Instead, they used imaginary interlocutors, critiques from more experienced editors, and conversations in and outside of budget meetings to construct substitutes for several possible audiences. Typifications used by the editors predicted how readers from these different audiences would react to story selections. Earlier studies likely failed to describe these routines because they focused on the behavior of reporters or because of long‐term changes in news institutions.


Does immigration generate jobs in an MSA, or do employment opportunities entice immigrant inflows to an MSA? Is immigration responsible for higher unemployment, or do foreign-born inflows cause increases in self-employment that lead to improvement in labor market conditions? The causal relationship between immigrants, job growth and unemployment is a politically and economically salient subject, but has been statistically untested in the economic literature. Using annual data of 500 MSAs, we use panel Granger causality tests to assess the temporal ordering of immigration and labor market conditions in an MSA. Results demonstrate one-way Granger causality from immigration to rising job growth and lower unemployment. Causality tests further reveal that foreign-born inflows cause higher self-employment rates, which in turn contribute to job creation. Results reject the booming city hypothesis that immigration and labor market outcomes are spuriously correlated due to improving labor market conditions attracting immigration to an MSA.


In this paper, we propose a novel method for video anomaly detection motivated by an existing architecture for sequence-to-sequence prediction and reconstruction using a spatio-temporal convolutional Long Short-Term Memory (convLSTM). As in previous work on anomaly detection, anomalies arise as spatially localised failures in reconstruction or prediction. In experiments with five benchmark datasets, we show that using prediction gives superior performance to using reconstruction. We also compare performance with different length input/output sequences. Overall, our results using prediction are comparable with the state of the art on the benchmark datasets.


The temple The Divine Savior of the Methodist Church of Mexico (1901), was the regional center of that religious association, from where the missionaries and the new citizens required by the liberal republic left. Sui generis from its origin, this Church composed of descendants of English and Mexicans, built a unique temple of two levels: two similar sanctuaries for simultaneous use of their congregants. Pachuca was a bastion of the Mexican liberal movement in the nineteenth century, supported by the Methodist congregation of El Divino Salvador and its schools, whose location is significant, by sharing the most notable public space in the city with the main Roman Catholic temple. From this congregation and its schools have emerged new temples and countless characters, prominent builders of the new society of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.


The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of Southeast Asian client- therapist ethnicity and language match on three therapy outcomes: number of ses sions with primary therapist, dropout from therapy and admission-discharge difference in Global Assessment Scale (GAS) scores. The sample consisted of 543 Southeast Asian client episodes in Los Angeles County mental health facilities between January 1983 and August 1988. Various types of multiple regression analyses were used to investigate the relationship of language and ethnicity match to the three outcome variables and to eight sociodemographic variables. Either therapist-client language or ethnicity match significantly increased the number of client sessions with the primary therapist. Dropout from therapy was significantly affected by a language match in the Cambodian sample only but the effect was to increase dropout. Neither ethnicity nor language match was significantly related to GAS score gain. Several possible explanations for these findings and their clinical significance were explored.


This research has developed a viable drogue parachute release system sufficient for recovering level 3 amateur rockets. The system is based on the simple mechanics of combining two lever arms and a 2 to 1 pulley interaction to create a 200:1 force reduction between the weight applied to the system and the force required to release it. A linear actuator retracts a release cord, triggering the three rings that hold the system together to unfurl from one another and separate the drogue parachute from the payload. Three variations of the concept were prototyped and tested primarily for the required pull force to actuate. The results demonstrated that for any set the force should never exceed 4 lbf. Parachute testing was also completed to prove that most of the energy change during the drogue parachute deployment is absorbed by the actual parachute and not the release system's hardware. This system will be integrated into the Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS) rocket, scheduled to launch in July 2019.


This study examines publication patterns in Landscape Journal, a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1981 by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. The study provides the first longitudinal overview of Landscape Journal, contributing to a broader discussion of Landscape Journal's role in advancing the scholarship of landscape architecture. A total of 312 articles published during the first 25 years of the journal were analyzed for authorship and article content, using content analysis and other methods. In general, publishing patterns observed for the first 25 years of Landscape Journal are characterized by shifting emphases of subject matter and gender balance of authors, a range of alternative scholarly topics as well as research methods, relatively strong record of collaborative work, and appeal to a broad audience.


Traditionally considered the preserve of environmental law, for the lawyer and the legal academic, sustainability does not immediately come to mind in considering the subjects of the core curriculum. Yet in light of the contemporary imperative to deal with serious ecological decline and its social and economic implications, a law degree that fails to engage with issues of sustainability will not equip students to grapple with these issues. Instead, graduates will emerge with a discipline knowledge rooted in the modes of thought of the past. This paper presents a way of understanding sustainability as a broader context for the study of law. Using the example of land law, it mounts an argument for adopting a sustainability education approach to curriculum design in law. Finally, it offers a case study of how land law might be taught within the broader context of sustainability.


BACKGROUND
Hyperinsulinemia has been considered to be a potent cardiovascular risk factor. The present investigation examines persistently elevated fasting insulin levels from childhood to young adulthood and its influence on cardiovascular risk factors.

METHODS AND RESULTS
A longitudinal cohort was constructed from two cross-sectional surveys in a community-based population over an 8-year period: 1606 individuals (39% were black) aged 5 to 23 years participated in the first survey. Stability in rankings (persistence) of insulin levels was shown by the presence of significant correlations between year 1 and year 8 values (r=.23 to .36, P<.0001), with a greater magnitude in older subjects. Compared with subjects with levels of insulin consistently in the lowest quartile, those with levels always in the highest quartile showed higher (P<.001) levels of body mass index (+9 kg/m2), triglycerides (+58 mg/dL), LDL cholesterol (+11 mg/dL), VLDL cholesterol (+8 mg/dL), glucose (+9 mg/dL), systolic blood pressure (+7 mm Hg), and diastolic blood pressure (+3 mm Hg); lower (P<.001) levels of HDL cholesterol (-4 mg/dL): and higher (P<.05) prevalence of parental history of diabetes (3.3-fold) and hypertension (1.2-fold). There were 739 young adults aged 20 to 31 years at follow-up. As adults, individuals with consistently elevated insulin versus those with consistently decreased insulin had increased (P<.05) prevalence of obesity (36-fold), hypertension (2.5-fold), and dyslipidemia (3-fold), which was attributed to both baseline insulin and change of insulin from baseline to follow-up. In addition, clustering of these risk factors was stronger (P<.05) in adults with persistent insulin elevation.

CONCLUSIONS
Elevated insulin levels persist from childhood through young adulthood, resulting in a clinically relevant adverse cardiovascular risk profile in young adults.


The crisis of nation is caused by the crisis of inner self and moral degradations, that politic which must be oriented to safety people, but show emphasizing to individual or group orientation finally the politic, which must have service character precisely dominated and patronage character. So, it is significant to develop cognition, affection, and psicomotoric componens on a simultant scale through education. However education has antisipatoris and preparatoris characters. The identification of democaration values and provide a model through civic education will be concrete the fundamental function of education in effort to create the humanis people and shaped unresistant education to reality. So, education can cange political culture.


The interactions of laser radiation with animal tissue have become a vast field of study. The detailed chemical behavior of the photons with the tissue, while scientifically a fascinating topic for investigation, is difficult to study experimentally. We have used synthetic polymers and small molecules in the condensed phase as models for the study of non-linear photochemistry of all organic systems. While such extrapolations should always be used with caution, they have been helpful in suggesting new strategies for tissue ablation which may be adaptable to experiments in vivo.


Between 2010 and 2013 the Rwanda Red Cross Society conducted a model village project in Nyamasheke district in Rwanda's Western Province. The project was technically supported by the Belgian Red Cross, and financed by the European Commission, with the Italian Red Cross as cofinancing partner. The project aimed to strengthen the capacity of 2,000 households in community health and environmental protection and to improve the living conditions of the population. Notably, 200 particularly vulnerable women heads of households received productive grants (livestock) to conduct income generating activities and were grouped in savings and loan groups to generate a modest income and savings. At the end of its duration, in January 2013, the project had reached this objective by improving the access of the population to safe drinking water, by improving the hygiene, by reducing the prevalence of transmissible diseases, by reducing the malnutrition and diarrhea among children, and by strengthening the resilience of the community with regard to landslides through the implementation of anti-erosion measures. However, the available data regarding the impact of the income generating activities on the 200 women headed households were insufficient. This research project had the objective to show to what extent the model village project indicators (income and savings increase) had been attained, what impact the income generating activities had on the living conditions of the beneficiaries, and to what degree the achievements are sustainable. In March 2013, the author conducted field research to collect quantitative and qualitative data through an administered survey, a focus group discussion, visits to households, and interviews with authorities and project staff. The collected data provide detailed information regarding positive changes that occurred between the start of the implementation of the project in 2010 and January 2013. The results of the study are significant with regard to the achieved change in the living conditions of the 200 women. The income generating activities implemented by the project had a positive impact on the increase of the income of the target group, as well as on their savings practice. The project effectively improved their access to health care and their physical, mental and social wellbeing, as well as the social cohesion among beneficiaries. Many respondents indicated positive changes regarding their human capital with regard to newly acquired skills, and the emergence of an entrepreneurial spirit among many beneficiaries can be observed. Finally, this study provides an analysis of the factors that threaten the sustainability of the project achievements and makes recommendations for future IGA interventions.


Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), commonly known as 'gram' is one of the major pulse crops of India covering 7.97 m ha area producing 7.06 m t of the grains and registering all time productivity of 885 kg/ha during 2008–09. This has become possible due to development and popularization of high yielding varieties insulated well against various biotic and abiotic stresses for various parts of the country. Some of these high yielding are GNG 158, Vijay, DCP 92-3, Rajas, Digvijay, KWR 108, H 82-2, RSG 888, JG 315, Vijay, JG 16, ICCV 10, JG 11, KGD 1168, GNG 469, Pusa 372, KPG 59, ICCV 2, Shubhra (IPCK 2002–29), BGD 128, Pusa Chamatkar (BG 1053), JGK 1 and Pusa kabuli 1003 which have stable resistance against wilt. Similarly PBG 5, GNG 469, PBG 1, Pusa 413, Pusa 408, Pusa 417 and Himachal chana 1 have resistance against ascochyta blight besides high yield potential. Little efforts have been made in vast variability present among germplasm accessions, which are available with several International and National Institutes. Inter-mating between accessions/elite lines of same origin or inter-varietal crosses led varieties development has resulted in narrow genetic base of existing cultivars. Little efforts have been made in exploitation of wild Cicer and exotic collections also. Concerted and systematic efforts are required to harness the potential of this vast variability. In view of the changing climatic and global scenario there is urgent need to reorient breeding programme so that desired level of genetic enhancement can be achieved. Genetic options for mitigating terminal soil moisture stress and high temperature, both at reproductive and vegetative stage, development of genotypes with high nutrient efficiency need care in breeding programmes. Besides, biotic and abiotic stresses now trade has become more important. Therefore development varieties possessing consumers' preferred traits like seed size in kabuli and milling quality in desi chickpea need special attention. With the advent of powerful non-conventional approaches for transferring genes from wild sources and even other genera, it has become possible to develop resistant cultivars for dreaded insect pest like gram pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera Hubner. Hence potential of biotechnological tools must be exploited. The potential of molecular marker technology in transferring of targeted traits with utmost efficiency or QTLs/targeted genes has been discussed along with efforts on mapping and tagging of genes conferring resistance/tolerance to major diseases and abiotic stresses. The present paper deals with the accomplishments' made and the research agenda for genetic enhancement of grain yield and production of chickpea in India in near future.


Two cases of MF have been reported, one in a middle aged male having MF with erythroderrna, poikiloderma and tumours, developing in a short period, and: second in a middle aged: female having 'd' emblee' form of the disease.


Measurements have been made of high-energy capture gamma -ray spectra following neutron capture by 93Nb for discrete resonances up to 1 keV and for unresolved regions up to 6 keV, with the aim of investigating the reaction mechanism. Spin assignments have been made for s-wave and p-wave resonances using the low-level population method, and also using primary transitions. A determination of the neutron binding energy has been made, and a level scheme of 94Nb has been constructed for states up to 1520 keV populated by primary transitions. A significant correlation has been found between (d,p) intensities and average partial radiation widths to the same final states, for resolved p-wave resonances below 1 keV and for average regions at higher energies (up to 6 keV). The distributions of partial radiation widths for M1 and E1 transitions in s-wave and p-wave resonances were consistent with the Porter-Thomas prediction.


Traffic flow forecasting, especially the short-term case, is an important topic in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). This paper does a lot of research on network-scale modeling and forecasting of short-term traffic flows. Firstly, we propose the concepts of single-link and multi-link models of traffic flow forecasting. Secondly, we construct four prediction models by combining the two models with single-task learning and multi-task learning. The combination of the multi-link model and multi-task learning not only improves the experimental efficiency but also the prediction accuracy. Moreover, a new multi-link single-task approach that combines graphical lasso (GL) with neural network (NN) is proposed. GL provides a general methodology for solving problems involving lots of variables. Using L1 regularization, GL builds a sparse graphical model making use of the sparse inverse covariance matrix. In addition, Gaussian process regression (GPR) is a classic regression algorithm in Bayesian machine learning. Although there is wide research on GPR, there are few applications of GPR in traffic flow forecasting. In this paper, we apply GPR to traffic flow forecasting and show its potential. Through sufficient experiments, we compare all of the proposed approaches and make an overall assessment at last.


Identifying the k most influential individuals in a social network is a well-studied problem. The objective is to detect k individuals in a (social) network who will influence the maximum number of people, if they are independently convinced of adopting a new strategy (product, idea, etc). There are cases in real life, however, where we aim to instigate groups instead of individuals to trigger network diffusion. Such cases abound, e.g., billboards, TV commercials and newspaper ads are utilized extensively to boost the popularity and raise awareness. In this paper, we generalize the "influential nodes" problem. Namely we are interested to locate the most "influential groups" in a network. As the first paper to address this problem: we (1) propose a fine-grained model of information diffusion for the group-based problem, (2) show that the process is submodular and present an algorithm to determine the influential groups under this model (with a precise approximation bound), (3) propose a coarse-grained model that inspects the network at group level (not individuals) significantly speeding up calculations for large networks, (4) show that the diffusion function we design here is submodular in general case, and propose an approximation algorithm for this coarse-grained model, and finally by conducting experiments on real datasets, (5) demonstrate that seeding members of selected groups to be the first adopters can broaden diffusion (when compared to the influential individuals case). Moreover, we can identify these influential groups much faster (up to 12 million times speedup), delivering a practical solution to this problem.


The proteoglycans (PGs) and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) of buffalo ovarian follicular fluid (FF) have been studied in small (2-4.9 mm), medium (5-9.9 mm) and large (> or = 10 mm) follicles. GAGs in different categories of follicles were isolated, assayed and analysed. On the basis of hexosamine analysis, glucosamine accounted for all the free GAGs in FF of small and medium follicles. No free GAG was found in large follicles. The concentration of GAGs in the form of PGs decreased significantly with follicular maturation. Qualitative analysis of GAGs from PGs showed higher galactosamine than glucosamine. The ratios of GalNH2:GluNH2 and neutral sugars were highest in small follicles followed by medium and large follicles. On the other hand, the percentage of sialic acid in GAGs was highest in large follicles followed by medium and small follicles. The fractionation of PGs by gel filtration indicated the presence of two types of PGs in buffalo ovarian FF. Difference in distribution of two types of PGs in small and large follicles was also noted.


The epidemic is still to peak and we need more research to manage it

One in every hundred men born in the 1940s will die of die of malignant pleural mesothelioma, which is almost exclusively a consequence of exposure to asbestos, with a lag time that is rarely less than 25 years and often more than 50 years from first exposure. Half of all cases are now aged over 70, with 80% in men. For a man first exposed as a teenager, who remained in a high risk occupation, such as insulation, throughout his working life, the lifetime risk of mesothelioma can be as high as one in five.w1 There are now over 1800 deaths per year in Britain (about one in 200 of all deaths in men and one in 1500 in women), and the number is still increasing.1 w2 As exposure in the United Kingdom continued until 1980 the peak of the epidemic is still to come, and we need a strategy to manage these patients.

Asbestos was a valuable and versatile material and imports rose after the second world war when it was widely used as an insulator, in the manufacture of filters, cements, friction products, and as a fire retardant. It found a place in shipbuilding and industry and was used extensively in building in the form of light workable boards.2 It was a convenient partitioning material that …


A path-integral method effective beyond the perturbation expansion approach is suggested to consider the quartic anharmonicity in different spatial dimensions. Due to an optimal representation of the partition function, the leading term has already taken into account the correct strong-coupling behaviour. In the simplest cases of zero and one dimension we have obtained reasonable results in a simple way. Then, this technique is applied to the superrenormalizable scalar theory phi^4_2 in two dimensions. This results in an accurate estimation of the ground-state energy that provides exact weak- and strong-coupling behaviour already in the leading-order approximation. The next-to-leading terms give rise in insignificant corrections.


CD74 is a type II transmembrane glycoprotein involved in the formation and transport of MHC class II protein. CD74 is highly expressed in many B-cell malignancies with limited expression in normal tissues (Stein R. et al., CCR 2007). STRO-001 is a novel CD74-targeting ADC containing an anti-CD74 aglycosylated human IgG1 antibody (SP7219) conjugated to a non-cleavable dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO)-maytansinoid linker-warhead. SP7219 was discovered from a Fab ribosome display library based on Sutro's Xpress CFTM technology. Highly efficient site-specific conjugation enabled by our cell-free antibody production and click chemistry results in a well-defined homogeneous ADC drug product with a drug-antibody ratio (DAR) of 2. Conjugation sites were selected based on highest stability both in vitro and in vivo, thereby limiting loss of drug moiety from STRO-001 in circulation. Due to its limited cell permeability, the major catabolite released by STRO-001 has 1000X lower cell killing activity on CD74 positive and negative cells compared to the reference cytotoxic maytansine. In vitro cytotoxicity assays show potent activity of STRO-001 in a diverse panel of B-cell tumor lines including 4 multiple myeloma (MM), 9 germinal center B-cell (GCB) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), 3 activated B-cell (ABC) DLBCL, and 3 mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) cell lines with IC50 ranging from 0.17-20 nM. CD74 cell surface expression is required for STRO-001 cytotoxic activity but expression level, as measured by antibody-binding capacity, does not correlate with in vitro potency (R2=0.4640). STRO-001 inhibits the formation of visceral tumors (p 90 days). STRO-001 exhibits dose-dependent tumor growth inhibition in SU-DHL-6 xenografts starting at 2.5 mg/kg weekly x 3 doses. The combination of bendamustine/rituximab (BR) + STRO-001 further improves tumor suppression in SU-DHL-6 xenografts compared to vehicle (p = 0.002) or BR alone (p = 0.02). Preliminary studies with a MCL xenograft model, Jeko-1, demonstrate potent anti-tumor activity compared to vehicle (p Citation Format: Cristina Abrahams, Xiaofan Li, Venita DeAlmeida, Millicent Embry, Abigail Yu, Stellanie Krim, Heidi Hoffmann, James Zawada, Maureen Bruhns, Shannon Matheny, Stuart Bussell, Toni Kline, Alice Yam, Ryan Stafford, Trevor Hallam, Mark Lupher, Arturo Molina. Characterization and preclinical development of STRO-001, a novel CD74-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for the treatment of B-cell malignancies [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 67. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-67


On the return of millions of service men from tropical duty to civilian life at the end of the war it is going to become necessary for every physician to have a working knowledge of malaria and other tropical diseases. This knowledge must include certain new aspects of the nature of malaria and its treatment that have been brought out during this war. The fact that large groups of men have been under military control while being treated for malaria has made it possible to study this disease in an unusual way, by means of routine blood examinations, hospitalization and a more thorough follow-up of patients than would be possible in civilian life. The material for a comparative study of two different theories of antimalarial tactics was furnished to me while I was doing duty as senior medical officer at an outlying military base, which for obvious reasons I cannot


Laser-induced lithotripsy has been used for a minimally-invasive surgery to treat kidney-stone disease associated with urinary obstruction. A short-pulsed Tm:YAG laser (λ = 2.01 µm) was developed to improve fragmentation efficiency and was evaluated with a Ho:YAG laser (λ = 2.12 μm) as to its ablation feature and mass removal rate. Application of a train of sub-microsecond pulses with a lower energy at a frequency of 500 Hz created multiple events of cavitation that accompanied strong acoustic transients. During Tm:YAG irradiation, both high light absorption and secondary photomechanical impacts readily fragmented the calculus into small pieces (< 3 mm) and removed them 130 times faster than photothermal Ho:YAG lithotripsy. The proposed short-pulsed Tm:YAG approach may be an effective lithotripter for treating calculus disease.


The conventional maximum a posteriori probability estimators for image reconstruction in emission tomography suffer from oversmoothing of boundaries. To overcome this drawback, the authors propose a fully 3-D Bayesian reconstruction algorithm based on the 3-D compound Gauss-Markov random field model. Furthermore, they apply this algorithm to cardiac SPECT data to demonstrate its validity.


Contextual bandit algorithms are widely used in domains where it is desirable to provide a personalized service by leveraging contextual information, that may contain sensitive information that needs to be protected. Inspired by this scenario, we study the contextual linear bandit problem with differential privacy (DP) constraints. While the literature has focused on either centralized (joint DP) or local (local DP) privacy, we consider the shuffle model of privacy and we show that is possible to achieve a privacy/utility trade-off between JDP and LDP. By leveraging shuffling from privacy and batching from bandits, we present an algorithm with regret bound $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(T^{2/3}/\varepsilon^{1/3})$, while guaranteeing both central (joint) and local privacy. Our result shows that it is possible to obtain a trade-off between JDP and LDP by leveraging the shuffle model while preserving local privacy.


Image processing methods are possibly able to visualize objects inside the human body. Efficient image processing methods are useful in medical diagnosis, treatment planning and medical research. Medical images are used for medical diagnosis. These images should be geometrically aligned for better observation. Registration is necessary technique to integrate data taken from different measurements. Image Registration is a process of overlaying two or more images that can taken at different times, using different devices, different viewpoints and from different angles in order to have 2D or 3D perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to present comparative approach to various image registration methods. This will be a useful document for researchers to implement alternative image registration methods for specific purpose.


The upgrades of the Tevatron collider and CDF detector have considerably increased the demand on computing resources, in particular for Monte Carlo production. This has forced the collaboration to move beyond the usage of dedicated resources and start exploiting the Grid. The CDF Analysis Farm (CAF) model has been reimplemented into LcgCAF in order to access Grid resources by using the LCG/EGEE middleware. Many sites in Italy and in Europe are accessed through this portal by CDF users mainly to produce Monte Carlo data but also for other analysis jobs. We review here the setup used to submit jobs to Grid sites and retrieve the output, including CDF-specific configuration of some Grid components. We also describe the batch and interactive monitor tools developed to allow users to verify the jobs status during their lifetime in the Grid environment. Finally we analyze the efficiency and typical failure modes of the current Grid infrastructure reporting the performances of different parts of the system used.


Iron deficiency anemia is considered as one of the major public health problem in Bangladesh. Cardiac autonomic nerve dysfunction may present in iron deficiency anemia which increases the risk and further complications of this disease. Assessment of heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive technique to evaluate cardiac autonomic nerve function status. To assess the cardiac autonomic nerve function status by heart rate variability analysis in female with iron deficiency anemia. This cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka from July 2012 to June 2013. For this, 100 female subjects with iron deficiency anemia aged 20-45 years were included in the study group (Group B). The anemic subjects were selected from Outpatient Department of Haematology in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka. They were included in the study group on the basis of their pre-performed hemoglobin percentage, total count of RBC and serum ferritin level. Data were collected in pre-designed structured questionnaire by the researcher herself. For comparison, age and sex matched 100 apparently healthy female were selected as control (Group A) by personal contact from the different areas of Dhaka city. Analysis of HRV parameters were done in Department of Physiology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka. The HRV parameters were recorded by a 4 active channels, Polyrite-D.For statistical analyses, unpaired Student's t-test and Pearson's correlation coefficient test were performed by using SPSS (version-19) as applicable. Mean resting pulse rate and mean heart rate were significantly (p <0.0001) higher in subjects with iron deficiency anemia in comparison to those of control group. Hemoglobin concentration, total count of RBC, mean R-R interval, SDNN and RMSSD were significantly (p <0.0001) lower in subjects with iron deficiency anemia in comparison to those of healthy control. This study concludes that cardiac parasympathetic activity was reduced in female with iron deficiency anemia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjpp.v30i1.20779 Bangladesh J Physiol Pharmacol 2014; 30(1):1-5


A previously healthy 17 year old boy had Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis presenting as acute scrotal pain. There was no trauma or evidence of scrotal or epididymal infection. The pain subsided after therapy for endocarditis was started.


A new species of the deep-sea ceratioid anglerfish genus Lasiognathus Regan (family Oneirodidae) is described on the basis of three female specimens collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Not especially similar to any of the five previously described members of the genus, the new species is unique in having a cylindrical, internally pigmented, anterior escal appendage and a pair of elongate distal escal appendages. The new species is diagnosed and described, and a revised key to the species of the genus is provided.


Antibodies against hepatitis E virus (HEV) were detected in sera by a synthetic peptide‐based enzyme immunoassay (EIA) from different populations in Venezuela. Antibodies against HEV were found in 1.6% (3/184) of urban pregnant woman (Caracas), in 3.9% (8/204) of rural populations (San Camilo, Edo Apure), and in 5.4% (12/223) of rural Amerindians (Padamo, Edo Amazonas). Positivity was confirmed by a neutralization EIA based on the use of competing soluble free pep‐tides. The prevalence of antibodies in the Amerindian group was significantly higher than in urban pregnant women. No relation was found between age and HEV prevalence in rural populations. Three of 21 positive sera were also weakly positive by Western blot for IgM antibodies. This result, together with the low optical density values observed by EIA, suggested that the presence of antibodies in these sera reflects past infections. Based on these results, Venezuela does not seem to be highly endemic for hepatitis E. This is the first report of serological evidence of infection by HEV in South America. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The global burden of high blood pressure supports predictions of a world wide epidemic of cardio- vascular disease. Hypertension is directly responsible for 57% of deaths in India. (WHO 2015). Stress is an altered state of body and mind from normal homeostatic conditions that is caused due to extrinsic or intrinsic factors. In the world 200 million women are suffering from stress. Yogasana is an economical, non invasive practice that has become increasingly popular as a means of relieving stress, enhancing health, and improving fitness with no appreciable side effects and multiple collateral lifestyle benefits.
STATEMENT
Effectiveness of yogasana therapy reduces levels of stress among women with hypertension at selected rural area, Vellore.
OBJECTIVES
1. To assess the pre-test levels of stress among women with hypertension before yogasana therapy.
2. To assess the effectiveness of yogasana therapy on levels of stress among women with hypertension.
3. To find out the association between the post test levels of stress among women with hypertension and selected demographic variables.
METHODS:
The research approach is quantities and the research design selected was pre experimental one group pre and post test design. Purposive sampling technique was adopted to selected 30 women with hypertension at Unai Vaniyambadi, Village. The ISMA stress questionnaire. The conceptual frame work used in the present study is based on Kolcaba theory of comfort was developed by Katherine Kolcaba 1990. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used for analysis and interpretation.
Results and interpretation:
The pretest levels of stress among women with hypertension mean value is 22.2 and SD ±0.574. After yogasana therapy the post test mean value is 5.53 the SD±2.05. than the table value (3.66) which was statistically significant at P <0.001. Hence H1 was accepted. The demographic variable number of children was associated at P <0.05 level. Hence H2 was accepted.
CONCLUSION:
The majority of the women with hypertension had significant improvement in the levels of stress after yogasana therapy.


This research was carried out to explore the socio-cultural determinants of students' sports participation at university level of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This cross-sectional survey research study was conducted on 264 students of both Public and Private sector universities through stratified random probability sampling. After exclusion of unusable questionnaires, 256 correctly filled questionnaires were used in the data analysis. A valid and reliable self-administered structured questionnaire encompassing all the aspects of the study was used for collecting required data. The questionnaire consisted of two parts; a) personal information b) questions about social-cultural determinants of students' sport participation. A computer software of SPSS, version 24 was used to analyze the collected data. Results indicated a moderate negative correlation between socio-cultural determinants and students' sports participation (P=0.03, r=-0.57). Also, the students' sports participation was negatively predicted by socio-cultural determinants (p < .05). In addition, female student-athletes reported higher mean score compared with male student-athletes on socio-cultural determinants of students' sports participation (p < .05). Given the negative relationship between socio-cultural determinants and students' sports participation, it is necessary to create awareness among parents, teachers and eminent scholars regarding the benefits of sports participation. This can be done with the help of local seminars and public speaking in different parts of the province.


It is between culture that we found similarities around which we have built strong differences, and we solve everyday experience in the semiological discourse, due that each culture is essentially a world lecture.


Law enforcement officers can engage in two forms of corruption. Bribery, which arises when officers accept bribes from criminals, and extortion when officers demand payments from law-abiders. While bribery is mutually beneficial to both parties and therefore easy to explain, explaining extortion is more challenging because it only benefits one party; namely, the extortionist officer. The prior literature assumes that extortion is feasible because the enforcer can threaten to frame law-abiders. However, this requires the enforcer to already know whether the agent is a criminal or a law- abider. In contrast, this paper develops a model in which extortion occurs before the official has fully ascertained whether a suspect is a criminal or not. Specifically, officers choose whether to become competent or incompetent and incompetent enforcers cannot distinguish between criminals and law-abiding citizens while competent officers can. We show that incompetent officials can engage in extortion where law-abiders are forced to pay bribes along with criminals or harassment where law-abiders are investigated but not punished. Consequently, permitting extortion affects not only the level of crime directly but also officers' incentives to become competent, which in turn affects deterrence. Accordingly, in contrast to the prior literature we show that compliance in an equilibrium with more extortion is not always lower than one in which there is no extortion. Rather, what matters for policy decisions is who engages in extortion; that is, whether the competent or incompetent extort.


Peripheral nerve tumors are rare lesions that can arise anywhere in the body and hence have a myriad of wide differential diagnosis. They commonly present as a non-specific mass which is diagnosed as a peripheral nerve tumor at surgery. While these tumors may initially be referred to a wide variety of surgeons, early recognition of the nature of the lesion and appropriate surgical treatment by an expert peripheral nerve surgeon is essential in order to minimize post-operative neurological deficits. The objective of this article is to provide a general management scheme for the most common setting of benign peripheral nerve tumors. (Med J Indones 2008; 17: 163-8)


Abstract Background The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had a profound impact on surgical services, potentially having a detrimental impact on training opportunities. The aim of this global survey was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on surgical training and to develop a framework for recovery. Methods A cross-sectional, web-based survey was conducted. This was designed by a steering committee of medical educationalists and validated by a group of trainees before dissemination. Results A total of 608 responses were obtained from 34 countries and 15 specialties. The results demonstrated major disruption in all aspects of training. The impact was greatest for conferences (525 of 608) and hands-on courses (517 of 608), but less for inpatient care-related training (268 of 608). European trainees were significantly more likely to experience direct training disruption than trainees in Asia (odds ratio 0.15) or Australia (OR 0.10) (χ2 = 87.162, P < 0.001). Alternative training resources (webinars, 359 of 608; educational videos, 234 of 608) have emerged, although trainees expressed some dissatisfaction with them. The collective responses generated a four-pillar framework for training recovery that involved: guidance from training stakeholders with the involvement of trainees; prioritization of training, especially the roles of senior surgeons/trainers; provision of access to alternative/new teaching methods; and measures to address trainee anxiety. Conclusion Training has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The introduction of new teaching methods and a focus on training after the pandemic are imperative.


Introduction: This work intends to present a systematic overview of data that have been published so far with regard to methods used for tissue sampling and DNA testing and with regard to the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in pelvic lymph nodes (LNs) and its prognostic significance. Methods: The HPV DNA status of LN in women with cervical cancer is being explored as a potential marker of "occult" metastases. Although the presence of HPV DNA in LN usually correlates with its metastatic involvement, there is always a subgroup of HPV-positive but histologically negative LNs. Results: The significance of HPV in negative LNs remains uncertain, although several studies have concluded that HPV is a risk factor of recurrence. Conclusions: A small group size and a short follow-up are the main limitations for drawing any conclusion concerning prognostic significance of the presence of HPV DNA in LNs.


Current solar irradiance forecasting techniques commonly rely on numerical weather prediction (NWP) for intra-day to day-ahead forecasts. Generally, NWP are spatially too coarse to accurately predict the variability statistics required for effective grid integration. For instance, the smallest cloud sizes resolvable by the North American Mesoscale Model (NAM) are on the order of 20 km. Therefore, for cloud-level wind speeds of 5 m s−1, the shortest variability time-scale resolvable is approximately 1 hour. However, a significant portion of all variability occurs in time-spans of less than 1 hour. In order to resolve very short-term variability (<5 Min.), NWP grid discretization size would need to be decreased to less than 500 m, greatly increasing computational cost. To address this, this study uses an analog downscaling technique to create a variability forecast using from a coarse 10-km NWP forecast. Overall, it is shown that the analog method effectively captures sub-grid scale variability better than using a high-resolution NWP alone.


3-(2-Carboxyethyl)thymine (3-CET) was synthesized from beta-propiolactone (BPL) and dThd 5'P at pH 9.0--9.5 via the intermediate 3-(2-carboxyethyl)-thymidine-5'-monophosphoric acid (3-CEdThd5'P). 3-CEdThd5'P was converted to 3-CET by hydrolysis in 1.5 N HCl at 100 degrees C for 2 h. The structure of 3-CET was assigned on the basis of UV spectra, electron impact (EI) and isobutane chemical ionization mass spectra and the EI mass spectrum of a trimethylsilyl derivative of 3-CET. BPL was reacted in vitro with calf thymus DNA at pH 7.5. 100 A units of BPL-reacted DNA yielded, following perchloric acid hydrolysis and preparative paper chromatography, 3 A units of 3-CET. Reaction of BPL with the phosphodiester thymidylyl-(3'-5')-thymidine gave 3-(2-carboxyethyl)thymidylyl-(3'-5')-3-(2-carboxyethyl)-thymidine (approximately 3%). Phosphotriester formation was not detected.


Create a biological modeling of human lower limb is a difficult job due to the complex and irregularity skeleton structure. However, rebuilding the model that can be used to calculate the biomechanics characteristic is the key step to research the human body. Reverse engineering should be used in rebuilding model. The model consists of at least lower limb skeleton and joint cartilage. Cartilage is the important part in the joint that can change the mechanics characteristic. The human lower limb anatomy data can be gotten through CT scanning. The human lower limb skeleton model is created from image data by professional software based on inverse engineering theory. The model rebuild based on this way can simulate lower limb joint system and analyze biomechanics data.


This article analyses the key aspects of the brics countries' joint position on the 'responsibility to protect' (R2P) concept, as well as the degree of their influence on transforming R2P into a global norm. The author's aim was to answer the following questions: What interconnection is there between the brics and R2P discourses? How can brics stimulate an alternative interpretation of the R2P idea? In terms of cross-border partnerships, is R2P-based cooperation possible within the brics framework, and are states ready to expand it in the future? brics member states have demonstrated several common approaches to R2P, including their reliance on mechanisms strengthening the role of the state, their support for the UN position on peaceful conflict settlement, and preventive diplomacy.


Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a prevalent musculoskeletal degenerative disorder worldwide, and ~40% of chronic low back pain cases are associated with IDD. Although the pathogenesis of IDD remains unclear, the reduction in nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) and degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) are critical factors contributing to IDD. Notochordal cells (NCs), derived from the notochord, which rapidly degrades after birth and is eventually replaced by NPCs, play a crucial role in maintaining ECM homeostasis and preventing NPCs apoptosis. Current treatments for IDD only provide symptomatic relief, while lacking the ability to inhibit or reverse its progression. However, NCs and their secretions possess anti-inflammatory properties and promote NPCs proliferation, leading to ECM formation. Therefore, in recent years, NCs therapy targeting the underlying cause of IDD has emerged as a novel treatment strategy. This article provides a comprehensive review of the latest research progress on NCs for IDD, covering their biological characteristics, specific markers, possible mechanisms involved in IDD and therapeutic effects. It also highlights significant future directions in this field to facilitate further exploration of the pathogenesis of IDD and the development of new therapies based on NCs strategies.


The main aim of the study is to analyze BTC mining's efficiency under current market conditions (December 2021), including soaring energy prices produced from many different sources in different geographical locations. After a thorough analysis of initial assumptions concerning the (1) price of mining machine with associated components and its effective amortization period, (2) difficulty and the hash rate of the BTC network, (3) BTC transaction fees, and (4) energy costs from various sources, we have found that currently, BTC mining is not profitable, except for some rare cases. The main reason for this phenomenon is the fast and unpredictable increase of difficulty of the BTC network over time which results in decreasing participation of already purchased mining machines in the BTC network hash rate. The research is augmented with a detailed sensitivity analysis of mining efficiency to initial parameters assumptions, which allows observing that the conditions for BTC mining to be efficient and profitable are very challenging.


The fluvial systems in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula are highly disturbed habitats, with widespread occurrence of alien species. Previous studies have shown that alien species have a major impact on native freshwater fauna, but it is not known what effect they have on semi-aquatic reptiles. Here the author investigated the factors that influence the occurrence of three species of semi-aquatic reptiles, one turtle (Mauremys leprosa) and two snakes (Natrix astreptophora and Natrix maura), at 261 sites in seven rivers/streams in Girona (north-eastern Spain). The studied semi-aquatic reptiles are habitat generalists which can occupy sections of rivers with altered regimes. The relationships of reptile presence to abiotic niche parameters and the presence of alien species were evaluated, as well as the patterns of pairwise co-occurrence between the reptiles. The presence of alien species did impact one out of three reptiles in this community. The association between both species of natricines was weakly negative, suggesting that interspecific competition does not structure their co-occurrences. The removal of alien species is the most appropriate strategy to preserve the complete diversity of native semi-aquatic reptiles.


The binding energy data of the few available Xi hypernuclei have been analysed by solving the Schrodinger equation in each individual case to obtain the central depth of the single-particle Xi -nucleus potential which is assumed to follow the form of the realistic charge density of the relevant core nucleus. For those core nuclei for which the charge density is not known experimentally the density of a close neighbour has been employed. Similar calculations have also been performed with the Saxon-Woods form of the density which has different geometrical parameters appropriate to each core nucleus. An overall fit to the BXi data of the p-shell hypernuclei using our earlier shell-model framework has also been obtained with a two-parameter Gaussian as well as a Skyrme-type Xi N interaction. All these approaches indicate fairly strongly that the effective Xi N potential is a little weaker than the effective Lambda N potential.


As it happens, our own deductions were not materially affected by the application of any single parameter. Whether expressed in terms of relative bone mass (as in our paper) or absolute bone mass (cross-sectional cortical area), the results in our osteoarthritic patients showed the same trend: a slight increase above the normal means for males and no significant increase in females. This is predictable from straightforward values for the external width (D) and


OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence of fasting on the antigen specific immune responsiveness in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy volunteers. METHODS Seven rheumatoid arthritis patients and 17 healthy volunteers were immunised perorally or parenterally with influenza virus vaccine after a three to six day long period of total energy deprivation (water fast). The subsequent antigen specific antibody mediated immune response was recorded in the blood at the single cell level by the elispot method. RESULTS Short term starvation induced an enhanced antigen specific mucosa derived B lymphocyte response in rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy volunteers. In contrast, the systemic B cell responses were not significantly altered by a total energy deprivation. CONCLUSIONS Short term starvation increases the mucosa derived B cell responsiveness, while systemic responsiveness is largely unaffected. The similar pattern of response in rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy volunteers indicates that fasting alters the mucosal immune response independently of medical treatment.


. Precocious puberty (PP) is one of the most common abnormalities of pubertal development in children. Typical PP features are: accelerated physical development, premature development of secondary sexual character- istics, early growth plates closure and formation of short stature in adult age. The article tempts to demonstrate the importance of early diagnostics of true PP in girls, the basic principles of treatment and dispensary observation. We have analyzed two clinical cases where both patients had idiopathic gonadotropin dependent PP, the diagnosis was defined at the same age, but the duration of the disease at the time of diagnosis was different. The patients received therapy with long-acting analogues of luteinizing releasing hormone, the effectiveness of therapy was confirmed by clinical and laboratory tests. Timely started treatment to our patients contributed to the normalization of the growth forecast. Ключевые слова.


The distinction between diegetic and non-diegetic music is fundamental to film musicology. It is also a distinction that has been much debated, as evidenced in recent discussions by, among others, Jeff Smith, David Neumeyer, Giorgio Biancorosso, Ben Winters, and Guido Heldt. A frequently recurring theme in these discussions has been Robin Stilwell's notion of 'the fantastical gap', that is, music straddling or being indeterminate with regard to the realms of diegetic and non-diegetic music.  The relevance of such concepts for pre-existing music and for non-Hollywood 'art cinema' is a topic that has received somewhat less attention. This essay focuses on the appearance of Johann Sebastian Bach's choral prelude 'Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ' in Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris (1972). It claims that the diegetic status of this music is essentially a function of the specific interpretative frameworks within which it is posed. Only when a credible reading is in place will a conception of the music in this regard become relevant. This claim is substantiated by an extensive discussion in which Bach's music is first constructed as non-diegetic commentary and thereafter as metadiegetic imagining. Beyond these two perspectives, however, there are almost certainly yet other ways in which we can plausibly construct a 'place' for this music in the film. The result is a multiplicity of interpretatively viable options that renders the diegetic status of the Bach prelude increasingly ambiguous, an ambiguity that in turn would seem to lead to a diversity of fantastical gaps.


Pioglitazone is a poorly water soluble drug, having short biological half life (3- 5 hour) so the present study was aimed to increase the biological half life by develop a sustained release microcapsule. The microcapsules of pioglitazone hydrochloride were prepared by employing sodium alginate as a cell forming polymer and by using a different bio-adhesive polymers as carbopol, HPMC and sodium CMC in a various ratios of 1:1, 3:1, 6:1 & 9:1, by orifice ion gelation method. Scanning electron microscope photographs of samples revealed that all prepared microcapsules were almost spherical in shape and have a slightly smooth surface. The in vitro release profile of Pioglitazone hydrochloride indicates that all the batches of microcapsules showed controlled and prolonged drug release over an extended period of 10 h. FT- IR spectra revealed no chemical incompatibility between drug and the polymers.


An allometric method for estimating the volume change in inflamed paw of rats is described. The technique is effective and advantageous for long term observation of adjuvant arthritis which lacks a suitable reference criterion due to the simultaneous swelling of the control paw. In the present method, the inflammatory intensity (IF) of paw edema is estimated by means of the formula; IF(%)=(2Vr/cXd(I+Wt/aXb)-I) X 100 where Vt is the paw volume, Wt is the body weight weight and X is the tail length of the inflamed rat. The constants a, b, c, and d are obtained from tthe normal rats using the relative growth law, W=aXb and V=cXd (where W is the body weight, V is the paw volume and X is the tail length).