Development of normal colon epithelial cells proceeds through a systematic differentiation of cells that emerge from stem cells within the base of colon crypts. Genetic mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene are thought to cause colon adenoma and carcinoma formation by enhancing colonocyte proliferation and impairing differentiation. We currently have a limited understanding of the cellular mechanisms that promote colonocyte differentiation. Herein, we present evidence supporting a lack of retinoic acid biosynthesis as a mechanism contributing to the development of colon adenomas and carcinomas. Microarray and reverse transcriptase-PCR analyses revealed reduced expression of two retinoid biosynthesis genes: retinol dehydrogenase 5 (RDH5) and retinol dehydrogenase L (RDHL) in colon adenomas and carcinomas as compared with normal colon. Consistent with the adenoma and carcinomas samples, seven colon carcinoma cell lines also lacked expression of RDH5 and RDHL. Assessment of RDH enzymatic activity within these seven cell lines showed poor conversion of retinol into retinoic acid when compared with normal cells such as normal human mammary epithelial cells. Reintroduction of wild type APC into an APC-deficient colon carcinoma cell line (HT29) resulted in increased expression of RDHL without affecting RDH5. APC-mediated induction of RDHL was paralleled by increased production of retinoic acid. Investigations into the mechanism responsible for APC induction of RDHL indicated that β-catenin fails to repress RDHL. The colon-specific transcription factor CDX2, however, activated an RDHL promoter construct and induced endogenous RDHL. Finally, the induction of RDHL by APC appears dependent on the presence of CDX2. We propose a novel role for APC and CDX2 in controlling retinoic acid biosynthesis and in promoting a retinoid-induced program of colonocyte differentiation.


Summary Linear quadratic regulator (LQR), a popular technique for designing optimal state feedback controller, is used to derive a mapping between continuous and discrete time inverse optimal equivalence of proportional integral derivative (PID) control problem via dominant pole placement. The aim is to derive transformation of the LQR weighting matrix for fixed weighting factor, using the discrete algebraic Riccati equation (DARE) to design a discrete time optimal PID controller producing similar time response to its continuous time counterpart. Continuous time LQR-based PID controller can be transformed to discrete time by establishing a relation between the respective LQR weighting matrices that will produce similar closed loop response, independent of the chosen sampling time. Simulation examples of first/second order and first-order integrating processes exhibiting stable/unstable and marginally stable open loop dynamics are provided, using the transformation of LQR weights. Time responses for set-point and disturbance inputs are compared for different sampling times as fraction of the desired closed loop time constant.


Neural systems operate in various dynamic states that determine how they process information (Livingstone and Hubel, 1981; Funke and Eysel, 1992; Morrow and Casey, 1992; Abeles et al., 1995; Guido et al., 1995;Mukherjee and Kaplan, 1995; Kenmochi and Eggermont, 1997;Wörgötter et al., 1998; Kisley and Gerstein, 1999). To investigate the function of a brain area, it is therefore crucial to determine the state of that system. One grave difficulty is that even under well controlled conditions, the thalamocortical network may undergo random dynamic state fluctuations which alter the most basic spatial and temporal response properties of the neurons. These uncontrolled state changes hinder the evaluation of state-specific properties of neural processing and, consequently, the interpretation of thalamocortical function. Simultaneous extracellular recordings were made in the auditory thalamus and cortex of the ketamine-anesthetized cat under several stimulus conditions. By considering the cellular and network mechanisms that govern state changes, we develop a complex stimulus that controls the dynamic state of the thalamocortical network. Traditional auditory stimuli have ambivalent effects on thalamocortical state, sometimes eliciting an oscillatory state prevalent in sleeping animals and other times suppressing it. By contrast, our complex stimulus clamps the network in a dynamic state resembling that observed in the alert animal. It thus allows evaluation of neural information processing not confounded by uncontrolled variations. Stimulus-based state control illustrates a general and direct mechanism whereby the functional modes of the brain are influenced by structural features of the external world.


The Himalayan glaciers are one of the significant sources of Indian river systems. In recent times, a major question is being raised about the melting of glaciers and how it will impact river flows in the downstream regions. The Gangotri glacier has also attracted global attention due to the rapid retreat rate. Because of this, the present study has been carried out on the Gangotri glacier, which is the longest glacier located in the Bhagirathi river basin in north India, to understand the dynamics of the glacier and its melting contribution to the river water. In the present study, we collected water samples from the snow/ice, river, and rainfall for isotopic analysis from 2016 to 2018. We observed seasonality in δ18O and δ2H values of rainfall and river water in the Bhagirathi river basin. The isotopic values of rainfall range from -11.6 ‰ to 2.7 ‰ for δ18O, and from -94.8 ‰ to 38.5 ‰ for δ2H during pre-monsoon (April to June), and from -20.6‰ to -4.2 ‰ for δ18O, and from -155.6‰ to -21.9 ‰ for δ2H during monsoon (July to September) season. The river water ranges from -12.8 ‰ to -10.8 ‰ for δ18O, and from -86.3 ‰ to -72.9 ‰ for δ2H during the pre-monsoon, and from -19.0 ‰ to -12.4 ‰ for δ18O, and from -141.9 ‰ to -86.9 ‰ for δ2H during monsoon season. We used a tracer-based hydrograph separation approach to estimate the relative contribution of various river discharge sources. Our results suggest seasonality in relative contribution. The estimated snowmelt contribution is about ~58%, ice melt is ~36%, and surface runoff is ~6%, due to the variability in local climate and temperature in the Himalayan region.


ABSTRACT The present work had the objective of detecting the occurrence of Equine Piroplasmosis in horses housed in the 3rd Guards Cavalry Regiment (GCR) - Brazilian Army (BA) ˗ Porto Alegre, RS-Brazil, as well as to demonstrate the proactivity of PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) technique, aiming at the judicious use of the resources involved in the training and employment of Equines in the Brazilian Army. Fifty horses of the 3rd GCR - Porto Alegre ˗ RS, which are employed for Sport, Military Ceremonial, Law and Order Guarantee Operations (LOGO), were evaluated by means of the 18s r RNA screening with PCR technique, thirty eight horses with Babesia Caballi and Theileria Equi were detected, which corresponds to an incidence of 76% of the horses effective analyzed at the time. In this way, it can be verified that the Military activity have its "performance and effectiveness" factors threatened in case the health of the principal of his means employed, that is the horse, is compromised. The PCR technique then offers a reliable and feasible tool for the detection of Equine Piroplasmosis in BA horses.


Introduction Although Hemophilus influenzae infections in children are common, similar infections in adults are rare. 1,2 We recently observed an adult patient with septic arthritis due to Hemophilus influenzae . The infrequency of this infection and the therapeutic importance of an accurate diagnosis prompted this report. Report of Case A 59-year-old white man with a previous history of alcoholism entered Bellevue Hospital for the first time on Oct 14, 1963, with complaints of chills, fever, and a painful, swollen right knee. He had been in good health until four days prior to admission when he developed fever, shaking chills, and generalized malaise. On the morning of the day of admission he noted swelling and tenderness of the right knee. He denied previous trauma, arthritis, gout, venereal contact, or recent alcoholic intake. Review of systems revealed a chronic nonproductive cough attributed to excessive cigarette smoking. On admission the patient was thin, poorly


Island species are susceptible to invasive mammals because of their small populations, specialised habitats and reduced likelihood of recolonisation. For more than 50 years, invasive mammals have been eradicated from islands around the world. Despite the success of eradications, there are few publications in the primary literature detailing the ecological benefits and consequences of these eradications. Here we conduct a review of the published literature focussing on rodent eradications conducted on Australian and New Zealand islands and we evaluate the extent of reporting of non-target mortality and ecological monitoring following an eradication. A search of the Database of Island Invasive Species Eradications website identified that successful, whole-island rodent eradications were conducted on 66 Australian and 124 New Zealand islands in the period from 1964 to 2016. We found that non-target mortality was rarely ever reported (3% and 12% for eradications on Australian islands and New Zealand islands, respectively). Results of any quantitative ecological monitoring following eradications were published for only 10% of all successful rodent eradications on Australian islands and 19% of all eradications on New Zealand islands. There also has been no change in reporting of potential benefits and consequences of rodent eradications in Australia and New Zealand over the last few decades despite an increased awareness of the problem of under-reporting. We discuss the detailed benefits and consequences of these eradications in Australia and New Zealand and highlight the need to incorporate ecological monitoring into new projects to document benefits and consequences of eradications to inform future eradications.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Metastasis contributes to over 90% of cancer mortalities. Metastatic disease is a dynamic, multi-step process that requires invasion and migration of cancer cells from the primary tumour site and leads to colonization at a distant location. Migration events mediated by the family of Rho GTPases are facilitated by acto-myosin contraction at the cell rear. In vitro studies have demonstrated that knockdown of RhoA causes insufficient actomyosin contraction and decreased cell detachment. Migration of cancer cells in vivo does not only require detachment from the primary tumor, but also relies on invasion of the cell into the surrounding stromal tissue. Formation of functional invadopodia drives invasion and a key component of invadopodia is cortactin. The objective of this study is to combine inhibitory short hairpin RNA (shRNA) technology with an in vivo metastasis model to identify mechanisms of cancer cell migration that have not previously been studied in an animal model. I hypothesize that inhibition of mediators required for cellular rear detachment and invadopodia formation, such as RhoA and cortactin respectively, will prevent migration of human fibrosarcoma (HT1080) and human epidermoid carcinoma (Hep3) cell lines in vivo.

Inhibition of RhoA and cortactin was performed by lentiviral infection of Hep3 and HT1080 cell lines with individual pLOK.1-puro vectors containing a 21-mir sequence to target and decrease mRNA expression. The migratory ability of both cell lines following RNA inhibition was analyzed in vitro using a scratch wound assay and in vivo using a migration and metastasis model in the shell-less chicken embryo, whereby transduced HT1080 and Hep3 cells are injected intravenously and subsequently arrest in the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). We used a microscope mounted incubator and spinning disc confocal microscopy to visualize cells in real time and quantify their migration parameters.

Results obtained from in vitro migration assays indicate that inhibition of cortactin does not affect the migration of Hep3 and HT1080 cell lines across a rigid substratum. Diminished levels of cortactin also had no significant effect on the migration of these cells in vivo. Importantly, inhibition of RhoA caused a significant decrease in cell migration in vitro for both cell lines and in vivo for Hep3 cells (p<0.05). This data suggests that RhoA, a key mediator of cellular rear detachment, is required for in vivo migration of human epidermoid carcinoma cells while cortactin, implicated in invadopodia structures, is not required.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2367. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-2367


This article explains the principles of the two-stage sampling design and presents the lessknown cross-classified sampling design. One purpose of the article is to allow the reader todifferentiate between the two survey designs and put in practice the sampling and estimationsteps. Respective variance estimators for these two designs are calculated in simple cases, andanalogies with one-way and two-way ANOVA are proposed. The comparison is motivated bythe ELFE french survey, and selections and estimations are illustrated using the softwares R,SAS and Stata.


: Rising medical costs is a real and imminent problem; as a major health care services provider, Medicare covers nearly 16% of the U.S. population. This paper aims to investigate factors that a ff ect the cost and quality of acute care hospitals reimbursed by Medicare. Multiple datasets from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and IRS were merged to evaluate the e ff ect of hospital ownership and local socioeconomic levels on hospital performance, based on three main quality metrics: average cost per bene fi ciary, 30-day readmission rate, and hospital acquired conditions (HAC) score. Both variables were found to have statistically signi fi cant e ff ects. In addition, the results showed that CMS policy may have unfairly penalized hospitals serving more vulnerable populations, by using a metric that did not consider hospital location in lower income neighborhoods.


There is increasing appreciation in cognitive science of the impact of emotions on many kinds of thinking, from decision making to scientific discovery. This appreciation has developed in all the fields of cognitive science, including, psychology, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and linguistics, and anthropology. The purpose of the proposed symposium is to report and discuss new investigations of the impact of emotion on cognitive processes, in particular ones that are important in real life situations. We will approach the practical importance of emotional cognition from a variety of disciplinary perspectives: social psychology (Ditto), clinical psychology (Westen), computer science (Gratch and Marsella), and philosophy and neuroscience (Thagard). In order to provide integration across these approaches, we will try to address a fundamental set of questions, including: 1. How do emotions interact with basic cognitive processes? 2. What are the positive contributions of emotions to various kinds of thinking in real world situations? 3. How do emotions sometimes bias thinking in real world situations? 4. How can understanding of the psychology and neuroscience of emotional cognition be used to improve the effectiveness of real world thinking? Participants


To implement the effective analysis of large-scale array antenna with complicated elements under the condition of limited hardware resources,an effective method is proposed to analyze arbitrary large-scale array antenna by using FEKO.The phased array is analyzed.By introducing the concept of Active Element Pattern(AEP),an array antenna is simulated by FEKO.The application indicates that the radiation pattern and impedance of arbitrary large-scale array antenna can be simulated and analyzed by FEKO under the normal condition of hardware resources,while considering the influence of the mutual coupling between the elements and so on.


This guide provides patrons with national, state, and local resources relating to the incorporation, management, and development of a nonprofit organization.


Wafer warpage is common in microelectronics processing. Warped wafers can affect device performance, reliability and linewidth control in various processing steps. We proposed in this paper an in-situ fault detection technique for wafer warpage in lithography. Early detection will minimize cost and processing time. Based on first principle thermal modeling, we are able to detect warpage fault from available temperature measurements. In this paper, the use of advanced process control resulted in very small temperature disturbance making it suitable for industrial implementation. More importantly, the sensitivity for detecting warpage is not compromised even though the temperature signal is small. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.


We try to answer the question: "can we 'modify' our neighborhoods to make them less vulnerable to flooding?" We minimize flooding vulnerability for a city in the central plain of Luzon, by modeling the city as a biological organism with 'traits', and try to 'breed' a 'champion' city (with a low flooding vulnerability) via a genetic algorithm. The result is a description of the traits the barangays (neighborhoods) should have (the 'design' of the city). As far as we can tell, this kind of modeling has not been attempted before. The different components of flooding vulnerability were investigated, and each was given a weight, which allows us to express vulnerability as a weighted sum; this serves as the fitness function for the genetic algorithm. We also allowed non-linear interactions among related but independent components, viz, poverty and mortality rate, and literacy and radio/TV penetration. The two-table system we used to prioritize the components of vulnerability is prone to subjectivity, a common problem in analyses of vulnerability. Thus, a sensitivity analysis was done, which gave a design with a 24% decrease in vulnerability alongside a 14% percent decrease in cost, a significant improvement over this initial scenario analysis, where the proposed design had a 12% decrease in vulnerability with a one percent increase in cost.


We present a novel method to enable users to experience mobile interaction with digital content on external displays by embedding markers imperceptibly on the screen. Our method consists of two parts: marker embedding on external displays and marker detection. To embed markers, similar to previous work, we display complementary colors in alternating frames, which are selected by considering L*a*b color space in order to make the markers harder for humans to detect. Our marker detection process does not require mobile devices to be synchronized with the display, while certain constraints for the relation between camera and display update rate need to be fulfilled. In this paper, we have conducted three experiments. The results show 1) selecting complementary colors in the a*b* color plane maximizes imperceptibility, 2) our method is extremely robust when used with static contents and can handle animated contents up to certain optical flow levels, and 3) our method was proved to work well in case of small movements, but large movements can lead to loss of tracking. key words: imperceptible marker, human visual perception, unsynchronized capture


Oroxylum Indicum (Indian Trumpet Flower) or called Bonglai in Malay is a medicinal plant widely used, especially in the Indian medicine system. Oroxylum Indicum can be extracted by the hydrodistillation method to obtain the essential oil and hydrosol. Nevertheless, the chemical constituents of the hydrosol of the leaves are yet to be determined as hydrosol is always discarded, leading to the wastage of products. Thus, this study investigated the chemical constituents of Oroxylum Indicum leaves hydrosol extracted by hydrodistillation by varying temperatures and determined the functional groups of the active constituents in the leaves for the benefit and usage in pharmaceutical industries. Hydro distillation is carried out at different temperatures to study the effect of temperatures on the active compounds in the hydrosol. The hydrosol sample of the leaves will be extracted by hydrodistillation method at temperatures of 50℃, 70℃ and 80℃ and separated via rotary evaporator, and later analyzed by GC-MS and FTIR analysis. This study will help us to identify the value and amount yield of the chemical constituents of Oroxylum Indicum leaves hydrosol which will be able to determine whether it will have significant values equal to the essential oil. From FTIR analysis, the functional groups for all samples are the same which are O-H stretch, H- bonded, N-H stretch and C=C stretch. The chemical constituents of Oroxylum Indicum hydrosol were determined by GC-MS analysis. The major components of hydrosol produced at 50℃ are squalene (10.44%), 2ethylehexyl palmitate (8.56%), palmitic acid (7.50%), and di-n-2-propyl pentyl phthalate (1.69%), and at 70℃ is acetic acid (5.88%) only, while at 80℃ are only traces components respectively. This is due to most compounds contained may be decomposed during the preparation of samples prior to both analyses also the efficiency of the system and procedure during the extraction.


A series of 6-alkylaminopyridazine-3-carboxylic acid derivatives was tested for dopamine beta-hydroxylase inhibitory activity in vitro according to the method of Kruse et al. Methyl 6-alkylaminopyridazine-3-carboxylates (4) were synthesized through the reaction of methyl 6-chloropyridazine-3-carboxylate (1) with ammonia followed by the condensation with primary amines, and by the methanolysis of the resulting 6-alkylaminopyridazine-3-carboxamides (3) in methanol in the presence of boron trifluoride etherate. Among tested compounds, 6-benzylaminopyridazine-3-carboxylic acid was found to have the most potent inhibitory activity, which was in the same level of the activity of fusaric acid.


Recent advances in molecular biology have important implications for human welfare. On the one hand, they help man to a deeper understanding of his own evolution and functioning as the most complex of life forms on earth.... On the other hand, molecular biology might be exploited for military purposes and result in a biological weapons race whose aim could well become the most efficient means for removing man from the planet.... My gravest concern is that similar scientific breakthroughs of a rather predictable kind will be made and their potential military significance exploited, so as to result in a transformation of current doctrine about unreliable biological weapons. 1 These statements about the threats of biological weapons (BW) were presented a quarter of a century ago during testimony before the United Nations Committee on Disarmament. See also p. 349. Two years after this testimony, the committee negotiated an international treaty, the


Knowledge about the regional disparities in the development of different sectors is an issue of considerable importance for administrators, planners and policy makers of any country. In this study an attempt has been made to evaluate the regional disparities in the development of the agricultural sector of Bangladesh through computing composite indices and relevant statistics for different districts based on secondary data. It is observed that out of 21 former districts of Bangladesh, the district of Chittagong ranked the first and the district Bandarban ranked the last in agricultural development during 1980-81 while Sylhet ranked first and Bandarban continued to occupy the last position during 1990-91. It is also observed that the level of development in 10 districts, out of 21 districts moved down during 1980-91. Significant change in development has also been observed over the two time periods.


Hypertension is commonly encountered in the course of pregnancy. It can predate or manifest during pregnancy. It requires prompt recognition and treatment. If left untreated, hypertension in pregnancy will lead to significant maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. This mini-review will discuss the classification of hypertension in pregnancy, identify treatment goals, discuss preeclampsia in some detail and discuss management of these disorders based on recent guidelines. This review is intended as a quick summary and a practical guide. Extensive reviews of the subject are widely available.


In most OECD countries trade unions remain key players in the field of welfare state reform. And yet, surprisingly little attention has been paid by proponents of a universal basic income (BI) to the very position of workers unions on the radical reform that they are advocating. This paper tackles this issue in three complementary ways. First, it offers a brief overview of the (scarce) literature on basic income and trade unions. Second, it focuses on plausible arguments that could be used by trade unions to oppose or, alternatively, support a basic income. Finally, empirical information collected in Belgium, Canada, and the Netherlands is used to test the robustness of the theoretical assumptions. These investigations demonstrate that trade unions are far from being natural allies of BI advocates within developed welfare states. As evidenced by the Belgian case, they can even constitute a significant obstacle to the political progression of the idea.


The invention relates to a method for improving rubber elasticity by modification of a rare-earth addition agent, belonging to a rubber addition agent and rubber preparation field. By using rare-earth oxide as the rubber addition agent, the invention uses an organic modifying agent to modify the rare-earth oxide, then being used as the rubber addition agent to add into the rubber to modify the rubber by partially replacing zinc oxide in order to strengthen the pressure performance of the rubber, particularly to improving elasticity of the rubber. The method for improving rubber elasticity by modification of a rare-earth addition agent has the advantages of simple technology, being easy to operate, low cost and making rubber products suitable to the use of tire rubber, etc.


BACKGROUND
Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease resulting from an inflammatory response to subgingival plaque bacteria, including Porphyromonas gingivalis. MicroRNA (miRNA) is a current focus in regulating the inflammatory processes. In this study, the inflammatory miRNA expression in gingival tissues of patients with periodontitis and of healthy individuals is compared, and its role in regulating the inflammatory response is examined.

METHODS
Gingival tissues from patients with periodontitis and healthy individuals were collected for miRNA microarray. THP-1 and CA9-22 cells were challenged with P. gingivalis, and miRNA expression was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Target genes for miRNA were predicted using TargetScanHuman database, and miRNA gene expressions were reviewed using public databases. For the functional study, THP-1 cells were transfected with a miRNA-128 mimic, and target gene expression was compared with THP-1 cells challenged with P. gingivalis. For the tolerance test, THP-1 cells transfected with miRNA-128 mimic were treated with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) or paraformaldehyde (PFA)-fixed Escherichia coli. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α production was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) protein phosphorylation was determined by Western blot.

RESULTS
Gingival tissues from patients with periodontitis showed increased expression of miRNA-128, miRNA-34a, and miRNA-381 and decreased expression of miRNA-15b, miRNA-211, miRNA-372, and miRNA-656. THP-1 cells and CA9-22 cells challenged with P. gingivalis showed increased miRNA-128 expression. Among the predicted miRNA-128 target genes, several genes that are involved in MAPK signaling pathway showed similar gene expression pattern between P. gingivalis challenge and miRNA-128 mimic transfection. In THP-1 cells transfected with miRNA-128 mimic, TNF-α production was lower, and phosphorylation of p38 was inhibited when challenged with PMA or PFA-fixed E. coli.

CONCLUSION
miRNA-128 may be involved in mitigating the inflammatory response induced by P. gingivalis in periodontitis.


In this paper, a new-structure pyroelectric infrared detector is proposed, which consists of interdigital electrodes deposited on periodic inverted domains of ferroelectric crystal. Since only a shallow region close to the crystal surface is pyroelectrically active in this structure, the surface charges are quickly induced in response to IR irradiation and this structure therefore provides us with a high responsivity. A pyroelectric detector fabricated using periodic antipolar domains formed by selective proton exchange and subsequent heat treatment of LiTaO3 crystal is experimentally demonstrated to exhibit a high current responsivity in high frequency range of IR power modulation.


Osler–Weber–Rendu syndrome, also known as hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), is a rare disorder of the fibrovascular tissue. It is an under-recognized disorder that results from multisystem vascular dysplasia. It is characterized by telangiectasias and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) of skin, mucosa and viscera. Most affected persons present with recurrent epistaxis which increases in frequency and severity with age. We report a 35 year old male farmer who was admitted on account of several episodes of epistaxis which started since he was five years old. He also started having recurrent haematochezia three years prior to presentation. Examination revealed multiple telangiectasias on his tongue and buccal mucosa. A colonoscopy done revealed multiple angiodysplasias in the transverse as well as the sigmoid colon. Pertinent questions that remain to be answered include the true prevalence of HHT in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. Keywords : Osler-Weber-Rendu, Hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia, Epistaxis, Arteriovenous Malformations, Angiodysplasia Key Messages : This is a rare condition with only two previously reported cases from Nigeria. Reporting this case will further raise the awareness of its existence in sub-saharan Africa and remind the clinician of its possibility in cases of unexplained recurrent epistaxis.


Wood polymer nanocomposite (WPNC) was prepared by impregnating Simul (Salmalia malabarica) wood with styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN), glycidyl methacrylate(GMA), and a reactive polymerizable surfactant modified montmorillonite (MMT). The physical and mechanical properties of WPNC were investigated by using XRD, tensile tester, SEM, and FTIR. The polymer loading, dimensional stability, water uptake, mechanical property, and thermal stability were found to improve due to inclusion of MMT. SEM micrographs showed the presence of polymer and MMT into cell wall and cell lumen. FTIR analysis confirmed the presence of MMT and SAN in WPNC. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011


PACE 8 is the final Academy examination in the PACE series. The self-assessment program for pediatricians began in 1970 with SEEP followed by PACE in 1976-1979 and is currently continued as part of the PREP program.
 This report summarizes the data of the PACE 8
 See Table in the PDF File
 See Images in the PDF File
 multiple-choice examination. Of the 3,635 subscribers, 1,155 returned answer sheets to the Academy for CME credit. All participants had the option of completing the assessments open book (using references), closed book, or both. All of the examinations (577) designated as "closed book" were scored to compile these data. The descriptive statistics generated provide an opportunity for PACE 8 participants to compare their performance with that of the sample.
 Table 1 gives the statistical summary for the total examination. Table 2 lists the mean percent scores for the topic areas. Table 3 gives information on the difficulty of each question in terms of the percent of participants answering the item correctly. A histogram of PACE 8 total scores is presented in the Figure.
 The data have been presented in a similar format to the PACE 7 Report (Pediatrics 63:922, 1979) for comparison. PACE 8, like the previous examinations, was designed as an educational activity, only sampling knowledge base, and was not given in the usual controlled conditions.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
 Floy Helwig, MD, FAAP, PACE Science Editor, and the Academy gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Melton E. Golmon, PhD, Director of Medical Education, Northwestern University Medical School, in the preparation of the statistics.


Hospice social workers and members of the interdisciplinary team develop close therapeutic relationships with patients and families as they journey toward death. During this process, situations can develop that challenge professional boundaries and blur the line between a professional and personal relationship. This article will examine professional boundaries within the context of hospice care through case studies identifying challenges that hospice social workers and members of the interdisciplinary team may encounter with recommendations for how to manage boundary concerns.


Six new phragmalin limonoids, named moluccensin Z1 (1), moluccensin Z2 (2), carapanolide Y (3), tabulalin N (4), chukvelutilide A1 (5), and velutinasin J (6), as well as two known compounds, chukvelutilide A (7) and velutinasin D (8) were isolated from the stems of Chukrasia tabularis A. Juss. The structures of the new compounds 1–6 were confirmed by spectroscopic methods, including IR and HRESIMS, as well as 1D and 2D NMR, and by comparisons with the data of known analogues. All compounds were tested for α-glucosidase and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activities. However, none of the compounds was active against α-glucosidase and acetylcholinesterase in vitro.


Background There is a strong association between increased body weight and osteoarthritis (OA). The NICE (2014) and ACR (2012) guidelines strongly recommend that patients with OA consider weight loss if overweight. Objectives The aim of this audit was to investigate if physiotherapists treating patients with knee and lumbar-spine OA: i) Documented patients weight; ii) Discussed the role of increased weight on OA Methods An audit of seventy physiotherapy charts of patients attending physiotherapy in 2013 found that 15percent (knee) and 11percent (lumbar-spine) had their weight documented. The role of increased weight was discussed with 15percent (knee) and 11percent (lumbar-spine). A "BMI station" was set up to use with patients. A lifestyle education class was established. In 2015 a re-audit was carried out on patients who attended for physiotherapy in 2014. Results Seventy physiotherapy charts were randomly selected and included. The median age was 64years (knee) and 53years (lumbar-spine). Of these 7 were male and 23 female (knee), 17 were male and 19 female (lumbar-spine). Of these, 38percent (knee) and 31percent (lumbar-spine) had their weight documented. The role of increased weight was discussed with 19percent (n=7) (knee) and 22percent (n=8) (lumbar-spine). Conclusions Physiotherapists have improved in relation to documenting weight and discussing the role of increased weight on OA since the previous audit. However, it is evident that they do not regularly document weight in patients with knee and lumbar-spine OA or document if they advised patients regarding the role of weight management for the treatment of OA. Further strategies to address this are necessary. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The article discusses equal rights to equal participation and public policies for gender balance in different societal arenas. Although gender balance is a central aim of official Norwegian gender equality politics, male hegemony is the dominant feature in most institutional settings of leadership, power and influence. This inconsistency is rhetorically handled through travel metaphors of gender equality and utility arguments about women's contributions to public life. Gender equality then becomes a question of time, and of how society would profit from "more" gender equality. The rights perspective is distorted. In the final part of the article, we discuss alternative, normative, approaches: gender balance in relation to parity in participation, a distributive norm of simple equality, and principles of non‐discrimination.


We have developed a linear-scaling algorithm for obtaining the Boys localized molecular orbitals from the one-particle density matrix. The algorithm is made up of two steps: the Cholesky decomposition of the density matrix to obtain Cholesky molecular orbitals and the subsequent Boys localization process. Linear-scaling algorithms have been proposed to achieve linear-scaling calculations of these two steps, based on the sparse matrix technique and the locality of the Cholesky molecular orbitals. The present algorithm has been applied to compute the Boys localized orbitals in a number of systems including α-helix peptides, water clusters, and protein molecules. Illustrative calculations demonstrate that the computational time of obtaining Boys localized orbitals with the present algorithm is asymptotically linear with increasing the system size.


The global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has upended surgical practice. In an effort to preserve resources, mitigate risk, and maintain health system capacity, nonurgent surgeries have been deferred in many jurisdictions, with urgent procedures facing increasing wait times and unpredictability given potential future surges. Shared decision making, a process that integrates patient values and preferences with the scientific expertise of clinicians, may be of particular benefit during these unprecedented times. Aligning patient choices with their values, reducing unnecessary health care use, and promoting consistency between providers are now more critical than ever before. We review important aspects of shared decision making and provide guidance for its perioperative application during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.


Objective Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for colorectal cancer (CRC). We aimed to investigate whether cigarette smoke promotes CRC by altering the gut microbiota and related metabolites. Design Azoxymethane-treated C57BL/6 mice were exposed to cigarette smoke or clean air 2 hours per day for 28 weeks. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry were parallelly performed on mice stools to investigate alterations in microbiota and metabolites. Germ-free mice were transplanted with stools from smoke-exposed and smoke-free control mice. Results Mice exposed to cigarette smoke had significantly increased tumour incidence and cellular proliferation compared with smoke-free control mice. Gut microbial dysbiosis was observed in smoke-exposed mice with significant differential abundance of bacterial species including the enrichment of Eggerthella lenta and depletion of Parabacteroides distasonis and Lactobacillus spp. Metabolomic analysis showed increased bile acid metabolites, especially taurodeoxycholic acid (TDCA) in the colon of smoke-exposed mice. We found that E. lenta had the most positive correlation with TDCA in smoke-exposed mice. Moreover, smoke-exposed mice manifested enhanced oncogenic MAPK/ERK (mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal‑regulated protein kinase 1/2) signalling (a downstream target of TDCA) and impaired gut barrier function. Furthermore, germ-free mice transplanted with stools from smoke-exposed mice (GF-AOMS) had increased colonocyte proliferation. Similarly, GF-AOMS showed increased abundances of gut E. lenta and TDCA, activated MAPK/ERK pathway and impaired gut barrier in colonic epithelium. Conclusion The gut microbiota dysbiosis induced by cigarette smoke plays a protumourigenic role in CRC. The smoke-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis altered gut metabolites and impaired gut barrier function, which could activate oncogenic MAPK/ERK signalling in colonic epithelium.


Abstract During recent years, the digital revolution has changed the face of societies including industrial production, economies and peoples' social lives. From these changes we may extrapolate the developments that digitization of health care will bring to medicine in general and laboratory medicine in particular. Disruptive technologies will fundamentally change the way laboratory tests are going to be ordered, carried out and interpreted in the future, and test results from various sources need to be curated to be of added value for the patient's condition. Wearables and implantables will quantify the concentrations for an unknown number of laboratory parameters, and the data will be stored in cloud services at the fingertips of the patient as the sovereign of his/her health care data. A 24/7 online availability of health services will strengthen predictive medicine and may enable a vastly improved preventive health care that is supported by deep-learning algorithms for clinical decision-making not only on behalf of the physician, but also the empowered patient (e.g. health bots). This will likely shift the current role of Laboratory Medicine as a central provider of diagnostic information from a "hidden champion" towards a higher visibility redefining the patient-physician-laboratory relationship. For example, accessing digital health data will allow Laboratory Medicine to more efficiently contribute to the medical dialog than is often the case today. From this perspective, this will require major readjustments in the way we execute our profession, and it will also need new concepts of education and continuous professional development.


The structure of the quantum Heisenberg group is studied in the two different frameworks of the Lie algebra deformations and of the quantum matrix pseudogroups. The R-matrix connecting the two approaches, together with its classical limit r, are explicitly calculated by using the contraction technique and the problems connected with the limiting procedure discussed. Some unusual properties of the quantum enveloping Heisenberg algebra are shown.


Lexicon plays an essential role in natural language processing systems and specially the machine translation systems, because it provides the system's components with the necessary information for the translation process. Although there have been a number of researches in natural language processing field, not enough attention has been given to the importance of the lexicon and specially the Arabic lexicon. The aim of this paper is to determine the basic requirements to build a lexicon used for machine translation purpose from Arabic to English language and organize lexicon contents in such form to provide efficient memory usage and minimize the retriever time, and also determine how can we retrieve these tokens from the lexicon after analyzing them by using morphology analyzer. The proposed lexicon based on the Arabic root in storing its words, it use the logical terms to represent its knowledge and uses B + tree data structure to organize this knowledge. And the proposed lexicon has been built by using the visual logical programming language (Visual Prolog).


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal disease for which no effective treatment exists. In the present study, 12 IPF patients underwent analysis of gas exchange properties using the multiple inert gas elimination technique on day 1 before and after the administration of 125 mg bosentan, a dual endothelin antagonist. Following this, patients received chronic administration for 12 weeks (62.5 mg b.i.d. in week 1, 125 mg b.i.d. thereafter). The primary objective was to determine the effect of bosentan on gas exchange (day 1) and on oxygen saturation and minute ventilation (week 2). With one exception, where redistribution of total pulmonary blood flow from normal ventilation/perfusion (V′/Q′) areas (93% before, 72% after bosentan) to low V′/Q′ areas (0% before, 22.2% after) was encountered, no patient showed any change in gas exchange (mean±sd shunt flow (% of cardiac output) 8.5±3.4% before, 6.1±2.3% after bosentan; day 1) or oxygen saturation and minute ventilation (week 2). Similarly, none of the secondary parameters was significantly changed either at week 2 or at the end of the study period (week 12). Five patients developed respiratory infections and two died because of pneumonia; this was judged as being unrelated to bosentan intake. In conclusion, bosentan administration does not seem to induce clinically relevant gas exchange abnormalities in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients.


Two main bottlenecks prevent time-domain diffuse optics instruments to reach their maximum performances, namely the limited light harvesting capability of the detection chain and the bounded data throughput of the timing electronics. In this work, for the first time to our knowledge, we overcome both those limitations using a probe-hosted large area silicon photomultiplier detector coupled to high-throughput timing electronics. The system performances were assessed based on international protocols for diffuse optical imagers showing better figures with respect to a state-of-the-art device. As a first step towards applications, proof-of-principle in-vivo brain activation measurements demonstrated superior signal-to-noise ratio as compared to current technologies.


: This study was aimed to determine the effect Petrophilic and Azotobacter sp. consortium on the rate of degradation of hydrocarbons, Azotobacter growth, and Petrophilic fungi growth in an Inceptisol contaminated with crude oil waste originating from Balongan refinery, one of Pertamina (Indonesia's largest state-owned oil and gas company) units in Indramayu – West Java. This study was conducted from March to April 2014 in the glasshouse of research station of the Faculty of Agriculture, Padjadjaran University at Ciparanje, Jatinangor District, Sumedang Regency of West Java. This study used a factorial completely randomized design with two treatments. The first treatment factor was Petrophilic microbes (A) consisting of four levels (without treatment, 2% Petrophilic fungi, 2% Petrophilic bacteria, and the 2% Petrophilic consortium), and Azotobacter s p. The second treatment factor was Azotobacter sp. (B) consisting of four levels (without treatment, 0.5%, Azotobacter sp ., 1% Azotobacter sp ., and 1.5% Azotobacter sp .) The results demonstrated interaction between Petrophilic microbes and Azotobacter sp. towards hydrocarbon degradation rate, but no interaction was found towards the growth rate of Azotobacter sp. and Petrophilic fungi. Treatments of a 1 b 3 (2% consortium of Petrophilic fungi with 1.5% Azotobacter sp.) and a 3 b 3 (2% Petrophilic consortium and 1.5% Azotobacter sp.) had hydrocarbon degradation rate at 0.22 ppm/day for each treatment, showing the highest hydrocarbon degradation rate.


A transition towards a low resource economy is unavoidable. This can be concluded from numerous initiatives which have been introduced recently. Methodologies and indicators are required in order to better assess the possibilities and challenges related to a transition towards a low resource economy. One of these is economy-wide material flow analysis (MFA). When MFA is connected to national economics accounts it enables the input-output analysis (IOA) of the economic structures causing material flows. In this study we used IO modelling and total flow analysis to identify industrial sectors with the highest material flows in Finland. The analysis exposed that in Finland most resource consumption is caused by the export industry, of which material intensity is low and does not produce significant value added, whereas the domestic construction sector, with notable resource flows, produces significant value added. A low resource economy requires significant and radical change in socio-technological systems and people's mindsets. Due to the complexity of society and the diversity of the economy different types of measures are needed in order to achieve the change. We suggest some measures related to regulations, eco-design, material recycling and welfare for production, investments, services and individual consumption, for example. In the future, the transition towards a low resource economy needs radical changes, more innovations, policy support and actions on all societal levels.


Understanding of streamflow generation processes in response to rainfall has been pursued over the past several decades, because this knowledge is essential for studying nutrient transport, biogeochemical processes, and forest ecosystem functioning. The major objective of this research was to simulate the flow pathways in a humid forested watershed in Taiwan. The hydrological model TOPMODEL, based on the variable-source-area concept of streamflow generation mechanism, was used to predict both amounts of saturation overland flow and subsurface flow in the Fushan watershed no. 2 (94 ha). Two periods were chosen, one each for model calibration (from July to October 1995) and model validation (from March to June 1996). Identification of the optimal parameter set was performed through the Rosenbrock algorithm. Results show that TOPMODEL is suitable for simulating streamflow in the Fushan watershed no. 2. Both model calibration and validation runs, on a daily basis, produced good fits, where model efficiencies were 0.89 and 0.82, respectively. The dominant source of streamflow generation in the study area is subsurface flow that accounts for 85.1% and 88.3% of the total simulated streamflow for the 2 periods, respectively.


This project deals with architecture and engineering involved in the process of architectur- al design. Based on native irregular components, it aims at developing an innovative approach in the conception and rationalization of non-standard structures. Contemporary architecture and its non- classical structures require the design of customized pieces. This process which is highly energy and resources consumptive does not always take into account the inherent material properties. This pro- ject develops a way of optimizing, in architectural structures, the use of native wood pieces that are not industrially transformed (e.g. boughs) or of reused pieces of carpentry. As a consequence, the ecological footprint of the structures would be reduced.


As distributed generation increases, it is essential to study its impact on the grid dynamics. This paper focuses on understanding the influence of the emergent technology of Grid-Forming converters on the electromechanical oscillations of the power system. Interactions among synchronous generators and grid-forming converters are analyzed thanks to simplified models. These highlight the similarities of both sources, and thus, explain the participation of the converter in the oscillation. They also revealed the differences that justify the damping effect of Grid-Forming converter. This conclusion, obtained with simplified models, is validated with a small-signal stability analysis of a detailed model in the dq0-frame.


In this paper the author considers how the therapist might listen to the characters talked about by his or her patients. In psychoanalytic therapy the emphasis is on listening to the patient's characters as though they are located in psychic reality and as representatives of the transference relationship, whereas in interpersonal therapy (IPT) the patient's characters are taken as inhabiting the realm of external reality. It is argued that clinical thinking in IPT would be enhanced by taking more account of psychic reality, which will make clearer the quality of external reality in which the patient's characters are located. It is also argued that both therapies share an interest in enabling the patient to find characters which can serve as holograms of previously unexpressed affective experience.


We assess various approximate forms for the correlation energy per particle of the spin-polarized homogeneous electron gas that have frequently been used in applications of the local spin density approximation to the exchange-correlation energy functional. By accurately recalculating the RPA correlation energy as a function of electron density and spin polarization we demonstrate the inadequacies of the usual approximation for interpolating between the para- and ferro-magnetic states and present an accurate new interpolation formula. A Pade approximant technique is used to accurately interpolate the recent Monte Carlo results (para and ferro) of Ceperley and Alder into the important range of densities for atoms, molecules, and metals. These results can be combined with the RPA spin-dependence so as to produce a correlation energy for a spin-polarized homogeneous electron gas with an estimated maximum error of 1 mRy and thus should reliably determine the magnitude of non-local corrections to the local spin...


Ni 2 MnGa, Ni 2 MnAl, and Ni 2 MnIn alloy films were fabricated by using a flash-evaporation technique. A wide substrate temperature range (from 150 K to 720 K) was chosen to prepare the alloy films with significantly different atomic ordering. Various physical properties, including optical properties, were investigated. It was found that the optical properties of the bulk alloys are very sensitive to the atomic ordering. Unexpectedly, the disordered alloy films are not ferromagnetically ordered. The Ni 2 MnAl bulk alloy exhibits a nonmagnetic behavior. Annealing of the disordered films restores the ordered structure with an almost full recovery of the magnetic and transport properties of the ordered films. These results were further discussed in connection with the atomic structures of the alloy films.


Many photosynthetic bacteria from aquatic and terrestrial habitats reduce atmospheric dinitrogen to ammonia. The synthesis of proteins required for nitrogen fixation in these microorganisms is repressed by fixed nitrogen or oxygen. Studies on the purple non‐sulphur phototroph Rhodobacter capsulatus have helped to clarify this transcriptional control and to define the factors involved in this regulation. The molecular mechanisms by which the nitrogen and oxygen status of the cell are relayed into nif gene expression or repression involve many trans‐ and cis‐ acting factors. The roles of these factors in the nif regulatory cascade of R. capsulatus are summarized. Two levels of control are present. The first level of control involves the nitrogen sensing circuitry in which at least four proteins act in a cascade. Upon nitrogen deficiency, genes involved in the second level of control are transcriptionalty activated. These genes encode regulatory proteins that subsequently activate transcription of all other nif genes under anaerobic conditions. The R. capsulatus cascade is compared to the nif regulatory cascade in Klebsiella pneumoniae, highlighting both common and unique aspects.


Previously used in Alzheimer disease Tacrine (THA): tetrahydroaminoacridine has shown a rise of hepatic transaminase enzyme activity (TEA) in 18% of patients for Summers and 19% for Ames. Although studies using THA from USA or Canada have noticed a rise of TEA in 30% of the patients, after a treatment course with French THA we also have noted a rise of TEA in 12% of the Alzheimer patients. However, these secondary effects yielded to the end of treatment. These studies have been done with THA from different origins and different associations. Summers, the Canadian group and the French one have used THA in association with lecithin, when american group study has been made with no additional product. Therefore we have initiated a trial with oral THA in AIDS patients. 52 patients with HIV infection (26 in the IVC1 group and 26 in IVC2 group) have been treated with the same THA as the one used for Alzheimer french group. The common dosage was 150 to 200 mg (3 to 4 of 50 mg dosing capsules per day). The THA has been synthetized such as having an over 99% pureness product. After a period of 260 months/patient no elevation of TEA has been noted in any patients of our group. These results observed in HIV advanced patients with this THA are discordant with the one observed in Alzheimer's study. The dosage used in AIDS is twice higher than the one used for Alzheimer which gives us credit to the lack of hepatic toxicity in HIV advanced patient after 7 months of treatment.


Objective: Studies have proposed a link between psoriasis and an imbalanced gut microbiome. Therefore, the modulation of the gut microbiota with probiotics may improve clinical outcomes, metabolic endotoxemia, chronic inflammation, and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with psoriasis.Methods: Forty-six patients with psoriasis randomized into two groups, group 1 received a twice a day capsule having freeze-dried powder with 1.6×109 CFU for eight weeks, and group 2 received placebo. For clinical outcomes, we used the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), blood pressure, and SF36 to measure the quality of life. And for biochemistry analysis, we measured pro-inflammatory cytokines (hs-CRP and IL1-β), lipopolysaccharides (LPS), and lipid profile. All the data collected at baseline and the end of the study. Results: Forty-six patients (28 [60%] female; mean [SD] age, 42.51 [14.55] years) contributed to the study. Improvements in SF36 score as an indexed for the QOL was significant in patients taking probiotics supplementation comparing to the placebo group and PASI (-5.06±2.10 vs. 0.30±1.80, P=0.049) as well. After the intervention, the treatment group had significant reductions in LDL and TC compared to the placebo group. In addition, we observed a considerable reduction in serum LPS levels (-7.21±10.33 vs. -2.74±0.97 mmol/L, P=0.010), hs-CRP levels (-1.67 ±0.95 vs. -0.70+ 0.38 mg/L, P=0.013), and IL1- β levels (-1.64 ±1.10 vs. 0.17+ -0.20 mg/L, P=0.043) in the probiotics group. Conclusion: This study shows that probiotics significantly improved the quality of life and seriousness in psoriatic patients. Moreover, it enhances cardiovascular risk factors and inflammatory/oxidative stress markers. Trial registration: This trial also was recorded in the Iranian registry of clinical trials (https://www.irct.ir) (code: IRCT20191124045483N1).


The growth and the operation of all living beings are directed through the interpretation, in each of their cells, of a chemical program, the DNA string or genome. This process is the source of inspiration for the Embryonics (embryonic electronics) project, whose final objective is the conception of very large scale integrated circuits endowed with properties usually associated with the living world: self-repair (cicatrization) and self-replication. We begin by showing that any logic system can be represented by an ordered binary decision diagram (OBDD), and then embedded into a fine-grained field-programmable gate array (FPGA) whose basic cell is a multiplexer with programmable connections. The cellular array thus obtained is perfectly homogeneous: the function of each cell is defined by a configuration (or gene) and all the genes in the array, each associated with a pair of coordinates, make up the blueprint (or genome) of the artificial organism. In the second part of the project, we add to the basic cell a memory and an interpreter to, respectively, store and decode the complete genome. The interpreter extracts from the genome the gene of a particular cell as a function of its position in the array (its coordinates) and thus determines the exact configuration of the relative multiplexer. The considerable redundancy introduced by the presence of a genome in each cell has significant advantages: self-replication (the automatic production of one or more copies of the original organism) and self-repair (the automatic repair of one or more faulty cells) become relatively simple operations. The multiplexer-based FPGA cell and the interpreter are finally embedded into an electronic module; an array of such modules make it possible to demonstrate self-repair and self-replication.


An examination of the differences between two supervision models/processes used for case conceptualizations in group supervision was conducted. The first group utilized a relatively new construct, titled the 360° Case Conceptualization Process, which incorporates a strengths-based method encouraging reflective practice and risk taking. The second group in the study utilized a supervision format that assigns a familiar fictional character of interest to each group (Peer Roles). The authors utilized a case study design to provide an in-depth look at the 360° Process in practice while also making some comparisons to a group supervision class utilizing a different model. Results demonstrated the 360° Process group focused more on developmental considerations of both the counselor and the client and utilized less instructor directives than the Peer Roles group.


What is herpetic gingivostomatitis? Herpetic gingivostomatitis is an infection of the mouth and lips that is caused by a virus. Herpes gingivostomatitis most commonly affects toddlers and young children, although older individuals can also get this infection. What is the cause? Herpetic gingivostomatitis is caused by virus called herpes simplex virus type 1 or HSV1. This is a different kind of herpes virus than the kind that is sexually transmitted. The infection is passed from person to person through contact with saliva that contains the virus (such as sharing utensils, cups, and bottles; thumb sucking; and putting toys in the mouth). Often the contact is with a person who has cold sores. What are the symptoms? The illness usually starts with a fever before the first mouth sores appear. Sores in the mouth may form on the lips, gums, tongue, and cheeks. Often the gums are very red and bleed easily. How is it diagnosed? This condition is common and will be recognized by your healthcare provider without doing any special tests. How long does it last? The fever usually lasts for a few days. The painful mouth sores last 3 to 5 days before they start to get better. It will take about 14 days before the sores completely heal. After the mouth sores heal, the virus remains in the body and can become active again. When this happens, usually the sores are not as severe. Sores that return on the lips are called "cold sores." What can I do to help take care of my child? Fever and mouth pain can be treated with acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Do NOT give your child aspirin. Check with your healthcare provider before you give any medicine that contains aspirin or salicylates to a child or teen. This includes medicines like baby aspirin, some cold medicines, and Pepto-Bismol. Children and teens who take aspirin are at risk for a serious illness called Reye's syndrome. If your child has never had herpetic gingivostomatitis before and has had sores for less than 3 days, an antiviral medicine called acyclovir may help the sores go away more quickly. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses. You can help prevent dehydration by giving your child plenty of fluids. Chicken broth, sports drinks, or popsicles are good examples of fluids that your child may drink easily. If the sores prevent your child from drinking, his urine output will decrease and his mouth will become dry. You will know your child is dehydrated if he does not urinate very often and has a dry mouth. To keep from spreading the virus, try to keep your child's hand away from his mouth while he has active sores. Tell your child not to rub his eyes to prevent infection. Medicines that make the mouth numb are not a good idea for children since they may cause the child to swallow incorrectly and choke. When should I call my child's healthcare provider? Call within 24 hours if: The skin around the eye has blisters or sores. Call during office hours if: It has been more than 8 hours since your child has urinated and your child cannot urinate. You have other questions and concerns.


COVID-19 infection may present with gastrointestinal lesions in up to 25% of patients. One of the target organs of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is the intestine. The pathogenesis of intestinal damage in a new coronavirus infection remains unclear and requires further in-depth study. Possible mechanisms include a direct cytotoxic effect of the virus, a persistent reduction in butyrate-producing bacteria, side effects of drugs, Clostridioides difficile infection, microvascular thrombosis, and the immune-mediated inflammatory reactions in the intestine. The most common symptom of intestinal damage during coronavirus infection, both in the acute phase and in the post-COVID period, is diarrhea. The impact of many aggressive factors on the intestines can form both long-term functional disorders and be the cause of the onset of organic diseases. Treatment should be aimed at possible causes of intestinal damage (Clostridioides difficile), as well as reducing inflammation, restoring intestinal permeability, cytoprotection of mucosal cells, replenishing butyric acid deficiency. When choosing a therapy for intestinal disorders, preference should be given to drugs with a pleiotropic effect in order to influence various possible pathogenetic mechanisms.


The paper is concerned with the interplay between network structure and traffic dynamics in a communications network, from the viewpoint of end-to-end performance of packet transfer. We use a model of network generation that allows the transition from random to scale-free networks. Specifically, we are able to consider three different topological types of networks: (a) random; (b) scale-free with gamma = 3; (c) scale-free with gamma = 2. We also use an LRD traffic generator in order to reproduce the fractal behavior that is observed in real world data communication. The issue is addressed of how the traffic behavior on the network is influenced by the variable factors of the transmission rates and queue length restrictions at the network vertices. We show that these factors can induce drastic changes in the throughput and delivery time of network performance and are able to counter-balance some undesirable effects due to the topology


We study the complementarity between accelerator and reactor coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering (CE$\nu$NS) experiments for constraining new physics in the form of non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI). Firstly, considering just data from the recent observation by the COHERENT experiment, we explore interpretive degeneracies that emerge when activating either two or four unknown NSI parameters. Next, we demonstrate that simultaneous treatment of reactor and accelerator experiments, each employing at least two distinct target materials, can break a degeneracy between up and down flavor-diagonal NSI terms that survives analysis of neutrino oscillation experiments. Considering four flavor-diagonal ($ee/\mu\mu$) up and down-type NSI parameters, we find that all terms can be measured with high local precision (to a width as small as $\sim$5\% in Fermi units) by next-generation experiments, although discrete reflection ambiguities persist.


The Big Mac Index, introduced by The Economist magazine more than two decades ago, claims to provide the "true value" of a large number of currencies. This paper assesses the economic value of this index. We show that (i) the index suffers from a substantial bias; (ii) once the bias is allowed for, the index tracks exchange rates reasonably well over the medium to longer term in accordance with relative purchasing power parity theory; (iii) the index is at least as good as the industry standard, the random walk model, in predicting future currency values for all but shortterm horizons; and (iv) future nominal exchange rates are more responsive than prices to currency mispricing. While not perfect, at a cost of less than $US10 per year, the index seems to provide good value for money.


Previous studies in primary care settings indicate that Axis I anxiety disorders range in prevalence from 2.1% to 14.8%. However, the prevalence of anxiety symptoms, rather than Axis I diagnoses, has undergone limited study. In a pilot study, we surveyed 88 outpatients in an internal medicine clinic and explored the prevalence of various anxiety symptoms based on four measures of anxiety and worry. Thirty percent of participants endorsed mixed anxiety features, 33% reported generalized anxiety symptoms, nearly half acknowledged obsessive–compulsive personality symptoms, and nearly a quarter identified meaningful levels of worry. Seventeen percent of participants were positive on all four study measures. These data suggest that anxiety symptoms are probably more prevalent in primary care settings than recognized. Depression and Anxiety 19:133‐136, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Continuous monitoring of Blood Pressure (BP) is desirable in the management of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Novel tools are exploring Photoplethysmography (PPG) to determine a patient BP. We utilized a Monte Carlo (MC) framework to connect the cardiovascular biomechanics and light transport associated with a PPG signal. Optical properties specific of obese and non-obese groups were used to determine their influence on the PPG waveform. Our simulation shows that the PPG signal is altered in individuals suffering from obesity, which could limit their use in BP monitoring.


The regions and conditions in which the Saha equation can be applied to the cathodic plasma of a vacuum arc are examined. Considering the relaxation times of ionisation and recombination, it is found that the plasma is in a frozen state of ionisation due to the rapid expansion for r>or approximately=(10-100) mu m, where r is the distance from the cathode spot. As a consequence the electron density and all ion densities should be proportional to r-2. The parameters of the frozen state accessible to experimental investigations (r>100 mu m) result from the parameters of the strongly non-ideal plasma of the cathode spot. This opens a new approach to investigate strongly non-ideal plasmas by comparatively simple methods.


Abstract Identification and Classification of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) using protein sequences is an important computational challenge, given that experimental screening of thousands of ligands is an expensive proposition. There are two distinct but complementary approaches to GPCR classification—machine learning and sequence motif analysis. Machine learning methodologies typically suffer from problems of class imbalance and lack of multi-class classification. Many sequence motif methods, meanwhile, are too dependent on the similarity of the primary sequence alignments. It is desirable to have a motif discovery and application methodology that is not strongly dependent on primary sequence similarity. It should also overcome limitations of machine learning. We propose and evaluate the effectiveness of a simple methodology that uses a reduced protein functional alphabet representation, where similar functional residues have similar symbols. Regular expression motifs can then be obtained by ClustalW based multiple sequence alignment, using an identity matrix. Since evolutionary matrices like BLOSUM, PAM are not used, this method can be useful for any set of sequences that do not necessarily share a common ancestry. Reduced alphabet motifs can accurately classify known GPCR proteins and the results are comparable to PRINTS and PROSITE. For well known GPCR proteins from SWIS-SPROT, there were no false negatives and only a few false positives. This methodology covers most currently known classes of GPCRs, even if there are very few representative sequences. It also predicts more than one class for certain sequences, thus overcoming the limitation of machine learning methods. We also annotated, 695 orphan receptors, and 121 were identified as belonging to Family A. A simple JavaScript based web interface has been developed to predict GPCR families and subfamilies (www.insilico-consulting.com/gpcrmotif.html).


A prescribed performance back-stepping control approach is presented for a generic air-breathing hypersonic vehicle (AHV) with the uncertainties of the model and unknown disturbance. By prescribed performance, a novel performance function characterizing the error convergence rate, maximum overshoot and steady-state error is designed for the output error transformation without initial errors. In order to enhance the robustness of controller, the novel nonlinear disturbance observers (NDOs) based on tangent sigmoid tracking differentiators (TSTDs) are introduced to estimate and compensate the uncertainties of the model. To eliminate the "explosion of term" of back-stepping control strategy, sliding mode differentiators (SMDs) is applied to obtain the derivatives of virtual control laws. Finally, the tracking performance the proposed control approach is testified by simulation results.


The progress of science in Latin American countries has been continuously perturbed by political instability and difficult social and economical conditions. Even countries with a long democratic tradition such as Chile have experienced painful dictatorships in recent years.

The situation of the Chilean universities under the government of General Augusto Pinochet is critical. Thousands of scientists and other specialists, many of them highly trained, have been obliged to leave the country, either because of military repression or because of the profound crisis that affects the economy. University professors and students that favored the policies of the late President Salvador Allende have been subjected to various degrees of repression that include unemployment, expulsion from the country, imprisonment, torture, and even death.


Background: The L-Dex U400 is a recently developed measurement device to aid in the clinical assessment of unilateral lymphedema. Until now, little is known about variation in measurement results of the L-Dex U400. The aim of this study was to determine variation in measurement results in determining extracellular fluid of the arm with the L-Dex U400 under different measurement conditions on 2 days and to determine the reliability of these measurements in healthy subjects. Methods and Results: Thirty participants were included. Participants were measured on 2 days, 2 weeks apart. Each day they were measured six times, 1st basic measurement, 2nd after a 10-minute rest period, 3rd second observer, 4th after drinking 200 mL of coffee and rest for 30 minutes on the examination couch, 5th after 30 minutes of cycling on an exercise bike at 50 W and 50-60 rounds per minute, and 6th after a 10-minute rest period. The variance due to participants was 68% of the total variance and 32% was error variance. Lin's concordance coefficient (CCC), a reliability measure, ranged from 0.935 (first day, 1st and 2nd measurement of observer 1) to 0.517 (first and second day after a 10-minute rest period after cycling). In two CCCs, the lower limits of the 95% confidence interval were higher than 0.750. Repeatability coefficient was smallest for the basic observations on day 2 (4.6) and largest after cycling (8.0). Conclusions: Clinical decision-making based on L-Dex U400 measurements should be regarded with caution because of moderate reliability.


Speaking tasks involving peer-to-peer candidate interaction are increasingly being incorporated into language proficiency assessments, in both large-scale international testing contexts, and in smaller-scale, for example course-related, ones. This growth in the popularity and use of paired and group orals has stimulated research, particularly into the types of discourse produced and the possible impact of candidate background factors on performance. However, despite the fact that the strongest argument for the validity of peer-to-peer assessment lies in the claim that such tasks allow for the assessment of a broader range of interactional skills than the more traditional interview-format tests do, there is surprisingly little research into the judgments that are made of such performances. The fact that raters, and rating criteria, are in a crucial mediating position between output and outcomes, warrants investigation into how raters construe the interaction in these tasks. Such investigations have the potential to inform the development of interaction-based rating scales and ensure that validity claims are moved beyond the content level to the construct level. This paper reports the findings of a verbal protocol study of teacher-raters viewing the paired test discourse of 17 beginner dyads in a university-based Spanish as a foreign language course. The findings indicate that the raters identified three interaction parameters: non-verbal interpersonal communication, interactive listening, and interactional management. The findings have implications for our understanding of the construct of effective interaction in paired candidate speaking tests, and for the development of appropriate rating scales.


There is a strong association (approximately 95%) of endemic Burkitt's lymphoma with Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV), whereas the association is weak for the sporadic form occurring in Western countries (approximately 15%). In the Middle East, North Africa and South America, 60–80% of Burkitt's lymphomas harbour EBV. These epidemiological differences suggest that either the endemicity of EBV or socio‐economic conditions, or both, may influence the pathogenetic role of EBV in Burkitt's lymphoma. Since only meagre data are available on Asians, this study was performed to address this issue by studying cases from Hong Kong, where EBV seroconversion occurs in the first few years of life but the socio‐economic conditions approach those of Western countries. In situ hybridization for EBV encoded RNAs (EBERs) was performed on paraffin sections of 18 cases of Burkitt's lymphoma. Labelling of the neoplastic cells was detected in five cases (27.7%). In contrast, among 54 cases of B‐cell lymphomas of various subtypes studied for comparison, signals for EBER were detected in only one case each of T‐cell‐rich large B‐cell lymphoma, anaplastic large cell lymphoma and Reed‐Sternberg‐like cells occurring in B‐cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma. The strong labelling with oligo‐dT probe (which hybridized with the polyadenylated ends of mRNA) in all cases suggested that the negative results were genuine and not due to poor preservation of RNA in the tissues. Thus, among B‐cell neoplasms occurring in Chinese, Burkitt's lymphoma shows a statistically stronger association (P < 0.01) with EBV than with other types of B‐cell lymphoma. The available data also suggest that the socio‐economic status of the country rather than exposure to EBV at an early age is the crucial factor determining the role of EBV in the genesis of Burkitt's lymphoma.


Epithelioid hemangioma is a rare benign vascular tumour that atypically involves the penis and usually presents as a painful nodule. A 35-year-old man presented with a 5-month history of painful erections without a clinically apparent lesion or deformity. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with pharmacologically induced erection demonstrated a 1.3-cm nodular lesion deep to the skin at the base of his penis. Following local excision of the lesion, which was diagnosed as an epithelioid hemangioma, the patient was symptom free. This case demonstrates a rare etiology of painful erections with a unique presentation. To the authors' knowledge, it is also the first report of MRI with intracavernosal injection of trimix to assess for a specific cause of painful erections.


The soil-borne fungal pathogen Verticillium longisporum is able to penetrate the root of a number of plant species and spread systemically via the xylem. Fumigation of Verticillium contaminated soil with Brassica green manure is used as an environmentally friendly method for crop protection. Here we present a study focused on the potential role of glucosinolates and their breakdown products of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana in suppressing growth of V. longisporum. For this purpose we analysed the glucosinolate composition of the leaves and roots of a set of 19 key accessions of A. thaliana. The effect of volatile glucosinolate hydrolysis products on the in vitro growth of the pathogen was tested by exposing the fungus to hydrated lyophilized plant tissue. Volatiles released from leaf tissue were more effective than from root tissue in suppressing mycelial growth of V. longisporum. The accessions varied in their efficacy, with the most effective suppressing mycelial growth by 90%. An analysis of glucosinolate profiles and their enzymatic degradation products revealed a correlation between fungal growth inhibition and the concentration of alkenyl glucosinolates, particularly 2-propenyl (2Prop) glucosinolate, respectively its hydrolysis products. Exposure of the fungus to purified 2Prop glucosinolate revealed that its suppressive activity was correlated with its concentration. Spiking of 2Prop glucosinolate to leaf material of one of the least effective A. thaliana accessions led to fungal growth suppression. It is suggested that much of the inhibitory effect observed for the tested accessions can be explained by the accumulation of 2Prop glucosinolate.


National Research Network on the Changing Nature of Work and Lifelong Learning in the New Economy: National and Case Study Perspectives (WALL) founded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)


Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), a pure Lagrangian numerical method, is applied to analysis of penetration phenomenon of bumper plate which is installed outside of spacecraft hull to protect the
spacecraft against hypervelocity meteorite impact. Effects of SPH parameters, such as artificial viscosities, smoothing lengths, numbers of particles and time increments, are ana lysed by comparing the SPH simulation results with experimental ones with regard to subsequent formation of debris cloud. An optimum range of parameter values is determined by error analysis and various SPH numerical results are compared with experiments.


EXTENSIVE studies of the blood supply to the ear have been made and are contained in standard texts of anatomy. Histological studies of the microvascular system of the chochlea have been reviewed, 1 but I can find no reference to physiological studies of the recordable arterial pulse from the external auditory canal except those reported by me. 2 Studies of the vascular system of the ear and the recordable arterial pulse present many difficulties because of the inaccessibility of the internal structures of this organ. This report is presented in the hope that readers may have suggestions on the origin of the two types of recordable arterial pulses, the mechanism by which the eardrum functions in the presence of these pulses, the physiological and pathological significance of these pulses, and to illustrate refinements of technique for making these studies. Methods, Materials, and Results The sensitivity of the instrument for recording


Now days, internet resulted in an considerable growth in multimedia applications. The explosive advancement of internet has made it easier to send the data/image accurate and faster to the destination. Besides this, it is easier to modify and misuse the valuable information through hacking at the same time. Digital watermarking is one of the proposed solutions for copyright protection of multimedia data. A watermark is a technique, image or text is impressed onto the another image, which provides evidence of its authenticity. Here an invisible watermarking technique (least significant bit) and a visible watermarking technique is implemented. This paper presents the general overview of image and text watermarking and different security issues such as ambiguity attack, cryptographic attacks etc. Various attacks such as ambiguity attack, cryptographic attacks etc. are also performed on watermarked images and their impact on quality of images is supplementary of paper. In paper, Image Watermarking using Least Significant Bit (LSB) algorithm has been used for embedding the message/ into the image. This work has been implemented through MATLAB.


The aliasing of the speckle noise and echo information of SAR blurs the structure character of SAR image. It is difficult to enhance structure character of SAR images. Aiming at this difficulty, we propose an amalgamation frame based on EMD and PCA algorithm. The frame can effectively filter the speckle noise and enhance the structure character which finally can be seen by people's eyes. Using the proposed method, the speckle noise of SAR image in different scale is filtered. At last, we obtain the new denoised SAR image. The experiment result indicates that speckle noise of our result is substantially decreased and the structure character and texture of the result is clearer. And our result eyes can distinguish the character of SAR image.


Stringy Hodge numbers are introduced by Batyrev for a mathematical formulation of mirror symmetry. However, since the stringy Hodge numbers of an algebraic variety are defined by choosing a resolution of singularities, the well-definedness is not clear from the definition. Batyrev proved the well-definedness by using the theory of motivic integration developed by Kontsevich, Denef-Loeser. The aim of this paper is to give an alternative proof of the well-definedness of stringy Hodge numbers based on arithmetic results such as p-adic integration and p-adic Hodge theory.


BACKGROUND
As a consequence of continuous technical developments in liver surgery, laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) is increasingly performed worldwide.

METHODS
Between January 2004 and December 2011, 265 LLR were performed in 242 patients for various diseases. The experience of LLR is reported focusing on risk factors of conversion and their management.

RESULTS
The overall conversion rate was 17/265 (6.4%), equally distributed over the period of the study. Statistically significant factors for conversion were found to be LLR of the postero-superior (P-S) segments (SI, SIVa; SVII; SVIII) (12.7% converted versus 2.5% non-converted groups, P = 0.01) and a major compared with a minor hepatectomy (15.2% vs. 4.6%, P = 0.02 respectively). A R0 resection was achieved in 93.2% of cases. According to Dindo's classification, complications were recorded as grade I (n = 20); grade II (6); grade III (11) and grade IV(1) events (total morbidity rate of 14%). Univariate analysis identified a major hepatectomy and resection involving P-S segments as prognostic factors for conversion whereas multivariate analysis identified the latter as an independent risk factor [P = 0.003, odds ratio (OR) = 5.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.8-18.8].

CONCLUSIONS
LLR can be safely performed with low overall morbidity. According to this experience and irrespective of the learning curve, resections of P-S segments were identified as an independent risk factor for conversion in LLR.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of carboplatin-paclitaxel (TC) as an initial treatment in patients with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IVb cervical cancer.

METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed seven patients with stage IVb cervical cancer who have been primarily treated with TC. The activity and the toxicity were evaluated. Response rate was the main endpoint.

RESULTS
Overall, the treatment of TC was well tolerated. The overall response rate was 71.4% (2 complete response, 3 partial response). Although grade 3-4 hematologic toxicities were observed in 3 out of 7 patients (42.8%), no patients experienced grade 3-4 non-hematologic toxicities. When we combined our present results with the previous reports, the overall response rate of TC is 63.6%.

CONCLUSION
TC is active and well tolerated in patients FIGO stage IVb cervical cancer. This combination may be considered as an initial treatment regimen in this patient population.


In this paper, we use probability theory to prove in suitable conditions the equivalence of equilibrium time correlation functions of microscopic density fields with the time correlation functions of local macroscopic density fields evolved by hydrodynamics in (approximate) phenomenological continuum theories of matter. We further discuss a useful and rigorous numerical algorithm, derived from this framework, to compute macroscopic space- and time-dependent behaviors (such as the hydrodynamical one) via molecular dynamics simulations.


Gottfredson and Hirschi's A General Theory of Crime proposes that low self-control is a cause of criminal behavior. Several recent studies, showing mixed support, test this theory for understanding crime and imprudent behavior. In this paper we reassess the general theory of crime and highlight the importance of proximate causes, including routine conflict, in explaining the propensity toward violence. Drawing from the insights provided by routine activities theory, we operationalize risky behavior. We analyze data collected in 1994 in a survey of respondents from two Canadian provinces. Our results show that elements of low self-control do not directly affect crime, although measures of self-control have strong effects on imprudent behavior which relate, in turn, to offending. Adding measures of proximate causes, we are better able to understand criminal offending and victimization by respecifying the general theory of crime.


Cropping choices under uncertainty caused by weather, input prices, and ecological conditions have been addressed in contemporary literature. However, uncertainty arising from violent conflict on farming choices lacks substantial academic attention. In this research we address the ramifications of conflict on household cropping choices, building on the notion of "conflict resistant" cropping systems introduced in Kibriya et al. 2014 and King et al. 2013. We argue that farming households' preferences change under conflict as they revert to a cropping system that minimizes losses. This novel concept is solidified by formulating a definition through rational choice theory. The theoretical expectations are verified through data obtained from 2300 smallholder farming households in North Kivu, DRC. A case study and propensity score matching methods are employed to demonstrate that conflict-affected households focus more on low-value crops that are less frequently stolen in order to maximize the probability of survival.


Myrmecochory, or seed dispersal by ants, is a dispersal syndrome found among several thousand plant species occupying different ecosystems and geographical regions. Typically, ants benefit from consuming a lipid-rich appendage on the seed and in return provide seed dispersal service to the plant. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the selective advantage for plants resulting from myrmecochory, including directed dispersal, dispersal for distance and escape from seed predators. I contrast the evidence available in the literature for these hypotheses and distinguish the studies on the basis of ecosystem and plant growth forms. The predator-avoidance and the distance dispersal hypotheses were supported in most studies that addressed them, and the directed dispersal hypothesis was supported in about half of the studies that tested it. Multiple hypotheses were supported in most studies that tested more than one hypothesis, suggesting that the various selective advantages conferred from myrmecochory are seldom exclusive. I also review evidence for the hypothesis that plants have evolved adaptations both for selecting seed dispersers and for manipulating the behavior of those dispersers. Based on this evidence, I argue that focusing future research on the evolution of partner choice by myrmecochores and its effects on the overall plant fitness will be more fruitful than putting an emphasis on classifying the selective advantage to plants into distinct categories and test for their existence separately.


Disappearance of a voice or other sound source may often go unnoticed when the auditory scene is crowded. We explored the role of selective attention for this change deafness with magnetoencephalography in multi‐speaker scenes. Each scene was presented two times in direct succession, and one target speaker was frequently omitted in Scene 2. When listeners were previously cued to the target speaker, activity in auditory cortex time locked to the target speaker's sound envelope was selectively enhanced in Scene 1, as was determined by a cross‐correlation analysis. Moreover, the response was stronger for hit trials than for miss trials, confirming that selective attention played a role for subsequent change detection. If selective attention to the streams where the change occurred was generally required for successful change detection, neural enhancement of this stream would also be expected without cue in hit compared to miss trials. However, when listeners were not previously cued to the target, no enhanced activity for the target speaker was observed for hit trials, and there was no significant difference between hit and miss trials. These results, first, confirm a role for attention in change detection for situations where the target source is known. Second, they suggest that the omission of a speaker, or more generally an auditory stream, can alternatively be detected without selective attentional enhancement of the target stream. Several models and strategies could be envisaged for change detection in this case, including global comparison of the subsequent scenes.


Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in the human is a very effective procedure which allows the fertilization of the majority of oocytes even in cases of extreme oligoasthenoteratozoospermia. Round-headed acrosomeless human spermatozoa, however, form an exception to this rule, because in about half of the couples with globozoospermia all oocytes remain unfertilized after injection. The incapacity of the spermatozoon to activate the oocyte following injection of round-headed spermatozoa could be the underlying mechanism. To investigate this hypothesis, activation rates of mouse oocytes injected with spermatozoa from a patient with globozoospermia were compared with those obtained after injection with normal spermatozoa. Of mouse oocytes surviving the injection with donor spermatozoa, 95% underwent activation, compared to none of the 88 mouse oocytes surviving the injection with round-headed spermatozoa. After fixation, prematurely condensed sperm chromosomes were found in these oocytes. Parthenogenetic activation of mouse oocytes (8% ethanol at 40 min after injection) injected with round-headed spermatozoa led to the activation of 96% of oocytes. These oocytes developed normally to the first mitosis and were fixed for analysis of the sperm karyotypes. The incidence of chromosomal abnormalities of round-headed spermatozoa (6%) was similar to that in spermatozoa from a fertile donor (9%). These data provide further information on the basic defect in cases of globozoospermia and demonstrate that globozoospermia is not associated with sperm karyotype abnormalities.


extract] The parallel, but separate, systems of courts that co-exist today in Brunei are a result of these two distinctive imported influences. The British legacy is manifest in the Civil Court system whilst the Islamic inheritance is apparent in the newly reformed system, of Syariah Courts. Whilst the former was retained postindependence to be the dominant institution in the Sultanate's legal system, recent reforms to the Islamic courts and to Islamic laws have signalled the Sultan's commitment to increasing their role and significance for Brunei's predominantly Malay, Muslim population. This is consistent with the nation's ideology, Melayu Islam Beraja (MIB), designed to promote and uphold Malay culture, Islam and the institution of the monarchy as indispensable components in Bruneian development. Inevitably, MIB also impacts upon the current priorities for dispute resolution, including those processes other than adjudication employed in courts, whether the secular common law or the religious Syariah court systems. It is two of these 'alternative' processes, specifically arbitration and mediation, that are the main focus of this article.


I analyze the topological structures generated by diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA), using the recently developed "branched growth model". The computed bifurcation number B for DLA in two dimensions is B ≈ 4.9, in good agreement with the numerically obtained result of B ≈ 5.2. In high dimensions, B → 3.12; the bifurcation ratio is thus a decreasing function of dimensionality. This analysis also determines the scaling properties of the ramification matrix, which describes the hierarchy of branches.


Abstract:Our team developed MyPEEPS (Male youth Pursuing Empowerment, Education, and Prevention around Sexuality) Mobile–a health application for young cisgender men who have sex with men to promote health and reduce sexual risk. The current study sought to better understand approaches for adapting MyPEEPS for transmasculine youth. Methods. Transmasculine youth, ages 13–18 years, who reported attraction to or sex with cisgender men were recruited to participate in focus groups in four major cities in the United States. Results. Overall, participants found MyPEEPS Mobile to be a useful educational platform for sexual health education. Participants discussed expansions of the MyPEEPS Mobile App to address interpersonal concerns and provision of a holistic approach to health promotion for transmasculine youth. Detailed suggestions for improvement included personalization; transmasculine inclusivity and relatability; expansion of population-specific educational components; and improvements to functionality, images, and graphics. Conclusions. While MyPEEPS Mobile has educational components, adaptations are needed to address specific needs of TMY and optimize user-centered design for feasibility and efficacy. If tailored to the lives of transmasculine youth, MyPEEPS has the potential to promote HIV preventive behavior.