Abstract Primary ambulatory thromboprophylaxis (PATP) in patients with solid malignancies is not routinely indicated. We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to determine the benefit and risk of PATP in patients with nonpancreatic gastrointestinal cancers receiving chemotherapy. RCTs with venous thromboembolism (VTE) reduction as primary or secondary endpoints were included. A total of 1932 patients from subgroups of 3 RCTs were eligible. The VTE incidence was 1.26% and 2.55% in PATP and control arms, respectively (risk ratio 0.49; confidence interval 0.25 to 0.96; P = 0.04), with a number needed to treat of 78 to prevent one VTE event. In gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer patients, the VTE incidence was 1.37% and 3.40% in PATP and control arms, respectively (risk ratio 0.40; confidence interval 0.13 to 1.24; P = 0.11). PATP should not be recommended in patients with nonpancreatic gastrointestinal cancers on chemotherapy.


An n posteriori error estimation scheme is formulated and implemented for threedirncnsional, steady-state, heat conduction problems using constant boundary elements. Predicted element L, boundary error norms for temperature and flux are calculated from least squares smoothing of the initial discontinuous boundary element solution. The global predicted error norm is calculated by summing predicted element L, error norms. Global predicted relative percentage error is used to measure the accuracy of a boundary element solution and is calculated from the global predicated L2 error norm. Two example problems are considered and the accuracy of the error estimates is compared with a fine boundary element mesh of quadratic elements.


Analytical and experimental researches on the characteristics of a three-shaft gas turbine are presented in the paper. The concerned gas turbine engine includes a twin-shaft gas generator and a third shaft — the free turbine for power generation. The free turbine uses a variable-angle nozzle (VAN) for fuel saving and load-adjusting flexible.The engine performance is calculated by using the multi-dimensional Newton-Raphson method, which is based on a set of matching constraints described by the error matrix and the performance maps of the related components. It has a better accuracy and stability than those of some other methods (e.g. parameter cycle method) and is well suitable for solving the off-design problem. The suggested prediction method, presented as a computer program written in Fortran 95, is extremely flexible and can be employed to various engine configurations.Experiments are carried out on the concerned engine by controlling the stagger angle of the VAN, then adjusting the fuel consumption for different outputs. The accuracy of the prediction method is validated by the experiment.Detailed performance characteristic of the engine is investigated under five different stagger angles of the VAN when the T3 value was controlled from 85% to 105% of its design value, revealing how the T3 and the stagger angle of the VAN affect the gas turbine performance. The results are useful for the engine operation and components optimization.© 2013 ASME


The problem of the experimental and theoretical determination of magnetic anisotropy in isolated molecular spin clusters is addressed here. To this end, the case of molecular Cr7Ni rings sublimated in ultrahigh vacuum conditions and assembled in an ordered fashion on Au(111) surface is addressed and investigated using X‐ray magnetic dichroism (XMCD) and theoretical calculations. Fixing the experimental conditions at a temperature T = 8 K and a magnetic field of 5 T, the angular‐dependence of the dichroic signal reveals an easy‐axis anisotropy for the Ni magnetization along the direction perpendicular to the ring while the magnetization of the whole Cr7Ni molecule is preferentially aligned within the ring plane. These features are well reproduced by spin Hamiltonian simulations, which reflect the character of the S = 3/2 first excited multiplet, dominating at T = 8 K and 5 T. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that local spin orbit interactions determine an easy axis anisotropy at the Ni site while the Cr magnetic moment turns out to be more isotropic. This is the first direct observation of the interplay between the single ion and the overall magnetic anisotropy in complex (polynuclear) molecular systems.


We studied SPan-1 antigen in 64 patients with pancreatic cancer by measuring serum concentrations with RIABEAD and examining the intratumor staining patterns immunohistochemically. Serum concentrations were elevated (greater than 30 U/ml) in 46 patients (72.0%), roughly the same percentage as with elevated serum CA19-9 concentrations. Ten out of 19 patients without CA19-9 antigen expressed SPan-1, and the combined rate of positivity was 86% (55/64). Immunohistochemically, CA19-9 was localized to the apical surface and the supranuclear cytoplasm of normal epithelial cells, but SPan-1 was localized to the supranuclear cytoplasm or throughout the cytoplasm. After malignant degeneration, both antigens were found over the entire plasma membrane, throughout the cytoplasm (loss of polar distribution) and in the stroma surrounding the cells. SPan-1 was detected in 48 out of 54 adeno-carcinomas of the pancreas (89%), and all cases with an elevated serum concentration displayed stromal staining in the cancer tissues. The utility of SPan-1 antigen as a tumor marker for diagnosing pancreatic cancer was found to be equal to that of CA19-9.


INTRODUCTION
Ecuador is a country with limited nutritional information, with exception of some general studies supported by Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) Aims: to carry out a nutritional assessment of the diet of Ecuadorian immigrant population in Southern Spain to determine differences in food patterns and possible nutritional deficiencies.

METHODS
the nutritional assessment was based on a 24-h food recall survey applied to the Ecuadorian population residing in Seville and Córdoba (Spain) in combination with the application of national and international food composition data bases. Nutrient intake levels and fulfillment of Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) were estimated and statistically tested for social, sex, age and geographical factors.

RESULTS
macronutrient distributions and nutrient intake levels in relation with DRIs were adequate in most cases. Importantly, Ecuadorian food habits were still present in immigrant population, with rice being the main energy source. Intakes levels were significantly different for several nutrients depending on age group, sex, place of residence and professional occupation. Comparison with previous nutritional data from Ecuador revealed a better nutritional status of immigrant population in Spain, though deficiencies in fiber, vitamin E, I and Se were detected in the diet of both populations. Nevertheless, data for these deficiencies were insufficient to be conclusive given both limitations in the food composition data bases (e.g. Se) and the lack of more adequate information tools for its assessment (e.g. long-term studies for vitamin E).

CONCLUSIONS
the results in the present study evidenced that Ecuadorian immigrants in Spain showed more adequate food patterns that those reported for Ecuador. These data can be helpful to get further insight into the nutritional value of Ecuadorian diet and develop suitable nutrition intervention.


Readers may have noticed a new healthcare catchphrase gracing magazine covers and even the front page of the New York Times: "personalized medicine."1 But what does it mean and how will it change healthcare? According to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 'Personalized medicine refers to the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient.'2 Personalized medicine is important because of several emerging clinical and financial trends in healthcare. As a result, there is a strong impetus for personalized medicine, which can succeed if we can find a way to break down the silos that have traditionally separated clinical and financial world views.


Purpose: This qualitative study explored the experiences of primary health care providers and staff who had moved beyond the stage of implementing electronic medical records (EMRs) in their practices to using this technology on an on-going basis. Methods: A descriptive qualitative approach was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 19 participants. Data analysis was iterative and interpretive. Results: Factors that hindered and motivated ongoing EMR use emerged. Factors that hindered use included (1) information technology challenges such as learning to use the EMR and the computer, electronic connectivity, and scanning; and (2) variability in on-going EMR use. Two factors motivated ongoing use: (1) improved efficiency in patient care, and (2) confidence with computers and EMR software. Conclusions: Different issues in the use of EMRs surface as primary health care providers and staff mature in their use of this technology. Ongoing use of the EMR may be facilitated by confidence with the technology as well as providers' perceptions of efficiency in patient care. Optimal use of the EMR could be facilitated through assessing and enhancing computer skills, working toward consistent data entry and use of the EMR, and developing strategies to address issues such as scanning and electronic connectivity.


MspA forms water-filled channels in the mycolic acid layer of Mycobacterium smegmatis thereby allowing the diffusion of hydrophilic solutes through this permeability barrier into the periplasm. MspA is the first member of a new family of porins and is extremely stable against chemical and thermal denaturation. We developed a purification procedure based on selective extraction of MspA with detergents from whole cells of M. smegmatis at high temperatures. Anion-exchange and size-exclusion chromatography yielded about 230 microg apparently pure and highly active MspA per liter of culture. This was a 20-fold increased yield compared to previous purification protocols. Similar amounts of pure MspA were obtained with the detergents isotridecylpolyethyleneglycolether, lauryldimethylamine oxide, and octylpolyethylene oxide indicating that this purification procedure is not restricted to a specific detergent. This study will promote the structural and functional analysis of MspA and might be valuable for the isolation of porins from other mycolic acid-containing bacteria.


In this paper we summarize and generalize the definition of an (implicit) Hamiltonian complementarity system. Basic tool is the geometric notion of a Dirac structure.


The American comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi occurred for the first time at the Swedish West Coast, 2006. Thereafter huge numbers of Mnemiopsis invaded the water around Bohuslan, Sweden. In September 2009 Mnemiopsis appeared in the Gullmar Fjord with up to 500 individuals per liter water, juveniles included. M. leidyi reduced the copepod population in the Gullmar Fjord drastically with more than 90 %. Inside the bells of some M. leidyi a planula was attached nearby the host stomodeum. The planula is a parasite and feed directly from the contents of the stomodeum of M. leidyi. Supposedly the planula belongs to an Edwardsiid anemone from Skagerrak, presumably Edwardsiella carnea (Gosse, 1856.M. leidyi was not found in the waters around the Swedish West Coast during the years 2011 and 2012. Since the parasitic planula could not be collected these years, its morphology and cnidom is thus not record in this article. When M. leidyi, infected with the parasitic planula, again invades our waters, hopefully, we might be able to correlate the cnidom of the planula with the cnidom of its adult anemone, the presumed Edwardsiella carnea (Gosse, 1856) from Skagerrak.The aim of this study is to describe the morphology and cnidom of the adult Edwardsiid anemone, the presumed Ella. carnea collected from Skagerrak, and to determine its taxonomy down to species level. Its morphology and cnidom correspond to the descriptions of Milne-Edwardsia carnea (Goose, 1856) Carlgren, 1892 (Carlgren 1921) and of Favesia (Milne-Edwardsia) carnea (Goose, 1856) (Carlgren, 1940). The anemone has eight mesenterial compartments (macrocoels) and belongs the family Edwardsiidae Andres, 1881, and to the genus Edwardsiella Andres, 1883 due to lack nemathybomes (nematocyst-filled pockets along the mesenteries). Ella. carnea appeared in 2 color morphs, one reddish and one lighter colored, partly translucent. Disturbed Ella. carnea will quickly and completely retract into its surrounding tube. The elongate column is differentiated into: oral disc with tentacle crown, mouth and hypostome; capitulum, the introvert, basally with a ring of yellow blotches, one blotch on each mesenterial compartment; scapus, partly hidden in the tube; and physa, the broader rounded aboral region completely inside the tube. The tentacle crown has 17 or 18 delicate, filiform tentacles arranged in 2-3 cycles. Tentacles of the inner cycle are slightly longer than those of the outer cycle. The cnidom includes broad microbasic b-mastigophores; narrow microbasic b-mastigophores; microbasic p-mastigophores; thin, long basitrichs; and spirocysts. Medium b-mastigophores are the dominating nematocysts.The nematocyst descriptions together with the morphology made by Carlgren (1921, 1940) of Milne-Edwardsia carnea (Gosse) and of Favesia (Milne-Edwardsia) carnea (Gosse 1856) have convinced us that our Edwardsiid from Skagerrak is Edwardsiella carnea (Gosse, 1856). We are now eager to study the cnidom of the parasitic planula in Mnemiopsis leidyi, when it again appears on the Swedish west coast to see if the planula belongs to Ella. carnea.


In this paper, we consider a resource-consumer model taking into account a linear coupling between species (with constant rate). The corresponding operator is proportional to a discretization of the Laplacian in such a way that the resulting dynamical system can be viewed as a regular perturbation of the classical chemostat system. We prove the existence of a unique locally asymptotically stable steady-state for every value of the transfer-rate and every value of the dilution rate not exceeding a critical value. In addition, we give an expansion of the steady-state in terms of the transfer-rate and we prove a uniform persistence property of the dynamics related to each species. Finally, we show that this equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable for every value of the transfer-rate provided that the dilution rate is with small enough values.


An energy-efficient approach is presented for shaping a bit-interleaved low-density parity-check (LDPC) coded amplitude phase-shift keying (APSK) system. A subset of the interleaved bits output by a binary LDPC encoder are passed through a nonlinear shaping encoder whose output is more likely to be a zero than a one. The "shaping" bits are used to select from among a plurality of subconstellations, while the unshaped bits are used to select the symbol within the subconstellation. Because the shaping bits are biased, symbols from lower-energy subconstellations are selected more frequently than those from higher-energy subconstellations. An iterative decoder shares information among the LDPC decoder, APSK demapper, and shaping decoder. Information rates are computed for a discrete set of APSK ring radii and shaping bit probabilities, and the optimal combination of these parameters is identified for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. With the assistance of extrinsic-information transfer (EXIT) charts, the degree distributions of the LDPC code are optimized for use with the shaped APSK constellation. Simulation results show that the combination of shaping, degree-distribution optimization, and iterative decoding can achieve a gain in excess of 1 dB in AWGN at a rate of 3 bits/symbol compared with a system that does not use shaping, uses an unoptimized code from the DVB-S2 standard, and does not iterate between decoder and demodulator.


Two glycopeptides were isolated from a tryptic digest of ricin A-chain variant by gel filtration and reversed-phase HPLC. Their amino acid compositions and sequences showed that Asn-10 and Asn-236 are glycosylated. The sugar chains were liberated from these glycopeptides by hydrazynolysis, N-acetylated, and pyridylaminated. Component analysis and comparison of elution positions of the purified pyridylamino (PA-) sugar chains with those of authentic PA-sugar chains from the major ricin A-chain by reversed-phase HPLC and size fractionation HPLC suggested that both sugar chains linked to Asn-10 and Asn-236 of the ricin A-chain variant are M3FX, identical to that linked to Asn-10 of the major ricin A-chain.


Video Link The video component of this article can be found at http://www.jove.com/video/207/ Disclosures The authors have nothing to disclose.


Abstract : Environmental strategy is protecting and enhancing our natural resources. Development is not a product but it is a process that includes achievement of not only economic growth but also education, health and better environment. Sustainable development deals with the inter relationship between environment and economic development. And one of the major indicators of economic development is growth of industrial sector. This paper intends to explain interrelationship between environment and industrialisation, challenges of sustainable development, environmental protection strategies and policy recommendation for sustainable development. Multiple regression analysis indicates that, apart from industrial value added, trade, technology and economic reforms also emerge significant in determining environmental quality. The paper concludes that there is effective technology and basic education for environment problem and the sustainable development.


Abstract Purpose Keratoconus (KC) is a bilateral and noninflammatory disease, characterized by progressive thinning and anterior protrusion of the cornea and may result in severe visual impairment due to irregular astigmatism. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) are the main group of enzymes that degrade extracellular matrix proteins including collagens; Type IV collagen is found in the corneal stroma. MMP enzymatic activity is inhibited by tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1). A decrease in TIMP-1 level is associated with the development of KC. In the present study, we investigated the impact of COL4A4 rs2228557 C/T and TIMP-1 rs4898 C/T (X-chromosome) variants on the odds of KC development in a sample of Iranian population. Methods This case–control study was conducted on 140 patients with KC and 150 healthy control subjects. We used modified methods of Nested-PCR and ARMS-PCR in combination (Nested-ARMS-PCR) and confirmed their validity with RFLP–PCR. Results Significant differences were noticed between KC patients and healthy individuals regarding the genotype TY or T allele frequencies of rs4898 in the male subjects (OR = 0.43, 95%CI: 0.20–0.92, P = 0.03), whereas no significant differences were identified in the female subjects (OR = 1.07, 95%CI: 0.52–2.20, P = 0.85). The rs2228557, T allele was associated with KC (OR = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.50–0.97, P = 0.035). Conclusion In the rs2228557 variant, T allele acts as a protective factor from the disease and decreases the risk of KC compared with the C allele. Also, in our investigation about rs4898, we found that TY genotype or T allele decreased the risk of KC compared with the C allele in males and was a protective factor for KC in our population


Abstract Aims To explore how consultation exercises were described in a convenience sample of recent scoping reviews. Design Critical literature review. Data sources We searched PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL and PubMed in July 2020. Our inclusion criterion was a peer‐reviewed journal article reporting a scoping review in Danish, English, Norwegian or Swedish. Review methods We identified a convenience sample of articles (n = 66) reporting a consultation exercise as part of a scoping review. The descriptions of the consultation were charted, summarized and critically discussed. Results The current analysis showed no widely accepted consensus on how to approach and report a consultation exercise in the sample of scoping reviews. The reports of stakeholder consultation processes were often brief and general, and often there were no reports of the effects of the stakeholder consultation processes. Further, there was no discussion of the principal theoretical problems mixing stakeholder voices and review findings. Conclusion The finding that conventional research ethics and research methods often were suspended could indicate that the stakeholder consultants were in a precarious position because of power imbalances between researchers and stakeholder consultants. We suggest that a consultation exercise should only be included when it genuinely invites participation and reports on the effect of alternative voices. Impact Scoping reviews are common across a range of disciplines, but they often lack definitional and methodological clarity. In their influential approach to scoping studies, Arksey and O'Malley introduced an optional 'consultation exercise', which has been heralded as a valuable tool that can be used to strengthen the process and outcome of a scoping study and to support the dissemination of the study's findings and its implications. However, there is no clear outline on about how to operationalize consultations of stakeholders in scoping studies/reviews. This article includes recommendations for consultation exercises, including encouraging an aspirational move from 'consultation' to 'participation'.


Recent research in the anthropology of human movement shows that it is not at all uncommon for people to perform their history. Perform, not only in the sense of reciting epic poetry and myths, but by engaging in complex and elaborate structured movement that quite literally embodies their traditions. Kaeppler (in press), for example, has shown how Hawaiian history is performed through the intricate connections between sung poetry and actions of the hula tradition. Williams (1991) and Arnold (in prep.) have examined how the wallaby dance of the Wanam (an Australian Aboriginal group from the Cape York Peninsula) combines song and dance to re-enact myths which serve not only to confirm the details of Wanam history and identity, but also to renew the socio-religious world in which they live. Likewise, the Assiniboine people of Northern Montana, who are the subjects of this paper, use both speech and action to perform traditional stories which embody their history and world view. In this latter case, however, the action sign system1 used is a fully discursive sign language, rather than a non-discursive or non-propositional movement system of the kind usually, but not always adequately, referred to as "dance."


Emerging evidence suggests that early bilingual experience constrains the development of attentional processes in infants, and that some of these early bilingual adaptations could last into adulthood. However, it is not known whether the early adaptations in the attentional domain alter more general cognitive abilities. If they do, then we would expect that bilingual adults who learned their second language early in life would score more highly across cognitive tasks than bilingual adults who learned their second language later in life. To test this hypothesis, 170 adult participants were administered a well-established (non-verbal) measure of fluid intelligence: Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM). Fluid intelligence (the ability to solve novel reasoning problems, independent of acquired knowledge) is highly correlated with numerous cognitive abilities across development. Performance on the RAPM was greater in bilinguals than monolinguals, and greater in 'early bilinguals' (adults who learned their second language between 0–6 years) than 'late bilinguals' (adults who learned their second language after age 6 years). The groups did not significantly differ on a proxy of socioeconomic status. These results suggest that the difference in fluid intelligence between bilinguals and monolinguals is not a consequence of bilingualism per se, but of early adaptive processes. However, the finding may depend on how bilingualism is operationalized, and thus needs to be replicated with a larger sample and more detailed measures.


This paper investigates how US and European equity markets affected the US dollar-euro rate from the introduction of the euro through April 2001. More detailed the following questions are raised: First, do movements in the stock market help to explain movements in the exchange rate? Second, how large is the impact of stock market returns on the exchange rate? And third, does the exchange rate respond differently to different equity markets? The investigation was carried out using daily data within a vector-autoregression model (VAR). Surprisingly, positive returns on US equities as well as on European stock markets had a negative impact on the US dollar-euro rate. Quantitatively, the US dollar-euro rate seems to be more influenced by European stock markets compared to US stock markets. Further, there is evidence for a somewhat weaker impact of technology stock indices on the US dollar-euro rate compared with broader market indices. Finally, the long-term interest rate differential seems to contain more information about exchange rate movements than the shortterm interest rate differential.


Near-tetraploid chromosomes were observed in a patient with acute myeloblastic leukemia with maturation (M2 in FAB classification). Large and morphologically bizarre leukemic cells and giant neutrophils in each maturation stage were observed in both peripheral blood and bone marrow. Cytogenetic studies revealed that the main stem line was 93; XXYY, +9, and DNA cytofluorometry showed that these large leukemic cells and giant neutrophils had 4C DNA content. These findings strongly suggested that these giant neutrophils were derived from leukemic clone with tetraploidy.


Coherence in a composition is achieved when there is a clear
transition or link between its major parts. This study is conducted to
reveal the kinds and uses of transitional markers signaling reason and
conclusion in argumentative compositions. The data source was 16
argumentative compositions of Writing 3 students of an English
Department Surabaya. The study reveals that there were 31 (156
frequency of occurrences) transitional markers signaling reason and
conclusion found, which consists of 21 (110 frequency of occurrences)
markers functioning as reason, and 10 (46 frequency of occurrences)
others functioning as conclusion. The forms of transitional markers
signaling reason were: word and phrase form. The writer found 7 (83
frequency of occurrences) word and 14 (27 frequency of occurrences)
phrase forms of reason transitional markers. She also found 4 (34
frequency of occurrences) word form, 3 (9 frequency of occurrences)
phrase form, and 3 (3 frequency of occurrences) clause form of
transitional markers signaling conclusion. Among all of those transitional
markers, there were 93 times of appropriate and 17 times of
inappropriately used transitional markers signaling reason; and 37 times
of appropriate and 9 times of inappropriately used transitional markers
signaling conclusion. Based on the findings of the analysis above, it can
be concluded that the inappropriateness used of the transitional markers
found mostly happen in the presence of comma and because of the
influence of Bahasa Indonesia.


AIM
To specify immune changes in periodical disease (PD) in different periods of PD development as well as peculiarities of their changes in colchicin therapy.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Clinicoimmunological investigations including blast transformation of lymphocytes with lymphocytic mitogen and renal antigen, leukocyte migration inhibition with renal antigen, spontaneous and complementary rossette formation were made in 828 PD patients and 43 donors.

RESULTS
Decreased functional activity and quantity of T-lymphocytes, their suppressory subpopulation was found in PD. The indices did not correlate with the disease variants and gender but with age and PD complication. In amyloidosis immunological indices deteriorate with positive trend after colchicin treatment.

CONCLUSION
PD is characterized by strain in immunological process.


The depth distribution of defects induced by reactive ion etching in InAlAs/InGaAs heterostructures has been determined from the measurements of low‐temperature mobilities of samples with varying two‐dimensional electron gas (2DEG) depth. The sample with a 2DEG depth of 35 nm from the surface showed no change in mobilities or sheet carrier densities, whereas the one with a 2DEG depth of 12.5 nm, etched under the same conditions using HBr plasma at a self‐bias of −100 V, showed a large change in both mobilities and sheet carrier densities. The defect distribution, which was estimated using the reciprocal of mobilities, has been found to be exponential. A 1/e penetration depth of about 7.8 nm has been obtained for HBr plasma for self‐bias voltages between −100 and −200 V and has been found to be independent of etching time. The exponential distribution of defects suggests that either ion channeling or diffusion is the possible mechanism of defect production in regions deeper than the projected ion range.


Most research on teacher education has not considered the situated learning contexts and identities of pre-service teachers as they learn in different school and university settings in Australia. Especially problematic are the conflicting discourses that shape learning in these varied contexts. This paper explores aspects of motivation about the learning of teaching practices and pedagogy in the different learning environments of teacher education and school practicum; specifically the development of pedagogy and teaching practices around the use of textbooks and teaching and learning materials and the area of providing resources for student learning by teachers. Using Nolen's concept of motivational filters that student teachers develop to select and reject teaching practices, the paper undertakes a qualitative research project to explore such filters in the area of developing pedagogy in the use of teaching and learning materials. IARTEM e-Journal Volume 3 No 1 Mike Horsley 39 57 39 IARTEM e-Journal Volume 3 No 1 Mike Horsley 39 57 The research presented in this paper demonstrates that the experiences student teachers are being provided with in relation to pedagogies related to teaching and learning materials are unstructured, fragmented and contested. The motivation to learn about teaching and learning materials and their role in learning and development is dependent on the utility filters developed in school fieldwork and reflects the socio-cultural context of the school. The critical questions for teacher educators is how do new and developing teachers learn how to mediate teaching and learning materials for their students, and in what form and learning context will this mediation learning take place.


Capillary leakage Syndrome (CLS) is a rare clinical syndrome, that was first described in 1960, characterized by acute episodes of generalized edema, hemoconcentration, hypoproteinemia and monoclonal gammopathy, in the vast majority of cases. We describe a 39-year-old man with anasarca, bilateral pleural and pericardial effusions, ascites and diffuse alveolo-intersticial edema. Clinical and laboratory findings were consistent with an acute episode of CLS. Treatment with prednisone, furosemide and aminophylline was started, which lead to a gradual improvement in 48 hours. Pathophysiologically there is an increase in capillary permeability with the extravasation of fluid and plasmatic proteins to the extravascular space that can lead to hypovolaemic shock. In the second phase there is a reentry of the fluid overload leading to pulmonary edema. The etiology of this hyperpermeability still remains unclear. The role of cytokines has become central in the comprehension of pathophysiology of CLS. Adhesion molecules are probably also involved in the genesis of capillary leakage. CLS treatment remains empirical. However, at present it seems that the association of steroids with furosemide, aminophylline and terbutaline are capable of controlling the clinical manifestation of the acute episodes in most cases. To our knowledge no prophylatic therapy has clearly proven its efficacy. There are only a few series analyzing the long-term evolution of patients with CLS. Further studies are necessary with the objective to collect enough patients with CLS to observe natural history of the disease and evaluate the efficacy of empiric treatments.


The goal of the current work is to use Weighted Finite-State Transducers (WFSTs) to model the unit selection task, in a concatenative Text-to-Speech system. One of the major difficulties is the design of a perceptually meaningful cost function that weights and combines several features of the available inventory units, matching them to the target information. The WFST approach allows for great flexibility, as well as an elegant formulation for the unit selection problem. Although there is a price to pay in terms of processing power and memory, one of its main advantages is that it allowed us to experiment with different approaches to the problem.


A liquid curved jet has many applications in different industrial and engineering processes, such as the prilling process for generating small spherical pellets (fertilizer or magnesium). The liquids used are usually molten and contain small quantities of polymers and therefore can be modelled as non-Newtonian liquids. In this paper, we model the viscoelastic liquid jet by using the OldroydB model. An asymptotic analysis has been used to simplify the governing equations. Furthermore, the trajectory and a linear temporal stability in the presence of gravity and rotation have been determined. Keywords— gravity, prilling, rotation, viscoelastic jets.


Preparation of egg yolk immunoglobulin (IgY) against Streptococcus pneumonia is significant to solve the problem of antibiotic resistance and to seek a new therapy of treating, suppressing Streptococcus pneumonia infection. Therefore, we immunized laying hens with antigen of Streptococcus pneumonia and extracted, purified IgY from the yolks of eggs by the acetic acid-sodium acetate buffer dilution, polyethylene glycol 6000 and ammonia sulfate solution method, then the characteristics of IgY were detected. We evaluated the activities of IgY by indirect ELISA, SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, Coomassie brilliant staining blue method, bacteriostatic test and agar gel diffusion test. The purity of IgY was 95.4% and the titer was 1∶5120. 8.2 mg IgY could obtained from per milliliter egg yolk. The bacteriostatic test showed that specific IgY against Streptococcus pneumonia could obviously inhibit the growth of Streptococcus pneumonia. The specific combination of IgY and Streptococcus pneumonia could be observed by agar gel diffusion test. In conclusion, IgY against Streptococcus pneumonia obtained from hens immunized by Streptococcus pneumonia could provide a novel alternative approach to treatment and diagnosis of Streptococcus pneumonia infection.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Cyclophosphamide has been the mainstay of treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitis. However, cyclophosphamide has unfavorable side effects and alternatives are needed. Evidence suggests that mycophenolate mofetil can induce sustained remission in nonlife-threatening disease. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of mycophenolate mofetil versus cyclophosphamide for the induction treatment of nonlife-threatening relapses of proteinase 3-ANCA- and myeloperoxidase-ANCA-associated vasculitis.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
We conducted a multicenter randomized, controlled trial. Participants with a first or second relapse of ANCA-associated vasculitis were randomized to induction treatment with cyclophosphamide or mycophenolate mofetil both in combination with glucocorticoids. Maintenance therapy consisted of azathioprine in both arms. Primary outcome was remission at 6 months, and secondary outcomes included disease-free survival at 2 and 4 years.

RESULTS
Eighty-four participants were enrolled, of whom 41 received mycophenolate mofetil and 43 received cyclophosphamide. Eighty-nine percent of participants were proteinase 3-ANCA positive. At 6 months, 27 (66%) mycophenolate mofetil-treated participants versus 35 (81%) cyclophosphamide-treated participants were in remission (P=0.11). Disease-free survival rates at 2 and 4 years were 61% and 39% for cyclophosphamide, respectively, and 43% and 32% for mycophenolate mofetil, respectively (at 4 years, log rank test, P=0.17).

CONCLUSIONS
We did not demonstrate mycophenolate mofetil to be similarly effective as cyclophosphamide in inducing remission of relapsed ANCA-associated vasculitis. However, mycophenolate mofetil might be an alternative to cyclophosphamide for the treatment of selected patients with nonlife-threatening relapses.


India is rich in natural resources and the annual harvestable fishery potential of the country is estimated to be 3.48 million tones. It is established that the fish biodiversity of the country is diminishing at an alarming rate in all the aquatic zones. The data on species diversity of fishes from Uran coast revealed presence of 31 species of which 3 species of Chondricthyes representing 2 genera and 2 families and 28 species of Osteicthyes representing 28 genera and 23 families were recorded . Of the recorded species, 55 % belonged to Order Perciformes , 10 % to Clupeiformes , 6 % each to Rajiformes , Mugiliformes and   Anguilliformes, 3 % each to Aulopiformes, Carcharhiniformes , Pleuronectiformes,   Siluriformes and Tetraodontiformes. Among the recorded species, ribbon fishes/spiny hair tail ( Lepturacanthus savala ), croakers ( Johnius soldado ), dhoma ( Sciaena dussumierii ) and gold spotted grenadier anchovy ( Coilia dussumierii ) are abundant where as   Bleeker's whipray ( Himantura bleekeri ), Sharp nose stingray ( H. gerrardi ) and Spotted Green Puffer fish ( Tetraodon nigroviridis ) were rare. Stripped mullet ( Mugil cephalus ), cat fish ( Mystus seenghala ), three stripped tiger fish ( Terapon jarbua ) and mudskippers ( Boleophthalmus boddarti ) were very common. At present, the yield of fin-fish resources from Uran coast is optimum; it is decreasing day by day due to coastal pollution affecting the status of the local fishermen because of which they are looking for other jobs for their livelihood.


Introduction In the field of tuberculosis (TB), and particularly in regard to paediatric TB (PedTB), clinical skills of health professionals play an important role in determining quality of care. In an era where novel diagnostic technologies and efficient treatment regimens are being made available for the poorest, we must not divert our attention from the importance of clinical skills, as this deliverable remains the cornerstone of individualized patient care and ultimately the best assurance for optimal use of resources. The aim of our work was to study the epidemiology of PedTB and the determinants of PedTB under-detection in the South-Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a setting with nearly no technical resources allowing to support the clinical diagnosis of PedTB, i.e. chest X-rays, rapid molecular tests or culture laboratories. Methods We collected TB notification data from 2010 to 2015 and analysed the space-time variations in notification for the different forms of TB among the 113 health facilities (HF) the South-Kivu Province, a region with a low HIV incidence. The different forms of TB notified were: smear positive pulmonary TB (SS+PTB), smear negative pulmonary TB (SS-PTB) and extra-pulmonary TB (EPTB). We further analysed the distribution of these different forms of the disease per age group and explored the possibility to predict the detection of PedTB. Results Significant differences were observed between HF in regard to the proportion of paediatric TB and the proportion of SS-TB among adults. We found a strong correlation between the proportion of PedTB and three major factors: the proportion of TB cases with no bacteriological confirmation (SS-TB) among adults, the number of TB cases notified by the HF and the fact that the HF was supported or not by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The proportion of SS-TB among adults was found to be a valid indicator for predicting the level of detection of PedTB at the same HF. Conclusion Our observations strongly suggest that under-detection of PedTB is associated with insufficient clinical skills and technical resources at the HF level which similarly affects other forms of the disease, in particular SS-TB. We demonstrated that, in the specific context of South-Kivu, under-detection of PedTB can be predicted by a low SS-TB/SS+PTB ratio in the adult population. In the context of severely under-resourced settings, this ratio could be used to rapidly identify HF that should benefit in priority from deeper evaluation, and eventually targeted interventions.


In this work the tribological characteristics were compared between ZnO coatings on glass substrate prepared by sputtering and sol-gel methods. In order to assess the effects of processing method on the tribological characteristics, the friction and wear properties of the coatings were measured by using a reciprocating type of micro-tribotester. The sputtered ZnO coatings were prepared on a glass substrate at room temperature, 150℃, and 300℃. The ZnO coatings prepared by sol-gel method were heat-treated in air atmosphere at 550℃ for one hour. The crystal structure and surface morphology of the coatings were measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), respectively. The experimental results showed that overall the sputtered coatings exhibited better friction and wear properties than coatings prepared by sol-gel method. The sputtered coating grown at room temperature had a relatively low friction coefficient of 0.14 and superior wear resistance compared with the other coatings. Nevertheless, sol-gel method of coating ZnO on glass is beneficial for economical coating of a large surface area.


Physical activity counseling in primary health care is regarded as a useful complementary preventive and therapeutic measure and is advocated by leading public health institutions. This integrative review summarizes the available data on physical activity counseling in primary care in Germany. A systematic literature search in various databases (peer reviewed and grey literature) was carried out for quantitative and qualitative studies on physical activity counseling and use of "Exercise on Prescription". The 25 studies included show a very high methodological diversity and, in some cases, considerable risks of bias, with limited comparability across studies. Counseling was provided in all studies by physicians. They report frequent physical activity counseling, which is partly confirmed and partly refuted by patient data. The use of "Exercise on Prescription" is at a very low level. Information on the frequency of physical activity counseling in Germany varies depending on data source and is sometimes contradictory. Our review provides a synthesis of various perspectives on routine physical activity counseling in primary care in Germany. Future studies using standardized and validated instruments in representative samples are needed to further knowledge on counseling and to be able to establish trends in prevalence. Strengthening the topics of physical activity and health and physical activity counseling in medical curriculum is strongly recommended.


We describe the participation of team TakeLab in the aggression detection shared task at the TRAC1 workshop for English. Aggression manifests in a variety of ways. Unlike some forms of aggression that are impossible to prevent in day-to-day life, aggressive speech abounding on social networks could in principle be prevented or at least reduced by simply disabling users that post aggressively worded messages. The first step in achieving this is to detect such messages. The task, however, is far from being trivial, as what is considered as aggressive speech can be quite subjective, and the task is further complicated by the noisy nature of user-generated text on social networks. Our system learns to distinguish between open aggression, covert aggression, and non-aggression in social media texts. We tried different machine learning approaches, including traditional (shallow) machine learning models, deep learning models, and a combination of both. We achieved respectable results, ranking 4th and 8th out of 31 submissions on the Facebook and Twitter test sets, respectively.


In this study, total lipid rate, saturated fatty acid rate, unsaturated fatty acid rate and multiple unsaturated fatty acid rates in the muscle tissues of Pearl Mullet (Chalcalburnus Tarichii P.1811), which is endemic to Van Lake, and a very important food source for the local residents and of commercial value, were investigated between September, November 2012 and January 2013. The fish caught in two months intervals were analyses. Crude fat rate was found 1.66 g r/100 gr in September, 1.55 gr/100gr in November, and 3.35 gr/100gr in January. An important difference was not observed in September and in November, but crude fat rate was found to be doubled in January. According to our findings, Pearl Mulletis among the lean fish. The average of three months in the meat of pearl mullet was identified as SFA 0.366 g/100g, MUFA 0.697 g/100g, PUFA 0.476 g/100g, DHA 0.222 g/100g, EPA 0.228 g/100g. However, in comparing PUFA rates, that of Pearl Mulletis seen to be higher, which increases nutritional value of Pearl Mullet.


Introduction: The Effective President Chapter 1: John F. Kennedy: A Cautious Reformer Chapter 2: Lyndon B. Johnson: A Force of Nature Chapter 3: Richard M. Nixon: A Tragic Hero? Chapter 4: Gerald R. Ford: A Good Man Chapter 5: Jimmy Carter: The Engineer President Chapter 6: Ronald Reagan: A Romantic with Vision Chapter 7: George H. W. Bush: The Patrician Chapter 8: Bill Clinton: The Politician Chapter 9: George W. Bush: The Risk Taker Chapter 10: Barack Obama: Transformational or Transactional Leader? Conclusion: Presidential Leadership Revisited


A new second order theoretical model of the combined interaction of externally applied electric and magnetic fields and viscous incompressible fluid flows has been rewritten as a system of first order partial differential equations. The system was solved using least-squares finite element model on an unstructured grid. The numerical algorithm is very stable and accurate. The accuracy was confirmed by comparing the numerical results against simple analytical results for a magnetohydrodynamic flow between two parallel isothermal infinite stationary plates. Effects of Joule heating and reverse pressure gradient are correctly predicted with this algorithm which is applicable to arbitrary planar flow configurations.


Neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction causes primary mitochondrial diseases and likely contributes to neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Mitochondrial dysfunction has also been documented in neurodevelopmental disorders such as tuberous sclerosis complex and autism spectrum disorder. Only symptomatic treatments exist for neurodevelopmental disorders, while neurodegenerative diseases are largely untreatable. Altered mitochondrial function activates mitochondrial retrograde signalling pathways, which enable signalling to the nucleus to reprogramme nuclear gene expression. In this review, we discuss the role of mitochondrial retrograde signalling in neurological diseases. We summarize how mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to neurodegenerative disease and neurodevelopmental disorders. Mitochondrial signalling mechanisms that have relevance to neurological disease are discussed. We then describe studies documenting retrograde signalling pathways in neurons and glia, and in animal models of neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction and neurological disease. Finally, we suggest how specific retrograde signalling pathways can be targeted to develop novel treatments for neurological diseases. This article is part of the theme issue 'Retrograde signalling from endosymbiotic organelles'.


Objectives To evaluate whether electroacupuncture (EA) at ST36 can accelerate the recovery of gastrointestinal motility after colorectal surgery. Methods Forty patients of American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status II and III undergoing elective open resection of malignant colorectal tumours were included in this study. Using a sealed envelope method, the patients were randomly divided into two groups either receiving EA (EA group) or sham EA (SEA group). Data regarding the recovery of bowel function (times to the first bowel sounds, passage of flatus and defaecation) were collected and analysed. Results In the EA group, the time intervals from surgery to the first bowel movement and passage of flatus were shorter than in the SEA group (13±10 h vs 19±13 h, p<0.05 and 23±14 h vs 32±18 h, p<0.05, respectively). There was no significant difference between the groups regarding the time to first defaecation (68±45 h vs 72±53 h, p>0.05). Conclusions EA at ST36 accelerates the recovery of gastrointestinal motility after colorectal surgery. Trial Registration JJ22011-15.


Genome-wide proximity placement analysis of diverse families of human-specific genomic regulatory loci (HSGRL) identified topologically-associating domains (TADs) that are significantly enriched for HSGRL and termed rapidly-evolving in humans TADs (revTADs; Genome Biol Evol. 2016 8; 2774-88). Here, human-specific genomic features of pluripotency regulatory networks in hESC have been analyzed. The primary focus was on identification of human-specific elements of the interphase chromatin architecture of TADs responsible for transcriptional regulatory control of the NANOG, POU5F1, and POU3F2 genes. Comparative analyses of the four adjacent TADs spanning ~3.3 Mb NANOG locus-associated genomic region were carried-out to highlight primate-specific genomic features. Lastly, the putative mechanisms of the genome-wide regulatory effects of human-specific NANOG-binding sites (HSNBS) on expression of genes implicated in the fetal and adult brain development have been examined. Acquisition of primate-specific regulatory loci appears to rewire TADs exerting transcriptional control on pluripotency regulators, revealing a genomic placement pattern consistent with the enhanced regulatory impact of NANOG in primates. Proximity placement analysis of HSNBS identified a large expression signature in the human fetal neocortex temporal lobe comprising 4,957 genes, which appear to retain acquired in the embryo expression changes for many years of human brain development and maintain highly concordant expression profiles in the neocortex and prefrontal cortex regions of adult human brain. Collectively, reported herein observations indicate that genomic elements of pluripotency regulatory circuitry associated with HSNBS, specifically proteins of the classical NurD chromatin remodeling complex, contribute to transcriptional regulation of a large set of genes implicated in development and function of human brain. List of abbreviations 5hmC, 5-Hydromethylcytosine CTCF, CCCTC-binding factor DHS, DNase hypersensitivity sites FHSRR, fixed human-specific regulatory regions GRNs, genomic regulatory networks HAR, human accelerated regions hCONDEL, human-specific conserved deletions hESC, human embryonic stem cells HSGRL, human-specific genomic regulatory loci HSNBS, human-specific NANOG-binding sites HSTFBS, human-specific transcription factor-binding sites LAD, lamina-associated domain LINE, long interspersed nuclear element lncRNA, long non-coding RNA LTR, long terminal repeat MADE, methylation-associated DNA editing mC, methylcytosine mESC, mouse embryonic stem cells NANOG, Nanog homeobox nt, nucleotide POU5F1, POU class 5 homeobox 1 PSDS, partial strand displacement state TAD, topologically associating domains TE, transposable elements TF, transcription factor TSC, triple-stranded complex TSS, transcription start sites SE, super-enhancers SED, super-enhancer domains sncRNA, small non coding RNA


plead with their faculty to institute new distance education programs every academic year. Faculty are bombarded with prophecies about the glorious future confronting distance education programs. New bureaucracies have sprung up of computer technicians offering to assist in preparing these programs. If distance education has such a promising future, why the faculty hesitation? One explanation could be that faculty are uncomfortable with the new technology required to implement a distance education course. But with the plethora of IS personnel poised and ready to assist, this doesn't seem likely. Another answer might be that faculty believe they aren't adequately compensated for the developmental time necessary to produce these courses. However, even in universities where the compensation offered is equal to that offered for the development of traditional courses, few faculty seem eager to participate. We believe that the real reason for the failure of faculty to embrace distance education is their suspicion that it will follow the same path as did correspondence education in the 20th century. If this happens, distance education will experience the same negative outcome and fail to achieve all that it promises. Recall that early in the 20th century correspondence study programs also promised an anywhere, any time educational experience. The first response in the educational marketplace was exceedingly positive. The enthusiasm for correspondence education soon waned, however, as people came to perceive its programs as second rate. It's important to understand why this view came to dominate the academic perception of correspondence education. Otherwise, the same perception of poor quality may come to hamper distance education, despite the educational marketplace's initially positive response. Any decline in respect will arise from the failure of course developers Distance education can succeed by not repeating the mistakes of correspondence education


Subependymal germinal matrix hemorrhage with intraventricular hemorrhage(SEIVH) is a common complication associated with delivery in preterm neonates but has rarely been observed in the fetus. We report a fetus with SEIVH, hydrocephalus and periventricular leukomalacia(PVL). Although this fetus had uneventful prenatal periods, transabdominal ultrasound examination(US) at 33 weeks of pregnancy revealed SEIVH and hydrocephalus, and MRI at 36 weeks did associated PVL. While no events reported that could explain the onset of SEIVH, PVL was considered to be the results of anoxic events associated with SEIVH. In addition to US, information provided by fetal MRI, especially T 2-weighted image, permits a better understanding of the pathophysiology of fetal SEIVH with PVL.


Background: A slight increase in the childhood cancer trend has been observed for the past few decades. Non-ionizing radiation is one of the environmental factors linked to childhood cancers. This review is conducted to assess the association between non-ionizing radiation and childhood cancer based on all original studies to date. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on the titles and abstracts pertaining to non-ionizing radiation and childhood cancers using the PubMed, Scopus, SAGE and ScienceDirect databases from inception up to November 2018. Quality of each article was appraised using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, meta-analysis was performed with Review Manager, and fixed effects were used to estimate the pooled OR of the selected studies. Results: A total of 15 articles met all the selection criteria. Twelve articles were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled risk estimates of the 12 studies, obtained via fixed effects model, showed that children exposed to 0.2 μT or more of EMF non-ionizing radiation run 1.33 times higher risks of contracting childhood cancer compared to those with less than 0.2 μT exposure (95% CI: 1.10, 1.60). The studies were statistically homogeneous (chi-squared P=0.71, I2=0%), and there was no evidence of publication bias. Conclusion: It cannot be concluded that children exposed to non-ionizing radiation have higher risks of childhood cancer compared to those who were not exposed as claimed by the previous reviews. However, concerns about non-ionizing radiation exposure and childhood cancer should not be neglected.


The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relative effect of the four-electrode as opposed to the pen-electrode interferential current method in the treatment of myofascial pain syndromes. This was a randomised clinical trial consisting of two groups. Group A received four-electrode interferential current therapy, while Group B received pen-electrode interferential current therapy. Each group consisted of 15 subjects, between the ages of 18 and 55 years, selected from the general population. Subjects diagnosed with active myofascial trigger points in any of the following muscles: trapezius, levator scapulae, supraspinatus, infraspinatus and rhomboid major and minor, were admitted into the study. Each subject received five treatments over a period of three weeks followed by a one-month follow-up consultation. Each subject was assessed by means of the CMCC Neck Disability Index, short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire and the Numerical Pain Questionnaire; as well as pain threshold readings by means of an algometer and cervical spine ranges of motion measurements by means of a cervical goniometer. Readings were taken at the first, fifth and follow-up consultations for all subjective and objective measurements.


Observational studies and clinical experiments solidly establish an empiric relationship between heavy drinking (>/= 3 standard drinks/day) and higher blood pressure. A biologic mechanism for this link remains unclear. It has been difficult to study the incidence of usual hypertension sequelae in alcohol-associated hypertension because of complex interactions of alcohol, hypertension and cardiovascular conditions. Even with these limitations, a causal association is the most likely explanation and control of alcohol intake is probably important in prevention and treatment of hypertension.


We study a time-dependent five-dimensional (5D) metric which contains a static four-dimensional (4D) sub-metric whose three-dimensional (3D) part is spherically symmetric. An expansion in the metric coefficient allow us to obtain close-to Schwarzschild approximation to a class of spherically symmetric solutions. Using Campbell's embedding theorem and the induced-matter formalism we obtain two 4D solutions. One describes a source with the stiff equation of state believed to be applicable to dense astrophysical objects, and the other describes a spherical source with a radial heat flow.


Substantial progress has been made in the past 25 years in the area of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites as viable structural materials in bridge construction. The technologies developed to date have moved rapidly from their initial stage of concept validation, into full-scale prototype construction and field implementations. They have been used either on their own in bridge applications or being combined with other conventional structural materials such as concrete, to provide economical solutions to many critical bridge problems such as deficiency. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of these developments on typical bridge components (i.e. decks and girders) as well as bridge systems that have been available from the early 1980s to the beginning of 2006.


5508 VEGF, released by tumor cells, is an important growth factor in tumor angiogenesis as it induces tumor neovascularization. VEGF leads to paracrine effects and results in abundant presence of VEGF in the tumor micro-environment. Non-invasive measurement of VEGF in the tumor might give insight in the available target for VEGF dependent anti-angiogenic therapy. Bevacizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody which blocks the biological pathways of VEGF induced tumor angiogenesis by binding to VEGF, most likely in the micro-environment of the tumor. For that reason, we developed radiolabeled bevacizumab for in vivo VEGF imaging using the relatively new long-lived PET isotope 89Zirconium (89Zr) (T1/2 3.27d) allowing high resolution (Micro)PET imaging. Methods: Labeling, stability and in-vitro immunoreactivity studies were performed. Thereafter, nude mice were inoculated subcutaneously with VEGF producing human SKOV-3 ovarian tumor cells. After tumor size reached 7-9 mm in diameter, mice were injected with 100 μg ( ± 3.5 MBq) of 89Zr-bevacizumab or human 89Zr-IgG. Human 89Zr-IgG served as an aspecific control antibody. MicroPET images, MicroCT images and biodistribution studies were obtained at 24, 72 and 168 h post injection. MicroPET and MicroCT images were fused to calculate uptake of 89Zr-bevacizumab and Zr89-IgG in the micro-environment of the tumor. Results:89Zr-bevacizumab labeling efficiency was >95%. The tracer was stable > 168 h at 37°C in serum. The immunoreactive fraction determined by ELISA was >0.50. MicroPET images showed uptake in well perfused organs after 24 h and clear tumor localization after 72 h post injection. Tumor uptake determined by quantification of MicroPET images was higher for 89Zr-bevacizumab 168 h post injection, namely 7.38% ± 2.06 injected dose (ID)cm-3 compared to 3.39% ± 1.16 IDcm-3 for human 89Zr-IgG (p=0.011). These data were confirmed by ex-vivo biodistribution studies. Uptake in other organs was mainly seen in liver and spleen. Discussion: The labeling of bevacizumab with the PET isotope 89Zr allows imaging matching the pharmacokinetic half life of bevacizumab. (Micro)PET imaging permits not only excellent visualization, but also dynamic quantification of 89Zr-bevacizumab in the micro-environment of the tumor. Tumor uptake of 89Zr-bevacizumab was significantly higher compared to control 89Zr-IgG, signifying that 89Zr-bevacizumab could potentially be used to visualize VEGF-levels in the micro-environment of the tumor.


Over a finite set $A$ , a lazy junction on $A$ is a multi-variable function defined on $A$ that can produce practically no new functions by composition. A lazy clone is a clone generated by a lazy function. In this paper we present some examples of lazy clones and relate lazy clones to essentially minimal clones.


Static properties of Cu2+(3d9; S=1/2) spins in a new class of quantum spin system, a twisted Heisenberg triangular spin tube, [(CuCl2tachH)3Cl]Cl2, have been investigated by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in a temperature region of T=0.05?300 K. An observation of magnetic broadenings of 1H-NMR spectrum at low temperatures directly revealed a gapless ground state of the system.


Background and Aim: Considering the lack of information on the occurrence of the epidemic form of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and the high prevalence of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) infection among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients (46%), it was decided to estimate the incidence of KS in this group. Based on the fact that active HHV-8 infection leads to KS development, it is essential to first assess the prevalence of active HHV-8 infection in these patients. Most of the Iranian HIV-infected patients are not aware that they are HIVpositive. If the prevalence of HHV-8 infection is high in these patients, they may spread HHV-8 in the community by high-risk sexual behaviors, which would lead to an increase in the incidence of classic Kaposi's sarcoma. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HHV-8 among HIV-infected subjects. Materials and Methods: One-hundred plasma samples from HIV-infected patients were collected. Genome was extracted and assessed by the nested PCR assay with specific primers for ORF26. Positive samples were amplified for the ORF K1 region by nested-PCR. Subsequently their products were sequenced and their phylogenic trees constructed. Results: HHV-8 was detected in 8 of the patients (8%). No statistically significant associations were found between age and gender on the one hand and HHV-8 infection on the other (p > 0.05). Two genotypes, namely, A and C, were identified, the former in two patients and the latter in one. Conclusion: Although the prevalence of HHV-8 infection is high among Iranian HIV-infected patients, active HHV-8 infection rate is low among them. Therefore, it seems that the incidence of epidemic KS is likely to be very low in this group. Certainly more research is needed in this area. As regards genotypes, genotypes A and C are found in the samples.


Ice was formed on a rotating cold cylinder, and the distribution of cations (i.e., K+, Na+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) between ice and water as a function of the operating variables of ice crystallization was discussed. Ice growth rate was controlled by the rotation speed and temperature of the cold cylinder. The shape of the ice formed on the rotating cold cylinder depended on the flow structure of Taylor vortices in the water solution. The effective distribution coefficients of the cations were extremely small compared with those in the fatty acid system. The effective distribution coefficients of the cations correlated well as a function of ice growth rate. According to the correlation model, pure ice can form if the ice growth rate is lower than the critical growth rate. The critical temperatures of the four cations showed no difference from each other, and increased with the supercooling temperature.


In The Practical Turn in Political Theory, Eva Erman and Niklas Möller seek to defend what they call "mainstream liberal theory" against the charge that it engages in "armchair theorizing and therefore is too detached from reality to guide political action and have any practical import" (p. 3). As they note, the criticism arises from "disparate quarters": they focus on complaints leveled by non-ideal theorists, practice-dependence theorists, political realists, and pragmatist political and epistemological theorists (p. 1). But many others—including postcolonial theorists, feminists and queer theorists, critical race theorists, and many historians of political thought— have also inveighed against what they regard as the shortcomings and distortions of mainstream liberalism, or what I call "ideal moral theory" in my book, Injustice: Political Theory for the Real World. Erman and Möller thus join a roiling controversy within contemporary political theory. The book is concise and tightly argued, drawing heavily on the authors' previously published work, and it offers numerous valuable insights into the timely and important topics it addresses. But it fails, perhaps inevitably, to deliver the resolution and progress to which they aspire. Erman and Möller seek a "philosophically rigorous" answer to the question of "how practices may condition normative principles," hoping to "bring the field forward without an ideological superstructure" (p. 7). Yet it is precisely to ideal moral theory's problematic notion of "philosophical rigor" and to the ideological character of that approach itself that many of the aforementioned critics, myself included, object. The book cannot deliver on its broader aims because its argument is reductionist in two related senses. First, in seeking a common denominator among the critics they categorize as "practice-based theorists," Erman andMöller miss or mischaracterize the distinctive claims of some of the critics they consider, the realists in particular. Second, by reducing the important challenges raised by these critics to a series of analytic questions about the substantive and methodological constraints that practices place on the theorization and justification of normative political principles, the authors miss what is really at issue in this debate —namely, the purported objectivity and neutrality of the style of reasoning on which mainstream liberals engaged in ideal moral theorizing rely. Although Erman and Möller acknowledge that the practice-based theorists "have different aims. . . and work from different theoretical perspectives," they nonetheless insist that these theorists "are all concerned with the same fundamental question: what is the proper role of social and political practices in the justification of normative political principles?" (p. 15, my emphasis). Rather than engage with each critical approach on its own terms and with attention to the main thrust of its critique, they instead explore this fundamental question through inquiries into four possible ways that practices might constrain the content, justification, and methodology of normative political theory: linguistically (chap. 3), methodologically (chap. 4), epistemologically (chap. 5), and politically (chap. 6). They find that "the conclusions drawn in these debates about how practices constrain principles are either flawed or too strong" (p. 5). This is the first sense in which the argument is reductionist: the different and sometimes divergent positions and arguments of realists, pragmatists, nonideal theorists, and practice-dependence theorists get problematically collapsed into a set of propositions regarding "practice-based" theorists. This is particularly problematic in the case of the realists. Erman and Möller recount realists' disdain for ideal moral theory's "ethicsfirst" approach, which they complain "gives priority to morality over politics and regards the political domain as subordinate to the moral domain, mainly as an arena for the application of moral principles" (p. 12). Realists worry, they observe, that the ethics-first approach focuses too much on consensus and becomes depoliticizing; that is, it conceives of the political domain as devoid of real politics (p. 12). Yet somehow, despite accurately reporting these concerns, the authors miss that these are not obviously about how practice constrains principles—and are not really about anything that can meaningfully be construed as a practice. Indeed, few realists would probably accept as a fair or even adequate account of their critique of mainstream liberal theory one that


Career counsellors working at schools are expected to promote students' social, emotional, academic, and career development (Lindwall & Coleman, 2008). Despite the importance of career counselling at school (Anctil, Smith, Schenck, & Dahir, 2012; Osborn & Baggerly, 2004), school counsellors face barriers to implementing career counselling, including limited time because of competing demands, negative perceptions about career counselling from parents, teachers, and administration, and low school counsellor self-efficacy (Sanders, Welfare, & Culver, 2017). Considering the importance of career counselling and challenging working conditions, studies usually focus on individual antecedents of effective career counselling (Sawyer et al., 2013). Existing research reveals that self-efficacious consultants provide higher-quality career consulting services to various groups of employees (Bodenhorn & Skaggs, 2005; Larson & Daniels, 1998), are more satisfied with their job and experience less stress (Lent & Hackett, 1987). According to Larson and Daniels (1998), self-efficacy is the essential factor of successful career counselling. However, existing studies do not disclose the mechanism of why career consultants with higher self-efficacy perform consulting activities better. Therefore, this study is aimed to analyse the role of self-efficacy in the relationship between job resources (opportunity to develop and feedback), satisfaction with career counselling and goal attainment among career counsellors working at schools. The study was part of the project "Strategies to Utilise and Cultivate Positive Characteristics & Employability Skills in Schools" (SUCCESS, 2017-12-LT01-KA201-035247). In total, 246 school career counsellors from Lithuania, Italy, Ireland, and Greece were surveyed online. Most of the participants (88.6 percent) were female, and their age varied between 25 and 60 years. In all countries, the professional experience of career counselling varied between 1 and more than 10 years.The results of the study revealed the importance of self-efficacy for satisfaction with career counselling and goal attainment. Self-efficacy moderated the relationship between the opportunity for development and feedback and satisfaction with career counselling, i. e. the opportunity for development and feedback and satisfaction predicted satisfaction with career counselling only when self-efficacy was high. Furthermore, the opportunity for development and feedback were indirectly related to goal attainment through satisfaction with career counselling only when self-efficacy was high. In other words, job resources are more important and better used by those career counsellors who rely on their abilities, can remain calm when facing difficulties in their job and find solutions when confronted with a problem. The limitations of the study together with practical implications are discussed.


mAb NL7 was raised against purified flavocytochrome b558, important in host defense and inflammation. NL7 recognized the gp91phox flavocytochrome b558 subunit by immunoblot and bound to permeabilized neutrophils and neutrophil membranes. Epitope mapping by phage display analysis indicated that NL7 binds the 498EKDVITGLK506 region of gp91phox. In a cell-free assay, NL7 inhibited in vitro activation of the NADPH oxidase in a concentration-dependent manner, and had marginal effects on the oxidase substrate Michaelis constant (Km). mAb NL7 did not inhibit translocation of p47phox, p67phox, or Rac to the plasma membrane, and bound its epitope on gp91phox independently of cytosolic factor translocation. However, after assembly of the NADPH oxidase complex, mAb NL7 bound the epitope but did not inhibit the generation of superoxide. Three-dimensional modeling of the C-terminal domain of gp91phox on a corn nitrate reductase template suggests close proximity of the NL7 epitope to the proposed NADPH binding site, but significant separation from the proposed p47phox binding sites. We conclude that the 498EKDVITGLK506 segment resides on the cytosolic surface of gp91phox and represents a region important for oxidase function, but not substrate or cytosolic component binding.


At 15 diabetic patients of the 36. to 40. week of pregnancy labour was induced by Prostaglandin F2alpha-infusion. The sure effect on uterus activity is characterized by prompt dilatation of the cervix. A disadvangeous influence could not be observed on blood circulation and digestive system both of the diabetic patient and fetus respectively newborn.


Embedded systems are increasingly based on multi-core platforms to accommodate a growing number of applications, some of which have real-time requirements. Resources, such as off-chip DRAM, are typically shared between the applications using memory interconnects with different arbitration polices to cater to diverse bandwidth and latency requirements. However, traditional centralized interconnects are not scalable as the number of clients increase. Similarly, current distributed interconnects either cannot satisfy the diverse requirements or have decoupled arbitration stages, resulting in larger area, power and worst-case latency. The four main contributions of this article are: 1) a Globally Arbitrated Memory Tree (GAMT) with a distributed architecture that scales well with the number of cores, 2) an RTL-level implementation that can be configured with five arbitration policies (three distinct and two as special cases), 3) the concept of mixed arbitration policies that allows the policy to be selected individually per core, and 4) a worst-case analysis for a mixed arbitration policy that combines TDM and FBSP arbitration.We compare the performance of GAMT with centralized implementations and show that it can run up to four times faster and have over 51 and 37 percent reduction in area and power consumption, respectively, for a given bandwidth.


Numerous investigations indicate that there is a parallel between emotional stress and hyperactivity of the masticatory muscles connected with mandibular parafunctions. Elimination of mandibular parafunctions is difficult and almost impossible, therefore, this paper proposed a treatment whereby nonharmful motor habits are substituted for the parafunction. Questionnaire investigations were carried out in 2905 subjects, with an attempt at treatment in the youngest group of 222 pupils. It was found that good results were obtained through adult supervision and cooperation.


The effect of substituting a methyl group at the non-benzo 'bay-region' site of several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on skin tumor-initiating activity was determined. A methyl group at this position enhanced the tumor-initiating activity of dibenz[a,h]anthracene, 3-methylcholanthrene and 7-methyldibenz[a,j]anthracene, but not of dibenz[a,c]anthracene. 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin was an effective inhibitor of skin tumor initiation by 7,14-dimethyldibenz-[a,h]anthracene and 3,6-dimethylcholanthrene. There appears to be a general rule regarding methyl-substituted hydrocarbons: where a 'bay-region' exists in a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecule, methyl-substitution at the non-benzo 'bay-region' site results in enhanced tumor-initiating activity. The effect of methyl substitution in this position can be most simply explained as due to enhancement of the reactivity of the benzo ring through distortion of the aromatic ring system from planarity. The consequences of this effect are discussed.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Background and aims:

THY1 has been successfully identified as a tumor suppressor gene (TSG) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in our laboratory. The frequency of down-regulated THY1 protein expression was found to be significantly associated with NPC lymph node metastases. However, direct functional evidence is still lacking for THY1 being anti-metastatic in NPC. Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) is well-known as a closely associated process for stem cells as well as tumor cells to invade to other part of the body. We aim to study the association of EMT with the THY1 in NPC.

Methods: Functional analysis of restoration of THY1 expression in the NPC cell lines was studied. The RhoA negative regulator, p190 Rho GTPase-activating protein (p190RhoGAP) and the E-cadherin/beta-catenin cell junction was examined in the THY1-expressing NPC cells.

Results: Both real-time and conventional invasion chamber assays clearly showed that the invasive ability of the THY1 transfectants was consistently lower than vector-alone control. The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results show that the gene expression of cell invasion-associated gelatinase MMP-9 was significantly down-regulated in the THY1-transfectants compared with the vector-alone control. The p190RhoGAP was greatly activated by phosphorylation in the THY1 transfectants, when the THY1 gene was switched on in the absence of doxycycline (dox, an analogue of tetracycline). In the presence of dox when THY1 was switched off, the phosphorylation of p190RhoGAP was reduced. It appears that the phosphorylation status of p190RhoGAP is positively regulated by THY1 in NPC cells. The immunofluorescence (IF) confocal microscopy results show that beta-catenin and E-cadherin were much more frequently translocated to the cell-cell junction in the THY1 transfectants than the vector-alone.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that THY1 inhibited NPC cell invasion via the formation of adherens junction and up-regulation of p190RhoGAP. The enhanced formation of cell adherens junction by THY1 is likely to be one of the possible mechanisms to suppress EMT in NPC.

Citation Format: Hong Lok Lung, Maria Li Lung. The role of the tumor suppressor gene THY1 in suppression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1150. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1150


In Barbados, three pests, Heliothis virescens (F.), Fundelia cistipennis (Dyar) and Callosbruchus chinensis (L.) inflict serious damage co pigeon-pea pods. Over the years it was estimated that some 60% pods were destroyed annually. Although a number of indigenous natural enemies were recorded attacking eggs, larvae and pupae of these pests, their populations were usually too low for adequate control. Between 1968 and 1983, a number of parasite species were introduced from India, Pakistan, Uruguay, U.S.A. and the Eastern Caribbean islands; 17 for the control of H. virescens, seven for F. cistipennis and two for C. chinensis. Of these, two species, Bracon hebetor (Say), from India and Bracon sp. prob. bebetor (Say) (close to Bracon brevicornis [Wesmeal]), from St. Vincent, became established against Heliothis and Fundelia. The levels of parasitism by the latter species ranged from 2.1 - 70%, avg. 16.4%, between April and December 1983.


PurposeWhile the topic of women's entrepreneurship continues to grow in academic appeal, the policy aspect is one that has received limited scholarly attention, especially in the context of developing countries. To address this gap in scholarship, the purpose of this paper aims to critically explore women's entrepreneurship policy in Tanzania. The research question asks: How are policies designed to encourage and support entrepreneurship in Tanzania gendered, and how might such policies be (re)designed so that they are more relevant to women entrepreneurs in the Tanzanian context? The authors contribute to extant scholarship by: drawing attention to the particular context for women's entrepreneurship in Tanzania; identifying gender biases inherent in current entrepreneurship policies; offering some recommendations for policymakers and identifying areas worthy of future research attention in this area.Design/methodology/approachThe study builds on the Global Women's Enterprise Policy project. The authors apply an adapted reading guide technique to analyse and critique relevant entrepreneurship policy documents in Tanzania. The reading guide examines the category and type of document being analysed, key themes, content, language and imagery, as well as the key policy recommendations being offered and their relevance to women's entrepreneurship in Tanzania and the wider sub-Saharan African region. Completed reading guide templates are then coded and collated into an excel spreadsheet. Findings are discussed and critiqued within a regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive framework.FindingsThe study provides rich and valuable insights into the unique context for women's entrepreneurship in Tanzania, shedding new light on how women's entrepreneurship is supported in a particular region of sub-Saharan Africa. Findings reveal that while current policy acknowledges the important role women play in their communities, especially in terms of their contribution to labour, it is geared more towards small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development than entrepreneurship; this is despite the fact that entrepreneurship is identified as a means to address sustainable development challenges (notably unemployment and poverty) and expand opportunities for socially disadvantaged groups, especially women. Existing policy is essentially "context neutral" and hence relatively ineffective; the gender focus is lacking and there is a failure to take account of the specific context in which Tanzanian women entrepreneurs have to operate. The authors argue for policies designed to support women's entrepreneurship to be formalised and contextualised in their specific geographical and cultural setting. The "institutional pillars" framework allows us to identify areas where contextualisation of women's entrepreneurship policies could be enhanced.Practical implicationsThe study implies that, to be effective, policies designed to support women's entrepreneurship need to be formalised and contextualised to their specific geographical and cultural setting. Some areas where this might be achieved are identified. Avenues for future research in this area are also suggested.Originality/valueThe value of the paper lies in its focus on Tanzania, and its critique of existing policies from a gender and institutional perspective. It also enhances understanding of the unique context in Tanzania for entrepreneurship.


Introduction: There is strong experimental and clinical data to indicate the critical involvement of immune evasion in relapsed leukemia in children. A well-defined characteristic of refractory leukemia is the accumulation of genetic aberrations and mutations that may act as drivers or passengers in the process of tumor recurrence. Many of these mutations get translated into proteins that contain tumor-specific immune-stimulatory epitopes (neoantigens) that can elicit host antitumor immune responses. Although, in general, the mutation rate is lower in pediatric tumors, recent studies have shown that almost 90% of pediatric leukemias carry potentially actionable neoepitopes. In this study, we describe the results from a comprehensive experimental approach of neoantigen prediction coupled with antigen processing and HLA-binding prediction algorithms with in vitro validation assays for the generation of neoantigen vaccines against high-risk leukemias in children.
 Methods: DNA and RNA from leukemia cells and matched fibroblasts were obtained. Raw reads were aligned to human reference genome and somatic variants (SNVs) were called using Strelka v1.0.1441. RNA-seq data from leukemic cells were used to predict neoantigen expression levels resulting from SNVs using STAR (2.4.1)12 and Cufflinks v2.2.1. Normalized expression data were then cross-referenced with the list of SNVs to identify leukemia-specific mutant proteins. HLA typing for each sample was carried out from RNA-seq data using seq2HLA v2.2. Using the patient's HLA phenotype, we then used NetMHCons v1.1 to predict short peptides derived from leukemia-specific mutant proteins that will bind to autologous HLA Class I molecules. These 8/9-mers were filtered to predict a high likelihood of proteasomal or immune-proteasomal processing and transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) using NetChop v3.1 and the immune epitope database (IEDB), respectively. The peptides identified were rank-ordered based on the composite immunogenicity score derived from MHC class I binding affinities, proteasomal processing and TCR binding predictions and synthesized accordingly.
 Peripheral blood derived dendritic cells (DCs) and CD8+ T-cells were isolated and expanded in culture with relevant cytokines. The DCs were pulsed with peptides and then co-cultured with CD8+ T-cells. After five days, the primed CD8+ T-Cells were separated, washed and exposed to the patient's leukemic cells at varying ratios and the leukemia specific CD8+ T-cell activation was quantified by IFN gamma secretion using ELISpot assays.
 Results: In the leukemia specimen studied, approximately 5% of all on-target germline mutations were found only in leukemic cells. Tumor mutational burden was, on average, 0.34 mut/Mb. Analysis of the highest ranking synthetic peptides (approximately 10 per leukemia sample) showed leukemia-specific activation of patient's T-cells as measured by the mean number of spots observed in ELISpot assays. For example, in patient one (15 year old male, high-risk ALL, one year off therapy), 14 individual short sequences were identified and corresponding peptides were synthesized. Among these, three peptides were not soluble and three peptides showed significant activity above controls. Maximum leukemia specific T-cell activation was noted with peptide #7 QQSALVLL (mean 135 ELISpots compared to 72 in controls, p<0.05, triplicate) indicating a strong nonantigenic potential in this region. Furthermore, this activity was significantly diminished when an extra amino acid was added to this peptide (LQQSALVLL, mean 79 spots) showing the specificity of the approach. A number of other peptides and combinations in non-overlapping regions gave intermediate activities.
 Discussion: Completed data, including the vaccine peptide sequences and corresponding activities showed the feasibility of identifying pediatric leukemia neoantigen sequences in personalized mutational landscapes of these patients. In addition, we have provided an in vitro experimental approach to validate the potential of such vaccines in future clinical studies and this methodology can also be used to identify agents for effective combinations such as immune checkpoint inhibitors. A clinical trial using these strategies is in development for the treatment of high-risk leukemia in children.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Evidence from literature shows that different studies have been carried out on regulatory authorities' role in audit quality and user confidence on the financial statement of corporate organizations in which financial institution is not excluded in the developed countries but empirical evidence from developing countries contexts like Nigeria is inadequate. In light of this, this research paper evaluates regulatory authorities' roles at improving external audit quality and Users Confidence in financial information in the Nigerian Deposit Money Banks. The study used primary data obtained through a structured questionnaire administered on sampled banks investor in the stock exchange market. A total of two hundred and ten (210) copies of the questionnaire were distributed. One hundred and sixty (160) were returned and found useful for study representing 76% of the total questionnaire distributed. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics like table, frequency, percentage, and mean ranking. Findings from the result of analysis (86;403;3.86;4.03) indicate that the imperatives of regulatory environments at improving audit quality except that FRCN had not been most effective in discharging those responsibilities expected to improve audit quality assurance in the Nigerian Deposits Money Banks. The study concludes that regulatory authorities exert influence on audit quality and the major regulatory environmental variables of audit quality include mandatory rotation of audit tenure, compliance with IFRS, and restriction of non-audit services. The study suggests that regulatory authorities in Nigeria be made to discharge their duties of enforcing and monitoring compliance with regulatory framework and policy guidelines that promote audit ethical conduct.


This article examines one of the most popular computer games The Sims to consider whether the shared understanding of the game's "rules' can be understood through the concept of genre. The main argument is that the genre being used is "real life'. The game's creators are assuming the players share with them, and with each other, an understanding of real life, which can be transposed into the game world. The article explores this notion of a real-life narrative that is shared, by considering the ways in which family and other relationships are both conceptualized and played out in the game. Whilst real life as genre is problematized here, the tensions and conflicts of contemporary real-world conceptualizations of family and other relationships do appear to be represented in the game. What is interesting then, given this, are the ways in which players negotiate the gameplay. The article concludes by suggesting that players are active agents negotiating both the game' s version of real life, and their own real-world experiences.


In order to understand Si behavior and biodisponibility in soils and plants, we evaluated the use of PDMPO (2-(4-pyridyl)-5-((4-(2-dimethylaminoethylaminocarbamoyl)methoxy)phenyl)oxazole) that was supposed to be a Si-specific fluorescence marker and to have a pH-dependent fluorescence. We studied the interactions between PDMPO and water-dissolved Si, Al and natural organic matter (humic acids, HA). Six systems with different HA, Si and Al concentrations were studied by fluorescence spectroscopy at pH 4, 7 and 9. The Al–PDMPO complex was characterized by infrared spectroscopy and the particle size distribution in solution was characterized by nano tracking analysis. We found that when usual pH buffers are not present, the PDMPO fluorescence was not pH dependent and was not Si-specific. In the PDMPO–Si–HA system, the PDMPO fluorescence signals were greatly enhanced, suggesting the formation of highly fluorescent ternary HA–PDMPO–Si groups. When Al was added to the system, the fluorescence was strongly quenched, suggesting the formation of low-fluorescence quaternary HA–PDMPO–Si–Al groups. The PDMPO fluorescence is therefore greatly sensitive to complexable metals and to natural organic matter and is therefore difficult to be applied for the quantification of Si or pH in a complex medium.


CONTEXT
Depression is the most common causes of disease burden worldwide (GBD 2017 Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet. 2018;392:1789-1858).

OBJECTIVE
An umbrella review has been performed to assess the strength and validity of the available observational and trial evidence for the association between a variety of dietary patterns and depression.

DATA SOURCES
MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Database were searched.

DATA EXTRACTION
The Joanna Briggs Institute Umbrella Review Methodology was used.

DATA ANALYSIS
The review included 19 articles, covering a relatively wide range of dietary patterns: healthy dietary patterns (n = 8), Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) (n = 6), Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) (n = 5), Western diet (n = 4), Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) (n = 2), vegetarian diets (n = 4), and other dietary interventions (n = 2). The methodological quality of the included meta-analyses was generally low or critically low. The strength of the evidence was generally weak, although convincing or suggestive evidence was found for an inverse relationship between MedDiet/DII and depression. Higher adherence to the MedDiet and lower DII score were significantly associated with lower risk of depression.

CONCLUSION
Considering the generally high heterogeneity and low quality of the available evidence, further studies adopting more coherent and uniform methodologies are needed.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION
PROSPERO registration no. CRD42020223376.


Image restoration is often solved by minimizing an energy function consisting of a data-fidelity term and a regularization term. A regularized convex term can usually preserve the image edges well in the restored image. In this paper, we consider a class of convex and edge-preserving regularization functions, i.e., multiplicative half-quadratic regularizations, and we use the Newton method to solve the correspondingly reduced systems of nonlinear equations. At each Newton iterate, the preconditioned conjugate gradient method, incorporated with a constraint preconditioner, is employed to solve the structured Newton equation that has a symmetric positive definite coefficient matrix. The eigenvalue bounds of the preconditioned matrix are deliberately derived, which can be used to estimate the convergence speed of the preconditioned conjugate gradient method. We use experimental results to demonstrate that this new approach is efficient, and the effect of image restoration is reasonably well.


Biopsies are occasionally necessary to confirm the diagnosis of secondary-stage syphilis, currently achieved by clinico-serological correlation. However, histopathologic examination may offer clues that can lead to the diagnosis of the disease in previously unsuspected or unusual cases. We report the case of a 35-year-old male patient with vitiligo-like lesions for two years, whose diagnosis of syphilis was suggested only after histopathologic examination. Some microscopic aspects observed are discussed and compared to data from the literature.


Inappropriate antimicrobial therapy is associated with a worsening prognosis, and the increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistance organisms has led to significant threats to clinical practice. Bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) are crucial tools for the treatment of bacterial infections. However, information regarding bacterial identification or AST is generally unavailable for clinical decisions regarding treatment for at least two days. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and genetic diagnosis are expected to be newer rapid diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, which contribute to the decision regarding appropriate antimicrobial agents. [Review].


A managed care contract's effect on the financial health of an organization is related in part to utilization and quality management issues. Physicians and other clinicians who are involved in case management can illuminate how these issues, in relation to the contract terms, can affect the organization's bottom line. Clinicians should be part of a contract-negotiating team that also includes financial professionals and contract negotiators, in addition to legal counsel.