The Mediterranean climate of North Africa encompasses an interesting variety of sub-climates, from humid and sub-humid to semi-arid and arid. Such variability may provide vital insights into mechanisms that drive species distribution and offered us an ideal opportunity to test phenotypic variations along gradients. We aim in this study to investigate the breeding behaviour of house martin Delichon urbica (Linnaeus, 1758) populations along regional climatic gradients in north-eastern Algeria. During two consecutive breeding seasons (2016–2017), nine field sites (328 active nests) belonging to three different sub-climates: humid, sub-humid, and semi-arid were surveyed regularly from March to August. We used generalized linear models to test the relevance of local climate and several ecological variables on laying reproductive output. Laying dates were positively correlated with climate condition (GOF = 0.42), the semi-arid climate creating appropriate conditions for advancing the laying process, whereas sub-humid and humid climate delayed it. Clutch-size and number of chicks hatched per nest were affected by local climate conditions; they were greater in humid areas than in sub-humid and semi-arid ones. The other non-climatic variables as brood order, laying date, distance to fields, and distance to water were not significant. The spatial analysis around nest sites of house martins also showed that dense vegetation cover and reduced urbanization levels may be potential predictors of breeding behaviour. Nest sites located in humid areas with dense vegetation cover, and low urbanization levels that characterize the surrounding landscape provide high-breeding success rate to this species if compared to sub-humid and semi-arid areas. These findings can be a useful indicator of environmental change in a country that is already experiencing severe drought stresses, uncontrolled urbanization, and high deforestation rates.


Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the use of cardiac troponin I as a prognostic marker in the acute exacerbation of COPD. Objectives: Primary Objective: Evaluate the prevalence of elevation of cTnI in patients admitted with acute exacerbation of COPD. Secondary Objective: Evaluate the association of longer duration of COPD, lower SpO2 and higher PaCO2 at admission, increased need for ventilatory support, increased duration of hospital stay and increased inhospital mortality in cTnI positive patients. Material And Methods: Study Site: Apollo Main Hospital, Chennai Study Population: Patients greater than 40 years with spirometry confirmed COPD according to GOLD guidelines admitted with AECOPD in the emergency or ward in the specified period. Study Design: Prospective, Observational Study Sample Size With Justification: 62 cases. Study Duration: From JANUARY 2018 to NOVEMBER 2019. Inclusion Criteria: Study to be conducted in 62 patients with Spirometry confirmed COPD according to GOLD guidelines, age greater than 40 years and admitted with AECOPD in the emergency or ward in the specified period. Exclusion Criteria: Patients with the below mentioned are all excluded from the study - Acute coronary syndrome, post CPR. post cardiac surgery, persistent hemodynamic instability, acute aortic dissection, pulmonary embolism, primary lung diseases other than COPD, patient already on NIV, marked renal failure, severe anaemia, sepsis ,stroke. Study Methodology: The study design is prospective, observational and non-interventional. Study to be conducted in patients with spirometry proven COPD according to GOLD guidelines admitted with AECOPD in the emergency, ward, HDU, MDCCU in the specified period. Detailed medical history along with smoking history, comorbidities and medication history noted, general and respiratory examination to be done for every patient at the time of admission.SpO2 under room air, O2 requirement, ABG values, CXR, Hemogram values, creatinine levels, ECG findings, ECHO findings at the time of admission to be noted. Blood sample to be taken to analyse serum cTnI levels along with routine investigations with informed consent from each patient at initial point of care. Cardiac Troponin I to be estimated by immunochromatographic qualitative assay, DIAQUICK Troponin I cassette. The DIAQUICK Troponin I Cassette is an immunochromatographic assay. The minimum detection level is 1.0 ng/ml with Sensitivity 95%, Specificity 97% and Accuracy 90%. Whether the patient was admitted in ward or ICU, whether the patient required any ventilatory support (NIV or invasive ventilation), duration of the stay in the hospital was all followed up. The end point of the follow up is discharge or death. Results: Out of the 62 patients, 7(11.3%) patients were tested to be Troponin I positive during exacerbation. These patients had longer duration of COPD, increased presence of Pulmonary hypertension, Lower Spo2 on room air and higher PaCo2 at presentation, increased requirement of ventilatory support with ICU care and more duration of hospitalization.


While fungi can make positive contributions to ecosystems and agro-ecosystems, for example, in mycorrhizal associations, they can also have devastating impacts as pathogens of plants and animals. In undisturbed ecosystems, most such negative interactions will be limited through the coevolution of fungi with their hosts. In this article, we explore what happens when pathogenic fungi spread beyond their natural ecological range and become invasive on naïve hosts in new ecosystems. We will see that such invasive pathogens have been problematic to humans and their domesticated plant and animal species throughout history, and we will discuss some of the most pressing fungal threats of today.


This paper investigates how to leverage a DurIAN-based average model to enable a new speaker to have both accurate pronunciation and fluent cross-lingual speaking with very limited monolingual data. A weakness of the recently proposed end-to-end text-to-speech (TTS) systems is that robust alignment is hard to achieve, which hinders it to scale well with very limited data. To cope with this issue, we introduce AdaDurIAN by training an improved DurIAN-based average model and leverage it to few-shot learning with the shared speaker-independent content encoder across different speakers. Several few-shot learning tasks in our experiments show AdaDurIAN can outperform the baseline end-to-end system by a large margin. Subjective evaluations also show that AdaDurIAN yields higher mean opinion score (MOS) of naturalness and more preferences of speaker similarity. In addition, we also apply AdaDurIAN to emotion transfer tasks and demonstrate its promising performance.


Electrical power is an important factor to any community, commercial center or industry. Currently, new forms of electricity generation are being proposed and implemented. Among them, hybrid microgrid systems (HGMS) have been playing a significant role. Such systems are gaining increasing attention in the energy transition moment that the entire World is facing nowadays. The balance of load and electricity generation from renewable energy sources is a major challenge in the operation and planning of HGMS projects. This work presents a new modeling for a microgrid system and its optimization using the Canonical Differential Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization to demonstrate the economic viability of the electric energy supply. The proposed approach made it possible to optimize the operation of HGMS and provide decision aid for choosing between two different battery storage systems.


This paper describes and evaluates the competition policies in Japan, China, and Hong Kong. A simple framework based on the economic incentive of violations of law is used to evaluate the effectiveness of competition policy. After half a century of effort, Japan has finally established of a modern antitrust system, although its surcharge system could be further improved so as to enhance the deterrence effect of the law. China and Hong Kong (as most other East Asia countries) are at the early stage of developing an adequate and effective competition policy. Their short experiences, however, demonstrate the importance and complexity of designing a truly independent enforcement system. Factors impeding the development of competition policy in East Asia include the lack of internal interest, conflicts with other national policies, and the influence of state-supported enterprises. There is much East Asian countries can learn from the cases reviewed, particularly in the field of institution building. JEL Classifications: K21, L4.


TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) induces apoptosis in many transformed cells but not in normal cells, hence TRAIL has recently emerged as a novel anti-cancer agent. Adult T-cell Leukemia/Lymphoma (ATLL) is a neoplasm of T-lymphocyte origin etiologically associated with HTLV-I, and is known to be resistant to standard anti-cancer therapies. In a previous study, we showed that although most ATLL cells express TRAIL-death receptors DR4 and/or DR5, they are resistant to TRAIL. To overcome this resistance, we tried to find natural materials that increase the sensitivity to TRAIL in the present study. Here, we report for the first time that dihydroflavonol from a plant increases TRAIL sensitivity by enhancing death receptor expression.

Materials and methods : We used a TRAIL-resistant ATLL cell line, KOB, for screening, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from normal healthy donors. The cell surface expression of DR4, DR5, and decoy-receptors DcR1 and DcR2 was examined using flow cytometry (FCM). Cell viability was assessed by MTS assay after incubation with various combinations of natural extracts and TRAIL for 48 hours. Apoptosis was evaluated by Annexin V binding and propidium iodide (PI) staining. We also analyzed caspase−8, − 9 and −3 activation and pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins by Western blot.

Results and Discussion : We screened more than 500 natural products. Among them, the most striking synergism with TRAIL was observed in a dihydroflavonol that was extracted from the Blumea Balsamifera , a family of chrysanthemum from Thailand. It was a methyldihydroquercetin (molecular weight, 318), and we named it BB-1. The viability of KOB cells treated with either TRAIL or BB-1 was 98% and 97%, respectively, and decreased to 60% with concurrent treatment. Interestingly, sequential treatment, pre-treatment with BB-1 followed by TRAIL, further augmented the synergism, and the viability decreased to 38%. Using Annexin V and PI, we confirmed that these are the results of apoptosis. Although it has been reported that anti-apoptotic proteins FLIP, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and XIAP play key roles in TRAIL resistance, we did not find any change in these factors in the BB-1-treated cells. Instead, we found that BB-1 increased DR5 expression. Subsequent activation of caspase−8, −9 and −3 was observed in a time-dependent manner in the sequentially treated cells, but not in cells treated with BB-1 or TRAIL alone. More importantly, BB1 did not induce DR5 expression or enhance TRAIL sensitivity in PBMCs. Thus, BB-1 augmented TRAIL-induced apoptosis by up-regulating DR5 expression without any cytotoxic activity on normal PBMCs. These results suggest that combined treatment with BB-1 and TRAIL can be a new strategy for cancer immunotherapy against TRAIL-resistant cells.


The entity resolution (ER) problem, which identifies duplicate entities that refer to the same real world entity, is essential in many applications. In this paper, in particular, we focus on resolving entities that contain a group of related elements in them (e.g., an author entity with a list of citations, a singer entity with song list, or an intermediate result by GROUP BY SQL query). Such entities, named as grouped-entities, frequently occur in many applications. The previous approaches toward grouped-entity resolution often rely on textual similarity, and produce a large number of false positives. As a complementing technique, in this paper, we present our experience of applying a recently proposed graph mining technique, Quasi-Clique, atop conventional ER solutions. Our approach exploits contextual information mined from the group of elements per entity in addition to syntactic similarity. Extensive experiments verify that our proposal improves precision and recall up to 83% when used together with a variety of existing ER solutions, but never worsens them.


In this work, optimization and scale up of the spray drying ati-ati plant boiling extract was studied. The variables that influence the antioxidant activity of ati-ati plant are studied and determined. In this research spray drying has been adopted to produce the dried extract from the liquid form of the boiling extract of ati-ati plant. Analysis on the dried extracts has been conducted using an antioxidant assay are based on measurement of the loss DPPH color at 517 nm after reaction with test compound and the reaction is monitored by UV-VIS spectrophotometer. The 22 factorial experiment method is used to design the experiment around a centre point of temperature and concentration of maltodextrin which gave the optimum antioxidant activity at small scale. Among the experimental points, the highest yield of antioxidant activity is produced in condition of 150 oC and 10% concentration of maltodextrin. This experiment was followed by mathematical analysis using Yates' method and linear regression in order to study the main effect and interactive effect of changing the level of experimental variables. The calculation proved that concentration of maltodextrin has the biggest main effect on antioxidant activity while the interactive effect of the combination of temperature and concentration of maltodextrin is also significance. The 22 factorial experiments were complemented with more experiments to make a composite design in order to determine the maximum point. The maximum predicted yields according to the optimized levels of variables are 57.3427% of antioxidant activity at temperature of 165.26oC and 19.35% concentration of maltodextrin.


Including adolescent gynecologic services in a physician's practice provides patients with complete medical care, and the advantage to adolescent patients is tremendous: A sensitive area in their life can be addressed in a safe, familiar setting that will minimize the trauma of confronting this new and scary experience. This article describes the sequence of activities involved in an adolescent gynecologic examination and discusses the issue of confidentiality. Common gynecologic complaints of adolescents are also described.


We analysed the effect of nandrolone decanoate (ND) on functional and quantitative changes in immune cell populations, on survival, and on autoantibody production of female New Zealand Black (NZB) mice. Our results confirmed that, with increasing age, untreated NZB mice display a lower natural killer (NK) cell activity, an impaired T-cell function as evidenced by a reduced mitogen lymphoproliferative response, IL-2 production and generation of cytotoxic lymphocytes, a lower level of thymic serum factor (TSF), a reduced percentage of Thy-1+ cells; we also observed an increased incidence of mice with abnormally high levels of anti-DNA in the serum. In addition, we demonstrated an important defect in the IL-1 production by LPS-stimulated macrophages. ND administered to female NZB mice increased the survival time of the animals and reduced the anti-DNA titres. This favourable effect was associated with improved immune responses, especially those mediated by T cells; these included increased IL-2 production, complete recovery of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), a significant augmentation of the percentage of Lyt-2+ cells and enhanced TSF level. Moreover IL-1 production by macrophages returned to normal. These results suggest that ND acts on T-cell differentiation, either by a direct effect on thymic epithelial cells resulting in an increased TSF release, and/or via macrophage regulatory activity. The protective effect of ND may also be attributed in part to the higher number of Lyt-2+ (suppressor) T cells present in the spleen after treatment.


Abstract Disruptions in routine immunization caused by COVID-19 put African countries with large vaccine-preventable disease burdens at high risk of outbreaks. Abbas et al. (2020) showed that mortality reduction from resuming immunization outweighs excess mortality from COVID-19 caused by exposure during immunization activities. We leverage these estimates to calculate benefit-cost ratios (BCRs) of disrupted immunization and apply cost of illness (COI) and value of statistical life-year (VSLY) approaches to estimate the cost of excess child deaths from eight vaccine-preventable diseases. BCRs were computed for each country, vaccine, and Expanded Program on Immunization visit. Secondary estimates that include the cost of providing immunization are presented in scenario analysis. Suspended immunization may cost $4949 million due to excess mortality using the COI approach, or $34,344 million using the VSLY approach. Likewise, excess COVID-19 deaths caused by exposure from immunization activities would cost $53 and $275 million using the COI and VSLY approaches, respectively. BCRs of continuing routine immunization are 94:1 using COI and 125:1 using VSLY, indicating that the economic costs of suspending immunization exceed that of COVID-19 deaths risked by routine immunization. When including the costs of providing routine immunization during the COVID-19 pandemic, the BCRs are 38:1 and 97:1 using the COI and VSLY approaches, respectively.


Purpose To understand similarities and differences in patient treatment goals as selected by US psychiatrists, adult patients with schizophrenia, and their caregivers in a real-world setting in the United States, including stratification by current medication and age. Patients and Methods Data were drawn from the Adelphi Schizophrenia Disease Specific Programme™, a point-in-time survey of psychiatrists and their consulting adult patients with schizophrenia, conducted from June to October 2019. Psychiatrists completed record forms for their next 8 consecutive outpatients and (where possible) 2 inpatients matching inclusion criteria. Participating psychiatrists, patients, and caregivers completed treatment goal questionnaires as part of the survey. Results Psychiatrists (n = 124) provided data on 1204 patients with schizophrenia, including 1135 on drug treatment (207 inpatients [18%] and 928 outpatients [82%]); questionnaires were completed by 555 patients and 135 caregivers. Decrease in disease symptoms was identified as the most important patient treatment goal by patients (64%), psychiatrists (selecting for 63% of patients), and caregivers (selecting for 68% of patients). Patients, psychiatrists, and caregivers similarly rated the least important goals (less sexual problems and less weight gain). Patients indicated their current medication helped to reach their most important goals: decrease in disease symptoms (68%) and thinking more clearly (39%). Findings based on analysis of treatment goals by treatment and age were similar to overall trends. Conclusion These findings, including identification of a primary consensus goal of decrease in disease symptoms, may help with discussions between patients with schizophrenia, psychiatrists, and caregivers to inform effective management strategies and encourage shared decision-making.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the diagnose and management of parapharyngeal space (PPS) neoplasms.

METHOD
Records of 48 patients with PPS neoplasms operated from 1988 to 1998 were reviewed.

RESULT
Neurogenic tumors were the most common neoplasma in primary PPS neoplasms. CT and MRI could provide clinically informations such as their size, shape, extent and site. Tumor vessels could be clearly seen by carotid arteriography. The majority of PPS tumors were resected by a transcervical approach.

CONCLUSION
CT and/or MRI are essential for diagnose and presurgical planning, Arteriography can be used only when CT or MRi suggest a glomous tumor, or possible involvement of carotid artery, or when those tumors put the carotid artery at a risk for surgical injury. Transoral approach may be used for small tumors and transparotid approach may be especially indicated for removing deep lobe parotid tumors with extention to the PPS. When there is a significant risk for injury the internal carotid artery radiological evidence are necessary for infratemporal approach.


Peliosis hepatis is defined as the appearance of blood filled lakes in the hepatic parenchyma. It has been associated with various pharmacological agents and infections. Treatment has been primarily symptomatic and includes discontinuation of offending medications, partial hepatectomy or occasionally liver transplantation. We report a 58 year old white female on hormone replacement therapy who developed symptomatic peliosis hepatis and underwent successful superselective hepatic artery embolization with control of bleeding.


Modern software development sees code review as a crucial part of the process, because not only does it facilitate the sharing of knowledge about the system at hand, but it may also lead to the early detection of defects, ultimately improving the quality of the produced software. Although supported by numerous approaches and tools, code review is still in its infancy, and indeed researchers have pointed out a number of shortcomings in the state of the art. We present a critical analysis of the state of the art of code review tools and techniques, extracting a set of desired features that code review tools should possess. We then present our vision and initial implementation of a novel code review approach named Visual Design Inspection (ViDI), illustrated through a set of usage scenarios. ViDI is based on a combination of visualization techniques, design heuristics, and static code analysis techniques.


Modulation of the immune system to amplify anti-tumor immunity carries the risk of developing autoimmune diseases, including hypothyroidism, as seen with cancer patients undergoing clinical trials for immunotherapeutic regimens. Although there is a tendency to view autoimmunity as a positive indicator for cancer immunotherapy, some autoimmune manifestations can be life-threatening and necessitate prolonged medical intervention or removal from trial. We have established murine test models to assess such risks by monitoring, simultaneously, the immune reactivity to tumor-associated rat erbB-2 (neu) and another self Ag, mouse thyroglobulin (mTg). We previously reported that in wild-type, thyroiditis-resistant BALB/c mice that underwent regression of neu+ TUBO tumors following regulatory T cell (Treg) depletion, immune responses to rat neu and mTg with resultant autoimmune thyroiditis (EAT) were both enhanced. In this study, we tested the balance between tumor immunity and autoimmunity in neu-transgenic BALB NeuT female mice. First, growth and progression of neu+ tumor were compared in neu tolerant mice treated with either CD25 mAb to deplete Tregs and/or DNA vaccination. Only Treg depletion followed by neu DNA vaccination abrogated tolerance to neu, resulting in complete regression of neu+ tumors, as well as long-term protection from spontaneous tumorigenesis in 58% of mice. The risk of developing EAT was then assessed by incorporated mTg immunization with or without LPS as adjuvant. In mice with induced tumor regression, mTg response was enhanced with modest increases in EAT development. Therefore, tumor regression induced by Treg depletion and DNA vaccination can exacerbate autoimmunity, which warrants close monitoring during immunotherapy.


The purpose of this study was to analyze the regional characteristics and geographic distribution of the medical staffs (physicians and nurses) and the patient beds in relation to the population and average death rates in each of the provinces in Thailand, by using the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficients. Those data were obtained from surveys conducted by the Ministry of Public Health and the Office of the National Education Commission. It was demonstrated that there are certain clear uneven distributions in medical personnel, especially physicians (Gini index = 0.433), by province. For physicians, nurses, and patient beds, approximately 39.6%, 25.8% and 20.6% are concentrated in the Bangkok Metropolis. Specific ideas to solve those problems are discussed in order to overcome this health care crisis by the year 2025.


Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) across 24 hours is recommended to confirm hypertension and, outside of a laboratory setting, is the only means to measure the extent of any nocturnal decrease in blood pressure (BP) i.e., nocturnal BP dipping. The ambulatory device is traditionally programmed to inflate every 20-30 minutes during awake and sleep. Despite diagnostic benefits, ABPM may disturb sleep and lead to reduced compliance in some individuals. Firefighters, an occupational group with a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease, often note continued vigilance during sleep, possibly reflecting light sleep and/or frequent awakenings. This potential sleep disturbance may contribute to firefighters' cardiovascular disease risk and may also impact ABPM data.

 To assess the effect of ABPM on total sleep time (TST) and wake after sleep onset (WASO) in firefighters, we measured sleep using wrist actigraphy in 120 firefighters (91.3% male) from two different departments in Oregon. As part of a larger longitudinal study, participants' sleep off-shift (as noted from daily survey) was recorded for up to 14 days at two different time points, two months apart. During two consecutive days off, participants completed 24-48 hours of ABPM with simultaneous actigraphy. Overall, there were 1273 measures of sleep, 206 with the cuff and 1067 without the cuff. Separate mixed models with cuff (on/off) as a fixed effect and participant as a random effect, were run for TST and WASO. Models were adjusted for total time in bed, department, and collection interval.

 Surprisingly, TST with the cuff on was significantly greater than nights without the cuff (marginal mean ± SE: 432.0±3.1 vs. 415.9±1.7 minutes respectively, p< 0.001). Increased TST was attributable to a lower WASO with the cuff than without the cuff (43.8±2.9 vs 59.8±1.7 minutes, respectively, p< 0.001).

 Contrary to our expectations, ABPM was not associated with actigraphy measured disturbed sleep among firefighters. In fact, in these data, sleep appeared to be improved while wearing the cuff. Perhaps concerns around poor sleep when wearing the device may have led to improved sleep behaviors on those nights, but this hypothesis needs further investigation.

 U19OH010154, K01HL151745


In this paper we showed a new approach for the fabrication of a photonic crystal with a three-dimensional structure. By replicating biomaterials such as the wing of Mopho butterfly with TiO2 nanoparticles using the nanoparticles infiltration method, we can derive photonic crystals with unique structures, which is difficult to fabricate by other approaches. New optical properties are anticipated.


Summary The spectral reflectivities of homogeneous and exsolved titanomagnetites of the same chemical composition were measured in air and in oil. The reflectivities of the two kinds of titanomagnetite are closely similar in the blue part of the spectrum, but become increasingly different when proceeding towards the red end. The refractive indices (n) and the absorption coefficients (k) were calculated from the reflectivity values. The n-values of the two kinds of titanomagnetite show a pattern of separation similar to that of the reflectivity values. Regarding possible differences between the k-values no reliable conclusions could be drawn. Some possible explanations of the observed separations are discussed.


SUMMARY: Fifty per cent ethanol treatment removed most of the outer envelope of serotype biflexa, strain Patoc I. The trilaminar outer envelope was recovered from the 50% ethanol supernatant by raising the ethanol concentration to 90% (v/v). Five and even seven layers in the outer envelopes were seen. The 90% ethanol precipitate contained the erythrocyte-sensitizing substance (ESS). An anti-ESS serum was reactive in leptospiral agglutination, haemagglutination and in Ouchterlony's double diffusion tests. Electron microscopic examination revealed the presence of stripping and agglutination of stripped or unstripped outer envelopes of healthy Patoc I cells in the presence of anti-ESS serum. The 90% ethanol precipitate of Patoc I organisms contained polysaccharide, lipid, protein, amino sugars and 16 different amino acids. The suggestion that the genus-specific leptospiral erythrocyte-sensitizing substance is, or is associated with, the outer envelope of strain Patoc I is discussed.


A modernist Parisian apartment in 1930 Lampposts and ceiling lights in the Colonial Palace for the colonial exhibition of1931 Lampposts at the colonial exhibition in Paris en1931 Salle a manger de…


Interoceptive awareness (IA), the conscious perception of signals originating in the body, is a fundamental component of our subjective experience of emotion and may be its proximate cause. IA is integral to attention, motivation, emotion regulation, and decision-making—processes that are essential to our survival, sense of agency, and wellbeing. A clear understanding of individual differences in IA is currently hampered by the limitations of prevailing assessments—namely, self-report questionnaires and heartbeat perception tasks—which have questionable reliability and validity, fail to capture the full spectrum of individual variability, and disregard the emotional contexts in which interoceptive processes naturally unfold. This dissertation proposes a novel method for assessing IA that capitalizes on emotional response coherence. Specifically, the method assesses variability in the extent to which physiology and subjective experience track together within individuals while they are experiencing strong emotions. Theoretical and empirical rationales for considering the "Coherence Task" to be a proxy measure of IA are elucidated and its psychometric properties are systematically evaluated. Fifty-six men and women aged 18 to 50 completed the coherence task on two occasions spaced one week apart. While watching evocative film montages that captured a range of emotions, subjects provided momentary ratings of their subjective experience on valence and arousal dimensions (2 separate trials per session) and their physiology was continuously recorded. Cross-correlation coefficients of the coherence between subjective ratings and heart period ("Coherence Scores") were then computed for each individual. Coherence Scores derived from valence-based ratings of subjective experience and heart period demonstrated significant 1-week test-retest reliability (i.e., temporal stability); were positively associated with self-reported body awareness (i.e., convergent validity); and were negatively associated with a composite measure of distress and positively associated with empathy (i.e., predictive validity). Moreover, these findings showed specificity for the coherence between subjective experience and visceral over somatic signals (i.e., for interoceptive over proprioceptive awareness; discriminant validity).The Coherence Task shows early promise as an empirically grounded assessment of individual differences in IA. This task would also enable us to evaluate the efficacy of interventions that target interoceptive awareness for health and wellbeing (e.g., mindfulness meditation).


The aim of this study was to assess the risk of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) in shearing and investigate practicable control methods. Woolshed surveys included shed construction data, noise dosimetry and area noise sampling. The noise exposures from 40 personal measurements were all above the 85 dB(A) action level, lying in the range 8690 dB(A). Shearers had the highest exposure, "near field" noise coming from the action of the cutting edge in the shearing comb, but also from downtubes and gears. Noise for sorters and pressers was contributed to by the stereo system (found in all shearing sheds). Lined sheds seemed to have slightly higher noise levels than unlined sheds. None of the shearing crews had hearing protection available. Redesign of the shearing equipment primarily the handpiece but also the downtubes and gears could potentially reduce the exposure by 2-3 dB(A) and possibly more. In the meantime shearing crews need to wear hearing protection and be subject to audiometric surveillance.


Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a bad-prognosis cancer raising difficult issues according to diagnosis. Reliable histological diagnosis indeed requires large-sized pathological samples obtained by thoracoscopy, and need diagnosis certification by the MESOPATH national expert pathological committee. MPM epidemiology shows a rising incidence among females, whereas an incidence plateau has been reached for males in France. The incidence peak is still predicted for 2030 decade in UK, Australia and North America, because of the asbestosis massive use in their industry until the end of 1980 decade. Pleural carcinogenesis is better understood with the recent discovery of BAP1 susceptibility gene although no oncogenic driver has been ever uncovered for targeted therapies, although several more or less targeted biological therapies are currently tested in early phase or more advanced-phase trials. Surgery is more and more questioned, since radical surgery is currently abandoned, whereas debulking or cyto-reduction surgery has been proposed within a multimodality approach also including adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy but still need prospective trials. Pemetrexed and cisplatin-based chemotherapy remains the reference treatment, which has proved in mesothelioma some efficacy on overall survival in randomized trials, with a 13-15 months median-overall survival. Final results of the large phase 3 clinical trial "MAPS" sponsored by French collaborative Intergroup (IFCT) evaluating the effect of bevacizumab addition to pemetrexed-cisplatin doublet will be released in early 2015, since 445 patients have been included by November 2013.


Augmented Reality is a variation of Virtual Environment (VE) in Virtual Reality (VR). Virtual Reality technologies Virtual Environment makes user experiences immersion inside a synthetic environment and user cannot see the real world. In contrast, Augmented Reality (AR) medium of information added to the real world in registration with the world to combine virtual objects and real world. Technically, Augmented Reality is able to enhance all five senses by adding digital or computer generated information such as images, audio, video, interaction and overlaying them over in physical world. Its most commonly use is visual. Augmented Reality allows the user to see the virtual object blended in real world environment. To apply Augmented Reality to applications used for illustration the architecture or infrastructure of building, 3D visual model is a content which is good way to show obviously architecture's element because it is able to display the appearance of each building part separately responding to camera perspective in real-time. That means AR system have to re-render the digital object every time the viewer changes position even a tiny bit as temporal registration. Therefore, the computations for three- dimensional computer graphics must be considered about rendering system on the observed devices because time lags could be occurred when lacking computational speed while it is operating the imagery overlay on the top of the physical world for each frame. There are mainly constraints that are limited the AR system performance such as limited memory and limited computational capability. To enhance the limitations of handheld devices, this research applies Relief Mapping algorithm to 3D model in Augmented Reality technology to reduce the number of polygons on the facade of Sino Portuguese Architecture which consist of many bas-relief patterns on their facades. Our system uses game engine, Unity3D, for real-time rendering and Vuforia SDK implemented augmented reality application on handheld device. The result of the research after applying Relief Mapping technique instead of using the conventional modeling creation, more than 80,000 polygons/ 1 bas-relief, is to create by having a single polygon per a bas-relief and the quality of visualization is compatible to each other on AR application.


Estrogen is a sex steroid hormone important in women, predominantly synthesized in the ovaries and released into the bloodstream. Estrogen is a regulator of inflammation; exerting a number of known anti-inflammatory effects through a variety of different mechanisms, both genomic and non-genomic. On the other hand, the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has vasoconstrictor and proinflammatory functions that regulate cardiovascular homeostasis. Most of the proinflammatory effects are mediated by AT1 receptor, which activates proinflammatory signaling pathways including the transcription factor NFkappaB activation. The prorenin and renin receptor (PRR) is the newest component of RAS and one of its signaling pathways include NFkappaB activation. Estrogen has an inhibitory effect on RAS. To study the effect of estrogen absence upon PRR expression in immune cells from spleen, we used an ovariectomized rats (OVX) model. We validated the model using vaginal histology and morphometric measurements. We used flow cytometry to analyze splenic immune cells, PRR expression and pro- and antiinflamatory citokines. To evaluate inflammatory response in these conditions, we stimulated a group with LPS injection to OVX and control rats. We found an increase in PRR expression and function, measured as PLZF expression, in whole spleen cells from OVX rats, Differential expression, however, was found in macrophages (M), T lymphocytes (TL), and NK cells in these rats: A clear decrease in CD3+LT and M, whereas NK cells showed a slight increase. After 24 h of LPS injection, the PRR expression pattern increased uniformly in all studied cells, with an increase in PLZF expression. Our data indicate that PRR in immune cells is estrogen-controlled


Health wearables are one of the more established elements of the digital health revolution. GPS-enabled watches have been successful training aids for amateur and professional athletes for well over a decade. The ability to miniaturize complex biosensors to enable remote vital signs monitoring, disease progression and treatment effect measurement are all very real opportunities worthy of the hype. Early versions of these tools, however, were not Internet-connected and were not capable of being tethered to a cellular and or Internet-enabled mobile phone. In order for these devices to reach their potential for patients, understanding their risks within the context of the entire connected ecosystem must occur.


In this paper, we investigate the joint optimization of sensing and power allocation for cooperative relay in cognitive radio networks (CRNs). Specifically, in the sensing time slot, the source secondary user (SU) and the relay SUs individually sense the channel, and then the relay SUs send their sensing results to the source SU, in which a fusion rule is employed to determine whether the primary user (PU) is idle or not on the channel. In the data transmission slot, the selective amplify-and-forward (S-AF) cooperative relay scheme is considered to assist the source SU for data transmission. By jointly considering the two slots, the optimization problems are respectively formulated to maximize the CRN's average throughput and minimize the outage probability of secondary transmission under the average transmit power constraint of SUs and the average interference power constraint of PU. The optimal algorithms are developed to acquire the optimal sensing time and power allocation. Moreover, in the S-AF scheme, a relay selection scheme is also considered in the optimization problem. Finally, we provide simulation results to validate our proposed algorithms.


This integrated version has been created for printing purposes only. Please refer to the individual Question & Answers as published under 'Pre-authorisation', 'Regulatory' section on the Agency's website for access to the hyperlinked information. This document addresses a number of questions which users of the Centralised Procedure may have. It provides an overview of the EMA position on issues, which are typically addressed during the course of Pre-Submission Meetings. The Agency emphasises the importance of Pre-Submission Meetings with Applicants. Pre-Submission Meetings (which should take place approximately 6 months prior to the anticipated date of submission of the application) are a vital opportunity for Applicants to obtain procedural, regulatory and legal advice from the EMA. This guidance information and successful Pre-Submission Meetings should enable Applicants to submit applications, which are in conformity with the legal and regulatory requirements and which can be validated speedily. Pre-Submission Meetings will also enable Applicants to establish contact with the EMA staff closely involved with the application as it proceeds.


A precursor of a strong first-order structural phase transition has been detected as the critical speeding-up of the lifetime of the fluorescence excited by a picosecond pulsed laser. In the alpha - beta transition of a resorcinol (C6H4(OH)2) crystal, a critical decrease of the lifetimes and an increase in the intensity of the impurity-induced fluorescence were found from about 30 K below Tc. This is in contrast with the fact that the temperature dependence of the Raman spectra and the dielectric constant shows no precursor effect. From a detailed polarization study, large-amplitude and short-lived vibrational fluctuations associated with the phase transition are suggested as a possible origin of the precursor. Despite the apparent contradiction of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, the results indicate that divergence of the fluctuation also takes place in the first-order phase transition. The method provides a new approach to the study of a first-order phase transition.


Abstract Subtle injuries of the Lisfranc joint complex are uncommon and difficult to diagnose clinically and thus are easily missed even by experienced orthopedic doctors. Misdiagnosed injuries can lead to chronic disability until eventual fusion surgery. We describe 10 cases diagnosed with subtle injury of the Lisfranc joint that were treated with combined innovative portal arthroscopy and fluoroscopy‐assisted reduction and percutaneous screw fixation in an interfragmentary fashion. The distance between the first and second metatarsals (the Lisfranc distance) and that between the medial cuneiform and fifth metatarsal base (foot arch height) was measured before and after surgery. The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society function score was evaluated perioperatively. The average preoperative and postoperative Lisfranc distance was 4.38 ± 0.39 mm and 2.68 ± 0.9 mm, the foot arch height was 12.63 ± 2.75 mm and 21.80 ± 3.50 mm, and the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society score was 59.1 ± 5.69 and 86.8 ± 10.1, respectively. Of the 10 patients, 3 had excellent outcomes, 6 had good outcomes, and 1 had a fair outcome. In conclusion, we report a useful and minimally invasive surgery for acute, subacute, and even chronic subtle injury of the Lisfranc joint. The Lisfranc distance, foot arch height, and function of the foot were restored clinically, and all measurements showed statistically significant differences. &NA; Level of Clinical Evidence: 4


How to cite this article: Liu TM. Stemness of Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Preliminary Study. J Stem Cell Ther Transplant. 2017; 1: 071-073. https://doi.org/10.29328/journal.jsctt.1001008 Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent adult stem cells that can self-renew and differentiate into a variety of cell types including chondrocytes, osteocytes and adipocytes. MSCs reside in bone marrow, adipose tissues, cord blood, peripheral blood, placenta, Wharton's jelly, fetal liver and lung among others. MSCs represent one of the most promising stem cells for regenerative medicine due to their multipotency, immunoprivileged properties and easy expansion in vitro. So far, MSCs are already in various phases of clinical application [1-4]. Their most immediate use is in the orthopedic context due to the clear demonstration of their ability to differentiate into bone and cartilage [5-8]. It has been 5 decades since Friedenstein et al described clonal and plastic adherent stromal cells from bone marrow in the 1960s [9,10]. Although there are a handful of genes suggesting possible MSC stemness markers, the molecular basis underlying MSC stemness, especially the key transcription factor to MSC stemness, is still poorly understood.


Pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) is a serious, chronic illness significantly affecting the global functioning of the individual affected. In the past decade there has been significant research undertaken to understand the phenomenology, neurobiology and treatments for PBD. Indeed, in clinical practices, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents has increased markedly (Youngstrom et al., 2005; Blader and Carlson et al., 2006; Case et al., 2007).

As bipolar disorder may present differently in children and adolescents due to developmental variations in manic symptom expression, researchers continue to discuss the appropriate diagnostic criteria for PBD (Leibenluft et al., 2008, McClellan et al., 2007). Thus, research to date has focused on studying the phenomenology and pathophysiology for PBD in an effort to inform the diagnosis of this disorder in youth.

As there is evidence suggesting that children and adolescents who have a parent with bipolar disorder are at a high risk for developing a mood disorder, longitudinal follow up of these high–risk youth may provide phenomenological, temperamental, and biological clues to early presentations of bipolar disorder (Chang et al., 2003). Dr. Anne Duffy, an esteemed Canadian researcher at the Dalhousie University, Halifax, begins our theme issue with providing an expert's perspective on selected bipolar offspring studies and discusses the implications of these regarding the diagnosis of PBD. She discusses the prodromal symptoms of early onset bipolar disorder and the difficulty of using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) in making an accurate diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children.

Our next article by Dr. Inal-Emiroglu at the Dokuz Eylul University Medical School, Izmir, Turkey and Dr. Diler at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh reveals the significant research conducted in bipolar Turkish youth. The authors discuss their findings which are similar to what other researchers have found in regards to difficulties encountered in diagnosing PBD and in Turkish bipolar offspring having a higher risk of receiving a psychiatric diagnosis than offspring of healthy parents.

The ultimate goal of clinical research is its applicability to regular clinical practices, which brings us to the next article by Dr. Saxena and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX. As many children and adolescents do not fit the classic DSM-IV-TR criteria for Bipolar Disorder, Type I., Bipolar Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (BPNOS) is often the "catch all" diagnosis. In this article Dr. Saxena and colleagues discuss a recent study, The Course and Outcome of Bipolar Youth (COBY) which provided research definitions for BPNOS. Using these research definitions for BPNOS, which provided preliminary validation for BPNOS, Saxena and colleagues examined the clinical presentation of youth with BPI vs. BPNOS presenting to an outpatient clinic. This study was able to demonstrate that research diagnostic criteria may be effectively utilized in a clinical setting, which may serve to improve the precision of diagnosis and thus future treatment outcomes.

To be able to improve the diagnostic assessment of PBD, researchers are searching for endophenotypic markers for bipolar disorder. Because bipolar disorder is associated with cognitive impairments such as attention deficits, difficulties in executive functioning and verbal memory deficits, studies have looked at the neurocognitive profiles of bipolar subjects to determine if these could be endophenotypes for the illness. Cahill and colleagues at the University of Sydney in Australia provide an overview of studies looking at the cognitive deficits associated with bipolar disorder in youth.

Kowatch et al., (2005) have published treatment guidelines for bipolar disorder which provide guidelines to clinicians regarding the best treatment approaches for bipolar youth. As noted above, clinical research and guidelines are developed so they can be applied to clinical practice. Towards this end, Drs. Consoli and Cohen at the Laboratoire "Psychologie et Neurosciences Cognitives" in Paris, France describe the pharmacological treatment prescribed in an inpatient setting for acute manic or mixed episodes in adolescents and compare their results with evidence-based data.

Researchers have recognized that treatment of PBD with psychotropics alone is not sufficient, since PBD is associated with significant psychosocial impairments. Thus, psychosocial treatment adjunctive to medication is becoming an important component of the comprehensive treatment for PBD, and research has been conducted to develop evidence-based psychosocial treatments for PBD. Indeed, Fristad MA (2006) and Miklowitz et al., (2008) have developed family-based psychoeducational interventions for the treatment of bipolar youth. To add to this literature, Amy West and her colleagues at the University of Illinois in Chicago explored the feasibility of child and family-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for PBD. This study consisted of group psychotherapy as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy.

Pediatric bipolar disorder is a recognized global illness. The aim of this international theme issue on PBD is to reinforce to the readers that researchers worldwide are struggling with the same dilemmas regarding the diagnosis and treatments for PBD. One way to gain more insight into the development, causes and treatments for this illness is to conduct multicenter international studies on PBD.

These six articles complete this theme issue on International Perspectives of Pediatric Bipolar Disorder. Our hope is that the readers will benefit from an understanding that PBD is recognized globally as a serious illness which is difficult to diagnose, and for which the treatments and biological markers remain a challenge. The guest editors and the Journal invite you to participate in an ongoing dialogue by either submitting further articles on the theme issue or a commentary via letters to the editor.

Sincerely,


Many computer vision systems require low-cost segmentation algorithms based on deep learning, either because of the enormous size of input images or limited computational budget. Common solutions uniformly downsample the input images to meet memory constraints, assuming all pixels are equally informative. In this work, we demonstrate that this assumption can harm the segmentation performance because the segmentation difficulty varies spatially. We combat this problem by introducing a learnable downsampling module, which can be optimised together with the given segmentation model in an end-to-end fashion. We formulate the problem of training such downsampling module as optimisation of sampling density distributions over the input images given their low-resolution views. To defend against degenerate solutions (e.g. over-sampling trivial regions like the backgrounds), we propose a regularisation term that encourages the sampling locations to concentrate around the object boundaries. We find the downsampling module learns to sample more densely at difficult locations, thereby improving the segmentation performance. Our experiments on benchmarks of high-resolution street view, aerial and medical images demonstrate substantial improvements in terms of efficiency-and-accuracy trade-off compared to both uniform downsampling and two recent advanced downsampling techniques.


The aim of this study is to make serial BAEPs and PNCS in hypothyroid rats in order to provide objective and quantitative methods of detecting dysfunction of the central and peripheral nervous system in hypothyroid status and elucidating the relationship between the recovery potential and the duration of hypothyroid status. Thyroidectomy was performed in eighteen naive 5-month-old Sprague-Dawley rats in order to induce hypothyroid status, which was confirmed by RIA study 1-2 months after the surgery. Initial BAEP and PNCS were performed in two groups of the hypothyroid animals 1 and 3 months after thyroidectomy. Following the initial examination, thyroxin replacement therapy was given to each hypothyroid group, and then followed by BAEPs and PNCS at two month intervals, up to twice normal studies or six months after the initiation of therapy. In the BAEP study, the prolonged I-V inter-peak latency was the most consistent abnormal finding in all hypothyroid rats. Delayed peak latencies as well as prolonged I-III and III-V inter-peak intervals occurred when the hypothyroid status was longer than one month. We noted that the longer the hypothyroid status, the more severe the central conduction dysfunction. Nonetheless, these abnormalities always returned to normal after the replacement therapy if the hypothyroid state was shorter than 3 months in duration. For the PNCS study, all groups of thyroidectomized rats showed the normal results. We think the peripheral nervous system of rats may be more resistant to damage by hypothyroidism than the central nervous system.


OBJECTIVE. Little is known about the medications prescribed for sleep in hospitalized children. The aims of this study were to (1) determine the percentage of hospitalized children who receive medication for sleep disturbances, (2) determine what medications are prescribed for sleep difficulties, and (3) examine medical and demographic variables related to medications prescribed during hospitalization. PATIENTS AND METHODS. A chart review was conducted for all inpatients at 3 pediatric hospitals across 26 randomly selected days in 2004. Demographic, medical, and medication data were collected on 9440 patients. The sample was 54.5% male, had a mean age of 7.0 years, and was 63% white. Almost 19% of the patients had at least 1 psychiatric diagnosis. RESULTS. Overall, 6.0% of all hospitalized children (3% of all medically hospitalized children, excluding children with a psychiatric diagnosis) were prescribed medications for sleep, with antihistamines the most frequently prescribed medication (36.6%), followed by benzodiazepines (19.4%); hypnotic agents were the least frequently prescribed (2.2%). Significant differences were found in both the frequency of sleep-medication prescriptions and the types of medications used across hospitals, as well as for age, length of hospitalization, and service that the child was discharged from. Children with a psychiatric diagnosis were more likely to receive a sleep medication, with 22% of children on a psychiatric service receiving a sleep-related medication. CONCLUSIONS. Approximately 3% to 6% of children are treated pharmacologically with a broad array of sleep medications in hospital settings. Prescription practices vary by hospital, medical service, child age, and diagnosis. The results from this study indicate that medications are being prescribed for sleep in hospitalized children, especially in children with psychiatric diagnoses. However, given that there are neither Food and Drug Administration–approved sleep medications for children nor clinical consensus guidelines regarding their use, clinical trials, practice guidelines, and additional research are clearly needed.


Acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) is a clonal process involving the myeloid subgroup of white blood cells. Chloromas, or myeloid sarcomas, are masses of myeloid leukaemic cells and are a unique aspect of AML. This case involves a 14-year-old boy with AML who presented with multiple chloromas at diagnosis. The patient's extra-calvarial masses and bone marrow involvement responded to chemotherapy; however, his sacral epidural chloromas persisted despite four courses of chemotherapy. The central nervous system, bone marrow and testes have been known to be sanctuary sites for AML. This case illustrates that the sacral spinal canal may potentially be a sanctuary site for the disease process also.


Introduction: The prescribing a drug without the indications for which the drug was originally approved by regulators is internationally known as prescribing "off-label". Objective : To describe the off-label therapy in diabetic retinopathy, reported international scientific literature, through an integrative bibliographical review. Method : Integrative review by searching the Medline international database for review of manuscripts. Results : A total 852 scientific productions were identified, and 37 studies were selected by contain information about the off-label therapy in diabetic retinopathy. Conclusion : The practice of off-label prescribing in diabetic retinopathy has benefits, and in some situations is the only treatment available.


Weed management is one of the great issues in the agroecosystem of this contemporary world. The invasiveness is negatively impacting human and ecosystem as a whole. In this regard, a comparative study was done to investigate the potential phytochemicals and anti-microbial properties present in the problematic invasive species distributed at around Paklihawa Campus, Siddharthanagar, Nepal. Four species viz. Eichornia, Parthenium, Pistia and Ipomoea were selected and the chemical was screened using aqueous methanol as selective menstruum through cold percolation. The fractionated extracts showed the presence of some phytochemicals including alkaloids, saponins, carbohydrates and steroids. Pistia was screening positively for alkaloids, carbohydrates, flavonoids, saponin and steroid; Parthenium for alkaloids, flavonoids and steroids; Eichornia for alkaloids and carbohydrates whereas Ipomoea showed the presence of alkaloids only. The extracts were also screened for antibacterial and antifungal activities. The leaf extracts were used to assess antimicrobial activities against bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Salmonella typhimurium, and fungi: Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, Alternaria solani and Fusarium solani using the well diffusion method. The results indicated that the leaf extracts of Parthenium exhibited more zone of inhibition against all bacteria and has potential to be used as anti-bacterial agent. In majority of fungus also, Parthenium was superior to others. The Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values against the tested bacteria ranged from 11 to 19 μg mL-1 and for the tested pathogenic fungi, from 10 to 20 μg mL-1. This result showed that these invasive species could be promising antibacterial and anti-fungal agents.


The Flexural After Impact (FAI) behaviour of epoxy and vinyl-ester based carbon fiber reinforced composite laminates was investigated at elevated temperatures. Carbon/Epoxy (CE) and Carbon/Vinyl-ester (CV) laminates with cross-ply configuration (0/90/90/0)3S were manufactured via a compression moulding technique and subjected to Low-Velocity Impact (LVI) s at ∼1.5 and ∼2.5 m/s under temperatures 30, 60 and 90°C. The flexural behaviour of composite laminates was investigated via three-point bending tests. The non-impacted and impacted CE and CV samples' failure profile during the flexural tests was examined using the real-time Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring technique via peak frequency analysis of AE events. Flexural after impact strength of CE samples at both the velocities were higher than that of the CV ones. For CE and CV samples, the flexural after impact strength increases at 60°C, and decreases when approaching 90°C. At 90°C, flexural strength degradation was considerably higher in the CE ones because the Co-efficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) of the epoxy matrix occurs at a much higher rate than the vinyl-ester, which generates higher residual stress at the carbon fiber-epoxy interfaces. Acoustic emission (AE) monitoring allowed to capture the interface among the fiber and matrix due to the exposure temperature and impact velocity.


Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug advisory committee members sometimes have financial interests tied to drug companies. Congress and the public have become concerned that these financial interests lead to conflicts of interest. They conclude that the conflicts bias committee recommendations, and lead to unsafe or ineffective drugs being approved for public consumption, or, conversely, delays in approval of safe and effective drugs. Our paper provides empirical evidence, based on an event study methodology, that advisory committee meetings lead to weak or statistically insignificant effects on stock prices and hence equity values of regulated companies assumed to be affected by the particular matters coming before committee meetings.


In this paper, we revisit the frequent itemsets mining algorithm F-Miner which is an efficient algorithm on both sparse and dense databases. This paper focuses on how to reduce the time consumption of the outputting stage. This paper proposes two efficient output optimization strategies, output an item as string and compress the frequent itemset. Using these two strategies, we can improve the performance of the algorithm further. Experimental results show that the two output optimization strategies are efficient on both sparse and dense databases.


This work describes the consolidation of commingled yarn-based thermoplastic composites. The consolidation operation involves deformation of the preform, wetting and compaction of fibre bundles, and resin flow through the preform. The model framework comprises a continuum formulation of a non-linear compressible porous solid saturated with an incompressible fluid. In this model, the solid phase represents the fibres plus any uninfiltrated void space within the fibre bundles, and the fluid phase represents the resin. Constitutive equations governing the forming process are developed. These are the effective stress response of the preform, compaction of the solid phase, and Darcian interaction between the phases. Particular attention is paid to the compaction of the solid phase (consisting of a fibre packing mechanism and a viscous wetting process), the volumetric response of the preform and the tension-compression asymmetric response of the fibres. The fibre packing is described by a hyperelastic packing model, and the wetting of bundles by microscopic Darcy flow is described as a viscous compaction of the solid phase. An experimental method for the measurement of the volumetric response of the preform in separation from other processes is introduced. A phenomenological constitutive model for tension-compression asymmetric of a fibre is proposed. The constitutive equations for solid and preform compaction are assessed against experimental data, while the tensioncompression asymmetric model is fitted to a simple tension-compression experiment. Finally, the work is concluded by a numerical example that demonstrates the versatility of the approach, where the material science is combined with two-phase continuum mechanics.


Observations of young children are conducted in an educational setting by practitioners to plan and assess activities based on the individual development and needs of the child. Challenges include: recording, how to be an observer rather than a participant, and connecting developmental theory to observable behaviour.Several projects have simulated children in their learning environments, aimed mainly at pre-service teachers, but these have neither been for young children where the activity is play-based nor where the adult is supportive of the child's interests. Some simulations have used 3D graphics to represent a child via a role-playing adult but there have been few attempts to use autonomous characters.A novel real-time interactive 3D graphical simulation?Observation?was developed, providing a physical sandbox for users to: add autonomous characters (representing children), add objects, and customise the play-based environment. The definitions of the characters were informed by the findings from early childhood research. The simulation was evaluated using two complementary serious game frameworks and its utility was evaluated by professionals within the field of early childhood education comprising university students and educators, and local education authority advisors. An explorative, mixed methods approach was taken, triangulating across: a pilot study and a main study; different research instruments (simulation activity plus questionnaire, focus groups, interviews); and a range of participants. The simulation has utility because: it is an interesting way to explore the behaviours of young children, the theoretical understanding behind children's play can be deepened, and observational skills can be developed. The simulation has wide appeal because the perceived utility of the simulation is not influenced by: professional experience, number of real-life observations of young children, or time spent playing video games. Age is considered to be the most important omission from the abstract character in the simulation.


Wan Abdul Rahman Public Forest Park (TAHURA) is a forest reserve in Lampung that shelter various and important biodiversity in particular medicinal plants. However, because of illegal activities and land functions change into plantations the biodiversity contained in the forest park are suffered from disturbances and threats. Before the threats are continuing ruin the park we conducted mapping and assessing the economic potential of medicinal plants therein. It is hoped that our study results can be used as a consideration and data based for designing policy to stop the destruction and other illegal activities in the precious forest park. The aim of this study is to reveal the diversity and abundance of medicinal plants and mapping the distribution of those medicinal plants. The research has been successfully conducted from June until October 2008 by surveying Sumber Agung village area and conducting vegetation analysis by using quadrat method. Based on the results we concluded that in Sumber Agung  village was found 55 medicinal plant species that exist in the form of tree shrub and herb. Most of those 55 medicinal plants species are distributed irregularly. Based on the economic assessment there was found that the economic value the medicinal plants in the rank of Rp. 95.738 per hectare until Rp. 4.505.236 per hectare. Keywords: Betung Mountain, Medicinal plants, mapping


Actin cytoskeleton remodeling is a critical step of regulated exocytosis in many secretory cell types, including neuroendocrine cells. While the classical model considers the cortical actin network as a physical barrier preventing the uncontrolled recruitment of secretory granules to the plasma membrane docking sites, recent evidence supports the idea that actin polymerization also plays a more active role in the late stages of exocytosis. However, the molecular machinery underlying this positive function of actin in the course of exocytosis remains largely unknown. Here, we propose that the neuronal guanine nucleotide exchange factor, intersectin‐1L, activates the GTPase Cdc42, which in turn provides de novo actin filaments that are important for calcium‐regulated exocytosis in PC12 cells.


Neither an over-all deficiency of chlorophyll, nor an increased enzymatic capacity for maximal rates, nor an unusual lamellar structure was found to change the number of quanta required for the evolution of one molecule of oxygen in healthy aurea mutants of tobacco. The average minimal quantum number remains 10 (efficiency 0.1) as in many algae and typical higher plants. Most of the time the optimal efficiency depends on the availability of some far-red radiation, particularly in the blue region of the spectrum where blue light alone is rather inefficient. These results fit an explanation offered earlier in connection with the hydrogen or acetate photometabolism of algae in far-red light.


We describe a case of leukemic mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) with complex karyotype and amplification of the CCND1/IGH fusion gene. Testing for the presence of t(11;14), the hallmark of MCL, revealed multiple copies of the fusion signals. We therefore conducted extensive molecular cytogenetic studies to delineate the nature and consequences of such an abnormality. We localized the amplification to the der(14)t(11;14) and to a der(2) chromosome in a form of interspersed chromosome 11 and 14 material. This resulted in high expression of cyclin D1 mRNA and the protein expressed independently of the cell cycle phase. CGH analysis revealed that the overrepresentation on chromosome 11 included chromosomal band 11q23 in addition to the CCND1 locus at 11q13. The band 11q23 harbors the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene recently proposed to be involved in the pathogenesis of MCL with high incidence of deletions in this locus. Using YAC 801e11, containing the ATM gene, we demonstrated several hybridization signals, suggesting that this region also formed part of the amplicon. This case also showed TP53 gene abnormalities: protein expression, monoallelic deletion, and a mutation in exon 5. The clinical course was aggressive, and the patient died within 6 months of presentation. This is to our knowledge the first description of amplification of the CCND1/IGH fusion gene in a human neoplasm, which may have played a role in the fulminating course of the disease in this patient. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This paper presents and analyses the performance of a novel channel sharing protocol. The protocol uses the p-persistence algorithm to access the channel and a token for fair channel sharing. Token passing is controlled by a base station (BS). A user, PS, can join a channel if the channel is idle. Channel idle information is given by an idle token from the BS. Numerical results of the protocol are given in terms of load, G and throughput, S. Numerical results are also compared with that of carrier sense multiple access protocol with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). Results show that the proposed scheme outperforms CSMA/CA when the number of channels are three or more.


We present a patient who underwent successful classic duodenal switch and developed a marked dermatitis with a significant functional limitation. This is an unusual complication, despite the relatively moderate prevalence of nutrient deficiency after this type of bariatric surgery. We discuss possible pathogenic mechanisms and emphasize the importance of an appropriate nutritional management.


Much waste arises from operating rooms (ORs). We estimated the practical and financial feasibility of an OR recycling program, weighing all waste from 6 ORs in Melbourne, Australia. Over 1 week, 237 operations produced 1265 kg in total: general waste 570 kg (45%), infectious waste 410 kg (32%), and recyclables 285 kg (23%). The achieved recycling had no infectious contamination. The achieved recycling/potential recycling rate was 285 kg/517 kg (55%). The average waste disposal costs were similar for general waste and recycling. OR recycling rates of 20%-25% total waste were achievable without compromising infection control or financial constraints.


Potentially violent psychiatric patients in parts of London are waiting up to two months for beds in private medium secure units. Some patients are being placed as far away as Yorkshire. "We have a five bedded locked ward for patients who need intensive treatment, but this is for a population of nearly 200000—we used to have 15 beds five years ago," said Dr Zerrin Atakan, a senior lecturer in psychiatry at South Western Hospital in West Lambeth. "The unit is at times completely blocked with forensic patients, and when we admit a new patient who is acutely disturbed we have to move someone from the unit on to an open ward because these patients are waiting to be placed in private secure units. We believe that some of these patients are a risk to themselves and to others.

"I have not been able to …


The Norber erratics are Late Devensian (28 ka to 14.7 ka BP) glacially-eroded, -transported and -deposited clasts occurring on the fellside known as Norber on the southeastern slopes of Ingleborough in North Yorkshire [SD 763699]. They comprise rocks of two ages: limestones and non-cleaved sandstones of Early- to Mid-Carboniferous age, and cleaved siltstones and sandstones of Silurian age. Results of field investigations indicate that provenance of the Carboniferous erratics cannot be determined except that they were riven from Askrigg Block outcrops somewhere to the north of Norber. Provenance of the bulk of the Silurian erratics is, however, established as a line of plucked cliffs on the outcrop of the Austwick Formation (Wenlock) in western Crummackdale in the vicinity of the Old Limekiln [SD 770707] c. 1 km to the NNE of Norber.


Spiroplasma strain M55, isolated from a fall flower in Maryland, showed patterns of partial serological cross-reactivity with the other seven group I spiroplasma subgroups but was not serologically related to other spiroplasma groups. Strain M55 had less than 70% DNA-DNA homology with group I subgroups previously assigned binomial names and was unique among the group I subgroups in possessing a higher guanine-plus-cytosine content in its DNA (28 ± 1 mol%, versus 26 ± 1 mol% for other group I subgroups). The genome size was 1,850 kb (1,233 MDa). Extensive data on the metabolism of strain M55 and the community ecology of this and similar strains have been reported. These circumstances fulfill criteria proposed by the Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Mollicutes for elevation of mollicute subgroups to species status. Accordingly, strain M55 was characterized according to proposed minimal standards for species descriptions. Cells of strain M55 were shown by light microscopy to be helical, motile filaments. Electron microscopy showed that the cells possessed no cell wall and were bounded by a single membrane; they were insensitive to penicillin (1,000 U/ml). Strain M55 was culturable in M1D and SP-4 liquid media under aerobic (with or without enhanced carbon dioxide) or anaerobic environments. Optimal growth occurred at 30°C, with a doubling time of 7.2h. Growth occurred from 15 to 37°C but not at 10 or 42°C. Strain M55 did not utilize urea or hydrolyze arginine but did produce acid from glucose. As a consequence of these studies, strain M55 is designated the type strain (M55T; ATCC 33502T) of a new species, Spiroplasma insolitum.


A numerical simulation including kinetics, transport phenomena and temperature gradient is presented to describe axial and radial distribution of ozone in an oxygen-fed ozonizer with cylindrical symmetry. The interdependence of three types of modelling (kinetics, hydrodynamics and electronic injection due to electrical corona discharge) is emphasized and comparisons are made with previous simpler models. The simulation is performed in the case of an industrial cylinder-to-cylinder device for which the temperature gradient is negligible, and in the case of a laboratory wire-to-cylinder ozonizer where an important radial temperature gradient is experimentally observed. Two values of pressure are considered: 760 Torr, where chemical kinetics dominates over diffusion effects, and 10 Torr where diffusion is dominant.


Glioma is the most frequent primary brain tumor in the aged which is originally much less frequent comparing that of younger generations. A large majority of gliomas in the aged is malignant. Besides the result of operation and follow-up result have been heretofore reported as more unfavorable. Fourteen cases of glioma in the aged, over 60 years of age, including 7 glioblastomas, 6 anaplastic astrocytomas and one unspecified malignant glioma, have been reported. Preoperative period varied from one month to 15 years and in 6 cases the period was less than 3 months. Poor preoperative state especially disturbance of consciousness mostly due to a markedly increased intracranial pressure, observed in 71% of the cases. The malignant gliomas which were frequently seen among the aged might be transformed tumors of more benign gliomas which originated in the younger generations and developed slowly and silently. Unfavorable prognosis of glioma in the aged might be closely related to the histological nature and poor preoperative state. However, delay of making correct diagnosis and rapidly progressive onset both of which have been mentioned as the speciality of brain tumor in the aged, were not closely related to the unfavorable prognosis.


A time-honored principle observed in the domain of published journals in the health field is to rely upon the judgment of peers in making decisions about which manuscripts will be accepted and which will be rejected. A paper by Lipworth et al. that appeared in the April 2011 issue of Social Science & Medicine addresses many pros and cons of relying upon the peer-review process to ensure that only high-quality research is published (either by rejecting or improving substandard manuscripts) and also to increase the likelihood that the findings are disseminated to interested parties. The authors refer to many studies that support the points made in their paper.


Scanning capacitance force microscopy (SCFM) is a promising tool for investigation of two-dimensional carrier density distribution on semiconducting devices. Its sensitivity is strongly dependent on the Q factor of the mechanical resonance mode of the cantilever. Therefore, measurement in vacuum is more appropriate for increasing the sensitivity. In this letter, the authors describe noncontact-mode (NC) SCFM which is combined with the frequency modulation detection method and its signal characteristics. The authors derived a quasiquantitative calibration curve which correlates to the amplitude signal in NC-SCFM to the dopant density. Using the calibration curve, the authors obtained a quasiquantitative two-dimensional dopant density distribution map on a cross-sectional transistor device.


Herein, we describe the synthesis of a bioactive, inexpensive, and easy-to-handle supramolecular carbohydrate polymer by grafting of cucurbit[7]uril macrocycle (CB7)-encapsulated dequalinium chloride hydrate (DCH) onto alginic acid carbohydrates (ALG) via amide linkage formation and show that light energy transfer based on energy migration can be controlled by altering polymer temperature without changing polymer composition. DCH (donor) and 2-anilinonaphthalene-6-sulfonic acid (acceptor) were used to generate Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) signals. Stationary and time-resolved photoluminescence spectra of the modified carbohydrate platform revealed that FRET resulted in a color change from violet (∼387 nm) to blue (∼429 nm), which could be repeatedly switched on and off in response to temperature stimuli at 298–368 K. Temperature-dependent NMR measurements suggested that the responsiveness of DCH/CB7ALG to thermal stimuli was due to the threading of CB7 onto the DCH backbone in solution and upo...


Similar to the idea of a digital library, in the recent time, a new concept has emerged called an ontology library. Principally both a digital library and an ontology library have the similar kinds of purposes and objectives to achieve (e.g., store, organize and provide access to the digital objects), except the kind of materials they deal with. While a digital library deals with the documents of various types, such as text, audio, video, images, etc., an ontology library deals with the ontologies (where an ontology is an intelligent object, often referred as a digital artifact, consisted of representations of the entities in terms of their types, properties and the relationships of a domain of discourse).

An ontology library is a kind of organizational network that is easily accessible from any place or location and offers relevant or admissible ontologies in a well-organized manner and with a competent approach, which is based on different well-established ontology representation languages, such as RDFS, OWL, etc. The goal of an ontology library is of two-fold: (i) to provide a platform to the ontologists (a practitioner who builds the ontologies) to publish, store, preserve, share and evaluate the ontologies; (ii) to facilitate the ontofiers (an ontology user) to retrieve the right ontology at the right time to make the best (re)use of it.

Besides the term ontology library, we often come across with some other related terminologies, such as ontology repository, ontology registry, and ontology directory. Conceptually they are similar kind of things but still they have some differences. An ontology repository is a collection of the ontologies and their metadata. An ontology registry consists of a list of ontologies and metadata instead of the actual ontologies. It is an architecture that allows ontology providers and users to use, share and exploit semantic information in a real world scenario. An ontology registry offers several tools and technologies which enable the users to find out the relevant ontologies as per their need. An ontology directory is a service which provides metadata and sources of information of the ontologies. Besides providing the reference services, it supports the registration services and service requests.

The objective of this paper is to disseminate the result of our survey research designed based on some of the existing ontology libraries and to provide a set of guidelines that the future ontology libraries should possess to support the increasing complexity of ontology search and retrieval. The entire work is carried out as follows: we discuss the various concepts related to an ontology library. We elaborate some of the popular ontology libraries and make a comparative analysis of them from both the theoretical and implementation perspectives. We study their various features including the underlying designing principles, ontology exploitation facility, metadata, tools, etc. Based on this analysis, we finally propose the essential features and principles that an ontology library must follow. We envision that from the current work the various agencies namely, the ontology researchers, practitioners and ontology library developers will be highly benefitted.


The purpose of the current study was to ind out the reasons that lead to a continuous Increase in the injury of children (0-14 years) with leukemia. There is no information to support the mother s exposure to prenatal accidents or the extent 0f their impact on the fetus. Therefore, the study suggested the effect of some environmental factors such as pollution in Baghdad and them are genetic. The study was conducted on 30 children with acute leukemia divided into two subgroups 15 male and 15 females, the control group also consisted of 30 children and divided into two subgroups 15 male and 15 females. The results showed a large numbers of acute lymphoblast leukemia B-cells (ALL)in the peripheral blood smear of infected children with leukemia. The level of erythropoietin showed signi icant variation in the groups that were included in the study where the EPO level in the infected children was (82.476±7.435mIU/ml), while the EPO level in the uninfected children was (12.321±1.315mIU/ml). the study also Show that there were signi icant differences in the levels of EPO in children from males with an infection (85.672±1.127 mIU/ml) compared to children of uninfectedmales (12.869±1.623mIU/ml). This also applies to children of infected females (72.351±9.216mIU/ml) compared to Children of uninfected females (11.672±0.632 mIU/ml).


Chronic treatment of rats with amiodarone has been shown to produce hypothyroid-like effects such as a reduction in body and heart weight and increased synthesis of the low ATPase V3-cardiac isomyosin (Bagchi, Brown, Schneider and Banerjee 1987). In this report, we have tested the hypothesis that amiodarone causes these effects through the inhibition of intracellular production of triiodothyronine (T3) from thyroxine (T4) by comparing the effects of amiodarone with those of ipodate, a potent inhibitor of T4 to T3 conversion. Separate groups of rats were given dietary ipodate and amiodarone respectively for six weeks. Both agents increased serum T4 and T4/T3 ratios, a finding consistent with the inhibition of peripheral T4 to T3 conversion. However, ipodate failed to produce hypothyroid-like effects on body weight, heart weight and isomyosin transitions similar to those found in the amiodarone group. These data indicate that the hypothyroid-like effects of amiodarone on the rat heart are not due to the inhibition of intracellular generation of T3 from T4.


Gas temperatures along the axis of a hollow-cathode He-Cd laser have been measured. The effect of gas temperature variations on calculations of both the excited-state number densities and the heavy-body Penning collision rates are assessed. Implications on the gas kinetics of these discharge types, in particular, on the role of Penning collisions in populating the 5s2 2D5/2 level of the cadmium ion are discussed.


Solution of the nonlinear system of equations describing the network hydraulics problem can be formulated in several different manners, yielding various methods of solution. The most popular formulation is probably the Global Gradient Algorithm (GGA). Loop-flow formulation is another method revisited by number of researchers in recent years. Loop-flow method has the smaller system matrix to solve, which is a benefit over the GGA's matrix, coming from the fact that real networks typically have far less loops than nodes. However, need for cumbersome pre-processing to identify network loops and sparsity of solution matrix, which is highly dependent of implemented loop identification algorithm, remain key drawbacks of existing loop-flow methods. In addition, systematic testing on the real life networks of different topologies and complexities is still somewhat lacking in the literature. In this paper, new loop-flow type method based on the novel TRIangulation BAsed Loop identification algorithm (TRIBAL) coupled with efficient implementation of loop-flow based hydraulic solver (ΔQ) is presented. Performance of the new TRIBAL ΔQ method based solver is tested through the comparison with the reference GGA solver. Preliminary results show that significant calculation speedups can be achieved with proposed method, maintaining prediction accuracy and convergence of the reference solver.


The subject of the presented paper is the methods used to define spacecraft motion parameters. The goal of the paper is to develop approaches to improve accuracy of definition and promptness of forecasting of motion parameters. The tasks are 1) to determine the aspects influencing the result accuracy at defining initial conditions of the spacecraft motion, 2) to reveal the drawbacks of traditional methods and 3) to suggest some possible ways that can be used to improve accuracy and promptness at defining the spacecraft motion parameters. During the research it is revealed that the result accuracy at defining the initial conditions of the spacecraft motion is influenced by three aspects – a random component caused by presence of random errors in trajectory measurements, a dynamic component due to dynamic errors of the used model of the spacecraft motion and the error defined by the size of convergence region of the minimization method that is used to solve the multi-point boundary problem. To receive the least inaccuracy at defining the spacecraft motion parameters it is necessary to process some optimal quantity of measuring information which should ensure sufficient compensation of random errors and at the same time prevent the dynamic error from influencing considerably. At it it should be taken into account that the amount of the measured information should not be less than it is necessary to ensure convergence of the algorithm used to define those motion parameters. The main results are as follows. For solving the task of increasing accuracy of spacecraft motion parameters definition the paper suggests a new method based on minimization with definition of initial approximation region. The suggested method implements a non-local approach to minimization of the goal function, which ensures better as compared to traditional methods convergence. To increase the promptness of spacecraft motion forecasting it is suggested to use the mathematical apparatus of differential transformations. It allows decreasing the computational expenditures 3 to 4 times as compared to the regular ballistic and navigational algorithms while the given accuracy is preserved. On the basis of the performed research the following conclusions can be made. To increase the accuracy of the spacecraft motion parameters definition it is necessary to optimize the required number of measurement orbit passes, for that it is appropriate to use the Nelder-Mead search method. At implementing the advanced coordinate methods of the spacecraft control, to increase the promptness of the spacecraft motion forecasting, it is necessary to considerably decrease the computational expenditures for the motion parameters definition. To achieve that it is reasonable to use the mathematical apparatus of the differential transformations.


The interdomain electron transfer (IET) between the flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and heme domains is essential in the biosynthesis of nitric oxide (NO) by the NO synthase (NOS) enzymes. A conserved tyrosine residue in the FMN domain (Y631 in human inducible NOS) was proposed to be a key part of the electron transfer pathway in the FMN/heme docked complex model. In the present study, the FMN-heme IET kinetics in the Y631F mutant and wild type of a bidomain oxygenase/FMN construct of human inducible NOS were determined by laser flash photolysis. The rate constant of the Y631F mutant is significantly decreased by ∼75% (compared to the wild type), showing that the tyrosine residue indeed facilitates the FMN-heme IET through the protein medium. The IET rate constant of the wild type protein decreases from 345 to 242 s-1 on going from H2O to 95% D2O, giving a solvent kinetic isotope effect of 1.4. In contrast, no deuterium isotope effect was observed for the Tyr-to-Phe mutant. Moreover, an appreciable change in the wild type iNOS IET rate constant value was observed upon changing pH. These results indicate that the FMN-heme IET is proton coupled, in which the conserved tyrosine residue may play an important role.


We have developed on-chip transmission line interconnect for Gbps signal transmission on cm-order long metal interconnect. Design and electrical performance of differential transmission lines, and Tx/Rx circuit for on-chip applications are presented. Furthermore, it is exhibited from the view point of FoM (figure of merit), that the transmission line interconnect is superior to another interconnects such as the conventional RC, CNT (carbon nanotube), and optical interconnects for global interconnect


During the two-year 1977-1978 period 37 (3.29%) out of 1,124 pediatric surgical wounds became infected in the postoperative course. Ten infections were observed among the 844 "clean" procedures (1.18%), 5/155 "clean-contaminated" (3.22%), 3/32 "contaminated" (9.37%) and 19/93 "dirty" (20.43%). These rates are quite comparable, although somewhat lower, to those found in similar studies carried out in adults. The bacteriologic studies of the contamination and the subsequent infection revealed that "clean" wounds were almost exclusively infected by "Staphilococci", while all the remaining categories (which very often implicated an opening of digestive tract lumen) became infected by multiple endogenous flora including enterobacteriae (mainly "E. coli") and anaerobic germs ("Bacteroides" and "Clostridia"). The limited use of antibiotics in this series was guided by these bacteriologic findings, a fact that can partially explain our results. There was no mortality directly related to the infection of the wound, but the risks and uncomfort incurred by the patients were not negligible and must be taken into consideration aside with the increase of the cost of hospital stay (evaluated as 35,000-100,000 ptas./patient in this series) to justify every effort to decrease incidence of this generally minor complication.


This laboratory study was conducted to evaluate the potential of nine manure samples from dairy (n = 7), beef (n = 1), and swine (n = 1) to cause water repellency (WR) in six soils; in addition, the duration of WR in two soils was assessed in an incubation study. Manures were applied to supply 40 mg phosphorus (P) kg−1 to each soil. Sand content in the soils ranged from 179 to 909 g kg−1. Water repellency was assessed with the water drop penetration time (WDPT) and the degree of repellency with the soil wetted area (SWA) methods. The potential for animal manure to induce WR measured with the WDPT method was dependent on the manure type and soil series. Swine manure did not increase the WDPT of any soil; beef manure increased WDPT in three of the six soils, whereas dairy manure had the greatest effect on WDPT. Results of the SWA method were similar to those with the WDPT; however, there were additional soil-water behavioral patterns identified by the SWA. For example, dairy manure 5 increased WDPT of a soil from 1 to 9 sec, whereas the SWA showed a decrease in the drop area from 120 mm2 in the control to 26 mm2 after manure addition. Incubating manure-treated soils for 1 and 2 weeks decreased the induced WR in the Antigo soil, but had little effect on the Rosholt. Field studies should be conducted to assess these phenomena under natural climatic conditions.


Exosomes are small membranous vesicles secreted into body fluids by multiple cell types, including tumor cells. Tumor exosomes contain intact and functional protein, mRNA and miRNA that may alter the cellular environment to favor tumor growth. Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is an aggressive childhood soft tissue tumor, with two distinct subtypes, alveolar (ARMS) and embryonal (ERMS) histology. ARMS tumors are characterized in the majority of cases by a fusion oncoprotein PAX3-FOXO1, thought to be an initiating factor in tumorigenesis. To date, no studies have been performed to investigate the possible role or content of exosomes in paracrine signaling in RMS. In the present study, we isolated and characterized exosomes secreted from RMS cells, using 3 ERMS (fusion oncoprotein negative) and 2 ARMS (fusion oncoprotein positive) cell lines. RNA analysis showed that small RNA were enriched in RMS-derived exosomes, therefore we focused on evaluating the miRNA content. Array expression analysis showed that exosome miRNA clustered together well, and to a higher extent than cellular miRNA, in ARMS cell lines. Similarly, in the 2 ERMS cell lines that had mutant p53, exosome miRNA clustered together and the pattern of expression was very different from the corresponding cellular miRNA. ARMS and ERMS exosome-enriched miRNA were different, and only 2 miRNA were found to be common among both; putative targets are implicated in cancer and inflammation. Functionally, using in vitro assays, we found that both ERMS- and ARMS-derived exosomes significantly increased the cellular migration and invasion of normal human fibroblasts, and had a positive effect on viability and proliferation of both fibroblasts and RMS cells. In vivo, Matrigel plug assay showed that RMS-derived exosomes had a positive effect on the migration and invasion of stromal cells, suggesting a positive role on angiogenesis. We conclude that RMS-derived exosomes can exert specific paracrine effects on recipient cells, enhancing cell viability as well as invasive properties of fibroblasts and stromal cells, and therefore is likely to play a role in promoting RMS angiogenesis and metastasis. Ongoing studies are aimed at directly assessing the role of RMS-derived exosomes in clinical angiogenesis and metastasis, using in vivo murine models, in addition to dissecting the role of specific enriched miRNA on recipient cell biology. Citation Format: Sandra E. Ghayad, Ghina Rammal, Farah Ghamloush, Hussein Basma, Raya Saab. Exosomes as mediators of paracrine signalling that promote invasive behavior in rhabdomyosarcoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2452.


Three group-administered embedded-figures tests were designed to evaluate the possibility of developing economical and reliable measures of perceptual field-independence. These were administered together with individual and group forms of Witkin's EFT in a factorial design to study the effects of color, memory, and item format. Embedded-figures test performances were also studied in relation to perceptual speed, spatial orientation, and Adjective Preference Scale scores. Within-group correlations between group- and individually-administered embedded-figures tests were sufficiently high to warrant the use of the group forms as measures of perceptual field-independence. A comparison of the correlational patterns between sexes indicated greater differentiation in cognitive performances for males than for females.