The repeating sequence polymer d(A-I-C)n-d(I-C-T)n has been prepared using the chemically synthesized oligomers d(A-G-C)4 and d(C-T-G)4 and the DNA polymerase from Micrococcus luteus. The enzymatically synthesized polymer was used as template for preparation of d(A-G-C)n-d(G-C-T)n. Both deoxyribonucleotide polymers were characterized by nearest neighbor analyses, buoyant density measurements in cesium chloride and cesium sulfate, melting temperature, and circular dichroism (CD) spectra. The ribopolymers r(A-I-C)n-r(I-C-U)n and r(A-G-C)n-r(G-C-U)n were transcribed from d(A-I-C)n-d(I-C-T)n, and their CD spectra were compared with those of the respective deoxyribonucleotide polymers.


Transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1) is a universal cancer marker and a meaningful target for antibody-based immunotherapy. We previously developed a mouse/human chimeric antibody (ch128.1/IgG1) specific for the human TfR1 and reported that treatment of SCID-Beige mice bearing disseminated human multiple myeloma (MM) cells with ch128.1/IgG1 results in significant antitumor activity in early-stage and late-stage disease. Both bortezomib and lenalidomide are Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved therapeutics used to treat MM in combination with other agents. Since combining treatments with different mechanisms of action is an effective antitumor strategy and given the relevance of bortezomib and lenalidomide in MM therapy, we decided to explore, for the first time, the combination of bortezomib or lenalidomide treatment with ch128.1/IgG1 within the context of late-stage MM disease. We found that treatment with a single dose of ch128.1/IgG1, or multiple doses of bortezomib or lenalidomide, used as single agents, results in significant antitumor activity in SCID-Beige mice bearing late-stage disseminated human MM.1S tumors. However, this antitumor activity is superior when ch128.1/IgG1 is combined with either bortezomib or lenalidomide, showing significantly longer survival compared with any therapy used alone. These novel results suggest that the combinations of ch128.1/IgG1 and bortezomib or lenalidomide are promising strategies against MM.


Multiparty session types (MSTs) provide an efficient methodology for specifying and verifying message passing software systems. In the theory of MSTs, a global type specifies the interaction among the roles at the global level. A local specification for each role is generated by projecting from the global type on to the message exchanges it participates in. Whenever a global type can be projected on to each role, the composition of the projections is deadlock free and has exactly the behaviours specified by the global type. The key to the usability of MSTs is the projection operation: a more expressive projection allows more systems to be type-checked but requires a more difficult soundness argument. In this paper, we generalise the standard projection operation in MSTs. This allows us to model and type-check many design patterns in distributed systems, such as load balancing, that are rejected by the standard projection. The key to the new projection is an analysis that tracks causality between messages. Our soundness proof uses novel graph-theoretic techniques from the theory of message-sequence charts. We demonstrate the efficacy of the new projection operation by showing many global types for common patterns that can be projected under our projection but not under the standard projection operation.


Ionizing radiation triggers a signal in human B-lymphocyte precursors that is intimately linked to an active protein-tyrosine kinase regulatory pathway. We show that in B-lymphocyte precursors, irradiation with gamma-rays leads to (i) stimulation of phosphatidylinositol turnover; (ii) downstream activation by covalent modification of multiple serine-specific protein kinases, including protein kinase C; and (iii) activation of nuclear factor kappa B. All of the radiation-induced signals were effectively prevented by the protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitors genistein and herbimycin A. Thus, tyrosine phosphorylation is an important and perhaps mandatory proximal step in the activation of the protein kinase C signaling cascade in human B-lymphocyte precursors. Our report expands current knowledge of the radiation-induced signaling cascade by clarifying the chronological sequence of biochemical events that follow irradiation.


Abstract Plants produce a staggering diversity of specialized small molecule metabolites that play vital roles in mediating environmental interactions and stress adaptation. This chemical diversity derives from dynamic biosynthetic pathway networks that are often species-specific and operate under tight spatiotemporal and environmental control. A growing divide between demand and environmental challenges in food and bioenergy crop production has intensified research on these complex metabolite networks and their contribution to crop fitness. High-throughput omics technologies provide access to ever-increasing data resources for investigating plant metabolism. However, the efficiency of using such system-wide data to decode the gene and enzyme functions controlling specialized metabolism has remained limited; due largely to the recalcitrance of many plants to genetic approaches and the lack of 'user-friendly' biochemical tools for studying the diverse enzyme classes involved in specialized metabolism. With emphasis on terpenoid metabolism in the bioenergy crop switchgrass as an example, this review aims to illustrate current advances and challenges in the application of DNA synthesis and synthetic biology tools for accelerating the functional discovery of genes, enzymes and pathways in plant specialized metabolism. These technologies have accelerated knowledge development on the biosynthesis and physiological roles of diverse metabolite networks across many ecologically and economically important plant species and can provide resources for application to precision breeding and natural product metabolic engineering.


Water supply systems are essential elements for human life and industry, and water leaks and water supply cut-off may cause major problems. Local water leaks and pipe failures in the water supply system are inevitable problems due to the aging of pipes. Therefore, leakage detection and prevention are required to monitor the integrity of the water supply system. This paper is a fundamental study on the applicability of the smart bolt, which was developed as a monitoring system to detect water leakage in water supply monitoring. Detection experiments were conducted using a smart bolt with a built-in strain sensor and an accelerometer. Through finite element analysis using ANSYS 2019 R2 and tensile strength testing, the strength of the smart bolt was confirmed to have the acceptable tensile strength. The smart bolt used in this study was verified to meet the allowable criteria of torque and tensile stress for a municipal water supply system. The frequency responses of the simulated leakage pipe system, according to the leakage of the valve and the main pipe, were analyzed, and a leak signal at the valve leak point was detected in the 60-Hz band. The main pipe leaking point was observed to produce a leak signal with a much higher-order mode than that of the valve leak point. Therefore, the smart bolt can be applied to detect warning leak signs from water supply valves and to monitor for loosening of the bolts.


Dental occlusal relations are rarely reported in paleo-anthropology. The manipulation of hemi-arch replicas, as well as the superimposition of drawings on calques traced from photographs, facilitated the description of the intra- and interarch relations. The occlusal interarch confrontation and the intermolar relation were observed and assessed in the horizontal, frontal and sagittal planes. Some measurements were helpful in the functional study. On the basis of knowledge in mandible kinematics a movement envelope of the first molar displacement during mastication was proposed. The dentition studied here was highly regular. It was a fine example of balanced wear for post-canine sectors. In spite of the lower canine extrusion, due to tribal mutilation of anterior teeth and to subsequent labret wearing, the interarch relations seemed not to have been altered.


There are three types of hardening laws for evaluating welding residual stress with the finite element method (FEM): kinematic hardening law, isotropic hardening law, and combined hardening law that combine these.
 The purpose of this paper is to investigate which hardening law is more appropriate for the evaluation of welding residual stress of alloy 82. We first performed two types of welding tests: welding both ends of a plate, and welding the periphery of a disc. We then compared the results of mock-up welding tests with the analysis results of welding residual stress with the kinematic hardening law and combined hardening law.
 Both the kinematic hardening law and the combined hardening law showed a welding residual stress distribution close to the results of the mock-up welding tests, but the combined hardening law tended to be closer to the mock-up results. Therefore when it is necessary to confirm the welding residual stress of alloy 82, it is considered appropriate to apply the combined hardening law.


Acute 12-minute exposure of laboratory rats to microwaves with specific dose rate (SAR) of 30 W/kg that exceeded a basal metabolism caused a transient response of hyppophysis-thyroid system of compensatory-adaptive character. Prolonged exposure to microwaves of less intensity (SAR = 6 W/kg, which approximately corresponds to basic metabolic rate for these animals) caused insufficiency of the function of thyroid control in a form of primary hypothyroidis.


Bimetallic catalysts with Au–Pd supported on zinc hydroxycarbonate (ZOC) were synthesized by a simple deposition–precipitation method and analyzed by transmission electron microscopy to have a narrow‐size distribution of predominantly 1–2 nm. The prepared Au–Pd/ZOC catalysts exhibited excellent activity towards 5‐hydoxymethylfurfural (HMF) oxidation in water in the presence of the base NaHCO3 at benign conditions of 80 °C and 3 bar O2, resulting in quantitative yield of 2,5‐furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). The addition of base not only enhanced the yield of FDCA but also stabilized the support ZOC by preventing ZOC from the reaction with formed carboxylic acid intermediates/products, thus allowing Au–Pd/ZOC to be recycled for at least six times without significant loss of activity. The basicity of ZOC could play an important role in obtaining the improved yield of FDCA as compared to other supports.


Introduction: The study of short stature of digestive origin in children shows no pre-established laboratory patterns. However, endoscopy of the digestive tract may be a useful tool for this purpose. Objective: To report a series of cases of children with a diagnosis of short stature who underwent upper digestive tract endoscopy as part of their study. Case report: 15 children between the ages of 2 and 16 years were included; 53.3 % were girls. 26.7 % presented with malnutrition according to their body mass index and height-for-age, 66.7 % had short stature, and 33.3 % moderate short stature. Abdominal pain was reported in 53.3 % of the cases, and no weight gain in 46.7 %. Other symptoms were lack of appetite in 26.7 %, vomiting in 13.3 %, among others. Between 40 % and 93.4 % of the children presented macro and/or microscopic esophagitis, gastritis, and duodenitis. The most important microscopic findings were chronic duodenitis with giardiasis, duodenal ulcers, duodenal nodular lymphoid hyperplasia, Helicobacter pylori, and chronic eosinophilic duodenitis. Conclusions: Although endoscopy of the digestive tract is a method barely used and not well described in the study of children with short stature, this case report describes organicity in 80 % of the children analyzed.


Oblique transition was experimentally investigated in a Blasius boundary layer formed on a flat plate. This transition mechanism was provoked by exciting a pair of oppositely oriented oblique Orr–Sommerfeld (O–S) modes given by (ω/ωts, ±β/βts) = (1, ±1) in the frequency-wavenumber (spanwise) space. Surface waviness with height Δh and a well-defined wavenumber spectrum that is synchronized with the neutral O–S wavenumber at Branch I, (αw, ±βw) = (αts,I, ±βts,I), was used to provide a steady velocity perturbation in the near-wall region. A planar downstream-travelling acoustic wave of amplitude ε was created to temporally excite the flow near the resonance frequency, ωts(= 2πfo), of an unstable eigenmode corresponding to kts = kw (where k =±[α2+β2]1/2). Possible mechanisms leading to laminar-to-turbulent breakdown were examined for various forcing combinations, εΔh. For small values of εΔh, a peak-valley structure corresponding to a spanwise wavenumber of 2βw was observed. As expected, the maximum r.m.s. narrow-band streamwise velocity fluctuations, ut(fo), occur at peak locations, which correspond to regions with mean streamwise velocity, U, deficits. For the largest value of εΔh, significant mean-flow distortion was observed in the spanwise profiles of U. Large spanwise velocity gradients, [mid ]dU/dζ[mid ], exist between peaks and valleys and appear to generate an explosive growth in the velocity fluctuations. The maximum values of ut no longer occur at peak locations of the stationary structure but at locations of spanwise inflection points. The magnitude of ut scales with [mid ]dU/dζ[mid ]. A nonlinear interaction of two non-stationary modes was conjectured as a possible mechanism for the enhancement of the streak ampliflcation rate.


Doctors are clinicians and are trained in clinical work. Many non-clinical qualities, apart from the ability to examine and treat, matter a lot in their professional success. Traditionally, knowing the book well or mastering the content of the curriculum was considered enough to succeed in a medical career, but recent recognition of having good communication skills in a physician has changed the medical curricula the world over. A recent look at the formative assessments done to see the on-job trainees during their residencies in various countries, like India, the United States and Turkey, has revealed that most trainees are overworked and find it difficult to cope with the demanding training requirements centred around mastering the clinical skills. The supervisors are also very busy. Non-scholastic abilities, like good emotional quotient and extracurricular activities that do not directly relate to things learnt from the book or the ward are being graded as very important for medical students because all these abilities are essential for a doctor not only to help the patients medically and psychologically, but also emotionally. He should be able to protect his self from care-provider's stresses. Personal qualities of a doctor are seen as important predictors of clinical performance in medicine. There are opportunities during training that the senior trainer can become a role model and impart non-scholastic skills most effectively. Supervisors must show their trainees how to behave with a patient. This change in attitude and behaviour has to be induced by performing these things in front of the trainee residents. The problem with non-scholastic skills, unlike the scholastic cognitive/psychomotor domains, is that these skills are quite elusive to routine assessments. However, lone reliance upon a final examination for assessing attitudes can be biased. If the behaviour of residents is to be tested in an exit examination they are likely to behave more consciously only to pass the examination, which is called the Hawthorne effect. No one can ensure that one behaves in a uniform manner in every social situation. Our responses may vary every day in the face of emerging challenges. Probably a balanced combination of formative plus summative assessment supplemented with a well-planned continuous internal assessment is the answer.


Dust attenuation is a crucial but highly uncertain parameter that hampers the determination of intrinsic galaxy properties, such as stellar masses, star formation rates and star formation histories. The shape of the dust attenuation law is not expected to be uniform between galaxies, nor within a galaxy. Our DustKING project was introduced at the first BINA workshop in 2016 and aims to study the variations of dust attenuation curves in nearby galaxies. At the second BINA workshop in 2018, I presented the results of our pilot study for the spiral galaxy NGC 628. We find that the average attenuation law of this galaxy is characterised by a MW-like bump and a steep UV slope. Furthermore, we observe intriguing variations within the galaxy, with regions of high AV exhibiting a shallower attenuation curve. Finally, we discuss how our work might benefit from data taken with the UVIT from the Indian AstroSat mission.


Composition of elementary skills into complex behaviors to solve challenging problems is one of the key elements toward building intelligent machines. To date, there has been plenty of work on learning new policies or skills but almost no focus on composing them to perform complex decision-making. In this paper, we propose a policy ensemble composition framework that takes the robot's primitive policies and learns to compose them concurrently or sequentially through reinforcement learning. We evaluate our method in problems where traditional approaches either fail or exhibit high sample complexity to find a solution. We show that our method not only solves the problems that require both task and motion planning but also exhibits high data efficiency, which is currently one of the main limitations of reinforcement learning.


It has not yet been clarified whether prilocaine-induced methemoglobinemia is a problem in patients with chronic anemia. We therefore performed supraclavicular brachial blockade for upper limb surgery (6 mg/kg prilocaine 2% + 0.1 IU vasopressin/ml) in ten female patients with chronic renal failure (mean Hb 8.19%) requiring hemodialysis. Before the blockade, a catheter was inserted into the opposite internal jugular vein and blood samples were drawn before and 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 and 180 min after injection. Plasma prilocaine concentrations and methemoglobin levels were within the ranges measured by other authors in healthy patients. There was no correlation between plasma prilocaine levels and methemoglobinemia. We therefore consider prilocaine to be a safe local anesthetic in patients with renal failure and chronic anemia.


This case study attempted to determine how the Korean print media have covered women's professional golf tournaments held in Korea and the United States. The study, which also investigated whether there is a shifting trend in newspaper coverage of players and activities associated with both the LPGA and KLPGA tours, focused on golf coverage of Chosun Ilbo from 1998 through 2011. The findings revealed that the paper covered the LPGA (75.5%) much more frequently than the KLPGA. In addition, the LPGA received more coverage in terms of size, feature stories, and photographs. It is notable that this case study's principal innovation is the finding of changes in the overall approach of the Korean media over the years. The coverage devoted to the KLPGA tour increased from 13% to 44% across the 14 years analyzed. In addition to the findings, the case study's implications and questions are presented.


A highly integrated system-on-chip (Soc) for BT and WLAN in 90nm CMOS process. This is a low-cost, low-power highly integrated IEEE 802.11a/g/b MAC/Baseband/RF Wireless LAN (WLAN) and Bluetooth (BT) 2.0 Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) Baseband/RF SoC. The challenges of SoC integration, noise coupling and small form factor are discussed. Techniques and schemes for coexistence of BT and WLAN will be discussed. Circuit design techniques to optimize the RF performance in 90nm will also be presented. The sensitivity of-88dBm and -75dBm is achieved in BT (1Mbps) and WLAN (54Mbps) mode respectively.


SummaryWe present a case series of clinically definite acute stroke with negative diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). This study retrospectively examined a large population of stroke patients with the aim of identifying which stroke syndromes were more likely to be negative on MRI. Patient records and images were reviewed in order to confirm clinically definite stroke and DWI negativity. A total of 701 patients had MRI during the study period. A total of 16 patients with DWI-negative MRI and clinically definite stroke as diagnosed by experienced stroke consultants were identified. A total of 15 of the 16 cases were classified as either posterior circulation or lacunar strokes, and the most common syndromes were ataxic hemiparesis and isolated internuclear ophthalmoplegia.


Component software techniques have been developed to facilitate software reuse. State and functionality are encapsulated inside components with the goal of limiting program errors due to implicit interactions between components. Late binding of components allows implementations to be chosen at run-time, thereby increasing opportunities for reuse. Current component infrastructures also provide version management capabilities to control the evolutionary development of components. In addition to the general goal of reuse, component software has also focused on enabling distributed computing. Current component infrastructures have strong support for distributed applications. By leveraging these strengths of component software, a component-based operating system (OS) application programmer interface (API) can remedy two weaknesses of current monolithic, procedural APIs. Current APIs are typically very rigid; they can not be modified without jeopardizing legacy applications. This rigidity results in bloat in both API complexity and support code. Also current APIs focus primarily on the single host machine. They lack the ability to name and manipulate OS resources on remote machines. An API constructed entirely of components can leverage version management and distributed computing facilities. Version management can be used to identify legacy APIs, which can then be dynamically loaded. OS resources modeled as components can be instantiated on remote machines and then manipulated with the natural access semantics. We have developed the COP system as prototype component-based API for Windows NT. The system provides an API with version management capabilities and with a method for naming and manipulating remote OS resources. The advantages are gained with a minimum of overhead and without sacrificing legacy compatibility.


The design and construction of a tunnel depends on the mechanical properties of the rock mass around the tunnel. Seismic method can be used to characterize the dynamic properties of rocks. The technique is mostly conducted in geophysical surveys and geotechnical investigations. The method utilizes reflected sound waves that can be used to describe the dynamic properties of rocks. Physical properties of carbonate rocks such as water content, density, hardness, permeability, porosity, wave velocity and abrasivity can be assessed and estimated using P-wave velocity. One of the important characteristics in rock is its ability to remain stable. In this research, seismic refraction survey was applied to measure the strength of carbonate rocks for tunnel stability design. The findings revealed that the regression between the primary velocity and the uniaxial compressive strength R2 was 0.8592, indicating that the rock was firm and solid. Observation by physical visual test showed that the rock samples with yellowish-grey and light grey colours were categorized in the weathering grade II and III, respectively. The results have concluded that the rocks in the proposed area met the full requirements for tunnelling construction.


This paper re-examines empirically the relationship between exchange rate regimes and currency misalignments in emerging and developing countries. Using alternative de facto exchange rate regime classifications over the period 1980-2012, it finds strong evidence that performance of exchange rate regimes is conditional on the de facto classification. In particular, this paper shows that the effect of monetary arrangements on currency misalignments depends critically on the ability of these classification schemes to capture adequately dysfunctional monetary regimes.


Wnt/beta-catenin is the most important and more understanding pathway in Wnt pathways, which is closely related to pathogenesis and development of many solid tumors. Recently, researches discovered that Wnt/beta-catenin signal pathway may be involved in malignant hematopoiesis, and abnormally activated in many hematological-malignancies. This article reviews the newest studies on relationship between Wnt/beta-catenin signal pathway and hematological malignancies (multiple myeloma, chronic myeloid leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, acute leukemia and so on) in order to reveal the related pathogenesis of hematological malignancies and provide new opinions for target therapy of these diseases.


A tumour diagnosed as multicentric infiltrative lipoma affecting a single farmed seabass is described. The fish had 3 masses on the lateral side of its back, deforming the skin surface. The masses showed a tendency to invade the underlying musculature. Histologically, the neoplasm consisted of differentiated adipocytes. Biochemically, the neoplastic tissue showed lower values of monounsaturated fatty acids and higher values of polyunsaturated fatty acids compared with adjacent normal muscular tissue, particularly of the n3 series, such as eicosapentanoic (C20:5n3) and docosahexanoic (C22:6n3) acids. Data obtained suggest a metabolic disturbance in the lipid component of the muscular tissue metabolic pathway, which could be the starting point to promote lipoma formation. This is the first report of lipoma in Mediterranean seabass.


Hepatitis is a rare complication of herpes simplex virus (HSV), often leading to acute liver failure (ALF), liver transplantation (LT), and/or death. Our aim was to identify variables associated with either survival or progression (death/LT), based on an analysis of cases in the literature and our institution. A total of 137 cases (132 literature, 5 institutional) of HSV hepatitis were identified. The main features at clinical presentation were fever (98%), coagulopathy (84%), and encephalopathy (80%). Rash was seen in less than half of patients. Most cases (58%) were first diagnosed at autopsy and the diagnosis was suspected clinically prior to tissue confirmation in only 23%. Overall, 74% of cases progressed to death or LT, with 51% in acyclovir‐treated patients as compared to 88% in the untreated subjects (P = 0.03). Variables on presentation associated with death or need for LT compared to spontaneous survival: male gender, age >40 yr, immunocompromised state, ALT >5,000 U/L, platelet count <75 × 103/L, coagulopathy, encephalopathy, and absence of antiviral therapy. In conclusion, HSV hepatitis has a high mortality and is often clinically unsuspected. Patients who are male, older, immunocompromised, and/or presenting with significant liver dysfunction are more likely to progress to death and should thus be evaluated for LT early. Based on the frequent delay in HSV diagnosis, low risk‐benefit ratio, and significantly improved outcomes, empiric acyclovir therapy for patients presenting with ALF of unknown etiology is recommended until HSV hepatitis is excluded. Liver Transpl 13:1428–1434, 2007. © 2007 AASLD.


The transfer function of nonlinear Raman crosstalk in fiber-optic systems is investigated both experimentally and analytically. When the channel separation is wide enough, the frequency response of the Raman crosstalk can be significantly changed by the effect of polarization-mode dispersion. Matched polarization state between the two channels at the fiber input does not necessarily ensure the worst case crosstalk for all frequency components. The implication of this effect in design of fiber-optic hybrid CATV systems is discussed.


While Neural Machine Translation(NMT) has achieved great progress in recent years, it still suffers from inaccurate translation of entities (e.g., person/organization name, location), due to the lack of entity training instances. When we humans encounter an unknown entity during translation, we usually first look up in a dictionary and then organize the entity translation together with the translations of other parts to form a smooth target sentence. Inspired by this translation process, we propose an Extract-and-Attend approach to enhance entity translation in NMT, where the translation candidates of source entities are first extracted from a dictionary and then attended to by the NMT model to generate the target sentence. Specifically, the translation candidates are extracted by first detecting the entities in a source sentence and then translating the entities through looking up in a dictionary. Then, the extracted candidates are added as a prefix of the decoder input to be attended to by the decoder when generating the target sentence through self-attention. Experiments conducted on En-Zh and En-Ru demonstrate that the proposed method is effective on improving both the translation accuracy of entities and the overall translation quality, with up to 35% reduction on entity error rate and 0.85 gain on BLEU and 13.8 gain on COMET.


Acromegaly is regarded as a cause for secondary osteoporosis, whereas recent papers suggest that growth hormone increases bone mineral density (BMD). In 16 patients with active acromegaly we found an increased BMD compared to normal controls in the lumbar spine and the proximal femur by means of dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. This increase in BMD was statistically significant in the femoral neck and in Ward's triangle (P = 0.05). Moreover, no signs of osteoporosis were found radiologically.


Abby Walsh is the director of the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ). Before co-founding the Council on Criminal Justice, Walsh led state engagements for the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she spent more than five years partnering with policymakers to enact data-driven solutions that safely reduced prison populations, improved outcomes for youth in juvenile justice systems, and expanded treatment for substance use disorders. Earlier, she worked to modernize court practices and data collection in the federal judiciary. Walsh is a New Leaders Council Fellow ('17) and a graduate of American University's School of Public Affairs (BA '07) and the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University (MPA '12). In February 2020, Thomas Rachko interviewed Walsh for Policy Perspectives.


Underdetermination arguments for skepticism maintain that our common sense view of the external world is no better, evidentially speaking, than some skeptical competitors. An important and well-known response by dogmatists, those who believe our commonsense view is justified, appeals to abduction OR inference to the best explanation. The predominant version of this strategy, going back at least to Locke, invokes Occam's razor: dogmatists claim the common sense view is simpler than any of its skeptical alternatives and so has more to recommend it, evidentially speaking. This dispute has overshadowed another possible view: skeptical dogmatism. Skeptical dogmatists hold that we are justified in believing that the common sense view is probably false. I argue that skeptical dogmatism presents some interesting complications to the dialectic between the dogmatist and the skeptic. On the one hand, even if the dogmatist's use of Occam's razor is sufficient to rebut skepticism, in itself it is not sufficient to refute skeptical dogmatism. On the other hand, skeptics themselves, ironically, must, given the assumptions of the paper, appeal to something like Occam's razor in order to avoid capitulating to skeptical dogmatism.


PURPOSE
The chemical stability of hydroxyprogesterone caproate in powder form and in a pharmaceutical formulation under different experimental conditions was evaluated.

METHODS
Pure hydroxyprogesterone caproate was subjected to hydrolysis, photolysis, and thermal degradation. The content of hydroxyprogesterone caproate in pharmaceutical products was evaluated after using two different sterilization methods and after exposure to light. Hydroxyprogesterone caproate and its degradation products were analyzed using a validated reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method. Variables examined included specificity, accuracy, precision, linearity, theoretical plate numbers, signal:noise ratio, resolution between any two peaks, and relative standard deviation of the peak response. Statistical analysis was performed with Stata software, version 11 (StataCorp, College Station, TX). Mean values and standard deviations were calculated. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05.

RESULTS
Components of hydroxyprogesterone caproate and organic impurities in pharmaceutical products were scanned with wide ultraviolet wavelength from 200 to 400 nm. In powder form, hydroxyprogesterone caproate was stable when exposed to high temperatures and light. Considerable degradation of hydroxyprogesterone caproate was observed in alkaline solution, with the major degradation product being hydroxyprogesterone. Much less degradation of hydroxyprogesterone caproate was observed in acidic conditions over 72 hours. The content of hydroxyprogesterone caproate in pharmaceutical products was not altered by the sterilization methods (filtration or heat sterilization) used and after exposure to light.

CONCLUSION
Hydroxyprogesterone caproate in powder form and in a pharmaceutical formulation under different experimental conditions appeared to be fairly stable in the presence of strong acid, high temperatures, and light.


Longitudinal and transverse compression testing of depleted uranium (U-0.75Ti)/tungsten fiber (either pure tungsten or W-3Re) unidirectional composites has been carried out by using cylindrical specimens with various length-to-diameter (l/d) ratios. Inelastic column buckling was eliminated by using a proper l/d ratio for the specimen. The test fixture included constraining rings at the ends of the specimen to prevent brooming failure, and compressive loads were applied directly to the end faces of the specimen. The compressive yield strength of the longitudinal specimen increased linearly with volume fraction of fibers obeying a rule-of-mixture equation, and the composite did not fail catastrophically. However, the strength of the transverse specimens decreased with increasing fiber volume fraction and the specimen failed catastrophically on a plane 30 deg to the compression axis. Both longitudinal and transverse compressive strengths were significantly increased by heat treatment of the composite.


Long reach manipulator systems (LRMS) can perform tasks in difficult to reach locations. They use a small and fast manipulator mounted on a large flexible structure that can vibrate, degrading the system performance. Control methods that use strain measurements of the flexible structure have been proposed to control the system's position in spite of the supporting structure's vibrations using a model of the structure that relates strains to displacements. Here the minimum number of strain sensors needed to accomplish this control and their optimal locations on the flexible supporting structure are determined. These locations have been selected to achieve high measurement resolution, to maximize the computational robustness and to minimize the error in the identification of the structure's straindisplacement model. The results are validated with simulations and experiments using a six degree of freedom laboratory LRMS.


The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence, mortality and morbidity of complications due to chronic otitis media (COM). During the nine-year period 1990–1999, 2890 cases of COM were reviewed, 93 (3.22 per cent) having 57 (1.97 per cent) intracranial complications (IC) and 39 (1.35 per cent) extracranial complications (EC). In three patients more than one complication was observed. Meningitis and brain abscess were common in the IC group. Subperiosteal abscess (mastoid and Bezold's abscess) was a common complication in the EC group. Cholesteatoma and granulation/polyp in the middle ear/mastoid were the major findings in both groups. Fifteen patients died from IC. Overall, the mortality rate was 16.1 per cent in all patients having complications, and in patients with IC it was 26.3 per cent. In all of the patients with complications, the morbidity rate was 11.8 per cent. Our study supports the finding that meningitis and brain abscess are the common complications of COM and the main reason for mortality.


A bacterial predator-prey interaction was studied using Bdellovibrio and bioluminescent prey bacteria. The attacking bdellovibrio causes decay of bioluminescence, which is correlated with bdellovibrio penetration into the prey. The behavior of the prey and predator populations over time was found to be well described by a Lotka-Volterra model. By using this model, the probability of bdellovibrio penetration after encountering a prey cell was found to be approximately 3.0%. The prey density required to give the bdellovibrios a 50% chance of survival was calculated to be at least 3.0 × 106 cells per ml, and the density required for population equilibria was calculated to be about 7 × 105 prey bacteria per ml. These values, not generally characteristic of natural habitats, suggest that the existence of Bdellovibrio in nature is limited to special ecological niches.


Adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) is not only a rare variant of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) but it is also an aggressive and highly infiltrating neoplasm with distinct histomorphology. Histogenetic concept in the pathogenesis of the tumor would eradicate controversies regarding the resemblance of ASC with mucoepidermoid carcinoma and adenoid SCC. Hence, we intend to present a case series of four cases of ASC in the head-and-neck region reported in a single institution in the past 10 years. Head-and-neck ASC lesions have been reported in the thyroid gland, nasal cavity, oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx. Intraoral lesions are mostly seen in the tongue and floor of the mouth, but in our case series, the most common site was the maxillary alveolus. Therapeutic approach toward nonconventional malignancies of epithelial origin should include proper analysis of the biological behavior of disease, the anatomical site, sensitivity of lesion to radiation, and systemic treatment modality. Hence, for better understanding of the behavior of lesions such as ASC, immunohistochemical analysis plays a significant role as it provides an insight into the origin and also accentuates the chances of enhanced therapeutic model for treating any such variant of SCC.


Data scarcity is a bottleneck to machine learning-based perception modules, usually tackled by augmenting real data with synthetic data from simulators. Realistic models of the vehicle perception sensors are hard to formulate in closed form, and at the same time, they require the existence of paired data to be learned. In this work, we propose two unsupervised neural sensor models based on unpaired domain translations with CycleGANs and Neural Style Transfer techniques. We employ CARLA as the simulation environment to obtain simulated LiDAR point clouds, together with their annotations for data augmentation, and we use KITTI dataset as the real LiDAR dataset from which we learn the realistic sensor model mapping. Moreover, we provide a framework for data augmentation and evaluation of the developed sensor models, through extrinsic object detection task evaluation using YOLO network adapted to provide oriented bounding boxes for LiDAR Bird-eye-View projected point clouds. Evaluation is performed on unseen real LiDAR frames from KITTI dataset, with different amounts of simulated data augmentation using the two proposed approaches, showing improvement of 6% mAP for the object detection task, in favor of the augmenting LiDAR point clouds adapted with the proposed neural sensor models over the raw simulated LiDAR.


George Mason University's hydroponic greenhouse and the Patriot Green Fund requested an irrigation data logging system to track how weather conditions affect the frequency at which plants need to be watered. A prototype system was created and tested in the greenhouse. The initial prototype was found to have significant issues and was brought back to the lab for modification. Upon testing in the lab, it was found that the sensors had multiple issues; further testing is required to find solutions. This project has wide implications in the field of sustainability, as it could be used in medium- and small-scale hydroponics operations across the world.


We propose a transfer learning-based solution for the problem of multiple class novelty detection. In particular, we propose an end-to-end deep-learning based approach in which we investigate how the knowledge contained in an external, out-of-distributional dataset can be used to improve the performance of a deep network for visual novelty detection. Our solution differs from the standard deep classification networks on two accounts. First, we use a novel loss function, membership loss, in addition to the classical cross-entropy loss for training networks. Secondly, we use the knowledge from the external dataset more effectively to learn globally negative filters, filters that respond to generic objects outside the known class set. We show that thresholding the maximal activation of the proposed network can be used to identify novel objects effectively. Extensive experiments on four publicly available novelty detection datasets show that the proposed method achieves significant improvements over the state-of-the-art methods.


The present work describes the phenomenological approach to automatically determine the frequency range for positive and negative dielectrophoresis (DEP)—an electrokinetic force that can be used for massively parallel micro- and nano-assembly. An experimental setup consists of the microfabricated chip with gold microelectrode array connected to a function generator capable of digitally controlling an AC signal of 1 V (peak-to-peak) and of various frequencies in the range between 10 kHz and 1 MHz. The suspension of latex microbeads (3-μm diameter) is either attracted or repelled from the microelectrodes under the influence of DEP force as a function of the applied frequency. The video of the bead movement is captured via a digital camera attached to the microscope. The OpenCV software package is used to digitally analyze the images and identify the beads. Positions of the identified beads are compared for successive frames via Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm that determines the cloud behavior of the microbeads and algorithmically determines if the beads experience attraction or repulsion from the electrodes. Based on the determined behavior of the beads, algorithm will either increase or decrease the applied frequency and implement the digital command of the function generator that is controlled by the computer. Thus, the operation of the study platform is fully automated. The AI-guided platform has determined that positive DEP (pDEP) is active below 500 kHz frequency, negative DEP (nDEP) is evidenced above 1 MHz frequency and the crossover frequency is between 500 kHz and 1 MHz. These results are in line with previously published experimentally determined frequency-dependent DEP behavior of the latex microbeads. The phenomenological approach assisted by live AI-guided feedback loop described in the present study will assist the active manipulation of the system towards the desired phenomenological outcome such as, for example, collection of the particles at the electrodes, even if, due to the complexity and plurality of the interactive forces, model-based predictions are not available.


This large octavo volume (192 pages, with 109 black & white illustration and 59 in full colour) records an important aspect of recent cultural history – the loss from our town centres of trades and retail businesses that, in many cases, had been running successfully for over a century. This change, from an urban scene of privately-owned shops to centres dominated by multi-nationals, coffee-shops and other leisure outlets (mostly clothing shops), has occurred in nearly every town and city in Britain – and to catch remembrances from owners and customers is a pressing need. There are a variety of ways that remembrances of this significant aspect of our retail history might be memorialised, but it is believed that the present volume is the first and sole such volume devoted to the topic. Chapters comprise: Bread and Confectionary; Fish, Farm and Forest; Provisioning the Kitchen Cabinet; Leather and Last; Liquid Refreshment; Personal Attire; 'Fork 'andles'; Fabric and Furnishings; Paper and Print; Feasting the Eye; Silver and Gold; Harnessing Power; Pills and Potions.


Information about urban built-up areas is important for urban planning and management. However, obtaining accurate information about urban built-up areas is a challenge. This study developed a general-purpose built-up area intelligent classification (BAIC) system that supports various types of data and classifiers. All of the steps in the BAIC were implemented using Python modules including Numpy, Pandas, matplotlib, and scikit-learn. We used the BAIC to conduct a classification experiment that involved seven types of input data; namely, Point of Interest (POI), Road Network (RN), nighttime light (NTL), a combination of POI and RN data (POI_RN), a combination of POI and NTL data (POI_NTL), a combination of RN and NTL data (RN_NTL), and a combination of POI, RN, and NTL data (POI_RN_NTL), and five classifiers, namely, Logistic Regression (LR), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forests (RF), Gradient Boosted Decision Trees (GBDT), and AdaBoost. The results show the following: (1) among the 35 combinations of the five classifiers and seven types of input data, the overall accuracy (OA) ranged from 76 to 89%, F1 values ranged from 0.73 to 0.86, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) ranged from 0.83 to 0.95. The largest F1 value and OA were obtained using the POI_RN_NTL data and AdaBoost, while the largest AUC was obtained using POI_RN_NTL and POI_NTL data against AdaBoost, LR, and RF; and (2) the advantages of the BAIC include its support for multi-source input data, its objective accuracy assessment, and its robust classifiers. The BAIC can quickly and efficiently realize the automatic classification of urban built-up areas at a reasonably low cost and can be readily applied to other urban areas in the world where any kind of POI, RN, or NTL data coverage is available. The results of this study are expected to provide timely and effective reference information for urban planning and urban management departments, and could also potentially be used to develop large-scale maps of urban built-up areas in the future.


Alluding to Peter Wilson's book Some Reasons for Travelling to Italy (2016) and adopting its narrative device, this article invites a journey of discovery into Wilson's own architectural universe. Listing idiosyncrasies of Wilson's work and reasons for delving into its multi-layered nature, the article decodes conceptual, figurative, and tectonic references from which Wilson derived his architectural vocabulary. Scanning Wilson's oeuvre requires traversing distant territories and intimate thresholds, looking simultaneously backwards and forwards, and moving through spatial practices of writing, drawing, and building, which together define its productive complexity. Accordingly, defying a chronological narrative, the article explores a series of built and speculative projects, drawings and installations, offering a transversal reading into accumulations of tropes and relations that underpin Wilson's work. His categories 'Appropriations', 'Juxtapositions', 'Narratives', 'Choreographies', 'Adjacencies', 'Artefacts', 'Objects', 'Fields', 'Material Assemblages', and 'Atmospheres' offer a particular projective taxonomy. The article presents them as a collection of plays, each with a set of rules and its own micro-narrative; each with its own mask. Masks recur in Wilson's work as both figurative and procedural frameworks embodying his concern with finding a role for the architectural object in the performance of everyday life. Uncovering these masks, the article argues that even though Wilson's work has distinct evolutionary stages, they cannot be seen as a diachronic succession. They rather fold into each other in a process of constant deviation from their own rules, rejection of fashions, or revalorisation. Such a process of internal folding mirrors Wilson's consistently provocative and experimental nature. It is one of the reasons why Wilson's work retains a particular allure, calling for an exploration of its conceptual complexity as well as spatial sensibility, and awakening our imagination.


We herein report three cases of patients with an ampullary neuroendocrine tumor (NET), who underwent endoscopic papillectomy (EP). No tumor recurrence or metastasis was detected in the patients for more than two years after EP. Generally, surgical resection is recommended for ampullary NETs by the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society. However, as EP is less invasive than surgical resection, there are some reports of low-grade small ampullary NETs curatively treated by EP with long-term follow-up. We consider that EP may be a curative treatment for small and low-grade ampullary NETs without regional or distant metastasis.


MOTIVATION
Likelihood-free methods, like Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC), have been extensively used in model-based statistical inference with intractable likelihood functions. When combined with Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) algorithms they constitute a powerful approach for parameter estimation and model selection of mathematical models of complex biological systems. A crucial step in the ABC-SMC algorithms, significantly affecting their performance, is the propagation of a set of parameter vectors through a sequence of intermediate distributions using Markov kernels.

RESULTS
In this article, we employ Dirichlet process mixtures (DPMs) to design optimal transition kernels and we present an ABC-SMC algorithm with DPM kernels. We illustrate the use of the proposed methodology using real data for the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. A multi-compartment model of the pathway is developed and it is compared to an existing model. The results indicate that DPMs are more efficient in the exploration of the parameter space and can significantly improve ABC-SMC performance. In comparison to alternative sampling schemes that are commonly used, the proposed approach can bring potential benefits in the estimation of complex multimodal distributions. The method is used to estimate the parameters and the initial state of two models of the Wnt pathway and it is shown that the multi-compartment model fits better the experimental data.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
Python scripts for the Dirichlet Process Gaussian Mixture model and the Gibbs sampler are available at https://sites.google.com/site/kkoutroumpas/software

CONTACT
email@example.com.


tions of themselves have liberated the organ from its unnatural situation. Mr. Spencer Wells bhad upwards of twenty cases of childbirth noted after his ovariotomy cases, and in none had uterine adhesions led to any unusual difficulty". Such, however, he admitted, might obtain as a direct effect; " forSir J. Simpson", he stated, " had recorded a case where the pedicle of an adherent fibroid outgrowth had been ruptured by the uterine contractions". Dr. Holman " thought it was a matter of clinical experience that, in cases where there had been peritonitis and pelvic cellulitis, there was increased tendency to postpartum hiemor[hage. All practitioners must have met with many cases in which the uterus did not contract and expel the hand, and in which the hand had to be left in the uterus for some time after the separation of the placenta. In such cases, if there were this atonic inert-condition of the uterus, it was quite possible that adhesions might assist the inertia of the organ and aid in the production of the haemorrhage; and that, if the adhesions were so strong, they would not be broken down until the uterus was pressed down by ,the hand externally." Dr. Cleveland " could not conceive how adhesions formed during pregnancy could be of such strength and firmness as not to be separated when the uterus contracted after the birth of the child. Further evidence was, he thought, required before adhesions could be regarded as an efficient cause of retained placenta or postpba-tum hiemorrhage." Such evidence I have sought to adduce by the recital of this, the only case which has as yet come under my notice of adhesions of the gravid uterus as a cause of post partutm lbxtmorrhage.


We report herein an underwater biological chorus coming from the margin of the New Jersey Atlantic continental shelf that we tentatively attribute to a species of fish. The chorus occurred every night for over a month during the Shallow Water 2006 experiment and covers the frequency band 150–4,800 Hz, with maximum intensity in the band from 1450 to 2,000 Hz. Remarkable intensity peaks occurred at 500, 725, 960, 1,215, 1,465, 1,700, and 1,920 Hz, rising to as much as 20 dB above the background noise without the chorus. The chorus begins at sunset and reaches its maximum intensity within an hour, following which it weakens slightly and then gradually climbs again to a peak before sunrise, at which point it quickly weakens and disappears. Its frequency-domain characteristics and the nocturnal timing are reminiscent of sound produced by underwater animals. The intensity of the chorus weakens along the across-shelf path going shoreward, which indicates that the chorus originates from the margin of the continental shelf rather than from the coastal zone, as is generally considered. The chorus contains a single type of acoustic signal that takes the form of double-pulse bursts that last about 8.7 ms, with each pulse containing several acoustic cycles. The time interval between successive bursts varies from 1.5 to 1.9 s. Signals containing a number of bursts vary in length from tens to hundreds of seconds. Although it is impossible to determine the fish species responsible for the chorus, its characteristics, including its low frequency and intensity, its single type of short-duration sound signal, and its multiple peaks in the frequency domain, are all consistent with the general characteristics of fish sounds.


Classical economical theories assume whatever information is available about products will be fully and efficiently processed by consumers, thus the increase of information amount would lead to greater diversity of decisions. However, consumers' information processing capacity is limited. A large amount of product alternatives that requests consumers' intensive cognitive effort will activate their social learning by switching decision strategy and relying on the information of product popularity. Thus, this experimental study attempts to discover the mixture of consumers' rationality and sociality in online shopping. A 2*2 factorial design was conducted to tease out the effects of choice set and product popularity on individuals' cognitive efforts and preference reversal, as well as the effects on the market structures that are aggregated from individual decisions. The experimental results demonstrate that, despite a large amount of product alternatives, participants may not always invest abundant cognitive efforts and the market is more concentrated with the presence of product popularity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


It is significant for a MCS (mine countermeasure system) to recognize the model of a water mine exactly in order to take right destroying measures. In this paper, the ABNET proposed by L.N. de Castro is simplified and employed in a multi-agent-based MCS for fusing the feature data and recognizing the model of water mines. The simplified ABNET (sABNET) is a two-layer Boolean network which number of outputs is adaptable according to the task and which recognition precision can be controlled by the immune affinity threshold. Compared with Castro's work, the sABNET converges more quickly.


Author(s): Qian, Wenjun | Advisor(s): Venkatram, Akula | Abstract: This dissertation summarizes the results from a study to develop and evaluate models to estimate dispersion of pollutants in boundary layers whose properties change with downwind distance. Such boundary layers occur at the interface between rural and urban areas, and water and land bodies. I first developed a method to estimate the meteorological inputs required to apply the current generation of dispersion models, such as AERMOD, to urban areas. This method uses measurements made at a single level on a tower located in an urban area, and is based on the assumption that similarity methods applicable to spatially homogeneous conditions are locally valid even in an inhomogeneous urban area. I show that under unstable conditions, measurements of temperature fluctuations improve upon commonly used energy balance methods to estimate heat flux. Also, any bias in heat flux estimates has a minor effect on the prediction of surface friction velocity and turbulent velocities. I examined a method to estimate urban micrometeorology using measurements made on a tower located in an upwind suburban area. I applied an internal boundary layer model to trace the evolution of the boundary layer as it traveled from the suburban measurement location to the urban location of interest. Estimates from the model were observations made during a field study conducted in Riverside, CA. Estimates of friction velocity compare well with urban measurements only when the variation of friction velocity with height within the urban canopy was accounted for. I examined the performance of two steady-state dispersion models in explaining concentrations measured during field studies designed to study low wind speed conditions typical of urban areas. One model is based on the numerical solution of the two-dimensional mass conservation equation and the other is AERMOD, which accounts for low wind speeds by including wind meandering. The numerical method performs better than AERMOD through a justifiable description of the interaction between dispersion and the gradient of the wind speed near the surface. Including wind meandering, which occurs under low wind speeds, improves the performance of the numerical model. As part of this study, I developed a method to improve estimates of surface friction velocity during low wind speeds. The last model is applicable to elevated sources, such as power plants, situated close to shorelines. It is designed to be compatible with AERMOD (Cimorelli et al., 2005), the USEPA's regulatory model that is currently designed for spatially homogenous conditions. The semi-empirical shoreline dispersion model accounts for plume entrainment by the thermal internal boundary Layer (TIBL), whose height increases with distance from the shoreline. I show that AERMOD can be modified to account for two-dimensional shoreline effects, and this modified model performs as well in explaining observations as dispersion models specifically designed for shoreline sources. I also developed a method to generate meteorological inputs that are compatible with the current structure of AERMOD's inputs.


Various phenolic compounds have been screened against Ganoderma boninense, the fungal pathogen causing basal stem rot in oil palms. In this study, we focused on the effects of salicylic acid (SA) on the growth of three G. boninense isolates with different levels of aggressiveness. In addition, study on untargeted metabolite profiling was conducted to investigate the metabolomic responses of G. boninense towards salicylic acid. The inhibitory effects of salicylic acid were both concentration- (P < 0.001) and isolate-dependent (P < 0.001). Also, growth-promoting effect was observed in one of the isolates at low concentrations of salicylic acid where it could have been utilized by G. boninense as a source of carbon and energy. Besides, adaptation towards salicylic acid treatment was evident in this study for all isolates, particularly at high concentrations. In other words, inhibitory effect of salicylic acid treatment on the fungal growth declined over time. In terms of metabolomics response to salicylic acid treatment, G. boninense produced several metabolites such as coumarin and azatyrosine, which suggests that salicylic acid modulates the developmental switch in G. boninense towards the defense mode for its survival. Furthermore, the liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-TOF-MS) analysis showed that the growth of G. boninense on potato dextrose agar involved at least four metabolic pathways: amino acid metabolism, lipid pathway, tryptophan pathway and phenylalanine pathway. Overall, there were 17 metabolites that contributed to treatment separation, each with P<0.005. The release of several antimicrobial metabolites such as eudistomin I may enhance G. boninense's competitiveness against other microorganisms during colonisation. Our findings demonstrated the metabolic versatility of G. boninense towards changes in carbon sources and stress factors. G. boninense was shown to be capable of responding to salicylic acid treatment by switching its developmental stage.


Among the liver abscesses, thrombosis of the inferior vena cava (IVC) has been reported mainly in amoebic liver abscess (ALA) caused by Entamoeba histolytica (E.H). It is an unusual complication especially in paediatric age group. Association of hypercomplementemia and IVC thrombosis has not been discussed previously. Published data suggest that E.H can activate the complement system and can cause hypercomplementemia. A very few studies suggest that complement activation and hypercomplementemia are associated with thrombus formation. We describe a paediatric case of ALA complicated by IVC thrombosis extending to the right atrium and discuss the possible role of hypercomplementemia in causation of IVC thrombosis in cases of ALA.


Sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is one of the most promising bio-energy crops with the ability to produce high biomass with low input. Plant height that has a significant contribution to gain in bio-ethanol production is among the most important biomass yield components. In the present study, sorghum genotypes were screened with four SSR markers which are associated with plant height QTLs. The molecular assays were confirmed with two different environments in two consecutive years. In the first year of the study, molecular analyses were performed with a sorghum collection consisting of 551 accessions as well as plant height measurements were performed under field condition. In the second year, 53 out of 551 accessions were selected and further tests with nine controls were performed in Antalya (a lowland province) and Konya (a highland province) locations along with molecular marker analyses. The results indicated that four SSR markers efficiency were assessed as 38% at lowland and 39% at highland. Markers 40-9187 and 37-1740 were of more powerful to explain plant height QTLs than the other two markers at two environments. This study reported the successful application of the association between markers and plant height in two environments to identify valuable genetic resources for bio-energy production in sweet sorghum.


Breast cancer is not a single disease as it can be classified into different subtypes according to cellular composition, morphology, proliferative index, genetic lesions and therapeutic responses. The molecular and cellular mechanisms underpinning tumor heterogeneity remain a central question in the cancer biology field. To explain the multitude of breast cancer phenotypes, it has been proposed that tumor-initiating cells (TICs) might originate from different cells within the mammary lineage. Further, different oncogenes might elicit distinct phenotypes in a given cell, adding to the complexity of the disease. Single oncogene amplification is observed in human breast tumors. For instance, the human epidermal growth factor receptor type-2 (HER2) proto-oncogene (also called ErbB2, or Neu) is amplified in about 20% of human breast cancers and associated with aggressive phenotypes and poor prognosis. Similarly, 16% of breast cancers have c-Myc gene amplification. Yet, it remains largely disputed which mammary cell type responds to a specific initiating oncogenic mutation. We decided to take a forward approach by testing two contrasting potent oncogenes, Neu (murine form of HER2) or c-Myc, that are frequently overexpressed in breast cancer patients for their capacity to transform different cells of the mammary lineage.
A number of transgenic mouse mammary tumor models have been generated that mimic human breast cancers. Previous studies reported that TICs of Neu driven tumors are the luminal progenitor cells. These studies made use of a mouse model that constitutively overexpressed the Neu oncogene in mouse mammary glands under the MMTV promoter. In contrast, c-Myc overexpressing tumors show a heterogeneous mixed phenotype that is composed of both luminal and myoepithelial cells. Due to the presence of bi-lineage derived cells, we hypothesized that the TICs of c-Myc tumors are the bi-potent stem cells. To clarify the identity and characteristics of TICs, we employed tractable mouse models, Tet-On-Neu/MMTV- rtTA and Tet-On-Myc/MMTV-rtTA, in which we can induce the overexpression of an oncogene at any given time point by administration of doxycycline. The possibility to induce overexpression of an oncogene at adulthood (8-9 weeks after birth) closely recapitulates the timing of somatic mutations acquired by breast cancer patients. In order to demonstrate the direct contribution of distinct breast epithelial cellular lineages to Myc and Neu driven tumorigenesis, we took a FACS approach to separate bi-potent adult stem cells from lineage-committed progenitor cells and differentiated cells. We transplanted the purified cell populations, then induced oncogenes by administration of doxycycline and observed tumor formation in vivo.
9
These tumors obtained from the transplantation experiments were compared with the natural arising primary mammary tumors from Tet-On-Neu/MMTV-rtTA and Tet-On- Myc/MMTV-rtTA by their histological and molecular features. In parallel, we also monitored the clonal growth of these sorted cells in vitro after oncogene overexpression using organotypic 3D cell culture assays. Taken together and partially in contrast to our initial hypothesis, Neu induced tumors that are composed of luminal cells can originate not only from the luminal-committed progenitors but also from the bi-potent stem cells. Moreover, luminal committed progenitors were able to give rise to c- induced tumors that are composed of both luminal and myoepithelial lineages. We currently validate our findings by employing additional cell surface antibodies to closer define and sub-fractionate mammary cellular lineages and by an in vivo lineage tracing approach.
Our results suggest that Neu and c-Myc TICs can arise from different cellular subtypes in the mammary gland. Notably, progenitor cells seem to be able to establish tumors that consist of basal and luminal cells. These results add to the growing notion that genetic predisposition directs cell fate towards distinct breast cancer phenotypes.


Background Cancer immunotherapeutic strategies showed unprecedented results in the clinic. However, many patients do not respond to immuno-oncological treatments due to the occurrence of a plethora of immunological obstacles, including tumor intrinsic mechanisms of resistance to cytotoxic T-cell (TC) attack. Thus, a deeper understanding of these mechanisms is needed to develop successful immunotherapies. Methods To identify novel genes that protect tumor cells from effective TC-mediated cytotoxicity, we performed a genetic screening in pancreatic cancer cells challenged with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and antigen-specific TCs. Results The screening revealed 108 potential genes that protected tumor cells from TC attack. Among them, salt-inducible kinase 3 (SIK3) was one of the strongest hits identified in the screening. Both genetic and pharmacological inhibitions of SIK3 in tumor cells dramatically increased TC-mediated cytotoxicity in several in vitro coculture models, using different sources of tumor and TCs. Consistently, adoptive TC transfer of TILs led to tumor growth inhibition of SIK3-depleted cancer cells in vivo. Mechanistic analysis revealed that SIK3 rendered tumor cells susceptible to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) secreted by tumor-activated TCs. SIK3 promoted nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) nuclear translocation and inhibited caspase-8 and caspase-9 after TNF stimulation. Chromatin accessibility and transcriptome analyses showed that SIK3 knockdown profoundly impaired the expression of prosurvival genes under the TNF–NF-κB axis. TNF stimulation led to SIK3-dependent phosphorylation of the NF-κB upstream regulators inhibitory-κB kinase and NF-kappa-B inhibitor alpha on the one side, and to inhibition of histone deacetylase 4 on the other side, thus sustaining NF-κB activation and nuclear stabilization. A SIK3-dependent gene signature of TNF-mediated NF-κB activation was found in a majority of pancreatic cancers where it correlated with increased cytotoxic TC activity and poor prognosis. Conclusion Our data reveal an abundant molecular mechanism that protects tumor cells from cytotoxic TC attack and demonstrate that pharmacological inhibition of this pathway is feasible.


We report the red but weak upconversion luminescence of core–shell–shell structured upconversion nanocrystals (NaYF4:Yb/Ho/Ce@NaYF4:Nd@NaYF4) under excitation at 808 nm due to high surface Ce3+ concentration in core nanocrystals hindering the energy transfer from the Nd3+ shell to the Yb3+ core. 10.2-fold upconversion luminescence enhancement was achieved by conquering the negative effects of non-uniform Ce3+ distribution phenomena on upconversion processes via intercalating NaYF4:Yb/Ho/Ce, designed as the shell, into the Nd3+ sensitized nanostructure (NaYF4:Nd@NaYF4:Yb/Ho/Ce@NaYF4:Nd@NaYF4:Yb/Ho/Ce@NaYF4). The intercalation nanostructured upconversion nanocrystals show intense red upconversion luminescence with a red-to-green ratio of 5.0. Bright red upconversion luminescence of the Ce3+ doped intercalation nanostructured upconversion nanocrystals embedded in biological tissues can be visualized even at a depth of 5 mm illuminated by 808 nm laser light. High efficiency 808 nm driven red-emitting upconversion nanocrystals are promising for bio-applications.


The research analyses the viability to adopt policies to enhance Brazilian Foreign Direct Investment FDI. Based on statistical data and on literature review, the policy agenda frames the underling questions surrounding FDI. There is not yet a theoretical framework to deal with emergent countries economic outward FDI. There exist strong evidences that capital flows through FDI generate externalities in the following domains: macroeconomic, international trade, and microeconomic (in themes closed related to industrial organization and innovation). The theoretical proposition has its grounds in the conception that international capital flows are absolutely compatible in the following contexts: monetary, commercial, industrial organization and innovation policies. A better positioning of national enterprises internationally may result in growing partnership within the foreign environment. Brazil has not yet a set of policies to deal with inward and outward Brazilian FDI flows, without necessarily jeopardizing macroeconomic policy and the related monetary and currency stabilization goals. Summing up, it is contended that FDI stimulus by means of public policies may contribute not just to a better competitiveness and innovation of Brazilian enterprises but also to assure balanced growing and economic structural change.


Purpose of review The aim is to summarize the evidence base for tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics, review recent policies on TB diagnostics, and discuss issues such as how evidence is translated into policy, limitations of the existing evidence base, and challenges involved in translating policies into impact. Recent findings Case detection continues to be a major obstacle to global TB control. Fortunately, due to an unprecedented level of interest, funding, and activity, the new diagnostics pipeline for TB has rapidly expanded. There have been several new policies and guidelines on TB diagnostics. However, there are major gaps in the existing pipeline (e.g. lack of a point-of-care test) and the evidence base is predominantly made up of research studies of test accuracy. Summary With the availability of new diagnostics and supporting policies, the next major step is translation of policy into practice. The impact of new tests will depend largely on the extent of their introduction and acceptance into the global public sector. This will itself depend in part on policy decisions by international technical agencies and national TB programs. With the engagement of all key stakeholders, we will need to translate evidence-based policies into epidemiological and public health impact.


Various sum rules for multiple giant dipole resonance states are derived. For the triple giant dipole resonance states, the energy-weighted sum of the transition strengths requires a model to be related to those of the single and double giant dipole resonance states. It is also shown that the non-diagonal matrix elements of the double commutator between the dipole operator and the nuclear Hamiltonian give useful identities for the excitation energy and transition strength of each excited state. Using those identities, the relationship between width of the single dipole state and those of the multiple ones is qualitatively discussed. These results, it is stressed, may be useful in the study of other systems than dipole excitations in nuclei, as well as in the problem of anharmonicities of collective motions.


Introduction: Percutaneous tracheostomy one of the most common interventional procedures in the intensive care unit. The aim of our study is to investigate "Youtube ® " videos about percutaneous tracheostomy in the intensive care unit in terms of the information value and quality they provide. Material and Method: Video search was performed on the "YouTube.com" in November 2021 with the "percutaneous tracheostomy" search key. The first 100 videos about percutaneous tracheostomy in the intensive care unit were listed and the number of views, likes, dislikes, comments, uploaded source, source country and continent were determined, and content analyzes were made. The quality, reliability and accuracy of the videos were determined by the "Global Quality Score"(GQS), "Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Quality Test" and "Modified DISCERN" questionnaire, respectively. Results: According to GQS, 45 low, 31 medium and 24 high quality videos were detected. 72 of the videos contained insufficient, 25 partially sufficient and 3 completely sufficient data. Academic and doctor-sourced videos comprised the majority (70,83%) of the high-quality group. There was no significant relationship between video sources, GQS, JAMA score, Modified DISCERN score and the number of views, likes, dislikes and comments(p>0,05). A weak positive correlation was found between video duration and GQS(r=0,206), JAMA(r=0.263), modified DISCERN(r=0,388) scores(p<0,05). Conclusion: According to our results, it was determined that most of the youtube videos about percutaneous tracheostomy in the intensive care unit were of poor quality and had insufficient data. It has been determined that high-quality videos are of longer duration and are uploaded by academic and doctor sources.


The number of Android malware has been increasing for the last 5 years. These malware use more often evasion techniques to hide their malicious intent and avoid analysis tools. In this work, we focus on triggering the most suspicious parts of code in malicious applications in order to monitor their behaviors using dynamic analysis tools for a better understanding of their activities. To do this, a global control flow graph (CFG) is used to exhibit an execution path to reach specific parts of code. Here we explain why using only explicit interprocedural calls may lead to a partial build of the CFG. In this poster, we explain that concept and propose a solution that improves malicious code reachability by means of integrating implicit calls.


Use this resource as a guide to information on topics such as college life, study techniques and tips, library research, and more. Here you will find links to information in Stevenson Library as well as on the World Wide Web.


The degradation behaviors and mechanisms of nitrile butadiene rubber O-rings aged in air are investigated by accelerated aging tests at different temperatures. The compressive stress changes of nitrile butadiene rubber O-rings are monitored by using a self-designed test device during the degradation process. The aging samples under different conditions are evaluated by measuring attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, crosslinking density, compressive stress relaxation, weight loss, mechanical properties, and fracture morphology. The results demonstrate that the compressive stress declines with aging time, and the higher the temperature is, the faster the stress decreases. The ATR-FTIR results indicate that amide groups and hydroxyl groups are formed during the degradation process. The elevated temperature plays a significant role in the surface chemical changes. The changes in the crosslinking density of the samples could be attributed to the competition between crosslinking and chain scission, and the crosslinking mainly predominates in the aging process. The results of mechanical properties show that the tensile strength, elongation at break, and hardness of samples changes significantly with aging time and temperature. In addition, the fracture morphology observation reveals that the formation of a hardened brittle outer layer, voids, and agglomerates lead to a further decrease in mechanical properties. These results are very important for evaluating the lifetime of rubber O-rings and can be utilized to improve the stability and durability of sealing systems.


In this paper, an robust adaptive backstepping controller is proposed for the speed control of separately excited DC motor in pure electric vehicles. A general electric drive train of PEV is conceptually rearrange to major subsystems as electric propulsion, energy source, and auxiliary subsystem and the load torque is modeled by considering the aerodynamic, rolling resistance and grading resistance. Armature and field resistance, damping coefficient and load torque are considered as uncertainties and noise generated at applying load torque to motor is also considered. It shows that the backstepping algorithm can be used to solve the problems of nonlinear system very well and robust controller can be designed without the variation of adaptive law. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.


Compounds of the betaine esters and choline type in which the nitrogen atom was replaced by sulfur have the same effects upon the autonomic nervous system as do the analogous nitrogen compounds. The sulfur compounds were less active than the nitrogen compounds.

The betaines were almost inactive.

The methyl ester of carboxymethyl-dimethylsulfonium hydroxide has marked muscarine and stimulating nicotine actions.

The ethyl ester of carboxymethyl-di- n -propylsulfonium hydroxide has only a paralyzing nicotine action.

The phenyl ether of hydroxyethyl-dimethylsulfonium hydroxide has an intense stimulating nicotine action.

Methyldibenzyl-sulfonium nitrate has little or no muscarine action; it did not have a typical nicotine action, either stimulating or paralyzing.


Abstract Understand the role of the drivers in vegetation pattern is essential in ecology since diversity plays a major role in the stability and maintenance of plant communities. The murundus are small and scattered earthmounds with a differentiated flora of its surrounding. In our study site (Campo Maior, Piauí, Northeastern Brazil), we classified them in three categories: presence of carnaúba (PC), presence of tucum (PT), and with the absence of palm trees (AP). Here, our goals were (1) to explore alpha diversity using the richness estimator and abundance distribution rank, expecting that palm trees could influence the richness of plant species on murundus; (2) analyzing the species richness-area relationship in the murundus, following the assumptions that the largest one holds more species; (3) find the changes in the species composition (beta diversity) between the three categories of murundus, assuming which the presence of palm trees influence the species composition; and (4) investigate if the distance between murundus is a decisive factor in the species composition, where the closest murundus are the most similar in species composition. Ours results showed that palms trees do not influence the richness of the murundus, the largest murundus are the richest ones, and the turnover predominantly determines beta diversity in the different murundus categories. Furthermore, the distance between the murundus did not determine its floristic similarity. Overall, we demonstrated which the species of palm trees are not the main drive of the plant assemblage in the murundus, however its size comprises a major factor in the richness, with great species substitution, which explains the high plant diversity.


The effects of selective logging on termite assemblages that build conspicuous nests were studied in two areas of semideciduous Atlantic Forest, located in the Reserva Biológica Guaribas, Northeastern Brazil. The two study areas went through selective logging until 1985 (A17) and 1972 (A30). In 2002, termite nests were studied in two plots of 1 ha (100 x 100 m), being one plot in each area. The nests were placed in each plot and the species were categorized in feeding groups. The structure of the study assemblages was different between the two areas. Diversity and richness of builder species were greater in the A30 area. Species that consume humus were more sensitive to selective logging. Nest abundance of humus feeding species was significantly higher in the A30 area, whereas nests of wood feeding species were significantly more abundant in the area A17. Nest ratio between humus and wood feeding species was 1:3 in the A30 area and 1:12 in the A17 area. Nests with greater volume were observed in the area A30, whereas abundance of inactive nests was significantly higher in A17. The time for habitat resilience after the selective logging influenced patterns of assemblage structure of termites in similar ways as described in other studies in tropical forests.


The swift uptake of sensors and the increasing demand of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications and services create unmatched appeals for routing data packets on WSN infrastructure. In the era of Internet of Things (IoT), an immense number of sensing devices collect numerous sensor data over time for an extensive span of fields. For IoT-enabled devices routing through WSN, sensor nodes transmit confidential data to the gateway nodes via public channels. In such an environment, secured routing remains a serious issue that has to be addressed. To address this issue, in this work, a robust method using Mid Square Hash-based Bezier Authentication (MSH-BA) is designed to secure the routing for IoT-enabled WSNs. First, a Mid Square Hashing Data Collection algorithm is proposed to minimize the energy consumption through unique key generation. To minimize the running time of IoT sensor network, discrete registration is performed between user and gateway nodes. Finally, the proof of correctness of mutual authentication is performed using the Bezier Authentication method via progressive distance, therefore ensuring packet delivery ratio. The robust authentication method is analyzed comprehensively and compared against the similar authentication methods and the results showed that it is efficient and robust than earlier methods.


Pain is an important part of MS symptomatology. Studies, with other pain populations, suggest distress is associated with pain. However, models of the influence of psychological factors on pain have not been carefully applied and tested with the MS population. The hypothesis was: many patients do not classify much of their sensory disturbance as pain due to their conceptual framework and this may affect the relationship between pain and distress. A model of these factors was developed for MS patients. A clinic sample of MS patients, expected to have varying degrees of subjective pain, was recruited. Standard, adapted and new measures were used to characterise the population along the following dimensions: pain, level of cognitive ability (general intelligence and working memory) and cognitive bias, mood, and coping styles. Amount of distress was assessed using a semantic differential measure of wellbeing/distress, Survey of Pain Attitudes and Coping with MS Scale. A Pain Discomfort Scale was adapted to discern differences between people reporting "pain" versus those reporting "discomfort." Pain cognitive-processing bias was explored using assessments including a stem completion task, an experimental recall task using pain and illness words and a restructured Hayling sentence completion task. Power calculations showed that with 100 patients a detectable correlation would be 0.28 (p=0.05, power = 80%). Measures were compared using paired t-tests for repeated measures, independent t-tests for measures across patients, and regression modelling. McGill adjectives chosen were similar across both high and low pain responders. Participants reporting "pain" experienced significantly greater physical impact of MS whereas participants reporting "discomfort" experienced greater emotional distress. Cognitive bias towards pain, illness and MS related material was not linked with overall pain or disease state but with coping styles. A model of how emotional stressors affect reported pain in MS was created.


Abstract Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)) in eastern North America migrate each year from overwintering areas in Mexico to cover a large breeding distribution across the United States of America and southern Canada. In 2012, monarch butterflies migrated well beyond their usual range, resulting in an extended breeding distribution compared to typical years. We used stable isotope (δ2H, δ13C) measurements in wing chitin to determine the area of natal origin of these butterflies. Most monarch butterflies collected in May, June, and July from Manitoba and Alberta, Canada had natal origins in the North American Midwest. Monarch butterflies collected in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada in August and September had local natal origins indicating successful recruitment of offspring from colonising individuals. However, it is unknown whether these offspring migrated successfully to overwintering areas. Our work highlights the ability of monarch butterflies to colonise distant breeding areas and demonstrates how stable isotopes can be used to understand the dynamics of range-edge populations.


Syahwat (lust) can be interpreted as the tendency of the soul to what it wants; nuzu'annafs ila ma turiduhu. In the Qur'an, the word syahwat (lust) is sometimes intended for the desired object, but in another verse it is used to refer to the potential of human desire comprehensively. If the impulse of syahwat is followed by paying attention to moral values, so it will change into a destructive impulse of lust. Therefore the role and function of ethics education in leadership is expected to be able to control negative things or abnormal desires that must be controlled by each individual, through common sense which is more rational. Tabarroja is a fi'tsulatsi mazid with the addition of two letters, the origin is ba-ro-ja. In Arobiya's speech, Ibn Madzur said: everything that looks clear and prominent, it is predicated as baroja. That is why the splendors made are more highlighted through the desire that can be called burujun because of its prominence, the clarity and height. The role of ethics education is very important. In islamic view, leadership is seen as a mandate that must be carried out according to norms and ethics that we believe to be the center of self-control, so the leader will be able to leave negative things. A national leader is essentially carrying out the mandate of Allah SWT, as well as the mandate of the people or society. Taking amanah means taking the consequences of managing responsibly according to expectations and needs. The role of ethics education in Islamic leadership is always improved in a sustainably way, while the leadership of someone who is given a mandate is not property rights, which it can be enjoyed by the one who hold it. Therefore in islamic views, there are two dimensions of leadership perspective. These are upholding religion and taking care of world affairs. Keywords: Syahwat Management, Ethics Education, Leadership Islamic Perspective


This paper presents an approach to conducting experimental studies for the characterization and comparison of the error behavior in different computing systems. The proposed approach is applied to characterize and compare the error behavior of three commercial systems (Linux 2.6 on Pentium 4, Solaris 10 on UltraSPARC IIIi, and AIX 5.3 on POWER 5) under hardware transient faults. The data is obtained by conducting extensive fault injection into kernel code, kernel stack, and system registers with the NFTAPE framework while running the Apache Web server as a workload. The error behavior comparison shows that the Linux system has the highest average crash latency, the Solaris system has the highest hang rate, and the AIX system has the lowest error sensitivity and the least amount of crashes in the more severe categories.


The hypothesis that the dried, ground biomass of the red marine alga Gracilaria tenuistipitata could be used for the efficient removal of lac dye from aqueous solution was assessed in this work. The effects of parameters such as initial pH, biosorbent dosage, contact time, initial dye concentration, and temperature on the biosorption capacity of the dye were investigated. Equilibrium data were analysed using Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherm models, and the Freundlich model provided the highest coefficient of determination values. Biosorption kinetic data were successfully described with a pseudo-second-order model at initial dye concentrations of 50, 80, 100, and 120 mg l−1. The thermodynamic parameters of biosorption – enthalpy change (∆H° = −30.64 kJ mol−1), free energy change (∆G° = 4.32 kJ mol−1 at 303 K to 7.78 kJ mol−1 at 333 K), and entropy change (∆S° = −115.38 J mol−1 K−1) – were determined. The negative value of the enthalpy change and positive values of the free energy change indicate that the biosorption process is exothermic and non-spontaneous. The negative value of the entropy change is consistent with decreased randomness at the solid–liquid interface with dye biosorption. Attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis confirmed the presence of lac dye on the G. tenuistipitata material. The efficiency of lac dye removal by this biomass material at 20 g l−1 and with an initial dye concentration of 50 mg l−1 in acidic solution was 71%, which indicated its potential usefulness as a new dye biosorbent.


This article is concerned with the kinetic modeling, by means of the Vlasov equation, of charged particles under the influence of a strong external electromagnetic field, i.e. when epsilon^2, the dimensionless cyclotron period, tends to zero. This leads us to split the velocity variable in the Vlasov equation into fluid and random components. The latter is supposed to have a large magnitude of order 1/epsilon (which corresponds to the low Mach number regime). In the limit epsilon -> 0, the resulting model is a hybrid model which couples a kinetic description of the microscopic random motion of the particles to a fluid description of the macroscopic behavior of the plasma. The microscopic model is a first-order partial differential system for the distribution function, which is averaged over the ultra-fast Larmor gyration and the fast parallel motion along the magnetic field lines. The perpendicular component (with respect to the magnetic field lines) of the bulk velocity is governed by the classical relations describing the E X B and diamagnetic drifts, while its parallel component satisfies an elliptic equation along the magnetic field lines.


A potential component that may be useful for passive immunotherapy for HIV-1 is human monoclonal antibodies (HumAbs) possessing potent anti-HIV-1 activity that is directed against conserved regions of the envelope glycoprotein. Such antibodies would, in principle, have the ability to neutralize diverse isolates of HIV-1. To develop such reagents, hybridomas were derived by initial Epstein Barr virus transformation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from an asymptomatic HIV-1 seropositive donor followed by fusion with heteromyelomas, and secreted anti-HIV-1 antibodies were further characterized. The specificity of one HumAb, designated as clone 3, was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Western blotting analyses that indicated reactivity to the transmembrane envelope glyco-protein gp41. Synthetic pentadecapeptides overlapping by 10 amino acids were utilized for epitope mapping of clone 3; a decapeptide GCSGKLICTT in the transmembrane gp41 was identified as the epitope. Clone 3 bound to SupT1 cells infected with HTLV-IIIB in fluorescent activated cell sorting analysis. In addition, in vitro biological assays demonstrated that clone 3 possessed neutralization reactivity against diverse laboratory isolates as well as an AZT-resistant isolate. Therefore, clone 3 reactivity defines a conserved neutralizable site on the HIV-1 transmembrane glycoprotein. Clone 3 and the conserved immunogenic epitope on gp41 could be useful in passive and active immunotherapy for the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).


AIMS: To present a case of Ellis-van Creveld syndrome (EvC) highlighting the systemic and oral manifestations and expand the phenotypic spectrum of the disorder.
CASE DESCRIPTION: A 4-year-old female, with an initial diagnosis of EvC, was referred for dental treatment. The patient had hexadactyly of the hands, thorax disproportionate to the shortened limbs, hypopigmented and dry skin, short stature, a wide gap between the 1st and 2nd toes of the right foot and markedly dystrophic toenails. The oral manifestations were upper labial frenulum causing large vestibule and absence of diastema, labiogingival frenulum, enamel hypoplasia, conical teeth, claw-like cusp, oligodontia, microdontia and malocclusion.
CONCLUSIONS: The EvC is one among several syndromes with oral manifestations that demands the participation of a multidisciplinary team to better patient assessing, treatment and monitoring. Dentists have the leading role in the control and treatment of the oral manifestations.


This research aim to examine the influence of auditors experience, supervision and independence of audit quality financial local government. This research moved from a sense of dissatisfaction with some of the parties, both internal and external, to the quality of the audit of the financial statements of local governments conducted by BPK-RI. The results of this research is expected to contribute to the development of science and its application of accounting in general, especially the implementation of public sector accounting / administration. Especially for the BPK- RI, can be input for improvements that are being or will be implemented in order to improve the quality of audit report. The population of this research is the heads of the general audit team of the local government  financial  statements  of  the  various  offices  of  BPK-RI.  The  data  taken  from questionaires  distributed  to  respondents.  Independent  Variables  in  this  research  is    auditors experience (X1), supervision (X2) and independence (X3), while the bound variable (dependent) is t he quality of audits (Y). Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis (multiple regretion). The results showed that the supervision and independence have a positive and significant impact on audit quality, while the auditors experience  of the variables do not have a significant impact on audit quality.