Objectives To assess the efficacy of Tocilizumab (TCZ) in refractory uveitis associated to juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JiA). Methods Multicenter study of uveitis related to JiA and refractory to at least a) one standard synthetic immunosuppressive drug and, b) 1 anti-TNFα drug. Results We studied 13 patients/24 eyes (2 men/11 women) with a mean age of 20.38±9 years (range 8-38). The most frequent ocular pattern was anterior uveitis (n=11), bilateral (n=11), and chronic (n=13). Besides corticosteroids and before TCZ onset, they had received methotrexate (n=11), cyclosporine A (n=5), mycophenolate (n=1) and leflunomide (n=1). The first biologic treatment was: adalimumab (ADA) (n=6) (40 mg/sc/2 weeks), infliximab (IFX) (n=3) (5 mg/kg/i.v./every 6-8 weeks) and etanercept (ETN) (n=4). Before TCZ onset they had been switched to a second biologic drug (n=11) (most of them due to inefficacy), a third (n=5), a fourth (n=3) and even a fifth biologic therapy (n=1). The median of the duration of uveitis before the onset of TCZ was 122 months [IQR 42-178]. TCZ was used at a conventional dose (8 mg/kg/4 weeks) in most cases and combined in all cases (MTX=7, LFN=4, CsA=1, MMF=1). Improvement from baseline to 1 year was observed in: a) Visual acuity: from 0.46±0.35 to 0.52±0.37 (p=0.007); b) Anterior chamber cells from a median [IQR] of 1 [0.5-2] to 0 [0-0] (p=0.001), c) vitritis from 0 [0-1] to 0 [0-0] (p=0.06) and d) Macular thickness from a mean of 277±127 to 234±32 microns (p=0.04), and this allowed to taper corticosteroids from a mean of prednisone of 15±14 mg/day to 6±5 mg/day. After a mean follow-up of 15.2±8.3 months, ocular remission was achieved in 9 of 13 patients. The most severe adverse events of TCZ were severe thrombocytopenia (1), pneumonia (1), viral conjunctivitis and bullous impetigo (1). Conclusions Tocilizumab seems to be effective in refractory uveitis related to JiA. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Abstract The current effacement of a deterministic, universal, scientific narrative to explain and control reality has left in its place a play of alternative narratives. The range of these explanations starts in a philosophical discourse we call deconstruction, an epistemology of textual criticism previously restricted to literary analysis. Now the entire infrastructure inherited from classic mechanics is being called into question, including its totalizing positivistic off‐shoots in the social sciences, leaving uncertain what is real, actual, or true. In this competition of narratives, the shamanic explanation provides additional answers to these categories. It distinguishes itself from alternative versions by a drive to bridge and unify the naterial here‐and‐now and the non‐material otherworld.


1 Motivation Modeling and analysis of the dynamics of biological systems while accounting for single cell fluctuations is important. In particular, Bertaux et.al [1] considered an improved hybrid stochastic-deterministic model of TRAIL induced apoptosis. TRAIL is a protein that is known to induce apoptosis in cancer cells and hence has been a target for several anti-cancer therapeutic strategies. Their model combines a deterministic signal transduction model (modeled as ordinary differential equations (ODEs)), as in the original model of [3], and a stochastic model for protein turnover (factoring cell-to cell variability). Using this low level biochemical model, they were able to explain fractional killing and predicted the time dependent evolution of cell resistance to TRAIL. While this model is extremely useful for analyzing TRAIL induced apoptosis by drawing simulations in a single cell setting, it can be limiting in cases when we want to analyse the system in a multi-scale setting (say modeling a spheroid of thousands of cells at a larger time horizon for clinical trials). In such cases, simulating the original model can become extremely time consuming due to the scale of the resultant system. Instead, one could directly approximate the dynamics of the underlying system as an intermediate level behavioral model and use this approximation. In this direction, Bing et.al [2] proposed a Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) model as a probabilistic approximation of ODE dynamics. They discretize the value space (∼ 5 values per variable) and time domain of the different species of a system of ODEs, sample a representative set of simulations of the system and use the structure of the pathway to store them as a DBN. Once the DBN is constructed, efficient Bayesian inference methods are used to analyze the system. Our work in this poster presents initial work on extending and improving the work of Bing et.al [2] for the hybrid stochastic-deterministic (HSD) models, and in particular the one of TRAIL induced apoptosis. 2 Results We extend the method of [2] to HSD model, and propose several improvements. First, the model describes a population of cells with non deterministic behavior (unlike [2] where outcomes are deterministic). Additionally, simulations in the current setting may be truncated due to cell death. Last, some molecular species interact with many (∼ 10) different species. The latter presents challenges pertaining to maintaining and working with large conditional probability tables. In [2], dummy intermediate variables are introduced, approximating the conditional probabilities by splitting the dependencies. Instead, we use an improved sparse matrix representation to encode these conditional probabilities (filling around 600 non null entries among ∼ 5 10), allowing us to scale the system even when a variable has many direct dependencies. We also improve the naive simulation based inference of DBNs which was inefficient for the current setting. First, 99% of the samples hit an empty conditional probability entry and hence these samples are discarded. Further, every working sample (1% of all samples) ends up simulating a cell that died (giving 0% survivors compared to ∼ 30% survivors of the original hybrid model)). We propose a new algorithm which simulates the underlying DBN by looking ahead one time step and factoring this information to avoid empty probability entries. This considerably improved the simulation based inference of DBNs with 80% effective samples and the expected ∼ 30% survivors. We produced several DBNs corresponding to a treatment with 250 ng/ml TRAIL by simulating the hybrid model. We found a very good agreement between the cell death distribution of the original model and the DBN, as well as for the marginal distributions of other variables. 3 Perspectives and future work


We aim to bring to discussion the waste. We try to speak about the rubbish and not only at the end of the life of the product, even before it being, from the source, including product design, use of these, the consumption, how to get rid of them, the citizens as well as the specialist companies, recycling and reuse, technician, designer and politician. We could not miss the legislation from the different governments; it is one of the most important parts of this quiz because here come together the different social actors and their proposals but also because it is the way to point it out so the human being, as the at the moment triumphant and the environment as the patient, can survive with great difficulty, and the most important it does not collapse in the short term because nobody want to have in their back yard the waste of the others other because in the long run this waste has a so "long life" that our legacy will be unbearable for the next generations. The society has to intervene without delaying tactics; otherwise this starts soon to smell horrible.


Addition-elimination reactions of an arylaluminum reagent with vinylarenes is achieved mediated by a rhodium catalyst. The reaction of dimethyl(phenyl)aluminum with a rhodium(I) catalyst takes place to afford (E)-stilbene. The reaction is promoted by the addition of ketone as an additive to give (E)-stilbene in a quantitative yield. A nickel complex bearing cyclopentadienyl (Cp) and N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands also catalyzes the reaction to afford 1,2-diarylethenes accompanied by a small amount of the saturated byproduct, 1,2-diarylethanes.


In order to be effective, Christian development practitioners need to have a comprehensive understanding of poverty informed by the concepts and definitions used by the poor themselves. Far too often, this is not the case. Research shows that community level understandings of poverty encompass a gamut of relational, material, cultural, psychological, and spiritual variables that are often overlooked, and that need to be taken into account for more effective holistic, transformational development to take place.


Whenever a new machine or system of machines increases labor productivity in any society, the opportunity presents itself for the working people to live a better life. As far as the United States is concerned, the extent and the timing of any such improvements in living standards depend, of course, upon the outcome of a whole series of economic and political contests between workers and employers. These differences over how the output is to be divided up, and the compromise solutions which result, are usually irrelevant to the production potential of the machines themselves. Similarly, in an underdeveloped country, or in one operating under a planned economy, although the manner in which it is decided how increased productivity will be used is not the same, it nevertheless still holds true that the considerations brought into play are again not directly related to the latent productivity of a new technique or machine. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Abstract Since the emergence of the concept of internal marketing in the literature there have been almost 40 years. This period was marked by a constant increase of the concerns in the internal marketing area, these efforts being evidenced by the publication of a consistent number of articles (conceptual and empirical) which analyze this subject. Considering the previous empirical studies, most of them have focused on studying the relationship between internal marketing and employee satisfaction and / or organizational commitment. However, the relationship between internal marketing and its consequences has been less analyzed in the context of emergent economies. In this paper we aimed to analyze the individual consequences of the internal marketing in the Romanian economy context, focusing our attention on three constructs: employee satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. The research was conducted on a sample of 83 medium and large companies in various sectors of the Romanian economy. In order to proceed with the statistical data analyses we followed these steps: verifying the scales reliability, determining factor loadings and research hypotheses testing. Our research results are consistent with results of previous studies showing that the adoption of internal marketing practice has a positive effect on employee satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior


This paper studies network selection issues in cooperative cognitive radio networks (CRNs) where secondary users (SUs) have access to the combined spectrum pool of cooperating CRNs. Motivated by the service degradation of SUs caused by unnecessary network handover in cooperative CRNs, we formulate the network selection problem as a nonlinear optimization problem to minimize overall SU handover probability. We subsequently propose three network selection schemes and theoretically evaluate their performance using corresponding Markov chain models. Our numerical results indicate that a jointly-optimized network selection scheme which takes into account both the number of free channels and the traffic intensity of primary users in each CRN obtains the lowest probability of SU handover. Furthermore, compared to the random selection scheme, the jointly-optimized network selection scheme achieves significant reduction in SU handover probability while having no negative impact on other performance metrics of secondary users, such as blocking probability, forced termination probability and completion probability.


This talk examines the case of the public shaming of Assistant Director to the Astronomical Bureau Han Yi 韓翊 upon the debate stage at the Cao-Wei court in 226 CE. In short, Han Yi makes it through rounds of testing, deliberation, and recommandation with his solution to the limits of the late Liu Hong's 劉洪 (fl. 167–206) Supernal Icon li (Qianxiang li 乾象曆), but, on the day of the debate, one of Liu Hong's disciples shows him up with better eclipse predictions from a different version of his master's astronomical system. To place the event in context, I offer an overview of what we understand about the transmission of technical knowledge in this manuscript culture, of the suspicion harboured towards the written word by contemporary experts, of the transmission history of the Supernal Icon li across the war-torn political divides of the Three Kingdoms (220–280), and of the reception of these events in the later histories of Shen Yue 沈約 (441–513) and Li Chunfeng 李淳風 (602–670).


Background: Low diagnostic efficiency and high metastasis and recurrence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) result in bad survival. A novel diagnostic biomarker is of great importance for the improvement of NPC management. This study aimed to state the biological function and diagnostic values of miR-762 in NPC to provide a novel insight into the detection and therapy of NPC. Methods: The expression of miR-762 in NPC and healthy samples was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and its diagnostic value was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The functional roles of miR-762 in the proliferation, migration, and invasion of NPC cells were assessed by CCK8 and Transwell assay. Results: The significant upregulation of miR-762 was observed in NPC serum compared with healthy controls, which was associated with the TNM stage and lymph node metastasis of NPC patients. The ROC curve showed that miR-762 could be a diagnostic biomarker for NPC with high accuracy and specificity. Additionally, miR-762 served as a tumor promoter, which could promote cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of NPC. Conclusion: The upregulation of miR-762 in NPC is associated with the disease progression and diagnosis of NPC. miR-762 might be involved in the tumor progression of NPC, which provides a potential therapeutic target for the treatment and management of NPC.


Recent legislative actions have mandated the professional development of teachers in hopes of improved student achievement. However, research has shown that mandated professional development most usually does not lead to a positive outcome. This article describes three aspects that have been identified as contributing to the transformation of instruction in schools: school context, role of the administrator, and cohesion between professional development and needs of students/teachers. Mezirow's adult learning theory supports these important aspects of school reform and has implications for planning and developing educators' professional development.


Technology can now produce massive hardware resources, large enough so that it becomes increasingly difficult to organize it in a centralized way. Spatial computing proposes to model such huge hardware as a relatively homogeneous computing medium satisfying a locality constraint: communication time is related to geometric distance. While the constraint is weak enough to allow arbitrary scalability, it is strong enough to make the tasks of programming and mapping significantly more complex; programming thus becomes the central problem. We propose a two level programming approach: at low level, a run time system layer runs on the computing medium and transforms it into a virtual machine, called the blob machine; at high level, programs run on this more expressive virtual machine. The system layer is implemented on the computing medium as a local rule that manages distributed objects similar to membranes and filament channels; system calls are distributed primitives that allow objects to be created or deleted. The physical interpretation of the objects allows the implementation on arbitrary spatial computing medium. This layer is responsible for placing the objects in the space and does it by simulating physical forces. Each object is controlled by a FSA (Finite State Automaton) whose output actions are the object primitives (creation \& deletion). The set of FSAs together with the communication pathways implied by the topology of encapsulated membranes and channels, define a network of FSA that can self develop. This ``self-developing network of FSA'' is the formal definition of the blob machine. We present this blob machine, and how to program it using a higher level language description. We illustrate the execution of many examples of small and simple programs that cover a wide spectrum of parallel paradigms, including SIMD, data parallelism, Divide and Conquer and pipelining. Usually, if the problem needs a space of O(n), the time complexity can be reduced to O(n^{1/d}) where d is the dimensionality of the computing medium: 2D, or 3D. In some cases the same program runs optimally for any value of d, in other cases, the dimensionality must be considered. Citation about a computer using physical objects as primitives, like blobs and channels, which has given us inspiration: `The kinematic model [of self reproducing machine] deals with the geometric-kinematic problems of movement, contact, positioning, fusing and cutting'', John Von Neumann, Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata, 1966.


Background: To share our experience of performing advanced laparoscopic procedures with minimal resources in a public sector hospital.Methods: A retrospective study of laparoscopic cases performed from December 1st 2016 till Dec 31st 2020 was done. All the cases were done by single surgical unit but with different surgical teams both as elective as well as emergency procedure. Type of procedure, conversion to open, and immediate post operative complications and outcomes were recorded. Complications were recorded on the basis of the Clavian Dindo Classification. Results: In 49 months a total of 1550 procedures were performed. 1133 basic and 417 advanced laparoscopic procedures were performed. Only advanced laparoscopic procedures are discussed further. Median patient aged was 33 years (Range 10 to 70 years). Male to female ratio was 1:1.2 (191:226). There was a conversion rate of 8.6% with 36 operations converted to open due to either technical issues or any complication. Median hospital stay was 2 to 12 days. Median operative time was 90minutes. Complications were seen in 48 patients. Grade 1/2 complications in 38 patients. Grade 3 complications were seen in 9 patients. Grade 4 in 1 patient. No Grade 5 (Mortality) complications were seen. Conclusions: Advanced laparoscopic surgery can be safely undertaken in public sector hospitals in low resource countries with limited resources.


Slovenian historiography has to a large degree ignored children and childhood. This disregard seems unjustified, since the lives of young people offer us valuable and often alternative insights into various periods of Slovenian history. The author synthesizes the phenomenon of the wartime exile of Slovenes to neighbouring countries and illustrates it using children's experiences. Research of children's experiences of war and exile reflects both the dynamics of wartime migration and the consequences in the Slovenian cultural area. The paper on children's experiences of exile is placed in the socio-historical context of the Second World War. In terms of methodology it uses a combination of classical historical methodology and oral history; it is based on the relevant historical literature, an analysis of historical materials from throughout the entire post-war era, and various oral testimonies obtained from people in their later years.


A new multi-ligand coordination polymer of cadmium(II) ethylenediamine azide, [Cd(en)(N3)2]n (en=ethylenediamine), was synthesized and characterized by using elemental analysis and FT-IR spectrum. Its crystal structure was determined by means of X-ray single crystal diffraction. The obtained results show that this crystal belongs to monoclinic, P21/n space group, a=0.6548(1) nm, b=1.0170(2) nm, c=1.2246(2) nm, β=90.23(1)°, V=0.8156(2) nm3, Dc=2.090 g⋅cm−3, Z=4, R1=0.024, wR2 (I>2σ(I))=0.0416 and S=0.998. The Cd(II) ion is six-coordinated with four azido ligands by μ-1, 1 azido bridges, and two ethylenediamine molecules which serve as bidentate ligands through the nitrogen atoms. The thermal decomposition mechanism of the title complex was studied by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry-differential thermogravimetry (TG–DTG) techniques. Under nitrogen atmosphere with a heating rate of 10 K⋅min−1, the thermal decomposition of the complex contains two main successive exothermic processes between 519 and 701 K in the DSC curve, and the final decomposed residue at 725 K is Cd. The non-isothermal kinetics parameters were calculated by using the Kissinger's method, Ozawa–Doyle's method, pervasive integration method, and differential method, respectively. The sensitivity properties of [Cd(en)(N3)2]n were also determined with standard methods.


: Pakistani populations have one of the highest risks of coronary artery disease (CAD) in the world. Apart from smoking, women had more CAD risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, dyslipidaemia) than men. It is recognized that a better understanding of the topics is necessary for a meaningful communication between public, patients, and healthcare professionals. The aim of this paper will be to review the literature on the subject of CVD in women. The review will be in four sections, the first section will focus on contributions on mechanisms of pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment. In conclusion, this is the first large-scale population-based study from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, home to one-sixth of the world's population, on gender differences in CAD and its determinants. Our findings indicate that one in four subjects aged ⩾ 40 years may have underlying CAD in urban Pakistan.


We investigate alternative suspicion functions for bias-based traitor tracing schemes, and present a practical construction of a simple decoder that attains capacity in the limit of large coalition size c. We derive optimal suspicion functions in both the restricted-digit model and the combined-digit model. These functions depend on information that is usually not available to the tracer-the attack strategy or the tallies of the symbols received by the colluders. We discuss how such results can be used in realistic contexts. We study several combinations of coalition attack strategy versus suspicion function optimized against some attack (another attack or the same). In many of these combinations, the usual codelength scaling ℓ ∝ c2 changes to a lower power of c, e.g., c3/2. We find that the interleaving strategy is an especially powerful attack. The suspicion function tailored against interleaving is the key ingredient of the capacity-achieving construction.


Psychoneuroimmunology or the study of the relationships between the brain and the immune system is an area of research that has experienced significant development over the decade. Stress does not appear without consequences on the state of health, the role of fears, emotions and significant constraints in the appearance of organic and mental diseases. In this research, we studied the effect of stress and anxiety during exams at the end of the academic year (2018/2019) on the distribution of leukocyte subpopulations and the immune system, questionnaires has been completed by student volunteers, to estimate the anxio-depressive comorbidities through the (HADS) test during and outside exams, and in the same time we asked them for a blood sample the next morning day to carry out some biological assays (CBC). We also found that stress during exams caused a change in the distribution of different types of white blood cells, a total decrease in white blood cell counts with neutropenia and lymphopenia were found in students during exams compared to controls, and an increase in monocyte and other types of polymorphonuclear levels in students during exams compared to controls. Other tests measuring the effects of stress on specific functions of the immune system can be used.


BACKGROUND: Untreated intracranial aneurysms can rupture and result in high rates of morbidity and mortality. Although there are numerous approved endovascular aneurysm treatment devices, most require dual anti-platelet therapy, are minimally biocompatible, or are prone to recanalization. Neurovascular Controlled Uniform Rapid Embolic (NeuroCURE) is an innovative polymer gel material with long-term stability, biocompatibility, and hemocompatibility developed for the treatment of large, wide-neck aneurysms. METHODS: Sidewall aneurysms were surgically created in 10 canines and NeuroCURE was injected through a 0.025 microcatheter under a single balloon inflation period. Aneurysm treatment was angiographically assessed post-embolization and pre-term with Raymond–Roy occlusion classification and a qualitative flow grade scale. Aneurysm neck stability and biocompatibility was histologically assessed to grade platelet/fibrin thrombus, percent endothelialization, and neointimal formation. Aneurysm sac stability was assessed by NeuroCURE sac content, inflammation, and neo-angiogenesis scales. RESULTS: Explanted aneurysms exhibited a smooth surface at the aneurysm neck with nearly complete neointimal coverage at 3-months. By 6-months, neck endothelialization was 100% in all animals (average Raymond–Roy occlusion classification of 1.2), with no instances of aneurysm recanalization or parent vessel flow compromise. Biocompatibility assessments verified a lack of inflammatory response, neo-angiogenesis, and platelet/fibrin thrombus formation. CONCLUSION: The NeuroCURE material promotes progressive occlusion of wide-necked side wall aneurysms over time without the need for dual antiplatelet agents. NeuroCURE also promotes neointimal tissue infill without dependence on thrombus formation and thus resists aneurysm recanalization. NeuroCURE remains a compelling investigational device for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms.


Sum frequency generation (SFG) surface vibrational spectroscopy and kinetic measurements using gas chromatography have identified at least two reaction pathways for benzene hydrogenation on the Pt(100) and Pt(111) single-crystal surfaces at Torr pressures. Kinetic studies at low temperatures (310-370 K) show that benzene hydrogenation does not proceed through cyclohexene. A Langmuir-Hinshelwood-type rate law for the low-temperature reaction pathway is identified. The rate-determining step for this pathway is the addition of the first hydrogen atom to adsorbed benzene for both single-crystal surfaces, which is verified by the spectroscopic observation of adsorbed benzene at low temperatures on both the Pt(100) and Pt(111) crystal faces. Low-temperature SFG studies reveal chemisorbed and physisorbed benzene on both surfaces. At higher temperatures (370-440 K), hydrogenation of benzene to pi-allyl c-C(6)H(9) is observed only on the Pt(100) surface. Previous single-crystal studies have identified pi-allyl c-C(6)H(9) as the rate-determining step for cyclohexene hydrogenation to cyclohexane.


Recent advancement in 4th generation (4G) heterogeneous networking has opened the door for the deployment of femto-cells on a large scale. Deployment of femtocells in the existing macrocell networks and in 4G networks will significantly increase because femtocells offer increase coverage, capacity and user friendly mode of operations in both home and office environments. Therefore, these low power home-based access points are going to change the landscape of mobile technology and the networking business in the coming years. The objective of this paper is to study and propose different logical indoor femtocells architectures for long term evolution (LTE)-advanced, and examine the impact of these different femtocells architectural changes on the service delivery to end users.


Purpose: Increased levels of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1) expression have been associated with poor outcome in chondrosarcoma. The existence of a single nucleotide polymorphism creating an Ets-binding site in the MMP-1 promoter may be one mechanism for elevated MMP-1 transcription. The aim of our study was to identify the prevalence of this single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in chondrosarcoma patients, to determine its correlation with disease outcome, and to discern whether it could serve as a prognostic marker in patients with chondrosarcoma. Experimental Design: Sixty-seven chondrosarcoma specimens were selected sequentially from an established tumor bank with a median duration of 47 months follow-up (range, 24 to 179 months). DNA was extracted, amplified with PCR, and sequenced to determine presence (GG) or absence of the Ets-binding site created by the SNP. Results: Eighteen (27%) samples were homozygous for the absence of the Ets site, 34 (51%) were heterozygous for the SNP, and 15 (22%) were homozygous for the SNP. The 5-year overall survival rate for patients was 78, 80, and 84%, respectively (P = 0.5527). The disease-free survival rate was 16, 63, and 76%, respectively (P = 0.0801). The 5-year disease-free survival rate for patients with the homozygous G/G genotype was 16%, compared with 71% for patients who were either homozygous or heterozygous for the GG allele (P = 0.0444). Conclusions: Despite a statistical correlation between MMP-1 gene expression and outcome in chondrosarcoma, this study demonstrates an absence of a correlation between the presence of the SNP and prognosis in patients with chondrosarcoma.


Abstract Spontaneous heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) syndrome, characterized by clinical and serologic features of HIT despite the absence of proximate heparin exposure, can be triggered by total knee arthroplasty (TKA). A 56-year-old female receiving aspirin thromboprophylaxis post-TKA presented with aphasia and thrombocytopenia on post-operative day 11. Imaging studies revealed cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and intravenous bivalirudin was initiated. Her serum tested strong-positive for IgG anti-PF4/polyanion complexes and serotonin-release assay in the presence and absence of heparin; strong-positive IgG-specific chemiluminescent immunoassay; and moderate-positive latex immunoturbidimetric assay. Two 65 g doses of IVIG were administered. With the improvement of her platelet count, she was transitioned from bivalirudin to warfarin. At one-year follow-up, she remained free of recurrent thrombosis and neurologically stable with a normal platelet count. Previous reports of post-TKA spontaneous HIT syndrome include venous/arterial thrombosis and adrenal hemorrhage, and this report of CVST expands the clinical spectrum of this rare complication of orthopedic surgery.


South Africa's crisis in mathematics attainment is well documented (DBE, 2013; Spaull, 2014; WEF, 2014). To meet the need to develop students' mathematical performance in schools the government has launched various initiatives using computers to impact on mathematical attainment. While it is clear that computers can change pedagogical practices, there is a dearth of qualitative studies indicating exactly how pedagogy is transformed with Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in a teaching activity. Consequently, this paper addresses the following question: how, along which dimensions in an activity, does pedagogy alter with the use of computer drill and practice software in four disadvantaged grade 6 mathematics classrooms in the Western Cape province of South Africa? The paper draws on Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to develop a view of pedagogy as socially situated. Four ideal pedagogical types are identified: Reinforcement pedagogy, which has the reinforcement of specialised knowledge as its object; Collaborative pedagogy, which has the development of metacognitive engagement with specialised knowledge as its object; Directive pedagogy, which has the development of technical task skills as its object, and finally, Defensive pedagogy, which has student regulation as its object. Face-to-face lessons were characterised as predominantly Reinforcement and Collaborative pedagogy and most computer lessons were characterised as mainly either Defensive or Directive.


Background Transradial access has been gaining popularity in neurointerventional surgery. Failure to obtain radial access may lead neurointerventionists to convert to a transfemoral approach, which is associated with a higher complication rate than the radial approach. Ulnar access, however, provides a similar safety profile to radial access and permits neurointerventionists to work in the same hand without having to convert to a femoral approach. In this study, we evaluate the feasibility of using transulnar access to perform diagnostic cerebral angiograms and various neurointerventional procedures. Methods Consecutive patients who underwent transulnar diagnostic angiogram or neurointerventional procedures were included in the study over a period of 12 months. Data on demographics, procedure indication, devices, technique and complications recorded. A descriptive analysis was carried out. Results Transulnar access was utilized in 18 patients over the study period. Mean age was 71.6 + 6.8 years; 10 (55.5%) patients were male. Fifteen diagnostic angiograms and 3 neurointerventions (1 left middle meningeal artery, 1 right carotid artery stenting, 1 left carotid artery stenting) were performed. All the procedures were performed using a right sided ulnar artery with ultrasound guidance. The indications for ulnar access included a feeble radial artery pulse (n=17), or radial artery occlusion due to prior angiogram (n=1). A 5 Fr sheath was used for diagnostic procedures while 6 Fr was used for neurointerventions. A TR band was used for closure. No case required conversion to femoral access. No access related complication was noticed. Conclusion Transulnar arterial access is safe and feasible for diagnostic and interventional neuroangiography procedures and provides a useful alternative to transradial access, potentially avoiding complications associated with transfemoral access. Disclosures R. Dossani: None. M. Waqas: None. M. Tso: None. G. Rajah: None. F. Chin: None. A. Yunke: None. A. Siddiqui: None. J. Davies: None.


Under matrix management, an organization can recognize and coordinate both its need to implement sweeping changes and its need to maintain day-to-day operations.


Cellulite or gynoid lipodystrophy in its various degrees is extremely common in the female population, setting on between the ages of 15 and 45 years of age, which corresponds to a woman's reproductive phase. Around 95% of women will present some degree of cellulite at some point in their lives. Despite being highly prevalent, only a few studies have been published in the international literature – many with contradictory conclusions – making it diffi cult to choose the appropriate treatment regimen. The present study discusses anatomical differences in the hypodermis of men and women, the complex physiopathology of gynoid lipodystrophy, and mechanisms involved in its development. Gynoid lipodystrophy is a skin disorder, which can only be controlled and not fully cured due to the fact that it is not a true disease, but rather a predisposition. Nevertheless, persistent or more advanced cases should be considered pathological, and be treated and controlled, given that they are indicative of peripheral vascular insuffi ciency.


Magnetic diagnostics is one of the main diagnostics in thermonuclear reactors, and thus enhancing the accuracy of the magnetic field measurement is a relevant task. The paper discusses the principles of construction for magnetic measuring instrumentation based upon the application of steady-state radiation-resistant semiconductor sensors, and the results of its implementation for magnetic field measurement in one of the largest operating reactors JET (Joint European Torus) during the recent deuterium campaign.


Internship year is the first year of a medical residency, and often the hardest due to an intern's amount of work and lack of experience. This research provides an evocative account of the internship context based on observations of an intern, who was shadowed during 2 of his nights on call. The author describes the fragmented, chaotic, and exhausting experiences of an intern. This descriptive account contrasts with current health communication literature, in that it recognizes a specific context rather than assuming a nondescript clinical setting. Conclusions suggest that the experiences of internship year offer little opportunity to develop the communication skills necessary for a physician's later clinical career. In addition, health communication researchers must strive to better understand medical training by more frequently entering the trenches in which interns work. Such research will serve to advance interpersonal communication within specific health care contexts.


The paper presents a segmentation based adaptive approach for the learning and recognition of single person's handwritten text. The approach is incorporated into an automated intelligent system for scanning of handwritten text on a paper and converting it into a text file. It scans an A4 size handwritten page and segments it into lines, words and characters. The segmented characters are passed to a neural classifier for the recognition. The final word is passed through a lexicon based matching process to improve the accuracy of the recognized text. Two neural networks are investigated for the learning of segmented characters quickly and accurately. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can produce high text recognition accuracy with a small number of training samples.


The kinetics of the fumarate hydratase (fumarase) reaction catalyzed by the cells of E. coli strain 85 at high concentrations of the substrate (potassium fumarate) were studied. An automatic procedure for determination of the reaction product--malonic acid--including the use of commercial malate dehydrogenase from porcine heart was developed. The fumarate activity of bacterial cells was studied at different concentrations of the substrate and at different pH values with intact and disrupted cells of E. coli 85 used as the enzyme source. The rate of the fumarase reaction in the E. coli cells was shown to depend on the diffusion and transport processes of the reagent transfer across the cell wall and the cytoplasmic membrane of bacterial cells. The pH optimum of the reaction in free E. coli cells (8-9) and the rate of malonic acid synthesis from potassium fumarate under optimal conditions, which varies within the concentration range of (6--13) x 10(-5) mkmole per mg of protein depending on the quality of cell, were determined.


Male F344 rats, 8 weeks of age, were given 16 intrarectal administrations of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (NMU) at one of three dose levels over a period of 8 weeks. Five days after the final NMU instillation, rats were placed on one of three diets: chow with gelatin beadlets, chow with beadlets containing 0.024% 13-cis-retinoic acid, or chow and beadlets with 0.006% of the trimethylmethoxy phenyl analog of retinoic acid ethylamide. Groups of 20-40 rats were killed at 22-26 weeks after the first carcinogen treatment. The number of rats with colon carcinoma and the number of tumors per rat were dose related. In addition, "blind" histopathologic evaluation of four predesignate colon locations revealed a dose-related incidence of microscopic preinvasive and invasive colon carcinomas. The feeding of diets containing these two retinoids did not significantly alter the incidence of these parameters of carcinogenesis or the mean histopathologic score at predesignated colon locations for preinvasive or invasive neoplastic lesions. Over 90% of the colon neoplasms induced were invasive tubulopapillary adenocarcinomas. The diameters of the tumors correlated significantly with degrees of invasion of the colons. Only 1 tumor (a signet ring carcinoma) metastasized to the peritoneal cavity. Only 2 of 300 rats treated with NMU had tumors at sites other than the colon.


Background: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Mexico has nearly doubled for adults aged ≥60. Increases in education and healthcare resources to manage chronic conditions have contributed to population-level increases in the cognitive functioning of older adults. However, research has not focused on older adults with chronic conditions such as diabetes. Objective: Our objective was to compare the cognitive functioning of Mexican adults aged ≥60 with diabetes in 2001 and 2018. Methods: Data came from Mexican Health and Aging Study. Our study used a cross-sectional design and included participants aged ≥60 with self-reported diabetes during the 2001 (n = 1,052, mean age = 68.4, female = 59.6%) and 2018 (n = 2,469, mean age = 70.6, female = 62.0%) observation waves. Five cognitive tests were used to create a score of global cognition. Generalized estimating equations were used to compare global cognition in 2001 to 2018. Results: Older adults in 2018 had more education and were more likely than older adults in 2001 to take oral medication for diabetes, insulin, and to check blood sugar weekly. Older adults in 2018 had higher global cognition than in 2001 when adjusting for age, gender, education, and health insurance coverage (b = 0.38, SE = 0.02). This statistically significant difference remained after adjusting for health conditions, health behaviors, and diabetes management behaviors. Conclusions: Older adults in Mexico with self-reported diabetes in 2018 had higher cognitive function than in 2001. Future research is needed to investigate causes of the cohort differences in cognitive functioning among Mexican older adults with self-reported diabetes.


This paper presents a system for fully automatic recognition and reconstruction of 3D objects in image databases. We pose the object recognition problem as one of finding consistent matches between all images, subject to the constraint that the images were taken from a perspective camera. We assume that the objects or scenes are rigid. For each image, we associate a camera matrix, which is parameterised by rotation, translation and focal length. We use invariant local features to find matches between all images, and the RANSAC algorithm to find those that are consistent with the fundamental matrix. Objects are recognised as subsets of matching images. We then solve for the structure and motion of each object, using a sparse bundle adjustment algorithm. Our results demonstrate that it is possible to recognise and reconstruct 3D objects from an unordered image database with no user input at all.


ABSTRACT The study examined how teacher agency is manifested in Egyptian schools, how action research is perceived, and to what extent school contextual factors support or restrict teachers' agency to become action researchers. Interviews with 40 teachers from schools in northern and southern Egypt were conducted and analysed using the thematic analysis approach. Data were coded to build theoretical themes that describe Egyptian teachers' agency for action research. The study uses the ecological framework for teacher agency and the context of professional learning as conceptual tools to gain insight into teacher agency for action research. Results showed that teacher agency is defined in terms of teacher activeness rather than teacher critical discourse; teachers exercise agency as either internalizing or externalizing; teachers have a restricted agency for action research, action research is dependent on the teacher's identity commitment; teachers exercise adaptive agency in a dispirited school context; and, finally, that schools lack the collective agency for action research.


Abstract The effects of (-)clausenamide (clau) on spatial cognitive functions and hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) after transient focal cerebral ischemia in rats were investigated. Four weeks after middle cerebral artery occlusion, Morris water maze tasks demonstrated that 2 h of transient forebrain ischemia resulted in a significant decrease in spatial discrimination performance. The escape latency at 4 and 5 days of acquisition trial was lower in the ischemic rats than in sham-operated rats (33.8 ± 6.7 sec and 26.8 ± 5 sec versus 12.2 ± 4.0 sec and 10.4 ± 3.6 sec), chronic treatment with clau (10 mg kg-1 p.o. once daily) significantly improved the impairment (12.4 ± 4.1 sec and 15.2 ± 3.1 sec). After Morris water maze, the changes in population spike (PS) amplitude were recorded as an index of LTP in the perforant path-dentate gyrus synapses. There was no difference in PS amplitude between the sham-operated and vehicle-treated animals, whereas the fractional increase of PS 20-50 min after tetanus was significantly larger in clautreated group. Histopathological analysis revealed that clau could protect against neuron loss in the regions of cortex and striatum. In conclusion, these data indicate a beneficial effect of clau for synaptic plasticity and cognitive function impaired by transient focal cerebral ischemia. [Neurol Res 2002; 24: 473-478]


A shunt active power filter based on line voltage space vector modulation is presented and analyzed. In three-phase three-wire system, by employing line voltage vectors instead of phase voltage vectors which are inaccessible with non-ideal mains voltages, this control scheme extends the application of space vector modulation into non-ideal conditions, and operates under both ideal conditions and non-ideal conditions. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the validity of the approach to compensate reactive power and harmonics.


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Objective To evaluate the effects of an interdisciplinary, guideline-based continuing education course on measures related to the care of adults with developmental disabilities (DD).

Design Before-and-after study with a control group.

Setting Ontario.

Participants Forty-seven primary care providers (physicians, registered nurses, and nurse practitioners).

Intervention Participants either only received reference material about primary care of people with DD (control group) or participated in a continuing education course on primary care of people with DD in addition to receiving the reference material (intervention group).

Main outcome measures Participants reported on 5 key measures related to care of adults with DD: frequency of using guidelines, frequency of performing periodic health examinations, frequency of assessing patients who present with behaviour changes, level of comfort while caring for adults with DD, and knowledge of primary care related to adults with DD.

Results Over time, the intervention group showed significant increases in 4 of the 5 key measures of care compared with the control group: the frequency of guideline use ( P < .001), frequency of assessment of patients' behaviour change ( P = .03), comfort level in caring for people with DD ( P = .01), and knowledge of primary care related to adults with DD ( P = .01).

Conclusion A continuing education course on primary care of adults with DD is a useful interdisciplinary model to train health professionals who provide primary care services to these patients.


The work deals with the fast ion transport during crashes of sawtooth oscillations. A kinetic equation for the distribution function of fast ions valid for the whole region of sawtooth mixing is derived. Special attention is paid to clarifying the behaviour of near-axis particles


For clock generation and clock recovery, charge pump phase-locked loops (CPPLLs) are widely employed inside ICs since they can be integrated on a standard CMOS process and have the ability to remove DC phase offset with just a passive loop filter. However, owing to complex loop characteristic and precision required for analog blocks, the design is not simple. All digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) achieved 50-cycle acquisition time by sweeping the whole tuning range through a modified binary search. Due to a fixed sweeping algorithm, acquisition time is independent of VCO free-running frequency. Also, adaptive gear-shifting phase-locked loop (AGPLL) brings acquisition time within 40 cycles by adjusting the loop bandwidth proportional to the input phase differences. In spite of poor jitter performance, digital implementations have started to draw more attention since they yield better testability, programmability, stability, and transplantation over various processes. In this work the authors present a digitally controlled phase-locked loop (DCPLL) which reduces acquisition time by utilizing a digital frequency-difference detector (DFDD). Whereas the arbiter of the ADPLL generates only binary results of 'fast' or 'slow', the DFDD supports the functions of measuring frequency difference and an arbiter. Thereby, the DCPLL acquisition time is reduced compared to that of the ADPLL, while its locking performance remains independent of free-running frequency. A prototype DCPLL has been implemented in a 0.6 /spl mu/m triple metal CMOS process.


Fragments of pectic polysaccharides rhamnogalacturonan-II (RG-II) and apiogalacturonan were synthesised using p-tolylthio apiofuranoside derivatives as key building blocks. Apiofuranose thioglycosides can be conveniently prepared by cyclization of the corresponding dithioacetals possessing a 2,3-O-isopropylidene group, which is required for preservation of the correct (3R) configuration of the apiofuranose ring. The remarkable stability of this protecting group in apiofuranose derivatives requires its replacement with a more reactive protecting group, such as a benzylidene acetal which was used in the synthesis of trisaccharide β-Rhap-(1→3')-β-Apif-(1→2)-α-GalAp-OMe. The X-ray crystal structure of the protected precursor of this trisaccharide has been elucidated.


A case of sudden unexpected death in an apparently fit and healthy young man is reported. Autopsy showed severe atherosclerotic heart disease. There was a family history of a disorder of lipid metabolism.


In the vast majority of psychological research utilizing multiple regression analysis, asymptotic probability values are reported. This paper demonstrates that asymptotic estimates of standard errors provided by multiple regression are not always accurate. A resampling permutation procedure is used to estimate the standard errors. In some cases the results differ substantially from the traditional least squares regression estimates.


OBJECTIVES
We assessed whether e-cigarette use is associated with (1) intention to smoke cigarettes among never-smoking youths and youth experimenters, and (2) intention to quit smoking among current youth smokers.

METHODS
We categorized participants from the 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey data (n = 20 193) as never-smoking youth (n = 16 238), youth experimenters (n = 3248), and current youth smokers (n = 707). We matched groups on the basis of a propensity score comprising covariates predicting e-cigarette use.

RESULTS
E-cigarette users who had never smoked cigarettes (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 3.62; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.04, 6.45) and who had experimented with smoking (AOR = 1.99; 95% CI = 1.50, 2.64) had elevated intention to smoke cigarettes compared with their counterparts who had never used e-cigarettes. We did not find any significant association between e-cigarette use and intention to quit smoking among current youth smokers (P = .33).

CONCLUSIONS
E-cigarette use among US youths is associated with intention to smoke but not with intention to quit smoking.


More than 40 super-simple projects, including some that "look incredibly complex, with information on how to adapt them to suit the particular birds you wish to attract. There are basic nesting shelves and boxes, as well as whimsically-decorated houses. Build a Nuthatch Caboose with wheels that really move or a colorful Heart-Front birdhouse. Capture the flavor of the Southwest in a cozy Adobe Martin House. Beginners will find the guidance on basic woodworking techniques and tools particularly helpful. 128 pages, 186 b/w illus., 8 x 10.


This article follows an earlier article in this journal (Goldman, 2010), examines the emerging government policy on integration and considers some of the implications for joint financing. Most primary care trusts (PCTs) and councils with adult social care responsibilities are engaged in joint financing and wider health and social care partnership arrangements. But, with the demise of PCTs and the growth in GP commissioning, there are issues and questions about the future of such arrangements. However, despite these organisational changes, partners must continue to be able to demonstrate the outcomes that integrated health and social care services are achieving.


Nexmif is mainly expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) and plays important roles in cell migration, cell to cell and cell-matrix adhesion, and maintains normal synaptic formation and function. Nevertheless, it is unclear how nexmif is linked to motor neuron morphogenesis. Here, we provided in situ hybridization evidence that nexmifa (zebrafish paralog) was localized to the brain and spinal cord and acted as a vital regulator of motor neuron morphogenesis. Nexmifa deficiency in zebrafish larvae generated abnormal primary motor neuron (PMN) development, including truncated Cap axons and decreased branches in Cap axons. Importantly, RNA-sequencing showed that nexmifa-depleted zebrafish embryos caused considerable CNS related gene expression alterations. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were mainly involved in axon guidance and several synaptic pathways, including glutamatergic, GABAergic, dopaminergic, cholinergic, and serotonergic synapse pathways, according to Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway annotation. In particular, when compared with other pathways, DEGs were highest (84) in the axon guidance pathway, according to Organismal Systems. Efna5b, bmpr2b, and sema6ba were decreased markedly in nexmifa-depleted zebrafish embryos. Moreover, both overexpression of efna5b mRNA and sema6ba mRNA could partially rescued motor neurons morphogenesis. These observations supported nexmifa as regulating axon morphogenesis of motor neurons in zebrafish. Taken together, nexmifa elicited crucial roles during motor neuron development by regulating the morphology of neuronal axons.


Climate change has been observed using multiple methods of Earth Observation (EO) including in situ, air-borne and space-borne sensing methods. These use multi-modal observation platforms, with various geospatial coverages, spatio-temporal resolutions and accuracies. The resulting EO Big Data from heterogeneous sources constitute valuable sources for scientists to investigate on the manifested responses of natural species behaviour to climate change. In the EO4wildlife1 research project, we have access to Copernicus and Argos EO Big Data for conducting studies on the changes of habitats for a variety of marine species. The challenge is to discover causality of Metocean environmental observations and their relationship with the changing habitats of species. Nevertheless, there is a need to deploy Big Data technologies for connecting, ingesting, processing of EO data, as well as implementing specialised open data analytics services in this study. The particular services shall be made accessible to the scientific community for setting up modelling scenarios concerning the potential discovery of new trends of marine species habitats due to climate change. Three marine species are being studied in the EO4wildlife project. They include the Bluefin Tuna in the Atlantic-Mediterranean migratory regions, the black-footed albatross seabirds across the sub-tropical Atlantic Ocean and Loggerhead sea turtles along the North West coast of the African continent and Cape Verde. Large data representing geospatial migratory tracks and settlements of these respective marine species have been acquired in the project over period of times together with Metocean EO data from Copernicus and Argos satellites. These are currently analysed and modelled with a set of features obtained by searching in a large space of possible measured and derived Metocean parameters. A two-step search was used involving significance measurement and an iterative breadth first search based wrapper type feature selection algorithm. Furthermore, the analysis is useful for improving the performance of our habitat prediction models across the three marine species in the study. The discovery of new habitats geospatial and temporal trends which may be associated to the changing climate under these analyses will be achieved through the deployment of web-enabled data mining and analytics open services. A dedicated Big Data platform supported by generic data management services in the cloud is therefore deployed for assuring the scalability of the data processing and analytics services.


We investigate the smooth pursuit eye movement based interaction using an unmodified off-the-shelf RGB camera. In each pair of sequential video frames, we compute the indicative direction of the eye movement by analyzing flow vectors obtained using the Lucas-Kanade optical flow algorithm. We discuss how carefully selected low vectors could replace the traditional pupil centers detection in smooth pursuit interaction. We examine implications of unused features in the eye camera imaging frame as potential elements for detecting gaze gestures. This simple approach is easy to implement and abstains from many of the complexities of pupil based approaches. In particular, EyeFlow does not call for either a 3D pupil model or 2D pupil detection to track the pupil center location. We compare this method to state-of-the-art approaches and ind that this can enable pursuit interactions with standard cameras. Results from the evaluation with 12 users data yield an accuracy that compares to previous studies. In addition, the benefit of this work is that the approach does not necessitate highly matured computer vision algorithms and expensive IR-pass cameras.


AACR Annual Meeting-- Apr 14-18, 2007; Los Angeles, CA

1971

DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) induced by camptothecins have been shown to activate homologous recombination repair and to arrest cell cycle. There has long been a notion that cell cycle arrest would give time to cells to repair their damaged DNA ( Jakson SP, Carcinogenesis. 2002, 23: 687-96; Zhou BB, et al, Nat Rev Cancer. 2004, 4: 216-25;Pommier Y, et al. Prog Nucleic Acid Res Mol Biol. 2006, 81: 179-229 ). However, this notion simply presumes that cell cycle arrest would serve DNA repair but disregards that DNA repair efficiency could inversely affect cell cycle progression. In this study, we observed that DSBs kinetically decreased following 1-h treatment of HCT116 cells with camptothecin and its novel derivative chimmitecan ( Huang M, et al. Clin Cancer Res 2006, in press ) as revealed by the progressive dispersal of γ-H2AX foci and reduction of "comet" tails. Meanwhile, a reversible cell cycle arrest also took place marked by most cells recovering from transient S/G2 arrest and successive G2/M arrest. Moreover, the DSBs elimination was achieved prior to cell cycle normalization. In this process, the essential recombination repair protein RAD51 was detected to form DNA repair foci and abrogation of RAD51 with specific small interfering RNAs (siRNA) left the DSBs unrepaired persistently. Unexpectedly, disruption of RAD51 made the cells continuing to stay in G2/M phase, indicating that effective repair of DNA lesions is required for the reversal of cell cycle arrest. On the other hand, both the checkpoint kinases Chk1 and Chk2 were activated by phosphorylation in response to DSBs elicited by camptothecin and chimmitecan. Using Chk1 and Chk2 siRNAs revealed that the down-regulation of Chk1 but not of Chk2 abrogated RAD51 foci formation and DSBs removal whereas Chk2 was indispensable for G2/M arrest. Notably, Chk1 knockdown also slightly reduced the cells in G2/M arrest. Chk2 siRNA resulted in obvious apoptosis in the cells treated with camptothecins following the abrogation of G2/M arrest, suggesting that DSBs could not be repaired effectively. Therefore, we propose that the remaining amount of DSBs, which exactly corresponds to the DNA repair progression if DSBs has been discontinued, could be the most critical factor in determining the proportion of cells recovering from the cell cycle arrest while cell cycle arrest could also be critical for proper DNA repair. Taken together, our results uncover the interdependence of homologous recombination repair and cell cycle arrest in response to DSBs induced by camptothecins.


We consider application of the discrete Fourier transform-spread
orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (DFT-spread OFDM) technique to high-speed fiber optic communications. The DFT-spread OFDM is a form of single-carrier technique that possesses almost all advantages of the multicarrier OFDM technique (such as high spectral efficiency, flexible bandwidth allocation, low sampling rate, and low-complexity equalization). In particular, we consider the optical DFT-spread OFDM system with polarization division multiplexing (PDM) that employs a tone-by-tone linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalizer. We show that such a system offers a much lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) performance as well as better bit error rate (BER) performance compared with the optical
OFDM system that employs amplitude clipping.


The Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reaction is a very powerful tool for making of C–C bonds from organic halides and organoboron compounds [1]. This reaction, for which palladacycles have shown great catalytic activity [2] is widely employed in academic laboratories as well as in pharmaceutical industries to synthesize organic compounds or drugs such as Losartan [3], an antihypertensive medicine.
Iminophosphoranes are organic compounds of general composition R3P=NR and can be used as in coordination and in organometallic chemistry [4]. The aim of this work is to study the catalytic activity of new palladium organometallic compounds derived from iminophosphorane ligands.
References
[1] N. Miyaura, K. Yamada, A. Suzuki; Tetrahedron Letters, 1979, 20, 3437
[2] W.A. Herrmann, C. Brobmer, K. Ofele, C.-P. Reisinger, T. Priermeier, M. Beller, H. Fischer; Angew. Chem., 1995, 107, 1989
[3] Smith, G. B.; Dezeny, G. C.; Hughes, D. L.; King, A. O.; Verhoeven, T. R. J. Org. Chem. 1994, 59, 8151.
[4] Pingrong Wei, Katie T. K. Chan and Douglas W. Stephan; Dalton Trans., 2003, 3804
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank the financial support received from the Xunta de Galicia (Galicia, Spain) under the Grupos de Referencia Competitiva Programme Projects GRC2015/009.


Selective cytotoxicity of chemical compounds to vascular endothelial cells is often beneficial for clinical applications including antivascular cancer therapy. In this study, the cytotoxicity of 35 organic compounds containing bismuth or antimony was evaluated based on the leakage of lactate dehydrogenase and morphologic observations in cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells and other cell types. The results indicate that only tris[2-(N,N-dimethylaminomethyl)phenyl]-bismuthane (TDPBi) had potent cytotoxicity to bovine aortic endothelial cells but not to bovine aortic smooth muscle cells and porcine kidney epithelial LLC-PK1 cells; the compound exhibited moderate cytotoxicity to human fetal lung fibroblastic IMR-90 cells. Neither inorganic bismuth nor tris[2-(N,N-dimethylaminomethyl)phenyl]stibane, in which antimony substitutes for bismuth with the same organic structure as TDPBi, exhibited cytotoxicity to vascular endothelial cells, suggesting that the entire structure of TDPBi is required for selective cytotoxicity. The present data revealed that TDPBi has selective cytotoxicity to vascular endothelial cells, which may be applicable in antivascular cancer therapy.


This article provides an overview of the removal of voting rights restrictions in Spanish listed companies effective as from 1 July 2011.


..................................................................... vii ABSTRAK ...................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................. xiv LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................. xv LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................... xvi CHAPTER


We investigate the far-infrared (FIR) properties of X-ray sources detected in the Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S) survey using the ultradeep 70 and 24 μm Spitzer observations taken in this field. Since only 30 (i.e. ≈10 per cent) of the 266 X-ray sources in the region of the 70 μm observations are detected at 70 μm, we rely on stacking analyses of the 70 μm data to characterize the average 70 μm properties of the X-ray sources as a function of redshift, X-ray luminosity and X-ray absorption. Using Spitzer-IRS data of the Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) sample of z ≈ 0 active galactic nuclei (AGNs), we show that the 70/24 μm flux ratio can distinguish between AGN-dominated and starburst-dominated systems out to z ≈ 1.5. Among the X-ray sources detected at 70 μm, we note a large scatter in the observed 70/24 μm flux ratios, spanning almost a factor of 10 at similar redshifts, irrespective of object classification, suggesting a range of AGN:starburst ratios. From stacking analyses we find that the average observed 70/24 μm flux ratios of AGNs out to an average redshift of 1.5 are similar to z ≈ 0 AGNs with similar X-ray luminosities (LX = 1042−44 erg s−1) and absorbing column densities (NH ≤ 1023 cm−2). Furthermore, both high-redshift and z ≈ 0 AGNs follow the same tendency towards warmer 70/24 μm colours with increasing X-ray luminosity (LX). From analyses of the Swift-BAT sample of z ≈ 0 AGNs, we note that the 70 μm flux can be used to determine the IR (8–1000 μm) luminosities of high-redshift AGNs. We use this information to show that LX = 1042−43 erg s−1 AGNs at high redshifts (z = 1–2) have IR to X-ray luminosity ratios (LIR/LX) that are, on average, 4.7 +10.2 −2.0 and 12.7 +7.1 −2.6 times higher than AGNs with similar X-ray luminosities at z = 0.5–1 and ≈0, respectively. By comparison, we find that the LIR/LX ratios of LX = 1043−44 erg s−1 AGNs remain largely unchanged across this same redshift interval. We explore the consequences that these results may have on the identification of distant, potentially Compton-thick AGNs using LIR/LX ratios. In addition, we discuss possible scenarios for the observed increase in the LIR/LX ratio with redshift, including changes in the dust covering factor of AGNs and/or the star formation rates of their host galaxies. Finally, we show how deep observations to be undertaken by the Herschel Space Observatory will enable us to discriminate between these proposed scenarios and also identify Compton-thick AGNs at high redshifts.


Perhaps one of the most important changes in family law in the past thirty years has been the inclusion of certain kinds of friendships in the range of relationships from which rights and responsibilities can flow. Domestic partnership laws, a phenomenon of the 1990s, may be seen as a natural development from the judicial recognition of contract cohabitation and the legislative and judicial response to same-sex couples who, unable to meet statutory requirements for marriage, have sought official recognition of their relationships. This essay discusses an aspect of certain kinds of domestic partnership laws-their formal requirements and the extent to which they represent a greater regulation of a relationship than is found in marriage laws.


The outbreak of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) in May 2011 warns the potential threats of the world vegetables trade network (VTN) in spreading fatal infectious diseases. The heterogeneous weight distribution and multi-scale activity of intermediary networks affects the diffusion, proliferation and extinction of epidemics. Here, we constructed a dual-weighted VTN with 118 major countries and territories from FAO 2008 statistic data about global vegetation production and trade, and develop a reaction-diffusion model to simulate the epidemic behaviors in through VTN. We found an emerged asymmetric threshold of epidemic on VTN, in which local proliferation within nodes plays a more critical role than global diffusion in spreading of EHEC-like diseases, i.e. sufficient local proliferation is the precondition for global diffusion. We also found that a strong modularity on VTN structure, which restricts the spreading of EHEC-like diseases; however, within the communities, the diffusion is quick and easy. There is, moreover, a critical "epidemic stem", in which a serial of positive feedback loop for amplifying the proliferation and diffusion pathogens has been identified from entire VTN. Surprisingly, statistical analysis shows a well consistency between theoretical composition of stem and actual pattern of EHEC. The results provide a chance to design gradient control strategies for controlling disease global diffusion. Our analysis provided the first inspect of global epidemics mediated by trade networks for improved control and immunity strategies in the future.


This paper considers the estimation of the process state and noise parameters when the statistics of the process and measurement noise are unknown or time varying in the integration system. An adaptive Kalman Filter (AKF) with a recursive noise estimator that is based on maximum a posteriori estimation and one-step smoothing filtering is proposed, and the AKF can provide accurate noise statistical parameters for the Kalman filter in real-time. An exponentially weighted fading memory method is introduced to increase the weights of the recent innovations when the noise statistics are time varying. Also, the innovation covariances within a moving window are averaged to correct the noise statistics estimator. Experiments on the integrated Strapdown Inertial Navigation System (SINS)/ Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) system show that the proposed AKF improves the estimation accuracy effectively and the AKF is robust in the presence of vigorous-manoeuvres and rough sea conditions.


We performed molecular cloning and sequencing of the breakpoints of a new chromosomal translocation involving the MYC protooncogene locus. This secondary t(8; 12)(q24;q22) was associated with a primary t( I I; 14)(q I 3;q32) translocation in a case of B‐cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in blastic transformation. In this leukemia, Northern blot and nuclease analyses SI showed that MYC was strongly expressed with initiation of the transcription at both the 5′ and 3′ promoters as observed in Burkitt's lymphomas; no coding change was observed in MYC putative regulatory sequences. The breakpoint on chromosome 8 mapped to the 3′ end of the MYC locus, in a region containing a potential Z‐DNA tract, and where we identified two DNase I hypersensitive sites. A rearranged MYC gene fragment was cloned and shown to contain chromosome 12 information by Southern blot analysis and by in situ hybridization. A genomic probe subcloned from the isolated region of the chromosome 12 recognized a 1.8 kb transcript in virtually all the tissues tested but a preferential expression of this new gene, which we termed BTGI (for B‐cell translocation gene I) was observed in the CLL cells and in tissues of lymphoid origin. This chromosome 12 coding sequence is conserved in evolution and a transcript of similar size is present in murine tissues.


Background The etanercept biosimilar SB4 was introduced in Sweden in early 2016. SB4 has been shown in a randomized controlled trial to be equivalent to its etanercept reference product (ERP) in terms of efficacy and safety in subjects with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (1). In light of this, and the fact that biosimilars offer considerable cost savings, all patients being treated with ERP at our clinic were switched to treatment with SB4 in april 2016. Objectives To describe the clinical experiences of switching patients on treatment with ERP to SB4 at our clinic. Methods All patients using ERP 50 mg at our clinic were identified using the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register (SRQ). The patients were issued prescriptions for SB4 50 mg and were sent a letter encouraging them to switch to SB4 when they ran out of ERP. The process of switching was started 21st. However, the actual date of starting treatment with SB4 might have been 0–90 days from April 20th for individual patients, as prescriptions are written in 3 month increments. Patients were followed up clinically and in the SRQ as planned at the last visit before switching. For RA and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients DAS28 values from the last visit preceding the switch and the last visit after the switch registered up to January 2017 were collected from the SRQ. The paired T-test was used to compare mean DAS28 before and after switching. Results Before the switch, 147 patients were on treatment with ERP. Indications for treatment were RA (N=76), PsA (N=28), other spondyloarthritis (N=13), ankylosing spondylitis (N=12), unspecified arthritis (N=10) and juvenile arthritis (N=8). At the end of January 2017, 126 patients (86%) were still on SB4. Since the switch, 9 patients have requested to be switched back to ERP, 2 made the request before initiating therapy with SB4. No objective evidence for lack of efficacy was seen in these 9 patients. Seven patients have stopped treatment with SB4 because of inactive disease. Five patients have been switched to a non-etanercept biologic because of lack of efficacy, these patients also had lack of efficacy when on ERP. The 76 RA patients had a mean disease duration of 17 years and had been on ERP for a mean duration of 4.7 years. As of January 2017, 60 of the RA patients have been on a follow-up visit and 54 of these had available DAS28 data from both the last visit before and after switching. For the RA patients DAS28 was 2.80 before and 2.79 after switching, p=0.960. Complete DAS28 data was available for 23 of the 28 PsA patients, mean DAS28 was 2.54 before switching and 2.06 after, p=0.161. The mean duration since switching at follow-up was 22 weeks for the RA and PsA patients. Conclusions Switching from the etanercept reference product to the biosimilar SB4 was acceptable to most of our patients. Low mean disease activity has been maintained in the RA and PsA group after the switch. References Emery P, Vencovsky J, Sylwestrzak A, Leszczynski P, Porawska W, Baranauskaite A, et al. A phase III randomised, double-blind, parallel-group study comparing SB4 with etanercept reference product in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis despite methotrexate therapy. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 2017;76(1):51–7. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Viral envelope fusion with the host cell membrane is dependent on a specific viral fusion peptide (FP) or loop, which becomes exposed during virus entry to drive the process of membrane fusion. In coronaviruses, the FP is a highly conserved domain that sits in the center of spike protein and in SARS-CoV, is adjacent to the S2 proteolytic cleavage site. This peptide contains a hydrophobic LLF motif, as well as several conserved negatively charged amino acids that interact with Ca2+ ions to promote membrane fusion. In this work we perform a systematic mutagenesis study of the negatively charged amino acids within the SARS-CoV fusion peptide (FP1/FP2) and combine this with molecular dynamics simulations to define the membrane interactions that regulate virus infectivity. We show that the E801/D802 amino acid pair in the SARS-CoV FP is predicted to bind to one Ca2+ ion to promote FP-membrane interaction, with a second Ca2+ ion likely pairing residue D812 with either E821 or D825. The D812/D821 residue pair promotes membrane interaction, whereas the D821/D825 is inhibitory to membrane insertion. Taken together, our results demonstrate the dynamic nature of the coronavirus FP region that likely facilitates its interactions with and insertion into the host cell membrane. Author SummaryCoronaviruses have reemerged as a highly pathogenic virus family through the rise of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and more recently, SARS-CoV-2. As more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 arise, it is imperative that we understand the mechanisms of CoV viral entry to enable the development of effective therapeutics. Recent reviews have suggested the repurposing of FDA-approved calcium channel blockers to treat infection by coronaviruses; however, calciums method of action on viral-host cell fusion events is unknown. We have found that increased calcium availability leads to increased viral infection across the CoV family, suggesting that calcium is involved in mediating the interaction between the viral fusion peptide and the host cell membrane. As such, we hypothesize that the highly conserved fusion peptide interacts directly with calcium and this interaction is required for viral entry and infection. Through mutagenesis studies of specific negatively charged residues in the fusion peptide, we have identified residues that impact viral infectivity. We have also compared the infectivity of wild-type and mutant CoV pseudoparticles in calcium-rich or -depleted environments using chelating drugs. Our data mirrors the residue coordination observed SARS-CoV-2, as both between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 FPs bind to two calcium ions. These results demonstrate the importance of Ca2+ for CoV FP function during viral entry and opens the possibility of utilizing FDA-approved calcium-blocking drugs as a treatment for COVID-19.


Although, many heavy metals are necessary in small amounts for the normal development of the biological cycles, most of them become toxic at high concentrations. The major sources of heavy metal pollution in urban areas of Nigeria are anthropogenic, while contamination from natural sources predominates in the rural areas. The study examined heavy metal status of boreholes in Calabar South, Cross River of Nigeria. Four functional boreholes in the area were sampled. Result showed that the concentrations of iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and Manganese (Mn) were within WHO maximum permissible limit with mean values of 0.065ml -1 g, 0.015mgl -1 and 0.002mgl -1 respectively. The proportion of copper (Cu), chromium (Cr) and lead (Pb) in the sampled boreholes was zero, indicating the absence of these metals in the sampled boreholes. The absolutely low levels of heavy metal contents across the sampled boreholes showed they were not polluted and as such suitable for human consumption. The low content also revealed that boreholes in the area were located far away from dumpsites; soak away pits, automobile shops and other forms of heavy metal contaminants. In order to maintain quality status of boreholes in the area, routine monitoring and assessment of boreholes mostly the indiscriminate sinking of boreholes in the area by sanitary inspection officers was suggested.


One of the fundamental issues in sensor networks is related to analyzing the coverage, or how well a network of sensors monitors the physical space for an intrusion. The coverage is a measure of the quality of service (QoS) of the sensor network and has been the subject of various studies. The concept of coverage was introduced by Gage in 1992, who studied it in relation to multi-robot systems. He defined three classes of coverage problems: blanket coverage (also known as area coverage), where the goal is to achieve a static arrangement of sensing elements that maximizes the detection rate of targets appearing in the region, sweep coverage, where the goal is to move a number of sensors across the region as to maximize the probability of detecting a target, and barrier coverage, where the objective is to protect the region from unauthorized penetration. While blanket coverage is relatively well researched, the other two types of coverage have been less studied and offer much greater technical challenges. In this survey we concentrate on the two dynamic types of coverage problems, barrier and sweep coverage. We review recent results, proof techniques, analyses, and open problems and challenges. We focus on methods that allow the performance of the algorithms, i.e.


The present study reviews the Maternal Nutrition knowledge of health care providers (ANMs and ASHAs) of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) and Community Health Centers (CHCs) and attempts to find out the existing gaps in their knowledge level related to maternal nutrition as well as discusses strategies to bridge those gaps. Good nutrition is the core pillar for human development and its necessity varies with respect to age, gender and during physiological changes such as pregnancy which is a critical phase in a woman's life when the expectant mother needs optimal nutrients to support the developing fetus. Awareness about appropriate nutrition during pregnancy is a serious concern and lack of it may lead to child morbidity and mortality. Therefore it is imperative to address this issue properly in various government policies and schemes. ICDS scheme initiated by Government of India is a major step in this regard which provides nutrition and health education, supplementary nutrition, family planning tips etc. to the pregnant women. The Anganwadi workers are the basic functionaries of the ICDS scheme and their services (providing counseling, supplementary nutrition, distribution of Iron & Folic acid tablets) are transmitted to the beneficiaries through a channel of Anganwadi centers (AWCs). Keeping the above background in mind relevant literature such as journals, newspapers, articles, research papers from Scopus, Pub Med, research gate, and Google scholar related to national and state policies pertinent to maternal nutrition were reviewed to find out the existing gaps in the knowledge level of health care providers. It is concluded from the study that maternal nutritional needs have to be prioritized in government health programmes and strategies to improve the status of expectant mothers need to be implemented to address nutritional challenges. Government schemes can be strengthened by promoting integration of services, ensuring effective procurement mechanisms for supplementary nutrition and food supplements, establishing regional training facilities and strengthening program monitoring and evaluation.


OBJECTIVE
To analysis the status and trend of energy and macronutrient intake among elderly aged 60 and older years old in nine provinces( autonomous region) of China.

METHODS
The data of China Health and Nutrition Survey from 1991 to 2015 were used, which elderly ≥60 years old were selected as the subjects. The 3-consecutive day 24-hour dietary recall was used to collect information on food intake, the condiment intake was collected by weighting and bookkeeping method. Food consumption was converted into energy and various nutrient intakes by food composition table.

RESULTS
The intakes of energy was 1706. 8 kcal/d, protein, fat and carbohydrates was 52. 2 g/d, 61. 4 g/d and 219. 3 g/d respectively in 2015. The percentage of energy from protein, fat and carbohydrates was 12. 3%, 33. 3% and 53. 0%respectively. Compared with 1991, the intake of energy, protein, carbohydrate decreased352. 3 kcal/d, 11. 5 g/d and 89. 8 g/d respectively. The percentage of energy from fat increased 9. 0 percentage points, carbohydrates decreased 8. 7 percentage points and protein was not changing. In 2015, the intakes of protein and carbohydrates had urbanrural differences. The elderly at the high income level had high intakes of protein and fat, the carbohydrates intake at low level. The main source of energy, protein and fat is grain, other food and edible oil respectively.

CONCLUSION
The elderly of Chinese nine provinces( autonomous region) need to increase energy consumption, reduce the fat intake. We should guide rural and low-income elderly people to choose more economical and accessible food to meet their nutritional needs through food substitution. Focus on changes in blood lipids that may result from excessive intake of animal food in urban and high-income elderly people.


SUMMARY: When holotrich ciliates of hay-fed sheep's rumen acted upon water-soluble carbohydrates under conditions comparable with those in the rumen save for the absence of appreciable bacterial competition, only glucose, fructose, sucrose, inulin, bacterial levan (from Bacillus megatherium) and to a lesser extent celloblose were utilized for rapid and extensive storage of iodophilic polysaccharide granules (cf. Oxford, 1951). No other soluble carbohydrate tried (including maltose) was so utilized. When polysaccharide storage did take place the product always gave a purple colour with iodine, and had the properties of a starch rather than glycogen in that it gave an insoluble iodine complex under the conditions of Pucher, Leaven-worth &Vickery (1948). Storage of starch by oligotrich ciliates was much slower than with holotrichs, and did not take place with cellobiose as substrate, Holotrich ciliates continued to replace themselves in the sheep's rumen even when large volumes of rumen contents were periodically withdrawn over a long period. The protozoan starch could be isolated in about 1% yield by application of the Pucher et al. (1948) method direct to the dry matter of strained rumen liquor taken from sheep which had grazed on starch-free Spring grass.


This paper examines the increasingly important communication politics between the media and intellectual fi elds in China's brave new media world. It starts by outlining key factors that have shaped the evolving post-1989 politics of intellectual publicity in China. It then describes a deep "liberal versus new left" division within the Chinese intellectual fi eld and the ascending power of the Nanfang Weekend and liberal intellectual alliance within China's CCP-controlled media system. In a subsequent case study, I analyse how the destructive logics of media sensationalism, academic corruption, ideological polarisation, and "liberal media instrumentalism" have intersected to spectacularise intellectual in-fi ghts and distract both the media and the academy from engaging the public around the urgent political economic and social issues of the day. YUEZHI ZHAO Yuezhi Zhao is Professor


Porous membranes have been prepared by immersion precipitation phase inversion of cellulose acetate–sulfonated polysulfone (CA–SPS) blends with the compositions 85 : 15, 95 : 5 and 100 : 0 (wt%), and molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) materials, prepared with the fluorescent dye Rhodamine B (RhB), and Blanks, prepared without the template RhB, have been analysed by scanning force microscopy (SFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and gas adsorption isotherm method (BET). RhB binding data from solid phase extraction experiments allowed an estimation of imprinting efficiency as a function of blend composition: 95 : 5 > 85 : 15 > 100 : 0. SEM revealed an asymmetric cross-section morphology with nodules in the top layer and macrovoids in the support layer which indicated instantaneous demixing as the overall mechanism of polymer solidification. SEM at high resolution and SFM enabled a detailed analysis of the top layer morphology, in particular the estimation of the nodule size. Overall, significant differences in pore structure between MIP and Blank, as a function of the polymer blend composition were found; the magnitude of these differences, measured by SEM, SFM and BET, clearly correlated with the imprinting efficiency. For the CA–SPS 95 : 5 blend, the characteristic nodule size was much smaller for the MIP than for the Blank. Hence, the fixation of imprinted sites occurred mainly in small polymer particles, which were formed during a very fast demixing upon contact with the non-solvent. Further, the addition of the template to the CA–SPS blend solution seemed to facilitate the demixing after contact with the precipitation bath water, presumably via a complexation of the RhB with the sulfonic acid groups of SPS.


Strain-compensated InAlAs/InGaAs HEMT structures, grown on InP substrate, have been investigated in terms of structural and electrical properties. From detailed x-ray diffraction (XRD) investigations the compensation index and the evolution of the strain state were measured. We show that a partial and controlled strain compensation significantely improves the structural quality and the thermal stability of HEMT structures as well as their electrical properties.


During floods following rainfall events characterized by long return period, rivers bring to their mouths the higher concentration of sediments. This paper deals with a qualitative assessment of coastal water and turbidity load in estuarine waters as a consequence of an intense rainfall event occurred on the 16th and 17th September 2003 in the eastern part of Sicily. Although empirical relationships to estimate turbidity using remote sensing can be found in literature, however models parameters need to be calibrated through in situ measures acquired via intensive field campaigns. The algorithm used within this research was calibrated using field data acquired during three periods in 2008 (at the beginning of July, August and September). Plumes caused by two rivers, the Simeto and Anapo, were spatially and temporally analyzed. The rivers belong to two catchments characterized by different pedology and land cover. It was proved that the turbidity plume at the estuary has a strict correlation with distance from river mouth, however it strongly depends on catchment characteristics. A multitemporal analysis of MODIS images with 250 m spatial resolution showed that nephelometric turbidity (NT) rises as the flow discharge reaches the gulf, then it sharply decreases tending to an asymptotic base value approximately after a decade. Finally, the coarse spatial resolution of MODIS images was judged not appropriate to characterize plume dynamic close to the mouths of the rivers under investigation.


We use administrative data from the unemployment insurance system State of Washington to study the magnitude of the wage differential associated with work in the temporary services industry. We find that temp wage rates are 15% to 20% below the levels that might have been expected based on trends during other periods in workers' careers even after controlling for differences between temps and other workers. Comparing temp wages immediately before and after temp work or to the wages on non-temp jobs begun during the same period as workers were in the temp industry yields estimates of the temp work penalty as low as 10%.


The forward spectrum of ionized electrons in ion-atom collisions is dominated by the capture to continuum cusp and the quasi-elastic electron scattering peak, usually referred to as the binary encounter peak. The cusp is replaced by a pronounced dip when antiprotons are considered as projectiles, but the binary encounter peak prevails. The peak position is, however, shifted in energy relative to the corresponding position in the proton impact case. This relative shift is solely due to off-shell effects in the quasi-free scattering of the target electron in the field of the incident projectile. The relative shift is a slowly decreasing function of projectile energy. A typical value in the case of helium targets is 25 eV for protons and antiprotons at 1 MeV which is well within the reach of the present experimental resolution power of forward electron spectroscopy.


The three-dimensional isoneutral potential vorticity structure of the Indian Ocean is examined using World Ocean Circulation Experiment and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conductivity-temperature-depth data and historical bottle data. The distribution of the potential vorticity is set by the Indian Ocean's source waters and their circulation inside the basin. The lower thermocline has a high potential vorticity signal extending westward from northwest of Australia and a low signal from the Subantarctic Mode Water in the south. The Antarctic Intermediate Water inflow creates patches of high potential vorticity at intermediate depths in the southern Indian Ocean, below which the field becomes dominated by planetary vorticity, indicating a weaker meridional circulation and weaker potential vorticity sources. Wind-driven gyre depths have lower potential vorticity gradients primarily due to same-source waters. Homogenization and western shadow zones are not observed. The β-effect dominates the effect of the Somali Current and the Red Sea Water on the potential vorticity distribution. Isopleths tilt strongly away from latitude lines in the deep and abyssal waters as the Circumpolar Deep Water fills the basins in deep western boundary currents, indicating a strong meridional circulation north of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The lower-gradient intermediate layer surrounded vertically by layers with higher meridional potential vorticity gradients in the subtropical Indian Ocean suggests that Rossby waves will travel ∼1.3 times faster than standard theory predicts. To the south, several pools of homogenized potential vorticity appear in the upper 2000 m of the Southern Ocean where gyres previously have been identified. South of Australia the abyssal potential vorticity structure is set by a combination of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the bathymetry.


Background Skin manifestations are critical in the initial diagnosis of systemic sclerosis (SSc) and in the subsequent sub-classification into the different subsets of the disease (1). The modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) is the validated method to detect both severity and extension of skin involvement, and high frequency ultrasound (US) is a valid and reproducible technique to measure dermal thickness (DT) in patients with SSc (2-4). Furthermore, US is able to detect early skin involvement in SSc patients (5-7). Objectives To study by US possible subclinical skin involvement in limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc) patients, in those skin areas apparently not affected on the basis of a normal mRSS. Methods Fifty lcSSc patients (mean age 62±13SD years, mean disease duration 5±5SD years) and fifty healthy subjects (mean age 62±11SD years) were analysed during clinical follow-up and after informed consent (8). Both mRSS and US were used to evaluate DT in the usual seventeen areas of the skin (cheeks, fingers, dorsum of hands, forearms, arms, chest, abdomen, thighs, legs, feet) of SSc patients. Skin US was also performed in the same seventeen areas of healthy subjects, looking for DT differences in comparison with SSc patients. Statistical analysis was carried out by non parametric tests. Results DT was found by US significantly higher in lcSSc patients than in healthy subjects in all skin areas with exclusion of thighs (median millimetres 0.86 vs 0.67 for cheeks, 0.85 vs 0.69 for right finger, 0.88 vs 0.68 for left finger, 0.78 vs 0.69 for dorsum of right hand, 0.81 vs 0.69 for dorsum of left hand, 0.99 vs 0.76 for right forearm, 0.98 vs 0.77 for left forearm, 1.00 vs 0.83 for right arm, 1.05 vs 0.83 for left arm, 1.30 vs 1.11 for chest, 1.30 vs 1.12 for abdomen, 0.99 vs 0.93 for right leg, 0.98 vs 0.93 for left leg, 0.94 vs 0.87 for right foot, 0.95 vs 0.89 for left foot, respectively, p<0.0001 for all. At the level of the thighs DT was higher in lcSSc patients than in healthy subjects, but this was not statistical significant (median millimetres 1.20 vs 1.10 for both right and left thigh, p=0.16 and p=0.24 respectively). Of interest, as above reported, DT was significantly higher in lcSSc patients than in healthy subjects in four out of six skin areas where the mRSS was normal (=0) in agreement with the diagnosis of lcSSc (arms, chest, and abdomen). Conclusions This study strongly suggests that subclinical diffuse dermal involvement may be detectable by high frequency ultrasound already in patients with limited cutaneous SSc. This observation is of great relevance for future classification of SSc subsets of disease, and it seems linked to the observation that patients with both lcSSc or diffuse cutaneous SSc may display similar organ/laboratory involvement in clinical studies. References Krieg T, et al. Rheumatology. 2009;48:iii14-8. Clements PJ, et al. Arthritis Rheum 2000;43:2445-54. Moore TL, et al. Rheumatology 2003;42:1559-63. Sulli A, et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2014;73:247-51. Czirják L, et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2007;66:966-9. Hesselstrand R, et al. Rheumatology 2008;47:84-7. Kaloudi O, et al. AnnRheum Dis.2010;69:1140-3. LeRoy EC et al. J Rheumatol 2001;28:1573-6. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.4683